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06-09-2022, 04:21 AM | #17131 |
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As someone who really doesn't like Zero-One, the Job Arc is solid fun and has some good two-parters while doing solid character progression.
That said, boy is it badly placed. It does not fit as the second arc after the first one was so massively rushed and fast-paced. It grinds the show to a halt and does not fit pacing-wise.
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06-09-2022, 09:05 AM | #17132 |
Henshin Heaven
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Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,240
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I consider myself a big Zero-One fan, but the job arc is just too dang long. I appreciate what it is trying to do: it wants to show the tensions between Humagears and humans in the workforce, really make you hate Gai, and also have Aruto ultimately choose to undermine his chances at winning so he can uphold his principles. All of this is great on paper, but in implementation I it absolutely would have benefited from being like... 4 episode long instead of 14. Cut it down to 3 competitions and give two of them a single episode and one of them a two parter!
Anyways, in spite of its flaws I think Zero-One is a show that really has something to say, you can tell the staff was passionate about handling the AI theme. It's nice to see so much love for the final battle too! The final fight between Aruto and Horobi is honestly my favorite final battle in the entire Kamen Rider franchise. Just two people overwhelmed by grief and anger who have to find it in themselves to move on. In some ways, I feel like the pandemic happening lead to the story having a level of emotional rawness in the later episodes that it might have otherwise lacked, which might have actually been an improvement over the initial plans for the story. Just my thoughts on the matter.
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06-09-2022, 12:54 PM | #17133 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
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Another frustrating part of the job competition arc for me was that, objectively speaking, Gai was right. Humagears were potentially dangerous. If you need a haircut and there's a decent percentage chance of your barber turning into an insane casteroides robot that wanted to kill you, then that is a massive fucking problem. I don't care if Humagears are the manifest form of humanity's dream or whatever pseudoscience-y bullcrap Aruto kept spouting, so long as Ark was around they were innately dangerous.
The problem is that Gai was depicted as such a colossal douchenozzle that it completely undersold the legitimate part of his argument. If he wasn't constantly cheating and triggering Humagears on his own, there's a version of this story where Aruto would have to face a much more complex moral decision about Humagears and their place in society. Instead, Gai is clearly a mustache-twirling villain and Aruto is depicted as being completely justified in his position, even though there is ample evidence that Humagears should probably be, at the very least, more restricted until this whole evil corrupting AI thing gets sorted out. |
06-09-2022, 04:29 PM | #17134 |
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 320
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That's kinda one of the big problems I have with Zero-One. The show brings up a lot of stuff but never bothers to actually explore most if not any of it.
Humagears are taking people's jobs? Yeah, that sure is a problem, but look how earnest she is about it! Humagears are dangerous? No, they are dreams! A Humagear chose willingly to become a Magiar? Let's include him in the compilation about all the Humagear we met and learned from. It never really bothers to go into any depth. Wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle.
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06-11-2022, 10:01 AM | #17135 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,415
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I just finished reading the Kamen Rider Faiz light novel.
It was the only Kamen Rider novel outside of Kuuga's' that I was actually interesting in reading, primarily due to the negative reception it got. And yes, a certain major event in it that many people bring up whenever discussing this thing did infact get spoiled for me, and yes, it is terrible, but not exactly in the way many people online seem to present it as? Without going into too much detail(not sure if it'd be violating board rules or not); Yes, the event in question is bad, but what makes it awful in context of the story itself is more how the entire thing is treated in the aftermath. Kusaka doing what he does was, to me, entirely in character. How everyone else reacts to it, not at all. But in the end, that was a drop in the ocean compared to alot of the other things that go on in the novel and what exactly it tries to say about them. I've often times seen Inoue's' works getting accused of being disrespectful towards women, and while yeah, there are certainly problems worth discussing, when it comes to this novel specifically? It's kinda disrespectful towards everybody. Man, woman, whatever, this novel is a nihilistic cesspit. The absolute worst part, atleast to me, was that the novel came across as incredibly pretentious: Being written as if it was making some sort of grandiose statement when it really isn't saying much of anything at all or is just being outright stupid and edgy for the sake of it. Plus, if you're a fan of Faiz unlike me, then alot of the key changes made to most of the cast(Mari and Yuka especially) will probably only amount to pouring salt into the wound. I get that the novels are aimed at an older audience but this so isn't how to go about it. Not gonna lie, if Inoue one day came forward and said "I was 100% trolling when I wrote that light novel" I wouldn't really doubt it. Yeah, I have my own hangups when it comes to his writing, for sure, but this was by far the weakest of his works I've experienced at the time of this post. So no, I don't really recommend it even if you're morbidly curious. Unless maybe you just really love wanton cruelty and brutality for the sake of it? I guess? Not really my thing most of the time though. I rate this novel a 1/6. Would not recommend.
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06-11-2022, 10:40 AM | #17136 |
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Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
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On the other side of the scenes involving Ark, a huge amount of time is spent on Fuwa's very charmingly petty emotional distress. While events are happening that could plunge the entire world into melodramatic, action-paced chaos, Zero-One decided it was at least as important to show its resident edgy rival Rider pondering his life path and ultimately finding comfort in the knowledge that he's still allowed to be an ordinary mundane person if he ever wants to be.
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The stories are constructed in a way that tends to actively avoid making things totally black and white. Humagears and humans alike have hearts that contain the capacity for both good and evil, and that thematic exploration is deeply relevant to the overall series.
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Another frustrating part of the job competition arc for me was that, objectively speaking, Gai was right. Humagears were potentially dangerous. If you need a haircut and there's a decent percentage chance of your barber turning into an insane casteroides robot that wanted to kill you, then that is a massive fucking problem. I don't care if Humagears are the manifest form of humanity's dream or whatever pseudoscience-y bullcrap Aruto kept spouting, so long as Ark was around they were innately dangerous.
Humagears having capacity of good and evil mirrored humans', as per Humagears being the same as humans theme, so if only Humagears should be restricted but not humans are still quite discriminating, even though there's Magia danger, as there are many Humagears who live normally and never involved in the war too. Albeit I agree that denying Humagear issues is annoying instead of acting upon it, it's again, similar to the blind idealism and faith in human goodness, without acknowledging the fact that humanity can be pretty shitty at times. But that doesn't mean that humans should be constantly detained, except the ones who are deemed guilty (at prison or such).
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06-11-2022, 01:52 PM | #17137 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Okay, I'm finally totally and completely finished rewatching just about everything related to Zero-One, and while it won't be as elaborate as that last post, I do have a few fresh thoughts on some of those non-TV adventures.
Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation I think I've seen this movie at least four times now? Thanks to Die's Zi-O thread it's fresh in my mind that I weirdly smack-talked it when reviewing Geiz, Majesty, and I'd just to like say -- I'm really sorry about that, Reiwa The First Generation! You're a pretty dang good movie! It's one of those Rider films that's massively grown on me with each successive viewing. A big key to that is how there were big aspects of it I loved right away, and with each time I come back to it, the issues I originally had feel less and less glaring. Like, the Zi-O cast isn't super prominent, right? So I think a lot of people including me kind of took that to be like they don't even need to be there at all, but now I kind of feel like there's a really good fake out the movie does with the whole "The First Rider" thing? Because having Zi-O there kind of sets you up to think about it in that Shirakura meta kind of way, where you've got a villain modeled after Rider #1 it could be referring to. And then one of the big selling points of the film is that Aruto's father was secretly an earlier Kamen Rider in Zero-One's history, also modeled directly on the Showa OG, which makes it sound like it's about him. I mean, why is Zero-One even called that, in-universe, if he's just following in his dad's footsteps? And that question ends up being the whole point of the story, working the idea of Zero-One as the start of a new era into the show's own story, and adding a ton of emotional weight to Aruto taking on that title. It's brilliant. I don't know how anything could've made me even slightly disappointed in this movie originally when it has even just that going for it. There's a lot of other stuff in this movie I really enjoy as well. (The very last scene with Izu and Aruto is one of my favorite of many great moments between those two characters, which is an entirely separate thing I should really talk about at some point.) I actually rewatched this way back after the first arc, but I'm including it in this post anyway because I just regret not saying anything about it that much. It's a bit of a shame this didn't make it into Shout's release of the series, really, with how much it complements the TV show, but then, I suppose one movie is still a lot better than none. I'll get to that in a second though... Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai What I say when someone asks me to describe Kamen Rider ZAIA's character in one word: What I say when someone tries to argue that Kamen Rider ZAIA is an overrated character: What I say when someone asks me who the greatest Kamen Rider V-Cinema villain of all time is: Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider Vulcan & Valkyrie Okay seriously though, I'm absolutely in the crowd that quite likes both these films. It's one of those cases where I get why people wouldn't, but there's just way too much commendable about them for it to feel fair to me to dismiss what they're doing entirely. I mean, people always clown on Justice Serval's fight scene, right? But that's a great scene! It's such a wonderful show of growth for Yua's character, making this desperate last stand in the hopes of saving lives, even calling back to her sorta-catchphrase from early on, now changed to reflect how much she's moved beyond her outlook on AI that was clearly influenced by Gai. And you're gonna look at that grand display of heroic resolve and tell me it's lame because it isn't flashy enough for you? That's very much the story with this duology for me. A lot of the aspects that might otherwise stand out as negatives to me kind of get buried under how smart I find so much of the characterization and thematic work. Yua is honestly the highlight of the whole thing for me, even. I think Vul/Val does a great job adding context to her personality that naturally expands on what we saw in the show in a way that also retroactively adds depth to the series as a whole. The dynamic between her and Fuwa was always about contrast. You know, a blue dog and an orange cat -- it's pretty straightforward. And, among other things, they really capitalize on that concept when it comes time to explain their differing outlooks on justice. Fuwa is a character all about freedom (he IS a Showa Rider, after all), so he just stops worrying about the concept entirely after deciding it's not worth his time. But Yua's thoughts on the topic suggest that she's given an immense amount of thought to how tricky a word "justice" can really be, and has tried to come up with an answer that would fit as many of those clashing systems and creeds as best as she could. It's exactly the kind of unrealistic pressure Yua would put on herself, as someone who doesn't fundamentally reject authority the way Fuwa constantly does. That's just one little thing in the film, and combined with everything else in it, it made Yua's arc in the show make boatloads more sense to me on that rewatch, which is not something to sneeze at. I liked Valkyrie way more after watching this than I did before, and that's exactly the kind of praise a spinoff like this should be getting out of someone. And that's just one character in it, too! (Plus, I'm really glad Monkey Majik got to do proper songs for Zero-One. I remember thinking ever since watching Chou Super Hero Taisen that it'd be great if those guys got a Rider thing that maybe earned that sort of theme song a little more, and SOS and Frontier fit their movies fantastically.) Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME All that being said, I also deliberately watched the movies out of order, figuring Real Time would be a nicer vibe to leave off this rewatch on. There's only one person who can decide how this story ends... and it's me! Wait, that's not even how that line goes... At any rate, I'd advise anyone else rewatching Zero-One to do the same thing if those V-Cinemas bum you out too much. Canon's just what you make of it, at the end of the day, isn't it? Getting back to the topic at hand, though, I'm extremely glad this movie made it as part of the official release of the show, considering Ryuki didn't come with Episode Final or anything. It feels almost like a statement that Real Time is just too good to not include, and I wholeheartedly agree! It's a must-watch film! What kind of monsters would try to tell you that you can't watch it? I've pretty much said what I want to about this movie before, and there's basically no way this thing is ever going to stop holding up. And that's pretty much a wrap on Zero-One from me, for a bit... and I do mean *only* a bit, considering there's going to be a whole thread about the show from a certain someone on this forum in a bit, which may or may not have been what motivated me to pick up the pace on this rewatch in the first place. I actually more or less totally put Fourze on hold, which maybe once again says something about how much pull Zero-One has with my heart. It's funny, because I don't even remember why I started watching the whole show again? Wanting to check out the subs doesn't explain why I felt the need to watch the entire first arc over, and I didn't mention any deeper reason in that post, so I guess that'll just be a mystery forever now. Not that I'm sweating it too much, because "it was fun" is all the reason I need. And while I'm not as chatty about that show, Fourze's sure to be loads of fun as soon as I get back to it, too!
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06-16-2022, 11:22 PM | #17138 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
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Location: Michigan
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I've recently started my watch of Zero-One using the official subs(and unofficial ones for the stuff that SHOUT hasn't done).
As of right now I just finished the first 16 episodes, including Project Thouser, the HBV, and the Zi-O crossover movie. ...And I gotta say, currently, this show is my jam, man! I'm not kidding when I say that this show is currently flipping the same switch in my brain that Kuuga, W, and OOO did when I first watched them. And if you don't know, those are some of my top seasons in the franchise so far! First and most obviously, whoever was the stunt director for the show seriously deserves a raise. Every fight scene in incredibly stylish and well choreographed with the intensity to match. Never once did anything feel boring or phoned in for the sake of just having an action sequence. But style isn't all that this show's got to offer. It certainly has plenty of substance to match, and I was hedging my bets that it would, given it uses AI and Robots as its central tool for storytelling. If you don't get what I mean by that, allow me to give a brief explanation: Stories that deal in robotics often will use robots as means of metaphor and allegory, which Zero-One has in spades. It's one of the reasons that I'm really drawn to stories about Robots and AI; They can be used to talk about so many things such as the treatment of minorities and people of different socials standings, to coming of ages stories about finding your emotions and growing up, to even the cycle of hatred and how your environment influences your outlook on life. And guess what? Zero-One delivers on all of these. Episodes 9 and 16 especially are great about all of this, but the entire first quarter really is no slouch. The entire run is entirely character focused, with every character involved getting their chance to shine and having plenty of development all at a nice brisk pace. Heck, the return to one-off episodes alone was incredibly refreshing after a ton of seasons composed mostly of two-parters. And unlike the first quarter of Ghost, never feels rushed. I am currently fully engrossed in this world that's been set up! Just... man. Zero-One has been hitting all of the right spots for me, and I'm really hoping that it can keep it up going forward.
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06-17-2022, 08:48 PM | #17139 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I really adore that moment between Aruto and Jin in episode 16. It's a great hero bit for Aruto, taking that space out to mourn the necessity of fighting and all that (and more specifically to him, reinforcing just how deeply he cares for Humagears), but for Jin especially, I think it's *such* a critical moment for a character who's right up there with Izu for how central he is to Zero-One's whole Learning theme. The guy is the final boss of the first arc, and he doesn't even know why besides that someone he cares about told him to. It's such a great showdown to cap off the show's initial stretch, and I still vividly remember both how surprised I was that it did end up being Jin in that spot, as well as how pleasant a surprise it turned out to be.
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06-17-2022, 09:54 PM | #17140 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
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Location: Michigan
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I really adore that moment between Aruto and Jin in episode 16. It's a great hero bit for Aruto, taking that space out to mourn the necessity of fighting and all that (and more specifically to him, reinforcing just how deeply he cares for Humagears), but for Jin especially, I think it's *such* a critical moment for a character who's right up there with Izu for how central he is to Zero-One's whole Learning theme. The guy is the final boss of the first arc, and he doesn't even know why besides that someone he cares about told him to. It's such a great showdown to cap off the show's initial stretch, and I still vividly remember both how surprised I was that it did end up being Jin in that spot, as well as how pleasant a surprise it turned out to be.
Also, yeah, Shining Assault Hopper! It's a suit that I think looks alot better in motion than sitting still. And the thematics of what it represents and how it comes about during the climax really sold it too me. While I still overall like Shining Hopper just a bit better, I can easily see why Shining Assault would get just as much love if not more.
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