Kamen Rider 01 Episode 8: Can You Trust HumaGear Medics?

There's the saying that science without a heart or conscience is meaningless. Apparently, Kamen Rider Zero-One seems to be exploring that direction. If you happen to watch older Super Sentai (and not everyone can click with that) -- that kind of concept was explored heavily in Bioman, Flashman, Liveman, and Megaranger. The opposing views between Aruto and Isamu are now explored in what would be a two-parter. Side note, I may consider slowing down the summaries by combining several arcs into one review. This looks like it'd be a two-parter with how it ended.

A hospital ran by HumaGears does sound both promising and deadly. Personally, I tend to side with Isamu a lot due to his childhood trauma. He does have valid concerns about HumaGears developing human-like thinking. Granted, we know how deadly humanity can get with the trope Humans Are Bastards. Robots developing their own free will can lead to a crisis that heavily defines the Megaman(Rockman) X series. The HumaGears are pretty much like the Reploids -- they become Mavericks or as Japan calls them, the Irregulars. True, the HumaGear doctors can be more accurate than the humans but when machines do take over -- things aren't going to be easy. I'm open to medical technology advancement but I don't like replacing humans with HumaGears.

The Metsubo Jinrai try to infiltrate the hospital with last week's assassin but fails. Somehow, there's a security code but they find other ways. Apparently, they are controlled by the will of "The Ark". I suppose this "The Ark". The "Ark" that came before the current one "Zea" by Hiden Intelligence. It malfunctioned due to the Metsubo Jinrai infiltration. Both teams want to recover it because of its importance. Both Horobi and Jin are, not surprisingly, corrupted HumaGears themselves.

AIMS is trying to develop a way to take care of berserk HumaGears with the Gigas. However, it turns out that Metsubo Jinrai has come up with a plan. They corrupt one of the giant robots and start corrupting a series of HumaGear medics. This really creates more chaos. They also target Yua Yaiba due to her technical expertise. I'd be targeting her too if I were Metsubo Jinrai. Meanwhile, Horobi reveals his Kamen Rider form which drives Isamu berserk. Isamu turns into Kamen Rider Vulcan and goes fully berserk. This is a huge mistake and Isamu may land in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) any time soon.

Now for my rather simple closing thoughts. I'm glad that we're not having (yet) another form for the good guys because I'd rather introduce new forms progressively. I'm just getting nervous if there'd be too much merchandise that the toy commercial itself gets ruined. Also, I'm thinking about the contrasting sides may not be just two but three. Apparently, Yua doesn't hate HumaGears in contrast to her partner Isamu. I wonder how will Isamu react if he finds out he's going to get admitted to a hospital full of HumaGears? Will AIMS and Hiden eventually join forces to destroy Metsubo Jinrai? I hope so because I see them both needing to team up to recover the Ark satellite and destroy the enemy for good. But why do I feel the Ark may have gained sentience along the way?

Sidenote, I may decide to start combining selected episode summaries (as a means of trying to improve my posts) should the series focus on having several arcs.

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