KR Zero-One 37 released

[takenoko]

< Previous
Wiki
Next >

Last week's rating: 4.53 / 5 stars (19 votes)

Alt Title: MetsubouJinrai or Ark?

Better episode this week. Yaiba has a few good character moments from the comfort of her bed, I guess Aruto has an arc, but it's kind of (frankly) dumb and simplistic.

But team Hiden Intelligence is back together (with Siesta) and they're doing stuff to take back the company. Woo!

Even have a few funny moments with Gai.

One downside of this new arc is that MetsubouJinrai is for the most part back to being non characters. They're somewhere between being completely brainwashed or background non-characters in favor of Ark's overwhelming presence. Which sucks since we finally have them all back. And Jin's had his body stolen. Booo!

Oh yeah, and I guess we get Kamen Rider Naki. Which has a cool debut scene, but something feels missing... I was excited for it, but honestly forgot about it by how little of an impact it left.

Notes:

-One thing I dislike is that equivalence of intelligence to raw power. It's not satisfying for Ark to just be a stronger fighter because they say he has surppassed humans. It'd be nice to see him use his intellect to outwit Aruto and Fuwa or something.

-Luna spoiled the underwear scene with a P Bandai link! Pantsu!

-Why are people still using ZAIAspecs? Like for real. Like do they really help you that much as a nurse over the other wearable tech that you have? Come on!

[decade368990]

OHHHH, Gai wears ZAIA underpants, that's sexy. There were quite a few underpants moment before this like Eiji on OOO, Takumi on Faiz, Kazami Shirou on The Next, and also Kirihiko on W.

The MetsubouJinrai team could have a scene of whether they have a choice to think whether it's right to believe in Ark or betray Ark.

Why there were only two Raiders? On Ep 35, Gai brought at least 20 Raiders to attack Horobi.

[Xirix]

Okay I really liked this episode, a lot happened, Naki finally gets her rider form, Fukuzoe gets some development, lots of silly scenes.

Gai has ZAIA branded pants, because... of course he does. XD

And Yua finally admits she took too long to stop working for ZAIA, yeah, no shit Yua, but hey, now you can actually be interesting for the rest of the series hopefully. ^^

[Aeikozz]

i feel like Kamen Rider Naki's Plot probably got deleted due to Covid. They probably were going to set up a nice introduction for his suit instead of here, take this.

[takenoko]

i feel like Kamen Rider Naki's Plot probably got deleted due to Covid. They probably were going to set up a nice introduction for his suit instead of here, take this.

Hmmmmmm, I'm too cynical to believe that

[BreadToku]

I feel like we're going to get people saying 'corvid made them rush stuff!' for a few weeks when we're clearly not at the stage where they would be the case yet. Kamen Rider Naki is introduced with the same prominence that Ikazuchi had the Ark turning evil and becoming a rider was definitely always meant to come in exactly at episode 36, and... well, I'm pretty sure the half-baked character arc here of Aruto goes through here was always going to be a one-time deal. Seriously Aruto, how many times have you seen AI turn evil and tried to kill people??

The action is stellar as always, and I'm particularly in love with that climatic clash between the Ark and Metal Cluster Hopper at the end of the episode. This show is always great fun to look at as a spectacle... but to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm too interested in the actual story anymore? It's pretty clear that not only is it long past time when any of the characters can have truly meaningful developments, but the entire rest of the show really feels like it'll be entirely about everyone else facing off against one big villain, just like with Cronus and Evol. At least the latter two were greatly entertaining and charismatic in their own right, while here Ark Zero is basically just a scary monster and little else. I'd love to be proven wrong on literally all these fronts, of course, but I'm not too optimistic.

[takenoko]

but to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm too interested in the actual story anymore?

That's brutal, but I think that maybe you're right? Aruto doesn't have a character arc really, he's in the right from the start. So all you can really do is make him lose confidence from time to time.

Fuwa's gotten over his biases. Yaiba has gotten over her issues with ZAIA and Fuwa.

All we can do is hope that Izu becomes more human by the end of the series

No one really has an interesting internal drama going at the moment.

[Catastrophe]

I was think the exact same thing in regards to not really caring about the story.

Ark is threatening, but I'm not sure why. It just doesn't have the same intensity that Evolt or even Chronut.

There also aren't any real stakes. MetsubouJinrai has Gai dead to rights, and Hiden has him dead to rights professionally and he walks it off again in another torn suit. Ark just leaves Aruto alone at the end.

[Mighty Action X]

One downside of this new arc is that MetsubouJinrai is for the most part back to being non characters. They're somewhere between being completely brainwashed or background non-characters in favor of Ark's overwhelming presence. Which sucks since we finally have them all back. And Jin's had his body stolen. Booo!

Isn't that supposed to be their entire character arc? Their quest to break free from the will of the Ark. So them being like this for now is expected.

[Catastrophe]

But it also highlights Zero-Ones problem of not being able to juggle more than a couple of characters at once.

This is first episode that the Vice President and friends actually did something other than being shitty comic relief and I liked it, but it seems like a touch late in the series to start having them do stuff. Again, partly because they couldn't find a way to integrate them better earlier.

[WannaFantaMan]

Anyone else not surprised that Mr. 1,000% wears ZAIA brand pantsu??? I was also rooting for Ark to just straight up kill him but then he would get to have the stupid redemption arc he doesn't deserve IMO xD

[takenoko]

>Ark is threatening, but I'm not sure why. It just doesn't have the same intensity that Evolt or even Chronut.

It also has the bad writing thing I hate where it's tell not show. The only reason Ark is "threatening" is because Yaiba, Fuwa, and Aruto keep telling the viewer that's how they're supposed to feel. In reality, is fighting Ark really that much worse than fighting any of the other opponents in the series? Heck, Shining Hopper was doing more crazy stuff at episode 13 than anything Ark's done so far.

Isn't that supposed to be their entire character arc? Their quest to break free from the will of the Ark. So them being like this for now is expected.

Right, but we still have like 15 episodes to go still. Like there's still the rest of the story to resolve, but characterwise, everyone's kind of good. It's not bad for the characters, but it's bad for the writing/story aspect of the show

[Catastrophe]

The other thing with the Ark is, how does putting it into Rider form make it so threatening?

Evolt was always hyped up to be some kind of world ending monster. Kuroto talked up Cronus as being the ultimate rider in a system he designed. We know the Ark is an evil supercomputer, but it's been partially inactivated for most of the series.

Horobi was more threatening in the first arc because Fuwa almost died, so the fear for the heroes was visceral.

I guess the other thing is that it doesn't really have a present. Gold Drive worked because he was both a massive dick and a massive ham. Show Hayami has a great voice, but talking about extinction all the time isn't exciting characterisation.

[Go-On Macaroni]

What's telling in some regard is that all of those shows either had or have the same Toei producer in Ohmori Takahito. And while I sort of had the feeling last time, I'm really getting it this year that the guy needs a strong writer behind him to mitigate his formula otherwise it becomes well, like this.

I mean, compare Sanjo Riku working with him on Drive (or, Kyoryuger for Sentai) to Build, Ex-Aid, or Zero-One's head writers. While it relied on the formula, it didn't feel as blatant because Sanjo could at least make the characters memorable and knew how to work this thing. I may not be the biggest fan of Mach but at least I remember him. Am I going to say the same for Ark-Zero or 1000%?

[Aeikozz]

i'm having huge problems over the reaction of Seista being activated. Like are honestly telling me the Vice President and his lackey have NEVER seen a humagear start up?