Retool Retrospective: Kamen Rider Zero-One

TokuNet writer Malunis talks numerous times that suit were retooled in Kamen Rider Zero-One. In talking about everything that occurs in this series, there will be spoilers for Kamen Rider Zero-One and Kamen Rider Outsiders.

We’re back with another article about suit retools! In a previous article, I talked about the concept more broadly, giving examples across the Heisei era as well as then-recent examples within Zero-One itself. In what could be considered a revamp on the article, I will go through the Reiwa era one show at a time, starting with Zero-One. While Kamen Rider has always been in favor of these low budget approaches, it can’t be denied that it has become a more frequent practice in the Reiwa era, so it made sense to start here.

I figured it would be good to preface these articles with some context.

When it comes to the Japanese side of fandom, 流用 (Ryuuyou) refers to the act of recycling or reusing, while ニコイチ (Niko-Ichi) refers to combining parts from multiple sources to form a single thing. The English word I will be using is “retool,” because I’m a Transformers fan, and it’s a term the fandom has used for the longstanding tradition of shared designs.

It’s important to note if you’re looking at different Riders/forms, you will see shared design elements, particularly in the limb armor design – to me, that is just their design language, not an example of retooling. More importantly, unless stated otherwise, these are all speculatory! It really does just come down to looking at a suit and being able to notice something resembles something else, and using conjecture to determine why they did that. Please don’t take any of my thoughts here as objective facts.

With that, let’s start with the main form, because there may be some confusion about that one!

Kamen Rider Zero-One: Realizing Hopper

The form used in the final battle of the show, Realizing Hopper is a special form that gives Zero-One the strength boost he needs in order to finish the battle. If you notice, it just appears to be Zero-One’s main form, Rising Hopper.

… And it is. If there was any misconception to what changed, I can confirm for you that it’s not any different in design. This was actually the start of what some fans believed was going to be a trend in the Reiwa era; A final form that’s identical to the main form. But it hasn’t proven to be consistent enough to call it a trend.

Apart from the different Progrise Key inserted into the Zero-One Driver, there is no difference in the design. However, certain merchandise tries to make it slightly different; The S.H. Figuarts release adds some airbrushed effect to the yellow armor parts, referencing the glowing visual effects of the form.

The various Humagear models

A major aspect of this series are the Humagears that live alongside humans. The current generation model (shown above) is an original design made for the show, but there exists a few generations that are retooled from other things.

Most notable of the bunch, the 1st generation Humagears were used in flashbacks and for certain key characters. They are retooled from the Guardian robots from Kamen Rider Build, using some new softer features. This isn’t even the first time this recent suit got retooled, as they were also used for Kamen Rider Kikai in Kamen Rider Zi-O! This is a thing I wish DID become a trend, if only because it’s funny that it happened twice in a row.

Known as a 2nd generation model, this one is only shown on display in Aruto’s headquarters. It is a retool of Deluknight, a villain from Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, and Cyberoid ZZZ, a robotic character from Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle. The concept art gives us the name of this model, as well as the aforementioned suit part origins. This is a cool design, so I wish it had seen some use.

Finally we have the 3rd generation model, also only shown in Aruto’s headquarters. This one mainly uses parts from Megahex, an alien lifeform from Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle, as well as previously mentioned Cyberoid ZZZ from the same movie. Much like the previous design, we have concept art citing these suit part origins.

Riders using the Forceriser

When it comes to this series, each belt offers a different design aesthetic, and the Forceriser (mainly used by Metsuboujinrai members) has a more villainous aesthetic. While Horobi and Jin get original suits, some additional ones get retools.

Kamen Rider 001 (AKA ZeroZero-One)

In Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation, Zero-One must use the Forceriser with his usual Progrise Key, transforming into Kamen Rider 001. This is an undersuit from Kamen Rider Build that potentially belongs to the Hell Bro’s – it could be multiple characters’ undersuits, such as Kamen Rider MadRogue, but due to specific reasons we’ll get to with another Zero-One character, Hell Bro’s made more sense here.

Unless the Hell Bro’s duo proved popular enough to make new fiction for (such as Kamen Rider Outsiders), there wouldn’t have been any reason to bring back these suits anyway.

Kamen Rider Ikazuchi

The third member of Metsuboujinrai is using the undersuit for Blood Stalk from Kamen Rider Build, along with the bicep accessories from Night Rogue of the same series. The chest and shoulder armor are repainted from Kamen Rider 001, but the helmet is a new design.

The character of Blood Stalk (Evol) recently made a return in Kamen Rider Outsiders, so it is interesting to see that they didn’t retool the undersuit back for a return of the Blood Stalk suit. This remark only makes sense once we get to the Outsiders content!

Kamen Rider Naki 

Later in the show, Naki makes their Rider debut, rounding out the Metsuboujinrai cast. They are using the same Kamen Rider Build character undersuit as Kamen Rider 001, but it is likely pulled from Kamen Rider MadRogue (which was, itself, retooled from Night Rogue).

I hadn’t considered whether it was MadRogue until writing this article, but since Naki uses some white on parts of the knees and boots in the same areas, it’s possible that’s where the undersuit comes from. That said, maybe it’s the other Hell Bro’s suit? In all cases, the characters are on the lower priority for Kamen Rider Build suits who’d be likely to make a return, so it’s understandable for them to be on the chopping block. Even if I think there’s potential in a Rogue/MadRogue special titled “Kamen Rider Rogues.”

I’ll be honest, I wanted to organize this list by having Riders, then monsters, then props or something. But since almost all of these is Rider suits, I’ll just shove this in as a thing that took place later in the show.

At one point there were villainous mecha known as Gigar. These are retools of Zero-One’s Breaking Mammoth form.

Yes, this is a CGI modification rather than a physical suit modification, but it appears to be a similar trend with Toei – Geats may or may not have also modified some CGI models! We’ll get to that another day, though.

Kamen Rider Orthros Vulcan

Towards the end of the show, Vulcan receives a new form called Orthros Vulcan – the whole thing is mostly repainted from Vulcan’s previous Assault Wolf form. Due to his association with Naki in this form, the claws used are pulled from there.

In my opinion, this is a cool suit, so I’m glad the armor design didn’t go to waste after being replaced by Rampage Vulcan. The mix of white added onto the suit also feels neat, makes it feel more like a powered up version of his main form.

Kamen Rider Horobi: Ark Scorpion

In the leadup to the show’s final battle, Horobi gains this form. The body armor is repainted from Kamen Rider Ichi-Gata, a Rider exclusive to Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation. Ichi-Gata is such an interesting unique Rider suit, so it’s nice that its parts have some staying power.

Kamen Rider Ark Zero-One

In Kamen Rider Zero-One: Final Stage, Azu makes her Rider debut with the name Kamen Rider Ark Zero-One. This suit uses a mix of existing suit parts; The undersuit and lower body comes from Zero-One’s Rising Hopper, but the upper body is a repaint of Kamen Rider Ark-One from the show’s final episodes – the chest design is pretty cleverly repainted to make it feel like it combines elements of Zero-One and Ark-One’s chest armors.

In retrospect, perhaps this mix of suit parts is why she is called Ark Zero-One?

Kamen Rider Zero-One: Hellrising Hopper

In Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME, Zero-One takes on this form, Hellrising Hopper. It is a full repaint of the power-up form Shining Assault Hopper. We run into this particular circumstance a lot with these retools; A previous power-up, which has already been replaced by something stronger, will eventually get retooled to make a new form or Rider. It’s like I’ve said before, why let a good suit go to waste if it’s not getting used anymore?

The villain for Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME, Kamen Rider Eden, features some parts you might not expect – it’s using the shoulders Zero-One’s Hopping Kangaroo form, exclusive to the Televi-kun Hyper Battle DVD special.

A lot of the parts on him appear to be unique…

… But Kamen Rider Lucifer, from the same movie, features an interesting mix of things. Obviously, he uses Eden’s helmet, chest and shoulders, but more changes than you might expect.

We return to Hopping Kangaroo for the thighs, painted very well to disguise their shape; A similar paint trick is used for what appears to be PART of the shin armor from Zero-One’s Biting Shark form – the spikes are removed from it, but the 3 gill-like slits on the armor design can just barely be seen through the paintjob. Meanwhile, the boots and forearms/gloves are pulled from Zero-One’s Metalcluster Hopper form.

What’s interesting is that the parts pulled from Metalcluster Hopper still have their original silver coloring, which implies that they only borrowed the parts from the suit temporarily and did not permanently alter the original suit for this movie Rider. This kind of thing was previously seen in Kamen Rider Zi-O with Ginga’s lower legs being identical to Meteor, as if borrowed rather than altered.

Kamen Rider Zaia / The fall of Thouser

In Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider Metsuboujinrai, Kamen Rider Zaia appears. His suit is using the undersuit, forearms/gloves and boots of Kamen Rider Ark-Zero, with the helmet, shoulders, chest, and thigh armor from Kamen Rider Thouser. It’s interesting to see this mix of parts when it could’ve easily been a black repaint of the entire suit. I guess if your intent is to make a black repaint, it’s easier to take the undersuit from another character than to replace all the gold on Thouser.

What makes things interesting is that, as far as anyone is aware, there’s probably no more Thouser suit because of this – they most likely repainted his armor for Zaia rather than make a new copy.

When Thouser appears in Kamen Rider Genms: The Presidents, the suit they use for him is just Zaia with Thouser’s own Progrise Keys. The plot reason given for this change is that Kuroto Dan has infected him with the Game Illness, causing his suit to take on a corrupted black color scheme.

This, too, is pure speculation, but: Supposedly, this TTFC special was being filmed at the same time as the movie that Zaia appears in. If they had a Thouser suit, then there’d be no problem with using it here. But if they repainted that to Zaia, and were filming at the same time, then they’d have no choice but to use the Zaia suit with a story explanation for why it looks this way. If it was filmed AFTER, then they could repaint the Zaia parts back to Thouser’s colors.

All this to say, it feels like they permanently altered the Thouser parts and filmed it at the same time as the movie, so the Game Illness was their workaround.

This only stands out to me due to the discussion that the fandom had during the show’s airing, in which people really did NOT like Thouser as a villain, and generally felt that his redemption arc – which contextualized his hatred of Hiden and revealed he wasn’t truly evil – was unearned. It feels like this had an impact on merchandise since his transformation belt was so heavily discounted in stores at the time.

For such a prominent character to be repainted so shortly after the show’s run… Well, it’s perhaps a testament to how little interest they had in keeping him around once the show was over. Kamen Rider Genms: The Presidents was originally presented to fans as a fully Ex-Aid concept, so the inclusion of Thouser might’ve been considered AFTER they already made the choice to modify his suit.

In any case, regardless of what the truth actually is, it’s funny to sum this up as Thouser losing his suit privileges in real life.

Kamen Rider Vulcan: Lone Wolf 

In Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider Vulcan & Valkyrie, the title Riders both get power-ups. As you might expect, the budget leans further towards modified suit parts. I don’t have strong feelings about them as suits, but I guess it’s neat for Valkyrie to get something that feels much more like a personal power-up compared to when she briefly had the jackal suit.

Vulcan’s Lone Wolf form features a new helmet and shoulders, but otherwise is a modification of Horobi: Ark-Scorpion, itself repainted from Ichi-Gata. This is only the second time that this chest armor would be repainted!

Kamen Rider Valkyrie: Justice Serval 

Meanwhile, Valkyrie’s Justice Serval form features a new helmet and arms, but otherwise is modified from her Lightning Hornet form. Due to the pattern established so far, one might expect the claws on her arms to be pulled from Naki/Orthros Vulcan, but they are actually a completely different design.

We’ve reached the point in this article where TTFC provides much of the new Zero-One content, and things are about to get very confusing.

Kamen Rider Thousand Ark

Featured in one of the Kamen Rider Genms installments, this Thouser power-up is using a few parts. To sum it up, the Ark Zero-One upper body parts have been repainted back to its original white from Ark-One, and the rest is using what was made into Zaia‘s suit, so parts of Ark-Zero and Thouser. It’s a confusing back-and-forth for us to get to this point.

I never did do a review for any of these TTFC things, so it’s here I will talk at length about Thousand Ark and why it’s so fascinating to me.

When we had a first look at Ark-One, before we had any story context, it seemed like we were very clearly going down a path in the show’s storyline in which Thouser would be transforming into the show’s final villain – Ark-Zero’s belt is connected to this new form, and the chest armor is literally made to look like the Zaia Spec gadget that his company created, so OBVIOUSLY Thouser steals the power of Ark for himself… right?

Well, sometimes story plans change along the way, so maybe his redemption arc caused that particular plot thread to be replaced – the similarity to the Zaia Spec is never even mentioned in the show itself. Sometimes the staff shares scrapped plans, but as far as I know, nothing can be confirmed here. It’s pure speculation on my part.

In any case, it’s an interesting combination of parts because of what it means to me. Thousand Ark feels like something out of an AU fanfiction.

Kamen Rider Ark-Zero / Ark-One; The consequences of retooling

Here’s one that practically inspired the article you’re reading. Kamen Rider Outsiders brings back multiple villains of the past, and one of them is Ark-Zero (who also briefly appears in a series of crossover episodes of Kamen Rider Gotchard). You may not have noticed anything off about the suit, but it’s got some interesting differences.

The undersuit, with the white stripes around the torso, was last seen on Thousand Ark (shown above), but for some reason they used the undersuit for Eden/Lucifer instead – note that Lucifer’s shin armor, which was modified from Biting Shark, is still present here. His forearms/gloves also still have silver they added to it for Zaia. It seems the boot portion of Ark-Zero is left intact.

The fact that they kept the shin armor makes me wonder if that’s just permanently attached to the undersuit now. In fact, does that mean Biting Shark had its own dedicated undersuit? Do ALL the forms do that? It raises a lot of questions I never considered.

Kamen Rider Ark-One makes an appearance in aforementioned crossover episodes of Kamen Rider Gotchard, and features some similar suit shenanigans as Ark-Zero. The suit itself is almost entirely just the suit used by Thousand Ark with the same mix of parts mentioned before – the helmet, which was repainted red for Ark Zero-One, has been repainted back to white, but there’s now a small black line (above the helmet’s right eye) that they kept unaltered from Ark Zero-One. It’s such a small detail, I wonder if they simply overlooked it.

I’m very curious what happened with Ark-Zero that they couldn’t just use this undersuit there – perhaps they were filming Outsiders and Gotchard content at the same time, and it was just easier to have two separate suits, so they improvised for Ark-Zero. It was perhaps also easy to just unbox the Thousand Ark suit and swap the helmet for Ark-One. Weird stuff.

Kamen Rider Zero-Three

Now we come to the latest Rider suit, featured in Kamen Rider Outsiders. This special form is a followup to the Zero-Two suit, featuring a new helmet with the chest and shoulders from Eden/Lucifer, the latter of which originally belonged to Hopping Kangaroo.

Man… that shoulder armor really hopped around!

With that, we have reached the end of this journey through Zero-One. I decided to call this Retool Retrospective for two reasons, cause there’s always two reasons; It’s something I can do for more shows, and it’s importantly not something I want to do for ONGOING series. We’re looking at a complete show, plus whatever new content is added after. Maybe I’ll have to come back and edit this article if TTFC does more. We’ll see!

Thanks for reading, look forward to more!

Sources: Kamen Rider Zukan, Aniwota Wiki