KR Zi-O 40 released

[ViRGE]

That was an okay episode. Not great, but okay.

As we realized last week, showing off Grand Zi-O early really took the steam out of the big fight. Even though they didn't spoil everything in advance, they showed off enough to take the edge off. That said, the insert song for the fight has a really good beat to it, so that helped to salvage things there.

Past that, this episode was kind of weird. It's a part 2, but it suffers from the "missing character" problem: where'd everyone in part 1 go? The uncle and the rest of the Imagin are gone (or all-but-gone), and even Yuuto gets very little screen time. To be fair to the director here, I'm not sure what you'd really be able to get away with cutting to make time for other characters, as this episode would have been overstuffed otherwise.

I already commented on the basic design of Grand Zi-O last week. But I'd just like to say that having the statue of Zi-O talking on its own has brought things to a new level of weirdness. I guess that's meant to be Sougo (as opposed to an independent entity)? The idea seems half-baked, at best. Also, whoever designed the Grand Zi-O watch was totally baked. That thing is impractically huge! I am left to seriously wonder how they're able to get it to stay on without breaking the driver or keeping it from properly doing a 360.

What an amazing way to start the episode. Momotaros just straight ups strangles gold Zi-O in the crib by taking away his Den-O watch.

There's throwing curveballs at the audience, and then just totally screwing with them. That was well done by Toei.

I feel like it says something when the official page for the Toei Zi-O episode 40 page doesn't have any pics of Grand Zi-O on it...

They've created a golden monstrosity and they know it.

I dunno, I feel suspicious that this is laying tracks for a twist~

Laying the tracks? That was throwing the twist directly at our faces, complete with fins to help it hit us more accurately.

Grand Zi-O is the culmination of 20 years of Heisei riders. His henshin sure as hell better be over the top. That being said, it's the first appearance of the ultimate form. Subsequent Henshins should be shorter.

The weird thing is that I'm not sure I'd call that over the top? It was long for sure, and they spent a good bit on CGI. But it wasn't actually all that crazy of a transformation sequence? I'm actually a bit surprised by how tame it was. It needed to be about 20% cooler to be over the top.

I really hope they are not going to set up that Oma Zi-O is not really Sougo, it would be so lame and take away majorly from all the interesting bits the story has.

Toei is the master of hindquarters pulls. But even then, if they want to maintain at least some artistic integrity, the only way for it to be Sougo is to be an AU version. The Sougo we've seen in this series could never become an evil ruler.

I felt like Yuuto coming around to Sougo came a bit out of nowhere. At least Momotaros had time to warm up to Sougo after watching the kid be kind and stuff, so I wished he had just chosen to give the watch to Sougo without any input from Zeronos.

It was completely out of nowhere. After he left for 2017, he didn't interact with Sougo again until after he decided to let Sougo have the watch.

Now the question is whether it's a more or less ridiculous design than Decade Complete. Gosh, imagine seeing them side-by-side.

More ridiculous than Decade Complete for sure. Decade at least kept his insanity on his chest. And the design matched the card motif. Zi-O's golden statues, on the other hand, aren't drawn from any of the character's design elements or abilities.

[takenoko]

I actually really like how impractically huge the watch is. But it's hard to get excited for it since it was introduced an episode ago and when its used in such a mismatch battle.

Also, it's weird that Yuuto seeing the gold watch form is what really agitated him into deciding to go after Zi-O. You'd think that he'd be an audience surrogate and be shown the destruction of Oma Zi-O instead.

[WannaFantaMan]

Was the text so small in the first version of the CM that it was basically invisible??? As for this seasons ultimate form, HOLY FAKING SHIT BALLS TALK ABOUT BROKEN!!! Basically took Decade Complete and bumped up the power level to Thanos levels of NO ONE CAN STOP IT!!! Overall, this arc was awesomely hilarious because of all the Den-O stuff. Looking forward to what happens next

[takenoko]

LOL. Believe it or not, I have the default font set to be really small so people can tell me when I accidentally switch back to it.

[KRDangerousZombie]

Honestly, i really liked the ridiculously long jingle and transformation. I'm sure it'll get cut for time constraints literally every time after this because it's longer than a sentai mech battle, but for the first appearance? yeah, go nuts.

I think with power-ups like this it kinda... SHOULD be a mismatched battle, it's just that who was on the receiving end was actually not really that bad of a guy? like he was a siscon? that was his whole problem? the fucking HERO of den-o was a siscon... If that same curbstomp not even a challenge fight happened to one of the ones the audience could feel deserved it... another kiva? another ooo's? maybe decade to pay him back for the curbstomp he gave zi-o back in like episode 13? then it would have been way better. It's a shame we're going straight into a fight with Oma Zi-O so that our brand new amazing supermegaultimate final form is gonna IMMEDIATELY lose a squash right after it's debut.

Preview

Also, someone owes Luna $5 for calling back in episode 2 that Another Zi-O is Oma Zi-O

[ViRGE]

I actually really like how impractically huge the watch is. But it's hard to get excited for it since it was introduced an episode ago and when its used in such a mismatch battle.

Personally I rather like curbstomp battles for major upgrades. The hero should get a moment to be over the top awesome. The only problem here (besides last episode's spoilers) is that it's mostly a CGI fight. I'd rather have taken a highly kinetic Sakamoto-style fight here; those are a lot more fun to watch (which is why the Den-O fight was the more interesting of the two).

[TypicalStandUser]

To the person who's gonna work on drafting the Figuarts for Grand Zi-O, you're gonna need all the luck & patience in the world because of the armor's statues.

[KRMonkey]

Is the 720 version on the way?

[Dante ShadowRoadz]

Welp, I'll admit it, I'm impressed. It managed to replicate most of the feel of an actual Den-O episode and thats leagues better than anything to do with the standard Zi-O quality. The B plot was weak but we already had one good Another Den-O with the movie so asking for two would of course be too much for Toei in its current state. Woz having a measure of power to force Momotaros out was an interesting little tid-bit, and for all his bowing and scraping to the ideal of Oma Zi-O, he says he doesn't like being manipulated...

Grand Zi-O is over the top to gaudy extremes and I love it. It's Decade Complete and Blade King Form mashed in a Neo-Heisei blender. Being able to call the other Riders out of time and space to use their various finishers is gonna make for a hell of a lot of versatility (which of course Toei will use none of) and the bit with Sougo's Zi-O statue on his head coming alive and using all his direct time related powers is just weird enough to work out with it. I did wish we got a bit more of the fan service with him using more of the other Riders' weapons but they'll probably toss out everything now that we're finally bringing Oma Zi-O back into things.

I called Another Zi-O coming back miles away, though I imagine they're going to go the route of using the most convoluted of logic to how he factors into the whole "Sougo is/isn't Oma Zi-O" debacle.