I understood that he uses rubber bullets. Blanks just create noise. Although, considering that the action takes place in a dream, it could well be Baku's own idea for super-secret non-killing but disarming bullets.
Crazy theory: if in the future writers plan to send more people with different interests into dreams, Baku's gunfire can wakes them up. This will also make his bullets anti-death and draw an analogy with waking up from a loud noise.

That gunfight scene was epic

Yes. After Baku was hit by the car, if you look closely, you can see that the kidnapper has made a run for it, leaving the girl behind, who was then retrieved by her mother.

I thought Baku's pistol was a Glock, but I am pleasantly surprised to see it was a Walther P38. ALL HAIL MEGATRON! All jokes aside, Episode 1 was amazing. The music during the first fight was so damn good and I also love the visuals on Baku's first transformation with the suit forming onto him through smoke. The touch of the muscles bulging when he does a heavy attack is such a cool touch as well. Solid 10/10

Minor quibble to start with: I kind of assumed that TokuSHOUTsu would have like some kind of "episode starting in X minutes" countdown after the prior episode ended, that way each episode airing would start at every half hour on the dot. But they literally run back to back nonstop, so for someone trying to catch the new episode after the initial airing it's pretty much impossible to get on the stream at the right moment. I'll probably just try to jump on the premier next time, even if it is a little late for me.

Anyways, like a lot of people I had some apprehensions about Yuuya Takahashi, but honestly this premier was a lot of fun! The whole secret agent battle in Baku's dream at the beginning made me smile, it was just pure cheesy spy movie fun. In real life, Baku is an incredibly unlucky jobless adult who lives with his sister, like someone decided Ryotaro Nogami from Den-O should be played for drama. He's pretty instantly lovable between his loserish nature and genuine desire to help people. Certainly a vast improvement over Ace, who banked on nothing but mystique and coolness for almost the entire show. Some interesting elements also get teased, with the cops clearly aware of the existence of supernatural monsters. As some others here have said, the Rider fight was surprisingly low impact though (in spite of using the Physicam Impact form :lol). Still, it was a very fun episode that I don't have any big issues with. We will just have to see if Yuuya can keep up the quality over the long term, which is probably his biggest weakness.

for the love of god please spare us another year of your essays nitpicking literally everything you don't like and just stop watching if you dislike it all so much

Strong first episode.

I wasn't too invested in the pre-release material so I really believed our main protagonist is a kick-ass secret agent dude, which I was a bit undecided about, but the dream setup is super interesting and fun.

The style is very sharp, from the filming locations to the effects, this does feel a bit more "grown-up" as opposed to Gavv, but this is only the first episode and for how colorful and silly Gavv was on the surface, it didn't hold back on dark stories.

Although a bit short, I really do enjoy seeing Zeztz in action, the suit is gorgeous, and the fighting in the dream world was really cool. I quite like seeing the veins pop up on the suit when a punch or kick is happening, together with the very fitting sound effects it really sells the "impact"-theme.

What stood out most to me was how the protagonists lucid dreams, or rather how he handles them, are rightfully criticized but when the MOTW tries to belittle him for it he isn't giving in, but instead stands up for who he is. "I know my own mind better than anyone" is a damn fine quote.

I will say, thinking about it a bit more, I think the reason the choreography isn't super exciting is a direct consequence of one of the major things that IS really cool about the fight -- the decision to film at night and use the cool glow-in-the-dark suit. The guys in those costumes are basically already blind even in broad daylight, so I'd imagine it's considerably more tricky to put together complex stunts with those other problems thrown on top. But it's also clearly the correct decision, because it helps convey that visual identity of a Rider who does his job while you're asleep, so it's sort of hard to be really upset about it.

My Wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the strength of this episode, basically “Kamen Rider Akibaranger” and that’s not a terrible idea, my only complaint is I am not a fan of the GENERIC FLAT LOOKING suit, it feels off, like a bad Cosplay “off” however, my Wife loves it….����

Since we're talking about it, personally this fight didn't knock my hopes for a spectacular fight in a suit. After all, this is just the basic form and there will be others. It will definitely be fun with the diminishing one.
But night filming is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the shots are beautiful, on the other, it's harder for both the audience and the actors to navigate. I think in the future it makes sense to combine scenes in the dark with action in better lighting. The fight is filmed in different locations anyway. Also, if you play around with the spotlights a little, you can get good visibility combined with obvious night. For some reason I remember the ending of the first Blade episode, where everything is lit in the center, and there is darkness at the edges.