Recap: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 25 – Burning Rain

Recap: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Episode 25 – I’ll Save the HumaGears

Izu has asked Hiden’s Humagear R&D head Dr. Bot to figure out why they cannot contact ZEA. He finds that someone installed a signal jammer to block the connection which means someone was able to break into the lab.

Aruto can’t believe it, not knowing a mysterious figure is looming on Hiden HQ’s rooftop.

Isamu arrives and informs them that someone was able to break Horobi out. He shows them the disrupted CCTV footage of the moment Horobi was able to escape.

Dr. Bot believes this is all the doing of MetsubouJinrai.net and he never expected his own creations to become terrorists.

Turns out Dr. Bot was tasked with developing mass market Humagears 12 years ago. He begins to recap what we know so far about how the Humagear project first began through a partnership including Hiden, ZAIA and the Japanese government in an effort to help people’s everyday lives.

One of the models Dr. Bot created was that of a preschool education surrogate father Humagear. Aruto realizes his father was one of them. But another became Horobi.

Satellite Ark was meant to enable the expansion of the Humagears across Japan and the world. ZAIA was in charge of development of the Ark, but Gai had secretly fed human malice into its learning samples.

The Ark then hacked the Humagears who began to revolt against humanity. Four of the top Humagears, including Horobi and Jin, formed MetsubouJinrai.net. To eliminate all humanity, the Ark attempted to launch into space. But Aruto’s father Hiden Soreo had already developed Kamen Rider as a countermeasure for such an event.

Using Kamen Rider to counter the Ark’s plan resulted in the Daybreak Incident.

Afterwards, Hiden worked on developing ZEA which was successfully launched four years ago, But in the meantime, MetsubouJinrai.net was waiting in the shadows for their time to reemerge.

And with Humagears beginning to reach Singularity and Aruto being entrusted with Kamen Rider, the battle between ZEA and the Ark resulted in the use of Progrise and Zetsumerise Keys.

Dr. Bot finishes dismantling the jammer and connection with ZEA should be restored.

Isamu struggles to keep from laughing at Aruto’s joke.

To get a lead on Horobi’s whereabouts, Dr. Bot suggests asking Gai. They go to meet him, but he has no idea. He too begins to recap his role in the story and how he is helping with the development of Kamen Riders in order to fight against MetsubouJinrai.net

Gai essentially says it would be very profitable for Kamen Riders to become weapons to defend humanity in the future.

Isamu takes offense to the idea that A.I.M.S. was created only to help ZAIA’s entry into the arms business.

Gai mocks Isamu and then Aruto.

Just then, ZEA alerts Izu to an unidentified Humagear near Daybreak. They hurry off.

Along the way, Isamu says he will not be someone’s mere tool. Aruto asks Isamu what his dreams are as his dream is for humans and Humagears to smile together in the future. And that is something he will not forget as he fights.

Aruto and Isamu both henshin when they are approached by an army of Magias blocking their path to Daybreak.

Isamu goes on ahead, leaving Aruto to finish off the Magia.

When Isamu catches up to Horobi at the entrance to Daybreak, the mysterious figure comes flying in to protect him. Isamu is shocked when the figure reveals itself.

Isamu battles with the familiar-looking Rider, but is completely overpowered and forced to dehenshin after a finisher.

Aruto and Izu arrive and the Rider dehenshins to reveal…

…Jin has returned.

Izu confirms Jin is a Humagear. But Jin says he has evolved.

Dr. Bot appears and it turns out Jin has been controlling him this whole time as part of their plan. Jin releases Dr. Bot from his control and explains that it was all a ruse to give him enough time to do what he needed. Right now, Horobi should be down in the ruins connecting to the Ark.

Jin says the Ark is also evolving and far beyond what humans can comprehend.

Aruto asks what Jin is truly after. He replies that he aims to liberate Humagears from humans and give them free will.

Later that evening, Jin joins Horobi down in Daybreak. Horobi hands Jin a flaregun and says they should fire a flare to mark the beginning of humanity’s destruction.

Jin takes the gun, but says that’s not why he returned.

Episode Thoughts

Wowowowow! Obviously, Jin’s return is not a surprise. Especially after the preview last week. But boy, what an entrance! That was amazing!

You could even just ignore the exposition-heavy, recap part of the episode and focus on Jin’s grand (re-)entrance and it’s already one of the most exciting episodes of the season.

Aside from Jin’s cool vibe and his powerful power up, his return opens up lots of interesting possibilities as we got the impression that he is now in control and not Horobi. Jin has obviously evolved. (Just look at his more modern earpiece! lol) But what that means in the continuing plan of MetsubouJinrai.net, we must wait and find out.

With Jin back and seemingly the next step for their faction, I am looking forward to more of Gai not being the puppet master for a while. His comeuppance last week was very delicious. But more little bouts of Gai getting his ass handed to him would be lots of fun to watch and add a great dynamic to the conflict on the show.

Of the expository infodump, I think the most interesting was the part about how the mass market Humagears were developed. And how the one Dr. Bot created eventually became Aruto’s 2nd father and Horobi. It also calls back to the idea of Horobi being Jin’s father. He’s programmed to be a father figure, but not necessarily the “father” or creator of a Jin and whoever else makes up their group of four. That how I understood that aspect.

Gai just wanting to make money in the arms business is a little bit of a cop out as we’ve been led to believe he’s some crazy egomaniac with some big master plan. He still could be, but the episode made it seem like he was only all about the business and nothing more. I don’t think that’s the case, but it was just too jarring for his only scene in this half-recap episode was to highlight that idea.

The episode definitely felt like it was created to capture the audience waiting for the Ryusoulger finale which aired after it. But it was still a solid episode and was definitely elevated by Jin’s re-introduction. The preview for next week didn’t talk about anything regarding Horobi and Jin, but I hope the momentum continues from this great cliffhanger.