Kamen Rider Zi-O Migrates Into The Reiwa Era Halfway

Real life writes plot, doesn't it? Today is May 1, 2019 and it's the dawn of the Reiwa Era in Japan. So we've had the long history of the Heisei era Riders and I'm happy to announce I've seen everything from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Build at my own pace for most of them. Then we have Zi-O which was celebrating the 20th season of the Heisei era Riders -- but now it must migrate to the Reiwa era. May 5, 2019 will begin the official migration and the title having the word Reiwa on it. So I just want to consider that it'll be the "second half" of show -- though it's not yet determined when Zi-O will air its final episode.

I was really feeling so terrible with the Shirakura-Shimoyama tandem -- I just felt that Zi-O may become the Megafail of Kamen Rider. Fortunately, it's FAR from it. Kento Shimoyama though is pretty much hit or miss -- he wrote some Go-Busters episodes but Ninninger is really one of the low-tier seasons for me. Heck, Ninninger is only slightly better than Ninja Steel for these valid reasons -- Takaharu is NOT that much of an idiot compared to Victor and Monty and no stupid summer break but those can't even redeem it. Though I'd skip a Ninninger rewatch considering that Kyuranger and Lupinranger vs. Patranger are better new school series worth checking out.

My problem with the first half has to be with on/off guest star Kamen Riders. I thought we were supposed to celebrate the Heisei era before it ends? I really got so mad with the appearances of Kamen Rider Shinobi, Kamen Rider Magic, Kamen Rider Kikkai -- it pretty much is why are we having these guest Riders who will just disappear as soon as their arc is over? Why aren't we focusing on more guest stars like Gokaiger did?

The saving point of the series for me is actually Nobuhiro Mouri. I know I still don't still the Gaim/ToQGer crossover (though I'm a fan of Gaim and I'm now warming up to ToQGer after five years) BUT he's done better after that. It's like Naruhisa Arakawa didn't have very impressive Jetman episodes yet he would later write better episodes for Dairanger and Megaranger -- plus he's the man who was made Kamen Rider Kuuga's head writer and you can think of Abaranger, Dekaranger, Gokaiger and most recently Super Sentai Strongest Battle.

So there were some murky issues like the constant time travel which fortunately STOPPED. The series starts to move into the direction where it should -- such as Sougo now trying to become a better overlord and prevent himself from becoming Demon King Zi-O. There were soon better tribute episodes which started to shy away from the time travel back and forth (which was constantly done in Kamen Rider Den-O) in favor of the present. The Kamen Rider Agito tribute was pretty well done IMHO. So I wonder will we get a Kamen Rider Kuuga tribute -- though I wonder will we end up getting that lousy Alternate Reality Kuuga? I'm still nervous.

Now the show is going into the Reiwa era. Unlike Black RX which migrated to the Heisei era on its 11th episode -- Zi-O migrates to the Reiwa era after staying in the Heisei era for so long. It'll be halfway Heisei and halfway Reiwa!