Zi-O 27-28: Liveblog Time!
Well, it’s been long enough, and now that we’ve got two more episodes since the last one, I might as well do them both at once! ...Again!
Okay then. So, BlackWoz’s Storytime Vault has now become BlackWoz’s Storytime Theatre, then. Seeing as it’s in front of the ongoing battle from the end of 26. “Time for me to become a rider… but I probably shouldn’t be talking right now.” As opposed to his once-standard “Oh, wait, spoilers. ‘Sorry’ about that.”
~Cut here~
OOF. Okay, taking a few minutes at a time…
Geiz and Sougo are knocked down by each other’s respective finishers, but they’re still transformed. BlackWoz steps in, before they can both get back on their feet. “Hey, Geiz, you using that plays right into that ~other~ Woz’s hands, this is a bad idea for you.” He then takes Geiz away with his admittedly really cool scarf-escape technique.
Dropping the two of them off at a nearby warehouse rooftop, Woz seems to be worried for Geiz. “I don’t like you, but using that watch is an absolutely terrible idea. You are quite literally killing yourself. Since when have you been willing to go that far?”
Geiz says that defeating Zi-O has been his goal the entire time… and both Woz and the audience know that’s not true anymore, that he clearly likes Sougo now.
Woz’s expression… yeah. That’s concern and confusion. ...They did used to be allies, didn’t they? I remember something about that back during… ah, geez, when was it Swartz nearly dropped Geiz off of a roof? Right, the first part of the Wizard arc, episode 7.
And the reasoning for Geiz coming to his new-found (re-found?) determination? Tsukuyomi’s actions on the bus in 2009. She tried to take matters into her own hands there, much like Geiz was trying to do when all of this started. But then the bus crashed. Presumably, she’s gone.
I don’t know why, when 26 aired, I kept seeing people saying Geiz was determined because ‘she tried to steal my kill.’ I thought it was pretty clear that the actual problem was that Tsukuyomi appears to be dead.
The only other friend Geiz has.
“She’s gone… I could never be friends with the person who caused that.”
Geiz Revive! Fury!
I have to say, I really like the Revive Fury transformation. Especially how the last part of Geiz to be covered by the armor is his eyes. Not in the usual sense, where the last part of the armor to fully form is the text on the eyepieces. I mean, that’s still a thing, yes, but the framework of the armor glows and obsucres most of his body… except for his eyes.
Woz says that “Really? Remember, you’ve never once beaten me.” He said the same back in ep 7, too, and handily defeated Geiz there. That’s decidedly not what’s happening this time around.
That is what I call a curpstomp fight. Not even battle, Woz is barely allowed a defense, much less any real attacks. First off, cool to see that The Book can be used to trap someone. Less cool to see Geiz shred it from the inside out with the Power Saw. And then do the same to Woz’s scarf extension. And even his teleportation trick doesn’t help, because it appears to be short-distance, and Revive Typhoon is fast enough to dodge precognition. Woz didn’t stand a chance.
“WOW I hate alternate me. A Woz is a Woz, and apparently THAT Woz is a DICK. I have to do something about this.”
W!Woz: “Hi! My savior~!”
Geiz: “Screw you. I’m not planning on being your savior. Just shut up and watch.”
(Geiz walks away)
W!Woz: “Well, you don’t really get a choice in the matter. ...Mind you, I never did say you saved everyone...”
~History is told by the winners~
~And the winners don’t necessarily tell the whole story~
What was that I mentioned about a potential ‘omission’ in White!Woz’s story? Oh, right, back in episode 21… “Nothing can disturb the peace if nothing moves again, now can it?”
I figured we might be talking about time being frozen in an eternal now. … but the same ‘if nothing moves again’ can apply to people surviving, too.
Opening time, and I realized something. The line about ‘now we must choose our own future’ in the narration bit, before Over Quartzer kicks in. That might not mean a ‘choose your side’ choice. That might mean ‘screw your destiny, we’re taking another route entirely.’ Taking a … hang on, I need to do some math here…
There’s Team 9-to-5; Sougo and Junichiro. Team RideWatch; the Sougo/Geiz/Tsukuyomi alliance, which is currently a bit dissolved. Team Oma Zi-O; Black!Woz, Oma Zi-O, and Sougo’s potential as trained by Black!Woz. Team Savior; White!Woz, the potential of Geiz Revive as Savior. Team TimeJacker; Swartz, Another Zi-O, Hora (presumably), Heure (presumably, and potentially not for much longer). Team Wildcard: ...Decade, and anyone he drags in, because apparently Diend is showing up? IDK, I’m getting there.
That’s six, I’m going to try and do up another Faction List soon.
But taking at minimum the 4th route, diverging from the three established timelines. Those being Team Oma Zi-O’s, Team Savior’s, and Team TimeJacker’s.
Geiz Revive Fury and Typhoon has now replaced the first section of Rider!Woz in the opening – just last episode, there were two shots of him in a row, him gesturing flashily, followed immediately by him spinning his weapon. Now, the flashy pose is gone, replaced with Geiz using Fury’s Power Saw and then swapping into Typhoon, followed by Rider!Woz with his staff.
But! The previous version of the opening had a view of White!Woz’s tablet being used in the ‘background’ for both of the Rider segments. It’s not there this time.
I mean, I was initially only going to comment on if they’d added Revive into the opening, and what was replaced, but I felt that other detail needed to be mentioned.
It has been almost an hour and I am only six minutes in.
Uncle Junichiro, believe me, I share your heartbreak right now. “Well I’ve been alone all these years, right?” Sougo, sweetie, no!
Hnnn. Against previous (and possibly better) judgement, I’m starting to trust Junichiro. I mean, I’m remembering his name now, and couldn’t be bothered before. But his worry for Sougo has just been so plain to see in the past few arcs. The toy robot in the Kikai arc, seeing how he originally took in Sougo just last episode, how quickly he took to Quiz… And I guess I was right back during that arc, too, that Sougos’ been alone.
But nooooo, I had to be all “Dark Toei, give us the Forbidden Sougo Backstory” I MADE A MISTAKE.
And now Black!Woz is going to Heure and Hora for help in finding more Forbidden Sougo Backstory information. Because Decade’s on that list. (onore, this too, and so on and so forth. I’ll save the full memes for if/when I need them later.)
Hora tells him to get lost, she knows full well he’s just going to wind up using them. To be fair, he did sort of do that back in Ghost – he’s the one who told them about Tsukasa, after all, and that got Sougo the Decade watch.
But Heure… well, Heure’s been on the receiving end of the ‘being used’ treatment from Hora and Swartz lately.
Hiryuu’s transformation into Another Zi-O is… something, to say the least. He’s basically using his personal Another Watch almost exactly like Sougo and Geiz use theirs, except that in his case, the watch summons the driver on it’s own. But he has it outside of him – all the previous Another Riders had them sort of… implanted.
Boys you are both 18 you are too young to be this willing to murder.
Geiz is not doing so well after he beats Another Zi-O out of his transformation.
Hiryuu is confronted by Heure, who says… as it stands, he’s not going to be powerful enough to beat Zi-O II or Geiz Revive… and there’s another rider from the future he needs to get the powers of. So… Hiryuu uses the Another Watches he’s been making from the previous Another Riders to… re-make the Another Riders out of other people. Kay then.
All this is apparently according to a plan set up by Heure and Black!Woz. Heure just wants to know what’s going on… same as he said in 26.
When Junichiro finally speaks up to Sougo… that’s… really hard to watch, actually. No wonder he’s been so eager to see Sougo make friends since Geiz and Tsukyomi showed up. Sougo has never said a thing if he’s okay with being lonely or not. And Junichiro… he’s had no idea what to do. For ten years, he’s been seeing his nephew (possibly alternate younger him, time travel and predestination is still part of what this season is about) be by himself, and neither of them confronted that issue.
Ow, my heart.
“Tsukyomi… I’ll defeat him for you...”
Swartz appears from behind a corner. “That was the first time I saw her...”
He sure does like his sequence breaking, doesn’t he?
Okay, April 24, 2009. Sougo was apparently a very excitable little 8-year-old. Tsukuyomi hides her Time Mazine, and gets on board The Bus – and moves faster when she sees that Hiryuu’s there.
The bus driver has a ~Magenta~ camera hanging around his neck. Hey there, ‘sup, how’s it going, Tsukasa?
OH NO she was just trying to FIND OUT what happened on the bus! But a man in a black coat steps in front of it, while it’s on a bridge at that, and freezes time as they slam the breaks.
Swartz wtf mate. “So, all of you young boys were born in 2000, so at least some of you have the potential to become King…” And those who can… will. Face… this… life or death trial…
And he sets the wheels in motion – literally, and the breaks aren’t working, much to Tsukasa’s concern. “Oh shit, oh shit, I’m just here as a temp, what did I get involved in this time?!”
Swartz doesn’t take no for an answer, and freezes all the parents, but not the children. HI SCREW YOU SIR.
Oh, and THEN! What Hiryuu – and Geiz, watching from outside – saw was Tsukyomi firing in defense of Sougo, and her shot was reflected towards Hiryuu, knocking him out. Because the Faiz Phone X is a stun gun. Then Swartz, who is from comparatively earlier in the future than her, proceeds to kidnap the small children, bringing them with him in a ball of energy that explodes the corner of the bus, leaving it in flames.
That’s what Geiz saw. What Tsukuyomi is seeing, is a driver entering a tunnel… fire spreading from behind them… and a white ripple of light appears as she turns away from the driver to look at the explosion, and while we don’t see what happens when it passes her, we do see it pass by him… leaving a drivers seat with no driver.
They didn’t find anyone else in the aftermath.
Now we’re in Sougo’s dream with the Dai Mazines… or, we thought it was a dream. He thought it was a dream. That’s no dream. That’s a memory. Tsukuyomi and Tuskasa are here too…. But enough of that. Back to 2019.
NICE plan! Distract White!Woz with some Another Riders who shouldn’t be here, get him to transform, and have known power-thief Hiryuu take the power of Kamen Rider Woz. Turnabout’s fair play, isn’t it? Heure wants some payback for the deal with the car during the Shinobi arc.
White!Woz, the petty little man that he is, tries to use his tablet to drag his power back. But this is all according to keikaku… Exact wording applies, and he didn’t specify exactly which Woz the power would go to.
Heh. Your “A Woz is a Woz, of course” comment from when we met you just came back to haunt you, huh?
I really want to know how much fun Keisuke Watanabe is having playing these two. Because it can’t be boring to be two characters who play off of each other like this, and he does some great emoting in the past few episodes. Those IWAE speeches have to be a blast to do, too.
TO BATTLE!
…er.
TO EPISODE 28!
yoooooo!
That’s creepy. So, uh, screw Swartz, and tiny 8-year-old Sougo was already starting to have powers! Not necessarily time powers, or not just time powers, anyway. There’s also the physical manifestations of words. The Dai Mazine that was threatening him and a very unconscious Hiryuu aged to dust, but yelling for Hiryuu to look out made the WORDS THEMSELVES appear and freeze time!
Sougo’s a good kid. As he and the others were starting to run, he looked back to see if there was anyone else. Not one of the other boys did that.
And, interestingly, Tsukasa doesn’t say anything. He’s right up there with Tsukuyomi, watching, and not commenting. Of course, she obviously hasn’t noticed it’s him, so sure.
(I can’t help think but he’s from this point in time, here in 2019, and came backwards. He could be a then-present Tsukasa, since early 2009 was his era, after all, but I don’t know enough about Decade to say for sure.)
(If he’s from 2019, I kind of want him to go see Takeru when he gets back, and just casually say something about how ‘looks like we’ve got another for the ‘innate powers’ club.’)
(You will pry innately magical Takeru from my cold, dead, hands. And the portals are a power of Tsukasa’s that are unrelated to being Decade, right?)
Ah.
Black!Woz didn’t seem to realize just how overpowered Revive Typhoon is, able to keep up with and outpace the Shinobi teleportation. But he let himself get beaten up, to force Geiz out of the next fight.
Revive is a very lethal powerup, and he had warned him of that. Woz’s logic was that if Geiz couldn’t move after one fight, he couldn’t go right into the apparently intended fight to the death with Zi-O.
He doesn’t seem to have accounted for how damned stubborn Geiz is. And Black!Woz seems concerned for both Sougo and Geiz.
~They used to be on the same side~
WHITE!WOZ! I’m going to have to ask you to stop hurting Heure! So… Heure sees full well that he has not been told what’s going on, that Swartz’s goals are very much different from what he’s said.
And apparently… Swartz and White!Woz have been working together. It doesn’t matter which of the three wins on the Day of Oma; Sougo, Geiz, or Hiryuu. It won’t change their plan.
I knew that Swartz wasn’t on the same side as he’s been saying. And White!Woz’s support has seemed very conditional, too. Geiz is ~his savior~ only so long as he follows the script.
Both Swartz and White!Woz can go to alternate timelines, as seen with Shinobi and Quiz. I think the Kikai insect threw them for a minor loop, but was worked around.
Swartz left Sougo and Hiryuu back in 2009. But why both of them? Because Sougo almost immediately threw himself to roll Hiryuu out of the way of the rubble, and got him caught in it?
Hmm.
It sure looks like this is 2019!Tsukasa we’re dealing with, too. He knew what to explain to Tsukuyomi. ...But we don’t know if he saved the others from the accident… And right now, he’s trying to find out if Sougo’s actually going to do The Overlord Thing, so he can figure out if he should do The World Ending Thing.
Should I use my ‘damn you’ now, or save it for later…?
Zi-O versus Zi-O time?
HI SO. I love these little touches that they gave to the Another Riders as they entered.
Wizard appears rising up from a Magic Circle. Ex-Aid is accented by the bright pink pixellated lights, as opposed to the colored smoke that all the others have. Gaim’s smoke quickly turns into juice droplets. Fourze’s becomes pinpricks of light, like stars. OOO practically walks in from offscreen, a green puff of smoke by his feet, and then a red ring of light by his head. Build bounces in from the other side of off-screen, a diagonal line of ‘dark steam’ going the same direction as his stripes.
And then the POSES.
Left to right… I don’t know enough about Faiz, but the lines light up as he stands. Again, Build bounces into place, before striking his pose. Ex-Aid is bouncing out of the ground, as if in a very bugster-like teleport, by the way, landing in that crouch Emu uses in the opening. Wizard is actually spinning as he comes out of his imitation Connect spell, and does the coat flip. Gaim just sort of. Appears, with his sword over his shoulder. Ghost is reminiscent of when Takeru initially transforms, where he sort of… droops, before jerking back ‘into awareness’. Fourze does the hair thing. Not even the “It’s space time!” pose – it’s the tick where Gentarou slicks back his hair, regardless of if he’s got the helmet on or not.
And as they finish their poses, and look up at Sougo? All of their eyes light up in perfect unison.
See, this is the attention to detail we wanted out of the tribute arcs, Shirakura!
There’s just. They all RUSH Sougo, because Hiryuu wants to be the one to kill him That Badly. Sougo’s just trying to get past them, and manages to use a slash to (presumably) bring down Build and Ex-Aid, but there’s still 6 Another Riders left, along with Another Zi-O, and they legitimately dog-pile him.
Geiz is still trying to make his way to the lot he said he would meet Sougo at to settle everything.
He’s limping, and barely has enough energy to get there, and all but collapses down in the dusting of snow… but there’s no Sougo.
And then there is. And he’s barely able to make it up the ramp, either.
Neither of them can stand, Geiz wants to know why Sougo’s even here in that shape, and Sougo…
Well, he gets to see Geiz again.
And they had promised, hadn’t they? Not just for this final battle.
But Sougo has trusted Geiz from the start – has trusted that Geiz would take him down if he was going to go down the wrong path. Since Revive worked, Sougo must be going bad, right? So this is how it’s supposed to be, right?
Hiryuu wants to kill Sougo. “He’s going to be an overlord, isn’t he? So let me kill him!”
But no. Geiz is not having this.
“This guy? Become an evil overlord? Like hell he could do that. He is the most trustworthy person I know. And he’s my friend.”
GEIZ SWEETIE YOU’VE COME SO FAR!
Sougo… he’s just said that before Geiz and Tsukuyomi came into his life, he didn’t have friends. But he looks surprised that Geiz feels the same.
This transformation is different. It’s so different. They’ve transformed at the same time in the past… but this here? THIS is transforming together.
And it’s brief, but that thing I mentioned earlier, where the Revive transformation left Geiz’s eyes visible before completing? The regular transformations haven’t done that in the past.
They both did here.
The fight against the Another Riders is great! We get to see the rest of the Legend Rider finishes again – we saw Build and Ex-Aid a few episodes ago, from Sougo and Geiz respectively, and here we get to have the others. The Faiz armor’s Exceed Time Burst, then the Gaim armors Squash Time Break. Then, the boys JOKE about having bad matchups as they swap opponents, and after a synchronized swap into Fourze and Wizard, we get a great shot of the two going past each other to get to their respective matches. A Limit Time Break and Strike Time Burst later, and we get Ghost and OOO. I like this pairing for the simultaneous finisher, actually, if only because looking back, these two arcs actually showed a lot of similarities stylistically.
These were the two arcs that really showed how they can work together.
Another OOO (sup, Kuroto?) summoned Yummies, who they fought in an enclosed structure a lot like this one, which really helped show how Geiz and Sougo could work together. The OOO arc also had a lot of the dealings with “Is this kid really able to become Oma Zi-O?” – it showed how Sougo is kind, in his defaulting to making sure the people stuck near the fight got out, but also he pretended to ally with Kuroto… which was a bluff to see what not to do as a king.
Another Ghost summoned a small horde of ganma in his arc that they fought together in 2015, but that’s a small comparison. Sougo was stuck in Takeru’s old situation – and Geiz took it on himself to fix the problem. We could see how concerned he was for Sougo – and he hadn’t really allowed that to show before.
The arc immediately following Ghost was when Sougo tried to give up the driver. That’s when Geiz of all people convinced him to put it back on – to be the kind of king who protects people. His saying he would be the one take Sougo out if he starts going evil was originally a threat and a warning. After Ghost, though? It was a reassurance and a promise.
A promise that he wouldn’t let that happen.
One Scanning Time Break and one Omega Time Burst add up to one perfectly aligned Dual Rider Kick.
...This fight feels like the last time we’re going to see these finishers again.
It might not be, but it gives that vibe. That vibe of “Use all of the forms combined, this is the chance. They’ve been outclassed, so here is their grand finale.”
THIS IS TEAMWORK RIGHT HERE.
Taking advantage of Revive Typhoon’s speed, and it’s ability to outpace the precog abilities of Zi-O II, in order to get the advantage on Another Zi-O and make sure he stays in the line of fire for Zi-O’s attack is SUPER CLEVER.
...I don’t think I can do Sougo’s talk with Hiryuu justice, save that it’s hitting Geiz just as hard as the exhaustion is.
“You need to start moving forward, and stop dwelling in the past.”
For Hiryuu and Sougo, it’s a bus accident that was no accident, costing them their parents.
For Geiz, it’s fighting an overlord, and losing everyone.
It looks like it might get through to Hiryuu, but… there’s just one thing.
The Another Zi-O watch shatters… until it doesn’t. Time is still moving normally, the watch starts to disintegrate, and then reforms itself in reverse. Time is still moving normally.
“Neither of us can really stand, and I admit I over did it, but we still have to settle this.”
“Okay. I get it. But, first, quick favor?”
“Zi-O, wth.”
“Go back to the shop? It’s not the same.”
“...if I can. I don’t think I’m making it out of this fight, but if I can. But. Tsukuyomi’s-”
A distortion in the air.
“Boys, stop! You don’t have to fight! I think there’s a way around this!”
This, too, is Deca- Actually, no. We’re not going there today, after all. Thank you, Tsukasa. Ya did good.
It’s really nice to see them start laughing in sync. It’s even nicer to see Geiz happy at all. To see him smile.
Geiz, you, Uh. Should probably tell Sougo that Revive is killing you, and do it soon. That’d be a good idea.
Okay, earlier Junichiro was working on a washing machine, and that’s still at the shop, but now there’s also a minifridge. Who keeps dragging these things in here?!
But I love everything about this scene.
Geiz: “He won’t become the overlord. We won’t let it happen.”
Black!Woz: “Hi there, we’re roommates now.”
Geiz: “...so, I’ve found a new person to kill.”
Hn. White!Woz appears to be Swartz’s underling… apparently, whatever his plan was has failed, and they’ll be going back to relying on “Sir Swartz’s”.
Heure, Hora, get OUT of there.
So, I’m not watching this out of slightly mis-guided completionism anymore. Or spite.
I genuinely like Zi-O. The start was rough, yeah, but… once it finally kicked into Plot Mode, it started GOING for it.
Case in point: This ‘liveblog’ is over 4,000 words, and it took me… about four hours to watch two 22-minute episodes.
This is FUN.
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