[Fish Sandwich]

Kiwami, you mirror universe scoundrel, it's going to sound like I'm making this up, but I was, totally honestly, just thinking this very day that I'd like to maybe do some kind of celebratory thread or something about Zero-One moments I like and ask everyone to remember all the good times they had with the show too. It was little more than an idle thought, unlikely to turn into anything, but leave it to you to go and make the exact kind of thing I was thinking of for me.

Where this becomes directly relevant is that I'm kind of feeling passionate about this show right now, so forgive me for going a bit crazy with this idea. I'm basically doing a Top 10 without the Top, because I don't like ranking things. This is just 10 episodes of the show that spring to mind as strong ones, arranged by episode number for simplicity's sake.

Episode (0)1

No better place to start than the beginning, right? Zero-One's premiere is one of the strongest ones out there for Rider, in my opinion. It simultaneously does a solid job building the world, gives the main character a satisfying arc just within those 20-ish minutes, and gives us the kind of spectacular action only Teruaki Sugihara can bring to the table. Put simply, it has plot, emotion, and thrills.First episodes can have a lot of trouble not sacrificing one of those three things for the other two, but this show nailed it. That climax especially turned a lot of heads, and for good reason.



Episode 4

Again, an episode that hits all the notes perfectly. A shining example of how to balance overarching plot with an episodic adventure, this one gives us the first major revelations about the backstory of the setting, and our first tease of Horobi, by way of following Zero-One and Vulcan on a journey to Daybreak Town, in large part to help out a small child, wrapping the story in a layer of pure, classic hero tokusatsu, down to Fuwa giving inspiring advice that also provides insight into his way of thinking, further showing how adept this one is at killing multiple birds with a single stone.



Episode 12

The second part is good too, but the initial half of Riku Sanjou's guest writer outing on this show was a real bang up job of an episode that, true to his style, is heavy on the fun. Lots of Riders, lots of action, and some utterly inspired gags. Throw in a robot detective for good measure, and you've got yourself a real winner.



Episode 16

Anchored by an insanely strong fight between Zero-One and Jin that takes up just under half the episode, this one did an excellent job at bridging the gap between story arcs, ending the first one in a memorable fashion, and then leaving itself plenty of time to wind down and establish a new direction, culminating in Gai dropping the bombshell he's looking to buy out Hiden Intelligence. A good episode made great by an ability to both move things forward, while also cementing the themes the show had been building to by that point. In a word, it's foundational.



Episode 22

The back half of a very strong episodic plot about trial where a HumaGear lawyer has to win a case the way only a machine can. It's interesting in its own right, and makes excellent use of that to explore the characters... to the point where I somehow forgot until I went to grab screenshots this was also Metal Cluster Hopper's debut episode, because it has so much going on even beyond that. So, uh... yeah. Probably the high point of the competition arc?





Episode 24

A real showcase of Aruto's inspirational nature as a hero, with Izu getting proactive and working with the other HumaGears he's helped in his adventures to finally give the upper hand against Thouser's machinations with the help of the Progrise Hopper Blade. It's hard to beat the sense of uplifting satisfaction you get here, and it also has one of my favorite gags in the whole series.




Episode 29

Popular for good reason! I probably don't even need to say anything about it. It's a bit weird the final fight of the competition arc is Vulcan against Thouser and Yua (while the theme song keeps repeating "Zero-One", no less!), but man, Fuwa is just so great here it's hard to mind it too much.



Episode 31

Balancing out all that Fuwa love with an episode that features Aruto reexamining his purpose in light of a new status quo, and in the process showing why he's as true a Kamen Rider as they come, standing up for the freedom of HumaGears to follow the hearts he believes without question they have, all summed up perfectly by the motto he chooses for his new company. A stellar outing all around for the show's real star.



Episode 40

Again, a great showing for Aruto, but an even better one for Izu, who once again proves critical in getting Zero-One an upgrade to turn the tables on a seemingly unstoppable foe. An emotional roller coaster, and a real culmination of everything the show had built up to that point.



Episode 42

Conversely, this one is spectacular for how willing it is to tear things down. This one is naturally going to be real fresh in most people's heads, but Ark-One's debut is so good, there's just no way I'm not going to mention it. It's an episode that goes out of its way to make you think it'll be something more trite than it is, and then flips the script to give us a direction for the final arc that has proven to wildly different from what I think a lot of us expected. Or at least, I didn't see it coming, but when it did, it turned out to be something I was way into.