Kamen Rider Zero-One E38 Review: The Expected Heel-Face Turn

Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 38: I'm 1000% Your Friend

You know... I'm not sure why this was so unexpected. Ever since like halfway through the Heisei era, it's been basically kind of a given that any evil or antagonistic character with the 'Kamen Rider' moniker will end up being redeemed at around the second half of the season. Sometimes the reason is simply mind-control (Chalice, Rogue) or them being manipulated or forced to be a bad guy (Chaser, Specter) or there just being a much scarier villain that the antagonistic dudes decided to help out (the Hopper Bros, half of Gaim's cast) or them just not understanding the whole picture (Necrom, Grease, Paradox). But the thing is, one of the biggest complains about Ex-Aid is how readily the cast forgives Dan Kuroto, Kamen Rider Genm, because for around two-thirds of the show Kuroto is just this massive card-carrying villain. And Amatsu Gai in this show is basically everything Kuroto is, but even worse because Kuroto is at least a clear lunatic and would later get his comeuppance in the epilogue. Gai, on the other hand, is just cruel, malicious, and feels perhaps just a bit too real as a villain compared to the more 'I AM GOD!!!' Kuroto.

And that's not to say that a good enough writing couldn't redeem Gai. Like, Jin and Horobi were pretty much shitbags at the beginning of the show and yet Jin's basically a good guy in all but name, and Horobi's already one foot in both worlds. Hell, even the vice-president team, and arguably Fuwa and Yua, also went through a redemption arc. But one thing that they all had in common is that their character growth happened gradually. Gai's been complete shit and even more shit every single episode he shows up in, and just giving us a random episode with a random sob story flashback for Gai... I don't know. I think that for me to buy this plot development I really would need Gai to get tried and essentially go down voluntarily for the gigantic stack of evil misdeeds he's done (you can't just go around yelling 'he has 1300 evil incriminating data!'). I don't know. I have enough confidence in this season's writing team, but on the other hand I could also totally see them seeing this episode, nodding and saying 'yup, Gai's a good guy now.'

Anyway, the episode begins basically how you expect it to. Waving around the USB with all the incriminating data just gives Gai an excuse to snap it in half and also run into Aruto's hidden laboratory to delete all the digital files. Make goddamn copies of your data, vice presidents! Aruto and Izu arrive to help out the vice presidents in dealing with crazy old Gai, and Fukuzoe gets another cool line about how Aruto's the only person that can rebuild the company. Of course, at this point everyone is against Gai, even Satellite Zea, and no matter how over-the-top Gai presses the enter button, Zea refuses to authorize the production of the Raid-Risers.

We get a particularly hilarious bit where Gai is absolutely freaked out when one of the older-model Humagears reveals a Batman-style secret elevator to allow Aruto and his gang in, and Fukuzoe tells Gai that all the Raidriser preorders were already canceled (gasp, the preorders!). Gai, on the other hand, quickly recovers and uses Fukuzoe's 'sabotage of the company's financial gain' as 'grounds for termination'. And Gai wants to straight-up kill Fukuzoe and transforms into Thouser! It's Fukuzoe and the scenes around him are mostly in a comical tone, but still, Gai straight-up wants to kill the dude in cold blood. This attack on a non-transformed human as a Kamen Rider is apparently against company policy, and we get a fun scene of Izu just grabbing Fukuzoe and tossing him onto the upper level. Aruto transforms into Metal Cluster Hopper, and quickly beats the shit out of Gai with a Final Strash, ripping the Thousandriver away from Gai's stomach.

Meanwhile, Gai's completely defeated, and they have forwarded all of the footage of Gai's abuse of power to Zaia. Fukuzoe gives a speech about how a company is made by its employees, and Aruto talks about the dreams and values of this company... and Gai gets a mental breakdown, running up and screaming as he hugs a stupid chair and yelling about how he's finally reached that position and he won't give it up. Aruto (correctly) guesses that Gai is obsessed with Hiden Intelligence because he actually secretly loves the company, but Gai actually caring for anything is such an alien idea that we're treated to the vice president duo laughing and Shesta (god bless her) joining in with her robotic laugh. Interestingly, Aruto claims that he actually doesn't plan on coming back to Hiden Intelligence, since he has his small company he built from zero, Hiden Ltd, that needs him. Aruto talks about how a president should do what's best for the sake of the company, baffling Gai even more that Aruto would give it up for a shitty meager operation.

Of course, an emergency interrupts their discussion, and Ark-inside-Jin is shooting real-ass bullets at the humans in the space development center. It's pretty unnerving. As Aruto heads off to deal with the robo-terrorists, Gai... sits on his desk, and Ai-chan, which was knocked loose from Aruto's pockets in the fight, talks to Gai, and is all friendly and wants to be his friend and shit, and Gai starts rambling about his mantra -- 'rely on no one, succeed entirely by your own merits'. And we get... the Gai flashback. Gai's completely filled with bile towards Ai-chan, but he tells the story anyway.

And... and I get it. Gai's got a shitty childhood. His father is a piece of shit who keeps putting pressure on him, tells him that getting 100 on a maths test is merely acceptable and how Gai should always be pushing towards 1000. And turns out that Gai's only friend is a little robotic dog in the vein of Tekno or Poo-chi from the early 2000's. And it's an old Hiden product, a Doggear called Thouser, which does cute little poses and is able to recognize that Gai's a lonely, emotionally stunted kid. Of course, at one point little Gai scores 99 on his test, and his dad tells him what a piece of shit he is and forces him to return Thouser back to the store, forcing him to make the idea that he needs to succeed only on his own.

And... I really would like to have this flashback have some extra bits highlighting Gai's own personality and character quirks throughout the season, because I don't think it's ever been 'succeeding by his own merits', and more 'use everyone else like a tool'. I don't think it would've been that hard to adapt some of Gai's shitty dad's dialogues to reflect that. But hey, okay.

Meanwhile, Aruto arrives on the space station, and we get a very, very cool scene of Aruto riding the Zero-One bike. We haven't seen that bike in a long, long while, huh? And even less so that we saw a non-transformed Aruto riding it in an action scene. I really appreciate this bit, and the theme song playing in the background, the hopper buddy bursting out of the sky and jumping around as Aruto henshins into Rising Hopper form is pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, Ai-chan continues to talk to Gai, telling him that what he really needs is a friend that he could open up to, and Gai just does his usual 'AI can't understand, they are shit' rant. But Satellite Zea apparently does, and the fabricator starts to get online and creates an upgraded version of the robo-dog Thouser, making adorable bow-wow sounds and as much as I loathe Gai and this sad flashback doesn't redeem any of his many, many crimes, I do really like this scene. Gai just looks so sad and at the same time relieved that his old buddy is back! And Gai is all crying because his old toy robot dog will still stand with him after all he's done. Okay, sure. The actor and the music does make the scene work, but part of it does kind of fall short in that Gai's been, well, pretty horrible throughout the season and Thouser-the-dog is... a fucking toy and doesn't look like it's the same sort of advanced sentient AI like Ai-chan or Zea or Izu or Jin are.

And then we cut away to Aruto fighting against Ark-Zero, and he is being beaten up by Ark-Zero's briefcase shotgun and his weird malice-force ability to hold Zero-One in place and then upper-kicking him. And then Ark-Zero creates a giant genki-dama style energy ball and lobs it at a non-transformed Aruto, only for Thouser to, of course, show up to rescue him, batting it into the sky. We get an over-the-top scene of Thouser the robo-dog showing up and arriving in a similar manner to Izu and this is kind of a scene that fell flat with me. Gai rants about how it's time to work together and he actually loves Hiden Intelligence all along.

The AIMS duo sort of have a pretty neat B-plot that runs through the episode. The first half of the episode has Yua walking out of the hospital, meeting Fuwa with flowers, and the two have some pretty cool lines talking about them working alone, and Fuwa gives a badass line about how "a Kamen Rider will always do what is needed to be done", and the two of them are basically, like, vigilantes or something at this point. It's pretty awesome, actually, and I do like that the scene seems to be played out as being pretty bereft of any lovey-dovey stuff that I feel would undercut the mutual respect the Shotrise duo have for each other. Later on, they meet with two of the AIMS crab bros, who try and stop them from going after Ark-Zero because it's spooky-strong, and they very much still respect Yua as their one true commander.

The C-plot is that early on in the episode we get a Metsubojinrai.net scene, where the Ark leaves Jin's body for a moment, and Jin pretends to obey the Ark before trying to attack him with the Inferno-wing gun. It's kind of fruitless and ultimately not very important to the rest of the episode, but it's kind of neat to see that Jin's still actively fighting. Something that's completely going to be relevant later on, of course, is Ikazuchi getting flashbacks of being Space Bros with his little brother. It's obvious that the Metsubojinrai dudes are going to turn against Ark-Zero sooner or later. Naki, in particular, seems to be too obviously being a yes-man in this episode that I think they're just pretending to be soulless and robotic to fool Ark-Zero. I mean, it worked for Gai...
So yeah. Gai is kind of a good guy now, but I still do think that he could've done with some hints that he's not all that terrible, at least in the past couple of episodes when he's not the main villain. I dunno. It just happens so abruptly and randomly and I feel like there's a huge disconnect between 'his buddy was a little toy robot dog as a kid' and how having Thouser the dog restored by Zea suddenly caused him do a gigantic 180. I feel like the episode did its best to try and sell this, but I still feel like I'm just not the biggest fan of the Gai heel-face-turn. We'll see if there's anything more to this in the future, or if it's just 'hey Gai's a good guy now, okay?' Kind of a mixed bag for me.

Random Notes:

• The present-day iteration of Thouser-the-dog is actually played by a real-life robot dog, Aibo, who is adorable. 
• As much as I give them grief for it, I would buy that Fukuzoe and Yamashita are too dumb or too out-of-date with technology to understand that they need to make a copy. That doesn't excuse Shesta, though! 
• I really love Yamashita yelling about Gai's heinous crimes. "He's been using company funds on skin care, hair salons and saunas! ...oh, and also weapons manufacturing." I also like that the implication is that all of these emphasis on using money on salons and self-care is why Gai looks eternally 25.
• Also another thing I really love is Fukuzoe and Yamashita absolutely chewing the scenery with their over-acting while Izu and Shesta are just being smiling robotic ladies. Also fun is the synchronized looming by the four of them plus Aruto when they talk shit to the defeated Gai.
• The Crab Bros that respect Yua are called Ono (the bald one) and Eida (the younger one). Since they are actually decent dudes that seem to be built up as being actual characters, I'll try and make an effort to remember their names. 
• Thouser the robo dog can apparently see Gai's emotions? Or something? As much as I hate Gai, though, I'm not heartless enough not to be moved by how emotionally broken he is. 
• In the past, the words on Thouser's screen is: anxiety, desires parental recognition, concern, wants more friends, hates being looked down upon. 
• In the present, Thouser reads: despair, he wasn't acknowledged by anyone, not worth a single percent, he lost everything, he is looking for help.