[Fish Sandwich]

I was always happy Kamihoriuchi was the pilot director on this series, because if Toei wants to push ZEZTZ on a more global level, as something that's meant to become a lot of people's first real experience with Kamen Rider, the kind of work he brings to an episode is exactly the sort of thing I'd want people to see. I *also* would really want those same people to experience the kind of work Teruaki Sugihara does when he directs Rider episodes, so even though it took half the show to get here, I was naturally very excited to finally see him get involved with these last two episodes, with the perfect excuse of this being a new era for the show in general.

This week is definitely more where he gets to show his stuff, in terms of the usual insanely kinetic sequences and requisite amount of crazy anime compositions and all that. A lot here had me grinning as I was watching it, between Capsems being spun with bullets instead of hands, and finishing moves so over the top they blow up moons. He even got to do a proper sequence with Impact right away and everything! And as usual for Sugihara, it's all really pretty, really energetic, really fun to look at, and just plain cool.

Story is still playing its cards real well for me, too. I'm almost never going to be upset when a Kamen Rider show wants to actively frame its hero as being a monster in his own right, but it also does a lot to make Sieg feel like a critical piece of the narrative right away by choosing to in turn frame him as the monster Baku could end up becoming. Or perhaps even the monster he's pretending he hasn't already become. It instantly makes sense of why Sieg can only show up now, both thematically and for literal plot reasons, and starts building parallels between the two of them that seem like they'll do for this half of the series what the parallels between Baku and NOX did for the first half. And also this half, of course, because the quest to make NOX an ally continues here, getting us a ton of other neat stuff going on, like NOX as the dashing hero protecting Nem, and ZEZTZ deciding to formally retire his code number in a way that playfully pokes fun at his old teacher while also kinda paying tribute to him at the same time.

And you know, even all that isn't getting into all the other stuff happening on the side here. Six is still just lying in bed, and I'd say I'm still waiting for Fujimi and Nasuka to really have something meaty going on again, but pretty much every principal character gets a good moment or two here, even if it's a small moment.