[Paladin]

Baku must face the Poison Nightmare and uncover Chef Sannoh's desire.

[Frontier]

We now return to our regularly scheduled protagonist dying of poison plot. Minami and Nem are desperate to bring him back, but Nem puts her all into shooting some healing into Zeztz...and even if it leaves her injured, it actually saves Baku! And Nox is actually happy about this!? Or at least proof that the Espirim Capsem worked.

How long did Minami have to work with the medical staff to coordinate the timing on that "Baku can't leave the hospital" bit?

Baku you only have amateur parkour skills in the real world.

What we have hear is a failure to communicate between Sannoh and his Sous Chefs and what his true intentions are.

I love how Fujimi is the type to check in on his buds to make sure they're okay. Also there is no window he will not slip into.

The sad truth about Fujimi and Nasuka's job is that they can't prove any of what they do and the very fact of solving these cases means erasing any evidence of them happening.

Nasuka's ringtone is heavy metal? Nice.

Actual scenes of Baku riding his bike! He even rode it with Nem! I don't remember the last time we had someone else on the bike, let alone the Heroine!

I love how the Healing Forms' weapon is a big axe that would make Kintaros proud. I also like how it can use the recovery gimmick to basically restore things that were destroyed even during battle, like the ground to cover up the Virus Nightmare.

Nox brought out the merchandisable weapon! And even without being able to transform, Nox is clearly way above Zeztz' current level, and even damaged his weapon was enough to overpower him.

Does every Zeztz form have a Rider Kick? We just need the 4th to complete the set. And a Rider Kick that injects healing into its target.

I guess they'll just write off the poison reaction as them just REALLY loving the food.

Oh, I'd say Kensei Odakka is involved in Black Cases...he's frikkin' Nox!

Nox stole a Capsem! They even blacked it out in the next episode preview! Baku literally just got it! But what could he use it for in the real world? I thought he just wanted to repair his sword, but this seems wayyyy more personal. Nem's body? But he's using her...

[Fish Sandwich]

I wish I had more to say about this one that was nice? I've sort of noticed in quite a few comments I've seen people make on Zeztz how it often seems like the reasons behind certain things it does have a way of escaping people's understanding, and I think it's my turn to feel that same lack of clarity?

I just kind of didn't get the story here, beyond the broadest strokes? That's obviously intentional in the case of something like Nox's whole deal with the Recovery Capsem, to be fair, which is in the future tense by nature, as something to make the viewer curious about where things are heading. But I ended up scratching my head almost the exact same way trying to figure out fairly basic things about the present tense plot too, and I'm not sure if that's because the show is too smart for me or not.

Like, is it not strange for those politician guys to literally be choking to death on that sauce for like a solid minute and somehow still come to the conclusion the food is good just because Seven manages to stop the monster before they outright die? Because it sorta seems an awful like it's the need to ramp up the dramatic tension clashing with the logic of the plot in a slightly clunky way.

Now, that kind of very literal stuff is generally a minor annoyance at worst, especially for someone like me, who always cares about the emotional aspect of storytelling more, but I consistently felt that same looseness in the way the episode is constructed there, too? There's a whole relationship between these three chefs that's more hinted at than shown, which not only makes the catharsis of the resolution much weaker, but even left me unsure if the way I'm reading into everything is even correct? I think the idea is that Sannoh deliberately wanted to use the surgery as an excuse to give his apprentices this big chance to come into their own because he's too stern to just encourage them normally or something? But for one thing, that would mean ZEZTZ is fighting merely to keep a situation from being changed for the worse, which I still think is less inherently gratifying to watch than a hero who can actively make a positive change beyond blowing up the bad guy. Even beyond that, though, without a scene of those apprentices actually, you know, reconciling with Sannoh at the end, it all ends up feeling a bit hollow?

And all this stinks to say! I'm not consciously disliking Zeztz at all, but there's this creeping sense of void to it that I still haven't been able to shake after a couple months, despite being fairly impressed by the premiere. It feels like all the metaphorical gears are in place for a show that can do some really exciting stuff, but right now those gears are all kinda grinding up against each other in a way that makes the overall experience less than the sum of its parts. Really hope to see that storytelling machine running smoother in the months to come.

[Switchblade]

Okay, first of all, that sauce looks disgusting. Like, I think French cuisine in general is pretty nasty but that sauce is fucking vile.

Second, I'm kinda with Fish on this one: I'm not really sure how the logistics of this work. So far it seems like the dreams are most directly impacting the dreamer, but in this case the old guy is passed out in the hospital and has nothing to do with the making of the horrible green sauce. How exactly is it briefly poisonous? I haven't rewatched the earlier episodes, but this doesn't feel consistent with how the Nightmares have been working so far.

Third, thanks to occasional exposure to a certain toy reviewer on YouTube I cannot help but think of the Restore form as Big Time Letdown Zeztz. Not a reflection of the quality of the suit or the action. I love that we are going full DenGasher with whatever Zeztz's weapon is called. You already won me over with sword and gun modes, adding an axe is just icing on top at this point.

Fourth, it would have been nice to know that the episode was airing an hour earlier this week, but you can rewind YouTube livestreams so it wasn't that big of a deal.

[Mesnick]

Well, this and the previous episodes told a standard, yet beautifully shot story. But despite the captivating visuals, the plot itself feels terribly rushed. Many scenes seem out of nowhere and are cut short abruptly. This may confirm the theory that Zeztz's real world is just another layer of a dream, but it hardly touches on the motives of the restaurant owner and his chefs. It's more likely that the script simply didn't fit the format. Or the director simply wasn't interested in this particular story.
In terms of the overall plot, we learn that Nox is Fujimi's missing partner. I guessed this even before I saw the photo. In any case, it confirms my idea that the show is currently focused on being as tight and cohesive as possible, without adding unnecessary elements. So I'm eagerly awaiting the full truth to come out and Nox to start answering questions.
The next episode is dedicated to the paintings. And Nox will continue to demonstrate the new properties of his weapon. It looks like his henshin won't be long in coming.

[GoldenXtreme]

Healing forms never stop jobbing! Nem using the Capsem to heal Baku reminded me of how in Kamen Rider Fourze Kengo got more use out of the Medical Switch than the titular Rider. It's abilities also just felt undercooked, the ability to repair anything just feels way too situational. Then the Capsem just gets stolen at the end of the episode.

I do agree with the other comments here where the way the new characters from every two parter are treated is just off. It feels like we don't even learn the bare minimum required to have any emotional investment in them, a repercussion of the fact Baku's real life investigation segments are all too brief since they have to make time for all the stuff with his sister and the dream world. The way the story is presented and edited is also just... weird. Important diplomats die of poison for a while, but then the monster is defeated and everything is just peachy now! And while the scene with Fujimi appearing in the window of Baku's hospital room was funny, the fact it ended with Minami seeing a random guy's hand clinging to the windowsill and then not following up on it at all is just as abrupt as the scene last episode where Baku finds poison at the restaurant and then nothing more occurs. Like, what the actual heck is up with how meaningless the real world segments of this show feel? I agree with Fish's sentiment that this show is less than the sum of its parts.

That being said, I do feel like the show is looking up in the future. Now that Nox seems to be taking a more active role and the mysteries surrounding his disappearance and motivations are taking center stage, I'm actually feeling a bit curious about where the show is going. Since he has ties to Fujimi too, this might give the show a solid way to help tie the real world and dream world segment together better too.

[Frontier]

My understanding is that Sannoh, the chef, was driven to prove that all the work he and his sous chef's put into their work mattered by pushing himself to make a meal for the conference and fighting through his own illness. But that illness and his own doubts made him afraid of ruining it, which lead to what the Nightmare preyed on.

We know that whatever the Nightmare does in the dream world is enacted in the real world to some extent so Zeztz defeated it in time before the poisoning really took effect.

Though I feel like the main core of the episode was Fujimi's continued efforts to pursue Black Cases, even if no one believes in him but himself (and Nasuka coming around to him) and also solidifying Nem as Baku's dream partner.