[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 22 - ?EVEN SO, HE DID NOT DO IT?

Some of it is that Aruto?s plotline for this episode is him learning stuff Gai already told the audience a half-dozen episodes ago. Aruto acting all aggrieved at the reveal that Gai taught Ark to hate is mostly uncompelling, because we?ve already processed that information and used it to understand Gai?s character. It?s new info for our heroes, but old news to the viewer. There?s a bunch of this episode that?s just Aruto And Friends catching up to Episode 15 or whatever, and I found that a little tiresome.

It all culminates in Zero-One versus Thouser via the Metal Cluster Hopper key, and? I don?t know? I sort of liked how it visualized the toxicity of hatred, and how the Ark and Gai?s dim view of humanity meshes with Aruto?s rage to create something unstoppable and unsympathetic. And the fight itself was pretty cool, to see a completely immobile Zero-One just wipe the floor with Thouser. But it all felt sort of random, both in the creation of the Key (I guess Gai had Collected Enough Data for the new form to be made; I don?t love that story beat) and its placement directly after the big Phoenix Wright moment. Tonally, this episode is pretty all over the place, not least of which when the final scene is Izu going That Was All A Giant Bummer So Tell A Joke Quick. The episode lurched a lot. The cute courtroom drama didn?t sit that great beside Aruto screaming incoherently at Gai, and the climax of the episode suffered for that dissonance.

I think Aruto finding out about Gai's culpability in Ark's inclination towards destruction makes their rivalry more personal and interesting than two presidents fighting over a company. Now Aruto knows that the tragedy he experienced in Daybreak, losing his father and his home, was caused by Gai. I also like Gai's delivery of the reveal to Aruto, trivializing his own part in what happened and blaming everything on humanity's evil that spurred Ark's decision to eradicate them. This episode gives some good insight in to the insane way that Gai rationalizes his actions, where he depicts himself as being 1000% innocent and good, by making everybody else look wrong.

Zero One's Final Form (emphasis on One), Metal Cluster Hopper, is a perfect example of this and damn, I remember its debut very vividly, it made my jaw drop for the whole scene! Like a shift to the horror genre. The way that this Ark-possessed uncanny CGI form just stands there intimidatingly and destroys anything that gets too close with his grasshopper constructs. The way that Thouzer laughs while he gladly takes a serious beating at the hands of something he created, even though he almost got himself killed. It's hard to recall seeing a debut more terrifying and unnerving than this!