[Androzani84]

Well, I said I’d be here when there was a debut and I am a man of my word.

I was rewatching this episode yesterday to find out how to refer to a character without spoiling later developments and I discovered this as the first thing of note. An Easter egg for the first series where Taketera was the main producer (for those who are wondering it was Gekisou Sentai Carranger. It’s supposedly a popular series, but most of the opinions I’ve seen of it are negative. As is mine. But that’s not the point)



And then there’s the guy on the bike. I won’t say who he is, just that he has a real name and that he’s been added to the credits. He’s played by Jyoji Shibue, who had recently come off a year as the male lead in the live-action Sailor Moon (the one that had Scissors Undead from the last season as one of the villains)



And in addition to Zanki (which is shorthand for ZANgeKi no onI, literally Slashing Demon), we also have a name drop for the guy who Hibiki talks to over the phone with about him. That doesn’t just happen.



And finally, I’ll mention that Shibue has been fairly active in Kamen Rider video games the last few years. The only reason he’s not in Zi-O is that Super Sentai poached him to guest star as, fittingly enough, a Hibiki-esque character.