[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And then, so as not to waste the brilliance of this character, they wrote the plot for this two-parter to put a huge focus ON his character, placing the spotlight more on his personality and his relationship to his family without bothering to try and flesh out what a Quiz world would actually look like. And those writing priorities are also totally my speed! I really enjoy how Mondo interacts with the main cast throughout this one.

I Traveled Through Time To Resolve My Daddy Issues is arguably more of a time travel-oriented tribute to Heisei Kamen Rider than Zi-O's entire show to date, maybe.

It's certainly a bold choice to construct a suit that's so obviously reused parts (even if they're reused from suits I really like!) and then never bother to fill in the details of 2040's world/threats/premise. It's for sure keeping things centered on the non-Rider parts of Mondo's character, but it almost seems like you could do this entire story without making Mondo a Rider at all.

[Daikaijuman54]

I absolutely love Quiz, though his Driver voice was not at all what I was expecting.

I enjoyed this arc, it was fun to see one of the Future Riders interact with the cast, even directly opposing them, and Quiz's arc and character are interesting to boot. The fight at the start where Quiz actually quizzes Zi-O and Geiz is both hilarious and genius, made even better by how in any context, it still remains that way.

Not much else to say, but I really liked Quiz, who like Shinobi, whether he got any special or not, I'd be okay with it. Though if I had a preference, I'd kind of like Quiz to remain exclusive to Zi-O the series, since while I'd most certainly be curious as to what his world and enemies would be like, I honestly feel what we got in Zi-O is good enough for me.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 20 - “FINAL ANSWER 2040”



Weirdly didn’t connect with this one?

There’s stuff in it I liked. The idea of abandoning the conflicting ideologies of Geiz Vs Sougo for something that synthesizes the two into a form of, like, Aggressive Caring is a pretty great repudiation of the ways Wozez are trying to dictate the terms of success. I liked that Mondo never has a tearful I Forgive You Dad moment, since his dad (doing some terrific Hideaki Anno cosplay) never once earns it. That guy was screwed up before Mondo came along, and their lack of a relationship doesn’t need to be a drag on Mondo’s happiness. It’s a refreshingly mature attempt at catharsis, where you can’t change the past, but you can make sure your future isn’t anchored to it.

But everything with Sougo and Geiz and Woz and Hat Woz still feels too nebulous to care about: a philosophical struggle that no one can directly articulate, and a physical struggle that’s stamped Not This Episode. (It doesn’t help that Tsukuyomi is given basically nothing to do in this story, playing Time Mom to two teenagers who can’t seem to get along. She acts as a sounding board in two identical scenes! And that’s it!) The tone of everything is rich and foreboding, but the details never quite cohere into an addressable menace.

It’s hard to maintain a feeling of inevitability over the long term, and we’re four episodes into Hat Woz’z machinations with very little to show for it, narratively. It seems bad, but everything else about this story is a pretty standard Team Zi-O adventure. No one on Team Zi-O’s side is doing much to solve or eliminate the threat of Hat Woz, or even confirm that he is a threat. He’s more forceful in this story, as far as openly manipulating Geiz to get what he wants, but no one’s like He Has To Be Stopped. Even his villainous move at the end of creating the Quiz Miridewatch, thereby going against Geiz and Sougo's wishes, doesn’t really cause any problems?

Which… what? We’re told a number of times in this episode that robbing Quiz of his powers would also rob him of his memories, including the catharsis he came to 2018 to obtain. But then none of that happens? Woz creates the Quiz Miridewatch, and Mondo’s like I’m Just Going Back To The Future Now To Tell My Mom The Good News. Isn’t– isn’t that exactly what we were told couldn’t happen? And hasn’t ever happened before? I genuinely don’t understand how this episode could end in the way it did. Even setting aside the continuity of it all, it gives this story zero stakes at the end. What in the hell were they all fighting over for the last 20-odd minutes?

This one, yeah, it mostly didn’t work for me. I still liked how the story pushed back on binary conflicts, but I just can’t seem to care about Hat Woz and his vague sense of machiavellian menace. He’s like his stupid book: anything can happen at any time, for any reason, so nothing he does matters.

Good episode for Sougo and Geiz, though!

[DreamSword]

This two-parter makes HeiGen Forever canon and I refuse to hear otherwise.

[Enchilada645]

So, despite really liking Quiz... he still isn't my favorite Future Rider tbh. I think it comes from a lack of really anything regarding 2040 other than Mondo's personal life. And while I praised the fact that this focuses on his character and not background details... Quiz doesn't feel like fully fleshed out for me?

Shinobi felt like a checkbox (Ninja Rider) and Quiz was just lacking in regards to more background details, even a little nugget would have been nice. Funnily enough Futurering Quiz is probably my least favorite of the Future Times with Shinobi's Future Time being my favorite.

Anyway next time uh... time for something a bit different. We've got three songs to pick from this time for the BGM Swap. Personally the first one is the one I'd go with, second one's alright but eh... and then we've got Toki no Ouja making a reappearance in the BGM Swaps, but I'll be honest the Insert Song BGM Swaps are always the weakest for me. I'd only ever pick them if I had no choice.

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 21 Preview:

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

This two-parter makes HeiGen Forever canon and I refuse to hear otherwise.

Okay!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

So, despite really liking Quiz... he still isn't my favorite Future Rider tbh. I think it comes from a lack of really anything regarding 2040 other than Mondo's personal life. And while I praised the fact that this focuses on his character and not background details... Quiz doesn't feel like fully fleshed out for me?

Yeah, Mondo being a Rider feels sort of incidental to his story? His origin (that I can recall) isn't bound up in his dad's absence, and no one seems that busted up about 2040 not having a Rider to defend it. It's a weird drawback to this episode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 21 Preview:

Wh-- WHY WAS IT NOT "OVER QUARTZER" BACKWARDS?!?!

[Enchilada645]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamen rider die

wh-- why was it not "over quartzer" backwards?!?!

okay i am glad i'm not the only one who thought this!

[cosmicrescend0]

Episode 20!

-Geiz and Sougo asking Tsukuyomi what the other would do, it's a nice bit. I think it shows how far they've gotten in their dynamic.

-Quiz seemingly being fine after the Ridewatch is created....That's why I called attention to Quiz's weird analomy last time, because one of the things I remember from my inital watch is that Quiz's arc is around that moment where Time Rules Start Getting A Little Weird! Times like this require a healthy dose of Rule #3, I suppose.

-I don't really think much of this arc. It's not bad or anything, just didn't particularly interest me.

-Since I don't really have much to say about this episode, can I just say? Really don't like how Tsukuyomi's been kinda sliding into the background. I know she's more or less always been the voice of reason, but it feels like that's all she's been doing these days? I like Woz and all, but man I'd easily denotate a random Woz to give her more to do.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

Quiz seemingly being fine after the Ridewatch is created....That's why I called attention to Quiz's weird analomy last time, because one of the things I remember from my inital watch is that Quiz's arc is around that moment where Time Rules Start Getting A Little Weird! Times like this require a healthy dose of Rule #3, I suppose.

I honestly wouldn't care about it (it's just Time Nonsense; whatever) if the show didn't spend several scenes laying it out as THE STAKES OF THE EPISODE. Like, this is what Geiz and Sougo have been fighting about! This is what Geiz'z strategy was specifically trying to circumvent! And then it just didn't matter for some reason?!

I'm getting angry again just remembering it! It sort of poisoned a very smart climax for me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

Since I don't really have much to say about this episode, can I just say? Really don't like how Tsukuyomi's been kinda sliding into the background. I know she's more or less always been the voice of reason, but it feels like that's all she's been doing these days? I like Woz and all, but man I'd easily denotate a random Woz to give her more to do.

It's a bummer, for sure. She's in full-on Time Mom mode in this story, where the only parts of her that're valuable to the narrative are her shoulders, so a given Rider can rest their head and worry about the other Rider. She's just there to let the boys vent, and that's so dull.

[FreshToku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'm getting angry again just remembering it! It sort of poisoned a very smart climax for me!

I felt a little bad when I saw your reply about episode 19 saying that since they brought up how the rules have been broken, that must mean they're gonna address it. Reason I felt bad is because I laughed since I already knew the answer is 'they dont lol'.

That aside, I remember basically enjoying this episode alright even if I had all the same problems with it as you did. I also had an additional problem with the completely throwaway use of Future Guardian in the first part. (Music and songs are an important tool in these shows too, just like visuals, so it bugs me when they're done badly too!) I want to say this is the first 'normal episode' in this new Future Rider arc so maybe they're working out some kinks, but next episode they're already shaking things up!

On a surface level enjoyment of things though, Futurng Quiz is a really funny power and the way Woz uses it, making Another Quiz confront really cruel questions about his life, is pretty memorable to me! He's sooo overtly sinister and cruel and it's all in service to saving the world, which he is so clearly only doing because it serves him as well. (It makes up for how absolutely Nothing the 'fight' between Zi-O and Woz was. Like wow, couldn't even exchange a few fisticuffs?)