[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 3 - ?DOCTOR GAMER 2018?

Like, I could?ve watched an entire episode of Sougo being an average student and the team of Geiz and Tsukuyomi being incredibly weird. It?s the best part of this episode, by a mile. The time spent establishing this potentially combustible grouping is the smartest decision this show has made to date. They?re very fun together, once the show lets them get into a routine.

Guess compared to the previous 2, I understand here about how a character focus can produce a much better result (compared to an introductory episode and an utterly confusing episode). Still though character focus isn't the best way or that other way is worse it's the execution. This episode played what's established about the characters previously well. Sougo is destined to become a dystopian ruler and Geiz with Tsukuyomi time traveled from 2068 to the present to avoid Ohma Zi-O future (for this part, their approach doesn't really matter)? Have them investigate Sougo by infiltrating the school he's in!

This'd add up more establishment for the trio that played up their origins, that Sougo's still ordinary student and that Geiz and Tsukuyomi are both young too. This'd play up the latter 2's characterization more that they're from the future, thus they're out of touch to the personal era (remember they're still young)... which is similar to Sougo but with reasons that make more sense, they're still keeping their trademark part of their outfit, as well as doing the job badly in investigating him. Oh, I forgot. despite being out of touch, other than Geiz and Tsukuyomi's 'capabilities' in following Sougo, Sougo's actually can be cunning and manipulative which he used here to get rid from those 2. Geiz and Tsukuyomi also didn't actually attend class, though they got bento from the clueless Junichiro, still a good thing though to eat that as Junichiro is a supreme cook.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Hiiro?s a dude who, ironically, took a while to become a hero. As Kamen Rider Brave (a thing he is not called once in this episode), he warred against the Bugsters for pride, for vengeance, for guilt. It took him a long time to fight for people, to protect their futures. Geiz is sort of in the early stages of that, where he?s willing to fight monsters and threaten teenage doofuses, but actually helping people is something he more or less needs to be cajoled into. Tsukuyomi teases him about it in this episode, that he?s accidentally giving Sougo valuable advice and pretty integral to their success as a group of heroes. But it?s Hiiro?s direct plea to investigate Emu?s disappearance that feels like a turning point. It?s the Zi-O story I?d hoped to see, where a hero sees something of themselves in our cast, and wants to make their journey a little easier, a little more navigable. Hiiro handing Geiz the crucial clue and Geiz being like What Wait? best point in the episode.

Hiiro is a hero in the beginning too.... anti-hero is a subcategory of hero. Him doing good things for selfish reasons would still create a good outcome for those others, but the selfish reason made his morality on a grey area. And true Geiz inadvertently gave Sougo the solution with his mocking of Sougo trying the Mighty Action X game... and I think it's a lesson that can be taken from Sougo (though this'd be hard to implement) instead, that he here focuses on finding the solution, rather than focusing on defending his pride or such with Geiz mocking him. That means the one that should be put on focus are something on the bigger picture instead of the more petty thing. Regarding him 'turning more like Kamen Rider'.... so what are you using the term Kamen Rider for? Because there are lots of evil Kamen Rider that never changed since Heisei Phase 1.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That sucks! I?m all about Kamen Rider stories where our heroes try and push back an unrelenting tide, or battle a foe that?s impossible to defeat in order to stall for another shot at success. Stories about never giving up, or taking on insurmountable odds? Yeah, sure, definitely. But not in the third episode. It?s way way too early for our heroes to be like Welp Time To Bang Our Heads Against The Wall, but that?s sort of the only outcome we?re likely to get in these multi-part stories? This isn?t about our heroes being unaware of a monster?s pattern, or weak-point, or whatever, all the normal narrative tricks to delay a successful resolution until the concluding installment. This is the show outright saying You Can?t Win Until Part Two, and it sucked all the fun out of the fight for me.

This is completely subjective stuff though. If the show establish that as a rule then yeah, gotta work up on that. This has been told before too in the Build 2-parter that only the same power can beat the Another Rider. I also think that the Another Rider can only be beaten by the same power is a no limits fallacy anyway, like, I don't believe that really overpowered Riders (or other power wielder) can't put down a pseudo-MOTW in Another Riders. The heroes being at standstill isn't equal to banging their heads against the wall as they aren't in hopeless situation as in Cronus debut or something.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 3.5 - ?REGAL SPOILERS?

Also, this short film was the best one yet. It continues the theme of the episode, where our heroes work as a team for the first time (it is a Kamen Rider Ex-Aid tribute story, so expect Teamwork to be a main theme), while being recalibrated for Insane. When Ora informs the heroes that there?ll be a Rider War in the future, Team Zi-O strategizes how to prevent it. Tsukuyomi wants to ?persuade? the writer (which comes off as ?seduce?), Geiz wants to kill the producers, and Sougo (with the most unrealistic suggestion, naturally) makes a case for blowing up all of Toei Studios.

Ora? Playful? Lol. She acted playful here... keyword here... but well...
Regarding lunatic teenagers, so better keeping Geiz as taciturn assassin? Sougo's suggestion here is more in line with his Ohma Zi-O persona, that it goes even beyond Geiz' brutality here to just murder. Ex-Aid isn't what I had on my mind about teamwork though... the trio living together on Junichiro's place gave me the vibes of Phase 1 Heisei more.