[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I could quibble at Zero-One barrelling right into Ex-Aid's Purple Suit = Evil Rider thing

That's hardly particular to Ex-Aid. Purple just generally has a strong association with evil characters in Japanese media. Just off the top of my head, we had Ohja way back in Ryuki, who set the gold standard for all evil Riders... or uh, the purple standard, I guess. It's a very sinister color, apparently!

Anyways, I love this episode for how perfectly it emphasizes itself as the THE first multi-part story in Zero-One. It'd be one thing after half a dozen episodes for things to not wrap up more-or-less cleanly by the end, but they straight up end this one on Fuwa getting exploded by the main bad guy after he finally steps into the spotlight.

Just, immediately, Kamen Rider Horobi feels like a huge deal. I straight up love this guy, by the way? I don't know how much I'll end up gushing about him in this thread, but for now, just focusing on him as a Rider, it was so dang cool knowing Takaiwa was still playing a big role even after stepping down from the protagonist spot after Zi-O. I'd imagine I'm not the only one who sort of felt like it just wouldn't be Kamen Rider without the guy, so this made that transition a lot smoother, while also giving him a chance to demonstrate his talent with a very different kind of character. I've always felt Kabuto was actually one of the roles that most demonstrated Takaiwa's skill as a suit actor? Most people probably jump to Den-O, but I think its the subtlety of a character like Tendou that lets him shine most. I praise guys like Eitoku and Kousuke Asai for being hugely expressive in their own right, but if I had to think of something about Takaiwa that I geuninely can't imagine any other suit actor will ever match, it'd be the minimalism of Kabuto. How with the least possible amount of movement, he could still excellently convey a properly defined personality just in how carried himself. Kamen Rider Horobi gave him a chance to really showcase that aspect of his style again, and that made it a total delight to watch that character in any scene he was in. (Also I very specifically love the shape of those eyes on the suit. They're so weirdly elongated and creepy and utterly unique and I was fascinated by them before the show even started.)

...Not that any of this talk about Horobi helps to refute the idea the climax of this episode is all that's worth discussing, which is ordinarily the kind of thing I would try to refute, given the chance. Uh... let's see here... well, the start of this one *does* reveal that Aruto was born on May 1st, which is the same day the Reiwa era started, naturally. It's a bit on the nose, but considering they also called the show Zero-One, that's only fitting. It's really cute how committed they were to this guy heralding the new era.

(Also some more weirdly noncommittal To Sell Toys stuff this week, with the sudden focus on Izu having the obligatory Progrise Key holder thing that came out around that time. Just look at *all* those Keys it holds! That was kind of the same "genre" of merch of the big Ride Watch tower you always saw in Zi-O, and the Pandora Panels that were rather prominent in Build, so that should give you a good idea of how much of a downgrade this is. To be fair, you also see that design worked into other places like the MetsubouJinrai hideout, but I believe this is the one and only time they did this odd showcase with Izu. Horobi using the Amazing Hercules Key is a much more a natural result of this, as that Key came bundled with the holder. Don't expect that to become any sort of signature piece of gear for the guy either, but, you know, he uses it more than Fuwa uses the Attache Calibur at least.)