[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

please save all of your Buster comments

Die, trying to stop me from talking about Go-Busters if I want to is just cruel! I freakin' love that show!

I'm rather fond of Zero-One, too, which is about as clever a bit as I can think of right now. Part of me wants to make some dumb Aruto pun in like, every post I make in this thread, but my creative juices can't live up to a master of comedy like him. Contrarian opinion as ever, I know, but I really liked that kid right away. I'm obviously not ~totally~ serious about the "master of comedy" remark, but I genuinely do have pretty much Aruto's exact dumb sense of humor, which made him a pretty relatable protagonist out of the gate. Like, when I was a really little kid, I even harbored vague notions of becoming a stand-up comedian for a while?

So having that much in common with the hero made Zero-One easy to get into, especially with the excellent performance Fumiya Takahashi was giving immediately, and the excellent script and direction only made it even easier. I might go so far as to argue this is one of the strongest Rider premieres ever? Which I think is something Die said about Ex-Aid during the Ryuki thread too, so hey, maybe Yuuya Takahashi just really knows how to land these things. I think you get an excellent feel for the world in those 20 or so minutes, and what I remain most fond of to this day is how strong of a character arc Aruto gets in it, which it was nice to see clicking with Die too.

And then there's the direction.




One of the other things it could said Zero-One has in common with Ex-Aid is that it creates one heck of a visual identity for itself right away. This episode is slick as all heck, and I attribute a lot of that to Teruaki Sugihara being the director, because just like with those Agito episodes in Zi-O, and all those episodes of Lupinranger VS Patranger he did, having him around gets you some real flashy shots. The action at the end stands out, of course, but even beyond that, there are loads of little touches I think add a ton to the episode. The way the camera moves throughout the scene where Aruto takes the Zero-One Driver, for example, it just looks real nice?

And speaking of things that look real nice, oh man do I ever love Rising Hopper. I still remember how insanely excited I was just to see another insect motif for the main Rider when it was revealed, and then on top of that, it was a grasshopper, and then on top of *that*, it looks utterly gorgeous. I'm really glad this thread gave you an excuse to make the active effort to appreciate the suits more than usual in these threads, Die, because I might've been actively upset if you didn't see a base suit this amazing as worth talking about.

It's too good. The brilliant use of a color that stands completely apart from any main Rider. The technological grasshopper design that immediately screams "Rider #1 of the future". The Kabuto sort of way the armor is basically the entire grasshopper draped over his body. How the armor isn't on the arms, drawing all the more attention to the legs. How simple and readable the design is at a glance, while having surprisingly intricate detailing that makes it look great up close without cluttering things up from a distance. The fact that his weapon is literally a briefcase that turns into a glorified triangle... and that *still* somehow looks as cool as the rest of him.

I'll stop gushing here, I guess, but only because I have to stop somewhere. Zero-One's suits are indeed quite cool all around, but Rising Hopper in particular made one heck of a first impression, and I quickly grew rather attached to it. Helps that I ended up loving the character under the suit so quickly too. Usually when I first see the design of a new show's main Rider, it either looks "striking" (like Ex-Aid), or "cool" (like Build), and I only later understand the design well enough to realize it's really both (because it always is), but what can I say? Rising Hopper just leaped over that whole process! はい！アルトじゃぁぁぁぁナイけど！

Yay, I got to make a dumb joke after all! This is gonna be a fun thread!

(Oh, and since we're specifically talking about So-Do, I remember being real impressed by how the leg armor on that Rising Hopper figure comes up around the hip joint a bit to look more natural than just a straight cut at the thigh, like they had been doing up to that point. It's little things like that every year that communicate how much the people designing the So-Do stuff are always looking for ways to improve and evolve the line. There's a genuine passion that comes across there, and it's pretty endearing even as someone who's never touched a So-Do figure.)