[MKDremare]

Now, don't get me wrong, while I do enjoy Zero-One, lately I've been feeling pretty... eh about the current arc. Like, I thought it started off fine, but as it goes on, the flaws about it become more apparent to me, and I'm not nearly enjoying myself as I was at the beginning. And they all pretty much relate to Gai as a character, to the point where I feel like it'd be worth making a discussion thread about him to specifically see opinions on him, especially in relation to other characters, and without like having another discussion overlap or bury this one. In a way, this is sort of a character review of him. Note that my opinions of Gai can change over time, considering that right now we're nearing the second half of the series, but I feel like that for the moment, we have enough to discuss his character, and I wanna elaborate on mine, and I feel like adding this to an existing thread would be a little bit too much.

Let's get this straight, I think Gai as a whole is an interesting character. His motives and ideals are interesting, and I think KR Thouser is a good design. He also serves as an excellent foil to Aruto in terms of job experience, goals, and overall personality. But he is an unentertaining character. Nearly all of his scenes are played for melodrama, his comedic scenes are few and far in-between, and Nachi Sakuragi, his actor, plays him with in an understated manner, in that his acting is completely fine, but that it's very low energy and low key at the same time. As a result, scenes with Gai kinda feel slow and boring if it's not him fighting as Thouser.

Now, I bet you're wondering, "Doesn't that describe how Shuya Sunagawa portrays Horobi as well?" In my opinion, the reason why Horobi works well, is that he has Jin (and, for a time, Little Assassin) to bounce off with, who both provide the energy to the scene in contrast to Horobi's subdued nature. Hell, even in the scenes where Fuwa is interrogating Horobi works in the same sort of manner. Whereas Gai has Yua, who instead of bouncing off him with any energy or with a different personality, is completely subservient and reluctant to speak out her mind against him, almost leaving Gai as the dominating presence in his scenes (granted, we did get a pretty good explanation for her subservience in the latest episode, but still). Without that sort of balance between low energy and high energy, it again results in Gai's scenes feeling slow and boring. Instead of any sort of energy, Gai replaces with low energy and somewhat unbearable smug.

Let's compare this to characters like Evolt or Kuroto Dan, two villains who manage to be interesting AND entertaining. They work really well, as their almost-maniacal energy is balanced by the protagonists' more neutral energy, and they stay interesting thanks to their backstories and motivations. Not to mention that, as villains, they make adjustments to their plans on the fly when needed for the most part. Which brings me to my next point.

As a whole, Gai's plan has gone way too smoothly. Unlike Evolt or Kuroto Dan, he never really needs to make adjustments, because everything just kinda falls in place for him without it feeling like he needed to do anything. Like even Evolt had unexpected changes in his plans, and even had to resort to doing things that he wasn't sure would work, like using the energy of three Kamen Rider finishers to power up the Evol-Trigger. And Kuroto's plans totally went AWOL when Emu gained Maximum Gamer and was killed the second time by Parado, and then getting Kamen Rider Chronicle hijacked by him and then his father.

Gai? Again, his plans haven't really faced any sort of actual obstacle from Aruto. In fact, he outright won the first two challenges, and given what happened in the most recent episode, probably will win in the end. Even the two victories Aruto got kinda feel like they happened out of sheer luck than actually earned, with Fuwa managing to find the real culprit just in time, and Homura admitting that if it weren't for 119nosuke's sacrifice, wouldn't have won, and conceded defeat. Compare that to Gai's victories which were outright victories. Even with the introduction of Metalcluster Hopper and the Progrise Hopper Blade have failed to really be hiccups in Gai's plan, especially seeing that the Progrise Hopper Blade's ability to restore Magia into Humagear is now kinda pointless, since the majority of the public and the media have totally turned against Hiden Intelligence as of last episode and will most likely want all Humagear to be scrapped regardless. And ultimately the return of Metsuboujinrai.net and Jin's resurrection proved to be non-factors in a lot of regards. The competition doesn't get put on hold, Gai's actions don't get revealed to the public, nothing of note happened with their return All in all, with some rewrites and alterations, we could've had the return of Metsuboujinrai.net and Jin's resurrection happen after the ZAIA Vs. Hiden Arc without any major repercussions made to the arc.

Another thing is that for whatever reason, the other characters aren't making appropriate actions or anything to Gai's plans. Like, the most blatant would be Izu not recording everything Gai does and showing people what he does. I guess it could be argued that they could be accused of editing footage and trying to smear ZAIA and Gai, considering that at the beginning of the arc Hiden Intelligence's reputation is taking a hit, but at the same time, I feel like other characters should've been doing more somehow, even if they couldn't do that.

As the result of this basically flawless victory and Gai's low energy or anyone to bounce off of? It feels largely unearned, and only happened because "plot". Like I get it, there are some pretty good reasons for why the plot is happening this way and how it could. Gai was pretty good at making sure that anything that happened wasn't seen by the public until the recent episode, and he's legitimately smart enough to carry out his plans. But without any sort of character balance or any real challenge to his plans, it just comes off as completely uneven in his favor. And in stories where it doesn't seem like the main characters can't catch a break at all? Those types of stories for some people aren't really fun. Sure, it's good to have the main characters to be challenged and at times, lose, but when it's something like this, it just gets frustrating.

It also doesn't help that with the ZAIA Vs. Hiden Arc, we change from a more "episodic with an overarching plot" format to the "two-parter mostly self-contained episodes" format, which also adds to the feeling of slowness and dragging on. I feel like most people agree that the two-parter format doesn't really work in the favors of a lot of seasons, unless the season is specifically mystery or crime-related, like Double or Drive. So the change in episode format really didn't help Gai out, either, and it probably harmed it moreso, honestly.

Again, Gai is an interesting character, but with the way he was written and how his scenes play out, he's just not an unentertaining one. And let's get one thing clear from all of this, "interesting" does not equal "entertaining", and vice versa. For a very entertaining character that isn't as interesting, I'd say Woz from Zi-O. He really doesn't have much of an interesting story (his betrayal of the resistance to Ohma Zi-O is typical, and he really doesn't have that much of a backstory other than that and in the movie), but damn if he isn't entertaining to watch. He's got a great personality and great dynamics with other characters, but I won't lie and say he's interesting because of it.

All in all, this is how I feel so far about Gai in Zero-One and the current arc overall. 'Cuz of my current dissatisfaction with how it's been going as stated, I'm just gonna wait for the inevitable episode where shit finally hits the fan for Gai, and everything he's done starts to crumble down around him as Aruto starts to rebuild everything his grandfather worked for, and reveal Gai for the narcissistic scumbag he is. I'm aware that my opinions and thoughts have holes in them, and I welcome people to help strengthen them or even provide counterpoints to them.