[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP47)

Predictably, the post linked above consists in large part of me saying the details of the plot mechanics in Zi-O aren't worth sweating. Somewhat less predictably, the other half of it is me dunking on Swartz for being underdeveloped and uninteresting. I guess I was still managing to hold on to that last tiny bit of emotional distance even though I was firmly in love with the show by this point. Going back to the Geiz comparison, I suppose that minor apathy towards Swartz is the equivalent of him still refusing to call Sougo by his name.

I honestly do think the effort to loop in Decade's plot mechanics is commendable, even now. The thing is, if you're the kind of person who insists all Rider shows are in one continuity, that would mean Decade itself is also part of that continuity, despite it being the show built around Rider shows not existing in one continuity, and messes like that are exactly why I can't help but respect Zi-O's insane endgame narrative choices. Mind you, I don't think this meta stuff is even remotely as considered or poignant as Over Quartzer was (or as straightforward), so it really is the effort I find commendable here more so than the results. There's no denying how convoluted the show starts getting around this point, and how that's probably to the detriment of the overall story. But putting the how and why of everything off to one side for a second, I think the concept of reality basically collapsing into this nightmare apocalypse of every Heisei monster ever is pretty dang appropriate for the climax of the final Heisei show? I can't deny the Time Nonsense going on here, but I can't deny how much fun I was still having with the show either!

(Oh, and here's some trivia: this episode apparently aired on the exact day Die joined the forums! ...I'd like to think that even in an alternate timeline where Die didn't decide to watch everything else first, and feel the need to vent about Ghost as a result, he still would've made an account at the same time, just to vent about this arc instead.)