[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP42)
(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP43)

I feel like my summation of this three-parter as "Zi-O's Greatest Hits" is still pretty accurate. I mentioned how much I was looking forward to seeing where these episodes were going at the time, and I mostly ended up feeling like the answer to that question was "places we've already been." There's not a lot that this adventure really reveals about any of the characters involved, when you get down to it, and that's especially unfortunate when it also contributes to taking the wind out of the sails of the main villain's big motive rant. ...That being said, it's one of those things where I don't really begrudge the series for it too much in retrospect, and I could easily see myself enjoying these episodes more for what they are on a rewatch. The thing about retreading so many elements of this show that have been done before is that a lot of that stuff was good, right?

I mean, heck, I skimmed through these ones a bit to refresh my memory, so here's an example: how the very end wordlessly conveys Geiz being back to normal with that little exchange of gestures between him and Woz. It's nothing new, but it's such a wonderful summation of the post-Trinity dynamic between those two that it'd make me feel guilty for asking these episodes to do more than they are. Even the issue I had with Hiryuu -- the issue even *I* had -- with how 7 episodes with no development to show for it is maybe pressing his luck as a character, I already look at differently now, because the idea of Another Zi-O being a character so fundamentally and utterly trapped by the past that he's incapable of changing even slightly... that's still pretty dang on point, thematically? Oh, and speaking of thematically appropriate foils!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Honest question: does anyone care about Swartz'z reveal here?

Me! Kind of! ...I mean, at least if nobody else will!

I guess the answer is really "no", if we're talking strictly about the actual plot mechanics going on here, which I distinctly remember feeling ~pretty~ messy, but I absolutely like the Time Jackers way more than I think most people do -- completely unironically -- and a lot of that started coming together for me in this final stretch of the series. Heisei Kamen Rider shows love their focus on found families, and Zi-O is maybe less subtle about that than usual. So I actually really ended up loving the contrast between the main heroes and villains. You have this protagonist in Sougo, who becomes best buds with his own executioner, living under the same roof with all his other time friends and his supportive and caring uncle; and then on the other side of all this, you've got Swartz: this colossally s***ty authority figure dragging these two surly kids around in this cold, affectionless dynamic where they basically all hate each other's guts and constantly treat one another like complete garbage, because that's all they've ever known and they don't know how to quit.

I don't know, it's hard to make a big case for them right now, going entirely off of memory, and I suspect it'd be another fun thing to pay more attention to on a rewatch, but while they aren't utterly amazing antagonists or anything, I don't doubt their presence is adding something worthwhile to the series. Really, the thing that bugs me most about these three is just that I can never remember how to spell their names.