#i can't like aruto and izu

[iristial]

If I had a nickel for every time a familial-like figure of the nicest Rider in a Yuya Takahashi series was manipulated into avoidable circumstances where she gets (kinda) killed by a purple Rider, thus said nice Rider loses it and he gets construed as a [insert however many negative descriptions], then I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

This is a genuine question as I haven't watched Ex-Aid or 01, but in what way is Yuya Takahashi writing women that they're somehow notably badly written in his shows despite him giving us a decent chunk of our female riders? Geats is my first brush with his work and I feel like they're alright here. I really can't stand certain brands of misogyny and I want to know what I'd be getting into if I watched his other work.

Hmmm thinking about it it has been a LOT less present in Geats than his other works. Perhaps he's been put through the Inoue Re-educator...

I feel his brand of misogyny is similar to what you'll usually see in Rider but like to an even further extent. Major female characters frequently find themselves without any of their own agency without the aid and guidance - or, often, the command - of a man and are very often turned away from very obvious plot beats that would capstone their story (which would have been special one-episode things so it's not even like Bandai's need to sell toys to boys would likely get in the way of it).

He also tends to just never let them transform (I think you can like count on one hand how many times Poppy actually used her belt after her evil arc), or flesh them out in the same way as male characters (it took until the post-series V-Cins for Valkyrie to get even the slightest hint of a backstory), or even just write them in a way that's natural? Like, just, he seems to have this thing of not recognising women as people who have just as much autonomy and complexities as men, and constantly they get shoehorned into having no personality or very one-note tropes? Not like Kamen Rider has a track record of perfectly-written women or anything, but even looking at adjacent examples like Ghost's Akari, or Saber's Mei, or Build's Sawa and Misora; there's absolutely criticisms you can have of their treatment and how they don't get to transform but they're all very well-realised characters with their own personalities and ambitions and have their own journeys and interesting character dynamics in the show and their place in the themes and... and I just look at someone like Izu or Yaiba and I despair? Or maybe that's just a Takahashi problem in general actually, I don't think he ever figured out a second character trait for guys like Tycoon or Snipe

I'm trying to describe things in more general terms here but I think taking basically any of his female characters under a microscope is much more telling because they all have their own specific issues. For me and a fair few others Izu's treatment in 01 (from being a subservient robot secretary who wants for nothing more than to be Aruto's subservient robot secretary, has no more character development or even really character interactions beyond that, gets fridged for easy character drama, and then in the finale Aruto just builds a new Humagear from scratch with the intent of molding it into Izu) was the breaking point that made us realise he has a pattern of how he treats women in these shows. Na-Go scared me at first because, wow, he sure is characterising a woman purely by how she wants to fall in love with a man... and actually some of that is starting to come back now with how Weird her supporter feels. But she has certainly been a marked improvement over her predecessors so maybe the guy's learned something

[t-u-i-t-c]

kamen rider zero one and kamen rider saber for the ask game?

Kamen Rider 01:

Favorite Male: Fuwa - One of my favorite Kamen Rider guys. Filled with anger and very determined, but also out here taking energy shots when he's on the brink of bleeding out.

Favorite Female: Izu - When her memories returned in RealXTime we cheered. Just an overall fun character who had a lot of devotion and I just love her.

Favorite Pairing: Horobi & Fuwa - I just really like their dynamic

Least Favorite Character: Tatsumi Arayashiki - He treated Smile so horribly and I think they should've given him worse repercussions for his behavior, like losing his career and his reputation being ruined. Enough with forgiveness, he doesn't deserve it.

Who’s most like me: Aruto - I too like to believe I'm the funniest person in the room

Most attractive: Horobi

Three more characters that I like: Raiden, Jin, and Naki

I'll give three Humagears, that were minor characters, that I liked too: Bengoshi Bingo, Enmusubi Match, and Smile Sumida

Kamen Rider Saber:

Favorite Male: Kento & Storious - I can't choose between them, but I did talk extensively about them in my lb tags. In short, Kento is extremely devoted and is willing to do anything for Touma's sake, but is also just a really sweet guy who likes to play characters and takes his responsibilities quite seriously. Storious is a man who lost his hopes of creating something unique so long ago and harbors so much resentment over it that it festers and grows to consume him. It's really interesting to see it all play out and for him to come to realizations he wasn't privy to before.

Favorite Female: Mei - Is the only one who can get everyone into gear when hope seems lost, and is really the sunshine after a storm.

Favorite Pairing: Kento & Touma - They are very much ride or die for each other. There have been so many instances in which they have done things only for the sake of each other and in some instances that has been risking their lives. They are driven by each other's very existence and keep going for each other. It's an incredible bond that I have so many thoughts on that you can read in my lb tags as well, also here's their tag that I use when I miss them. Shout out to Mei & Rintaro too, bc they're right behind Kento & Touma. Mei is the air he breathes and the light of his life that showed him what it was to live.

Least Favorite Character: Ren - I do like him, but he was the most underdeveloped from the initial group of swordsmen, so if I have to choose it'd probably be him.

Who’s most like me: Touma - I too will say something is done when it is only done in my mind

Most attractive: Kento

Three more characters that I like: Yuri, Ryo, & Ryoga

Give me a series & I'll tell you...

[asknarashikari]

(long 'ask' ahead)

About Keiwa wanting a better world for everyone, that'd be what I refer regarding it being a kindness/good deed, but not necessarily idealism. Being unhappy about his prospects and bitter about the reality of things is actually being a cynic, but you can be aware of how bad life is and how mean people are while still retaining innocence and fight for the right anyway.

I guess I'm also bringing this up to talk about Keiwa having a capacity for evil, regarding how this heel turn means Geats gave character assassination to him or such, which dunno if it's also your case, but it can seem to happen due to some fans putting Keiwa on pedestal for his outward actions, to view him as always good. always does the right thing, can't ever be/do something wrong, or even thinking about something wrong. And anyone who disagrees/at odds with him are wrong.

But him not meeting that expectations of being the all-the-time happy good guy saint, about how there can be any stain on Keiwa, seems to be what's considered character assassination, or other denial of it like only blaming others for his turn like, his capacity of evil is only instilled by Kekera when he barges to his home, and others for "letting" Kekera visit him before they do (though it's "late", don't really want for Ace or Neon to be blamed or demonized for, trying to also prevent public deaths), when, it's something already inside Keiwa from the beginning, not something new caused by Kekera.

Sara's the one and only that kept him in check, that drives him forward and keeps him good, being close to other people like friends doesn't mean that they will takes her place in that. Sara's already gone regardless of Kekera visiting him or not.

It may be disappointing for those who look for the light or spirit of heroism in the KR shows, to have him fell, but this seems to be intended as parasocial relationships theme of the show… a lesson that when someone is seen as paragons of justice instead of person, perspective'd be lost. We stop asking questions of their motivations, of their goals, of their limits. We stop acting as barriers to their darker impulses.

My fear about Keiwa's heel turn was more about if people'd agree and glorify Kekera for being "correct", which so far I'm relieved that majority hate him like Beroba, but I'd also disapprove those who view Keiwa as being incapable of being wrong, of which this turn should make those realize about those clues before like ep. 8 that he was really in the wrong.

Overall, just that this trait of Keiwa seems to be have planned from long ago and making sense, not something sudden or recent (by Kekera). Unless you meant character assassination refering to parts like Keiwa being creepy towards Tsumuri… that one yeah I agree (though it may be about how his hatred to the Goddess eliminates his sympathy to them to dehumanize them, only seeing them as objects to grant wishes and atone sins).

Putting the answer under a readmore

Wouldn't Keiwa fighting for a better world in spite of the difficulty and harsh reality be idealism? Like, that's literally the definition of idealism

I think that as the series went on it became clear that Keiwa was a lot more selfish than he originally went on, and that he had tunnel vision when it came to Sara. I don't really have a problem with that per se. However, I do think the whole bit about Sara being the only reason Keiwa's a good person- i.e., that he uses Sara as a living emotional crutch- is, quite frankly, entirely distasteful, and just shitty character writing, and imo a disservice to Sara and Keiwa.

Unfortunately, Takahashi does have the nasty habit of doing that to his female characters- Poppy was one to Kuroto, and Izu was one to Aruto.

As for the bit about character assassination... For me it was more about him placing all the blame for the DGP's faults at Mitsume's feet. It felt very odd to me, because prior to this Keiwa never showed such unwillingness to hear someone out, even if it was someone who he perceived to have wronged him. And he still manages to treat the people who did wrong him decently.

Like, how did he treat Ace who repeatedly tricked him and berated him for being naive? Instead of taking the chance to take him out of the competition with Girori's offer, he gave Ace the benefit of the doubt and saved him from Girori's scheme to kick him out of the DGP.

Or when Neon was exposed as the Dezastar, he still acted kindly towards her, even when he was the one who got humiliated the most during that arc (and thus risked getting eliminated several times due to the popularity aspect of that DGP). This is especially notable since Ace, who would have no qualms resorting to same tricks Neon did had he been in her place, took it personally and made jabs towards Neon to make her feel more guilty.

I honestly don't believe Keiwa couldn't have given her the same benefit of the doubt that he gave Ace and Neon. Heck, he even trusted Azuma to be around him without anyone else, and the man murdered him!

Yes, his parents' deaths did make it very personal to him, and he had several bombshell revelations dropped on him on the same day everything went sideways which didn't give him enough time to process before being subsequently murdered. But how many days have passed since then? Why is Keiwa still insistent on blaming Mitsume when people have told him her side of the story? I still can't figure out for the life of me how Keiwa went from believing in Ace despite all the crap the guy put him through to, to being so unwilling to believe the simplest facts about Mitsume.

It's almost bordering on an irrational, virulent hatred for Mitsume and only Mitsume, even when it was made clear that she was as much a victim as anyone else. His being creepy to Tsumuri is just an extension of that irrational hatred, because of her being Mitsume's successor as the Goddess.

[keruworld]

KR Zero One ep29: The ep where Fuwa was the protagonist... in fact i feel Fuwa is the true protagonist. XD Aruto fails as main character in many ways, but anyways, that’s just my feeling. Now that finally, after 15/20 eps the plot is moving may be... just may be Aruto could do something good and worth and reclaim his main Rider position.. and for not annoy anyone with my CRITIC about this show...

We left with a defeated Aruto, because his humangear went berserk at his own will and began to insult people, but yeah... for Aruto humans are meanies. Of course Gai took advantage of that situation in the most treacherous way as he always does.

And Fuwa got controled by Gai thanks to the brain chip... really i wish they could have showed a small flashback of how and when they intalled him the chip. Dear lazy Zero One writer... flashbacks are good, please... use them.

Probably Naki will only appear in the special of the Bluray box. I really hope dont because will be another wasted character.

Can we appreciate the good Fuwa’s butt?!

Here the power up item that Fuwa will control quickly. XD

Yua just keep repeating I'M NOT A TOOL, wonder why? What's Yua background? Probably we will never know.

In this case...both are to blame. But yeah... for Aruto the bad one is humanity.

And instead of apologize and use technology for broadcast to all homes an speech that can reach human hearts... what Aruto does is...

... being pitiful. It’s not that Aruto speech is wrong or bad... in fact he have a point but feels like empty words. I feel Zero One want to pick the problem of machines stealing human work... in a very wrong way! XD And here we can clearly see that Izu is just a cute robot. She don’t have any dialogue, she is just there... being cute and being a victim the most dramatic way. And this don’t help, just makes feel Aruto more lonely than he already is.

And Fuwa just observing in the back... is... worse!! XD I mean... why he is not helping them? It’s not his duty? come on... he had already say it, he do what he want. This was a golden opportuny for show friendship, cute interaction. But no. I mean even Geiz and Sougo had A LOT more interaction, more dialogue than these two in 29 eps. And you know Zio is really BAD WRITTEN was awful, but the characters speaked to each other, interacted to each other, it was... good, characters were good. Here in Zero One... they are superficial, their only treat are their good looks, and even i admit Horobi and Jin, i like them more for the looks than anything else, they are good looking characters. Sorry, if you not agree with me, but that is what i feel.

Gai have a not healthy impulse to control tools! Wonder... why?! Probably we will never know.

Aruto... the only human employees you have are those two... any others are humangears and you don’t pay them any cent. Either way i guess Aruto is more concerned about the destiny of the humangears... wish... he really had a counter plan for that.

Is my head canon that every time Horobi want to say because he love or like, he says it’s the ark will. XD

I feel that is a big shame to know Naki only in the special of the Bluray box.

I know this was a dramatic scene... but... i laughted so hard... i mean... Horobi and Jin are in background watching Fuwa scream!! XD

It’s the first time i heard Humangear have souls! That is the singulaty point? But how can you program that? How even Humangears are made? By the magic of a satelite? I mean even Roidmudes in Drive have a good reason for them to feel human. For much that i didn’t like Drive... i have to admit that is way better than Zero One.

Starting to feel pity about Aruto.

But why Yua... WHYYYY!!

Izu for god sake... you are a Humangear... wish she could defend for herself instead of being the excuse for characters to showoff. There are other ways better to show off than use a damsel in distress, worst a ROBOT damsel in distress. But that could have been a lot of thought for our dear LAZY writer right?

THIS, this was good... so good, finally!! Finally some character grow!! I want to cry!! Fuwa, by his own will controlled the chip and transform. That’s so main character! TTvTT

And the transformation was really cool!!

Aruto being a good background character!! X,D

That was romantic?! X,D Ok no, but... ahhh the ship!! Guess i ship Fuwa and Yua too!! X//D This too was too main character. I mean Fuwa was trying to take back Yua. He was speaking to her. Something that Aruto never did. In fact... with who Aruto speaks? XD And the fight was... so good. Screencaps will not do justice... so i skip it.

Again... Aruto didn’t say a thing... like some stranger. Excuse me... but i can’t... i can’t like Aruto and Izu like this... i can’t... i know everyone LOVES THEM... but... i can’t (goes to cry in a corner).

Yua... girl... WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?! How many siblings you have that depends on your salary?

Oh yeah... the only dialogue of Aruto... and Izu... 0 dialogue... It must be easy to Noah to memorize all Izu dialogues. XD

So... it was true that Aruto lived on Hiden office?! He will return to live on the streets?! Let’s find out in the next chapter. XD

[firebirdsdaughter]

Wow…

… It’s like Takahashi was trying to be even more insulting than having Amatsu take over the Daybreak hideout and putting that poor HumaGear w/ that monster…

The bastard stripped the fucking room.

[tsunflowers]

I thought aruto/izu was pretty cute for a while but the end of the show made me so fucking mad that I can't ship it and I am a little bit like hMM at people who do

[fluttering-by]

Okay I'm way too ill to word properly today, but all three confirmed members of Metsubojinrai have a strong sense of family, but Aruto seems to believe you can't possibly be against humanity if you're family, and "Izu can't die, she just learned what family was", and maybe I'll come back and word this better when my face doesn't feel like it's on fire, but I hope this is all brought up in the future

[cyrusstarchaser]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Zero-One when you finish it! I enjoyed it but it didn't quite strike anything for me so I wanna know what it hit for you. 😊

I think the swiftest answer would be: I LOVE androids. Like, they are easily some of my fav characters ever in anything. I refused to watch the Matrix for ages because it was "anti-AI discrimination". Aruto, a man defined by his genuine love for robots, unlocks something primal in me, ya know? Plus I really just adore how kind and compassionate both he and the show itself can be. Also I love manzai acts so really you could place Aruto and Izu into anything and it would be my fav season. I mean, I fucking hate cops AND cars with a passion...but Drive is where Chase and the Roidmudes live so, ya know lol

I can def see why some people wouldn't like this season very much though. Like with a lot of robot/andriod stories, the allegory of slavery is always kinda lingering, ya know what I mean? I would say that Zero-One does it's best to portray an earnest hope for the future of andriods, but at the same time there are some serious oof moments. Especially MC Check It Out, whcih was A LOT TBH. Plus at some point things get a kinda unbelievable with Gai. The Job Tournament Arc is flawed on nearly every level - why would you pit a FLOURIST against an Ikebana GRANDMASTER?! Why would you involve an ACTUAL case?? etc Also like, there is so much well documented crime done in broad daylight that it's like DAMN are there just no actual cops here?!?! But when Gai picked up his robot dog and went "Oh damn, I forgot how to be a decent person!" I was like "Yeah alright this rocks actually". Like for real, Zea's Trump Card was to remind this man how to have Feelings, like that was the ace power up.

I fucking love Wizard and can't see why others don't. However, despite loving Zero-One just as much, I can kinda see why people wouldn't like it. I think even WITHOUT covid-related problems this show would have still been janky and divisive. However, any season that ends with both the hero and the villain sobbing in each others arms, because they realize now how much the others hurts, would always have been S Tier for me, no matter what.

[iristial]

Really? You got parallels for Geats and Zero One? Do tell!

It's a tiny list but here we go!

A miracle performed by the uniquely dressed Takahashi heroine. Izu creates Zero Two out of love (up to interpretation) for Aruto after experiencing emotion to a degree unprecedented by Humagears (excluding Jin, who had more free will than most despite the circumstances). Tsumuri revived Ace from sadness and desperation, even yearning (though compared to Aruto and Izu, she and Ace haven't interacted a lot) as his "older sister", and Sueru confirms she's awakened reality warping powers like Mitsume

The mentality of standing alone. Zero One was about self-improvement and how it's up to the person themselves. Other people can help make the road easier but they can't always fight your battles. Geats meanwhile deconstructs this. There can only be one champion, which sets up a hostile, competitive environment that contradicts the "don't attack other Riders" clause. Maybe it'll save them from physical attacks - but not psychological and emotional. So being wary of everyone will hurt the person themselves because who can they confide to when they need help? Need someone to just listen as they pour their heart out?

Main character backgrounds. Aruto's the grandson of the creator of Humagears, Ace is the Goddess of Creation's son. Aruto views Humagear lives as no different from people's because of Soreo II, Ace spent two millennium trying to reunite with his mother who's partially why he avoids connecting with other people. Aruto's rather honest with his emotions, Ace mutes his. The common grasshopper, the ancient kitsune

Answering some other asks while we're at it:

ღ.ღ.ღ.ღ.ღ.ღ.ღ.ღ

You know, this strange idea just came to me: Ace got reincarnated into countless families for over 2000 years, right? Then, there's the possibility that he could have been reincarnated into the Igarashi family? How would have that complicated things?

While this area of imagination isn't within my forte, I don't think it'd affect - anything, really? Had he been an Igarashi, Ace would've been that distant bachelor of a cousin/uncle who disappears one day and is declared legally dead twenty years later. If it gets brought up then he'd view it with mild interest at best, toss in a joke, and move on. After all, the body that made him part of the Igarashi family tree is long gone and Ace's soul, as far as Takahashi's writing style allows it, only sees Mitsume as his real mother. Everything between then and now has been playing house for him

...I don't think Ace is going to be okay next episode: https://twitter.com/IzDisNameTaken/status/1660411977657663491?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1660411977657663491%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

Personally I think Mitsume's been dead for a long time and what's left is her, uh, petrified corpse, but it doesn't change how this is the closest Ace has gotten to achieve his heart's true desire and he loses it forever and ever. All two thousand years of yearning gone down the drain. My poor kitsune... T-T

Also - the potential angst harvest at our hands? The opportunity of Ace finally opening his heart to Keiwa and Neon, and not random characters and others? As horrible as it is for me to think like this...please let the statue crumble into rubble. In exchange I'll patch him up and wrap him up in blankets to soothe the pain. Tuck in Keiwa, Neon, Michinaga and Tsumuri for good measure

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

It would've been really cool if Izu got to challenge Aruto on his views of Humagears at all. Like, he's nicer than a lot of the other characters about it, but Aruto still seemed to be thinking of Humagears as useful assistants first and foremost, rather than as fully realized people with their own desires and ambitions (ceo brainrot). Izu choosing her own path rather than accepting the one set out for her could've been a neat way to develop both characters.

This is THE main thing for me. Izu at no fucking point in 01 disagrees on anything with Aruto. Okay, sure; she'll point out he did a joke wrong for comedy and she'll show him a different route to what he wants to do based on her database and whatever, but she never challenges him. Their relationship is left so extremely flat and static by Izu not having any of her own things she wants to do or things she thinks should be done differently to Aruto. I can't think of ANY other main rider/main female lead relationship in all of Toku, even showa where one of them isn't mad at the other over a disagreement at least once. Fuck me I can't think of any MEDIA AT ALL where that's the case

It should have been the most obvious thing in the world to do something like you said, have her decide to do something different based on her experiences beyond what was programmed into her at creation - LITERALLY that is so fucking obvious a writing choice it is gift-wrapped for you - but they just. Don't do that. Not even an episode where she like experiments or briefly thinks she wants to do something, anything else. It makes me so fucking insane I genuinely don't understand what they were trying to do with the character and why they thought what they ended up with was good or satisfactory at all and I literally cannot comprehend what people see in her as a good character beyond the comic relief aspects

[asknarashikari]

01 cast minus Aruto, who inexplicably can't get a hold of Aruto, react witness an Aruto attacking people, humans and humagears alike and then transforms into Ark01

[Izu02 arrives and tells them that Aruto has been missing since last night on his way home after Izu02 made the Aruto Ark01 explode]

Well, I imagine their first reaction would be to help people get away then try to subdue Aruto (non-lethally, ofc), likely having to combine forces in order to do so. And Isamu would tell Izu to send a distress message through the Shit is Going Down Again groupchat which would make other Riders aware of the situation for them to send assistance. With everyone chipping in it would only be a matter of time before they figure out how to stop Aruto and break him free from the Ark's control.

[iristial]

The AruIzu church scene broke me the way it did because Fumiya and Noa seemed to be pouring a part of themselves into the performance. Showing the fruits of working closely together for a year, refining their talent. And it isn't the first time they got so into it they literally lost control (Fumiya blacked out for two particular scenes, Noa couldn't stop crying after the simulation scenes). So even if on paper and in (some) execution the AruIzu relationship hasn't progressed drastically/the writer keeps using I'm your secretary instead of I'm your friend to define their bond and I do have issues with that...it's clear that, at the very least, Aruto and Izu hold each other very dearly. And I feel like that's all that matters

[firebirdsdaughter]

I am so predictable…

… First thing I do upon seeing the poster is immediately crop out everything but Fuwa and KR MBJR. ^^;

[firebirdsdaughter]

You know what else frustrates me…

… About RxT??? The partial return of the Aruto I liked.

Admittedly, bc of events in the show I have an aversion to Aruto and Izu scenes bc they just feel so groomy, but at least the bits of some of Aruto’s behaviour I’ve been able to see has felt like the return of the version of the character I had hopes for at the start of the series. The things he says to S are things he should have rushed in to say to Horobi, or should just have been said to Horobi, things he should have learned/realised from the calamitous way he treated Jin the first time. And while I take issue w/ how differently S is treated than Will or Horobi, I do feel bad for the guy (also this, too, is Amatsu’s fault).

Additionally, like I made a huge post about earlier, stuff like Horobi and Izu’s interaction could have been really good sans all the baggage the rest of the series left them w/. The memories stuff remains superfluous bc those memories didn’t change Izu at all, and a much more compelling subplot for her would be her taking tally of all the things that have happened and how she’s screwed up villain confrontations before to decide whether or not her going is the right choice. Will she help, or just make it worse again? Is there anything she can do? Horobi reassuring her that it’s a) her choice and b) everyone is different (such as, S is in a very different situation than he was, and this time she’s aware of the risks) would have been a great moment.

Also I still don’t understand how it’s ‘sweet’ that Aruto apparently ‘needs’ Izu to not use berserk Keys??? Like… If that’s the case, he needs to step down and get a therapist. He shouldn’t need her ~support~ to not make terrible decisions, esp bc I still don’t see what’s so unique about her as the majority of the show was written. If he needs a 24/7 yes woman siri at his elbow to not do destructive stuff… See above about needing to step down and get a therapist. This could have been mitigated a bit by having Izu act more in her alleged position as executive assistant rather than just following Aruto around making heart eyes at him, w/ him becoming aware of how groomy his behaviour towards her is and actively trying to distance himself so she makes her own choices, also him actually interacting w/ the other relationships he has that are not premade to like him. See her interact w/ other people and other HumaGear, see her actively trying to do things for HumaGear that don’t boil down to ‘help them help humans better for Aruto’s ~dream~.’ See him actually connect to and relate w/ the people around him who aren’t manufactured to like him and have others upports. If her interaction w/ Horobi had been less ‘but humans are the Best actually’ and more ‘you have a point, but this isn’t the answer, it’s possible to do this differently.’ If I didn’t feel like Izu’s only character trait was ‘supports Aruto,’ if she had other relationships like a friendship w/ Jin that didn’t revolve around Aruto, or relationships w/ Fuwa and Yua like Fuwa teaching her how to punch and Yua maybe teaching her coding or something. If we had seen Fuwa making Aruto realise that he’s been just as biased about HumaGear and that rather than being a ‘saviour’ he needs to step into the ‘support’ role. Seeing her and Aruto disagree about something and maybe even stay disagreed. The fact that it feels like Izu doesn’t care about anything but Aruto’s wishes to a downright insensitive degree and that the show presents there being nothing wrong w/ his nigh exclusive control over her life and development, right down to her ‘morality’ is quite creepy. They once had Aruto tell Horobi he wasn’t the Ark, but someone needs to tell Izu she’s not Aruto and that she doesn’t have to follow everything Aruto says exactly to be ‘good.’ I’m absolutely rambling now, but it’s just that Aruto and Izu have exactly the same dynamic that the Ark had w/ Horobi, but it’s treated as ‘okay’ bc Aruto is ‘good’ and ‘just wants people to be happy.’ And while I don’t think Aruto has bad intentions like the Ark did, I think he means well… That’s just as not okay. His ‘relationship’ w/ Izu feels more like grooming and gaslighting than actual development. He tells her she should ‘choose’ but she has nothing to choose between bc all she knows is that ‘Aruto-shachou is nice.’ Or, rather, Aruto-shachou says he’s nice. But I am going completely off book.

Anyway, I feel like I can tell this film was supposed to come part way through the series, bc it still has smatterings of the Aruto I liked, who officially got lost around the time 02 appeared in the show. Izu choosing to disobey Aruto could have been a big thing for her character, if the entire rest of their relationship didn’t feel manufactured. Her snapping him out of (yet another) berserk form would been good if it was more about just how he needs to stop grandstanding and realise that he’s not some ‘saviour’ that does everything alone and also haven’t we been through this before? Not ‘remember how perfect you are’ or ‘remember your heart’ but just ‘you don’t need to go doing this, get your head in the game.’ Gods, Izu (lightly) slapping Aruto. Not being upset just bc ‘you taught me I love you so I can’t live w/out you stop putting yourself in danger’ but that his behaviour was unnecessarily risky for everyone. Izu being ‘cutesy mad’ at Aruto for being in danger doesn’t count as disagreeing, I’d want her to actively call him out on making a bad decision and hold him accountable. I just feel like so much of the tone of them is that ‘Izu is Aruto’s perfect angel who helps him be ~good~’ and again if you need your cutesy secretary to follow you around and tell you to remember how ‘wonderful’ you are to not do stupid stuff… You need to not be in a position of power. There’s a reason I just hear You Don’t Know What Love Is by Plain White T’s playing over all of their scenes, bc Izu doesn’t know what love is, she only knows what Aruto’s told her??? And I have gone way off topic again???

My point originally was, I see some of the old Aruto here, the one I liked, the one who felt like a person and not some representation of human arrogance and bias. The one who wasn’t always getting shilled as some perfect saint and who felt like just this guy out of his depth doing his best. The guy who had decent intentions, but had his own biases and assumptions about HumaGear/ai and who I was hoping to see learn and grow and become something more. The guy I held out for being able to recognise how mbjr were all victims and show compassion and sympathy for them, who would come to recognise the issues w/ the power structure in his society and actually give indication it bothered him and he wanted to change it, who would realise he, along w/ most other people, had been taking HumaGear benevolence for granted, who would come to respect the feelings of others and how HumaGear can very justifiably be angry w/ humans sans any sort of interference, and who would come to recognise his own flaws and struggle to work on them… I miss that guy.

Instead, I’ve got mister ‘I have a bigger heart for ignoring your suffering until it effected me’ and ‘there’s no reason for us to fight anymore bc obviously that’s my call I know how you feel/what’s best for you.’

[iristial]

"Don't go, Izu!"

"Goodbye..."