[Paladin]

Baku must find a biological weapon- and it may be hidden in a restaurant...

[Sunred]

My apologies, wrong thread.

[Frontier]

Kamen Rider Zeztz becomes a cooking show! Complete with a montage of cooking that's sure to whet your appetite! Baku looks good in a chef uniform.

We've got your classic perfectionist chef, a younger chef who doesn't meet his standards, and the SAUCE. Also a biological agent on the loose and poisoning people in dreams and the real world! That's always bad to have in a fancy restaurant!

So Nem can job change mid-dream? She can be the veggie delivery girl! She can even be an EMT! But she also wants to basically be Baku's sidekick and genuinely help him stop Nightmare attacks.

Welcome to the dream version of the Mission Room, Nem! Where Zero is utterly charming, speaks only in English (since it's the only time Baku actually understands English), and where you can help pop out a new form for Seven!

Honestly it's so surreal seeing Zero step out of the real world office and just sitting in Baku's room, but it's nice that he's also letting Baku take care of personal stuff (and investigate stuff at the same time).

Yeah, it's tough to convince people something bad is going to happen without any clear evidence and a lack of Kaijin awareness.

Fujimi chasing after a partner who just up and resigned and probably mysteriously disappeared? Hmm...

Baku and Minami clean up nicely. Though also surreal that Baku has to convince his sister that he's working for purely selfish reasons which is the only reasoning that would justify him having a job in her eyes.

THE BIOHAZARD IS IN THE SAUCE.

Here's Nem to hand you veggies and a new form that gets compared to said veggies!

So we've got the germ/virus/biological agent Nightmare, whose body is literally acidic/poisonous substance that one touch can knock you totally out. Also is this the first female kaijin of the season? The voice sounds more feminine compared to the past few Nightmares.

Epsirim Recovery! Perfect for healing from poisoning and for healing people in their dreams! I guess Baku de-transformed to detox before transforming? And why is Nox so interested in this one Capsem?

Considering they got ported into a doctor's office...is Sannoh dying or has medical problems beyond the Nightmare attack?

Dang, one kick and Baku is dying in the real world and the dream world with Nem and Minami hopelessly trying to save him.

[Fish Sandwich]

I really liked Nem changing occupations between shots. Really specific thing to lead off with, but that kind of dream stuff where things are all weirdly fluid is something I'd like to see this show pushing as much as it can, and that was probably the smoothest example in a while. Probably helps that Kamihoriuchi is back as director again; honestly felt like the other directors so far haven't quite grasped that part of the premise on the same level.

On a similar note, I liked Zero getting so much dialogue in English. It's like, if these things are here to give Zeztz a distinct identity as a series, just go for it, you know? I feel like if Japanese children are always a little bit confused each week what exactly that guy is talking about (like Nem, apparently!), that's sort of perfect? Having out-of-place things sorta pass by like that without time to process them is pretty dreamlike in its own way.

Story here seems pretty on point, too. This is proving to be the sort of show where it's harder to talk about the setup episodes on that level, but something about the flow of this one felt a bit tighter than usual so far? I can't unpack that this late and this quick, but that's my gut feeling this week. And while I liked the whole rhythm they had going with the cliffhangers all being some revelation that totally turns the existing dilemma on its head, ending on the new dilemma of ZEZTZ being dead(?)(!) is a darn solid hook for next week.

[DreamSword]

I feel like my thoughts on this one are going to rely heavily on how I end up feeling about next week's' episode.