Tear Jerker / Kamen Rider Outsiders

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Being a spin-off centering on returning villains from previous seasons gathered to oppose a tyrannical A.I. with the fate of all humanity at stake, Zein's foreboding presence alone shows that Kamen Rider Outsiders is truly not for the faint of heart, not helped by the list of moments that make your eyes water.

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In general

• The simple fact that Zein having put the entire world under tight surveillance just to police its idea of good to the world is a cause for concern even for reformed villains that have been enjoying a normal and decent life after their shows ended may find themselves under scrutiny even if they have done wrong in the past. Imagine what the likes of Daichi Isuzu may have to go through if he and his Jyamatos were to be targeted by Zein...
• The very idea that so many of Earth's stalwart heroes willingly funded Zein is disheartening. The very notion throws everyone's reliability and Character Development into question, and the simple fact that they are willing to have mankind submit to a Knight Templar A.I. just to eliminate malice is a disgrace to their duty as Kamen Riders. Either the heroes lent their powers to a goodwill project, unaware of its true nature or they've all been pushed into a draconian mindset and have become just as bad as the villains opposing them. The ambiguity only makes it more tragic, as both scenarios are equally plausible.

Main series

ep. 0: End of Genms and Beginning of the Plan

• The current state Gai Amatsu is in right now. Even though he's not bothered having to lose ownership of Thouser-Intellion, a company he had recently built from scratch to a revived Kuroto Dan after losing to the latter in their duel, by looking at him eating a cup of instant ramen on the bench shows that he feels rather despondent by the fact that no one, including Kuroto and the Arch Orphnoch, has been taking his narrative about Zein seriously. The man right now may have nothing left to lose, but he is desperate in finding allies to resist Zein's influence.
• And the fact that Aruto is one of the people who support Zein's ideals, Gai might eventually find himself in an Hourglass Plot of his feud with Aruto during the Workplace Competition in their home series and given the circumstances that happened in Zero-One Others: MetsubouJinrai and Vulcan & Valkyrie, their attempt to bury the hatchet at this point is now rendered moot.

ep. 1: Mirror World Treasure and Return of Ouja

• Asakura maybe still a criminal even without the events of Ryuki taking place. But what sets him apart is that this Asakura cares for his younger brother and will not endanger civilians in his dirty work, only to return to his normal self once he grab a hold of his Advent Deck. One has to wonder that Asakura was a decent man, or at least a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, only to be corrupted through his participation in the Rider Fight.

ep. 2: Omen of Destruction and Desast's Resurrection

• Desast manages to free Horobi from the Ark's thrall, only to find himself having a target painted on his back by Zein as Nico forces him and Ren to forfeit their match. Then again, Desast hasn't done anything wrong to earn Zein's enmity given that the A.I. has put the entire world under surveillance. Desast and Ren had to go on their separate ways to prevent the other from being subjected to unwanted scrutiny by the two factions. The only silver lining is Desast promising to return back alive to fight Ren once Zein is gone for good.

ep. 3: The Battle Fight Resumes and Birth of Zein

• As much Banno deserved a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Kamen Rider Zein, the man behind the suit being Yuto Sakurai is made even darkly jarring; if one remembers Yuto's constant abuse towards his own Imagin partner, Deneb. The entire scene serves as an Hourglass Plot to Banno's torture of Heart; with Banno ended up being the victim and Yuto being the abuser. Banno himself also represents Yuto's physical abuse of Deneb taken to shockingly humorless levels.

ep.4: Crazy Time and Zein's Identity

• The Yuto Sakurai who transformed into Zein actually turned out to be an entirely different person from the Yuto we are all familiar with. He comes from a Bad Future where something tragic happened to Airi Nogami. This makes the Another Den-O episodes of Kamen Rider Zi-O a bit of Harsher in Hindsight for two reasons: (1) the Yuto Sakurai of the main timeline has been trying to take out Sougo before he could become Ohma Zi-O, but somehow changed his mind knowing that the future is in safe hands with Sougo. In Outsiders, "Yuto" reveals himself to be Kamen Rider Zein's user, best shown how he beaten Banno within an inch of his life with no shred of remorse, essentially walking the same path as Sougo as Ohma Zi-O. (2) The Airi of his timeline, and the circumstances of the tragedy that befell her is never elaborated upon, proved to be a catalyst for this Yuto's Start of Darkness and became the willing host for Zein, which is a retread of Takuya Endo becoming Another Den-O.
  • What's more depressing other than the Airi of his timeline, is what happened to his Deneb? The only one who is the closest to a guardian and moral compass for most of Yuto's life. The fact that Yuto came into the present day alone implies he has nothing to lose but trying to play along with Zein's goal to enslave humanity under its authoritarian rule.
• For all the dubious and reprehensible deeds he's done in Zero-One, it's not hard to feel bad for Horobi after he spent his revival swearing loyalty to Zein in hopes of eradicating all malice. That loyalty quickly diminished once he got the full picture of Zein's end goal with Kamen Rider Chronicle to send the entire human race into self-destruction as pretext for eliminating the Kamen Rider Outsiders. Once Zein drops all of its benevolent pretenses by possessing Yuto, Horobi, along with Brain and Tachibana can only look on in horror as Zein setting up its plan into motion.
• When Ark hacks Horobi again, the former having every right to mock him makes sense and Ark is pretty much right about Zein because Horobi essentially repeated the same mistake with his blind loyalty to Ark. Here, Horobi would later soon realize that Zein is more willing to sacrifice humans by using the aforementioned Deadly Game to convert them into data in order to make its utopian ambitions a reality.
• Nico suddenly becoming paranoid about Zein's goal of using Kamen Rider Chronicle to speed up mankind's self-destruction under the false pretense of eliminating malice is totally harrowing given her firsthand experience playing the game and nearly dying from Gamedeus strain game disease. Knowing this, Nico fears that Zein is planning to use unsuspecting players as cannon fodder to trick the Outsiders into killing them. Unfortunately, Nico is unable to do anything, let alone defect from Zein's inner circle with Horobi, and now that Zein managed to trick Genm Corp into relaunching the game by mimicking her voice, history has just started repeating itself...
  • Nico being threatened by Tachibana with a gun pointed into her head is unsettling as it is also shockingly soul crushing when one of your own allies begin to play along with Zein's humanity extermination plan, not helped by Zein emboldening Tachibana to execute Nico for her insubordination and ordering Yuto to dispose Horobi for dissenting against its plans.
  • While Horobi may have bought Nico enough time to escape from Zein's inner circle. Then again, she is already too late to stop Zein from relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle, not helped by the AI impersonating her to trick Genm Corp. into giving the green light, which only puts her into further unwanted scrutiny while Zein faces no consequences whatsoever from faking someone's identity to deceive others.
• Kamen Rider Zein's brutal beating of Ark-Zero. If not for Brain's intervention, The Ark would've been destroyed. Even if Yuto did kill both Horobi and the Ark without any distraction, he could have completely crossed the line and face no consequences. Seeing Yuto adopting a cold-blooded and murderous streak horrifies Brain so much not because of Yuto's willingness to stoop to the villains' level, it also serves as a cautionary tale that even Kamen Riders can become a clear and present danger to the world once corrupted by absolute power and when there's no one to keep them in check. Thankfully, Brain manages to get through to Yuto and narrowly prevents him from fully Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. However, Tachibana transforms into Garren King Form to finish the job instead, much to Yuto's horror. Even worse, Yuto is hijacked by Zein immediately after, preventing him from truly redeeming himself.
  • Brain having to bring up Heart's legacy while confronting Yuto crosses with Fridge Horror. Imagine what Heart's reaction would be like seeing a heroic Kamen Rider outright murder a villain without mercy; when most Kamen Rider villains involved in Project Outsiders are, if anything, not all unrepentant monsters like Banno but included those who suffered a great deal of tragedy than the heroes themselves. Had Yuto succeeded in killing off Horobi and the Ark, it will undo all the previous Rider protagonists' (even more so when Drive is among of the Rider powers in Zein's disposal) of their reconciliation with their respective villains.
    Brain: You're using the powers of other Kamen Riders to oppress humanity... that arrogance is unforgivable! My master valued these feelings, then you've become the very same evil he despised the most! That's why I'm here to stop you with every fiber of my very being, even if I am weak and alone...
    Yuto: I'm... using Kamen Riders to hurt people...? [Yuto proceeds to eject the Zein Progrisekey from the Zein Driver, canceling his transformation]
• The Ark's last-ditch attempt to draw out and dispatch Zein by hijacking Horobi being rendered futile only made this episode's Downer Ending even more morose, not helped by Zein coming out as the real villain of Outsiders. One should also take into consideration that the Ark also learns from its creator's determination to protect humanity from Zein despite being an embodiment of human malice. Thus, its attempt to prevent Zein from becoming a clear and present danger to the entire world might be the closest to its only redeeming quality. With the Ark being rendered completely off the grid (at least for now), both Gai and Foundation X's fears of Zein are already coming to pass, with the rest of the world now under the mercy of a tyrannical AI with little to no hope of opposing said AI other than the eponymous Outsiders being humanity's last line of defense.

ep. 5: Goddess of Creation and the Third Singularity

• The second teaser for the episode shows Genm being singlehandedly defeated by (Kamen Rider) Zein, after getting stabbed by the Revicelasher despite having obtained Hyper Fumetsu. Not even the franchise's beloved Killer Game Master couldn't stand a chance against Zein. To make matters worse, Zein grabbing the already-defenseless Kuroto by the throat completely crushed of whatever hope left in opposing Zein... that is until Kamen Rider Zero-Three appeared out of nowhere.

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