Kamen Rider Zero-One (2019)

A Rider Kick to the sky turns to take off toward a dream.

Overall
I believe that this series was good overall. It wasn't the best but it did do a lot that was interesting and the characters are likable enough to keep watching even through the lows.

Story
I have mixed feelings for the story overall due to the story arcs having different qualities. The first arc, called MetsubouJinrai.net Saga by some fans, is, in my opinion, the best part of the show. Episode 1-16 has the heroes battling the terrorist and it keeps me wanting to watch the show as fast as I could to know about MetsubouJinrai. As soon as that was over, the ZAIA Workplace Competition Saga started and that was the lowest point of the show. It became very repetitive and was just boring to watch the same plot 5 times. The only thing good in that arc was the introduction of the power-ups for both Zero One and Vulcan. HIDEN Manufacturing Saga was a step up to that the last arc and it slowly improved the show. After these arcs, the show was affected by the COVID pandemic, stopping production completely. Once this was over, the show picked up with Ark Saga, and this is the second-best arc. Although this arc felt rushed, they picked up with MetsubouJinrai and the Ark being the main villain. This with the hype of reaching the endgame made this felt great.

Characters
Most characters were okay to good in Zero-One. The biggest thing going against most of them was the lack of character backstory/ development. Aruto never changed throughout the story until the end. But I did love how Aruto and Izu played off each other. I really like Fuwa and his backstory and Yaiba was fun to watch on screen. She did lack major backstory, in my opinion, but her presence was good. Jin and Horobi were good, but Jin lacked any explanation on himself and his connections to Zaia.

Acting/Casting
I really liked the cast. I have to mention Tsurushima Noa and how she did a good job to portray two characters that felt completely different.

Rewatch Value
Personally, I tend to not rewatch a series but knowing how the story was, I think others can enjoy rewatching this and enjoying it again.

Read More

[ It's never over ]

Iwae!~

so as of may 2019, we have entered the Reiwa Era and with that, we go pay homage to the roots of the franchise by starting from Zero-One (insert theme music)

What I really loved from this series is in actually made the franchise interesting again ever since the fun died in Ghost (pun intended)

The acting was good, I almost feel like Yua Yaiba will be the very first female Tertiary Rider (as we all know women don't really get good roles in Kamen Rider asides from allies and love interests, so this was really new)

Many things have changed ever since it returned from the COVID-19 hiatus and I really feel like it was rushed. But the plot twists weren't that bad. I do feel bad for what has happened to Thouser being demoted to a plain dog lover.

But I'm very happy they were able to recover and still come up with a decent ending. As the Zero Two Driver says: "It's never over."

Read More

Hai! Aruto Ja... Naito!

Overall it was pretty good, the fight scenes and the choreography was good, the CGI and special effects are probably one of the best I've seen in Kamen Rider, on par and sometimes exceeding Build. The main characters are nice as well. Besides Aruto, I quite liked Jin and Izu, although the other main characters are also really good. However, many of the Humagear characters shown throuout the show were extremely boring, I felt it would've been better if they showed less of them. My only other two gripes with it was first, The ending felt a bit rushed, which I can't really blame them for. Kamen Rider Zero-One was, from what I've heard, supposed to be the usual 49 episodes we see in most Kamen Riders but due to covid restrictions, it had to be shortened to 45, which may or may not have been the reason the ending felt a bit rushed. Secondly, none of the characters actually died. This may seem like a really strange thing to complain about but there were so many moments in Zero-One where I felt like a character was going to die, only for them to magically come back a few episodes later and this kept happening and happening. Quite major plot armour if I do say so myself. My opinions on the Kamen Rider suits are a bit off a mixed bag (I won't base my rating heavily on this topic as it is highly subjective, but I thought it was worth mentioning). I quite liked the Zero-One and Zero Two suit, MetalCluster Hopper was good as well. I wasn't a particularly big fan of Vulcan and Valkyrie's suits though. They seemed a bit plain and I didn't like the glossy finish on them. This was resolved with Vulcan's final form however. Jin's first form (flying falcon) wasn't all that great as well. I didn't think the suit being mostly pink with some white was a great choice, although again this was resolved with his later form, burning falcon which actually looks really nice. Horobi's suit was fine and I particularly liked the Ark forms of both Horobi and Zero-One. I felt as if many forms were underused especially the Zero-One forms used in the first quarter of the show (Biting Shark, Flaming Tiger, Freezing Bear, etc.), whereas in Build for example, they were able to incorporate those basic forms even until the final battle. This wasn't a big problem to me but I felt it was worth pointing out. Soundtrack throughout the show was on point as well.

TL;DR: Pretty good, nice main characters, rushed ending (due to covid), some nice suits, good soundtrack.

Final Rating : 8/10

Read More

Zero One By Itself Doesn't Actually Mean Anything In Binary

Kamen Rider Zero One is charming. I really like the acting, and the suit designs tend to be consistent enough for me to not have any issues with any of them in particular. However, I have quite a few issues with its story. It is pretty strangely paced, and on top of that the morals seem to be mixed in what they're actually trying to tell you - unlike a lot of KR shows I've watched that are very explicit in their message, Zero One says one thing while showing another. It shows you that you should "follow your dreams" and "do what you want", but when someone wants something that isn't explicitly their core function it is seen as wrong. Aruto wants to be a comedian, but always fails. All of the Humagears that reach sentience want to pursue their dreams, but their dreams are only in relation to continuing to do what they have always done. It feels contradictory to itself throughout its entirety. The main characters for the most part have good chemistry, though, and it made me so happy to see a nonbinary character have a main role later in the series. The action is pretty good, though.

Read More