[Frontier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I really don't like when ZEZTZ finishes off a monster with a weapon? When you have an idea as great as the whole slot machine thing for the finishers, anything else can only be a downgrade. It takes away part of the uniqueness of the show whenever it happens, and thankfully, it mostly hasn't so far, but it stings a little more this time because ZEZTZ didn't finish off the monster at all in the last two-parter. I guess January just wasn't a lucky month.

It's a cool weapon though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

Sorry, but I am totally sinking back into apathy with this show. Poor Zeztz just can't keep my interest high for more than a few episodes!

First of all, I find it weird that Kureha got her memories as an agent wiped for being exposed by the "enemy organization" because the situation seems very different for Baku, who has gotten two random cops and his sister involved, not to mention that both Odaka and The Lady know his civilian identity. Even if we assume the "enemy organization" is another entity we haven't seen yet, it seems like they're being awfully lax with Baku. Nasuka was also completely blocked from having any major interactions with Kureha by Baku, which just kind of sucked? I really feel like Nasuka should have had a more major role in resolving everything, and the whole argument that Kureha knew that being an Agent would be dangerous is again kind of wrong if we consider how little Baku seemed to understand about the risks of being an Agent early on in the story. Another little bit that stuck out to me on, like, a meta level was the whole therapy scene where Baku basically admits that his job has taken over his whole life. It really got me thinking about how little we are shown any of the characters outside of a professional context. We rarely see Baku not doing Agent stuff in some form, Nasuka and Fujimi are completely consumed by their jobs (again, Nasuka isn't even allowed to talk to her childhood friend without it wrapping back around into a conversation about a Black Case!), even Minami only really got involved in the story once she took on the "job" of supporting her brother. Even Nem is consumed by an obsession with playing the roles she is given, with Baku handwaving her concern about being the source of the Nightmare away and encouraging her to keep doing it. Maybe the show is actually trying to make some commentary here given how pervasive the trend is, but man, it really shed some light on why I have a hard time seeing the characters in this show as real people, you know? Maybe alllll these things will make sense in the end, but I just don't have enough confidence in the show to think it will.

The RPG themed episode next week looks fun at least.

I think we need to see the context for exactly what happened to Kureha and exactly what is the nature of the "enemy organization" and how Kureha was exposed to them. I think we're going to get more insight into that because she's taking the fight directly to NOX and it sounds like she's coming back to fulfill her original mission.

Baku seems "special" compared to the other Agents in the sense he's the only one that's a Kamen Rider, he's the only one shown being able to use four different Capsem elements, and Zero seems to have been giving him special treatment if Agent 03's reaction is any indication. And it doesn't seem like Kureha had his affinity for spy stuff so it sounds like his whole process was different from hers. Especially because she was activated as an agent much earlier than he was.

I think this is just the beginning of the Nasuka/Kureha dynamic, same with how Fujimi/Odakka is still unresolved.

I think it kind of makes sense that the characters are really focused on their missions/jobs? Fujimi and Nasuka are police officers, fighting Nightmares and being cool in other peoples' dreams is literally the only thing Baku can do without getting attacked by nature, and Minami's dayjob intersected with Baku's a few times over the course of the show.