Kamen Rider Zero-One E29 Review: Tools

Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 29: Our Dreams Won't Be Broken

We pick up right where we left off where Thouser is basically breaking Aruto and the Humagears' reputation in public. And then we get Fuwa charging into the crowd, shooting his gun in the air and telling everyone to disperse because this is now AIMS business. Fuwa is still livid about the whole 'computer chip in the brain' thing, and blames Zaia for what they did to him. Gai tells Fuwa to swear allegiance to him if he wants answers, and tells Fuwa to beat up Aruto to prove his allegiance. Fuwa won't, but then the AI chip activates, and Fuwa speaks in a completely different robotic female voice. Even Yua is surprised by this. Thouser and Assault Vulcan unleash a twin finisher and blow up poor Aruto with two gigantic CGI wolf heads, and everyone present is confused.

We cut to Gai's office, where Gai gives an exposition monologue about how the enhanced chip in Fuwa and Yua's brains are what allows them to become Kamen Riders, but apparently Gai installed the mind of the fourth member of Metsubojinrai.net, someone called Naki, into Fuwa's chip. Gai talks some random stuff about making Fuwa the 'intermediary' or something, but let's be honest, Gai just does things because he's an evil sadist. Gai continually describes Fuwa as a 'tool' and a 'test subject', Gai is able to give Fuwa splitting headaches and make him convulse on the ground, and this whole sequence is basically the showrunners sort of detailing all the foreshadowing that has been done regarding Fuwa's true nature, which... again, I reiterate, is actually pretty decent, all things considered.

We then have a neat little quiet conversation between Yua and Fuwa in like, the Zaia cafeteria or something? Fuwa asks Yua if the brain chip is why Yua is taking orders from a jackass like Gai, but Yua protests, getting angry at being called a tool and insists that she does everything she did on her own accord... but she's clearly flustered at the implication that, yes, she is a tool, she knows it, everyone can see it.

Aruto is facing another sort of confrontation from Fukuzoe and Yamashita, who aren't even angry, and are more disappointed at Aruto's failure and at the fact that they didn't have the foresight to stop Aruto's rap plan. They tell Aruto that with this sort of smear campaign, it doesn't even matter who the real 'bad guy' is anymore. There's around a week left before the vote, and we get this pretty sad montage of Aruto and Izu trying their goddamn best to spread out pamphlets and leaflets and getting nothing but verbal abuse from a bunch of punks. Come the vote day, and we get a very effective shot of Aruto's empty desk, and, obviously, considering recent events, Zaia won in the popularity contest, and the bill passes, meaning that Zaia has successfully won and taken over Hiden. We get a pretty well-shot scene of Fukuzoe calling Aruto while it's raining outside, and Aruto's outside looking at his company. Fukuzoe, this time around, reverts back to his assholish roots, telling Aruto that he never had what it takes to be the president, and now Zaia's buying up all the Hiden stock.

Speaking of cool scenes with rain, Fuwa shows up in a random alley, not remembering how exactly he got here... and apparently he was summoned there by Jin, who hacked into him and is about to set Naki free. But then we get a random katana, and Horobi blocks Jin's gun with his sword. Horobi wants to protect Fuwa, telling Jin that eliminating Fuwa right now is against the will of the Ark, whereas Jin is single-minded in liberating Naki from within a human, which is a pretty interesting conflict. Meanwhile, Fuwa himself is going through a bunch of conflict of his own, flashbacking to when he declared "this is what Kamen Rider Vulcan is all about" to Aruto a couple of episodes back, and he's just sort of trapped within personalities or something. And... and we don't quite get a conclusion to this scene, so it's just kind of weird.

Gai then meets Aruto at dinner, which is basically his victory gloat and his proclamation that he's going to dispose of all the Humagears. Aruto begs and pleads and bows his head to the ground, but Gai doesn't give a fuck and tells Aruto that he no longer has any say in the matter and proceeds to want to destroy all Humagears... starting with the closest one, Izu. Gai summons Fuwa to do so, and Fuwa's still shorting out, going back and forth between Fuwa and Naki, and Yua tries to 'help out' by telling Fuwa to not fight it because he can't defy the president. Fuwa is going to fight it, though, and calls Yua out again for being such a willing tool.

And Yua, all angry, goes into her fancy new Fighting Jackal form and we get her fighting against Metal Cluster Hopper as the fight moves outside of the building and into the streets. And Metal Hopper manages to block the energy scythe attacks, but Yua just jumps around above Aruto and Izu and cuts their escape in a pretty slick move, while Thouser charges in and we get a pretty cool three-way fight as Aruto tries his best to block Yua and Gai's attacks. Izu, still kind of shell-shocked about everything that's going on, stands still for perhaps a bit too long, while Aruto tanks so many attacks.

Fuwa also shows up with his gun and speaks in Naki's feminine voice, and Thouser gloats over his victory, kicking down Aruto and beating him up. Izu's attempt to escape is cut off with a bitch slap from Yua (bitch!) and Thouser gloats about how they are all tools for him to utilize... and then Fuwa gets a flashback, and then jumps in the way of Yua's scythe in a very cool move of him using his gun to block the blade of Yua's weapon. Fuwa then gives this pretty cool speech about ho he's going to find a dream of his own someday, and a purpose and reason to define himself, and he pulls out the new toy, the Rampage Vulcan key. It has a spinny thing!

And then we get the Rampage Vulcan transformation, which is pretty awesome! We get your now-expected "Fuwa makes funny faces when he struggles with 'breaking' open a toy" sequence, then he summons a butt-load of CGI animals that attack Thouser. Then we get one of the more badass transformation scenes as a bunch of bullets appear and start slamming onto Fuwa's body, transforming his body parts one by one, starting with his left arm, then his right arm, then the rest of his suit, and finally the rest of the CGI animals transform into little parts of his armour that fill up the left side of his body. It is badass.

And then Fuwa just goes all in, using the different settings of the Rampage Vulcan form to attack Thouser, first with Rampage Speed Blast, where he channels a bunch of hornet drills to attack Thouser's wolf-heads, before channeling cheetah to speed-blitz Thouser, before summoning just a single wing from falcon. And a single pointed wing is like, such a common trope in anime, but it's still pretty damn badass. And Fuwa just knocks Thouser flat on his ass before facing Yua, telling her that he's not going to listen to what she says until she has a proper answer to the question "what do you live for", basically wanting to beat her to free her or something.

And then Fuwa goes for the 'power' setting, and it's badass, particularly with the camera work. His feet sinks into the concrete and he completely tanks Yua's scythe, and then just punches the scythe in half, and we get some pretty badass camerawork as Fuwa just stomps through the concrete, kicks Yua into the air and then does a finisher while transformed into a giant CGI shark. And then Fuwa channels all of the animals in an "all rampage", and unleashes a gigantic rainbow bullet. In a nice little touch, the falcon wing from the speed rampage sprouts out to brace Fuwa into the ground, and the bullet just breaks through all of Fuwa's dumb glowing funnel attacks and he blows up both Gai and Yua.

And that's badass and all, but then Gai slinks away, telling Fuwa and Aruto that they will pay for defying the will of Zaia, but Aruto refuses to let his dreams be crushed. Gai and Yua slink away and... and we sort of get the epilogue to this act, and the good guys lose. And... and I don't mind that as much, as it's going to shake up the show and the story. Zaia claims Hiden as a subsidiary and we get Gai wiping off everything on Aruto's desk and smugly claiming the Zero One Driver. Aruto quits and has this little farewell with Fukuzoe and Yamashita, both of whom elects to stay to see the company to the end, while Aruto will chase his dream in his own way. And then the camera zooms into Aruto's face as he walks away.

It's all pretty interesting, and it sure is a huge, eventful end to the Thouser arc. The fact that it became super Fuwa-centric is an interesting choice, although I feel like Fuwa's storyline in these two episodes upon learning that he's basically been played like a fiddle by everyone around him is pretty damn interesting. Gai's still a villain that I feel could've been handled a lot better, and I feel like as a whole this arc had way too many exposition that didn't quite feel as 'earned', y'know? But still, this episode was very, very fun to watch through.

Random Notes:

• The opening doesn't actually play in this episode, which means we get a couple of extra minutes of exposition and stuff, which we actually kind of need considering the sheer amount of events that took place in this one.
• So both Fuwa and Yua need a chip to transform, but does Aruto have one? Does Gai? Or is it just something inherent to the Shotriser users?
• Fuwa having a Metsubojinrai.net chip is apparently why he's able to use the Assault Wolf key despite it being designed for the Metsubojinrai.net riders, which is a neat little thing that I thought was either a plot hole or just Fuwa going to slowly get corrupted by the Ark. 
• But where is Izu at the end of the episode? She sort of disappears after the end of the battle. Presumably we'll learn that in the next episode.
• The Gimmick Watch:
• "Rampage bullet! All Rise! Full Shot Rise! Rampage Gatling! Mammoth, cheetah, hornet, tiger, polar bear, scorpion, shark, kong, falcon, wolf."
• "Speed Rampage. Rampage speed blast!" The speed animals are hornet, cheetah and falcon. We get some OOO-style medal symbols for the animals!
• "Power Rampage. Rampage power blast!" The power animals are gorilla, mammoth and shark. 
• "Power! Speed! Element! All rampage! Rampage All Blast!" Which means that the polar bear, tiger and scorpion are considered 'element', I'm assuming?