[Paladin]

The Mold Nightmare may have concealed the secret hidden within a painting.

[Frontier]

Fujimi with the doorbell music making! Too bad it interefered with Baku's dream mission.

Sometimes it comes down to just two prideful men trying to outdrink each other.

You can tell Zero's demeanor is totally different after Baku tells him about NOX and shows Odakka's picture. Way more curt and to the point and focused on the "national secret."

You know Fujimi is really feeling the pressure from this Odakka thing when he's rejecting Baku as a civilian because HE has to be the one to crack this case.

An age old story of a struggling, desperate, artist who turns to counterfeiting to feel a sense of pride as an artist. And also make money, but still.

Was Odakka already NOX when he gave away those paintings? So he can appear in the real world?

"Let's gun it" - Offscreen bike riding for the win!

I feel like 50% of the reason Baku got this job was because he can fall asleep on command.

First bits of tension where Baku prioritizes the dreamer while Zero is focused on stopping NOX.

So the "national secret" was the pieces of Odakka's subconscious that were seeped into the paintings, allowing for NOX to use them to enter into a realm of Odakka's memories that had the case?

If a barrier can't stop mold, maybe PARADIGM WONDER and it's scythe can! I love how this turned into a shrinking battle as they fight on-top of Zeztz' very own weapon and then fight around a garden, complete with garden tools acting like there's human beings using them to spice up the fight.

Imagine being defeated by a rapidly shrinking Zeztz committing to the tiniest Rider Kick of all time! Take that, Mold Nightmare!

Was Atsumi Taro arrested for counterfeiting? I mean, he blatantly confessed to two police offers.

They may have found Odakka's murder board, but the real threat was what NOX wanted...a DRIVER HE WAS ABLE TO REPAIR WITH RECOVERY.

Next week: Enter Nox Knight!

[Fish Sandwich]

Hey, they stuck the landing and everything!

This two-parter is ~just~ about the total package? I'd still love to see a Zeztz story that has some really strong and obvious central theme tying everything together, if I'm being honest, but I also have yet to see the show actively aiming for the kind of storytelling I'm thinking of in a way where that can be much more than a personal gripe.

And that sorta gets at the key to why these episodes clicked with me -- it's the first time I've truly felt the whole balance of the formula working the way I think the show has intended from the start. Crucially, the way the plot is framed around that national secret makes it very clear this *isn't* some big emotional story about the Dreamer, and that ended up carrying all the way through this back part, where there isn't some climactic emotional catharsis for the guy I feel like I don't have context for. He's here, he's important, he's worth saving -- they even still do some clever things with him like the gap between his dream self and his real self -- but he's just one element of the story, presented as just one element, which means that I can finally let the show off the hook about that for once.

I mean, they've also already done one story where the Dreamer was a bigger focus that I quite liked too, but I am getting the impression that was meant to be more of an exception than the rule, so it's nice to see the show finally nailing down the basic formula of how to tell a standard Zeztz story. There's a hugely successful amount of intrigue going on throughout, little moments moving a bunch of the characters along, and even a spectacularly creative action climax that I think raises the bar for what every episode following this is going to have to live up to now. All that, plus leaving off on a preview that creates the thrilling suspsense of whether or not I might have to apologize in a week's time for some of the things I've complained about previously! It's not necessarily my favorite outing from this show so far, but it certainly feels very definitve, even if it's hard for that statement to have any weight when my understanding of Zeztz is always being reframed a little with each new episode.

[GoldenXtreme]

I think this is the first multi-episode plot I've felt fully satisfied with from this show? The whole way the Dreamer ties into the overarching NOX story is cool and I like how we get a defining moment for Baku where he priortizes saving people over his mission. I also like how the show is starting to break down the boundaries between the dream and real world! Fujimi interferes with the dream by waking the Dreamer up, Baku outright tells the Dreamer who he is, and Minami is clearly a hair away from figuring out what is going on. The fight was also very creative and fun. We have a lot of mysteries to keep the viewers motivated too. What's up with Zero, the secondary Rider debut, how is Nox related to the national secret? I've finally reached a point where I actively want to see more of this show!