[Frontier]

I think there's something to be said for the expectations of a series that's coming in after the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, especially with how dramatic a send-off Zi-O ended up being the for the Heisei era of Kamen Rider. So Zero-One being the first official Reiwa Rider show, there's quite a lot to live up to in terms of hitting the ground running.

Firstly from a suit perspective I think Zero-One really hits what you need of a Rider that really comes to define their generation...sleek, iconic, and classic. Something that you get with Ichigo, Kuuga, and even W, and bonus points for going back to grasshoppers. And to really make this feel like a fresh start we have Seiji Taikawa retiring from Main Rider duty to let Yuya Nawata take the reins, and he acclimates himself admirably to the duty that is portraying Aruto as Kamen Rider Zero-One.

Also, that Rider Kick...just, that Rider Kick.

Aruto probably has the most stark profession of any Rider lead. Professional Kamen Rider, journalist, cook, scientist, high school student, king-to-be...how about a failed comedian turned corporate CEO? But when you think about it, someone whose job it is to make others laugh and happy is the perfect choice for a job as a hero who protects the smiles of others, be they human or machine. And to believe in the possibilities of machines to do the same.

Is (I'm going to be contrarian and call her Is) feels like the next in the line of Rider female leads who wouldn't feel out of place in an anime. I mean, that fancy outfit, that loyal and steadfast stoicism, and in general just being pretty cute...there's a lot to like.

The Magia are set up in a really dark way, what with being these Humagears we've bonded with for the episode suddenly hacked and turned into rampaging killing machines based off extinct animals against their will that are protagonists have to destroy without regret...and the only saving grace is that they have backups that can restore them, more or less, so the show doesn't get too dark (and before we can really dive into the idea of a "backup" in terms of identity).

Design-wise I think the Magia work as this kind of rigid, yet colorful and almost kind of frightening monstrous machines out to kill humans. Which I think is also a nice change in Rider because most kaijin are organic instead of metallic. I think robot antagonists are more of a Sentai thing.

One of the most important aspects for a Rider show to get right (in my opinion) is the 2nd Rider and their dynamic with the Main Rider. Now 2nd Riders who are immediately antagonistic and disproving of the Main Rider is pretty typical at this point, but with Fuwa you really feel his personal passion and understand why he's so cynical even if we, as the audience, know that Aruto is different from what he expects. But Fuwa still has his own sense of justice even if that makes Aruto, and also Zero-One, a target. And then at the end we see him start to possibly, and slowly, come around to the idea that Aruto might be different. And we also get one major commonality between Aruto and Fuwa...Fuwa's the only one who thinks he's funny.

Also you gotta love how Kamen Rider Vulcan is a literal lone wolf 2nd Rider down to the entire form, and how cool and utilitarian it looks compared to Zero-One.

We get our traditional second-episode bike debut and it's actually a pretty solid bike sequence in my opinion. The Rise Hopper really fits Zero-One's aesthetic as a sleek, cool, bike that matches it's Rider design-wise. Now how often will the bike actually show up from here on in?