[Fish Sandwich]

I wish I had more to say about this one that was nice? I've sort of noticed in quite a few comments I've seen people make on Zeztz how it often seems like the reasons behind certain things it does have a way of escaping people's understanding, and I think it's my turn to feel that same lack of clarity?

I just kind of didn't get the story here, beyond the broadest strokes? That's obviously intentional in the case of something like Nox's whole deal with the Recovery Capsem, to be fair, which is in the future tense by nature, as something to make the viewer curious about where things are heading. But I ended up scratching my head almost the exact same way trying to figure out fairly basic things about the present tense plot too, and I'm not sure if that's because the show is too smart for me or not.

Like, is it not strange for those politician guys to literally be choking to death on that sauce for like a solid minute and somehow still come to the conclusion the food is good just because Seven manages to stop the monster before they outright die? Because it sorta seems an awful like it's the need to ramp up the dramatic tension clashing with the logic of the plot in a slightly clunky way.

Now, that kind of very literal stuff is generally a minor annoyance at worst, especially for someone like me, who always cares about the emotional aspect of storytelling more, but I consistently felt that same looseness in the way the episode is constructed there, too? There's a whole relationship between these three chefs that's more hinted at than shown, which not only makes the catharsis of the resolution much weaker, but even left me unsure if the way I'm reading into everything is even correct? I think the idea is that Sannoh deliberately wanted to use the surgery as an excuse to give his apprentices this big chance to come into their own because he's too stern to just encourage them normally or something? But for one thing, that would mean ZEZTZ is fighting merely to keep a situation from being changed for the worse, which I still think is less inherently gratifying to watch than a hero who can actively make a positive change beyond blowing up the bad guy. Even beyond that, though, without a scene of those apprentices actually, you know, reconciling with Sannoh at the end, it all ends up feeling a bit hollow?

And all this stinks to say! I'm not consciously disliking Zeztz at all, but there's this creeping sense of void to it that I still haven't been able to shake after a couple months, despite being fairly impressed by the premiere. It feels like all the metaphorical gears are in place for a show that can do some really exciting stuff, but right now those gears are all kinda grinding up against each other in a way that makes the overall experience less than the sum of its parts. Really hope to see that storytelling machine running smoother in the months to come.