[GuardianAngel87]

After a little bit of meandering, I watched some more Kamen Rider Faiz. 38 episodes down, 12 to go.

[GuardianAngel87]

I'm now up to episode 42 of Faiz and the series itself, by this point and time, is ultimately a very mixed bag for me. There were times that it's good, or at the least, decent. Other times, the show feels like a bit of a real chore to get through. I'm also considering watching Den-O next since I have less than ten episodes left.

[DreamSword]

I just finished watching up through episode 30 of Zero-One, as well as the Gag Battle special and Part 2 of Project Thouser. Which means that I am officially done with what is considered the bad part of the season. And I...

I...

I still absolutely LOVE this show!!

From what I understand, the main issue that alot of people take with this stretch of the show is that the majority of episodes have a pattern to them. Competition starts, Gai manipulates things in his favor, Magia and Raider happen, Thouser does a Jacking Break, Gai wins the day.

And while yes, those points are certainly true, I found myself far more focused on the why and how these events were occurring, rather than the broad template in and of the episodes themselves.

There's so much great character drama that goes in during this whole stretch, and the show never once loses the metaphor, allegory, and commentary aspects that helped me in loving the first act so much. Heck, while certain two-parters definitely could've been one-off episodes, I found myself not minding the return to two-parters just due to how many personal stakes were at hand.

Even when it comes to template though, I found the show doing just enough tweaks and subversions in order to keep things fresh.

Takes the stuff surrounding Gai as the biggest example. Not only is his constant hypocrisy and scheming helping to hammer in the points the show is trying to make about prejudice and how big corporations and/or governing bodies will try to take advantage of a situation for their own personal benefit regardless of morals, but the various ways he utilizes the powers he steals is always cool and exciting to watch thanks to the still excellent and unique choreography of each action sequence.

Not only that, but it was really satisfying seeing Thouser be so invincible, but slowly and surely brought down a peg as the episodes go on. Metal Cluster Hopper absolutely destroying him almost every time, the fight with Jin ending in a draw, and of course, the excellent debut of Rampage Gatling. It also helps that, even when Gai does win the fights, it's Aruto who always gets the moral victories.

It was also nice that Raiders weren't always ZAIA employees, which helps to avoid the idea that anyone who works for any specific company is automatically a bad person. Really liked the Lawyer two-parter for that.

Speaking of Gai and ZAIA, I legit love Gai as a villain. No joke, dude's' MO is literally just:

He's an instigator, and one that the audience is most certainly not meant to like. And to me, that makes his character brilliant. You should be getting mad that he's profiting off of people's' gullibility and confusion. You should hate how he'll constantly use his position, money, and power to bully others. And you most certainly should hate that in the end, he gains an advantage not due to any moral standing, but because he knows how to lead people on.

And speaking of hatred, lemme also talk about about favorite suit in the show, Metal Cluster Hopper. I've loved this thing ever since playing Memory of Heroez, and lemme tell ya, its debut did not disappoint. Really cool power set, a design that is very much My aesthetic, and something that, given what was set up by Shining and Shining Assault Hooper, fits in perfectly with the themes of the show. Heck, wanna know the thing that stood out to me most in its debut episode?

It was how, upon interfacing with Ark, what's the only thing Aruto can make out?

That the Ark is crying. Crying out in pain, sadness, and anger, and channels that via making Aruto lash out against anything that so much as gets near him.

To me, that in and of itself makes for a potent statement on how destructive being taught hatred can be, given that it was Gai that corrupted Ark in the first place. Not just to others, but to yourself as well. And what's the thing that gets Aruto under control, and brings out MCH's' full potential? Love. The love and kindness of all the Humagears that Aruto has helped throughout the show. Hate cannot defeat hate. Only love can do that.

Sure, there are definitely some things I could complain about such as Naki's' plan making so sense, the continued conflict of episode 27 feeling really forced, or how Assault Wolf became the official Jobber of the arc after its great debut, but to me, all of those things are so incredibly minor. Right now, Zero-One is very much the Time Force of Kamen Rider to me, and I'm loving almost every second of it.

[GuardianAngel87]

I am now officially down to the final four episodes of Faiz and if all goes well, I should finally be finished with this series in a few days as well as its Paradise Lost movie afterwards.