Kamen Rider Zero-One: Others Metsubojinrai

Kamen Rider Zero-One: Others: Metsubojinrai 

I said I'll get to these eventually, right? One year late is still eventually in a way, right? I was going to do a more comprehensive breakdown like what I did with the RealxTime movie, but... but I really didn't actually have all that much to say about these. "Others" is a bit of an epilogue in the style of Ex-Aid's "Another Ending" trilogy, giving us a new threat and wrapping up the stories of the secondary characters. New toys/forms are involved, of course. 

Except... I don't know. Between the ending of Zero-One and the RealxTime movie, I felt like the stories for most of the characters involved here are done. Yes, it's left rather open-ended, but it's not like "Dan Kuroto escapes karma because the good guys forgot that he's a mass murderer and he never gets his comeuppance". It's not quite as bizarrely unnecessary as Build or Zi-O's post-series extras since Zero-One: Others doesn't have to work within the confines of an alternate universe, but... I don't know. I don't dislike Zero-One Others, but at the same vein I don't love everything about it either. 

The whole thing runs for around 50 minutes each, making this a pretty significant storyline. The first entry, Metsubojinrai, involves the introduction of our villain-of-the-arc (hee hee), Mr. Arkland, the head of Zaia USA, who's creating something called 'Project Sold', and is in cahoots with Azu. Meanwhile, Aruto is off in space dealing with some satellite business, meaning that he's not going to do much other than show up for a cameo here and there -- it's the same kind of main-character-shuffling that they did with Emu in Ex-Aid: Another Ending, and since I feel like Aruto and Izu's story was beautifully wrapped up in RealxTime, this was definitely a great decision. 

The big story point that we never really got to wrap up, of course, is the reason behind Jin's rebirth. It was kind of handwaved as 'another Zaia faction did it', and turns out that Jin's second body is 'Sold Zero', the first of a new generation of robot-people called Solds... I guess the major difference is that the Solds are specifically built for warfare? Arkland shows up in a black version of the Thouser suit called Kamen Rider Zaia ("I AM THE PRESIDENT", screams the belt) and he beats the crap out of Horobi and Jin. 

All this while, the two kind of have... not exactly an argument, but they share their different viewpoints, with Jin thinking about how nice it'd be if there's no conflict anymore and everyone can live in peace and the Ark won't show up looking for a new host... while Horobi's a bit more cynical. I feel like this might be the biggest thing that made the 'Others' series feel so different from the main series -- the tone it takes is generally a bit more cynical and less headstrong-optimistic. And that's not necessarily a bad thing! It's just odd compared to the series this is supposed to be a sequel to, is all. 

Jin gets captured by the Solds and gets integrated into the whole Mass Brain system, where they try to forcibly integrate Jin into a hive-mind. I'd... I'd honestly take this a bit more seriously if it wasn't just a bunch of stone-faced Solds yelling at Jin a whole bunch. I don't know... even something like Aruto being overwhelmed by the Ark back in the Zero-One TV series and him sinking into a sea of hatred feels a lot more dramatic than the Solds just staring at Jin and yelling at him a bunch. 

All four of the Metsubojinrai Kamen Riders show up and fight against the Solds because, well, they want to free other forms of A.I. from this kind of tool-enslavement. We get a fight scene and... through it, the four Metsubojinrai A.I. basically decide that they share the same will and transform into Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai. Except Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai is, well, it's very single-minded. It speaks in perfect English, which is fun, but is basically completely uncontrollable and doesn't quite have the same degree of sentience that Jin, Horobi, Naki and Ikazuchi have. 

The four individual Metsubojinrai characters wake up after Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai disintegrates and they kind of panic because they lost their senses of self. Arkland monologues about how he's going to need to fabricate an 'evil', and Metsubojinrai is going to fill the role of the evil-to-be-vanquished so he can sell his Solds. Which... again, would feel a lot more impactful if this exact same plot hasn't already been repeated multiple times in the Zero-One story itself. He does give a pretty cool monologue, about how Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai is even more unstoppable because it's powered by a sense of 'justice' instead of 'hatred' like the previous Kamen Rider Arks, but ultimately... I don't know. I guess I'm just a bit burnt out by the repetitive plot?

Also, for all the setup that Azu gets in the first half of this movie, she gets very unceremoniously shot and killed off by Arkland's goons. It's kind of disappointing, honestly.  

Metsubojinrai's members kind of fracture over their mission to protect other A.I. and liberate the Solds... but they also can't fight humanity. Of course, they choose the exact wrong time to broadcast their "we will not tolerate enslavement of our A.I. brethren", because it's in the middle of a public address given by Yua -- which also gets interrupted by Arkland. All of these is kind of just setup for the 'Vulcan/Valkyrie' movie, but at the same time Arkland talks a bunch about the dark legacy of Hiden and that particular story is never really followed up on. 

Interestingly, what drove Metsubojinrai over the edge is basically Fuwa, who shows up to talk to Horobi. Horobi asks Fuwa a rhetorical question -- what happens if someone goes after people you care about? And Fuwa's answer is "I'll obliterate them with all I got". And that, I think, is what makes Horobi change his resolution to help Jin out and form Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai as an entity that will give its all to free the Solds. 

As Fuwa and the Solds witness the fight, Metsubojinrai.net transforms into Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai, becoming a mindless, soulless killing machine just to get rid of Arkland and free the Solds. Except they go too far, they straight-up kill Arkland, blow up the Zaia building, and keep talking in absolutes like "Zaia will be extinct", "Metsubojinrai will be extinct", and... and they basically become an uncontrollable beast, leading to the downer ending as Yua is dispatched by Japan's minister of defense to eliminate Metsubojinrai.net once and for all. 

I don't know. Maybe it's because I really didn't care for Arkland as a character (which might be just me -- the hammy acting is certainly entertaining, but I feel like maybe they could've focused more on him, or dragged him a bit into the next movie to give him time to breathe?), or maybe because the sudden switch from an optimistic ending with Metsubojinrai as a shadow vigilante dealing with rogue A.I. into them being forced to make a tragic choice is a bit too far... but it's a good story. I'm just not entirely sure why I'm not fully invested. Maybe it's the fact that the movie isn't entirely clear why they need the fusion-mind of Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai, since Arkland doesn't feel that interesting? Maybe it's because they haven't even tried to ask Aruto, or Yua, or Gai, or Fuwa for help? Maybe it's because I genuinely am not invested in the Sold storyline? I don't know. It's still a very solid story especially all throughout the two-parter (we'll cover Vulcan & Valkyrie next week-ish) but I do feel like they could've done this twist in a bit more gradual manner.