- Are we sure Zeztz has an OP?

- "Why bother styling it after tea?" For the rule of cool, Baku.

- "Your wish is... to destroy the police." "He'd lost faith in the irresponsible institution known as the police!" Gonna put aside the obvious comments and just say, this is a lot darker than I expected! There was a part of me that thought Fujimi might want to take down the police that disrespected him, but I figured they'd just go for the obvious "Fujimi wants to be the hero who takes down the bomber."

- Honestly, this is sooner than I thought it would take for Zeztz to fight a Nightmare outside of the dream world. I thought that'd be, like, a big mid-season sorta thing.

- Action isn't as good as Episode 2's was, but it is a step up from Episode 1's nighttime fight. Still a bit hard to see at times, but the fight choreography seemed pretty solid, and I liked the uses of Zeztz's stretchy limbs in his Transform... Form. (Trans Form?)

- Yeah, that is something I've noticed. I've always thought that a good non-Rider supporting cast is important for a Rider season. Previous Takahashi seasons have gotten away with not having much of one because of the high number of supporting Riders, but Zeztz doesn't have that and even after three episodes I'm not sure what the supporting cast looks like for Baku. He has his sister and Zero, yeah, but Zero doesn't really have a presence in Baku's civilian life. And aside from that he's had like one scene with Fujimi and Nagumo. I guess there's Nem, but really it's just his favorite idol being a recurring actress in the dreams he visits, with a different role for every one.

Actually insane how good this show is.

Interesting story, fun characters, cool suits, gorgeous visuals, great action sequences, like… how?

They don’t even have an obnoxious, annoying ass comedic relief character; they have straight up funny gags that make me laugh out loud instead?

True to this shows premise I feel like I’m dreaming, this is too good to be true.

My take away from this episode in particular is I’m kind of shocked that a single Nightmare materializing is already a doomsday scenario. It’s a great way to raise the stakes and make Agent 7’s actions in the dream world matter; he can’t just depend on beating them in the real world, that’s the very last line of defense.

At the same time, we know Nightmare activity was happening before Zeztz’ creation, so I wonder if this show had a “Proto Drive” or a previous agent under a different alias. Maybe that’s where our secondary Rider will come in?

CODE numbers 1 through 6, perhaps?

I don't want to speculate too much, but I get a really strong sense that Zero isn't telling Baku the whole truth (it's way too convenient that the real spy agency just happens to have the same name as the one he's been dreaming about), and that could easily include other agents, be they active, KIA, or rogue...

Agree!

I was speculating that there had to be other "agents", with their on dream genres.

- Western
- Romance
- Superhero
- Horror....

So, I'm definitely curious about Zero and how too convenient the setup is for Baku.

Additionally, after clearer understanding of the Bomb Nightmare, I'm curious about Baku's Nightmare. Unless I missed something.

Regardless of the specifics, I did quite like that defusing the bomb amounts to just cutting a blue wire, in accordance with the stock media tropes. Very cute, very subtle gag on the show's part.

I remember not actually noticing the line when first watching the premiere, but I'm kind of in love with that effect after realizing that was the shtick. I was happy to see him do the basic Rider Kick again here, but I also hope that even when he starts using other finishing moves, they keep the same basic idea. Especially since it's also like a sound effect for the monster snoring before the explosion, the whole routine is *way* too brilliant to let fall by the wayside as the show goes along.

That's why this is interesting: Baku had these dreams before interference from outside happened.

Meaning the CODE agency, its chief "Zero" and the Agent 7 role are creations of Baku’s own mind.

So some outside force, not unlike the Nightmares, latched onto Baku's dreams and uses it as a cover to guide him into his role as Zeztz.

What if that force has an ulterior motive?

That's a possibility, but it might also be that the CODE agency already existed and Baku somehow dreamed about it even though his waking mind didn't know it was real. Maybe the information was planted in his mind somehow? Or perhaps there's more to his dreams than just being lucid...

I’m just not feeling this series, I dunno why. I hate the Belt around the shoulder thing, his costume is too Spiderman for my taste