[Fish Sandwich]

Even though some of the fundamental reasons I like both of them are connected, there's a drastic enough difference between the way in which I enjoyed the first two thirds of this episode and the last third that I feel the need to discuss them separately.

That initial stretch leading up to Baku's death, it was a lot of fun in the ways this show usually is for me. There's a lot going on just with the visuals that's neat. Typically evocative imagery with stuff like The Lady in frame with herself on both sides of that familiar window. Stuff that, like that shot, plays on the established conventions of the show in neat ways, like Baku giving us our first official mission in Japanese simply because he totally botched coming up with an English one. (The fact he couldn't quite get something as simple as "Save Nem" out speaks to just how flustered and bad at the whole agent thing his waking self is, making that bit of comic relief underscore the drama of the rest of the episode nicely.) There's even stuff that's just plain fun and playful, even without much deeper meaning. Sugihara essentially put his signature within this episode by having Fujimi do a Zero-One finisher, of all things, which I just can't hate, even if it comes during the point in the story where it's maybe not time to be goofing off to quite that level. But hey, the whole central tension of Nightmares in the real world again (well, "again", but, you know) is so palpable throughout, between a broken ZEZTZ and Sieg emotionally torturing Nem, that the drama can probably survive that.

So, yeah, if all this was the whole episode, I'd definitely like it well enough. That whole section with Baku's dying dream, though -- it's probably going to go down as one of my absolute favorite things this series ever did?

It hit me on a deeply personal level in a way I absolutely did not expect. Even without that extra emotional connection, I think I would've loved it anyway. It's strong character work for Baku, works with the themes of the show well, and has exactly that same evocative quality that I think is sort of unique to this show compared to most other Riders. But the particular situation they chose was pretty close to home for me, and I wonder if people who can't say that will connect with the sequence to the same extent.

The crucial thing is maybe that Baku is tinkering with stuff even though he's not actually someone who would be reasonably described *as* a tinkerer? I'm sure even a genius physicist or some such person with proper engineering experience goes through a lot of the same feelings, but I've spent huge amounts of my life absorbed in personal projects like that. I know on a really visceral level the sense of isolation that can come with sitting around working on something without knowing how it will turn out. Without knowing how long it will take. Without much to give you any real hope, for long, grueling stretches. Without anything or even anyone to continue motivating you, except yourself, and your own desire to press on regardless of all that.

I was seeing *all* of that here, right on the screen, portrayed with such clarity and exacting detail that it was almost like the show was looking as much into my mind as it was Baku's. I don't know what it's like to fight monsters by punching them, but I know very well what it's like to fight that sort of internal battle. It was relatability taken to the extreme. A synchronization that had me mesmerized. All helped along by that same loving visual detail I'm always finding new reasons to bang on about with ZEZTZ. That isolation especially is really highlighted by how all the people in Baku's life are made out of focus and unseen until he's finally ready to return to the world, his project completed. The pessimistic dialogue is good too, but that's absolutely the part that's secondary in the scene.

So, yeah, because the episode had that whole section going for it, I had a much greater time than I expected this week. The show took a basic premise that could've felt overly familiar as a long-time fan, and they took the opportunity to deliver the material in a way that ultimately made for a very unique introduction for a final form. Though like any good final form debut, it absolutely represents what makes the show as a whole stand out.