[Paladin]

Sieg turned Nem?s nightmare into a prophetic dream, causing the Nightmare to appear in the real world.

[Frontier]

Dang it Sieg, couldn't you just leave Nem to her fanmail!? It's not like she gets to read it in the real world as it is!

Look at some of your favorite Nem outfits at this Nem fan event! Do be mindful to avoid the Baby Nightmares trying to infect you and turn you into a Nightmare!

So we could have had a Nightmare infestation if someone had just taken advantage of Nem's dream and her fans who would collectively share that dream? I guess Lady would have never done that though.

Can our Dream Agent protagonist save the day when he A. can't sleep and B. has lost his power as Zeztz AND access to his own secret base?

"It's a Black Case!" - Nasuka has become the new Fujimi. Also, is she trying to kill him? It looked like he was nursing that leg injury from the fall for the rest of the episode.

Now that Nightmares are confirmed to exist, will Fujimi get his job back? Then again, he assaulted his superior...

I just don't think Sieg can wrap his head around the idea that there are genuinely good people who care about others, let alone that not everything about humanity is depraved or sinful.

It was nice of the supporting cast to try their best against the Game Nightmare. Fujimi's been waiting to judo throw a Nightmare his entire life. Minami finally gets to show off the gun skills she's been saving. But it's still not enough.

(Imagine if Baku had a Secondary who could actually chip in for this stuff...)

So Lady had the Nightmare summoner wrist device this whole time? And also the Phantom Gore Nightmare in all her delightfully devilish Saori Hayami giggling was stashed in the dreamscape outside her room the whole time? It also sounds like Phantom helped create Nem? Or the Gore Nightmares?

If I had a nickel for every protagonist who had to die to get their Final Form...I'd have a lot of nickels.

Baku retreating back into the beginning of Zeztz, his subconscious dream, so he could rebuild a new, stronger, more powerful Zeztz as he lays dying. Even as his subconscious supporting cast try to tell him it's futile, he furiously puts in the work on his new belt.

I've never seen someone so happy to get gacha in my life.

Long-haired Baku with facial hair is a look.

I like how the Zero ghost didn't try to doubt him, it just reminded Baku of the genuinely inspirational words that his father gave him.

Zeztz Exdream! A form so powerful it was able to IMMEDIATELY undo all the Nightmare transformations! And it looks super, super cool! Welcome Zeztz' Final Form!

Next week: Sieg's backstory! The Punish Gore Nightmare! Zeztz Exdream vs Dawn!

[JusticeMagnum]

This easily one my favorite final form debuts. Baku creating it himself in the dream world and refusing to give up even when it took him 20 years to make the ExDream Driver was really cool and the highlight of the episode. Can't wait to see ExDream in action next week.

We also start to see the other Gore Nightmares come in to play with Phantom Gore and The Lady, and next week get to see Punish Gore and Sieg interact. It'll be interesting to see them get fleshed out and take center stage in next chapter of the story.

Also I thought the gag with Fujimi's attack being a Zero-One nod was funny.

And a fun fact from the production blog is that Baku had 653 Capsem scattered around him in his dream while creating the ExDream Driver.

[Fish Sandwich]

Even though some of the fundamental reasons I like both of them are connected, there's a drastic enough difference between the way in which I enjoyed the first two thirds of this episode and the last third that I feel the need to discuss them separately.

That initial stretch leading up to Baku's death, it was a lot of fun in the ways this show usually is for me. There's a lot going on just with the visuals that's neat. Typically evocative imagery with stuff like The Lady in frame with herself on both sides of that familiar window. Stuff that, like that shot, plays on the established conventions of the show in neat ways, like Baku giving us our first official mission in Japanese simply because he totally botched coming up with an English one. (The fact he couldn't quite get something as simple as "Save Nem" out speaks to just how flustered and bad at the whole agent thing his waking self is, making that bit of comic relief underscore the drama of the rest of the episode nicely.) There's even stuff that's just plain fun and playful, even without much deeper meaning. Sugihara essentially put his signature within this episode by having Fujimi do a Zero-One finisher, of all things, which I just can't hate, even if it comes during the point in the story where it's maybe not time to be goofing off to quite that level. But hey, the whole central tension of Nightmares in the real world again (well, "again", but, you know) is so palpable throughout, between a broken ZEZTZ and Sieg emotionally torturing Nem, that the drama can probably survive that.

So, yeah, if all this was the whole episode, I'd definitely like it well enough. That whole section with Baku's dying dream, though -- it's probably going to go down as one of my absolute favorite things this series ever did?

It hit me on a deeply personal level in a way I absolutely did not expect. Even without that extra emotional connection, I think I would've loved it anyway. It's strong character work for Baku, works with the themes of the show well, and has exactly that same evocative quality that I think is sort of unique to this show compared to most other Riders. But the particular situation they chose was pretty close to home for me, and I wonder if people who can't say that will connect with the sequence to the same extent.

The crucial thing is maybe that Baku is tinkering with stuff even though he's not actually someone who would be reasonably described *as* a tinkerer? I'm sure even a genius physicist or some such person with proper engineering experience goes through a lot of the same feelings, but I've spent huge amounts of my life absorbed in personal projects like that. I know on a really visceral level the sense of isolation that can come with sitting around working on something without knowing how it will turn out. Without knowing how long it will take. Without much to give you any real hope, for long, grueling stretches. Without anything or even anyone to continue motivating you, except yourself, and your own desire to press on regardless of all that.

I was seeing *all* of that here, right on the screen, portrayed with such clarity and exacting detail that it was almost like the show was looking as much into my mind as it was Baku's. I don't know what it's like to fight monsters by punching them, but I know very well what it's like to fight that sort of internal battle. It was relatability taken to the extreme. A synchronization that had me mesmerized. All helped along by that same loving visual detail I'm always finding new reasons to bang on about with ZEZTZ. That isolation especially is really highlighted by how all the people in Baku's life are made out of focus and unseen until he's finally ready to return to the world, his project completed. The pessimistic dialogue is good too, but that's absolutely the part that's secondary in the scene.

So, yeah, because the episode had that whole section going for it, I had a much greater time than I expected this week. The show took a basic premise that could've felt overly familiar as a long-time fan, and they took the opportunity to deliver the material in a way that ultimately made for a very unique introduction for a final form. Though like any good final form debut, it absolutely represents what makes the show as a whole stand out.

[GoldenXtreme]

I've been pretty vocal about Zeztz simply not being a show that works for me so far, but credit where credit is due: I liked this episode in a way that I haven't liked this show since its very beginning. Preemptive apologies if I can't articulate my thoughts well, I am sick as hell today.

I think this episode just had a really good confluence elements. Like right from the beginning it gives the viewers a frankly abnormal amount of clarity on the situation, in a show that often chooses to leave things unexplained. The severity of the situation is immediately established, as Baku actually tries to fix his Driver with the Recovery Capsem, which demonstrates how the without the Driver the Capsems have lost so much power as to be nearly useless. Meanwhile on Nem's side we get to see her seriousness about protecting her fans, which was nice, though I would still like to see her character get more agency in the future. We then get a few bits of levity to lighten up the seriousness of the situation, with Baku frantically fumbling with English until he gives up and says his mission in Japanese, plus Fujimi trying to do a Zero-One finisher on the Nightmare. The fight against the nightmare is good, with the supporting cast desperately trying to help Baku and Baku desperately trying to protect them and fight the Nightmare himself with the severely weakened Capsem, which made for a really tense scene. It's been a very long time since we last got to see Baku do some real world action, and I think it always shows off what a genuinely good guy he is in a way that doesn't come across in his dreams, as someone who wants to help people, even if he doesn't have the strength to do so. We also get some interesting developments from The Lady's side, with he resolving to embrace her own Nightmare to try and protect her daughter.

The dying dream sequence is certainly the real highlight of the episode though, it was really beautifully evocative. From the resolve to never give up, new dreams can always be born. It was really well done, from the way the lighting faded as the despair deepened then brightened again like a new dawn as Baku's efforts slowly changed his situation for the better. The rainbow of hundreds of Capsems on the floor, the way his friends in his subconscious stay out of his eyeshot until he truly has the power needed to see them again in real life. The fact he became a bearded, long haired man after working for 20 years is... honestly a touch comedic but worked. Great stuff.

Definitely the highlight of this show so far for me. I think it honestly would have landed better if I had actually enjoyed the lead-up so far, and of course I don't think the show itself has been salvaged, but it was nice to see an episode made me get what Zeztz is trying to accomplish AND I didn't feel annoyed at what it was trying to do.