Kamen Rider Zero-One E28 Review: Vote By Rap

Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 28: My Rap Will Change the World

So for better or for worse, this is going to be the two-parter that closes out this inconsistently-paced Thouser arc. And it's not like the arc was terrible or anything, it's just that the pacing has been so wildly inconsistent since December, and while Amatsu Gai's actor is great, the way the character has been handled ends up being a fair bit less interesting than he otherwise could've been. He's an unlikable douchebag that does a lot of evil, nasty things, and while he's well-acted and a very effective villain, there's really not a lot of new things that we learn about him in the span of nine episodes.

This episode is basically what the previous episode promises, which is a popularity contest in a public vote for the reconstruction of Daybreak Town, something that's going to garner both pro-Humagear and anti-Humagear viewpoints. Gai's cronies this time around are a bunch of local politicians, led by Representative Yutou, who, despite having a total screentime of less than five minutes in this episode, has basically check-listed all of the tropes of the slimy, over-friendly, actually-corrupt politician.

Apparently (and obviously) Humagears aren't allowed to go into politics, so Aruto's fresh out of luck... and in comes MC Checkitout, who yo-yo-yo's into the room and talks in all rap and he is glorious, rapping all the time. Also, a surprising appearance of a non-Japanese actor, which is always welcome. This leads to the completely surreal bit where we get to see Representative Yutou talking about how these filthy Humagears are dangerous and will steal all of our jobs and shit, and then MC Checkitout shows up, talks about showing his soul and gives this long full on rap about humans and Humagears living in harmony, yo yo yo, and Aruto's baffled that it's even working as MC Checkitout raps about all the humagear jobs and cooperation and getting rid of teenage depression yeah and it works. Hell, Aruto's subsequent speech and pun, which is met with a dry reception, ends up getting a massive ovation when Checkitout and Izu strike a pose, which is hilarious.

While all of this is going on, Yua hands over her Dashing Cheetah key to Gai and they talk about having all the data for the 'ultimate weapon', and all that's left is to buy out Hiden and obtain Satellite Zea (or "Satellite There", as it's apparently properly called). Gai gives yet another 'Kamen Rider mythos' speech, before giving Yua a Raid Riser belt and the Fighting Jackal key.

And then, a slightly abrupt plot revelation, but this one, unlike some of the others that the show has done, is actually foreshadowed a bit through a couple of scenes in this arc. It's just that perhaps the foreshadowing isn't quite enough, and they all happened in what are otherwise filler-esque episodes. Fuwa confronts Gai about the whole Raid Riser situation, promising to hunt down Metsubojinrai.net, and Gai very casually tells Fuwa that both he and Yua have a chip in their brains with A.I. in it, which allows them to utilize the Shotriser, and maybe Metsubojinrai.net hacked Fuwa? This would explain the random headaches Fuwa has had in recent episodes, particularly when he was going around chasing the mysterious hooded figure 'Death', as well as all the cryptic stuff Horobi has been saying to Fuwa.

Fuwa is absolutely enraged at this, and we get another Vulcan-vs-Thouser fight, including a brief bit of the CGI animals fighting. They fight on the streets, and Thouser unleashes a cheetah jacking break, where he zips around and unleashes multiple sickle-shaped beams, but then a random purple arrow hits Thouser, and then another purple arrow explodes into a couple dozen more mid-air, leading to a pretty cool scene where Thouser summons the Flying Falcon CGI bird to block the arrows and then fly him around. It's the grand return of Horobi, of course, and he goes around Kaban Shooting Thouser in the back. And while the grand return of Kamen Rider Horobi is pretty cool, once he knows who he's fighting against, Thouser easily overpowers and blocks the arrow blasts. Horobi boasts that A.I. get stronger the more they are allowed to learn, and he's been reading Gai's movements, and he unleashes a Sting Kaban Shoot, unleashing multiple purple spears (which also somehow turns the street into night time). Gai retreats, mocking Fuwa for being protected by terrorist robots, and, of course, Horobi is ever-enigmatic about the Ark's will regarding his actions.

While we get some villain-on-villain action, another villain, Representative Yutou, are laughing and being stereotypical greedy politicians, and Aruto, Checkitout and Izu are just.... hiding in a side-room? And they reveal themselves and forcibly scatter the bribe money they have hidden under a mochi box around? Obviously, the politicians are greedy and they are actually colluding with Zaia, and the crowd around Yutou are all actually paid Zaia employees, and Aruto gives them this long speech about how politicians are supposed to make the world a better place for the people but they are actually scum. I mean, all politicians are, but still. 

Of course, poor, naive Aruto brings this all to a public, televised forum, and while Aruto at least has some restraint, MC Checkitout is very impulsive, immediately calling out the politicians and shows off Yutou's dirty bribe deeds on live television. Yutou, of course, has his own alibi with Zaia spec footage showing him busy at work, and accuses Hiden of creating a Humagear copy and using it to fabricate the truth. That's what happens, of course, when you get amateurs on this duplicity game facing off against slimy politicians. This ends up enraging MC Checkitout so much that he doesn't even want to stick to the script anymore, and all he wants to do is to 'diss my enemies with my rage'. It's interesting that unlike all the other Humagears disgusted with humanity, Checkitout doesn't seem to be connected to the Ark's malice or whatever? He just straight-up starts ranting about how dirty humans should be destroyed and Humagears should run the government, and I'm not sure if Gai or Jin or Horobi or someone is secretly hacking Checkitout.

Gai, of course, turns this into a Raidriser advertisement, telling Yua to transform into the Fighting Jackal Raider to show off how people can protect themselves against these dirty, nasty monsters by purchasing a Raidriser (presented by Zaia), and Yua transforms into a Fighting Jackal, which is a sweet sweet monster suit with a scythe. While everyone is looking at Jackal-Valkyrie, Gai slyly kicks over a Zetsumerize Driver towards Checkitout, who voluntarily picks it up and transforms into a Dodo Magia.

And then we get the Jackal Raider fighting against the Dodo Magia, and then Aruto transforms into Kamen Rider Zero-One and then Gai turns into Kamen Rider Thouser and I absolutely love just how increasingly surprised the random crowd around them are. Aruto wants to try and save Checkitout, while the two Zaia people wants to murder the MC, and Gai being Gai, he keeps working the crowd, condemning Aruto for refusing to destroy the clearly dangerous and out-for-blood Magia. Everyone starts chanting and praising Zaia, and poor Aruto is even more shocked and surprised at the public opinion turning against him so quickly. Eventually, Yua unleashes a very awesome Fighting Bolide finisher, which has some very cool shadowy energy animation as she completely obliterates MC Checkitout, and then the surrounding crowd chants about how great Zaia is and how much Aruto and the Humagears suck.

And the final scene is Fuwa, still fuming over his brain chip... and he meets Jin, sitting on top of a dumpster and apologizing for hacking into Fuwa because he did it to free Horobi. And Jin shows Fuwa the real footage from the breakout... apparently the mysterious, unseen hooded figure that freed Horobi is... Fuwa himself. Which, again, kind of makes sense, considering how every time we saw the mysterious hooded figure it's almost exclusively from Fuwa's point of view, and the couple of times that we didn't it's when Fuwa was alone with Horobi. It's actually a plot twist that was built up pretty subtly and executed pretty smartly. It's just that the revelation is... kind of bizarre.

Anyway, not a whole ton to say here. Yua's new Fighting Jackal form is cool as balls; the development with Fuwa's going to be interesting; MC Checkitout gives us a fun rap; and Gai's motivations are as blurry as ever beyond vague rants about profit, mythos, one thousand percent, weapons and being a dick. It's a decent enough standalone episode, although it still does have a couple of the same pacing problems. Hopefully with next episode concluding this Thouser arc, we'll sweep this poor pacing under the rug and the next arc would be better paced? We'll see.

Random Notes:

• Absolutely adore the running gag of Izu and Checkitout doing badass rap POSE every now and then. The best part is during Checkitout's huge speech to the public, and the camera zooms out and Izu is already wearing the Checkitout-brand sweater and following the crowd, much to Aruto's surprise.
• Also on the thread of the 'Izu is adorable' is the little scoreboard graphic she shows with animated caricatures of Aruto, Izu, Gai and Yua.
• I absolutely love the scene where Fukuzoe and Yamashita show up in Aruto's office, complaining that the rap is only reaching the younger audience, and bemoaning MC Checkitout's non-standard clothing choices, even putting out a proposed suit-and-tie for Checkiout which the Humagear is absolutely offended by. 
• So, uh, how did Gai get the A.I. chip inside Fuwa's head in the first place? 
• We briefly get to see another Progrise Key being fabricated, seemingly on Gai's orders, and it's a blue one with a wolf's head and a weird spinny dial thing on the end. 
• The Gimmick Watch:
• "Hunt! Raid rise. Fighting Jackal! Deciding the fate of a battle like a valkyrie."