KR Zi-O 43 released

[takenoko]

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Last week's Zi-O rating: 4.17 / 5 (12 votes)

Alt Title: The jokes, we have them!

Again, an alright episode of Zi-O. Nothing mind blowing, but at least stuff is happening. Was genuinely surprised to see Decade get his power taken though. Does this mean Decade > Zi-O if he's the last boss? I think so!

If I were Ora, I would not have let Schwartz approach me after seeing what he did to Heure. I guess we're supposed to buy that Schwartz was just waiting for an opportunity to steal Decade's power and was using Heure and Ora to do it. But who the heck are these random kids?

I suppose he couldn't taken Tsukuyomi's time powers until she was fully awakened, but I have a few nitpicks about how that scene happened.
-Schwartz gained new powers, but what exactly are they? To control time even more??
-If Tsukuyomi's matured enough to have her powers taken, why didn't her memories come back on their own?
-Usually when the past is revealed to someone with amnesia they learn their real name, but Tsukuyomi doesn't get hers. Nor do we learn Schwartz's real name.

Poor Kakogawa (His name can mean "the past"). Learned nothing and I doubt we'll see anything more from him. So ummm... how exactly did Sougo beat Hiryuu this time? Did he use a power he didn't use previously or what?

The preview genuinely surprises me. I guess we'll see where that goes.

My one major praise and nitpick with the episode is the attempts at banter between the characters. I thought they were genuinely fine lines, but almost all of them were delivered in the most flattest way possible. And I just don't understand why that was the case. Am I crazy or did anyone else feel that way?

[TypicalStandUser]

I've lost cabin pressure on this episode. The whams hit hard on this one.

Schwartz wants the crown & shows no mercy to those in the way of it. Heure & Ora could not handle the inevitable.

I think I know why Schwartz wanted Decade's powers. Aside from Tsukasa being the only Rider unaffected by timeline changes or his 2.0 powers, there was *that* one ability from EP14. Ride Watch Nullification is a potential gamebreaker.

The final battle's OK. Nice to see Another Kuuga again. And Hiryu is done.

Now that the plot is moving, Tsuku-chan must regain her memories. I'm wondering how Tsukasa's gonna roll after all this.

Ah. Nice to see you again, Aqua. Oh hi Tid... You're not gonna like what's gonna happen next week.

Nice episode.

[ViRGE]

Well it looks like the end game is in motion. Schwartz has always been the baddest of the baddies we've seen thus far, so I'm not too surprised he's ending up the big bad. And he certainly has the charisma to pull it off. However his character has been so lightly used that he's not especially well developed. I hope we see more out of him now, as there needs to be more to him than merely enacting his plans to take over the world.

In the meantime, it really calls into question where Oma Zi-O fits in to all of this. If the Timejackers came from a different timeline, then that kind of implies one without Oma Zi-O. And how does his desire to be the head of the family relate to the whole king of time ordeal? There has seemingly never been a ruler of time before, so his father/mother, despite being the leader of the family, was apparently never that kind of ruler.

Does that mean Ora/Heure are related as well? Or did Schwartz just pick up some lackeys? Heure was surprised by the fact that the power runs in the family, but then he also seems to be surprised that Schwartz can give and take it...

And as for the biggest thing cooking my noodle right now: how the heck do Decade's powers even work? This show has been clear to establish that when Sougo has a rider's watch, they no longer have that power. Decade gave Sougo his watch ages ago. And by virtue of Grand Zi-O being the power of all of the watches, his power was definitely in use at the time by Sougo. So how did he even transform? And what does it mean now that Schwartz has stolen them? Can he do anything besides make Another Decade?

Meanwhile, I'm actually kind of disappointed in the big fight at the end. A massive Another Rider melee, and it almost immediately broke down into small groups and uninspired sword slashes. I get the need to break things down into smaller numbers, but the individual fights really should have been better done.

All told, it was a good enough episode. But I feel like it opened up as many questions as it answered. And we had better get a proper ending for Hiryuu; even if he's one-note, this episode blasted right past him.

[Ridebeat]

How in the world that Sougo and Geiz can use the W and Faiz Ridewatch ??? I thought the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch was the fusion of the 19 Heisei Rider Ridewatches.

[Mandalori]

No, it's not, otherwise Momotaros wouldn't have been able to take Den-O watch after Grand Zi-O Watch was formed. It's more a case of the Grand Zi-O Watch cannot exist unless all 19 Ridewatchs are gathered in the possession of a single person.

[HowlingSnail]

FINALLY some proper backstory on our villains. Except we still have non for Heure and Ora, so hopefully that'll be next week.

I see that we're back to the creation of Another Riders causing the OG Rider to lose their powers, like in the first half of the show. I don't expect them to explain why the rules have changed again.

Why do Tsukuyomi and Geiz remember the alternate timeline? They didn't remember the OG one in the alt timeline.

Spoiler

Next week, Another Drive and Another Decade, as predicted. Also Kamen Rider Aqua for some reason. Come on Toei, at least give us New Den-O too!

[takenoko]

Does that mean Ora/Heure are related as well? Or did Schwartz just pick up some lackeys? Heure was surprised by the fact that the power runs in the family, but then he also seems to be surprised that Schwartz can give and take it...

It'd be a real characterization failing if Ora and Heure were related but it was never mentioned before. I think the strongest implication is that Schwartz picked up the two kids to be his lackeys and gave them the time powers. Doubt they'll go any deeper than that, unfortunately, considering how bad this series is with creating any kind of consistent world building or characterization.

[Lunagel]

Yeah that was my impression as well. If they were related to Schwartz then they wouldn't have been so surprised by his revelation.

[Catastrophe]

At least the set up for Schwartz makes sense. I'm hoping DiEnd has another angle he's trying to pull. He just said he didn't like being someones puppet and then pulls this shit on Decade.

[Barim]

That frontpage picture, while probably a joke, kinda represents how I think Uncle experiences the show.

He obviously never realized all the weirdness had to do with Sougo being a Kamen Rider, but probably assumed it was Sougo growing up and figuring out his sexuality.
Uncle then fully accepted Woz moving in as Sougo's boyfriend, even if he thinks Sougo does not fully understand yet himself.

Otherwise, still waiting for the 720p to drop, let's hope they resolve this side-story mess in a decent way.

[FangTrigger]

This might be breaking the 'no spoiling rule,' so I'll add my thoughts about the Over Quartzer clips under a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Wow. I WAS not expecting Kamen Rider J to make a return, and all of the movie Rider suits look fantastic! I'm anxiously awaiting the translation of this one. have to remember to keep my expectations low though. It's been a long time since I've seen a Kamen Rider Movie that I actively enjoyed.

Yeah, I'm kind of lost as to why Schwartz decided to reveal everything to Tsukuyomi before taking her powers (Outside of the Evil gotta explain itself trope.) It would've made more sense for him to take the power first, then explain.

Overall, this was a decent episode. Grand Zi-Oh All 20 Rider kick was certainly more impressive than I assumed it would be, especially that dimension breaking CGI effect they added for Zi-Oh. I couldn't get behind the banter either take. Like you said, it has been done before in the same tone multiple times throughout the series.

A thought occurs: Would Kamen Rider Decade Complete's powers conflict with Grand Zi-Oh's Rider Summon Ability? Because Complete summon's the Rider in the final form, while Zi-Oh summons them in their base form. Also, who would have more control?

Next episode:

Spoiler

Welcome to the official Kamen Rider cannon Aqua! I'll admit, it did surprise me that they decided to make this particular Rider official to Kamen Rider Zi-Oh's universe. And this does answer the question I had about Decade's Another Rider.

I'm more invested in the movie than I am the show, but am also willing to see this one to the end.

On an unrelated note, how do I change my default font color? It's probably because I haven't posted in awhile, but whenever I want to add a spoiler tag, the font always matches up with the background and makes it unreadable.

[darkmage02]

I have so many problems with the writing of this episode, as well as Schwartz's revelation. There's just too many questions:

1) If Schwartz's plan is to become the new king of time, why does he need to create all these Another Riders under the pretense of finding a new king? He already is overpowered from the start, and could easily taken out Zi-O from the start.
2) Why did Schwartz go back in time to find Sougo as a kid? Where does that part fit into all of this?
3) Besides the "I need lackeys cause I'm the big bad" trope, did he even have any need for Heure & Ora? He was shown multiple times doing the deeds himself, turning people into Another Riders. Was there any purpose to begin with, given how disposable they are in this episode?
4) IF stealing Tsukuyomi's powers is part of the plan all along, why didn't he just do it from the start instead of erasing her memory and threw her in a different timeline? If I remember correctly there's an episode where young Tsukuyomi already display her usage of powers, so why wait till now? Why not sap her powers when she was a child and kill her?
5) He made it seem like taking Decade's powers was his plan all along. If so, why wait till now? It wasn't like Decade has got any power up within the span of this series (it's assumed he got his Neo powers before the start of this series). He could've Time Freeze poor Decade from the start and take his powers.

I know I sound like I'm nitpicking too much, but to me Schwartz's revelation & his motivations are so poorly written. We have known so little of him from the start, and unlike Evolt from Build, we barely got to spend any time with Schwartz to understand him better. It almost feel as tho the writers just needed to give him a background story, and have him do something for the remainder of the series without even bothering to try & make sense of things.

Apart from Schwartz, the episode itself is also below average. If this is the last time we're gonna see Hiryu, then he certainly went out with a whimper, literally. He went from over-powering in episode 41 to being absolutely trash in this episode. How did Sougo suddenly overpower him while completely got his ass handed to him earlier? Not buying the "I fight for the future so that gives me strength" crap. Their final fight was boring too, there were lots of quick cuts that ended with Sougo going 20 Rider Kick on him. Decade's fight scenes was totally trash. He used only his basic Rider Attack cards to beat a bunch of Another Riders easily. Where's the flashy, flamboyant fight style that Decade's so famous for? Where's the Rider Form Change? Ohh, and his reunion with DiEnd felt ...underwhelming. I expected Decade to go all Rider Form change and DiEnd summoning a bunch of Riders to fight him, but no. Just some shooting and slashing & it's over. Meh.

The one thing I really do like is the Geiz & Woz interaction. Can't wait for the spin-off movies featuring these two.

I normally just try to enjoy Zi-O for being the silly show it is, but this episode's writing is just so bad I can't swallow it down like usual.

2/5

[BreadToku]

I have pretty much all the same issues with everything regarding Schwartz as darkmage02. Maybe everything they're revealing would have worked better if it were built up throughout the show instead of being dished out within the course of five minutes, but I guess I just have to accept that this is his backstory now and to try not to think too hard about how his past actions reflect on that. Because I very strongly suspect everything about him being from a family of time-controllers wasn't planned into the series' lore from the beginning, or at the very least now exactly like how it's presented here.

Also the big action scene is honestly rather disappointing to me. We have all three riders plus Decade fighting every Another Rider (that has appeared) and... it feels incredibly basic, especially for what's suppose to be the climax to this arc. Absolutely nobody does anything remarkable, and the 'showdown' between Grand Zi-O and Another Zi-O II had zero spectacle or tension.

Also they have the opportunity to put any prop weapon in the last twenty years in Grand Zi-O's hands, but he just uses the same swords as always. I love his big sword finisher but he could be doing so many other things too!

Zi-O and Geiz taking on six another riders and then Another Zi-O back in episode 28 was a hundred times more exciting, and I guess I had my hopes up because of how strongly that previous arc delivered both in terms of action and in character moments. The best these last few episodes had were the interactions between Sougo, Geiz and Woz. It was small in the grand scheme of things, but it feels genuine with how long we've been with these characters.

I have no idea what to expect or even wishing for moving into this show's endgame, but it's likely going to be a mess. Here's hoping to an entertaining mess, though!

[resop2]

I had another horrible plot idea that has no chance of coming to be: The next season is Kamen Rider Z1 (?) so what if this was a direct sequel? At the end of Zi-O, Sougo defeats Schwartz with his strungth but Schwartz does a screw job finish and uses the backdoor that he built into Sougo's mind when Sougo was ten to take over Sougo's consciousness and transform him into the evil Oma-Zi-O and Oma-Zi-O leaves the baby faces (Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Tsukasa, and Woz) laying at the end of the season. In the next season, Woz, Tsukuyomi, Tsukasa, and Geiz have to figure out how to stop Oma-Zi-O and save Sougo while fighting Random Another Riders. Geiz has had his powers nullified so he can only transform five more times before he would die. Tsukasa has most of his transforming powers blocked but can still teleport. All seems lost until a mysterious pink haired girl appears on Tsukuyomi's magic tablet and tells her that she needs to be the one who saves the world and gives her a Rider Watch through the tablet. Tsukuyomi then beats up Woz until Woz agrees to get her a transformation belt so that she can become Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi. Then using strategy and tactical support from Geiz, Tsukasa, and Woz, she beats up Another Riders, solves intermediary story arcs and regains her Timejacker powers leading up to the finale where the four baby faces outsmart Schwartz, save Sougo, and restore balance to the force.

[WannaFantaMan]

WOWZA, Another Decade looks just SLIGHTLY more horrifying then Another Kuuga and even moar OP then Decade Complete. Also took em long enough to get to Another Drive, so this should be interesting. Also surprised that the movies are coming out in July this year. Has this ever happened before now, because they usually come out in August.