[Enchilada645]

Real quick since I have no idea where to fit this in, but I do like how we have a week long mission in space to keep Aruto out of the picture.

Anyway I'm not sure what qualifies as dark aside from maybe like two scenes, both at the tail end of it. So I wouldn't say it's all dark, but it definitely ends in a more surprising way than before. Especially since this is one of the few V-Cinema's to actually continue to the next.

But I do like what they were going for here. And really watching RealXTime before this sort of helps strengthen the sort of thing I was talking about with Ark.

The reason the original Ark was mostly unstoppable was because it was just a boring killing machine that lacked any true personality aside from 'kill'. And I mentioned that Lucifer alongside the Abaddon's really represent that side of the Ark. Just the unwavering appetite for destruction and chaos. Meanwhile you have Azu who thinks that negative emotions such as anger, sorrow, etc, are key to bearing a new Ark. But time and time again, Aruto, Horobi, S... all of them end up wavering because of there's more to sentience than just those negative emotions.

So we bring in Lyon Arkland who is actually one of my favorite V-Cinema villains honestly. He's charismatic, has a fun little gimmick to make him entertaining (his English and the noises he makes are amazing). And he makes an absolute good point that Azu's method isn't going to work. So he goes to a simpler way to drive constant conflict, Justice vs Justice and I think it works well. Because he's dealing with Metsubojinrai, all individuals who feel strongly about certain things and he knows exactly how to push their buttons.

So that's why his plan ends up working for the most part, but as is the case with Thousandriver Riders, his hubris is what causes this to collapse. He was so concerned with making a new enemy, he wasn't concerned with how powerful that entity might become, especially when it comes to a being made of four unified and frankly strong wills.

If there's one scene I absolutely loved though, it was the scene of Fuwa and Horobi. Horobi asking if Fuwa would be willing to put them down if it came down to it. I think he realized that this might go pear shaped and he wanted to at least ensure one person would see through to ending what they start. It was just a really nice scene.

And it all culminates in surprisingly the only real blood fest we get this movie of Lyon dying while spouting "Zaia Forever!" and just smacking into the ground. And then Metsubojinrai standing in the wreckage of Zaia Japan as all four members just scream out in anguish.

Also I find it kind of hilarious how Metsubojinrai itself is voiced by the Monkey Majik members who provided the voices for the Zero-One equipment. I suppose that's one way to sort of push the "Humagears are just weapons and tools" thing that Arkland was going for. Oddly enough the way they work the speech into Metsubojinrai makes it rather unique as it's own entity. Also I guess we know why the credits song is named SOS now, and it is very, very literal.