[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 4 - ?THE TRUTH THAT BUS GUIDE SAW?

The premise here is that you need to have faith in the people you care about, even if everyone's against you. Additionally, we're in a story about how finding out the truth can be difficult to handle, but it's better than settling for an easy lie. Both solid lessons.

Though actually, the truth is something extremely pleasant, for Gou. That his father was heroic and this'd also be a turning point for his life after being a bullying victim for the lies. Only the others, Gou's peers, should actually take a lesson to not jump into conclusions regarding rumors espeically when doing something outright terrible for that. The lesson here is actually about how accurate truth of history should be upholded (of which what Anna strived too). Unfortunately for Fuwa, this Gou is Gou Sakurai, not Gou Shijima, who would be like-minded with him in their prejudice towards the mechanical MOTW species in their respective series.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The problem is, both of those lessons are filtered through the prism of Fuwa's experiences, and it takes them to such an insane level that they start to become cautionary tales. The whole idea of Fuwa telling this kid to not believe his dad caused a tragedy ? this is Fuwa telling a child to hold onto his rage and never stop blaming someone else for what might just be a tragic accident. Fuwa is telling this kid that, no matter what anyone else says, the Humagears are responsible for his dad's death. The fact that Fuwa turns out to be right in this one instance (sort of, but we'll get to that) doesn't alter the fact that we're watching a story where Fuwa teaches a child that there's always someone to blame when anything hurts you. That's? I don't love that message!

This'd be consistent with Fuwa's characterization. As someone who is extremely vengeful against Humagears and would go into extreme lengths into exterminating them, why stop at only that? Fuwa's vengeance can be done via something different than just fighting them as Vulcan, just like how deeper tokus can touch upon more stuff than just its fighting. Not only blowing them up, why not also spread your belief to others, in the name of "keeping them safe from Humagears" to easier getting more people on your side. And for Fuwa being right or something, more on that below, and you're also being impatient regarding Fuwa's arc here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And the other one, about searching for the truth? it?s noble, and I like Aruto's version of it okay. It's more about corporate responsibility, and respecting your customers more than your shareholders. Protecting The Company should never take precedence over Protecting Your Customers. But the Fuwa side of this works as a reckless insistence that the truth is always being hidden, if it?s not what you wanted to hear. That's, y'know, fine if you want to tell a story that exposes Fuwa's worldview as one that?ll never offer him any solace, but here it's all just him being dead-on right that Hiden was covering up what happened in Daybreak Town. The lesson, in all cases, is that Fuwa's worldview is right.

(To be fair, Fuwa does learn a lesson about Aruto's trustworthiness, and the fact that MetsubouJinrai was behind the destruction of the town. It's not some huge change in his attitude, but it's a nice button on an episode that sees Fuwa acknowledge Aruto's good intentions as Kamen Rider Zero-One.)

Yeah, as I said before, Fuwa laughing at Aruto's jokes is an indicator that they'd be soon allies, and it's done here. Though here it's by how Aruto displays clear ethics as a president, to not hide anything as he knows about how president position can be really suspicious to public due to hiding truths for protecting their company, as well as being a breath of fresh air from previous companies shown in series like Agito, Faiz, Kiva, and Drive. I also always thought about the Hiden family name being a wordplay of hidden... but it's ironic here that Aruto's the opposite that he won't hide anything. But you're jumping into conclusions that Hiden is the one accountable for Daybreak Town. As you said MetsubouJinrai.net was behind the destruction of the town. Jin was the one who psychotically transforms Humagears into rampaging Magias, of which currently it's how the Humagears can go on the rampage, which should be similar for the ones on Daybreak Town, and Horobi, the current leader, justifies everything they do due to Ark's will (not revealed yet as they said). They're Humagears, but it shouldn't be necessarily related to Hiden, because Hiden isn't the only operating faction. MetsubouJinrai.net itself is also another faction.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Even without the upsetting inability to really interrogate how inappropriate it is for a vengeance-crazed gun-nut to be imparting wisdom in a disaster zone to a bullied child, this episode exposition-dense structure didn't leave enough else to really enjoy. Izu's barely in it. Yua shows up to deliver a collectible and say, basically, This Thing I'm Helping You Do Is Enormously Unsafe. The Flying Falcon fight does not have my favorite effects. Anna the Bus Guide is a neat idea, but she doesn't really have an arc to speak of. (No time!) It's? this whole episode is trying to deliver relevant background, which is fine, but it's dressed up in nothing but a vaguely repellant Fuwa story. (I genuinely don't understand how the only lesson that you can have Fuwa learn in this story is I Was Not Lied To In The Exact Manner I Was Expecting. There are? there are a lot of things Fuwa needs to learn! That is not one of them!)

I guess what you said here, showed a glimpse on how Yua can be disappointing, later on. About Anna, this one actually shows some advancement regarding Humagears, like her acting outside of her job and responsibility (as tour guide, her name also comes from the word "annai" which means "to guide") like showing a display of emotion, as well as her being the one to fight off the corruption injected to her. She's the defining example of how Humagears shouldn't be dehumanized, though it's probably wasted as it's not really acknowledged (perhaps that'd be the problem). I guess about how she didn't really have an arc, she should be compared with previous MOTW Humagears (of which the problem would be how Humagears are handled after Anna here later), of which her portrayal contrasted them before.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 01: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE - FLYING FALCON

I don't like the Zero-One form changes, either? The contrasting red and COLOR are unpleasant, visually. I can appreciate how the Rising Hopper mask splits and spins around to give some height to the back of Zero-One?s helmet, but it also gives him two faces on each side of his head, like the Another Double suit got stripped for parts. I just? I do not like the whole folding-back part to the form changes. Seeing bits of Rising Hopper hanging around, fluorescent and unmissable? It just doesn't work for me, aesthetically.

This one I also agree, Zero-One's different colors on the form changes are out of place and making it tacky IMO. Should just go being consistent and changing all the lime greens into the new color the form is taking of, though dunno about budget.