[DreamSword]

I don't agree with the idea that the Humagears are fully going out and attacking humans of their own choice. They certainly are getting enraged/despairing and filled with the desire to lash out, sure, but Ark's' involvement in all of this should really be taken into consideration here, especially given that the whole thing is still very much stated to involve hacking.

As to the idea that the stakes have been raised with this episode... I mean, yes, but it's not like the stakes were ever low or "not important." Even ignoring Hiden Intelligence being on the line, from the outset the public perception of Humagears has been at stake too, which I find to be far bigger than anything, and is part of what kept me engaged all throughout Act 2.

With that said, I feel like this is a good time to share a meme I've been saving. Next up on the Zero-One Thread Comedy Hour is... Gai's' MO!



And real talk, it's a big reason as to why I love Gai as a villain. He's an Instigator, which is absolutely perfect for the type of story that I interpret Zero-One as. Testing our hero's' resolve and fighting ability is one thing, but testing his patience ontop of that? Oh yeah, love it. Especially given my own personal experiences with people like that.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

I don't agree with the idea that the Humagears are fully going out and attacking humans of their own choice. They certainly are getting enraged/despairing and filled with the desire to lash out, sure, but Ark's' involvement in all of this should really be taken into consideration here, especially given that the whole thing is still very much stated to involve hacking.

Sure, that's the reality of the situation, but it's not really the metaphor the show is operating under for this story. The complication for Aruto is that the Ark specifically, and Humagears generally, are judging humanity by their worst actions, and rampaging accordingly. There are mitigating circumstances (incitement, evil satellites, Gai, etc), but the point of this story is that there are almost always mitigating circumstances, so that's not really a bulletproof defense. There's only so long that Aruto can shout PEOPLE ARE BEING MEAN TO ROBOTS as they careen through shopping centers, detonating shoppers.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Sure, that's the reality of the situation, but it's not really the metaphor the show is operating under for this story. The complication for Aruto is that the Ark specifically, and Humagears generally, are judging humanity by their worst actions, and rampaging accordingly. There are mitigating circumstances (incitement, evil satellites, Gai, etc), but the point of this story is that there are almost always mitigating circumstances, so that's not really a bulletproof defense. There's only so long that Aruto can shout PEOPLE ARE BEING MEAN TO ROBOTS as they careen through shopping centers, detonating shoppers.

Yeah, but that doesn't make his stance any less true nor does it mean there aren't a bunch of factors to consider. Nor does it mean that any Humagears have yet to just go out and start causing havoc 100% of their own volition outside of, like, Jin, technically. It's less of a case of "Humagears are deciding to be the bad guys here" and moreso "This whole situation just really sucks in general" which is what makes it stand out to me.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

It's less of a case of "Humagears are deciding to be the bad guys here" and moreso "This whole situation just really sucks in general" which is what makes it stand out to me.

Oh, yeah, I never meant to imply otherwise! The strength of this arc is in how it moves away from Saintly Humagears and Evil Humans, and starts to delve into how self-perpetuating and toxic intolerance is. Making the Humagears into more of an active participant, instead of an idealized martyr, is way more interesting to me.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Oh, yeah, I never meant to imply otherwise! The strength of this arc is in how it moves away from Saintly Humagears and Evil Humans, and starts to delve into how self-perpetuating and toxic intolerance is. Making the Humagears into more of an active participant, instead of an idealized martyr, is way more interesting to me.

That I actually do agree with(mostly, we'll likely get into it later), so glad we're on the same page here atleast!

[Kamen Rider Die]

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



Ha ha, right?

Favorite part of this episode is Fuwa grudgingly doing his job and making a positive difference in the life of someone else, rather than just endlessly seeking vengeance for his own grudges. It’s nice! I like Grumpy Fuwa, interviewing witnesses and rooting out criminals. Him having to do all that with the help of a Humagear defense attorney – to the point where Fuwa copies his catchphrase! – is icing on the cake.

I really enjoyed how the courtroom stuff came together, and I think I’d like this episode more if it had stuck to that. There’s a larger part of this episode that’s dedicated to the philosophical argument between Gai and Aruto, and that part… not my favorite?

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.

But, still, I liked more of this episode than I disliked. The courtroom story was excellent, and it looped Fuwa back into the main narrative in a way that makes me miss Yua all the more. (She’s just Gai’s secretary now! That super duper sucks!!!) But the horrifying depths of the Gai/Aruto plot felt out of place, and the Dangerous New Form stuff felt random and undercooked. Mixed bag!

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 06: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE - METAL CLUSTER HOPPER



Much like the live-action counterpart, I think this figure hated me? And wanted to destroy me? The bulk of the building and stickering was unexpectedly adversarial. I popped off the Driver to sticker it, and it went flying across the room. After I eventually found it, the silver sticker for the center of the Driver adhered far to one side, and then couldn’t be moved. The neon COLOR stickers for the legs needed to be bent and shaped, and they really did not want to be. This thing was like five steps, and four of them were a pain in the ass.

The end result is an okay figure? There’s a bulkiness to Metal Cluster Hopper that I don’t think this figure really emulates. Everything needs to be a bit more pointy and extreme, but it’s, like, normal Zero-One but metal. I don’t know. It’s okay, but it’s missing the inhumanity of Metal Cluster Hopper.

Which is another way of saying that I really liked the debut for Metal Cluster Hopper, and I wanted more from its SO-DO. The live action suit goes big with its presence – huge metal spikes everywhere – and goes small with its performance. The debut is just Aruto locked in a metal cage as the Ark demolishes Thouser, and everything offensively is the suit, nothing from the man inside. The design of the suit really conveys Prison, and that’s a neat concept for a new upgrade. It’s basically Silver Hazard Form, but I like Hazard Form a ton, so I don’t mind it that much.

So, yeah, great suit for the TV show, but just an okay figure for SO-DO.

[Enchilada645]

Okay good we can agree on like the aspects that made this episode work! Because I really liked the courtroom drama and how like they were able to solve/figure out the true culprit behind it all! It was really cool stuff.

Then uh... Metal Cluster Hopper um... there's so much wrong with it's debut here that I'd like to say. But first...

This is where Gai becomes a hilarious character for me is because like... he just made Aruto an upgrade. One that is emotionally and physically scarring for Aruto, but one that can easily beat Thouser. The logic is like... why? Like I get the idea of Aruto being forced into the Ark and Zero-One becoming this killing machine... it just doesn't work with Gai doing it? Because one, he wants it to happen since he made the key, and two... and I'll get to this further in, Gai was the wrong person to force Aruto to use this key.

It culminates in a debut I saw people fawn over because silent killer berserk form but it's just a lesser Build Hazard for me. After 5 episodes of Aruto losing to Gai (more losses if you count Fuwa into it), this doesn't feel satisfying in the slightest and basically soured me on the form's debut. Like I don't care what you say about how Metal Cluster beat Thouser, what matters is that Gai still wins, and that just... yeah no, dislike that. Especially when we've now seen that Assault Hopper is only on par with Thouser and Thouser can still edge it out.

[Nokination]

I like this episode, especially the court stuff that I felt there wasn't enough of in the last episode. I don't really like Metal Cluster Hopper, though most of it is because I don't like silver, I also just don't really care for it, it's supposed to be a big sorta thing, but I just don't have anything to say about it, also the transforming sequence is just utter chaos and cgi which I don't like, but other than me not liking the suit, I think this is a really good episode.

[TheRaizin]

Something that happened here that we'll never see again that I hope doesn't sound too spoiler-y.

Damaged suits! These two moments, Assault Vulcan's gauntlets being damaged and the split-second detail of Thouser's eye lens being cracked, these few little details will never happen again.

[cosmicrescend0]

Life's been busy so I've been slacking, let's catch up!

It's Episode 21 and 22!

-I feel like the world of law/justice is somewhere I'm not necessarily *immediately* excited for AI's advacements? Got complicated feelings and all that....In any case, they sure made a case that compliments the usage of Humagears, being a cyber-crime.

-Very nice scene between Aruto and Fuwa! Nice little bit to show how far Fuwa's grown, and how he's gotten a bit closer to Aruto, I liked it.

-Gai determining Bingo needing to be scrapped after accidentally accusing the prosecutor.......it's kinda a twist on the "it's up to us on how we approach Humagears", as in it's up to humans to determine whether a Humagear warrants destruction (if they're potenially on the verge or going berserk, or in this case, making a mistake that could be harmful in the wrong scenario) Even if It's true, we do discard the tools that don't work or are troublesome to keep around, but like...you can't just treat people like that, yknow? It's hard to exactly word my point exactly, but judging the value's of one existence to society or other people purely by a bunch of arbitrary rules and the like, it just seems.....really dehumanizing to me? For the Humagears, who occupy the space between "product that needs to work a certain way" and "being with their own thoughts/aspirations", it's a complicated issue, but I do think they should be allowed some level of respect/leeway in that regard, right?

"Are you telling me to die" got my gears turning, kinda wondering how Humagears view the concept of them getting destroyed, especially since the recent slew of them have been destroyed and brought back using data-backups, unlike the first arc when it was entirely new Humagears with the same appearance replacing the older ones. It's definitely scary, but the possiblity of a revival is most likely higher than 0 for most of them, so maybe some aren't necessarily afraid of it?

-I've been thinking about this for a while, but Korenosuke definitely looks photoshopped into that image with him and Gai? (Especially when seeing the image blown up in Episode 22)

-It's not much, but using the expected pattern of "the human competing against the Humagear is the culprit" and twisting a bit for this arc was good. Probably my 1st or 2nd favorite compeition within this arc because of that.

-Oh, you didn't mention it, so I will: Horobi's freakout at the thought of humans doing whatever they want with the Ark's technology? If there's anything one will remember about Horobi, he's so damn dedicated to the task Ark has given him. I'm sure the idea of the Ark's hatred of humanity (and sorta by extension(????): MJBR's creation and mission) all being manufactured so that some tech guy can use it to advertise his technology and slander his opponents will not go down well with him, probably.

-It's High Quality! MetalCluster Hopper has arrived. It's so cool, honestly? The swarm of grasshopper, Ark's insides consuming Aruto within, the all-sliver w/ neon-green highlights-it's all comes together in a stylish package. Now I know, there's at least a few people who's going to say "Now why the hell would Gai give 01 an entirely new form, one that he can't beat at that?" Well you see, it's actually......Idk, man. The way Gai talked about it prior to its debut sounded like the key would forcibly shut down the 01Driver and instead it does......All That. Maybe giving the Ark a more powerful vessel than Magia or the MJBR Riders was a bad idea, but what do I know? I'm not the CEO of a billion dollar tech company, lol.

-On the whole "Aruto and crew play catch-up on the plot" thing, hmm.....It's nice to see Aruto reach his patience limit with Gai, (after all, there's a long line of casualties n shit to Gai's name with him essentially being behind Everything) but Yeah, it is kinda More of The Same stuff with the clash of ideals with Aruto-Gai huh. I feel like there was a potential to pivot to discussing more interesting ideas: Big evil satellite under the sea and smarmy billionaire mastermind aside, some Humagears will make the decision to lash out when when they are hurt by people. If Ark and the Zetsumerizer didn't exist, where would Bingo's upset emotions lead him? Would he simply forcibly reassert his stance, insult Gai, or the worst scenario, assault him? A person getting angry and accidentally retailing is simply seen as human nature, and given a slap on the wrist if it's something light like name-calling. But for Humagears, who are products designed to fulfill their duties while remaining composed, isn't that totally unacceptable? Aruto kinda always treats the Humagears's misdeeds as being not their fault (they're hacked, or learned the wrong way), so I kinda wanted him to confront the idea of a Humagear naturally growing negitaitve emotions towards humans, without it ending on it being pinned on another person/thing so it's another "it's not their fault!" scenario...