Kamen Rider Zero-One E39 Review: The Price of Redemption

Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 39: This Conclusion, Unpredictable 

I believe in my previous episode reviews, I've ranted enough about how Thouser's redemption arc really needed to be handled delicately for it to be believable. And this episode sort of... starts with it. It's still honestly nowhere as ideal as I would've want it to (to be fair, what I feel would satisfy me is Gai either dead or in jail) but on the other hand, the idea that people can change is a nice one to pursue, and a lot of the sentiment done on the part of our main good guys in this episode is more of a 'shut up and try to make amends, we'll talk about absolution later'. And I feel like that's a good way to do things. Gai keeps apologizing in most of his scenes, and for the most part, at least Aruto, Fuwa and Yua aren't willing to immediately forget Gai's crimes and sins. That's good. I'm still going to withhold judgement until we get to see Gai's ultimate fate, in case they pull a (pre-epilogue) Dan Kuroto or a (post-epilogue) Evolt, but at the very least the show reminds us that, no, we're not going to pretend that Gai was mind-controlled or anything, and the in-universe characters, including Gai himself, knows that he's going to have to stand for his crimes at some point. That's neat.

And... most of the episode is just kind of the new status quo. The opening action scene with Zero-One and Thouser fighting against the Ark is pretty cool, especially with the opening theme playing in the background. There's a pretty cool bit where Ark-Zero 3D-prints a small floating swarm of Shot Risers in the air, while Aruto and Gai block with their own respective CGI shields. At one point in the fight, Gai tries to steal Ark's data with a Jack-rise, but then turns out the Ark steals Gai's data instead? All of the animal tokens seem to go into the Ark, and I really wish we had something more concrete about what these dang animal data are meant to be. But a barrage of named attacks and finishers ends up forcing the Ark's true blob form to leave Jin's body and fly away. It's the first time the Ark's actually been on the back-foot, and that's kind of neat.

And the rest of the episode is kind of a lull, honestly, and one that's needed because of how abrupt Gai's heel-face-turn would be to most audience members. Gai apologizes first to Aruto, but despite all of the talks about how he totally loves Hiden Intelligence all this time, and how he knows the AI is his friend... Izu and Aruto point out that 'there are some things that words can't forgive', talking about the shit Gai put Yua and Fuwa through, and also for the original corruption of the Ark. We kind of gloss all of the implied deaths that the Humagears and Raiders combined have caused... but that's honestly kind of standard operating procedure for Kamen Rider shows nowadays. Gai later on apologizes to Yua and Fuwa, with a fun scene where Thouser-the-robot-dog forces Gai to apologize sincerely and Gai has to promise the dog and tell him to not cry. And he bows down straight down with his head on the ground... and, well, I do like that while Yua and Fuwa don't complicate matters, they also say that forgiveness won't come immediately -- and they can start by making AIMS an independent organization so they have a say in what they risk their life for. Neat! Gai also later on apologizes to the Horseshoe Crab Bros, Ono and Eida. Again, neat.

We also get a bit of a talk about Aruto wanting to make an upgrade to Zero-One, which was only created with Metsubojinrai.net in mind and the Ark gaining Kamen Rider powers was never in consideration. I feel this rings hollow considering how Shining Assault and Metal Cluster were basically forms that the cast pulled out of nowhere as well, but okay, sure, we need an excuse for Aruto to surpass Hiden Intelligence's original designs and stuff. It's a bit weird that Aruto is actually trying to be a technician and everything (he's never shown that he understands the technical aspects of these Kamen Rider suits) but okay, sure. It gives him an arc and an oomph behind the upcoming final form.

Meanwhile, things happen in the Metsubojinrai.net base, and Ikazuchi seems to re-achieve Singularity (?) and gets a flashback to his original life as Space-Bro Raiden. He shows up in Hiden Ltd and... I really don't care all that much for Ikazuchi if we're being honest, but this episode does attempt to really give him a fair bit more screentime that he's cheated out of in his first outing. Granted, a lot of his jokes as Raiden kind of fall flat for me (the 'quickly, man' scene). Aruto is quick to believe that it's really Raiden, but poor, scared Jin is far, far more suspicious.

The actual gambit isn't anything super-interesting. The Ark attacks a different facility, and Gai realizes this after realizing the reason that the Ark stole his data... but I dunno. I guess I just shrug? As Aruto, Izu, Jin and Raiden walk down the dam, they get attacked by Naki and Ark-in-Horobi, and apparently Ark was basically using Ikazuchi's singularity to trick them into coming there, then the Ark jumps hosts into Ikazuchi and turns him into the next Ark-Zero. Gai realizes a bit too late that the Ark's goal is the Zero-One Driver itself, which would allow the Ark to access Satellite Zea. The fight scene between Aruto and Ark-Zero is... it's all right. There are some neat CGI moments, but ultimately an All Extinction attack and a bunch of Force powers causes Aruto to fall bleeding onto the ground in his human form, and then the Ark steals the Zero-One Driver and beams up to the Zea cyber-space and starts corrupting it with his goop. The episode ends with a pretty cool cliffhanger, with Ark proclaiming that 'no one can stop [him]', and Aruto tries to struggle with his perfect-comeback catchphrase before passing out.

Ultimately a bit of a slower episode. The focus is just moving things in place, and setting up the debut of Kamen Rider Zero-One's next form next episode. And, well, I feel like a good chunk of this episode basically focuses on the cast reacting and basically acknowledging Gai's attempted redemption while still keeping a wary eye at him. It's all right, but nothing particularly special. 

Random Notes: 

• I know this show is meant to ultimately be a toy advertising platform, but hoo boy they really go ham with trying to advertise that robot dog, huh? To the point that we get unnecessary closeups to him during fight scenes, which I felt were easily the most obnoxious parts of this episode -- having the dog henpeck Gai is one thing, but having the dang thing zip around and follow the fight in the first half of the episode felt like it's dragging on a cute joke from the previous episode into something that happens for way too long. 
• It's not the first time we've seen it, but Aruto dual-wielding his chunky swords will never not be cool. 
• The barrage of attacks that actually beat Ark-Zero temporarily is Jacking Break, Final Strash, Thousand Destruction, Metal Rising Impact.
• Izu tells Gai that you need to bow at least 90 degrees to show 'maximum penitence'. Okay, Izu. 
• Aruto takes the rant to make a dig about Gai's 1000% catchphrase. Gai can't even raise a comment at that because he's trying to apologize, which I thought was funny. 
• Naki is still a super-loyal stooge to Ark in this episode. That can't be all we're getting out of Naki, right? Naki's big role is basically holding Jin hostage in this episode and preventing him from transforming in the final fight. 
• At one point in the final fight, Ark-Zero uses a copy of the Thousand Jacker, summoning a giant black CGI shark to chomp chomp chomp on Aruto.