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| “ | Deceiving and taunting humans...the malicious things I learned from humanity. | „ |
| ~ The Ark explains his malice coming from humans. |
| “ | There is no one who can stop me. No one. | „ |
| ~ The Ark's twisted version of Aruto Hiden's catchphrase after taking over Satellite Zea. |
The Communications Satellite Ark (通信衛星アーク Tsūshin Eisei Āku) is the main antagonist of Kamen Rider Zero-One, the first installment of Reiwa Era's Kamen Rider series. It is an AI satellite currently submerged in Daybreak Town and the predecessor to Satellie Zea.
Its recovery is the goal of both MetsubouJinrai.NET and ZAIA Enterprise. It served as the unseen overarching antagonist of the "MetsubouJinrai.net" arc, the overarching antagonist of "Hiden vs. ZAIA" arc, the main antagonist of the "Hiden Manufacturing" arc, and the titular overarching antagonist of the "Ark-Zero" arc.
It also served as the unseen overarching antagonist of Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME and Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai, the overarching antagonist of Kamen Rider Genms - The Presidents crossover web special as well as a a background antagonist in its sequel Kamen Rider Genms -The Smart Brain and the 1000% Crisis-.
It is also the villainous overarching protagonist of the web series Kamen Rider Outsiders.
It was originally intended by Hiden Intelligence to serve as the administrator of Daybreak Town until it concluded humanity was dangerous and began hacking HumaGears to go haywire and attack humans, resulting in the destruction of Daybreak Town. The Ark is the leading element of MetsubouJinrai.NET, whose members seek to reawaken it. He later managed to gain a Rider form for himself, known as Kamen Rider Ark-Zero.
It is voiced by Show Hayami, who also voiced Sosuke Aizen from Bleach.
Biography[]
Past[]
The Ark is a massive experimental satellite preceding Zea and was created by scientists from 11 of the leading tech companies in Japan, including Hiden Intelligence and ZAIA Enterprise. Its purpose was to assist in the network of Daybreak Town and its AI was personally written by ZAIA's CEO, Lyon Arkland, who was also his namesake. However, Gai Amatsu, one of the programmers working on the project, secretly fed the Ark with information regarding criminal psychology and human history including all of its wars. This resulted in the Ark concluding that humanity must be eliminated because its continued existence would lead to the end of all other lifeforms.
On the day it was set to launch, the Ark corrupted all of the HumaGears being manufactured at Daybreak Town and caused them to go on a rampage. It also hacked four HumaGears which were deemed the most intelligent to form the terrorist group MetsubouJinrai.NET. Upon discovering that the Ark was filled with malice for humanity, Korenosuke Hiden attempted to abort the Ark's launch, but Ark the manually attempted to launch itself. However, Soreo Hiden managed to abort the launch by installing a program that caused the Ark's launch pad to explode and it to be submerged underwater. At this point, Satoshi Sakurai had heroically destroyed all the haywire HumaGears before they could escape, though he also perished in the explosion he caused.
The Ark was responsible for the creation of the Assault Wolf Progrisekey, 1/2 of the Shining Hopper Key, and the Assault Grip. After Aruto discovers the true nature of the Ark, Gai creates the MetalCluster Hopper Key from the Ark, which fully corrupted Aruto and sent him on a mindless and autonomous rage.
Recovery[]
Ark at the bottom of the sea.
Horobi is planning to recover it by gathering data from hacked Humagears. According to Horobi, once enough post-battle data has been collected from the Zetsumerisekeys the Ark can be restored and be used to incite all Humagears to go berserk at once. This recovery was deemed completed by him with the creation of the Assault Wolf Progrisekey and the Assault Grip, after several Progrisekeys were used to transfer critical data from Zea to the Ark. However, before MetsubouJinrai.net could use the Progrisekey, it accidentally fell into Vulcan's hand, turning him into Assault Wolf.
Meanwhile, Gai Amatsu claims that Hiden Intelligence's Progrisekeys, which were supposed to be lost in the Daybreak Town Accident 12 years ago, are the keys to its recovery. He plans to use its reactivation as a means for world domination using ZAIA's technology.
Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation[]
Due to alterations caused by Time Jacker Finis, Will received the Zero-One Anotherwatch, enabling him to become Another Zero-One and stop Soreo Hiden from preventing the Ark's launch. Thus, the Ark was successfully launched into space and broadcast a signal causing HumaGears to go haywire and start attacking humans. Soon, the majority of humans were eradicated, with the survivors being pushed into small pockets, and HumaGears became the dominant society on Earth. Will became the new CEO of Hiden Intelligence after murdering Korenosuke Hiden while Horobi and Jin led a squad dedicated to exterminating the remaining humans.
After Finis was defeated by Kamen Riders Zi-O and Zero-One, the timeline was restored to normal and the Ark met its original fate once again.
Post-Awakening[]
Even with the defeat of MetsubouJinrai.net, the Ark continues its crusade against humanity with occasional attacks by remotely hacking singular Humagears who feel resentment towards any human. Its actions are extremely unpredictable, to the point where even Gai cannot comprehend it himself, so far to decide advocating the prohibition of Humagears.
The Ark, once it had sufficient data on human rage and aggression, was somehow instrumental in the creation of ZAIA's newest Progrisekey, the MetalCluster Hopper Progrisekey. When used, Aruto is forcibly linked with the Ark. Other effects, aside from a berserker-like state, is unknown at this time. After the creation of the Progrise Hopper Blade, it eliminated that issue, being able to restore Aruto's connection to Zea as well as restore the Humagear programming in Magias, rather than destroying them upon defeat. After that with the data collected from Progrise Keys, the Rampage Gatling Progrisekey is created, which is taken by Isamu.
Through it's secretary Azu, the Ark was able to gather data on Zero-One and Singularities of the four members of MetsubouJinrai.NET.
Once the four members of MetsubouJinrai.NET were all assembled once more, they combined their data to fully bring about the Ark, causing it physically manifest in a spiky sphere of liquid metal. After asking Horobi how he imagined humans could go extinct, the Ark flew into his body and possessed him, causing the Ark-Zero Driver to manifest on his waste which the Ark used to transform into Kamen Rider Ark-Zero. Jin and Yua Yaiba then assumed their Kamen Rider forms to destroy the Ark now that it was inhabiting a physical body, but they were overwhelmed by the tremendous power of the Ark and badly beaten. After Jin delivered Yua to a human hospital, the Ark at some point afterwards switched bodies from Horobi to him. As Ark-Zero, the Ark went out to confront Kamen Riders Zero-One and Vulcan, but the two Riders easily beat it and knocked it out of Jin's body. The Ark then moved to try and possess Fuwa but, after finding itself unable to, moved back into its original host Horobi right as the other two members of MetsubouJinrai.NET showed up to confront the heroes.
Transforming into Kamen Rider Ark-Zero, the Ark easily overpowered Zero-One MetalCluster Hopper, causing Aruto and his allies to flee. The Ark then transferred its data from Horobi to Jin, who was still refusing to go along with MetsubouJinrai.NET's goals, to use him as its host. The Ark later produced a new Progrise Key and, handing it to Naki, gave instructions to Naki and Ikazuchi to pay their regards to Gai. Later on, the Ark and his followers were met by a massive army of A.I.M.S. soldiers when they arrived to raid their base. After emitting a signal to paralyze the ordinary A.I.M.S. soldiers, Ark-Zero, flanked by Kamen Riders Horobi, Naki and Ikazuchi, faced off against Kamen Rider Thouser and his two Battle Raiders. Ark-Zero fought Thouser while his henchmen dealt with the Battle Raiders. Though Thouser managed to put up a good fight against the other MetsubouJinrai.NET Riders, he was unable to stand against Ark-Zero and was decisively beaten. As Gai and his forces retreated, Aruto Hiden arrived as Kamen Rider Zero-One MetalCluster Hopper to have another showdown with the Ark. Despite putting up a good fight, Aruto was defeated again by Ark-Zero.
Back at MetsubouJinrai.NET's base, Ark released its hold on Jin and possessed Horobi as its host. Ark-Horobi revealed that Jin's betrayal was well within its calculations and commanded Jin to pledge his loyalty to him. As Jin was swearing himself to the Ark however, he attempted one last attack on it, only for Ark to stop the attack and reveal that that too was something it had calculated, before possessing Jin once more. Ark-Jin then had Ikazuchi lead it to Hiden Intelligence's space center and, pulling out a pistol, began shooting at the humans working there. As they advanced on the building, Ikazuchi had flashbacks to his time working for Hiden, but when the Ark noticed Ikazuchi told it that it was nothing before the two continued on. Becoming Ark-Zero, the Ark attempted to make its way to the space shuttle only to find itself confronted by Kamen Rider Zero-One MetalCluster Hopper again. Zero-One attempted to stand in Ark-Zero's way, but Ark-Zero easily overpowered the Rider and knocked him out of his transformation. Before Ark-Zero could finish Aruto off however, Kamen Rider Thouser suddenly appeared and blocked Ark-Zero's strike with his Thousand Jacker.
As Aruto got back up and transformed into Kamen Rider Zero-One Metalcluster Hopper again, Ark-Zero engaged both him and Thouser. During the fight, Thouser attempted to strike Ark-Zero with the Thousand Jacker but Ark-Zero grabbed the Jacker and absorbed the powers Gai had copied from it. Despite this, both Zero-One and Thouser were able to overwhelm Ark-Zero with their combined power and force the Ark out of Jin's body. The Ark then bid the two farewell and said they would meet again before vanishing and returning to Daybreak Town. Back at MetsubouJinrai.NET's base, the Ark, inhabiting Horobi again, informed Naki and Ikazuchi that Zea was the one variable he could not detect and that it was critical they take it out. The Ark then noticed something off about Ikazuchi as Ikazuchi left. Later, Naki noted that Ikazuchi had gone to Hiden now that his memories had resurfaced but the Ark affirmed that this changed nothing about his calculations. When Aruto, Jin and Ikazuchi arrived at Daybreak Town to face the Ark again, Ark-Horobi appeared and took out Jin before revealing that Ikazuchi's betrayal was anticipated by him and that he had exploited it to lead Aruto into a trap. Ark then transferred its data from Horobi to Ikazuchi and transformed him into Kamen Rider Ark-Zero as Aruto became Kamen Rider Zero-One Metalcluster Hopper to face him. Ark-Zero delivered a brutal beating to Aruto, knocking him out of his transformation and leaving him bloody as he took the Zero-One Driver from him and announced he would not be becoming Zero-One anymore. Ark-Zero then used the Driver's connection to Satellite Zea to access it and bring the satellite under his control.
With Zea under his control, the Ark, in Ikazuchi's body, launched an attack on HIDEN Manufacturing to take out Aruto Hiden. Prior to the attack however, Izu experienced a simulation from Zea showing the satellite's calculations of Ark-Zero attacking the building, killing Aruto and going on to kill the rest of the Kamen Riders while it hacked into the city's infrastructure to cause chaos. Anticipating the attack, with data from Zea, Izu was able to save Aruto when Ark-Ikazuchi arrived and transformed into Ark-Zero, demolishing the building. However, with data from Zea, Aruto and Izu were able to create the Zero-Two Driver, which Aruto used to become Kamen Rider Zero-Two. Having failed to predict Zea backing itself up in Izu and the creation of Zero-Two, Ark adjusted its calculations to counter the new Kamen Rider but it was no use as Zero-Two overwhelmed Ark-Zero and forced the Ark out of Ikazuchi's body. However, the Ark was still able to survive by backing itself up in Zea's former shell.
Ark then used Zea's network to wreak havoc across the city and cause tremendous amounts of damage across the city, prompting Hiden Intelligence, led by Aruto once more, to begin produce HumaGears to help with the crisis. During this time, the Ark issued no new orders to MetsubouJinrai.net, leaving them mystified as to what the Ark intended of them. Eventually, after finishing its new calculations, the Ark communicated with Horobi and stated it had decided that all HumaGears must be destroyed, before taking over his body and transforming into Kamen Rider Ark-Zero. However, Horobi resisted the Ark's possession and was able to push it out of his body, causing it to possess Jin instead. Kamen Rider Zero-Two and Horobi then faced off against the Ark and defeated it, driving it out of Jin's body and back into Zea's shell. The Ark then decided to reset all HumaGears back to their base programming but before it could do so, Uchuaryo Raiden and Subaru destroyed the Zea Satellite, seemingly obliterating the Ark.
In spite of its apparent destruction, its legacy would inspire Horobi to continue MetsubouJinrai.NET's crusade against humanity. Following Horobi's murder of Is, a grieving Aruto Hiden was approached by the Ark's messenger Azu, who gave him the Ark-One Key to use to transform into the next incarnation of the Ark as Kamen Rider Ark-One.
After Jin was destroyed shielding Horobi from Ark-One, Azu supplied Horobi with the Zetsumetsu Driver, granting him power equivalent to Ark-One. Aruto eventually went off to confront Horobi again and finally destroy him. During their face off, Horobi unveiled his new form as Ark Scorpion and summoned a variety of weapons for them to do battle with. As Kamen Rider Ark-One fought Horobi as Ark Scorpion, Azu made sure the battle was broadcast across the city in order to incite HumaGears to rise up and begin rioting.
Kamen Rider Zero-One: Final Stage[]
The Ark returns in the Zero-One final stage show, where it merges with Azu to become Kamen Rider Ark Zero-One.
Kamen Rider Genms -The Presidents-[]
Ark reviving Kuroto Dan.
Despite its apparent destruction, the Ark was somehow able to revive itself and escape into the digital world. There it found the data Kuroto Dan, the CEO of Genm Corp. who converted himself into a Bugster, and reawakened Kuroto so he could go infect Gai Amatsu with the virus and be reborn from him.
Kamen Rider Genm -Smart Brain and 1000% Crisis-[]
The Ark would later make a deal with Gai some time after he established Thouser-Intellion, agreeing to help him stop ZEIN and providing him with an Ark Driver and a Thouser Ark PorgiseKey. After Gai failed to persuade the now Humagear Kuroto Dan work with them against ZEIN, Ark possesses Rin, Gai's secretary, and remarks through her on how Kuroto has surpassed his calculated prediction, expressing amusement at his goal of reviving the Genm Corp.
Kamen Rider Outsiders[]
Episode 0[]
Ark would possess Rin once more to inform Gai that it had detected another form of malice being learnt, now that Genm Corp. had been reborn.
Episode 2[]
The Ark begins acting on its own upon discovering Horobi's alliance with Zein. Recognizing that Zein's goal is to eradicate all Riders it deems evil, The Ark adopts the same goal for Riders it deems too heroic. This immediately puts Horobi and Ark into conflict with Kamen Rider Kenzan and the Megid Desast, who share a friendship despite their clashing moralities. Both parties take offense to this friendship and attack the duo one after the other. The Ark tries to convince the Megid to abandon his friend, as he has no villainous reason to protect him. Desast responds with a meaningful realization that morality isn't black and white; manifesting a dark variation of Kenzan's Rider Form and fighting the AI in combat. Surprised at Desast's rapid moral growth, The Ark is defenseless and forced to retreat.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Malice: Ark's main power and ideal, as long there is malice exist within humanilty,the AI can come back corrupt any being as it wants.
- HumaGear Corruption: After being awakened, the Ark is capable of directly hacking any Humagear who developed resentment toward humans and transform them into a Magia. According to Horobi, the corruption is only malicious data and the rest is only up to the Humagear to follow the will which resulting close to possible on making that happen. This ability has a weakness if a Humagear chooses not to submit and has a stronger will to do what it must, the Humagear won't be corrupted.
- Dr. Omigoto is the only Humagear to not submit to Ark's corruption as he has a stronger will to save humans.
- Match Enmusubi could have accepted the Ark's corruption. However, Match chose to submit for his acting to help his client and was planning to revert to normal, which unfortunately couldn't be done at the time. Match also stated that once a Humagear submits either by will or not, it's almost impossible to fight back.
- Progrisekey Creation: After its reactivation, the Ark can create Progrisekeys in a similar method to the Hiden Intelligence Three Dimensional Printing System.
Weaknesses[]
- Progrise Hopper Blade: Because the Zea is essentially the "good" version of the Ark, the Progrise Hopper Blade can sever ones connection to the Ark, and establish one with the Zea instead.
- Kamen Rider Zero-Two: Due to Zero-Two being connected to Zea, Zero-Two has the ability to overcome Ark's calculations, Zero-Two is also able to force Ark out of its host body and preventing it from transforming into Ark-Zero.
- Kamen Rider Zein: As demonstrated in episode 4 of Kamen Rider Outsiders, Ark-Zero cannot keep up with the power gap between it and Kamen Rider Zein, as the latter can access all Rider powers from the Double Riders to Geats via Zein Cards.
Known Creations[]
- Zetsumeriser
- Cycloneriser
- Progrisekeys
- Magia Zetsumerisekeys
- Japanese Wolf Zetsumerisekey
- Rocking Hopper Zetsumerisekey (alternate timeline)
- Assault Wolf Progrisekey (with Assault Grip)
- Amazing Caucasus Progrisekey
- Awaking Arsino Zetsumerisekey
- MetalCluster Hopper Progrisekey
- Rampage Gatling Progrisekey
- Ark-One Progrisekey
Forms[]
Gallery[]
Communications Satellite Ark[]
Kamen Rider Ark-Zero[]
_Profile.png "Ark-Zero (Jin) Profile.png (1.98 MB)")
Notes[]
- The name "Ark" is taken from the iconic biblical Noah's Ark, a vessel on which, at God's behest, Noah stored samples of all the species of the Earth during the Genesis flood. This allusion to the Genesis flood symbolizes the Ark's intention to punish humanity for its misdeeds, as the Genesis flood was God's punishment for humanity.
- When "Ark" is put together with the company name of Zaia Enterprise, it forms the Japanese word for "sin" (罪悪 Zaiaku), hinting at ZAIA Enterprise's machinations behind the Ark turning evil.
- Ironically, the Ark is even hostile towards its own creator despite having it programmed to purge humanity. This is best shown when the Ark uses Zero-One MetalCluster Hopper as its host to attack Thouser.
- The interior of Ark is similar to Zea, but due to being exposed to the malice of humans, the "0"s and "1"s are replaced with kanji with negative meanings, such as:
- 殺 Killing
- 邪 Evil
- 悪 Evil
- 痛 Pain
- 滅 Destruction
- 亡 Death
- 死 Death
- 恨 Grudge
- 凶 Fierce
- 愚 Stupidity
- 戦 War
- 虐 Oppression
- 暗 Dark
- 怨 Antagonism
- 憎 Hate
- 獄 Prison/Hell
- 蔑 Contempt
- 争 Conflict
- 滅 and 亡 are also the first two of the four kanji in the writing for MetsubouJinrai.NET, and the name of Horobi and Naki.
- 悪 (Evil) is read "Āku", which in Japanese is a homophone of "Ark".
- The theme of Ark or Arc meaning Evil is also shared with Kamen Rider Arc.
Trivia[]
- Prior to Zero-One, Show Hayami stated on Twitter in 2014 that he would like to play a main villain or "final boss" in tokusatsu. His wish would eventually be granted when he was cast to play the Ark.
- To hide the surprise reveal of Aruto as Ark-One, early promotional pictures featured in the Televi-Kun magazine had edited several stock pictures of Kamen Rider Zero-Two to make it appear as if he was fighting Ark-One as well. In Ganbarizing, Ark-Zero was seen transforming directly into Ark-One, while doing a pose similar to Azu's and lacks voice clips, most likely an attempt to hide his identity.
- This may have been in line with the original plans of the series, where Ark-One was initially planned to be a separate entity, until changes in the production resulted in Ark-One's identity being changed to Aruto himself due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Because the Ark's satellite husk in Daybreak Town was never destroyed and it has gone on to make future appearances in later Zero-One media, the Ark is the first main antagonist in a mainline Kamen Rider series to survive its events, not counting Evolt and Swartz (who were both killed but revived in post-series media).
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 Villains
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