[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

PROJECT THOUSER - PART 1

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.

This reveal one thing where Naki's the one who arranged for Jin's arrival. The 2 primary villains of Zero-One here adds up more contrasting role that Gai views him as a tool, while Horobi insisted that Naki and Humagears aren't humanity's tools. The thing though, Gai also viewed humans like Yua as his tool, so it's not only about Humagears but merely about Gai's superiority complex to anyone, any species, but I guess Naki's still in learning phase to not know which is bad to follow anything both his superiors do. Though In the series iirc, Naki was later revealed to be the Humagear entity that resides within Fuwa, but here Naki already existed as a co-worker for both villainous sides.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE THE MOVIE: REALxTIME

This movie works along the same wavelength, telling an action-first story that expands into something poignant and resonant. The thrill of it is the stunning action choreography, where a list made of epic shots could be this entire post without me feeling like I’ve missed describing anything important. (The shot that starts through the AIMS van’s window; all of Valkyrie’s Kuuga-esque bike action; the blacklight brawl between Eden and Zero-One; Horobi’s corkscrewing sting attack; etc etc etc.) The joy of it is how it’s a celebration of all the Kamen Riders that made Zero-One such a great series, providing roles big (Horobi, Yua) and small (Naki, Ikazuchi) to every single hero the show had. The beauty of it is in the subtle ways this movie leverages the Ark-One plot’s aftermath to make Aruto face off against a man whose grief has become a world-threatening rage.

Yeah, the action in this movie is some of the better ones I've seen regarding Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider Eden utilizing his abilities in complete and varied way, and even better, Eden's stats are weaker than Zero-Two's, but it managed to keep up against a stronger Rider. I'm also glad that Zero-Two is used here unlike the last arc of Zero-One where it somehow got neglected for weaker Ark-One, though the irony is that, Aruto'd need a weaker form too against Eden in Metal Cluster Hopper that has similar abilities but better stats.

And like Metal Cluster Hopper being the solution, it seems that Bell/Lucifer is the Zero-Two version of the baddie here (accessed by mounting an Ark-based driver unit onto the Zero-One Driver), and like Zero-Two, it just did worse despite being the stronger one, as it seems to rely more on pure hand-to-hand combat, got outclassed by Aruto-Izu team up as Riders, not even getting a chance for a finisher. Other than Metal Cluster Hopper, there's the Hellrising Hopper part which is just scary and horrific, and though not that flashy, it captures the horror vibe well. There's even the creepy part of Aruto's arm dislocating though he puts it back.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It helps that Eden becomes a more compelling villain (well, antagonist) as the movie goes along. We’re still dealing with the Ark as an inescapably corrosive influence - humanity’s capacity for evil reflected back at it - but the better story is in how S loses perspective in his grief, and how that loss of perspective creates a self-destructive feedback loop of shame and guilt. The way the movie rolls out his motivations allows for a greater investment in his struggles, so that his reunion with Akane feels like a victory for both them and the heroes. Aruto can break through to S in ways other than just shouting thematically-appropriate statements, because the movie lets Aruto slowly piece together Akane’s frustrations, S’s backstory, and Thinknet’s specific role. After the excitement of the first half, the second half of the movie is all heartbreak and recriminations, and the pacing is better for backloading it.

Role has no correlation with morality/alignment. Ofc he's the antagonist, but just because he's not pure evil doesn't mean he's not villainous (he's a terrorist attacking various people and forcing the world to restart on his whims), he's still an anti-villain. I'd also say that another thing that is compelling about S/Eden is about how he's a smart and cunning type of villain that, he can carry out his plan due to hiding almost anything from others, thus his disciples are all swayed by him to help him carry out the plan to create a paradise by world destruction, only to turn out that the paradise was meant for the victims they attacked, who S digitized there, not the disciples, they're just used by S as tools, due to how S doesn't want depraved people to be in Akane's world, which is exactly his disciples who S plans to kill them off. He also provoked Aruto so he can take his Zero-Two key and create his world destroying weapon.

Unfortunately though, there's another smart villain in Bell, who noticed that there's something wrong in S starting the doomsday early, thus he began to act on his own to usurp S and proceed the promise that S lied to them, successfully doing so to become the final threat of the movie as Lucifer who almost wins. Albeit even Bell seems to be less malicious than the other members, as he wasn't sadistic like them and even has less self-serving goals unlike S (he only cares about Akane, just bringing other people to create proper world).

Compared to Yuya Takahashi's works, I guess S is Zero-One's version of Cronus, not in morality (Cronus' an irredeemable bastard), but in how they carry their evil plan, that they aim to create their own world by digitizing everyone else, or in S case, the ones not too rotten. Though sorry for this but dunno why I think S has some traits from Shiro Kanzaki in Ryuki, as they remade their consciousness as something else other than human (as ghost and nanomachines), want to create a world where their loved ones are there, and picked individuals they think are rotten enough to be used as their tools and killed off (other Rider War contestants as wish fuel and Paradise Guardia members), but finally gave up on their plans (not counting RT Ryuki) and die together with their loved one instead as their existence got deleted.

And yeah, I'd say that Aruto's experience against Humagears play important part here to convince S that he's doing something selfish. S thinks Aruto doesn't know everything, but as a Humagear endorse Aruto knows about AI nature that they aren't heartless, but are like humans, as copying their consciousness would mean their heart is copied too, and that'd extend to Akane, who Aruto has personally met, informing S how actually AI works (in this universe). I wish that Aruto can talk about his interactions with Akane though.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s a great movie, all the way through. There’s some stuff I could maybe quibble over (Izu’s story gets lost in the middle; can’t believe the Naki and Ikazuchi suits aren’t at least around for the finale), but I spent half the film pumping my fist in triumph, and most of the last few minutes misty-eyed over the resolution to a story about how partnerships can’t work without communication. One of the best Zero-One things I’ve ever seen, and maybe one of the best Kamen Rider things.

But yeah, I'd also think this is one of the better KR movies, but there are glaring flaws like, I don't like Izu being returned just by the old Izu memories happening to be in Zea. I know that Humagears can be rebuilt but, this is just cheap solution to get the audience familiar instead of exploring the different Izu. And regarding the suits, other than Naki and Ikazuchi, the scene of Gai and Yua fighting off some Abaddon Riders, like while they're cool it's more of them somehow missing each shot (like Stormtroopers) that it kind of undermines their feat more. It's more tolerable and convincing IMO for melee attack one like Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy fighting off Kurokage Troopers in Gaim as human. And though the 2 main baddies are overall smart, they still put... timer on their world-destroying plan, typical fiction pitfall for those plans.

Otherwise, many people before claim Gai was still smug and his behavior was similar after his 'redemption' and I was not convinced, but actually turns out it was true as shown in this movie, with Gai's speaking tone when dealing with Makio (the one stripped naked). Others seem to accept Gai better, though still quite dislike him as shown in the end, but ironically Gai displays more of his inherent creepy traits now, like torturing Makio. Seems that while he's not evil anymore, he's still not exactly a clean-cut good guy by his behavior to Makio.