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Monday, December 9, 2019

"Kamen Rider Zero-One" series: Episode twelve recap





 Air Dates: September 1, 2019 until ???? on TV-Asahi, Sundays at 9:00 am
There will probably be fifty episodes and the subs were done by Ignis/Over-Time subs

Main Characters:  First off Hiden Intelligence's personnel

Fumiya Takahashi as Aruto Hiden.... 22 year old lad who is a failure at being a comedian. Inherited the presidency of Hiden Intelligence when his grandfather died and can transform into the Zero-One hero

Noa Tsurushima as Izu.... HumaGear who is the presidential aide to Aruto Hiden.

Kazuya Kojima as Jun Fukuzoe.... VP of Hiden Technology who wanted to be president, Aruto's new enemy

Asumi Narita as Shesta..... HumaGear who is secretary to Fukuzoe

Arata Saeki as Sanzo Yamashita.... Senior managing director at Hiden

Tokuma Nishioka as Koronosuke Hiden.... Aruto's grandfather, died in episode one

Other main characters:

Hiroe Igeta as Yua Yaiba.... Technical advisor for A.I,M.S., also a leader of the field unit and is Kamen Rider Valkyrie

Ryutaro Okada as Isamu Fuwa.... Hotshot terrorist fighter for A.I.M.S. who works with Yua and is Kamen Rider Vulcan

Syuya Sunagawa as Horobi.... Leader of the MetsubouJinrai.net terrorist group, rogue HumaGear

Daisuke Nakagawa as Jin.... Hacker for MetsubouJinrai.net, a HumaGear

Ryunosuke Matsumura as 'Little Assassin'.... MetsubouJinrai.net assassin, a HumaGear

Nachi Sakuragi as Gai Amatsu.... President of ZAIA, introduced in episode eleven

Terms:

Hiden Intelligence- Company started by the elder Hiden to create A.I. HumaGears

A.I.M.S.- Artificial Intelligence Military Service, dedicated to destroying rouge HumaGears plus Maigas or anything to do with MetsubouJinrai.net

MetsubouJinrai.net- Cyper-terrorist group whose purpose is to hack into HumaGears and turn them rogue or more precisely, Maigas

HumaGear- A.I. Humanoids developed by the Hiden Company to serve mankind

Magias- Rogue HumaGears, turned evil due to the hacking of MetsubouJinrai.net

Trilobites- Inept creatures created by Magias to help them in their battles

Progrise Keys- Devices Kamen Riders use which have many different powers

ZEA- Hiden satellite which controls HumaGear and creates Progrise Keys

ZAIA Enterprises- Rival of Hiden Technology and still very unknown to viewers

 Usually don't give that much info to start things off but thought it may work out better this way. You'll have a handy-dandy guide to the characters and such, will be adding on to it when new things or persons are introduced. Plus it'll save me from repeating myself too often during a recap, though the heading may be long don't think these recaps will be as a show is just 23 minutes long.

                      Episode twelve title: That Famous Detective Has Arrived






 Fifty episodes is definitely a long series and hard to get through but they do keep things so fresh with many new characters and twists in the storylines. You can see above a new character was introduced, one that looks like an old English detective and this person's name is Wazu Nazotoku. But not a real person as it's a HumaGear that had been created by Aruto's grandfather Nishioka and was considered to be an older model of HumaGears. The main reason for Wazu's creation was that the grandfather had been worried about the MetsubouJinrai.net organization and how they had been turning good HumaGears into bad ones or Magias as they're commonly referred to.
 Wazu was unknown to Aruto and his assistant Izu who is just above, if you missed it she had a terrific mini mag spread in the previous post. Wazu had got word that the police wanted to access the president's secret lab where Progrise Keys are made, those objects are what gives Kamen Riders their special powers. It was the A.I.M.S agent Yua who is in the first screenshot that had revealed to the police the details of the lab. She remains one mysterious character as we've recently learned that she also works with  ZAIA Enterprise and along with the company's president is she on a crusade to bring down Aruto and Hiden Technology?
 The police arrived but were thwarted access to the secret lab by Aruto's goofing around and the charm of Wazu. He's a bit of eccentric HumaGear who aren't supposed to have any human emotions. Through his shrewd talking the police eventually gave up on their search for the lab to Yua's dismay but it's just a minor setback as she and the police will be back though not in this show. But Wazu appears he's going to be a big help for Aruto and his Hiden company as she's vowed to find the killer of the actor Shinya who was a guest star in the previous two recaps.






 The killer of Shinya had been Lil' Assassin from the MetsubouJinrai.net group who is a rogue HumaGear/Magia. Success had gone to his head as he's told the group's leader Horobi that he's perfected the art of assassination and is planning on going 'freelance'. Wasn't much Horobi or his assistant Jin could do as Lil' Assassin has become a much more powerful fighter and easily whipped the two in a minor skirmish. Also in a skirmish which you can see above were Aruto as Zero-One and Yua as Kamen Rider Valkyrie. She had been preventing Zero-One from joining Wazu and his assistant Izu, we really need to find out so much more about the mysterious Yua and exactly what her purpose is, good or evil?
 To Izu Wazu didn't have a clue about what he was doing in search of the killer but did mention he and his methods were a bit eccentric. Also on the scene was the A.I.M.S agent Fuwa who is also able to transform into a Kamen Rider, he goes by the name of Vulcan. He tailed the two around and eventually Wazu led them to a warehouse where he stopped a crime in process but to Izu he should have been looking for Shinya's killer. Wazu was doing that as for some reason he knew the group of thieves were stealing discarded HumaGears for their parts. Perhaps he has a sixth sense like Izu does and can see or feel things that humans can't.
 But these weren't any normal HumaGears but a special breed of five who had all been named Matsurida Zed. These special HumaGears can change their facial appearance for a brief spell and upon further examination Izu discovered their faces were identical to Lil' Assassin. He's the mastermind behind the theft of these parts and in this scene we saw a flashback of when he killed Shinya as he was able to change his face to the one of an actor in that TV movie. May help to read the previous episode or two about the TV movie.





 The parts weren't of all of the five Zed's, three were in the van, one is Lil' Assassin and the final one was tracked down by Wazu who was an actor in a traveling troupe. But when the trio of Wazu, Izu and Fuwa went to it's location they were just a tad late as Lil' Assassin had been on the scene and pretended to the the missing HumaGear named Zed. Fuwa as Kamen Rider Vulcan jumped into action to fight the MetsubouJinrai.net  rogue Magia Lil' Assassin. What a powerful being it's become as Vulcan was once again no match for an evil Kamen Rider and those Riders from MetsubouJinrai.net have no different name such as he does.
 Finally arriving on the scene to help out was Aruto as Zero-One and we didn't see as much of him this episode. As mentioned he had been held up on purpose(?) by Yua as the two battled it out on a rooftop, she too arrived with Aruto. Also arriving on the scene were the two main HumaGears from MetsubouJinrai.net, their leader Horobi and Jin. So it's a three on three battle and though we don't know the true intentions of Yua as Valkyrie she always fights to defeat the group from MetsubouJinrai.net. Bit surprised Horobi and Jin were there to help out Lil' Assassin after he left the group but perhaps they're thinking that by helping him they can become a team again.
 For about the fourth episode in a row it wasn't much of a struggle for MetsubouJinrai.net as they were easily able to defeat the Kamen Riders Zero-One, Valkyrie and Vulcan. These evil HumaGears have become so much stronger and it could be because of the new Progrise Keys that ZAIA Enterprise has been creating for them. Every defeat is getting worse for the good Kamen Riders but once again it seemed MetsubouJinrai.net could have delivered the fatal blow but instead backed away. However as the episode was coming to it's final seconds a new and much more powerful Progrise Key had been created which was for Zero-One and even he was amazed at it's power. But how it's going to help Zero-One and his mates out is unknown as after he received the new weapon the episode came to it's conclusion.






 Never compare these Tokusatsu shows to regular dramas but in a way they could be better as they're so consistently top notch. There hasn't been a dull second so far through twelve shows and if anything it's become much more interesting which rarely happens with prime time dramas as they go on. The only sad part is that I've finally caught up with the subbing team as I'm only one show behind so will be doing these pair of recaps every other week. Not positive when the next pair will be but thinking two weeks from today. Also the movie is coming out on December 21st so will have a post for that and don't know if it has anything to do with this series or an older Kamen Rider hero.
























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