Kamen Rider: General Thread

Episode 24:

That beatdown was not just for every Huma-gear, it was FROM every Huma-Gear. Though as much as it gauls me to do it, I gotta give Gai credit for only dropping to his knees after that, and even walking away under his own power. He can sure take a whooping.

Definitely worth waiting a week for. I don't like The Power of Friendship plots that much because, aside being overdone, they usually end up very schmalty at the end. But weaponizing it is a plus for me. And seeing Gai on the long-awaited receiving end of this is definitely worth it. Although I still want to see Gai go full-blown breakdown mode like with Sengoku Ryouma finding out Kaito basically ascended humanity without his tech.

Definitely still riding the boat that predicts that Fuwa is a humagear/cyborg/biodroid/human-turned-whatever going by his conversation with Horobi regarding free will and whatnot. I'm also trying to formulate where Horobi's plans lead to. Mainly because I'm thinking two general paths: Drive where Ark becomes "Gold Ark" and hijacks the Big Bad role or Go-Busters where Ark's role goes away and Horobi becomes the Big Bad minus the random French. But there is a third that depends on what the Hooded Lady is in the plotline.

Edited by terumokou on Feb 23rd 2020 at 11:39:01 AM

I would put more stock in Yua being some kind of bioroid. I truly think if Fuwa weren't human, it would have been revealed back when Horobi put him in the hospital. Meanwhile, we don't know much about Yua or why she's still so loyal to Gai despite what he's done. Also, we've never seen her and the Hooded Woman at the same time have we?

It's a coin toss between the guy who nearly dies, got operated by a Humagear as he tried to overcome hacking, repeatedly used Ark equipment that severely hurt him until it didn't and seemed to be gaslighted by both the mysterious Metsubo Jinrai member and Horobi and the girl who works closely with the local tech genius with no regard for human life. Hard choice.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 24th 2020 at 8:01:02 AM

So, double post, but the scans are out for March.

And it's quite the read. Jin's back, and got a power boost with the Burning Falcon Key, and gets a new weapon of his own. Vulcan's also gets another upgrade, Rampage Form, which interestingly uses all the stuff Thouzer has jacked so far, Yua gets turned into a Raider, jackal based, and Horobi is back in action. Well, that's a show.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 26th 2020 at 8:48:47 AM

• Jin and Vulcan are getting a Super Form!
• Ah Yua, her Jackal/Raider Reaper form is definitely causing a bit of a divide within the community and the fandom. I’ll consider it as a Super Form for her, and before anyone says its just a Monster Form, Lord Baron counts as a Final Form, Toei confirmed it, and I’m not going to complain.
• Wonder if that means Fuwa’s going to absorb all of Thouser’s data for his.
• Horobi’s a Mighty Glacier to the base riders form, so if they pull a Gemm X and increase his Ability Perimeters, he should be fine. .

What has not been mentioned yet is the return of Kamen Rider Ikazuchi. Looks like Raiden is also coming back.

Oh yeah. I like Ikazuchi, and his ability parameters could use an enchacement. But between the heroes and villains...well if you count Gai as a true netural in the conflict, its basically 4 v 4, and I hope they play on this. I wanted Gaim, Baron, Ryugen, and either Knuckle or Gridion to have a group alliance against Yggdrasil for a bit (and be hopelessly outmatched at the start), so having the companies vs metsubojinrai net would make a lot of opportunities, cool moments, and group dynamics shine.

• Wonder about Jin's personality and if it'll be reset.

It looks less like companies vs metsubojinrai.net and more like a three way war.

Some interesting stuff. I kinda like the design of the Jackal Raider so I don't mind it if it means Yua actually gets to do something interesting. Wonder if something happens to her Shotriser though, otherwise why not just use the Jackal key in that? And the Metsuboys being back in action might liven things up, the Zaia arc is getting boring.

So thanks to Gai being an asshole, it's not a three way war between Hiden / AIMS, Zaia and Metsuboujinrai.net.

...I just had a thought: If Ark is the way it is due to being fed everything negative about humanity, and Horobi and Jin are connected to it and it's Madden Into Misanthropy / Humans Are the Real Monsters philosophy...

...why not do to them what Izu just did to Aruto? Disconnect them from Ark and connect them to Zea instead?

Ark is literally one half of the story that, and it basically forces other huma-gears to accept that half truth the moment they get a bit angry. So what happens when you're allowed to decide on your own as opposed to being forced to hate humans?

Jin seemed like he was starting to change at one point (the Seine incident) before he got re-hacked into Ark's philosophy, so they could try it with him, but it'd be more interesting in my opinion to do it with Horobi.

He's flown the Kill All Humans banner proudly for a while now, and has never waivered fro it, so no one would expect him to start questioning Ark if there was even the slightest bit of evidence that it was wrong.

The status of Jin and Horobi compared to the usual Magia is a bit confusing. Jin was likely built with the Kill All Humans objective even if he started questioning the morality of it for a minute before resetting, and we don't know why Horobi is doing all of this. And I think the lack of HumaGear "earphones" is so they don't connect with Zea.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 28th 2020 at 2:41:57 PM

That makes sense.

If they connected with Zea, they'd be able to see things from a wider perspective (since Zea probably has more than the evils of humanity programmed into it the way Ark does).

At the very least, we know Horobi's been around since the Daybreak incident, since he was the one on that screen the day it happened.

Interesting new Premium-Bandai - an AIMS themed set with novelty keys (they have other gimmicks instead of working in the Drivers. Also they have voice lines from the actors, because they shove those into everything). A wolf key that doesn't open, and a Cheetah key with a ring that helps you spin it. I can't quite figure out what the other thing is... a case for the Risephone toy? Like the singular Taro ab, it's funny that it exists but there's no way I'm buying it.

That commerical with Fuwa being unable to opening it and Yua spinning around so arrogantly is so funny.

So, Zero One Episode 25.

Well, a bit of a recap. Pretty well done, all things considered. Amatsu's apparent goal is revealed. Selling the Rider System as arms dealing. Cause that won't cause a global disaster. Horobi turns out to have been made as a dad type robot. Explains a lot in hindsight.

And Jin is back, and improved. His fighting style changed too a fair bit. What will this mean for the current power balance remains to be seen.

I can only hope Gai gets his from Metsuboujinrai.net now. He still proves himself a scumbag of the highest calibre.

Also, now that we know it's possible for a Humagear to get normal ears, the theories about someone secretly being a humagear will probably continue....although Izu can scan, so they would need to be advanced enough to fool her and other humagears. My money is still on Yua myself, but maybe Gai could be one. He's more single minded and logic focused than any humagear.

I have noticed that Kamen Rider tends to borrow plot or toy elements from the show from 2 years before. So far Zero One has taken the "Golden Soldier" from Kamen Rider Build but with a much more negative take on the name. Now they have borrowed from Nanba Heavy Industries the idea of the Kamen Riders and something else -then being the Engine/Remocon Bros, Kamen Rider Rogue and Mad Rogue, now it is Kamen Rider Equipment, Thouser and the Raiders- with a crazy rider. I wonder if ZAIA will also include Child Soldiers to complete the Nanba comparison. I am also hoping we can wrap up this 5-round competition arc before the 3-way war between Hiden, ZAIA, and MestuBouJinRai.

Wouldn't be the first time "current Kamen Rider show" borrowed elements from previous riders.

So, we got summaries for the March episodes.

March 8th: To prove human safety, Amatsu Gai challenges Hiden Aruto to a practice fire drill to see how Humagears react to when lives are really endangered. The return of Jin unsettles Isamu Fuwa who believes his revival is his fault and seeks to fix his mistakes.

March 15th: Amatsu Gai is approached by Horobi who disapproves how Ark is being used. Fuwa meanwhile meets with Jin who hands a gift.

March 22nd: Yaiba Yua's dark secret is revealed.

March 29th: The fate of Hiden Intelligence's buyout comes to an end.

Well, things are really picking up. Which is good, because futo tantei is on hiatus until the end of the month and the beginning of this arc was pretty boring.

Oh. That's gonna be interesting.

Like I said before, Jin looking almost human now lends credence to the possibility of one of the characters secretly being a Huma-gear. That little blurb about Yua just pushed her to the front of the line.

Of course, this is still a theory. The possibility of her secret being something else entirely is on the table.

....do we have any theories on that. I'd like to field the possibilities now and see what we come up with.

Damn, revived Jin is looking hot.

With such a high focus on relatively-perfect looking androids, someone being a secret Humagear seems super likely. I genuinely wonder if the fact we got scenes of both Aruto and Fuwa getting medical checks fairly early in the series was deliberately meant to combat that.

I'm guessing you can say that the plot is really heating up :)

What will be next? Them pulling the Venjix plan? That'd be insane.