[Fish Sandwich]

THIS! THIS IS THE ZERO-ONE I REMEMBER FROM LAST YEAR!

I mean, not the character! Last time I checked Aruto doesn't go around strangling people! But the show! This episode is spectacular!

I'm honestly shocked just how much this one stuck the landing. The first part was already a huge improvement over what we'd been getting, but the conclusion tops even that, finally bringing back that edge-of-your-seat excitement that I've come to expect from Rider shows written by Yuuya Takahashi. I just... where do I even start? Alright, in no particular order:

- Direction direction direction! Sugihara delivers on some truly astonishing action here, from Zero-One and Thouser's fight at the start which shows how much mileage he can get out of Shining Assault Hopper's speed, to Zero-One and Thouser's fight at the end, where he just plain shows off by somehow making a fight where Zero-One is standing still look dynamic. Wow.

- Fuwa gets to be a crazier Ichijou from Kuuga and a less crazy Nago from Kiva, going all bounty hunter on Aruto's behalf, which is awesome.

- A lot more of the themes being advanced, with Aruto getting let in on even more plot points the audience has been privy to for a while.

- On which note, Aruto gets some of his best characterization yet, with Fumiya Takahashi getting to do more great foaming-at-the-mouth anger in a plot about whether or not humans can control their darker impulses, something that's set up right at the start with how heated he gets fighting Thouser, and carriers through right to the end, with Metal Cluster Hopper.

- Speaking of that initital fight between Zero-One and Thouser though, I can't stress enough how great it is. The stunning visuals complement the added intensity it already has as part of the story, and after these fights were starting to get repetitive, it was nice to see the twist of Aruto just absolutely flipping his s*** after putting up with Gai for so long.

- The fact that Aruto's entirely justified anger also doesn't solve his problem is yet again Zero-One showing it knows how to beat its hero down when it needs to. Most good heroes don't win by letting themselves lose their cool, and that's certainly not an admirable trait for the head of a major corporation to have.

- The way Bingo teams up with Fuwa to save the day was a really well deserved way for Hiden to get their first win in the competition. Aruto suggests Bingo might be able to do something only a HumaGear could to help, and we actually see that happen, with him processing and analyzing an entirely different set of information from a different location being fed to him wirelessly during the trial, which I don't think is something most lawyers who aren't computers could pull off.

- The twist with the Raider's identity was indeed extremely telegraphed, but I'll refer you to my post on the last episode where I said whether or not the twist was obvious isn't the point.

- And of course, the big deal here is Metal Cluster Hopper, which hooohhooohoo oh MAN did that leave a great first impression. Sugihara's direction once again really helps sell the story, with the new form coming off like some truly unstoppable force of nature. Hazard was just good as punching things mercilessly. Metal Cluster Hopper feels like it barely even registers what it's actually doing, and also doesn't care. Not a good combination for a form with the power to sick swarms of locust on people! Using the established fact that Aruto's mind is connected to the satellites to show us firsthand how horrified he is by what's happening, and how completely helpless he is to do anything was also another good touch. I don't think I was alone in worrying this would just feel like a retread of one of Build's best storylines, but I'm happy to see there's a lot making this feel different.

- Oh, and I've gotta give a shout out to my main man Fuwa for taking control of the situation before it went too far. By using brute force, naturally. Izu can say what she will. Sometimes, you've just gotta be a gorilla, and Fuwa gets that.

Whew! I think that's enough for now. I wish I could've come up with something more coherent, but I'm practically shaking with excitement from how much I enjoyed this episode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

Metal Cluster Hopper is great! But I fear that after 2 weeks his ability to project forms and objects out of the tiny grasshoppers will be dropped entirely because budget and he will result to only hitting people with his sword...

I actually would be okay with that in this specific case? It would be a pretty good visual signifier of Aruto "taming" Metal Cluster Hopper to basically rein it in from violently eating opponents to classic heroic swordplay with a weapon that's apparently going to be designed specifically not to harm things too bad. There'd be a more direct reason for it than Shining Hopper's reverse-afterimages being largely forgotten.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

Oh yeah, next episode we get a Go-Busters reunion. This means all three main Go-Busters have now appeared in a Kamen Rider Episode recently as guests since, let us not forget, Takahiro Suzuki who played Hiromu/Red Buster was Kamen Rider Quiz in Zi-O.

Still waiting for Hiroya Matsumoto to play a Rider, but hey, I don't want to seem ungrateful.