I guess if anything I was worried I would be so burned out on Takahashi after all this time that I wouldn't be able to enjoy even the premier. That and the fact the prerelease character descriptions did not interest me. I even liked Geats pretty well early on, so I guess I should have expected the bare minimum of decent start to the show. As you said, perhaps it was the director who made it work by playing up the secret agent style just right!

Good point.

Regrettably, I once also claimed Isamu was more of a protagonist than Aruto, which I've since realized is the kind of poor phrasing that leads to such misunderstandings like confusing the first arc perspective characters of Kabuto and Geats for the actual titular protagonists, who simply needed time for the viewers to warm up to them. Takahashi certainly has a habit to focus on other characters though. Even in EX-Aid where it's the Primary Rider, it's M who shines, not Emu.

Now the Visions lyrics, "Give me the shock to the heart!", makes a lot of sense.

Cool Ikki does show up sometimes with his deductions in Episode 6 and The Mystery, but yeah, the previews made me expect more. There's also Evil Ikki from the OP, who has as much relevance as the cat from Gavv and the horse from Gaim.

Kenzaki, Shounen, Shoutarou and Shinnosuke, I guess? They seem to have similar struggles with their goals in life, that most people can probably relate to.

Exactly. For an agent, having a license to kill doesn't mean the same as having carte blanche to kill, like how a driving license doesn't mean you can drive like crazy. Not even just for moral reasons. An agent who leaves a trail of corpses everywhere they go would be sloppy, compromizing their cover and betraying the integrity and trust of their organization.

I'd still think that even for those fans who don't acknowledge the severe flaws of EX-Aid, they'd at least think the first half was higher quality, due to being the peak of their favorite God's arc.

Like how the infamous Job Competition arc was Ohmori's fault, but I guess some people forget that since they're too focused on hating on Takahashi. In that case, maybe I should rescind my complaint about Jit towards Takahashi, since it's possible that he honestly may have had no idea what to do with a sudden new character in the final arc, but had to make it work somehow.

Yuto as protagonist sounds incredulous, since he doesn't even appear until Episode 19. Shinji and Ren seem like equal protagonists in the story though, at least for the time when the Heisei format was being developed. They both have henshin poses similar to the OG Double Riders and matching Final Forms, suggesting Knight is more like a Primary Rider than his immediate and only predecessor G3.

- I really enjoyed this episode! I don't think it gripped me in quite the same way that Geats or Zero-One did (to compare it to past Takahashi-written series), but it's still really exciting, both on a simple "new Rider season" level, and because the episode itself was just really well written.

- I like Baku as a protagonist. The early trailers had me thinking at first he'd be a suave cool guy hero like Ace or Tendou, and that would've been interesting enough, but I really like this approach where he's just a generally nice and rather dorky guy that really just wants to help people, and becomes a suave secret agent in his dreams. It goes well with the dreams motif of this season, I think, and I'm interested in seeing where he goes from here.

- On the negative side, I'll echo the complaints that the nighttime fight wasn't very exciting, in terms of first-episode Rider fights. Not bad, but it was hard to tell what was happening at times, and the fight choreography wasn't as dynamic as it could be/often is; presumably to keep it from being too hard for the suit actors to tell what's going on. Holding out hope that future fight scenes will be better though; we've already seen a few daytime/indoors fights in the trailers, and I'm hoping that the fight choreography will be better when those come around.

- Yeah... I remember waiting 'til 11:00 PM to put on the stream since I wasn't there in time for the premiere, and ended up jumping in when Baku was in the hospital. Luckily I wised up pretty quickly and just waited fourteen more minutes, but it'd be nice if the episodes were aired at 30-minute intervals, rather than back to back to back like they did for premiere.

So, another thought occurred to me today regarding how this show's premise is the gift that keeps on giving -- Baku's secret agent dreams are probably full of English because he watches lots of foreign spy movies with subtitles.

It's clearly shown from the merch in his bedroom that Seven and Zero are specific characters he's fond of, so on top of that, it's even pretty likely "I'm on it" is a catchphrase he's quoting the same way, for example, an English-speaking Rider fan might say henshin in Japanese when playing with a Driver toy, or on whatever other such occasion.

Again, the English is obviously there on the meta level because it creates a certain atmosphere for the series, but the whole symbiosis of What The Show Needs and What The Protagonist Wants this year is so effortless, it's insane.

I always thought of that as like Sento's dad in Build where they were kind of running out of story to tell but still needed to delay the story until they got to the final episode.

I think you're onto something there

People just make that claim on anyone they feel that stole the show, and they generally think it's measured by how much development they get, where usually the less moral/righteous characters get more development than the do-gooder type of character, or at least they feel like that on the surface due to the change of the former being more drastic (becoming nicer) than the latter (which isn't completely visible to them if they're similarly nice from beginning to end, and people can think being righteous means having no flaws/being a Mary Sue).

May apply here too between Baku (Emu) and DreamBaku (M). And this approach isn't the first thing Takahashi has done, where there's the dorky and suave duality in Emu and Genius Gamer M in Ex-Aid. For me, honestly, based on the Ichigo tribute on Zeztz's look and the cast that seems more reminiscent of Showa and early Heisei seasons (one main Rider, various supporting casts), I expected Baku to be like the Showa main Riders where they're nice and want to help people, but have more 'mature' and 'manly' air rather than the energetic youth type they're going since most of the Heisei Phase 2 MCs.

I felt that dunno if something like 'Kamen Rider Chronicle hell' is really a severe flaw as it can seem subjective depending on the person.

I also mentioned in Gavv final episode discussion as well about how stuff like Lango thing likely felt like that due to the main director leaving the series. This'd be not really blaming anyone, more about how it seems that no one can replicate Sugihara rather than a jab to Morota, but just that things happen. I rather felt that Zitt is only created for Ryuji Sato's screentime Toei demands, otherwise they'd probably use Suel as active central antagonist.

How about Ex-Aid?

Dunno about Zero-One Competition stuff, but for opposite I felt Geats never ran out what stories it needs to tell, where despite its fast pace (albeit Takebe wants Sara's demise to be delayed), usual KR duration (49 episodes) isn't quite enough.

TBH I kinda forgot Takahashi wrote Ex-Aid... anyway; it's been a long long time since I last rewatched Ex-Aid's premiere, but I think I would rate Zeztz's first episode above Ex-Aid. Not that Ex-Aid had a bad start, but Zeztz just left me more excited to see what came next for its cast and setting.

Just caught the replay. Far too early to get a good handle on it, but the premise is very interesting. There's a line to ride with the dream logic. I think if done right, they can get some very unique fights and scenarios out of it. Just hope it doesn't bog down the writing.

Still surreal to have an official release!

I have several new (outlandish) hypotheses:
- The reason why Commander Zero was a recurring character in Baku's crazy dreams (prior to episode 1 @ 10:20) is because Baku was already agent #7 of CODE. He somehow went MIA, or had an accident during his previous mission, or was captured and mindwiped (and then made to live the false life of a failing loser with Guinness-level bad luck via a memory implant) by the mastermind villain of the story that made him forgot his connection to CODE and his mission as a CODE agent #7.
- Baku's case could be similar to what likely happened to Nox, although in Nox's case it's worse because he has likely been trapped in the dream realm ever since his failed mission, while Baku was just having recurring dreams that always feature a secret agent theme with him as CODE agent #7 and Commander Zero as a recurring supporting character. Like I elaborated in my previous post in this thread, this trope about a mindwiped secret agent protagonist having recurring dreams/lingering memories about his previous mission/life is quite similar to what happened in Total Recall (1990) where the protagonist Douglas Quaid who was a mindwiped secret agent (or to be exact, a mindwiped double agent) often had had recurring dreams involving an unknown, mysterious woman (Melina) who had actually been his sidekick when he had defected from Vilos Cohaagen/the mastermind villain's order.
- Nox is a former agent of CODE, likely #6 (or #5), before he was deemed MIA and replaced by Baku (#7). Even worse than what likely happened to Baku, Nox was not only captured and mindwiped/mind-controlled by the mastermind villain, but was also made to work as a Nightmare general/enforcer. This could've likely happened because Nox had already penetrated to a far, far deeper layer of the dream realm than Baku did, so the mastermind villain probably thought, "This guy has already made it this far into my world and has almost lost his mind. I might as well turn him into my enforcer/field general and make him do my bidding." Nox's case could be similar to what happened to Chase/Roidmude 000/KR Proto Drive in KR Drive. In earlier episodes (3-15), he would likely transform into an anti-hero/dark hero form or even a corrupted version of his CODE Rider form, and the reveal of his identity as a former CODE agent would likely be revealed before or at the same time with his transformation into a Rider, which could be the same form he assumed when he was a CODE agent (similar to KR Proto Drive) or an entirely new form (similar to KR Chaser).
- Like I elaborated in my previous post in this thread, the fact that Minami is seemingly planting a mental block inside Baku's mind by scolding him and telling him not to dream in the real world (and that he has a world-level bad luck and he's not blessed by God) makes me wonder if that's her actual job. Her character could be a composite/amalgamation of the characters Lori and Harry in Total Recall. Harry was Douglas' best friend/co-worker who always told him to be satisfied with his (false) life as a lowly construction worker; and Lori was Douglas' wife in his (false) life who had always told him similar things, and later it was revealed that Lori was also a secret agent that was tasked by the mastermind villain (Cohaagen) to keep Douglas at bay. A possibility I can see with her character arc is that she's actually also an agent of CODE (albeit likely illegal/unofficial/unlisted/unnumbered) that's part of a top-secret parallel operation or disinformation campaign by one of CODE's top brass, which means that she could be a secret secret agent, haha.:lol I see quite a high possibility (>50-55%) that she'd likely transform into the 3rd CODE Rider or even a Nightmare Rider in later episodes, likely between 17-20 or after 20.
- This CODE top brass could be Commander Zero or someone else higher in rank than him, and he's been conspiring with the Nightmares for his own gain. Like I hypothesized in my previous posts, this rogue leader who has been conspiring with the enemies (Nightmares) could be the founder of CODE, similar to Alpha/agent A in the Men in Black cartoon (1997) who was was the first agent and the founder of the Men in Black organization. He could be the mastermind villain or a co-conspirator.
- Baku would very likely keep his transformation into KR Zeztz (and the Driver and other gears) secret from Minami. She'd likely think that he's still just living a false life, while he's actually gradually gained his memory of his previous mission.
- I hypothesized in my 5th post here that the plot twist that could later appear is the supposed top-level reality that the protagonists are said to be living in is actually just also another layer of dream, and Nemu has been looking for Baku there, which means that the one who is trapped inside the dream realms is not only Nox, but also Baku. Like I've hypothesized since my previous post in this thread, I see another possibility that the plot twist could be that Baku's entire life has just been a false life, and his entire memory has been a false memory that was implanted by the mastermind vilain (who could also be a CODE top brass). This would likely be revealed almost at the same time with the reveal of Minami's true identity as a secret secret agent between episodes 17-20 or after 20.
- I hypothesized in my previous posts that Nemu is likely of the same species as the Nightmares, but I think there's another possibility. It's quite possible that Nemu is of a species that's the benevolent version of the Nightmares. Perhaps the dream realm is inhabited by both benevolent and malevolent dream-dwelling creatures, and these creatures have the ability to manipulate many aspects of the real world, like what's been demonstrated by the Gun Nightmare and Nox (a human who had penetrated too far into the dream realm and gained minor ability of reality-altering/bending/manipulation power). Perhaps Commander Zero is also of the same species as Nemu, and that's likely why the Zeztz Driver, the Physicam Impact Capsem, and Zeztz Phone materialize in the real word when Baku completes his mission and wakes up from his nightmare at the end of episode 1. Another possibility is that Nemu could've been Baku's partner or rescue target in the previous mission before he went MIA and mindwiped, and that could explain why he always has crazy dreams about being a secret agent that saves her. If she's Baku's former partner, then she's similar to Melina from Total Recall (1990) like I mentioned above.
- So far, the Nightmares have never shown that they're able to assume a human form or mimic one or several humans, although they're able to create projections of humans. Perhaps that's just low-level Nightmares. Elite/high-level Nightmares who possess shapeshifting ability would likely appear later. The CODE top brass (who could be the mastermind villain or a co-conspirator) that I mentioned above could be one of the elite/high-level Nightmares who killed the original person and steal his identity, similar to the Chameleon Deadman who impersonated Commander Wakabayashi of Fenix in KR Revice.
- Like I elaborated at the end of my previous post in this thread, the Nightmares are likely planting negative/destructive ideas into humans' mind in order to manipulate humanity with the endgame of transforming their imaginary existence into the real one (and completely taking over the real world).
- The most outlandish hypothesis I have is similar to my 3rd post here: Baku could be a lucid dreamer God/deity that created everything in this story. Everything, including the real world, the dream world, all the characters, CODE, and even the Nightmares. Now that's peak absurdity, haha.:lol

Mmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeee...

Spare you?:confused::eyebrow You think my weekly posts are directed to you?:confused::eyebrow You think my weekly posts are intended to change your mind?:confused::eyebrow If you think so, then you're 1000000000000000000000% wrong, dude.:lol

Look how cute the Geats/Yuuya cultists when defending their master Yuuya "The Indefensible" Takahashi. They're so adorable!:lol

Yes, you're 1000000000000000000000% right. I totally have nothing else to do in my pathetic life. I have no day job, no side hustles, no social life, no other hobbies, and no other things to do in my life. That's why I usually post only once or twice a week during weekend (or at night during weekdays, to the lesser extent). My life only revolves around posting in this forum and trashing the latest KR series. That's why I'm the only member in this forum who has the highest post count of 382, including this post.https://i.imgur.com/5Q74t02.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/5Q74t02.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/5Q74t02.gif

https://i.imgur.com/b1HTFCV.gif

This.:thumb::thumb::thumb: You hit the nail right on the head. Some people on the internet are just soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo thin-skinned that they misconstrue even the most harmless comments/posts as personal attacks.