Kamen Rider Zero-One E17 Review: [Presented by ZAIA]

Kamen Rier Zero-One, Episode 17: I'm the Only President and Kamen Rider

After the brief week-long hiatus thanks to new year celebrations and stuff, Kamen Rider Zero-One is back... and it's interesting? After the madcap pace of the past three or four episodes (in retrospect we really could've shuffled the events around a bit to let the end-of-year episodes have more room to breathe) it's neat to have an episode that's just a bit slower-paced. The episode quickly reminds us that Zaia Enterprises and its CEO Amatsu Gai wants to take over Hiden Intelligence, and we get to see one of Zaia's products -- the Zaia-Spec [presented by ZAIA], which is a next-generation interface attached to a pair of glasses that allow humans to have the mental processing abilities of an AI. Even though you have to also have a gigantic chunk of metal slapped onto the side of your head. 

Then we cut to Aruto and Gai having tea, with Gai boasting about how his product is selling some 700%+ more than Humagears... and then Aruto gets the pretty hilarious, deadpan comeback of "but it's not at 1000%, huh." leading to the absolutely most triggered, reining-in-anger face from Gai. The conversation leads to Gai proposing a competition between humans using the Zaia-Spec and Humagears, and Gai will give up the hostile takeover if he wins this bet. Said competition will apparently take five rounds (hopefully not five whole episodes) and the first competition? Flower arranging. 

And we get an interesting scene showing both Aruto and Gai recruiting their respective champions. Aruto recruits the florist Humagear Ichirin Sakuyo, who admits that she knows how to raise flowers and be kind to them, but not how to do flower arrangement... which Izu fixes by basically letting Sakuyo go through the Satellite Zea instant tutorial. Why don't we do more of these again? Izu also makes an actual bad pun on 'ikebana', which is adorable, she's trying to actually understand Aruto's terrible jokes and the resulting scene is cute. Meanwhile, Gai recruits the grand-master of the Tachibana floral arrangement school, who's kind of a dick.

A Kuehne Magia rampages and starts attacking people, though, causing Aruto to transform and fight, but troublingly so, the magia doesn't even have a Zetsumerize Key or a belt slapped on by the inactive Metsu-boys. Aruto manages to beat the magia pretty quickly with a Biting Shark finisher, but the problem is less anout defeating the Magia and more about why it went berserk.

The flower arranging contest begins with Yua (who resigned from AIMS) as a pretty angry MC for the show, but turns out that Grandmaster Tachibana wins, creating a massive, elaborate display while Sakuya's is more modest. The judges are taken in by Tachibana's flower thing and criticizes a broken stalk that ruins Sakuya's arrangement, and Gai starts talking about it's a 1000% victory for humanity over robots, how this is proof that humanity can evolve. VERY interesting that this message, usually inspiring to us human viewers, is portrayed as the antagonistic one! And Sakuya... starts talking about how flower arrangement is supposed to reflect the heart and Tachibana's heart is repulsive. That's some shade and while Tachibana sure is arrogant, I'm not sure why Sakuya is so angry at him... is it really supposed to be her being a sore loser? Whatever the case, Tachibana proves to be a dick immediately afterwards, slapping the shit out of Sakuya and knocking her to the ground. What a dick!

This scene, by the way, takes place concurrent to Fuwa interrogating Horobi with his toy gun, who finally breaks away from his will-of-the-Ark spiel to talk about how humanity's malice is what made the Humagears go berserk... and as she picks herself out of the ground, the Ark connects with Sakuya and she goes all crazy, ranting about how humans are evil and should be exterminated, transforming into an Onycho Magia. Aruto jumps into battle, using the Flying Falcon form (Jin's deeeead) and trying his best to talk Sakuya down.

And then Amatsu Gai shows up and, of course, transforms into Kamen Rider Thouser... boasting about how Zaia's driver combines both Zetsumerize Key and Progrise Key, using the Arsino and Hercules Beetle keys in conjunction to become Thouser. That's five horns from the extinct rhino and the beetle, as the belt points out, and I absolutely love how everything about Thouser is presented like a commercial. From Gai's pontificating to the hilarious copyright sign at the finishers to, best of all, the little [presented by ZAIA] at the end of the jingle.

Thouser... starts to immediately beat up poor Aruto, showing off how he's able to steal abilities with his Thousand Jacker lance -- which admittedly doesn't look the part. The stolen ability just ends up looking like a generic beam. Thouser kills Sakuya, then we get a pretty cool fight between Thouser and Shining Hopper, and for a moment Aruto seems to be able to fight on a level playing field with his speed-clone thing, but then when he lands a hit it doesn't even phase Thouser, who then proceeds to unleash a series of rider kicks, and blows Aruto up. A five round competition this ain't!

Gai then gives a bit of a motive rant, telling Aruto how he idolized Korenosuke but didn't agree with his methods and especially his successor -- noting how Hiden had declined thanks to their focus on A.I... and Gai just wants to keep evolution on track and prove that his way is the right way, offering Aruto  that he too can help out by joining him. Also, the episode ends with an enigmatic hooded figure stealing a belt and a key (bison?) from Zaia.

Overall, a solid one. We've got a new crisis,  new Rider and a new focus on the conflict that's a neat development. Kind of a slower episode, but a decent one.

Random Notes:

• It's sort of pretty random for the episode to start with Aruto and Izu dressing in kimonos and bow and wish the audience (and the VP squad) happy new year. But it is Aruto and he is a comedian, so while somewhat forced it's kind of on-brand for Aruto's silly hijinks. 
• Also adorable is Izu doing a little pun-joke and popping off a little confetti during the sequence.
• Also also adorable is Aruto and Izu doing double finger guns when encouraging Sakuya.
• We get a little bobble-head figure of Shester giving exposition for Zaia, which reminds me of the tongue-in-cheek recaps for Kamen Rider Build. It's cute. 
• Speaking of Shester, her robotic, emotionless villain laugh makes a return this episode. 
• The Gimmick Watch:
• "Thousand Driver. Zetsumetsu Evolution! Break. Horn. Perfect rise! When the five horns cross the golden soldier Thouser is born. [Presented by ZAIA]" You know what? Thouser's silly belt noises might be my favourite out of the show's many silly belt noises. 
• Thouser's weapon makes the sound "Thousand Jacker! Jack Rise!" when stealing powers, and then unleashes "Jacking Break", in English letters, as its finisher. Against Shining Hopper, the finisher Thouser uses is "Thousand Destruction."
• Thouser's finishers are in English as opposed to the other Kamen Riders' katakana or the Mestubojinrai.net's kanji. They are an international company!
• Is this the first time we've seen the "Zero One Buster Bomber" with the shotgun-axe? It's the first time we've seen Biting Shark used, in any case, which summons two giant hologram chainsaws to chomp through the unfortunate Magia. 
• Seriously, though, the fact that a little "copyright: Zaia Enterprise" shows up slightly under the god-dang finishing moves is easily the most stupidly charming thing about Thouser's finishers. 
• Another show, another era in Japan's history, but we still have another Tachibana, huh? "Tachibana" is a recurring surname based on the original Kamen Rider's primary supporting character, and varying characters with the name Tachibana have shown up over the years with differing degrees of importance to the plot.