[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 18 - “THESE ARE MY ARRANGED FLOWERS”

It’s a little hard to make this sound like a fun episode? Describing it in detail makes it sound both minor (it’s just about some guy learning to treat technology as another point of view, rather than an adversary) and sort of formulaic (Thouser continues to no-sell everything and be an unbeatable bad-ass 24/7). The beauty of this episode is in the delicateness of the struggle, not the bombastic tokusatsu shenanigans. It succeeds because the fear of losing our humanity due to the increasingly inescapable technology of the near-future is a relatable one: what’s the point of humanity if technology can replace even our artists? Having a message where the teaching of art to computers gets us seeing art in new, better ways, or in finding our new aspects of our humanity within that process… I don’t know, I thought that was a compelling idea to dig into.

There's something a bit significant though in the tokusatsu shenanigans here, ZAIA has created their own weapons to fight, Raiders which are turning humans into Magias. This episode shows more on how ZAIA operates (including on below on how Horobi being reactivated by Yua is an important source for this). The Raiders seem to be a militaristic weapon, and this should be a glimpse about Gai's true goal. And other than that, Gai is all about keeping a good public image, so he had to sometimes do things that are outwardly "good", like making sure that his contestants in the tournament acted fair, so it'd be clear that ZAIA Spec is genuinely superior to Humagears to public if they win. What Gai did here isn't a redeeming value however, it just shows that, villains doesn't only commit bad deeds to further their goals, sometimes "good" deeds are required too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, like, it doesn’t even matter if the Humagear lost the contest, because Aruto won the argument. I like that resolution so, so much. I like a story with a moral victory, even at the cost of the actual victory. I’m going to remember that handshake between the human and the Humagear way more than I’m going to remember almost anything else from this episode. It’s a sweet resolution to a sweet story.

Enjoy it while it lasts, for Humagears shaking hands with humans part, because this won't be a mainstay during this arc. The first competition of this tournament arc is a more milder one, as Rentaro, while at first looks down on robots, and did cheat, isn't someone who is that severe in doing that, thus it'd be relatively easier for him to be convinced that Humagears have value. Though Rentaro is much less terrible compared to Gai, there's another irony here of how Humagears have more humane traits than humans in how Sakuyo understands how ikebana is about the representation of one's heart thus Rentaro has smeared his work in cheating. Then again, meta-wise (out of universe), Izu is also more useful than most of female leads, which seems as if Humagears can have some inherent advantage to humans by the data they store, though not all such as the actor Enji (perhaps what they lack is interacting with humans unless trained).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Really, the only bum note for me was the big superhero battle in the middle of the episode? As fun as it was to see Valkyrie and Vulcan have a little duel, the placement of it in the story felt utterly arbitrary. Fuwa thinks that Yua and ZAIA have reactivated Horobi, based on literally no evidence I can recall, and Yua gets unnecessarily shifty and combative. They start fighting, and then Gai shows up to illustrate that even Vulcan’s most powerful form is no match for the narrative power of no-selling, so Thouser wipes the floor with yet another character. Nothing in this fight furthers any particular plotline (Fuwa just goes back to Horobi Lecter with information from a different climax he was not even present for), and it feels so blatantly Thouser-centric that I’m wondering if this show is actually sponsored by ZAIA Enterprise. Thouser’s cool! I get it! I don’t need individual fights of him demolishing every single member of the cast!

As said above, yeah, now you've seen the disappointment of Yua's character despite having good first impression. It's about how she's handled in ZAIA arc, as Gai's goon. You said here, the argument is only just following orders, but that'd be actually more jarring in the later part. But as you said that Yua's already aloof (even with her often being together with Fuwa?) and distant since the beginning, I think her demeanor is the reason why her being shady is expected. Those cold-hearted traits, the traits that can be hailed as hallmark of strong/competent women, professional, or efficiency (those being skewed sense of what being "strong" means), actually are traits that often make someone morally ambiguous, as those can lead into them using any means to achieve their goals without much concern. Yua's not downright terrible as someone working in bad faction (ZAIA), and does have humanizing moments like protecting civilians from Jin, but this'd still apply on characters not tied on bad factions too, them not being bad guys but morally questionable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

So you've made it to the start of the dreaded Job Competition arc. I'll totally have a lot to complain about as you progress, but I'll start by mentioning that this wasn't actually Takahashi's choice. No, instead, it was producer Ohmori Takahito who decided this would be a good idea. Based on ratings, he might've been right, as more kids tuned in every week to watch Aruto and Gai wage this proxy tournament between HumaGears and AR-enhanced humans. Critically though, it's often considered to be the worst part of Zero One and a chore to get through. And this is all before you-know-what screwed with the production.

For the excuse of fillers part, would you think that it's an inherent problem of the tournament arcs (I do find a handful being predictable), or that it's an example of tournament arcs poorly handled? If it's the latter, how do you think these kind of arcs should be handled? Though obviously the tournament arc isn't all bad, like perhaps some twists of moral victory despite the protagonists losing, I think this is a good info of what created the controversial arc of the series, and should be used against those who don't like the arc.