Recap: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 6 – “Piercing needle with incredible force.”

Recap: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 6 – I Want to Hear Your Voice

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Over in Daybreak, Jin ponders Horobi’s revelation that he is his son. Jin looks up what it means to be someone’s son. Horobi walks in and Jin asks if he is his parent. Horobi answers yes and that children should always listen to their parents.

Horobi also gives permission to Jin to retrieve Aruto’s Progrise Keys.

Meanwhile, Aruto excitedly watches auditions of voice actors for his favorite anime. Izu reminds him they are here to observe the voice actor Humagear Seine. But Isamu is also here to place Tazawa Seiji, Seine’s owner, under arrest for violating the law.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

That is, it is against the law to create an AI-equipped humanoid robot resembling a real person without that person’s permission. And Seine has the face of Tazawa’s daughter who died three years ago.

Just then, Jin arrives and turns a taxi driver into an Onycho Magia. Isamu quickly henshins. Aruto is about to henshin to Flying Falcon, but the Magia is able to quickly swipe the Key out of his hands.

Isamu is able to stop the Magia from flying away. Aruto henshins to help in the battle. But the Magia turns three security guards into Magia as well. One of them chases after Tazawa and Seine.

The Magia slaps Seine across the head, damaging her headpiece. Tazawa runs over to Seine who begins to call him “Papa.”

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Jin approaches them and is about to turn Seine into a Magia as well. But Jin freezes when Tazawa calls Seine his child, thinking about how Horobi described him earlier.

The pause allows Tazawa to whisk Seine to safety.

Aruto summons his Rise Hopper bike to chase after the Onycho Magia. He uphenshins to Biting Shark and destroys the Magia, but still loses the Flying Falcon Key to Jin.

Back in Daybreak, Jin celebrates obtaining the Key. But he can’t help stop thinking about Tazawa calling Seine his child and the concept of a parent-child.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Over in an undisclosed location, Yua is meeting with her mysterious boss who wants her to end MetsubouJinrai. He gives her a Lightning Hornet Key to help her do so.

Aruto and Izu meet Tazawa and Seine at the office. Izu says Seine sustained some physical damage, but is otherwise functioning normally. Tazawa flips a photo of his daughter, Sumire, over and reboots Seine.

Aruto says he understands Tazawa’s feelings about his daughter. But before Aruto can continue, Tazawa gets on his knees and apologizes. He explains that his daughter was on her way to becoming a famous voice actress, but she became sick.

Seine has completed her reboot and suddenly calls Tazawa “Papa” again. Tazawa shakes her to stop her from continuing to call her “Papa” in front of Aruto. Seine realizes her mistake and apologizes, seemingly back to normal.

Tazawa gets a call from the anime producers who say Seine has made the final round. He excitedly gives Seine the news.

Later, Tazawa tells Aruto that he will return Seine to Hiden tomorrow so she won’t be going to the audition. He asks to allow him one more night with Seine.

Outside, Aruto explains to Tazawa that he lost his father at a young age. But a Humagear took his place as emotional support which helped Aruto be able to move on. That’s why he is not sure how to handle this situation.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Isamu arrives to take Tazawa and Seine into custody, but Aruto begs him to just wait three days. Just until after the audition. He insists Tazawa will accept any punishment for his actions and Aruto will take responsibility for the Humagear.

Back in Daybreak, Jin approaches Horobi and asks if parents protect their children. Horobi says Jin is strong enough to not need his protection. Besides, their parent-child relationship is not a typical one.

Three days later at the final auditions, it is Seine’s turn. But once she gets to the microphone, she stops and begins to have flashes from Sumire’s memory. Seine, or perhaps Sumire, tells her father that she loves him and that she hopes they meet each other once again in heaven.

Tazawa runs out on stage and apologizes for Seine’s malfunctioning.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Jin appears and begins shooting into the air, causing the whole auditorium to go running for the exits.

Jin jumps on stage and attaches a ZetsumeRiser to her to turn her into a Magia.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Izu tells Aruto to destroy Seine. But Tazawa runs over to protect her. Jin asks why Tazawa would do that when she is a Magear. Seine turns around and punches Tazawa before he can answer.

Jin turns to Aruto to ask why would a parent would protect a child. Aruto, quivering in anger, can’t believe Jin can’t understand something as simple as that. Parents would do anything to protect their children, even die for them.

Jin, thinking about Horobi’s words, cringes in pain. He turns to Seine and tries to forcibly remove the ZetsumeRiser from her.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Aruto can’t believe what he is seeing. But Seine screams, causing Jin to fall back. She inserts the Key and transforms into Gaeru Magia.

Aruto henshins and battles the Magia.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Jin cries on the floor as Horobi arrives, saying Jin is not ready to leave the nest just yet. Jin believes Horobi is here to protect him. But Horobi swats his hand away and says No.

Horobi says Jin is a Humagear he created, that’s why he calls him his child.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Horobi tells Jin to just fulfill his mission. He attaches a Driver to Jin’s waist.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Jin’s eyes go red and he locks in the Flying Falcon Key to henshin.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Jin immediately battles Aruto with the Gaeru Magia joining in as well. Jin tries to forcibly take Aruto’s Key. But Yua arrives and henshins.

Aruto tells Yua he wants to take responsibility of Seine. But Yua says none of this would have happened if Aruto had acted sooner. She uses her new Key to uphenshin to Lightning Hornet. She is able to finish off the Magia with a Lightning Blast Fever.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Isamu arrives and the two of them team up to deliver a finisher at Jin. He just laughs and flies away.

Back in Daybreak, Jin dehenshins and hands over the Gaeru Key. Horobi commends him on doing well.

Over at Hiden HQ, Izu reports to Aruto that they were able to give Tazawa a new device that allows him to listen to his daughter’s voice anytime he wants. That’s all that he needs to make him happy.

Aruto says everyone needs emotional support and AI can help provide that.

Kamen Rider Zero One Episode 6 Recap

Episode Thoughts

I think this is my favorite episode so far. It definitely had a lot going on. And the fact that Yua’s sideplot with her mysterious benefactor was the least interesting part of the episode is a good thing. Because for her part, it deepened the intrigue surrounding her character.

But even more intriguing was the great character development for Jin. He’s really been the most interesting non-Aruto character for me so far. So this episode was great and really brought in a lot of new dynamics to several aspects.

First, it’s not a surprise that the Horobi-Jin “father-son” relationship was that of Horobi creating Jin. That certainly raises questions about who Horobi might be if he’s essentially a “creator”. But when it relates to the other main story of this episode, it raises even more suspicions about who or what Horobi and Jin could actually be as well.

I wouldn’t be surprised if both Horobi and Jin are made in the image of a real person too. (More Drive references?)

And even more than that, Humagears could possibly contain the feelings, emotions and memories of real people too. I actually liked the matter of fact explanation/exposition from Aruto about his real father dying and how the
“person” we saw him with on the day of the Daybreak Disaster was a Humagear who served as “emotional support”. We knew the Humagear part. But paired with the assumption that Tazawa somehow implanted his daughter’s memories into Seine, perhaps Aruto’s father’s memories and such were also implanted/uploaded into the Humagear.

As Isamu explained though, all that may be against the law, so it may not be a common practice. But it all brings up the idea that such a thing is possible. Humagears not only gaining sentience, but actually having the memories and feelings of living (or dead) people.

That makes Jin’s emotional struggle this episode all the more intriguing. He obviously already has sentience and obviously had a very strong reaction to the idea of parent-child relationships. But once Horobi forced the Driver on him, he was back to his cheery, genocidal self. Reprogrammed? Rebooted? We’ll see.

The ethical dilemmas presented by the show continue to also be very interesting.

And it definitely helped seeing Aruto be back to his more serious self again this week. It gave the episode’s events the room to really marinate and set the stage for what could be some great stories coming up. The reminder of Aruto’s experience as a child also helps ground the events while solidifying the sincerity of Aruto’s feelings toward Humagears.

Overall, a really great episode that I definitely enjoyed.

6 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 6 – “Piercing needle with incredible force.”

  1. One small thing I like here is that there is some sort of setting continuity from the last episode with them transitioning from the topic of the Parfuman manga to the anime. It’s not really important but it gives a more coherent flow instead of the events being at random.

    Onto bigger things. My only gripe with the ep is that it should have been longer or stretched into at least a two-parter. Seiji and Seine’s story opens a more ethical dilemma about the use of Humagears. The big question is, of course, why is copying the personality of an actual person into a humagear not allowed in the first place? Is it because you are essentially creating a clone here?

    That dilemma also puts Korenosuke’s actions in the backstory into a different perspective. Why would he break the law to give Aruto a surrogate father?

    As for Jin’s dilemma, I wish they explored it a bit more by presenting him becoming more curious about the concept of family before being swayed by Aruto’s words and Seiji’s actions. Still, Horobi resetting him gives the series more opening to explore it later.

    1. The season so far hasn’t done the usual KR 2-parters and instead has been more generally serialized. I wouldn’t mind them continuing in this way instead.

      I agree. I wish we got more about Jin’s dilemma, but I hope this was only the beginning. In that sense, the usual 2-episode format might have been better for this episode’s plot.

      I also hope they touch on the ethical dilemmas more too.

  2. If I’m being honest, I hope Horobi turns out to be human. It would really shatter Isamu’s beliefs about Humagears being the cause of everything.

    1. I’m thinking they could even be some hybrids too or something like that. Maybe a mash up of Drive and Ex-Aid with like some Humagears actually being people or implanted with actual human memories, etc.

  3. One of my favorite Zero-One episodes because it was all about Jin. I love Daisuke Nakagawa. So handsome.

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