[Kamen Rider Die]

PROJECT THOUSER - PART 1



And we’re back! Busy couple months for me (vacation that only briefly stranded me in another state; cross-town move that didn’t completely destroy my body or bank account), but things have finally stabilized enough for me to get back to these last few Zero-One things. I hope anyone’s still around to talk about them with me?

We’re starting off easy with Project Thouser, which I’m pretty sure is one of those Blu-ray bonus feature pieces. It’s partially a clip show of big moments from the first third of the series, and partially a chance to fill in the blanks for a mastermind villain. This is all the What He Did In The Shadows stuff for Gai, where the dots of his convoluted scheme are all connected for an audience who presumably cares about that sort of irrelevant minutiae.

Which, as the phrasing of that sentence might indicate, I definitely do not! The idea of spending half an hour trying to cross t’s for the Gathering Data phase of a villain’s scheme - by far the most perfunctory and generic version of any Kamen Rider show’s first Act - would probably make me feel like returning to Zero-One was a Giga-scale mistake. Thankfully, this episode is just as uninterested in that backstory exposition as I am. I mean, they still do it, if you need every link explicated, but it’s definitely not the story they want to tell.

They want to tell a story about Naki, and their initial rebellion against Gai and ZAIA. None of it’s revelatory (most of it gets a more nuanced look in the series itself), but seeing Naki start to understand the difference between service and subjugation is really compelling. Naki’s quest for individuality and self-determination is one of the best arcs in the middle part of Zero-One, so favoring that story over Gai Collects Data is smart.

I did like the stuff with Gai, though. It’s weird watching this after the end of the show, where so much work was done to humanize him, to add pathos to his motivations. Here, he’s fully in the Ruthless Tyrant phase of his character development, with nothing to excuse or explain his smug malevolence. But that’s okay! Gai was a very fun villain before he was a punchline before he was adorable. He makes an excellent foil for Naki’s confusion, as his egotistical certainty just invites more resistance from the frustrated Humagear. We didn’t (to my memory) get a lot of Gai Vs Naki stuff in Zero-One, due to where character arcs landed, so it’s nice to see Naki get some one-on-one time with Gai.

Not that it, uh, worked out so great for Naki… what with the whole Being Shot To Death With An Actual Revolver I Keep Forgetting Kid Shows In Japan Will Show Stuff Like That thing. But that’s more of a detail for the next installment of Project Thouser! I’ll see you all back here tomorrow for that! If anyone remembers this thread still exists!