Kamen Rider Zeztz Case #5: "Crash" Discussion
 

Baku must learn the secret of the Bride.

Fujimi and Nagumo are officially my favorite characters.

As someone who has a documented history of being bitchy about weapons in tokusatsu that look like they're just roleplay toys, I really like Zeztz's sword/gun. It passes the "this looks convincingly like an actual weapon" test and I'm always a sucker for a sword that turns into a gun and vice versa.

In the scene @ 08:24, Tetsuya tells Baku that from now on he and Nasuka will be supporting Baku in his missions. Last week in episode 4 @ 20:10, Tetsuya tells Nasuka that he somehow knows that Baku has a strong connection to the "black cases". These scenes confirm my hypothesis in episode 2 thread here that Tetsuya (and Nasuka) could be working as Baku's direct supporters beginning in episode 4. So far, Baku even tells Tetsuya and Nasuka that he's a secret agent for CODE, as Zero tells him to @ 04:51. This means that Commander Zero could be planning to get intels from MID's side, and Tsukasa would be getting intels from CODE's side as well. I wonder what the true motivation of these 2 top brass characters (Commander Zero and Tsukasa Toudou).

In the scene @ 22:13, Nox says that everything (which means everything physical) is destined to collapse, except for "us", while looking at Nemu's posters. This scene could be another support for my hypothesis since my 2nd post in episode 1 thread here about Nemu being another dream-dwelling entity who only possesses incorporeal existence with no actual real-life existence similar to the Nightmares (albeit she could be a benevolent variant of it).

Next week:

Nemu seemingly has parents/family (or foster parents/family), albeit only in the dream realm.

Mmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeee...

Don't you just hate it when a Kaijin vanishes in a murder of crows after you did the Finisher or when the VIP bride you're protecting turns out to have been the reason this Nightmare exists to begin with?

Wow, our police characters straight up sneak into a guys' room while he's sleeping without a warrant and rummage through his closet. Also I guess this is what happens when you have a secret base entrance that apparently literally anyone can use.

I don't know what I love more, Baku trying to get orders from his bike or Nasuka trying to ride said bike like it's the Boostriker again.

Thank goodness Fujimi is so deranged and obsessed that he's willing to believe everything Baku says about the plot. As long as it means Nightmare's are real and he gets to do something to contribute to stopping them, that's all he cares about.

I have to admit I'm impressed Fujimi and Nasuka stuck that landing jumping out of Baku's window. I mean, Nasuka seems really physically fit so I guess I'm not surprised. They probably did another barrel roll.

Convenient for Baku that he gets peeks into important locations in the dreamers' memories for if he ever needs to contact them in the real world to get more insight into what he's supposed to be doing.

Are they straight up going to move into the office at this rate? I mean, it's probably nicer than the truck. Just...don't drink the "tea."

Sorry Ippei, this was never about a childhood love lost, Miyuki was fine getting married...she just has a huge fear of heights after falling off a tree and doesn't think she can handle flying to New York.

I love that Baku drove for his final encounter with the Crow Nightmare. Bike riding! In Kamen Rider!

I also love the wing blades and all the kicks Zeztz managed to deliver with it.

Zeztz Stream! It lets Zeztz control the wind and LITERALLY SURF WITH AN AIRPLANE and can even create a cage of wind for wayward Nightmares! And it's specialty is a gun that it can fire the Breakam Burst Finisher! And you know this is a Takahashi season when he blows out the gun.

It's a sign that Miyuki's husband is a good guy that he's willing to call off the flight because she's having nightmares and isn't comfortable with it. It's a tough break for Ippei, but as long as Miyuki is happy, he'll take the loss like a champ. Also now Fujimi is trying to be buddies with him and supporting him because...I guess that's just what he does.

Is Nox reading up on the meaning of Zeztz' forms? And he talks about how everything breaks down...except him and Nem.

Next week: Prison arc! The Saw Nightmare! And Nem's backstory!

I'm gonna be way meaner to this one than I want, but my gut is telling me the story here doesn't quite click together in a way that's very satisfying. The whole twist of finding out what's *really* going on with the Dreamer and all, it's great for how it puts the events up to that point in a new light, but even though it changes the context of the plot in a way that makes things more interesting than they were before, I think it might have failed to accomplish changing the emotions of the plot in the same way?

I just didn't get much resonance out of anything by the end, which sucks to say. Baku's self-doubt doesn't resolve in any particularly climactic manner, and his interactions with Miyuki almost seem to suggest limitations to the show's format when it's probably important to be suggesting the potential instead, this early on. I thought those second and third episodes built a really strong engine with the idea of a hero who has to confront people's deepest desires, both conscious and unconscious, and learn to understand them in ways they might not even understand themselves, but it didn't seem to amount to much this time? Miyuki ends up solving her real life problems mostly because she decided to tell her new husband about a bad dream she had, which kinda inadvertently means the bad dream saved the day as much as ZEZTZ did? Obviously it's important that he stopped the capital-letter Nightmare, but I'd sort of hope that, even if they only really meet within a dream, Baku himself could form a more impactful connection with the people he's helping. Maybe those people could even help him in some unexpected way! Might make a good story!

So yeah, I think there's a lot that maybe needs to be ironed out still if the show wants to do standard two-parters focused more around guest characters than an overarching story, but A) I don't actually know yet if that *is* the format the show will stick with, and B) in spite of everything I just said, this was still an episode that was entertaining enough, all things considered. I did especially like the action setpiece at the end. It gets a little wonky looking at points, but that's the part of this one where I felt the show actively trying to expand what it can do, because all that plane stuff is the sort of sequence I feel like Kamen Rider would ordinarily not even attempt as part of just a regular TV episode.

As a two-parter that's mainly been about communicating your thoughts and feelings, I felt these two episodes worked out pretty well for the most part.

The bride is able to find more love and support from her husband thanks to tell him about her fears. Baku is able to become better as an agent and fulfill his mission more efficiently than last time thanks to him being honest with the Investigators, and the guy pining after his childhood friend is able to accept things and move on because he's able to acknowledge both his own affections as well as hers. Honesty just worked out for everyone here.

I also liked the twist about the big fear actually being able a plane crash, as it's a very normal, human fear that many people have. Not every bad dream is about something super romantic or fantastical, afterall. And yet despite that they still managed to pull off some very stylish action scenes(even if YouTube's' notoriously bad bitrate didn't do them any favors).

During this episode I also noticed that Wing form doesn't have the red shoes, which I guess means that whatever is red/blue/whatever is the thing that's being most enhanced by Zeztz's' current form. I think that's a really neat design detail and I'm looking forward to other designs we get out of it.

One can also tell where this show saved some budget, since something tells me we'll never see the rest of Baku's' house; Given that the window is used as a door and all, haha.

Overall, I liked this pair of episodes. They were fun.

I think this episode was a big improvement over the last few episodes for me, I had a lot of fun with this one. I think Fujimi and Nasuka are finally giving me exactly what I wanted, some cast members who help bridge the real and dream worlds and also give Baku someone to have meaningful interactions with related to his Kamen Rider work. Also helping things is the fact the two of them are both useful and extremely entertaining. Fujimi brings just the right amount of hamminess to everything and Nasuka trying to be straight laced but always going along with the chaos anyways makes it even better. Great chemistry between the two of them and also with Baku. I also liked the way they turned the mystery on its head in the second part, it was a nice bit of misdirection to have the drama of the wedding be a distraction to the real source of the Dreamer's fear. The place sequence was kinda goofy but it's kinda hard not to have fun with a Kamen Rider fighting a crow monster while riding on top of an airplane. Still have to see how I will feel about this show in the long-term, but this was a step in the right direction for me.

I'm glad that Fujimi and Nagumo are starting to work so directly with Baku. I remember a week or two ago I was saying that Baku lacks a proper supporting cast, and this seems to be a good solution to that problem.

Technolom Stream looks a lot better in action and fighting on a moving plane is one hell of a debut! Also, is that the same bridge from Go-Onger GP 2?

You haven't even seen its full functionality yet!

Reminds me of how the BOARD leftovers just moved in to Kotarou's.

Nice to see that every character in this subplot is a good person who cares about their loved ones' wishes. I totally laughed a little at Ippei's delayed reaction to some weird dude consoling him out of nowhere. Fujimi and Nasuka are a great comedic duo while also being helpful to solving the Black Cases.

Miyuki not knowing how Baku saved her is kind of fitting for the agent theme though.

Yeah, it works like the Mission Memories from Faiz. The power goes to where it's needed. Notice that the torso streams and even the green arms also lose their color. Physicam Transform has grey streams as well, but of course Wing has a lot more grey, as the red power is used to create something that wasn't there before. If you look closely at both, you can even see the accent colors matching the Driver, with Transform having a little orange on the limbs and Wing having a little pink on the wings like Zero One Flying Falcon. Pretty cool, right?

I really like this episode. Tetsuya and Nasuka sneaking into Baku's room was pretty damn funny. I believe with their support in investigating cases, Baku can learn to be more thorough with his own investigations. But I can definitely see Nasuka pushing his buttons. She's straightlaced and was surprised to find out that he was an agent. I can see her questioning his abilities to get the job done more often as the story goes.

I also liked that it was the bride's fear of heights that was the main problem. And finding out it was her dream he was in due to how she was reacting when everything got flipped turned upside down.

With all that being said, I'm curious if Zero turns out to not have the best intentions in mind.

I felt like the story lacked stakes. This is where the weakness of the dream premise is apparent: there was no threat to the real world at any point in the episode. The opening recap tells us "if the third door opens, the dreamer will be trapped in the nightmare forever," but we already learned in the previous two-parter that isn't the case: if Zeztz defeats the Nightmare after the dreamer is possessed, the dreamer is saved.

The stakes for this one boiled down to "a nervous flier might have to board a long flight." And she doesn't overcome her phobia! She just mentions her nightmare to her husband. We didn't even dig deeply enough into it to go from "I had a nightmare" to "hey, honey, I've had a life-long irrational fear of heights due to childhood trauma, and maybe we should discuss that." As someone who, as the result of a scary childhood fall, lived for years with an irrational fear of heights, this was weak sauce.

This bothers me because many other parts of this episode worked well. Our action sequences felt interesting and impactful. There was a whole motorcycle sequence in a Kamen Rider show! Some of the comedy beats actually landed, and that rarely works for me. Overall, except for all of the action taking place in dreams, this was a good episode.

That exception is a doozy. The scene in which Baku meets the bride in the real world underscored this: Baku's dreaming interaction with the bride translates, in the real world, as a particularly creepy parasocial relationship.

Gotta agree with Fish here.

While I've been loving Zetzt so far, and this episode was still more entertaining than the snooze fest Gavv turned into, it didn't end up resonating with me much either.

The twist is great and recontextualizes everything nicely, besides the actual emotional core of the episode. Not helped, the dreamer doesn't even confront the problem they have in the end. She sidesteps it.

I feel that if there was a moment with Baku and her about facing those things that scare us and not letting them stand in the way of what we want, it could have really brought this together, but it just wasn't there. We get a quick resolution for the redhering instead, which, while nice, would have been better served for our dreamer.

Let's hope this was just a temporary stumble because this show has so much potential to really zero in on its themes, and it'd be really sad if it didn't.

So, having had some time to think about this a little more, I think I've better narrowed down exactly what makes this story feel off to me. I like what DreamSword says about there being cohesion in how honesty in various forms makes everything work out in the end, but the way I see it, if that's the story they were going for, the failure is in how very little of it is really dramatized at all? Baku's arc is a perfect example. It's not as if he has to wrestle with the decision of how close to let Fujimi and Nasuka get or anything -- in the very same scene that becomes an issue, he's simply told what to do, and then does it, and I'm not sure how that actually gave him the confidence to be a better agent?

The problem that feels bigger to me -- which I want to note also hinges entirely on my own personal preconceptions of what kind of show Zeztz is trying to be -- is that I feel like Miyuki deciding not to get on a plane in the end, like Layton13 is saying, is 100% the wrong choice for a plot in this series. As a lesson in general, I think it's fine to say that sometimes it's okay not to force yourself into situations that make you uncomfortable, and it'd be a killer moral for a Kiramager episode, but for Zeztz?

The thing I hadn't locked in on yet when I made that first post is that the missed potential of the twist here is that it turns out Baku and Miyuki are both afraid of falling. Metaphorically, in Baku's case, but it turns out that both characters have this task they don't feel up to, and I would've liked the story to result in them both realizing they can soar? That's all I mean about there being a connection formed between them. Baku doesn't necessarily need to even meet Miyuki in real life, and I even agree it fits better for Seven's heroism to be mostly in the shadows, but what I wanted was for this adventure to shape both of them in a positive way that's satisfying to see as a viewer. I don't know exactly how you could've done this and still had an exciting climax with a crashing plane, but it feels like this story was crying out to establish ZEZTZ as a hero who exists to turn bad dreams that crush people into good dreams that empower them, and to have Baku realize he's capable of that, after mostly fumbling his way through episodes 2 and 3.

Very cool! Thanks for pointing all of that out!

I dunno if you're referring to my post specifically or not when it comes to the agent stuff, but I will say I didn't see this two-parter so much about his willingness or confidence as an agent(though it is a small part of it), but moreso the efficiency of which he's able to do so. By forming a team, he's able to save the day, unlike last time. And that came about via him taking Zero's' advice to let the Investigators in on the whole thing despite his initial hesitance.

I can tell that talking about this show with you is gonna be an experience, because here's the thing: I agree with you, but yet at the same time I don't. Lemme do a quick sidetrack real quick.

I'm part of a group chat with some friends, and we've all been chatting about Zeztz as it airs. Back when episode 2 had just gotten done airing, I actually made the prediction that Baku was going to decide that it wasn't enough to just stop bad dreams, but turn them into good ones. And that he'd showcase that by making Detective Guy the one to stop the bomber in the end:

But that didn't happen. And to me, that in itself signaled that it wasn't the sort of story that Zeztz was going to be gunning for.

Sure, that could change as time goes on; We're still early in afterall. But personally I see more evidence towards the story not being about what we both initially thought. But again, it's only episode 5. Whatever the "big theme" of Zeztz is(if it'll even have one) might not make itself obvious until later on down the road.

To be clear, I'm not saying you're "wrong" or anything if this two-parter didn't work for you, I just felt it was interesting how we kinda lined up, just in a bit of an off way, if that makes sense.

No, it didn't happen that way, but the show was pretty clearly framing the entire way things went down as a failure on Baku's part, so I saw it as reinforcing what I took away from the premiere.

I figure the whole significance of Baku being this master lucid dreamer is part of the show's take on the usual Rider theme of freedom? That first episode left a very strong impression on me, and a big part of that was how much I loved stuff like Baku declaring he has nothing to fear inside his own dream, and the visual of him grabbing onto that lightbulb in defiance of a monster trying to drag him down into darkness. "I know my own mind better than anyone" definitely felt like a pretty clear statement of intent about what the broad concept of the show is going to be, considering it's literally the line that opens the door to him getting his belt. Baku's whole thing, as he's introduced, is that while his waking life is shaped by forces outside his power (the exaggerated bad luck being a broad metaphor for any number of hurdles people face), he asserts firm control of the one part of him nobody can chain down, which then shapes the way he becomes a superhero when villains come along trying to take even that away.

The shape of the overall kinds of conflicts the show would tackle seemed very well-defined from that, and I saw 2/3 as existing primarily to demonstrate, by showing rather than telling, how bad things can get when people aren't able to keep such a strong grasp on everything that goes on inside their hearts.

Mostly, I think I was just taken aback that this two-parter wasn't some major step forward in its own right, which is one of those series structure things that generally ends up making more sense to me once I have the whole picture. So yeah, for sure, it's entirely possible the themes of the show will end up coming together in a way neither of us can quite see yet, and I'm totally ready to accept whatever shape it ends up taking. In the case of this two-parter itself, though, I had a lot of trouble seeing enough meat on the story's bones to overcome those preconceptions. Very little in those first three episodes went the way I expected too, but I feel like I still "got" them in a way I didn't with these two, despite still enjoying them on a surface-level. (Which I should maybe be emphasizing more! I was absolutely not miserable or anything watching them, despite how it probably sounds by this point!)

Easiest way to force both to face their hangups and still have the plain scene:

Force her to jump out of the plane into Baku’s arms.

She is forced to confront her fear of heights and power through it and he would have her life literally in his hands.

Feels like the most effective way to get that done and not waist much time. Maybe 15 secs of an encouraging monologue added on.

Maybe it's less about curing people of what their subconscious fear/desires are but just protecting them from Nightmares so those don't end up negatively effecting them or the real world.

Intriguing to hear this take from someone with a similar experience to the dreamer, which I guess makes sense as this show will give various people something to relate to, depending on the Nightmare. Perhaps you'd have a suggestion then for how Miyuki might realistically overcome her phobia.

What does Miyuki want though? We should start with that and think about the conflict from there. She wants to get married and make her husband happy. Her husband gets the innocent idea to honeymoon abroad, which scares her, but she believes she has to put a pin in her feelings to make him happy, which is not a healthy way to think. So, is the conflict her fear of heights, or actually her fear of being honest about her fear of heights? Seems like Miyuki does get exactly what she wants in the end, by simply gaining the courage to confess. This also opens the possibility for her to overcome her phobia in the future.

And by protecting them and the real world from Nightmares, also making them understand their subconscious fears/desires in a way that allows them to consciously improve their lives by making better decisions.

I’m having lots of fun with this show.

I like how things just – work out like that. Paranormal Affairs break into Baku’s house? Sure. They find the hidden CODE mission center? Yup. They move into it and support Baku from now on? Sounds good! The absolute hilarity of it all, and that the characters themselves are in on it, makes this so appealing to me. Can’t help but go along with the flow.

My main critique point for this case is that the end result, or rather the fear that sparked it all was kind of a weak reveal. But maybe that’s the point? Not everything that gives you nightmares must be a huge event like a wedding. And almost dying by falling does induce deep fears.

I went back to watching. What can I say? I really like the creepy phantasmogorism of nightmares. Plus, their design is gorgeous. Also, slapstick comedy also fits in well because of the unlimited possibilities of the dream world. And in general, a lot of things have been done well, like the base in the closet and the ability to move anywhere. The spy theme works for me more as part of Baku's personality. Speaking of which, I love the contrast between the agent's competence and the loser's confusion. It’s good that the two parts of the hero’s character are not clearly separated between reality and sleep, so there is no feeling of two different persons. The police remind me of Rinko and Shunpei with all the pros and cons that flow from here.
I would also like to note that the invasion of the nightmare into the real world would have had more weight if it had happened a little later. The increased occurrence of nightmares is not a very good excuse for this. But here, apparently, the reason is desire to quickly impress the viewer.
I also don't really like how easily Zezz gets his upgrades. Even his predecessor required more work for this. Maybe if Baku found Gashapon machines in the dreams of dreamers in the most unexpected places, it would look fascinating. And now I already have a feeling of being overloaded with toys.
As for the last couple of episodes, this is filler with an interesting deceptive twist. The story is very W-style. Plus, it gave us a lot of aesthetically beautiful scenes and bright action. I will definitely remember the upside down church and sky surfing on a plane.
If we talk about the minuses, then Baku’s doubts about whether he can be an agent seemed to me a little clumsily built into the plot. It was necessary either to pay more attention to them, or to tell the actor not to act so intensely. But these are mere trifles against the backdrop of an overall excellent story.
Also the ending was very tantalizing. The connection between Nox and Nemu is very intriguing. And the theme of a prison filled with traps promises to be a lot of fun.
As a result, I can say that so far I am very pleased with this show and the direction in which it is moving. Let's see what happens next.
P.S. Is it just me who sees strong parallels with Gozyuger? Mostly due to the intense melody at the end of the episode, but also Fujimi inside the nightmare looked exactly like No-One's victim.

I think the main reason is the desire not to go down the traditional wedding trope. The wedding theme is not very common in Kamen Riders, but Super Sentai loves it, so they decided to surprise long-time tokusatsu fans.