[Kamen Rider Die]

Welcome to Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zero-One (and builds SO-DO)!

Which, okay, weird title for this Watch Thread! Lemme see if I can break each section down for you.

KAMEN RIDER DIE

First off, hi, I’m Kamen Rider Die, and this is a thread where I’ll be watching Kamen Rider Zero-One for the first time, and building a bunch of Zero-One SO-DO, and writing about both. If you’ve never read one of these threads before, thank you in advance for reading this one. I’ve done a whole bunch of these threads by now, and I am maybe psychologically incapable of stopping. (If you look through the forums, you can find Watch Threads for Kuuga through Decade, the second-half of Ghost, Build, and Zi-O, plus a couple odds and ends. Caution! The formatting on most of them got screwed-up a few months back, and I still need to update a lot of images. Maybe… maybe wait a bit before checking those out?) There are chemicals that get generated in my brain by Watching Kamen Rider and Writing About Kamen Rider and Talking With Other Fans About Kamen Rider, and I apparently can’t go too long without them. Is it healthy? I don’t know! I do know that I really like Kamen Rider shows, and spending time with all of you.

This thread’s going to be me watching all of Zero-One for the first time, and I’m really looking forward to it.

WATCHES KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE

It’s my first non-anniversary season in a while (like, nine months? More?), and I’m very excited to experience it. Decade and Zi-O were great, but it was always with the proviso that each show needed to act as both its own thing, and a larger celebration of the franchise. Zero-One just needs to be a really good Kamen Rider show, which is something I've missed since Kiva.

(Now, I know from looking at the calendar that we’re going to hit some bumps in production due to These Unprecedented Times. I will try to be understanding when those episodes come up. I get that there were headwinds for this production team.)

I don’t really know much about Zero-One, really. I heard that an/the Ex-Aid guy was the writer for this season, which is great for me. I came in through Ex-Aid, so that guy has my undivided attention and eternal support. Other than that… robots? CEOs? We Named The Dog Indiana? Some very expensive Figuarts? It’s all a bit of a blank slate to me.

Oh! The other thing I know is that the suits look real good. So good that I bought (almost?) all of them as SO-DO.

(AND BUILDS SO-DO)

When I was first kicking around on the forum, a few kind folks turned me onto SO-DO figures. (Thanks to SPLIT LIP, Fredbob392, and Deepsea!) I wasn’t really crazy about getting into merch, and Figuarts were – at the time – way more money than I wanted to spend. (Cut to 2022, and my 70-odd-and-growing Figuarts collection…) SO-DO were relatively inexpensive, small to store, fun to put together, and super thorough in their line-ups. I started grabbing Build SO-DO, since I’d finished that show, but soon enjoyed the line enough to start preordering Zero-One sets.

Couple problems, though.

First, I realized pretty quick that it wasn’t super fun to build figures I wasn’t familiar with. Beyond the difficulty of making sure a suit you’ve never seen before looks correct when you’re stickering it, I also didn’t love working on something I didn’t feel a connection to. I loved decorating the Build SO-DO because I knew all of those suits, and appreciated what they added to the story. With Zero-One… I mean, they looked neat, but I didn’t care about them, you know? So I set all of those waves of figures to the side, fully intending to open them all up once I watched Zero-One.

Which brings us to the second problem: I sort of fell out of SO-DO collecting. My collection has swung hard towards Figuarts, as well as some CSM stuff, and SO-DO just started to become work. (I think it was Tiger from the Ryuki series that made me just give up altogether. I looked at that sticker sheet and went I Am No Longer The Man Who Bought This.) I like seeing the stuff that gets posted in the SO-DO/SHODO thread, but I’ve completely stopped ordering them.

Except, there’s all of this:



I got waves and waves of Zero-One SO-DO, bought and paid for. I want to get some value out of it. I also wanted to stretch my writing skills, as we launch into Reiwa, and try to shore up some long-running deficiencies. So I had this idea, and it’s a real Two Birds With One Gigantic Project move.

KAMEN RIDER DIE WATCHES KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE (AND BUILDS SO-DO)

As new suits get introduced on Zero-One, I’ll be putting together the respective SO-DO (assuming I own it) and writing a bit about both the process/figure, and the suit itself, as a little additional entry.

It’ll be nice to get rid of this ridiculous backlog, sure. But it’ll also be nice to start thinking more about these suits. I usually joke in the beginning of these threads that I will frequently forget to talk about new suits when they debut. It was funny to me, at first, since I was just being honest about how my brain works. I spend way more time thinking about metaphor and allegory and emotional arcs than I do some neat new superhero suit. But those suits aren’t some waste product of the creative process, some shoe-horned merchandising garbage. In a very real way, they are the genre, and ignoring them is like reviewing opera and forgetting to talk about the songs. Like, spend some time on the parts of the genre that help define it! That does not seem like too big of an ask!

So, yeah, this’ll help me get more in the habit of appreciating these suits via language. That, or it’s going to be an utter trainwreck. I can’t see the future anymore! This isn’t Zi-O!

This is the Zero-One thread, and I need to drop in a few little notes and reminders to make the next few months a pleasant one for everyone involved.

PLEASE ONLY COMMENT ON THE CURRENT EPISODE OR PRIOR: I am watching this show for the first time, so please do not mention anything from upcoming episodes. I like to be as blank-slate as possible, and even little jokes about upcoming developments can affect my enjoyment. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

PLEASE DON’T MENTION ANYTHING FROM SABER OR REVICE: Wow, we’re almost caught up to the present! This reminder used to be a list of shows I hadn’t watched yet, and now it’s just two. Crazy! But, yeah, I haven’t watched Saber or Revice yet, so please refrain from discussing those shows in this thread. We’ll get to them soon enough, so please save all of your Buster comments (or whatever) until then.

ANYTHING ELSE IS FAIR GAME: Mostly just Heisei shows, because I’ll probably bring a few of them when relevant, but I definitely don’t care if folks want to mention Showa. (So long as I can be left out of that conversation, naturally.) If you are worried about being spoiled on past shows… I mean, I don’t think there’s going to be a ton of discussion on, like, Blade’s twists and turns, but it may happen to a limited degree. Forewarned, I guess.

PARTICIPATION IS NOT REQUIRED, BUT IT IS CHERISHED: These threads improve exponentially by your participation, but don’t ever feel like you have to. If you’d rather lurk, that’s cool. But just know that I only continue to do these threads because I love getting to experience these shows with friends like you, and your insight makes me a better fan. My episode posts are the start of a discussion, not the final statement. Please consider sharing your thoughts on Zero-One!

CONTINUE TO BE THE EXCELLENT HUMANS YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN: This community is a treasure, so much so that I feel bad even including a reminder to treat each other well. You welcomed me with open arms, despite *gestures to the previous paragraphs*, and I’ve seen you be generous and welcoming to so many other fans. Please keep that same empathy and inquisitiveness as we all take apart this show, and respect everyone’s viewpoints. I know you’ll make me proud!

I think that’s it? The schedule for this one… hoo boy. We’re going to aim for six times a week, with no new episode post on Tuesdays, but there’re probably going to be a few random days off. (My scheduling lately has been abysmal. Over committing to everything, everywhere. I ended that last Watch Thread and immediately launched into a different project, and it’s sort of still going on as I start this thread.) Things are definitely cropping up this summer that I’ll try and write ahead for, but I can’t say I’m going to all the time manage it. I’ll always drop a note here if there won’t be a scheduled post, though.

Okay! Thank you for sitting through all of that! Let’s go! The Reiwa Era of Rider starts NOW!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 1 - “I’M PRESIDENT KAMEN RIDER”



Third time trying to write this first paragraph, which is sort of unusual for me? There’s almost always some main thing I want to talk about from an episode. Premieres, if anything, have even more stuff I’m aching to discuss. The thing that keeps getting in my way is that there’s one major thing I want to discuss, but I keep thinking it’s too minor, or too personal, to start with. But trying to avoid it is frustrating me, like I’m trying to talk about something other than what I really want to talk about. So, let’s just talk about the thing I cannot stop thinking about.

This first episode is so reminiscent of the premiere of Ex-Aid, and I love that to death.

It really clicks in when the cute lady assistant shows up to deliver a driver to our title character, to better help him defend a group of civilians from a monster attack at a public place. But even beyond that, there’s the way Aruto’s story is so central to this episode; the way the A.I.M.S. team is sketched in without necessarily being drawn into the narrative; the way MetsubouJinrai.Net is clearly Gathering Data, one of the few disappointing hallmarks of early Ex-Aid; the way a young man dedicated to helping people one way, takes a left turn to help people in a different way.

That last aspect was my favorite part, and the emphasis on it was what really elevated this episode for me. Ex-Aid had Emu start as a doctor, and become a Kamen Rider, but still work as a doctor. Zero-One has Aruto pursuing his dream of being a(n objectively terrible) comedian, and then says No to him, somewhat definitively. His dream was to make people happy, and now he’s being asked to run a company while defending humanity from a robot death cult -slash- liberation army. (Tokusatsu is written by the winners!) But in doing so, he can give people the safety to be happy. He’s not actively doing the thing he wants, but he’s providing the conditions for it to be done. I like that message, that we can sometimes mistake the path for the destination, or the process for the result. Aruto wants to make people happy; why does it have to be as a comedian? Why define yourself one way? Why stick to one definition?

And that seems like it could be a big theme for the season, what with robots overcoming their programming and humanity deciding how much of their society they want to leave up to a new lifeform. Exploring the parameters of freedom and self-sufficiency, trying to figure out how to integrate technology into society without abandoning our humanity, using industry with empathy, that all feels like stuff this show wants to touch on, judging from this first episode.

And, like, even beyond thematic reads and fun morals and Ex-Aid structural callbacks, this was just a ton of fun. The action choreography was exceptional, Izu’s got cute chemistry with Aruto, and Aruto’s split-second decision to become Kamen Rider Zero-One (the ferocity of his acceptance was such a great counterpoint to his normal easy-going haplessness) was a glorious Rider debut. You can see the bones of Ex-Aid in there, but the finished product has successes all its own. Fantastic first episode for our first Reiwa Rider!

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 01: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE RISING HOPPER



Fantastic suit, too.

It’s a design I’ve always appreciated, even before I saw it in motion. The fluorescent green is absolutely striking, layered on the black undersuit. The green sells the grasshopper motif, but it also has an industrial Safety Hazard look to it, a warning to civilians to stay away. Like, heroic, but dangerous.

I like the little grasshopper face in the torso armor, and how the red of the eyes comes back in on the boots. There’s always so many interesting touches on Rider suits, and even a fairly straightforward design like this one manages to weave in some fun details.

But the main appeal is in its cleanliness, which is appreciated. Even though I came in through the maximalist VIDEO GAMES design philosophy of Ex-Aid, I tend to lean towards suits like Rising Hopper, where the color choices do a lot of the heavy lifting. Black contrasted with eye-searing yellow/green, punctuated with drops of red and silver.

And it works great in motion, this unmistakable Kamen Rider Zero-One blur. It communicates Agility instead of Strength, which helps his fighting style feel utterly fleshed-out after only one fight. It just… man, it just works as a suit?

This SO-DO got built a couple years ago, and it maybe shows? A little dusty, that’s for sure. I remember it being a fun build, if also a confusing one. (See previous post: I didn’t know these suits at all!) But they really didn’t skimp on this suit’s details: the silver on the arms and torso straps is painted on, as is the red and black of the mask. For a cheap candy toy, they made sure that the hero suit looked heroic!

Anyway, I don’t know if this is making a ton of sense because my internet has been sabotaging this entire writing process, so let me try and sum up this suit and this figure: both great! I like this little guy, and I like his suit on the TV show. What about you? How do you like Rising Hopper?

[Kamen Rider Die]

Also, special thanks to the reprogrammed Humagears at Xfinity for delaying the start of this thread by a day! I'm glad they were eventually defeated!

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The fluorescent green is absolutely striking,

The debate continues...

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

The debate continues...

It's definitely a color, though, right? I feel safe in that assertion.

[Future Rider Prism]

You're starting one of my favorite seasons on my birthday? I'm going to take that as a sign. I don't know what for, but it's definitely a sign.

As for why Zero One is one of my favorite seasons... I'll have to think about that in the morning.

Edit: I remember checking the suit's colors in my art program, and it was definately somewhere in the yellows.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Future Rider Prism

You're starting one of my favorite seasons on my birthday? I'm going to take that as a sign. I don't know what for, but it's definitely a sign.

As for why Zero One is one of my favorite seasons... I'll have to think about that in the morning.

Edit: I remember checking the suit's colors in my art program, and it was definately somewhere in the yellows.

I'm excited to hear why you like it so much! I'm sure I'll agree on most of your reasons, though, because this first episode was incredibly good.

And I'm officially not going to debate anyone on Rising Hopper's color! Everyone's right!

OH! AND!

[Enchilada645]

It's absolutely highlighter yellow.

Also Izu is best girl.

That is my contributions for Episode 1.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

It's absolutely highlighter yellow.

Everyone's right!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Also Izu is best girl.

She's really great? Her accidentally bonking Zero-One in the head with the Attache Calibur was a great gag, mid-fight.

[Androzani84]

Well, my main feature isn’t ready to start yet, so I’ll just share some production stuff.

The guy who played the theme park manager only appears in this episode, but he asked to come back every time he bumped into the producer. (How that happened often enough to be a regular thing, I don’t know)

The show begins its obsession with casting actors younger than the characters they play. While Aruto is said to be 22, the actor playing him was actually almost a year younger than the guy who played Sougo (who was playing a character the same age he was, at least from episode 5 through 32).

The Comedian Humagear Fukkinhoukai Taro (who’s name I’ll always remember as “F*cking Whore Guy Tarlo”) ended up being unexpectedly popular with the Japanese fandom. The producer was surprised, but it encouraged him to keep going with the jobs/AI theme.

As for the episode… it was decent at setting stuff up, but in terms of everything else… I’ve never been keen on the directorial style and it doesn’t particularly feel like the start of a new era, so much as it does a continuation of Heisei.