I love it too. Satisfying.

The only big argument screaming in my mind when Horobi confronts Aruto about human selfishness, malice etc etc is this.

"And you wanting to kill humans but we're supposed to just defend ourselves and not fight back?" How nice to have it only your way.

Then it struck me immediately. Aruto is in an even worse situation than I am, he went through several hells (losing his dad, losing the company, getting possessed by Metal Cluster Hopper, losing Izu, unintentionally murdering Jin)

He went through more shit and I do but he found it within himself to forgive Horobi.

This is where kokoro hits home. The guy who believed in Humagear more than he believes in himself, has also started believing in himself, to have the capacity to move forward, to let go, to turn a tragedy into a learning opportunity for someone that nobody would have found it within them to ever provide.

I am satisfied with this ending.

So if this is how Reiwa will become moving forward, I am very excited to see how the other Riders tell their story (heh)

I’m also glad about this ending.
It’s kind of bittersweet...
Seriously, I felt the pain Aruto had when he has to make the new Izu learn everything the OG Izu went through.
As for Fuwa, he is really going the Showa Rider way hu? X)
I will miss these characters.
Also, There is ONLY one stuff out of place : Kamen Sell My Toys Rider : Eden
He really comes out of nowhere.
As for Azu, can we all agree that so far that’s a character we actually kind of hate?

It’s really sad how this series lost itself at the end. I hope Saber can be better; I’ve got higher hopes for it from who’s writing it.

I liked the finale in a lot of ways, it was pretty good all things considered. The Horobi vs Aruto fight was awesome and the resolution of it was satisfying. I wish he beat Ark-Scorpion as Zero-Two or simply Rising Hopper, Realizing Hopper just seemed very low effort (seriously, no additions to the suit?). I would have even taken his father giving him the CycloneRiser to become Ichigata. Nothing about Realizing Hopper was really impressive or special at all.

I liked some of the character epilogues, Yua/Valkyrie and Naki being the most satisfying. I also liked Jin and Horobi's new Metsuboujinrai. Fuwa/Vulcan's was straight-up odd and Raiden/Ikazuchi kinda got glossed over. And Gai/Thouser never really got his comeuppance save losing Rider fights a bunch of times so I'll never really be satisfied with his character arc.

Disliked Aruto making another Izu and trying to mold her into being the exact same secretary he lost. After all this talk about giving Humagears their freedom and making a dramatic point of it through his fight with Horobi, this kind of just flies in the face of that.

Cliffhanger with Azu and the new Kamen Rider was interesting, I guess we will see how all that amounts to in the winter film. Speaking of which, since it will be a standalone film, I hope that means the film will have a lengthier running time (same goes for Kiramager).

I did like how bold these last few episodes were. Aruto becoming Ark-One was completely unexpected and made for a great twist and the growing conflict between Horobi and Aruto really upped the stakes which resulted in an exciting endgame. While the ending didn't deliver on all accounts, I have to give props to the showrunners for keeping things fresh and fun even after production was heavily affected by the pandemic. While I will always wonder how the show could have turned out had it not lost episodes, I'm happy with what we got. It was an exciting first series for the Reiwa era and overall a good Kamen Rider series. Not great, not terrible, just good. And all things considered, that's fine by me.

The ending is good for what it is aside from using 01 Realizing key despite swying Rising still. the wrap up are all nice with nod to current state of reality of BLM . everyone should just let go of their prejudice and forgive.
I feel the ending would be better if the story is fleshed out more. If someone that haven't watch 01 for a while and suddenly watch the ending they'll be impressed , but if they marathon it they wouldn't feel like the characters from episode 1-40 suddenly become the characters in episode 45. The whole Aims division feels disposable and when did Yaiba become a respectable captain? Is Fuwa a regular cop now? Gai is the new Dan in his basement. All the visuals are nice, but the journey to this finale is a rush.
I'm not a fan of the semi decade like ending with a tease for more movies to come. It's like the place kiva fought decade and Azu suddenly transform again with not just red hair , but a witch or widow attire as well. I hope for a new threat not another slave subject tempted by the power to become another Ark soldier.

Got to be alive and functioning to even experience a Singularity.

If Izu coming back is bad, then the other destroyed Humagears coming back is bad then?

Not really, because they have their data backed up. When they are destroyed, they get their data re-uploaded into their new bodies and they essentially carry on with the same consciousness.

With Izu, there's no way to bring her original incarnation back so there's more similarities to human death. It's permanent. So him trying to rebuild the exact same "person" feels wrong. She'll never be the original Izu and Aruto will never move on from his loss.

Despite some disappointments, overall I enjoyed it a lot. Honestly, that describes both the finale and Zero-One as a series (and to be fair, it describes most other media too). For me the highlight of the episode, and possibly all of Zero-One, wasn't the final battle between Aruto and Horobi but that moment in between fighting when they were just talking. I do think it was different from endings we've seen before, in that it wasn't an argument or clash of ideals. It was empathy and compassion, and realizing the only way to truly end their conflict was to not destroy each other.

As for Izu, it seems like Aruto and the writers intend it to be like the original Izu has amnesia, not like a new one was built to replace her, so I'm just gonna imagine that Aruto used the original Izu's progrise key in the new body to give it the same personality and character traits that made Izu herself, it's only her memories that were lost.

I wasn't a fan of this ending and series. It felt political and in many ways it mirrors the divide in America. I also watch a lot of jdrama and I like to see past toku actors transition into bigger roles. I also like to predict which KR and SS actors/actresses will become future stars and I think that only the actor that plays Jin will have a decent future in acting. His height and looks transitions well for hs/college student roles.

Back to the finale, I wanted to see Fuwa return to his real family who he had forgotten because of the chip implant that allows him to transform with the shotriser wiping out his real memories.

I didn't care for a new Izu being built which will have to start from scratch to become the Izu that was destroyed. I realize there was no way they weren't going to bring her back (I would have preferred that she didn't as her death would mean a lot more to me) and the only other way would have been the secretary key working and having her return as if she was never destroyed which would be similar to Poppy Pippopappo who returned as if she never was gone at all. I think Izu meant more to this series than Poppy did in ex-aid which is why everyone has an opinion on how her return or not returning could have been handled.

Other KR series have also had large casts and have been better than zero one imho so having a large cast isn't the reason why I didn't like this series. Maybe things would have been better if the world wasn't affected with covid 19, but for me I never got into this series. I had high hopes for it too. One thing that was outstanding was the special effects. Zero One by far had the best special effects of any other series.

Many will compare this to ex-aid because of the head writer and while there are some similarities, Ex-Aid is one of my favorite KR series of all time and Zero-One ranks just above ghost to me. Ex-Aid rider forms were also some of my favorite as well. Hyper Muteki is my 2nd favorite form of all time.

I'm glad that others liked it more than I did. I'll read this thread again in a week and see what others have said they liked about zero one and rewatch key episodes and see if I like it on the 2nd go around.

I actually felt that Vulcan got excellent closure. I don't really see what more you could do for him with a v-cinema.


There's a reason he goes by "Vulcan" in the final episode, rather than Fuwa Isamu. The thing is; addressing himself as Vulcan is very fitting, based off of his development. It was after he became Vulcan that he really found his identity. Isamu Fuwa's initial persona and memories were completely fabricated. Him even becoming a Kamen Rider in the first place was orchestrated. Isamu Fuwa had a purpose, but it was a complete lie. Kamen Rider Vulcan is every fiber of his being.


Considering he has no memory of his former life to begin with, his family really has no place in his current life. It doesn't make sense to have him reunite with them.

That's the thing. Humagears are not humans. Izu death is not permanent in the same way it is for a human.
In the end they are still a product/species of humanoid robots made by men to help them with tasks or jobs.
The show wants you to understand you have to respect them, you can love them, they can even have a form of feelings and heart (even in the shape of a dog or that "counselling AI friend thing" which helped the cast at some point). But they are not humans. and they have a characteristic humans don't have, they can be rebuilt.

The show wants you to think and understand that there is no difference (at least in-universe) between restoring Izu with the "secretary Izu" key digitally or if it's Aruto doing it "manually".
The first shot we see of Aruto in the epilogue is him pressing the secretary izu key button. In-universe this makes no sense, as he probably pressed that damn button one billion times already and he knows it doesn't work anymore. The shot is just here for us to make the parallel between the key and Aruto teaching Izu again with his memories instead. It's a "If it doesn't work with the key, I'm going to do it myself" message.

For us it feels weird, yes, because we live in a world of humans as the only species with such a degree of sentience and intelligence in these fields, (and Humagears are humanized/treated as 99% humans during all the show which of course can confuse us).
But in-universe in zero-one that's a bit different. humagears are different because of the rebuilding thing, back-up or no, and that's what makes the situation with Izu not/less weird.

At least that's how I understand it.

What the heck is wrong with some of the people here trying to force their narrative about what happens in the US here? It’s Japan, it’s a japanese show, and it’s done first and foremost for the japanese audience, they don’t give a shit about what happened in the US. Just stop bringing your political nonsense here.
We’re here to talk about toku, not politics.

I thought I was the only one who felt this way lol. It is unbelievably fucking stupid that anyone thinks Zero-One is even remotely referring to current events across the fucking country.

I mean, as an American it's hard to look at the Humagear protests without being reminded of what's happening here, but yeah it's just silly to assume the writers of a Japanese show for a Japanese audience were focusing on American politics. I'm pretty sure that if the writers based the Humagear marches on any real-life movements, they would look to protests in Japan first.

That said, I just did some research and apparently there are also marches against racism happening in Japan these days too.

Oh yeah sure, there's no way Japan gives a fuck and the 3500 people who marched in Tokyo were just out shopping simultaneously or something.

How fans of Kamen Rider of all things can be so fucking narrow-minded confuses me to no end. The very first show was about a fascist organization kidnapping people to brainwash them until one guy got out and said "No more, I'm drop-kicking all of your asses".

You guys are just as ignorant as those lowlife "gamers" who think Japan is some sort of sacred miracle island that is free of "censorship" and doesn’t give a damn about what's going on in the west. Newsflash, they do. And creative media is their way of expressing what they think about it.

If you believe a show dealing with race like Zero-One ending with protests and violence is not in any shape or form connected to what’s going on in the world right now, be it Hong Kong or the US, then I would be very careful to call others stupid.

And stop being fucking cowards already. "We’re here to talk about toku, not politics.". The show is about goddamn politics, if you talk about the show you talk about politics. If you want to blend that out and be like "Wow cool suits", be free to do that, but don’t go around trying to pretend there are no politics in toku and people from the outside bring that in just to annoy you in your comfort zone.

Strongly agree. To clarify my previous comment, I just think it's strange to draw comparisons to the American protests instead of the Japanese ones. Kamen Rider in general and Zero-One in particular are absolutely making social and political commentary, and to pretend there's no connection between the Humagear protests and real-world protests against racism is just willful ignorance.

One of the bizarrest things about geek culture, to me anyway, is how people can be obsessive fans of a franchise even as all its themes and messages fly right over their heads.

I'm agreeing with both parties to be honest.

I don't want to elaborate coz I fuckin hate debating about that kind of stuff on a show episode but, of course the theme is resonating with what is happening right now in the world. But the way some people present it, it feels like Zero-one changed its ending because of BLM and all. bullshit.
The way people present it, it feels like racism and protest about some people wanting rights didn't exist before Hong-Kong or BLM. that's kind of a "coincidence" if the show talk about it. Because that's a major theme in our society in 20th and 21st century. and Zero-One is the first KR of its era so it has such a major theme at its core to adress one of our main problem in society.
But it happened only because of that. I refuse to believe writers were like "okay this is happening let's make the ending like that then" just like some people here seem to imply.

I think what happened here is a classic case of "sentai anniversary series syndrome" You know how every time sentai tries to make a big deal out of an aniversary series (gokaiger and ohranger are the two at the forefront of my mind), something horrendous happens and they have to throw out the original script? Thats what happened here

I don’t think it was planned initially, like from the very beginning, but since we now know how hastily the final were cobbled together its hard to imagine it wasn't influenced by current events.

It is pretty head-scratching to imagine how for the first thirty or episodes, despite knowing what they wanted the final fight to be Zero-One vs Horobi, they didn't know quite how to set it up.

You think it'd be fairly easy since Horobi has always been 'gotta kill humans' and Aruto is like 'no dont do that'!

Also, regarding politics. VoidinToku's comment about how the ending changed for those reason is ridiculous, but that doesn't mean the extreme opposite idea that 'these japanese tv shows can never reflect societal problems in real life because those kinds of issues don't exist in japan' is any less ridiculous too. I at least don't think Chasing was implying that Japan doesn't have politics or anything.

Perhaps I’m narrowminded but I strongly dislike people trying to bring what happens in a country to themselves, to their country history.
I don’t think BLM had anything to do with the humagears protests in Zero One.
Not everything is turning around what happen in the USA.
Kiwami, the right to have rights and to be respected is something that every human being is fighting for, so yes, I don’t think that bringing BLM into the discussion is relevant.
The Hong Kong protest and BLM weren’t the first prostests so yeah...
Keep the politics out of it and take the show as a message that every human beings and humanoids should have the same rights...

The fact is we're all sharing the same planet, and when a country that holds great power on said planet goes to shit it affects all of us. So yes, I am interested in what’s happening on my planet, and I’m not alone.

I think it did. Neither of us will be proven right as the creative minds behind it will probably never disclose it, but at the very least they were obviously aware what message they were sending at this specific time in history.

No, not everything. But way too much to ignore it.

Certainly not. Some people who have enough power and money would rather use their power and money so that the people below them do not get the rights and respect they deserve. For obvious reasons.

So what is relevant then? What other current events were a certain group fights for their rights and are met by armed forces are there? Wait, surely it's purely a coincidence this show chooses this imagery at this timeframe, that must be it.

Oh of course, Zero-One was influenced by protests from like 100 years ago, because those were hot topics when the creative minds behind this show decided to write their episodes.

You cannot keep politics out of a medium that was influenced by politics. Stop trying to. Ignore them if you want to, but do not talk like they don’t exist.

Because that isn’t a political statement at all?

Kiwami I get what you’re saying here, and in a vacuum I agree with it, but I still highly doubt this was influenced by BLM. The way Humagears were set up, I think a rights protest like this was ALWAYS going to happen; and they couldn’t really predict what was happening now 2 years ago.

I would more likely look towards the multiple protests Japan itself has, for instance there’s a lot of protests against the government; protests in favour of immigrants’ rights; protests in favour of womens’ rights; etc. It’s no small wonder a japenese drama would do a theme of protests and minorities and we’ve seen it before.

In my mind though, I think what they were trying to go for was general unrest in the world than any particular issue. Since at least 2016 the world’s been wrapped up in divisive political issue after divisive political issue, and I feel both Build and Zero-One decided to focus on that; to varying degrees of success. Zero-One didn’t need one more protest to encourage it to write about this when it’s been an everpresent reality for half a decade.

Personally I think it's obvious given the timeframe but since there's no way to prove it I won't argue with anyone if it was part of the inspiration or not.

Again, Kiwami, I don’t want you to think I’m antagonising towards you because it’s not the case, I like your interactions on the forum, I think you’re raising valid points.
But look, I lived in a country that was known to protest a lot, to be on strike a lot...I now moved in a country also known to protest a lot ( Belgium)
When I say that every human beings should fight for their rights to be equal towards others, I mean it as «*those who do not have the same rights as others*» not those overprivileged pieces of shit that govern us.

I think there might have been a misunderstanding between us...

Also, I think that the way the series was setup from the start would have led to that, BLM, Hong Kong protest, or not.

I mean, even japanese protest a lot because there are inequalities in their country.

I think that's the other way around. you're using the timeframe to make the connection.
Even without BLM, that kind of theme was bound to happen in zero-one.
It was the whole point of the show to depict humagear as almost equal to human, discovering they have feelings too, that they're not only tools, and in the end, ask for rights.
Because that's the natural progression of such a theme.

Maybe. But I still take issue with your statement that Japan "don’t give a shit about what happened in the US". Because they do.

I don't think it necessarily had to end this way, I feel like a lot of the final stretch, including the riots and Aruto becoming the Ark was decided on after they had to rewrite it.

To drag this back to the episode at hand, this was a lot like Zero-One as a whole - some odd choices, but I enjoyed it overall. Horobi and Aruto's final fight works for me, especially in the resolution, and it doesn't disappoint both in how it reinvents the "Gotta use the base form on last time" and just pure action. It's like they looked at what Ghost did with it's finale, and improved on that, what with the whole "Sometimes, the solution is to reach out your hand" etc. Aruto thinking about his dad (because that's what that scene is about for me, not Zea masterminding it) and using his memories and experiences to pull him past his anguish and grief, and then pulling Horobi out of his? That's what I'll remember from this.

As for the rest of the cast? Well, they're certainly here! People are ragging on Vulcan's ending, but honestly, it's the perfect one I can see for him. He's moved past his rage at society, and he's made his peace with how his family (which he doesn't even remember) are doing, so what's left but to go help people? Even if that punch totally covered the woman in glass, way to go dude. Do I wish he'd got another scene with the Prez? Maybe, but Vulcan always did his own thing.

Yua and Naki going into AIMS? Look, I'm just happy Naki (and also Ikazuchi, talk about a nothing character) got remembered for the big montage, and that they managed to keep to Naki picking their path in life. Yua's lack of focus in the season is always going to be a sticking point, and her character was underdeveloped, but we'll always have the resignation punch. Highlight of the season, even if it lost her the ZAIA pension.

Horobi and Jin reforming MestubouJinrai as a vigilante group devoted to stopping malice? Coming full circle from the start of the show, even down to Jin calling him dad again? Sure, I like it. I also don't mind Jin's resurrection, although that's mainly due to how the Horobi/Aruto fight resolved itself without him, so it's all thematically good. He's a phoenix, he comes back, he redeems. This also seems to me as Horobi's penance for causing so much trouble for 45 episodes, staying on the outskirts, staying forever vigilant. Against, say...

Azu! I'm surprised how she just gets away to set up the not-summer movie, and I think I like it more for what it's saying (Just because two people have moved past, doesn't mean we did it, malice is no more - there will always be hatred) than how it does it. Reminds me of Ex-Aid's finale in a way. At least we have an easy lead in to the V-Cinemas this time around.

And then, we get to Aruto. I want to like him reconnecting with Izu, but this bit just doesn't work for me that much. Even though the Vice-Prez and Shesta get to be there (Didn't think they'd be here, wow.) I get why the show does it - can't have 01 crossovers without their female lead, after all, and I like how it does emphasize this isn't the same old Izu - but it's just a little odd. Hopefully Iz-2 will get explored a little in summer movie town, but as for now, the show leaves us on Aruto Ja-Naito, and that'a fair enough.

So yeah, 01. It did a lot of good, and it did a few things wrong. Solid mid-tier Rider show, decently enjoyable, lots of fun stories, tries to do a lot with the central theme, and doesn't reset the universe at the end. 7/10.

I mean, even if this isn't a deliberate reference to BLM (and it very well could be, since the movement has gotten global attention), the concept of systematic oppression is a fairly universal one and every major country has dealt or is dealing with it in some shape or form.

For me as a black man, the writing regarding the Humagears felt really close to home. The idea of Humagears being intended to serve their masters, only for Humagears like Jin to seek out liberation and freedom. The idea of somebody like Gai using his power and influence to create widespread panic regarding Humagears. The idea of a police force of sorts being used to hunt them.

Ultimately, this topic is a little too heavy for me to want to fully discuss on this board and the comparisons aren't exactly 1-for-1 but it definitely makes sense if what's going on over here in the states was the inspiration for at least certain aspects of Zero-One's story.

It's slavery.

It is literally about slavery.

Slaves are manual labor and contributed to the economic progress of the nation that brought them in. Humagear are constantly referenced as tools, and when set beside a human career professional, threatens their identity and livelihood and causes the human to freak out.

Humagear was first and foremost, designed to support humanity in tasks. So their struggle to find a "dream" something that they decide for themselves, unlike a task designated for them, is what that Singularity represents. A rebirth from souless machine to a human-like existence.

Finally watched the episode a second time, now subbed. Loved it this time, fully understanding what was going on. Two attractive young men beating the shit out of each other while shouting about their feelings really is the core of modern Kamen Rider. The epilogue stuff with the new Izu could be viewed as a bit questionable though, depending on whether you view the new Izu as an amnesia situation or as a fully new person being told to be someone else instead of finding their own self

Counterpoint: It's I, Robot. Literally Zero-One is just I, Robot only far simpler and far less thought-provoking.

The repercussions of AI and what constitutes life and sapience as we define it are questions asked in virtually any media featuring AI. Zero-One is doing literally nothing different here. The idea that AI would replace us, rendering us "obsolete" is not only incredibly common but a real result of progress in our world, with several jobs being filled by automation rather than people.

This is not new or even rare. It's a thought experiment posed by numerous fictional works over time, and Zero-One is arguably one of the least profound. If anything it's only unique take is the idea that the rise of machines to humanity's equal/superior is a good thing, where it's usually seen as either foreboding or at best neutral and cautionary.

And yet many scholars have drawn parallels between I, Robot and slavery.

It's not new because when viewed from the margins of humanity and indeed a longitudinal timeline, slavery has been a characteristic of humanity for longer than it hasn't.

Zero-One was also extremely explicit about treating humagears as actual people — Fuwa, Yaiba and supposedly Gai had arcs about coming round to that; as well as many minor characters and the public in general. There’s multiple scenes since Gai’s ownership of AIMs showing Humagears getting attacked by them for going outside their designated roles, all of which is franed as a bad thing. And while a pathetic joke of a scene that went absolutely nowhere, there was a friggin’ rights protest right at the end!

We’re not talking about advanced self checkouts here. The moment you show advanced robots as close to or even equivalent to humans, which Zero One constantly does through Singularity, Soreo flashbacks, MBJR etc., you invoke themes however minor or major of inequality and slavery and oppression. This is ultimately why the season failed for me because it all but abandoned these themes in every aspect but token scenes in the last third to focus on Aruto and the Ark being, like, angry or something; but this stuff was hardly subtext. In just about every episode of the week the show was practically screaming at you that Humagears were essentially people and they deserved to be treated as such, or at least that their current standing should be heavily questioned.

Sad thing is that despite the show itself clearly wanting you to side with Aruto in his belief that 'humagears and humans are the same!', it uh.... kinda really doesn't treat them as such? The humagears' well-being are definitely not treated as important as humans. They get destroyed all the time, and there's barely any weight to it not just because it's so frequent, but because the show then just has them brought back perfectly fine later. (And sometimes they don't even bother bringing them back! It's just 'oh they blew up, time to move on'.)

I remember early on, there was maybe an unspoken implication that the humagears brought back are just 'copies' and that the originals had been 'killed' but they kinda drop that eventually and make it clear Izu and her brother are the only exception to that.

Actually, and this is a side-tangent at this point, that kinda adds to what I don't like about what happened with Izu at the end of the finale. I've seen people spin it as this is simply that Izu lost her memories, and obviously the show is going by that interpretation too, but the entire endgame scenario kinda relies on you treating her death as, well, a death. If she was going to come back from that, it needed to feel like a miracle, not 'welp, time to get a new secretary at the workshop'.

But its not about Humagears and Humans being the same. It is the recognition that both have unique qualities both positive and negative, and most importantly a place in society.

The notion that Humagears are "less" than Humans on the basis that humans created them is pure narcissism. If you don't understand that, think about any time you as a child disagreed with your mother about something. She brought you into the world, but it's not fair for that to be held over your head for eternity is it?

In the show, The fragility of human life was, as you correctly intuited, used as a way to diminish the worth a humagear's life (because hey you could just bring them back), but the show argues that that doesn't diminish the impact Humagears could have on others and the things they could create (entertainment, fine art, music, etc).

Being able to be brought back as a duplicate

- To a Human, it cheapens life, which somehow discredits Humagear accomplishments.

- To a Humagear it is just a way of life, even seen as an advantage over humans.

The endgame scenario doesn't rely on us treating her death as a human death, it relies on us believing that Aruto treats her death as a human death. For all intents and purposes she was dead to him.

I think it's wonderful we can even be having this conversation right now. Like, just the fact that there's even this much to talk about, that's a real victory for Zero-One, even if the discussion itself doesn't always paint the show's execution in the best light.

To further the connection, and yes I am aware we are far far removed from the source material at this point, the originator of the modern term robot was a Czech play called RUR. It was a Russian allegory for the oppression of the working class, so slavery is pretty baked into the genre of robot/androids/AI etc.

From the Wikipedia entry:

The play introduced the word robot, which displaced older words such as "automaton" or "android" in languages around the world. In an article in Lidové noviny Karel Čapek named his brother Josef as the true inventor of the word.[14][15] In Czech, robota means forced labour of the kind that serfs had to perform on their masters' lands and is derived from rab, meaning "slave".