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shauta · 4 years

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alright i think im awake enough to talk about my thots on zero-one from break up to episode 44 so spoilers after the cut in case you havent caught up or youre planning on watching it

so first i guess i should mention the presidential specials, which were just 2 glorified recap episodes that also introduced azu (finally) and the creation of the ark-one key. they are what they are and i get having to just shove it into recap episodes that were released during the point where it was still pretty risky to have actors do anything outside of their homes so i dont really feel much toward them

to the actual point of this, episodes 36-41 i would call good for the most part, there are some things that had to get sidelined due to covid, like fuwa and yua’s whole thing having to be condensed into a scene or two of them talking to Ai, the therapy robot, but it was still alright all things considered and i cant blame them too much since something like this during the airing of rider has never really happened. in regards to the thousman’s redemption, it kinda felt like a mix of covid interference and general not knowing how to properly give such a horrible man any kind of redemption. like, i’ll admit, his backstory about his robot dog named thouser (hilarious) almost got me until he pulled the “youre the only motherfucker that can handle me” with Sony’s New Product Placement Toy, which made it wrap around from being almost decent to funny in a bad kind of way. also the thing with him committing fucking humagear crimes being born from a love of hiden intelligence was so damn stupid, like are they telling me he couldnt have done the things he did out of like jealousy or some blind belief that hiden’s dreams are foolish or something?? fuck man, that was just really dumb. also how much did sony pay to have them shove so much goddamn footage of aibo into that episode

ark zero’s introduction was pretty cool, with him just outright fucking possessing horobi and, at first, making his body move unnaturally until he transformed. that was kinda sick. i feel like the cut to yua being outright terrified of ark would have had more impact had she done more stuff in the show, but i think thats genuinely a good way to show how strong/scary a new enemy can be. im also so glad that naki got their own suit and shit, since i remember us hoping that they would at least use the assault wolf key, but kamen rider naki is just so much cooler. thanks so fucking much kamen rider zero-one

also with ark when aruto just lost to him and got scared that maybe his ideals werent totally right, since in his ideal dream world it is technically possible for an ai to become as corrupted like satellite ark and him having to reaffirm what he believes in after fukuoze comes to him and is like “i need shesta back so we can kick gai out” was good imo. i liked that episode. also the episode where izu ran through multiple simulations was kinda fucked but it ended with her being able to make shit appear in her hands so good for her :)

then with the last of the ark zero shit, horobi uhhhh. hes there. he realizes that maybe sometimes it good to make choices for yourself, i guess. the teamup with him and zero-two was really cool, though. liked that and i liked raiden working with subaru again to take down ark. mostly a good episode if you like the fact that horobi will never change.

i think ive said everything i want to about the episodes i liked so now its time to talk about episodes 42-44, or where zero-one just takes a nosedive into confusing choices that i believe are genuinely bad. to start of with, izu dies. i would feel something about this moment if kamen rider didnt pull this shit all the goddamn time and also if i wasnt at least 50% confident that takahashi is gonna bring her back in some form during the finale like he did with poppy ex-aid. also this is the catalyst that makes aruto turn into ark-one, ditching zero-two after like. two episodes. incredible. this is dumb as hell, im not gonna try to pretend it isnt, because it is far too late in the show for this to happen, even with covid fucking up schedules. there is no reason for aruto to just ditch his morals and become the ultimate evil of zero-one because izu died. this isnt what she would want you moran!! and like, i get it, kind of. they wanted to show that not even good boy aruto, our heroic protagonist, is immune to having malicious feelings. i get killing off izu so aruto can feel malice towards horobi. turning him into ark-one is just dumb imo and they should have done something like his malice being what summons the ark again, but either in a shiny new body, or him using azu, i guess. either way theres no need for aruto to become ark-one.

this part is just nitpicky but during the ark-one fights where it would cut away to ark-one in total darkness, i think it could have been utilized better. like him dodging the shots and attacking everyone else while cutting to those shots would have been really good... had horobi also been visible during the shots they cut to when he was fighting him. like, theres some good potential for symbolism (? i dont really remember film terms too well but i do know what im talking about) here where he just doesnt see anything, except for horobi, who he wants to kill as revenge for izu. it couldve been cool even though this whole thing was really dumb imo!! but it kinda just ended up being a bit confusing in the end.

speaking of dumb shit, i think the fuwa and aruto fight in 44 was wasted in the end. orthoros vulcan is a dope recolor of assault wolf and it had retractable naki claws, so it at least gets points for that. but aruto transforms into zero-two for the first time in 2 episodes which doesnt make sense at first glance since hes ark-one now, but i think they were intending for this fight to be a callback to when zero-one and vulcan were first fighting, which is actually really cool if they meant for it to be this. which i believe so but you never know. anyway this fight was wasted because it doesnt seem to do much?? unless right at the start of 45 aruto’s gonna be like “nah, im not actually gonna fight you, since nobody wants that” but even then, going up to horobi and risking a full on war of humagears against humans is still stupid. why would he do that if he learned from his fight with fuwa. also this would have been a cool moment for fuwa to turn aruto’s catchphrase against him!! it would have been so fucking sick for fuwa at one point to say something like “theres only one person who can save you, and that’s me!” like fuck!!!!! that would be so cool!!!!! im genuinely upset this didnt happen im not even joking

i think this post went off the rails because i never learn that i cant extensively talk about kamen rider or other interests without becoming incredible incoherent so im ending the post here. thanks if you were able to actually read through this mess and also i do think for the most part kamen rider zero-one is a season worth watching. just maybe not the last 4 episodes.

#canned beef #i really thought i was gonna get away with writing something anybody other than me could understand lmao #next time i plan to do this please shut it down immediately unless i can get like. an editor or some shit

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