[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 26 - “WE’RE THE FIREFIGHTER TEAM”



This is an episode that isn’t really saying anything particular smart or nuanced (it’s mostly just talking about how saving lives isn’t something you can do partially, or even pragmatically), but it’s so relentlessly fun to watch from front to back that it hardly matters if it’s not the smartest episode.

And, y’know, it’s not! Much like the smoky upper levels of the training facility, it’s a little difficult to tell exactly what this episode is hoping to get at with its aggressively-dedicated human firefighter and its algorithmically-motivated Humagear. There’s the concept of life-saving being built on faith as much as it is ability, and… man, I don’t know. We literally just did a story that resolved in faith and pushed back on the idea that any risk is worth taking in the pursuit of saving lives, so I don’t know if Homura’s whole You Gotta Save Everyone All The Time No Matter What thing is a really smart lesson. Like, you cannot save everyone as a firefighter, or as a doctor, or whatever. I know this is a kids show designed to sell toys, but it’s weird to have one of the major lessons of the episode be to endanger yourself and other victims who need your help, just to get 100% completion on your job. 119 is sort of right to save three alive people instead of staying in a burning building to try and revive a fourth person, but the episode treats his actions as monstrously negligent, and potentially cruel. I don’t love that! I don’t love a story that suggests that the only thing stopping people from succeeding in every single situation is the will to see things through. That’s a weird message! No thanks!

(There’s a read on this that I could like more next episode, where Homura’s rant about things that aren’t alive still being worth saving could create an interesting bond between humans and Humagears, but it’s not really touched on this episode. Feels like I’m inferring it more than they’re implying it, but we’ll find out for sure next time.)

But, like, this episode is so fun, and funny, that I don’t really care about a facile/horseshit moral.

The entire Firefighting Contest plot is ridiculous in the best possible ways. 119’s little bouncy jog he does. Homura chastising the “victims” for their poor acting. 119 complimenting a victim for his good acting. The Hiden executives complaining about their role in the contest, stranded on the top floor. The Panda Raider rocketing around via its cannon. The reporter, randomly in the area to cover a sweets story, completely losing her shit at how dangerous everything is. The Magia stomping on Aruto’s feet to get around him. Just… the whole thing is agreeably goofy, even if its swings towards seriousness are hamfisted.

And the action is no slouch! A lot of fun camera angles in Aruto’s chase after the Raider, but the Jin/Vulcan fight is another episode highlight. There’s a jaw-dropping fluidity to Burning Falcon’s moveset, where it feels like Jin is moving in every direction imaginable. And, like, it starts with this thrillingly gorgeous Henshin sequence, with Jin and Fuwa doing their transformations back to back, the preparation for an epic duel. I love it. I hope Jin and Vulcan get a show-stopping fight scene in every episode, forever, even into the next series. I want these two sparring in Saber.

I wish this were a smarter episode, with a moral worth exploring (or one that was treated as less of a given than it is), but sometimes I can be mollified with a hilarious and exciting episode of tokusatsu storytelling. That can be fun, too!