[DreamSword]

I've recently started my watch of Zero-One using the official subs(and unofficial ones for the stuff that SHOUT hasn't done).

As of right now I just finished the first 16 episodes, including Project Thouser, the HBV, and the Zi-O crossover movie.

...And I gotta say, currently, this show is my jam, man!

I'm not kidding when I say that this show is currently flipping the same switch in my brain that Kuuga, W, and OOO did when I first watched them. And if you don't know, those are some of my top seasons in the franchise so far!

First and most obviously, whoever was the stunt director for the show seriously deserves a raise. Every fight scene in incredibly stylish and well choreographed with the intensity to match. Never once did anything feel boring or phoned in for the sake of just having an action sequence.

But style isn't all that this show's got to offer. It certainly has plenty of substance to match, and I was hedging my bets that it would, given it uses AI and Robots as its central tool for storytelling. If you don't get what I mean by that, allow me to give a brief explanation: Stories that deal in robotics often will use robots as means of metaphor and allegory, which Zero-One has in spades.

It's one of the reasons that I'm really drawn to stories about Robots and AI; They can be used to talk about so many things such as the treatment of minorities and people of different socials standings, to coming of ages stories about finding your emotions and growing up, to even the cycle of hatred and how your environment influences your outlook on life. And guess what? Zero-One delivers on all of these.

Episodes 9 and 16 especially are great about all of this, but the entire first quarter really is no slouch. The entire run is entirely character focused, with every character involved getting their chance to shine and having plenty of development all at a nice brisk pace. Heck, the return to one-off episodes alone was incredibly refreshing after a ton of seasons composed mostly of two-parters. And unlike the first quarter of Ghost, never feels rushed. I am currently fully engrossed in this world that's been set up!

Just... man. Zero-One has been hitting all of the right spots for me, and I'm really hoping that it can keep it up going forward.