Kamen Rider Zero-One: Hyper Battle DVD

Kamen Rider Zero-One: Hyper Battle DVD: What Will Hop Out of the Kangaroo? Decide on your Kangaro-own! That's How You Know It's Aruto!

A faster episode review this time around. I wasn't super sure about how to handle these 'special' episodes, becuase since Ex-Aid Kamen Rider have been really giving us a whole ton of extra content outside of the regular TV show. But hey, I'll talk about the ones I watch, I suppose. These Hyper Battle DVD's tended to just be jokey one-off segments with a far more zany and comedic tone than the show usually has, and the premise for this one is pretty simple -- Aruto has to make a new power-up item when the rest of his Progrise Keys are lost.

The special episode starts with Jin, who sort of dicks around with the Zetsumerize keys they have in the Metsu-base. He trips and drops them onto the cables that are connected to the Ark, and this creates a brand-new Zetsumerize Key with "???" on it. Aruto and Izu, meanwhile, are wandering around and come across a boke and tsukkomi comedic act, featuring the robot comedian Boketarou, and Aruto gets nostalgic for a comedic duo he was once part of and we get into a conversation about friends and by god Aruto, you're a massive moron if your response to "do you have some nakama" isn't instantly "it's you!" That's the emotional plot of the Battle DVD, I suppose.

We get our requisite action as Jin transforms Boketarou with the new key and turns him into the Vicarya Magia... but unlike a regular Vicarya Magia, Boketarou is very hard and resistent to Zero-One's attacks. Which I think is a joke on his 'hard' jokes or something? Izu apparently took the wrong suitcase, bringing instead the vice-president's holiday equipment instead of the Progrise Key suitcase, leading Aruto to get himself beaten up and literally stabbed in the anus by the Vicarya Magia. Then Boketarou reveals that he can change forms between different Magias, turns into the Onycho, and then buggers off.

We just jump from joke to joke, including a bit where Izu is about to commit seppuku with a gigantic wrench that she wants to unscrew her head with, which is easily one of the funniest jokes in the special. Less funny is the protracted arguing scene between Aruto and Satellite Zea, with giant question marks and whatnot, and eventually the vice president's tour guide book gets tossed into the Zea fabricator and the cartoon kangaroo on the cover gets turned into a new Progrise Key.

Aruto fights the Transforming Magia in front of a warehouse (tm) and we get a cool little palm-thrust moment, but Aruto gets overwhelmed before Izu appears with the sweetest smile and explains a pun Aruto makes, before giving Aruto the brand-new Hopping Kangaroo Progrise Key. The ability is 'pocket', and apparently it's a Doraemon-style pocket dimension? It also comes with the requisiste punching ability of the kangaroo, allowing Aruto to bop Boketarou in the face, and then we get into something that's not necessarily funny, but just kind of bizarre. Hopping Kangaroo's pouch pocket opens, and a terribly CGI'd Nigiro (the sushi chef humagear) stretches out of the pocket and manifests in front of a sushi stand, and starts cooking sushi... and apparently Hopping Kangaroo will translate the occupation of nearby Humagears into attacks. Aruto demolishes Boketarou's shellfish form with a hammer and a salt blast, he turns into the Onycho form and runs into the dark warehouse, and Aruto chases him in and summons Mamoru, who uses the power of security guard flashlights to knock him off his perch. Then Mamoru straight-up joins Aruto in suplexing the Onycho Magiaa!

We need more action, so we get Jin transforming and charging in, and then Vulcan immediately shows up, and then Boketarou tarnsforms into the Frog Magia, summoning CGI frog babies. Aruto's pocket kangaroo dimension summons Matsurida Zed, and they use the power of dance to repel the CGI frog babies. Meanwhile, Vulcan gets to use one of the Zaia Progrise Keys we'll probably never see a form for, Trapping Spider, to trap Jin onto a spider-web. That's unexpected and kind of cool. But the Aruto-vs-Magia fight ends up knocking Vulcan onto the web, and then Aruto unleashes his finisher, a comedic ora-ora-ora flurry of boxing punches that blows up not just the Magia, but also Vulcan and Jin as well. The fight concludes with Aruto making this nice sappy speech about how he is so thankful for the Humagears (before they disappear?) and just scampering off with Izu, completely ignoring the fact that Vulcan was there moments ago. Both Fuwa and Jin are still stuck on the spider-web in the toku warehouse.

The episode ends in Aruto's office as he gets the progrise key suitcase back, he gives a brief talk about how all humagears are his nakama, then we cut to a huge over-acted jyaaaaaaaan joke with Aruto and Izu dressed up as a comedic duo with glittery suits.

It's fun stuff. Admittedly a lot of the bite that the Hyper Battle DVD would have had with the Humagear actors returning is kind of muted considering that I just watched an episode of Zero-One where the same thing happens in a much larger scale in a larger scale. Plus, I don't think Hopping Kangaroo's gimmick is all that funny or awesome enough to really end up elevating it beyond a bizarre one-off form. Still, for a Hyper Battle DVD, I suppose this one is all right. The Zero-One cast do lend well to more comical outings. 

Random Notes:

• Hyper Battle DVD's have been kind of these little joke-y one-off episodes that have been a staple since... Agito, I think? These are little special DVD's that come packaged with the Televi-kun magazine. A lot of the earlier series had varying premises, but they almost always were tongue-in-cheek, ridiculous, and from Kabuto onwards tended to debut a new tie-in form or weapon that is exclusive to the Hyper Battle DVD. For a while, the Hyper Battle DVD's also were in the form of those 'select your own path' interactive DVD segments, but a lot of the more recent ones are just straigth-up episdoes. 
• The Gimmick Watch:
• "Pocket! Authorize. Progrise! The Fourth Dimension of Space! In its pouch contains infinite possibilities."
• "Territory! Progrise Key Confirmed. Spider's Ability: Kaban Shot!"
• The fact that Aruto knows Matsurida Zed, but Metsubojinrai.net is still active, means that the placement of this special can only be slotted in-between episodes 13 (the end of the Dodo Magia arc) and 14 (where all the Mestubojinrai.net stuff went down). 
• Jin doodling a bizarre fusion of all the Magia is adorable. 
• It does feel a bit muted considering episode 24 had a much stronger "all Humagears gather together to help Aruto" moment, but considering the DVD was released long before that episode, I suppose it's a neat foreshadowing for the direction the show is taking?