Zero mentioned that Baku was their only agent, so perhaps CODЕ went to considerable lengths in his case. But I agree with everything about Nasukа and Kureha.

It's a little too early to really say much about this (especially considering we've only just seen the new belt within the actual show), and I'm sure I'm not the only who's had this thought already, but I definitely find it curious that both ZEZTZ and NOX's Rider form share a distinction of having big "open" eyes, emphasized by their transformations even, while the other not-technically-a-Rider suits we've seen so far for CODE's agents share that distinguishing "eyelid" kinda crest going right over the face as if to suggest the exact opposite. Back when that just meant NOX Knight, I mostly figured it was just a neat way to convey his specific arc, since his whole thing in that part of the show was trying to finally wake up. Now though, I'm starting to think the symbolism of those two characters being "awake" is maybe something deeper than that?

It definitely doesn't seem like something the show did accidentally either, though, now that you say that? I'm trying to think of characters who seem like they would have much of a life outside of work to show, and like... probably just Nasuka and maybe Minami? I don't think I need to explain Nem, Fujimi's whole thing is that he became this obsessive Black Case conspiracy theorist ever since Odaka went missing, and of course NOX himself has obviously been a little busy because of that too.

And then you have Baku, where the strong implication is that prior to becoming a for-real agent, he was probably just some unpopular friendless guy with absolutely nothing going on in his life once he was done with school? Unless I'm forgetting some mention of any old acquaintances or club activities or athletic achievements or anything? (I definitely remember the show clearly emphasizing that he isn't in shape physically when we saw him on that jog with his sister!) In his case especially, all the more so after that scene in this episode, it sounds like it's very very deliberate that he only seems to have any real interest in 1)being a fan of secret agents and, 2)being a fan of Nem.

I am wrong about my assumptions in this show as often as I'm right, but I'd be especially surprised this far in if it turned out the show genuinely did just forget to ever mention some other significant but mundane facet to the daily life of its main protagonist that they've always had in mind. I think a big part of the concept of Baku's character is to represent all the rudderless 20-somethings of the world, and if that is the intended lens to view him through, I'd argue he feels very much like a real person.

It's not my intention to diss the sword itself! It is cool! But I don't think it'd be any less cool if ZEZTZ did some epic lightning-speed action game combo with it here to facilitate the usual triple seven thing, right? I'm mostly just baffled why the weapons are excluded from that routine to begin with. I mean, we've already established you can have all three numbers pop up at once if you don't want to film something more elaborate than usual.

Fair point! I guess this *is* a show where dreams are more than just dreams to begin with. There's a sorta poetic quality to that which is really neat, though, and I thought that scene highlighted it very well.

I'll admit, I actually totally missed that detail when it came to NOX's' suits specifically. Good catch!