KR Zero-One 01 released

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Ratings

Poll ended at Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:58 pm

☆☆☆☆☆
36
60%
☆☆☆☆
20
33%
☆☆☆
2
3%
☆☆
2
3%
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 60
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by ryujin »

So they finally took out that pajamagic guy lol!
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by ViRGE »

Well that was a fun episode. It's easily one of the best first episodes among recent KR series, and the writers have done a good job of giving us just enough for an interesting start to the series.

Just going down my list here, I really like the series' theme and what they did with it in this episode. Japan of course has a significant population problem that, barring a significant change in how it goes about immigration, means the country will eventually find itself short on workers. Consequently, stories about Japan relying on robot labor are hardly new, but the real-world relevance keeps them interesting. I really hope the writers aren't just using this for set dressing, and are willing to lean into the subject and the overall sci-fi nature of the show on a regular basis, so that a larger story about how society reacts and adapts to Humagear can be played out over the next year.

And speaking of sci-fi themes, I thought it was also amusing that Aruto was essentially put out of a job by a Humagear who did a better job of comedy than he did. I suspect this was really just done for laughs, but there's an opportunity to further explore this concept as well.

I also wonder if they're going to spend any significant amount of time on what the Humagear think of all of this - essentially being hijacked and forced to kill people. This first episode spent a surprising amount of time showing Toru being reprogrammed and how much it pained him. He was a machine, but he aspired to make people laugh. Admittedly, villains hijacking innocent people to be their MOTW is hardly new in KR, but normally it's just body-jacking or the like; no other series has approached this subject with the same degree of focus as Zero-One's first episode.

Meanwhile Aruto's situation also brings some interesting elements in the form of transhumanism. Besides the fact that he gets to turn in to a super hero (yay!), as we get to quickly see when he runs the training program, his link with the satellite means that his brain has been augmented (at least in as much as he can think faster). This is another thing that the series may or may not do anything with, but I hope it does. Transhumanism is a nice counterpart to robots since it's often framed as a response to them - how do humans keep up with physically and mentally superior robots?

Final note on AI: in a blink-and-you'll-miss it moment, you can see that the car that Izu arrives in to pick up Aruto is self-driving. Rather than hiding the driver's compartment entirely, we get a clear view of it, sans driver. It's nice that someone cares enough to focus on the little things like this.:)

Moving on to the action, as pretty much everyone else has already said, that first fight was great. I fully expect that Toei made sure the first episode was extra flashy here, so I'm not expecting every episode to be like this, but it makes for some great visuals. At the same time, I'm very interested in seeing how our new KR suit actor does; Takaiwa Seiji is a hard act to follow, but the new guy is younger and not quite so bulky, so I want to see what that means for the stunt choreography.

I'm not sure I'm digging the base form's blade weapon though. It's basically a sword, but it's on the large and unwieldy side. So either we're not going to see it used very much, or they're going to have to get a bit more creative here in how it's used.

As for the bad guys, we see so little of them that I don't really know what to think right now. But we have plenty of time to get to know them better. One thing that did catch my eye, however, was their base inside of Daybreak Town. It looks like there's going to be a whole story there, since the town looks like it's been quarantined/sealed off. And the structure at the center of Daybreak Town looks a heck of a lot like a ruined version of the Zea satellite...

Finally, stupid foreigner question time: what do the words "Berotha" and Zetsumerise" mean/signify when Taro was transforming? I'm assuming they're derivations of something here.

Technical note: is it me, or is the audio a bit out of sync this week for both this and Ryusoulger? It's not egregious, but I ended up delaying the audio by 125ms to get lips matching sounds from my point of view.
takenoko wrote: Sat Aug 31, 2019 10:58 pm I hate most episode 1's, but this one hooked me. The music in particularly felt very good?
I'm still out on the series' theme song, but I really need to hear a clean version of it next week without all of the sound effects. Meanwhile I'm really digging the background loop for the driver, which is very rare for me. And whoever did the audio mix did a good job there letting it blast at the start without drowning everything out.
BreadToku wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 1:41 am I especially kinda hope that our leading lady will have a decent character arc of developing her own will or something. I know that's standard fictional robot-fare, but after the previous series handling of Tsukiyomi, I'll take something standard over nothing.
Ditto. Right off the bat I'm glad she's not another hyperactive Poppy. But at the same time it would be very easy to leave her as-is, as a servant robot, and never flesh out her character further. Toei can be lazy, so hopefully they give her a proper character arc.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by Lunagel »

ViRGE wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:54 am Finally, stupid foreigner question time: what do the words "Berotha" and Zetsumerise" mean/signify when Taro was transforming? I'm assuming they're derivations of something here.
I had to look up berotha myself, apparently it's a shortening of a family name of winged insects more commonly known as laceflies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhachiberothidae I assume that the motw design was based on the insect
Zetsumerise is a portmanteau of 絶滅 (zetsumetsu) "extinction" + "rise"
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by ViRGE »

Lunagel wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:03 am
ViRGE wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:54 am Finally, stupid foreigner question time: what do the words "Berotha" and Zetsumerise" mean/signify when Taro was transforming? I'm assuming they're derivations of something here.
I had to look up berotha myself, apparently it's a shortening of a family name of winged insects more commonly known as laceflies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhachiberothidae I assume that the motw design was based on the insect
Zetsumerise is a portmanteau of 絶滅 (zetsumetsu) "extinction" + "rise"
It's extinction all the way down then. :shock: Thanks Luna!
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by HowlingSnail »

ViRGE wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:54 amI hate most episode 1's, but this one hooked me. The music in particularly felt very good? I'm still out on the series' theme song, but I really need to hear a clean version of it next week without all of the sound effects.
Spoiler
Episode 2 doesn't have the proper opening either. There are plenty of uploads of the song online you can listen to though.
Last edited by HowlingSnail on Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by takenoko »

Lunagel wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:03 am
ViRGE wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:54 am Finally, stupid foreigner question time: what do the words "Berotha" and Zetsumerise" mean/signify when Taro was transforming? I'm assuming they're derivations of something here.
I had to look up berotha myself, apparently it's a shortening of a family name of winged insects more commonly known as laceflies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhachiberothidae I assume that the motw design was based on the insect
I also looked it up, but discounted that explanation because the monster is clearly designed to be based on a praying mantis, hence Aruto fighting with the mantis stance being funny.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by dancercotillion »

I'm glad they used the Imperial Era transition to swap out Takaiwa, not that he wasn't capable anymore, but just another further "hey, it's a new day" thing. Heisei was the previous era, now it's time for new heroes. It's a nice touch, and Nawata has been a really expressive actor in other roles; he was Dangerous Zombie, after all, so you know he's got chops for emoting like a madman through those suits.

Overall, I liked this episode. A strong start and I'm looking forward to Aruto mellowing out; his stand-up routine was painfully unfunny, which is absolutely the point, but still.

And man, Zero-One itself looks dope. That's some incredibly strong graphic design, just big blocks of bold colour. A lot of Rider designs are way too busy, but Zero-One is about as simple as Ichigou or Kuuga, and I really appreciate that. He registers immediately on the eye, and I'm very curious to see just how neon-trashy his later forms can possibly be!
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by sdsichero »

takenoko wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:34 am
Lunagel wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 5:03 am
I had to look up berotha myself, apparently it's a shortening of a family name of winged insects more commonly known as laceflies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhachiberothidae I assume that the motw design was based on the insect
I also looked it up, but discounted that explanation because the monster is clearly designed to be based on a praying mantis, hence Aruto fighting with the mantis stance being funny.
They are related to these guys:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by Lunagel »

sdsichero wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:43 pm
takenoko wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:34 am

I also looked it up, but discounted that explanation because the monster is clearly designed to be based on a praying mantis, hence Aruto fighting with the mantis stance being funny.
They are related to these guys:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae
Hah, so my explanation was correct, I win!
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by Xirix »

That scene of the guy laughing and just casually grabbing and shooting the corrupted Humagear was bloody great, already really digging the soundtrack, especially for the bad guys.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by Sentai_ZXR7 »

I did enjoy the first episode of KR Zero-One, I hope the writers keep doing a good job of episode development, did you notice a cameo in this first episode? the theme park manager, was previously the father of Takumi Katsuragi (Sento Kiriyu) Shinobu Katsuragi in Kamen Rider Build portrayed by Joji Kokubo.
Well let's wait for episode 2
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by sebshtan »

Great first episode.

I feel like the the text effects could do without the black arrow strip though. It's a bit much, especially when the line is long (i.e. a jump to the sky turns to a rider kick). Effects with transparent backgrounds (i.e. with henshin) tend to look a lot better without being too distracting imo
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by Dante ShadowRoadz »

Man, first episode in and we already get more character development for Aruto than we got for over half of the entire season for Sougo. I pray this means the new writing team won't go off the bend.

Strongest first episode we've had for awhile, the comedy veers pretty close to cringe, but I think it was supposed to be that way. I do appreciate that it sets up concrete stakes much faster than the the whole nebulous "will he/won't he turn into an evil overlord" Damocles sword that hangs over the whole bloody season. With this one we have evidence of past events setting up a dramatic conflict that can't be quite so cleanly divided between black and white, since they're already foreshadowing that the antagonists didn't come out of nowhere. And its been ages since we had a Kamen Rider that properly engages cooperation with the police force but as a separate entity, unlike just being a part of the roster with Drive.

Gotta say though I'm still not quite digging the glow-stick yellow-green coloring, its obnoxiously just off hue from being either one and would look a lot better if they were just decisive and picked one color over the other.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by dancercotillion »

The neon-green colour is awesome, though. Zero-One is gorgeous.
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Re: KR Zero-One 01 released

Post by ViRGE »

Sentai_ZXR7 wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:16 pm did you notice a cameo in this first episode? the theme park manager, was previously the father of Takumi Katsuragi (Sento Kiriyu) Shinobu Katsuragi in Kamen Rider Build portrayed by Joji Kokubo.
Oh hey, I thought he looked familiar! It's nice to see him in a more positive role.
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