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08-12-2022, 10:02 AM | #741 |
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We don't often get villain episodes in Rider, so it was interesting seeing an episode about Metsuboujinrai and catching us up with them at this point. I guess it probably helps that they're Riders, because could you imagine the Greeed or Lucky Clover getting their own episode? Though a part of me misses when villains were just Kaijin.
It's interesting that a version of Is working for a human-hating, coldly analytical, AI would be more...peppy and outwardly emoitonal than the normal Is, but I guess that heightens the irony and the contrast between Is and As, especially since As probably isn't near as "human" as our Is is. I'm glad Ikazuchi is back. It's nice that the show can finally explore him as a character and the dichotomy of his two identities. Jin continues to be best boi. |
08-12-2022, 12:09 PM | #742 |
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It's actually really interesting in general that none of the things that triggered their Singularity aren't necessarily evil/malicious, wonder what's the point of even delivering that data to Ark....? (In any case, the data retrieval also seemed to override everyone to "renew" their dedication to Ark, so good on Jin for lying !)
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He really does! The Azu stuff was more immediately my speed/interest/crush, but Jin's by far the most fascinating MetsubouJinrai member right now. (I mean, Ikazuchi and Naki are great, too! Just not as great.) The actor keeps finding a weird mixture of melancholy and focus to build out Jin's internal conflicts, and how he's trying to navigate the larger battle for the future of Humagear civilization.
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08-12-2022, 01:19 PM | #743 |
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KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 35.5 - “WHAT CREATED METSUBOUJINRAI?”
But, y’know, I like these actors! Azu alone makes this thing delightful to watch, with her cutie-pie delivery on existential threats an endlessly watchable approach to fleshing out (literally!) the Ark’s presence. Jin finds some fun shades on his I Totally Love Ark You Guys Seriously gray area, with a tease towards his still-unforeseen benefactor (Satellite There, I’d assume) and Jin potentially acting as a double-agent against The Ark. (Plus, I just love how the episode has him saying that Horobi’s lessons changed his life, when you know he means Aruto.) Ikazuchi and Naki get some good drama out of their inability to see how far they’ve come, with a nice application of swaggering braggadocio and humble inquisitiveness, respectively. And Horobi… is also present for this episode. This also displays Azu's cruelty that she had no qualms enslaving the members of MetsubouJinrai.net, removing their individuality by taking away their Singularity. Though she'd retain their regular personalities while remaining shackled slaves of The Ark this way. Jin is the only exception, presumably due to his evolved constitution. Azu did impersonate Aruto's looks perfectly, but she didn't put good enough effort to impersonate his personality, she still revealed her true personality as "Aruto", which exposed herself. Outside of Azu failing to make a dent on Jin here, perhaps this is also the official reveal of Jin's turn to the good side that he's a double agent against Ark.
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08-12-2022, 01:25 PM | #744 |
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This also displays Azu's cruelty that she had no qualms enslaving the members of MetsubouJinrai.net, removing their individuality by taking away their Singularity. Though she'd retain their regular personalities while remaining shackled slaves of The Ark this way. Jin is the only exception, presumably due to his evolved constitution. Azu did impersonate Aruto's looks perfectly, but she didn't put good enough effort to impersonate his personality, she still revealed her true personality as "Aruto", which exposed herself. Outside of Azu failing to make a dent on Jin here, perhaps this is also the official reveal of Jin's turn to the good side that he's a double agent against Ark.
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08-12-2022, 08:36 PM | #745 |
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KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 36 - “I’M THE ARK KAMEN RIDER”
Interesting energy to this first full post-lockdown pandemic episode. There’s an A-plot where we’ve got the debut of Ark-Zero, its absolute thrashing of the heroes in multiple fight scenes, Jin’s defection from MetsubouJinrai… and then there’s a B-plot where Fuwa makes a friend with a Humalexa, and finds out his family is a bunch of corny randos with no particular bearing on the series. They’re both good in their own way, but they don’t– I don’t know, they don't connect. Fuwa’s interest in his own normalcy isn’t hugely relevant to the battle against Ark, beyond his new-found appreciation for AIs, but even that’s both weird and sort of irrelevant. Weird in that, like, shouldn’t Naki’s journey have been more convincing to Fuwa than some $60 hunk of plastic that doesn’t even know him? Why does Fuwa spending an afternoon with a chatbot engender a fighting belief in Humagear destiny? (Which… this episode treats An AI Without A Body as some sort of breakthrough that Bot comes up with, but isn’t it exactly what Aruto did for the dad of the voice actor back in Episode 6?) And it’s irrelevant in that he was already going to kick Ark’s newly-constituted ass for multiple previously-established reasons, starting with Attempted Genocide and ending with Just Hospitalized Yua. Having him shoe-horn in some high-minded empathy is kind of distracting, and not totally earned. (That said, the stuff with his family is very cute. Some Dads Are Alive, and they are the source of Fuwa’s dopey sense of humor.) The Ark stuff is a little dull to start, but I like where it ends up. The beginning fights, where the Big Boss has to show off its unstoppablosity – fine, whatever, I get it. Not my favorite mode of storytelling, but it’s how these shows have always worked. (I like it better when the villain has a strategy to negate the hero's abilities, or creates a trap that keeps the hero unsteady and ineffective. I don’t like the basic He’s Just Unbeatable approach.) And, gosh, I do not love that Jin and Yua’s strategy is the Metal Cluster Hopper -slash- Swartz strategy of empowering your adversary to ludicrous levels, and then just assuming you can stop them. Why in the world did the two of them think this plan would work?! I thought Yua was the smart one!!! But Yua immediately and correctly castigates herself for this boneheaded scheme, so I’m not super angry about it. Characters and plans can be dumb, so long as it’s acknowledged very quickly that they’re dumb. I liked how the Ark stuff ended, though, for real. The idea of Ark-Zero being a roving, malevolent force is exactly right for this show’s discussions about the pervasiveness of intolerance. Intolerance isn’t a thing that you detonate, it’s an idea that anyone can fall prey to if they’re getting bad information. Having the monster be anyone, anywhere, at any time? That’s a smart concept for this show to explore over the next few episodes. Real weird episode to come back with, this one. I can sort of squint and see how you could say the two plots were talking about one thing – Family? The past? Facing fear? – but it never feels like one cohesive story. They’re two good plots, but I’m used to this show crafting tighter episodes. Hopefully that’s not a victim of the pandemic! — KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 09: KAMEN RIDER ARK-ZERO Pretty great suit? Beyond the kind of Body Horror feel to its unfinished state, there’s a ton of fun details to this physical manifestation of hatred towards humanity. The one red eye, to signal that this is The Ark who’s addressing you; the wires snaking out, like the cables in the MetsubouJinrai hideout/clubhouse; the creepy half-grin; and all the Zero-One But Painted Black notes under the surface, to show you what the Ark is trying to combat. Smart suit, creepy as hell, definitely like looking at it. Figure’s not bad, either. Surprisingly few stickers on this guy – maybe a dozen, across two boxes? Lots of painted detail on the torso, head, and left pauldron, and a few white and red stickers to finish it out. Very quick build, with a solid figure to show for it.
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08-12-2022, 08:44 PM | #746 |
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Oh you can bet your sweet bippy that Humalexa and Fuwa's little plot were likely things of the pandemic. It definitely feels like she's there to pretty much help speedrun stuff since well, like I said, they weren't sure of how many episodes they had left!
That being said it was nice to just have Fuwa's family be... as average as expected alongside being alive and well, and that being enough for Fuwa. Anyway I will defend Yua and Jin's scheme in one thing, since if I recall... they weren't expecting Ark to have a Rider Form. I think their plan was to get Ark manifested into the real world into a physical form so they could just kill it for good. It becoming Ark-Zero was likely not part of their plan. That being said, I'm glad you enjoyed how Ark was handled. They do a really good job of like subtly letting you know that Ark isn't possessing Horobi, and then it really hits when you find out "Oh shit, that was Jin". I also like that, yeah Ark is strong but if you have a super form you can overwhelm him. But that doesn't mean you can get rid of him. The episode is a real good showing of Ark-Zero and a neat little bow to Fuwa's Arc. Also hey, Omori Hill was in this episode! Get used to seeing Omori Hill a lot more often than normal! I'd almost like to say that ever since Covid hit they've been using it more and more in Toku and haven't let up. Last edited by Enchilada645; 08-12-2022 at 08:48 PM.. |
08-12-2022, 08:48 PM | #747 |
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We're finally back to actual episodes after so many recaps, and it's an okay episode as well. I was surprised when this episode almost immediately had a scene containing a bunch of extras even though this was right after they could start filming again, so you'd think they wouldn't have too many extras in the following episodes, but apparently Toei thinks differently.
Fuwa apparently wants to get his fortune told to see if he should check on his family that he has no memories of, which is something I almost didn't think this show would call back to, not that I'm disappointed we got the opposite. We then see MetsubouJinrai reviving the Ark, which is a rather dark cutaway from a plot about Fuwa and his family, we then see that the Ark has possessed Horobi and he transforms into the suit we saw back in the Presidential Specials (so at least those things had somewhat of a purpose). But, of course, we then cut away, we see that Gai is now letting normal people access to the Raidrisers, which just seems like an all-around bad idea, you're basically letting any criminal gain access to a super powered suit, and even if police and security will also have them, it still sounds like way too much of a bad idea, especially when this is only being done so that when ZAIAspecs go berserk, family members will be able to stop them, as opposed to a recall and a warning to not use them until security is strengthened, but I guess what's the point when instead of choosing a safe option, Gai chooses an option that will make him more money, but what can you expect from a corrupt businessman. The rest of the episode is mainly about Fuwa's dilemma, Aruto gives him Ai-chan, which is basically just a therapy robot, which apparently helps Fuwa out in a few hours, and he goes out to see his family, and watches them from a distance, and now he's all better, which I honestly dislike, a lot of things in these during Covid episodes are rather rushed, which is understandable but makes you think about how much more they could explore these plot points with 5 more episodes to tell the story. As someone who doesn't care for fight scenes, the rest of the episode doesn't particularly interest me, but this is a fine episode, rushed but still, at the very least, okay. |
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08-12-2022, 09:27 PM | #748 |
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It's Episode 36!
-Before I mention anything: the show has returned from hiatus! Even though when this episode was probably (mostly) filmed to completion before the show took a break, you still kinda feel this sense of uncertainity behind the show, so we're left with a very open and flexible route in the story for this episode's main plot: "And then the big bad shows up and Does A Bad Thing!" The other currently running subplots are quickly wrapped up (Fuwa's past, Yua working with Jin) so it's a pretty open spot to do anything. -Oh dear, it's Ai-chan....Hiden Manafacturing buliding their own new AI model based off of Aruto's own vision of humans and Humagears working with each other, its a very sweet idea! But, uh.....let's say I feel very awkward about her inclusion in the story...? More on that later. -Very sorry, but like. I don't follow Jin and Yua's logic at all on destroying the "Destroy Ark" thing? We already know destroying a Humagear doesn't necessarily mean the AI inside is destroyed, and wouldn't Ark be the most vulnerable being trapped in that big sunken satellite? (It being trapped there meant that Ark could only "act" through MJBR carrying out their will for the past 30 or so eps, right?) We could've just, idk, used the extraction of Naki as a red herring to keep Horobi occupied while the rest of the gang makes the satellite explode or something,, Maybe I'd expect this plan from Jin, (which depsite his growth still makes mistakes due to his limited experience) but getting the sign-off on this plan from the person who arguably the smartest person here, Yua?! I can't follow that at all,,, -Oh hey, it's Ark-Zero lol. While I might not be on-board with any semblance of character they might have, everything else about them (the suit, the weird goop, how they fight having a real "Unstoppable Force" energy) is pretty cool ig. |
08-12-2022, 09:28 PM | #749 |
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I just find Ai-chan amusing on several levels because seemingly what Fuwa needed the most was a disembodied voice therapist to help him talk through his feelings. Like, I think Aruto just made a possibly incredible technological innovation in technology and artificial intelligence right there, and it's basically a more self-aware and talkative Alexa.
And, I mean, she's voiced by MAO who just can't seem to resist coming back to tokusatsu even after taking off as a voice actor. First Sentai, then Sentai again, then Rider, and eventually Ultraman...like, she's been every major tokusatsu franchise except I guess Garo? But that's less frequent. But anyways it's just always nice to hear her. It's nice to see where Fuwa gets his sense of humor from and there's a genuine warmth and natural domestic vibe with his family, giving Fuwa some sense of closure, although you really have to wonder if this family has any idea that their oldest son is alive and what he's doing now. Kamen Rider Ark-Zero! As far as Big Bad Riders go, I feel like Ark as a Rider basically encapsulates everything he has been built up to be...just pure, raw, and hardcore machinery taken to it's most grotesque state, fitting for a being created from an AI bred from malice and concerned only with the annihilation of humanity even if it's at the expense of those who are loyal to it. And in true evil Rider fashion it basically wrecks everybody in its way, even when it seems like they've won. |
08-12-2022, 09:43 PM | #750 |
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Anyway I will defend Yua and Jin's scheme in one thing, since if I recall... they weren't expecting Ark to have a Rider Form. I think their plan was to get Ark manifested into the real world into a physical form so they could just kill it for good. It becoming Ark-Zero was likely not part of their plan.
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But, of course, we then cut away, we see that Gai is now letting normal people access to the Raidrisers, which just seems like an all-around bad idea, you're basically letting any criminal gain access to a super powered suit, and even if police and security will also have them, it still sounds like way too much of a bad idea, especially when this is only being done so that when ZAIAspecs go berserk, family members will be able to stop them, as opposed to a recall and a warning to not use them until security is strengthened, but I guess what's the point when instead of choosing a safe option, Gai chooses an option that will make him more money, but what can you expect from a corrupt businessman.
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Oh dear, it's Ai-chan....Hiden Manafacturing buliding their own new AI model based off of Aruto's own vision of humans and Humagears working with each other, its a very sweet idea! But, uh.....let's say I feel very awkward about her inclusion in the story...? More on that later.
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I just find Ai-chan amusing on several levels because seemingly what Fuwa needed the most was a disembodied voice therapist to help him talk through his feelings. Like, I think Aruto just made a possibly incredible technological innovation in technology and artificial intelligence right there, and it's basically a more self-aware and talkative Alexa.
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