Kamen Rider Zero-One E42 Review: To Revive An Ark

Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 42: As Long As There Is Malice

Okay, this one was... interesting? Again, with most episodes of Zero-One at this point in the show's run I am really, really curious how much of the original plan for the story has been kept and how much has been altered. Or how much of the story has been truncated, because if this was a regular season I am pretty sure we might've gotten one or two extra episodes to pace things out between 40 and 42.

And... this episode felt like it moved like so quickly.  It definitely could've been a two-parter for sure, because... well, I have a lot of the same criticisms as I do with the past couple of episodes. I know, I know, production is delayed and everything, but still. This episode had so many huge things going on -- Horobi's madness, Izu's (apparent) death, Aruto embracing anger and becoming the Hulk Kamen Rider Ark-One... yeah.

Anyway, the episode starts off with Izu getting a flashback/future-sight thing similar to Zero-Two's debut, seeing Horobi transforming into Kamen Rider Ark-One and killing Aruto. It's apparently Ark's simulation instead of Zea's, and Izu meets Azu for the first time, who gives Izu some ominous, prophetic warnings about how "The Ark is a god, and he can't be defeated. Don't they say god is in us all?" That's a pretty cool line. This whole nightmare sequence causes Izu to fear Aruto's death and not tell Aruto at all about Horobi's later broadcast to the Humagears, telling them all about Metsubojinrai.net's newest plan to make humanity go extinct. That's actually pretty neat.

Jin's benefactor, Yotagaki Williamson from Zaia International, finally shows up and ends up contacting Jin and essentially tells him to kill Horobi since he's a loose end. Jin, understandably, refuses to. Azu also shows up in front of Jin, mocking him with the Ark-One Progrise Key from episode 35.5... which, if we're completely being honest? I completely mixed up Ark-Zero and Ark-One. Oops!

Horobi has meanwhile gathered a bunch of random Humagears and turned them all into Magias. It's really nice to see these random older monster suits come back! Izu, of course, shows up alone and tries to talk Horobi down and try and get him to consider other options, leading to them telling each other that the other have no idea how dreadful or wonderful humanity can be. Again, pacing in the series as a whole is kind of a mess, but individual moments like this is still pretty well-executed.

Speaking of nice individual moments, Izu panicking when AIMS shows up and we get all these giant CGI animals and Kamen Riders and Magias transforming and all Izu can do is look around in panic and run to the side? That's a pretty memorable image, too. Eventually Aruto shows up and we get a pretty fun fight. The fact that Horobi has an army means that the director can just throw any random Magia suit to jump in Aruto, Fuwa and Yua's way. And through it all, I do like that we keep getting Izu and Horobi arguing to each other. Admittedly it does get somewhat repetitive. Izu eventually gets Horobi in a bit of a logic bind -- he claims he has no heart, but his wish for humanity's eradication comes from his heart. That's... that's probably not a heart you should believe in, though, Izu.

While Aruto is still purifying the Magias, Horobi ends up shooting Izu with his arrow... and we get a huge, dramatic explosion. And you know what? This part is actually genuinely pretty sad. This is Kamen Rider and I don't believe at all that Izu's going to remain dead... but the fact that Izu dies basically without any hatred and her last words to Aruto even as parts of her starts falling off is to tell Aruto how much she believes in his dream and how even Horobi will be happy? That's amazingly well done. Izu pushes Aruto away from her as her inner robot body heats up and explodes, standing in her usual arms-in-front-of-stomach pose. The music and Takahashi Fumiya's screaming really is well done. And we get a brief montage of Jin, and later Fuwa and Yua eventually leaving the grieving Aruto alone as the sky in the background turns into dark... and Azu shows up.

Jin, meanwhile, realizing what Izu is trying to prevent and the ominous warnings from Azu, keeps confronting Horobi, telling his robo-dad that if he doesn't stop with all this hatred-mongering, he'll become the Ark itself. And we cut away to Metsubojinrai's forces rampaging in the city, while Horobi continues to fight Vulcan and Valkyrie, while Jin tries to stop the humans and robots from fighting each other because the malice will give birth to the Ark.

...And then Kamen Rider Ark-One shows up, blowing everyone away. Ark-One's cool, and like any new Kamen Rider form, he just walks around absolutely beating everyone up. As he walks and leaves the creepy malice kanji puddles behind, he beats up Horobi, he catches one of Vulcan's bullets without even looking and blasts the three good guys away without even looking, and we have these nice shots of the Ark-One suit in a darkness with shadows around it as he beats up on everyone. Ark-One's finisher takes the form of two giant energy wings that blows everyone away... and, of course, to the surprise of everyone, the Ark has taken over Aruto, by way of the Progrise Key that Azu has. And Aruto is absolutely angry, and eventually slinks away to scream in despair while Azu is nearby going "sasuga Ark-sama!"

And... yeah. I really do love that Aruto went basically off the deep end because of a tragedy pushing him too far. I absolutely buy that. I also believe that knowing the Kamen Rider franchise as a whole, that at the end of this Aruto would be freed and Izu would somehow be revived, but at the same time... pacing issues aside, I do really like the twist of Izu actually dying in a mission of peace and that ended up pushing Aruto off the deep end. The fact that it's Horobi, a Humagear who refuses to be converted, instead of Ark or Thouser that kills Izu, I feel, is a particularly important emotional point, too. And... was this the first time we actually ever have a main character Kamen Rider actually straight-up be evil? Last year's show, Zi-O, was more about the oddity that a wholesome young Sougo would become a world-destroying overlord in the future. For the most part, I've always felt like the main characters for these shows are always 'protected' in a way and never actually willingly fall into evil. Even when Kiva or Decade or OOO or someone fights the other good guys it's either mind-control or they were faking it all along to fool someone. For this one, I absolutely believe that Aruto fell deep into despair and that made him susceptible -- and even welcoming -- of the catharsis that the Ark-One allows him to have. Pretty good stuff, it's a shame that the episode-to-episode pacing surrounding it is sub-par.

Random Notes:

• I completely forgot about it, but there's a little Gai sub-plot where Yotagaki Williamson shows up at Zaia first. Yotagaki proceeds to replace Gai as president of Zaia Japan. He's got a pair of bodyguards that enjoy tossing Gai's things around a bit too much. Incidentally, Gai is over-protective of his rolling president chair a bit too much. There's some ominous bit where Thouser's essentially implied to be turned into how Vulcan and Valkyrie were during Gai's ark, so yeah, the karma keeps piling onto Gai. 
• Also also, Yotagaki is also the man behind Jin's resurrection. At last! That bit is finally explained! 
• I really, really also like the scene where Shesta seems to be just as baffled as Aruto himself that Izu didn't inform him about Horobi's message. 
• There's a very nice scene early on when Izu lies to Aruto that she bows to him out of sight.
• There's a pretty nice (and maybe unintentional?) bit where Aruto is yelling at Horobi how "the Ark is dead!" as he transforms, but almost immediately the Zero-Two belt jingle goes "it's never over!" in the cheeriest jingle possible. 
• At one point in the fight, Horobi ends up confronting Fuwa. Unlike Aruto and Izu who engages with Horobi's more purpose-seeking arguments, Fuwa gives a typical "fuck you I just want to beat you up!" reply. Oh, Fuwa. 
• The Gimmick Watch: "Fear! Hate! Rage! Despair! Perfect conclusion. Learning: Five." also, "Ark One! Conclusion One!"
• I am so going to mix up "Ark-Zero" and "Ark-One" a lot. I do like that even though most of Ark-One is now smooth and covered with white armour, the creepy exposed left eye still remains. 
• There is a neat little detail when Ark-One arrives like a meteor and blows away everyone that we get to see a bunch of Humagear pieces fly away. None of the actual named characters are seriously injured by Aruto's entrance, of course, but I do like the implication that some of the lesser combatants got eradicated by Aruto's simple entrance.