Kamen Rider 01 Episode 7: Slam Dunk

Is it me or are we getting more Megaman X (or Rockman X in Japan) vibes once more? The reason has to be that HumaGears are developing sentience like humans. Last week's episode has a HumaGear voice actress who'd take over the bad Tagalog dubbers if she were real. Now, this week as a basketball coach who is developing more human feelings.

There's the quest to reset the basketball coach HumaGear known as Kobe Sakamoto. Is it a play on the name Kobe Bryant? Granted, I'm not a fan of basketball and I only play it for fun. The problem has to be that Kobe himself has been too focused on basketball. A parent complains that her child is spending too much time with basketball. Kobe seems to also show the problem if humans could accurately estimate things like a computer can. A computer is meant to help simplify complex things. Kobe seems to be doing the opposite as a computer with human emotions!

The conflicts in this episode are somewhat there. I don't want to stop comparing Aruto's and Isamu's relationship like that of Top Cat (except Aruto is no con artist) and Officer Dibble. The two are having conflicting ideals but they get together to solve a common problem. Meanwhile, Metsubo Jinrai tries to use a prototype assassin resulting in a school terrorist attack. I don't blame Sato (the teacher) or Isamu for getting paranoid. Isamu still thinks HumaGears developing human sentience can be a dangerous thing. I want to joke Isamu is probably playing too much Megaman X with how he deals with the situation. He always gets a paranoia about robots going berserk. I also don't blame Sato for wanting to reset Kobe.

Now for my concerns again. I was hoping there wouldn't be any new form but there's one. Okay, what's the big deal with Yua here? So she did get a sample HumaGear. The way things are at the end of the episode kinda freak me out. Is the writer Yuya Takahashi trolling us with Yua's scene where she says, "A tool is a tool..." at the end of the episode? Yua did examine the assassin and may have deployed it for the reason of analysis. It seems she's confident both her partner Isamu and Aruto can deal with it. She's a technical analyst after all. Why she even gave the new form to Zero-One in the middle of the battle. I wonder will she get back the ice form from him? Hopefully, she will. I hope Yua would get more forms than focus everything on Aruto. I'm still having my pressing concerns of merchandise overload which may cause a drop in quality of the Bandai merchandise to come from the show.

I do still want to address some inconsistencies regarding the fate of HumaGears. The travel agency HumaGear female wasn't restored. Others were restored after they were corrupted. Kobe is restored back after he's corrupted. Others aren't fortunate. I wish that the writers and producers will elaborate on it in later episodes.