[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

(Jin?s fun in a very This Guy Wrote Paradox On Ex-Aid way)

For this particular episode, though, this guy *didn't* write Parad, or anything related to Ex-Aid, for that matter. These next couple episodes were written by Masaya Kakehi, and the thing about his writing on Zero-One is that... you'd really never notice the difference? Especially coming off of Zi-O, where there could be such a contrast in how different writers approached the scripts, Takahashi and Kakehi really seemed to be on the same page for what they wanted Zero-One to be like.

I utterly adore this episode too, by the way. It is the one that introduced me to my beloved Tora-chan, after all!



Definitely my favorite of Zero-One's basic form changes, and possibly my favorite suit in the entire series? The design is great; love the blue eyes; cat motifs are apparently an easy sell for me; fire gloves are cool; I like how the Rising Hopper armor moves. Beyond that though, how much of an impression a form leaves on me is often down to the story its attached to, and how cool they make it look, and it's kind of no contest among these early episodes for me. This episode has a really fun and effective plot, and it ends with a fight sequence that is intensely creative and fun. Biting Shark was just like, in water, and that was it. Here we've got a really unique visual trick to make it look like everything is on fire (it's just colored lighting and vapor, apparently), and the whole comic book panel shtick was just completely brilliant. (This episode was directed by Shibasaki, for the record.) Plus, Aruto immediately scorching his own face with his new fire hands is probably one of my favorite Aruto moments.

That and his impassioned speech about the value of Ishizumi's work. I guess it's maybe to be expected when we're literally watching a children's action series, but I really love how much more personal this topic is to Aruto than usual. He's appreciating the job of the week not just as an outsider this time, but as a fan, and that's a great way to further drill into the episode's theme of passion. Have I mentioned how much I like this episode's script yet?






(Oh, and even without the time required to do any animation, it's insanely impressive how much Perfuman Tsurugi stuff they created just for this episode, when you really stop and take it all in. You'd almost believe it was a real thing if you didn't know, and that makes it one of the finest examples of how thorough Zero-One's worldbuilding is in my book.)