Kamen Rider Zeztz Case #3- "Erode" Discussion

Paladin · 09-19-2025, 08:56 PM

Zero orders Baku to find the door into the mind.

Zolda · 09-20-2025, 09:33 PM

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Original, unedited post:

In the scene @ 02:07, it's reported in the news that a mysterious explosion happened at the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station in coincidence with the explosion caused by Bomb Nightmare in the dream realm in the previous scene. Baku is baffled at how an identical explosion happened at the same exact location in the real world and asks Zero about it, and Zero tells him that the ruckus caused by the Nightmares in the dream realm also happens in the real world. Zero tells him @ 03:13 that he as KR Zeztz must infiltrate other people's dreams and stop the Nightmare's rampage by finding the Mind's Door that belong to the victim somewhere in the dream realm. If a Nightmare manages to open all of the victim's Mind's Doors then the victim will never wake up from the nightmare, which means that his mind is taken over by the Nightmare. Yep, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week that Baku/KR Zeztz must prevent the Nightmares from opening their victims' Mind's Doors is proven to be correct in this scene.

In the scene @ 04:09, Tetsuya has an appointment with one of Tokyo MPD top brass named Tsukasa Toudou. Tsukasa tells Tetsuya that his Mysterious Incidents Division is disbanded as of today because he thinks that the MID's performance is insignificant and only wastes taxpayers' money. Tetsuya tries hard to convince Tsukasa that the mysterious explosion that happened at the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station last night could be caused by the Nightmares' activities, but Tsukasa dismisses immediately. He low-key mocks Tetsuya's hypothesis about Nightmares as something that merely exists in dreams and that Tetsuya is just obsessed with a nonexistent delusion. Naturally, the straightforward dismissal and rejection by one of his superiors makes Tetsuya seemingly greatly disappointed in himself because he has wasted a significant portion of his career on a delusional obsession. So yeah, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week about Tetsuya being disillusioned with his career is proven to be quite correct in this scene.

In the scene @ 12:45, Bomb Nightmare manages to bomb the Tokyo MPD HQ in the dream world, which means that Tetsuya's twisted/corrupted dream is now fulfilled. Bomb Nightmare takes over Tetsuya's body and breaks out of it in the real world and creates a huge purple shockwave that spreads the purple butterflies (that are managed by Nox) that latch to pretty much everyone. Yep, once again, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week about the creation/replication process of Nox's purple butterflies is proven to be 100% correct in this scene. So far, sooooooooooooooooo predictable.

Oh, and Baku is able to transform into KR Zeztz in the real world. He could've simply tried that in episode 2 last week since it only takes less than 5 seconds to confirm.

Mmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeee...

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Elaborated, edited post:

In the opening scene @ 00:42, Baku/KR Zeztz concludes that Bomb Nightmare was created from Tetsuya's mind. He wonders why the heck Tetsuya has the desire to bomb his own workplace. Baku/KR Zeztz thinks that there's a reason for Tetsuya creating Bomb Nightmare, but Nox appears out of nowhere as usual and tells the audience that no one understands the deepest parts of a dreamer's psyche, not even the dreamer himself. This means that there would appear Nightmare victims who created Nightmares out of their internal self-sabotaging desires that are the perfect opposite of what they say they believe when they're awake. Also, I wonder what happens if a Nightmare is created out of a person with a severe mental illness, for example someone with schizophrenia. Being one type of one of Cluster A (odd or eccentric) mental disorders in DSM-5, the Nightmare that's created from a schizophrenic mind could be an erratic/chaotic one or even a benevolent one, totally beyond Nox's expectation, haha.

This scene ends with Bomb Nightmare creating an explosion at the Tokyo MPD HQ in the dream world before fleeing, and it causes Tetsuya's 2nd Mind's Door to open.

In the scene @ 02:07, it's reported in the news that a mysterious explosion happened at the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station in coincidence with the explosion caused by Bomb Nightmare in the dream realm in the previous scene, following the police car bombing the other day in episode 2 @ 05:36. The news reporter says that the explosions were totally mysterious with no signs nor traces of explosive materials, and none of the suspect's activities were even captured in security cameras. Baku is baffled at how an identical explosion happened at the same exact location (the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station) in the real world and asks Zero about it, and @ 03:05 Zero tells him that the ruckus caused by the Nightmares in the dream realm also happens in the real world, which means that anything that happens in a Nightmare-controlled nightmares will become reality. Zero tells him @ 03:13 that he as KR Zeztz must infiltrate other people's dreams and stop the Nightmare's rampage by finding the Mind's Door that belong to the victim somewhere in the dream realm. If a Nightmare manages to open all of the victim's Mind's Doors then the victim will never wake up from the nightmare, which means that his mind is taken over by the Nightmare. Yep, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week that Baku/KR Zeztz must prevent the Nightmares from opening their victims' Mind's Doors is proven to be correct in this scene.

I mentioned above that Zero tells Baku @ 03:05 that the Nightmares have the power to cause destructions that happen in a Nightmare-controlled nightmares to become reality in the real world. If so, then why do:
- the explosion inside the warehouse caused by Bomb Nightmare in episode 2 @ 05:20,
- the explosion inside a tunnel caused by Bomb Nightmare during the high-speed chase between Baku/KR Zeztz and Bomb Nightmare in episode 2 @ 20:06,
- and the destruction of the wall at the end of the previous tunnel caused by Bomb Nightmare's reality-bending powers in episode 2 @ 20:14,
not make the news at the beginning of episode 3?

If the internal rule is all destructions that are caused by the Nightmares in the dream realm become reality in the real world, then why do those events not make the news?

Also, fighting fire with fire has always been the main theme of KR franchise since its birth in 1971. Zero told Baku in episode 2 @ 16:05 that the Capsems contained the power to make dreams come true, which means that anyone wearing the Zeztz Driver and transforming into a CODE Rider with a Capsem will have a power that's pretty much identical to the Nightmares'. It means that Baku as KR Zeztz also causes damage in the real world if he causes damage to the dream realm, since the dream realm in this story is not a surreal, fantastical, absurd imaginary world, but basically just an almost identical version of Tokyo, if not identical. Baku/KR Zeztz did cause damage to the dream realm in his debut in episode 1, such as:
- causing a huge crack in the ground when he slammed Gun Nightmare to the ground in episode 1 @ 18:57,
- causing another crack in the ground when he punched the ground near Gun Nightmare in episode 1 @ 19:20,
- and manipulating the ground under Gun Nightmare in episode 1 @ 19:32.
Why did those damages never make the news?

If the damages in that particular location were reported in the news in episode 2, then Baku would've realized that what happened in his dream as KR Zeztz also happened in the real world exactly 1 episode earlier in episode 2, not in episode 3 after Bomb Nightmare causes an explosion at the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station. This kind of logical anomaly (inconsistent application of internal rules, be it intentional or unintentional) is very very very typical in Yuuya "The Indefensible" Takahashi's writings.
Zeztz 02 @ 05:20

Zeztz 02 @ 20:06

Zeztz 02 @ 20:14

Zeztz 01 @ 18:57

Zeztz 01 @ 19:20

Zeztz 01 @ 19:32

In the scene @ 04:09, Tetsuya has an appointment with one of Tokyo MPD top brass named Tsukasa Toudou. Tsukasa tells Tetsuya that his Mysterious Incidents Division is disbanded as of today because he thinks that the MID's performance is insignificant and only wastes taxpayers' money. Tetsuya tries hard to convince Tsukasa that the mysterious explosion that happened at the Tokyo MPD's Oumi police station last night could be caused by the Nightmares' activities, but Tsukasa dismisses his hypothesis immediately. He low-key mocks Tetsuya's hypothesis about Nightmares as something that merely exists in dreams and that Tetsuya is just obsessed with a nonexistent delusion. Naturally, the straightforward dismissal and rejection by one of his superiors makes Tetsuya seemingly greatly disappointed in himself because he has wasted a significant portion of his career on a delusional obsession. So yeah, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week about Tetsuya being disillusioned with his stalling career is proven to be quite correct in this scene.

Tsukasa also says that he's questioned the performance of Tetsuya's MID since he took over from the previous chief. I hypothesized in my 1st post in episode 1 thread here and in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here that there could've been victims of Nightmares that were important figures such as ministers, top politicians, police/military top brass, intelligence officers, etc., and they could be playing a crucial role in covering up the "black cases" from the public's eyes, and even subverting humans' society by conspiring with other field generals like Nox behind the scenes. This statement by Tsukasa could be a clue that my hypothesis could be correct. He could've been one of those early victims of Nightmares. It means that the current Tsukasa is just the Nightmare that took over the real Tsukasa's mind some time before episode 1, and he has been the main actor that's sabotaged all the progresses made by Tetsuya's MID (and indirectly stalling his career). Heck, the current Tsukasa could've done dirty things to the previous police chief in order to usurp his strategic position.

In the scene @ 05:54, Baku is trying to meet with Tetsuya at MID's crummy office-truck to directly question him about his motivation that caused the creation of Bomb Nightmare, but he can't find him nor MID's crummy office-truck since the MID has just been disbanded several moments ago. So, he meets with him in the dream realm and directly asks him where the heck is the location of his Mind's Door(s). Even in the dream realm, Tetsuya doesn't even know the location of his Mind's Door(s), which means that there's quite a high probability that the Nightmares' victims don't even know the location of their Mind's Door(s) or if they even have one. Tetsuya throws Baku into a jail cell @ 07:39. Baku has lucid dreaming power, so he should be able to easily bend the bars and escape from the jail. The fact that he's unable to do it and needs to beg Nemu to open the jail cell is because she initially wants him to be jailed as well, which means that she could have the power similar to the Nightmares where she's able to negate/suppress a lucid dreamer's power. Like I hypothesized in my 2nd post in episode 1 thread here, it means that she (and Commander Zero) could be a benevolent variant of the Nightmare species.

In the scene @ 09:33, Baku is posing as a police officer in order to infiltrate the Tokyo MPD HQ in the dream realm and find the location of Tetsuya's Mind's Door(s). They're actually located inside MID's crummy office-truck, which means that Tetsuya's motivation is indeed connected to his stalling career at the MID.

In the scene @ 10:50, Baku manages to find Tetsuya who mumbles that he's gonna blow up the entirety of Tokyo MPD HQ. Unfortunately, Bomb Nightmare had arrived there earlier and manages to sneak into Tsukasa's room, and there he creates an explosion that of course creates an identical explosion in the real world as well, albeit at night. In the scene @ 12:45, now that Bomb Nightmare has just managed to bomb the Tokyo MPD HQ in the dream world, it means that Tetsuya's twisted/corrupted dream is now fulfilled. This scene is very similar to the ones in KR Den-O when Imagins managed to fulfill their contract holders' wish and escape to the the past via the contract holders' memory. Bomb Nightmare takes over Tetsuya's body and breaks out of it at MID's crummy office-truck in the real world and creates a huge purple shockwave that spreads the purple butterflies (that are managed by Nox) that latch to pretty much everyone. Yep, once again, my hypothesis in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here last week about the creation/replication process of Nox's purple butterflies is proven to be 100% correct in this scene. So far, sooooooooooooooooo predictable.

In the scene @ 14:16, Baku wakes up from the dream, but instead of waking up in his room, he wakes up in the street outside of Toei's warehouses (read: studios, haha

). This weird scene could likely happen because when a Nightmare (in this case Bomb Nightmare) manages to break out of the body of its victim (in this case Tetsuya), a convergence/synchronicity between the dream realm and the real world happens, marked with the presence of the Nightmares' red half-moon in the real world such as shown @ 13:20. This means that Nemu's presence in the real world could've also happened in a similar fashion. Like I mentioned above, I hypothesized in my 2nd post in episode 1 thread here that Nemu (and Commander Zero) could be a benevolent variant of the Nightmare species. Based on this new information, I have a new hypothesis that perhaps she appeared in her host's dream (which could've been a female human with identical appearance as her current form), helped the host achieve her dream, and then took over the host's body.

In the scene @ 14:47, Zero tells Baku that if they don't stop the Nightmares, then the world will be destroyed. Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, this could happen when a total convergence/synchronicity between the dream realm and the real world is formed. The total convergence/synchronicity between the dream realm and the real world could mean that the real world would be taken over by the dream world, in a quite similar manner when a Nightmare's victim is taken over by a Nightmare, for example when Tetsuya was taken over by Bomb Nightmare in the real world. Baku manages to find the now real Bomb Nightmare at the damaged Tokyo MPD HQ building @ 15:07. Baku asks Bomb Nightmare where the heck is Tetsuya, sees that Tetsuya's body is completely taken over by Bomb Nightmare, and is told by Bomb Nightmare that Tetsuya's nightmare was indeed driven by his disappointment in the Tokyo MPD that didn't believe in MID's mission. Baku tries to fight Bomb Nightmare, but he's mocked and injured by Bomb Nightmare who flaunts his superiority due to his now real existence. Baku gets up and decides to put the Physicam Impact Capsem inside his Zeztz Driver, and he's able to transform into KR Zeztz Physicam Impact form. Soooooooooooooooooooooo, Baku is able to transform into KR Zeztz in the real world. Why didn't he do it in episode 2 last week?

He could've simply tried that in episode 2 @ 05:59 last week after he woke up from his dream (where he was chased by Tetsuya and several police officers and then encountered Bomb Nightmare) since it would've only taken less than 5 seconds to confirm. Why would I pose a question in episode 2 that can be very very very easily answered in the same episode (in less than 5 seconds!), but didn't answer it because I had zero intention to answer in episode 2 in the first place because episode 3 is where I need it to be answered?

The answer is clear: Plot convenience, as usual in Yuuya "The Indefensible" Takahashi's writings.
Zeztz 02 @ 06:28

The fight scene looks nice, but like what happened in KR (God forbid) Gavv, it looks very very very sterile due to the total lack of civilians (or police officers!), even outside the crime scene. Even if the occupants of the building are evacuated, there should be at least a bomb disposal squad or several firefighters. The total lack of civilians/police/firefighters only makes sense if this scene happens in the dream realm, since everyone can and do appear and disappear randomly. And yeah, like I hypothesized in my 1st post in episode 2 thread here, it's already too late and the purple butterflies have already spread, but at least Baku/KR Zeztz manages to defeat Bomb Nightmare and prevent him from taking over Tetsuya's mind permanently. I hope Baku/KR Zeztz manages to defeat a Nightmare before it breaks out into the real world in the next several episodes.

Also, when Baku/KR Zeztz defeats Bomb Nightmare in the real world @ 21:24, it also disperses into particles that reform into a purple butterfly (the same exact purple butterflies that are managed by Nox in the previous Nightmare break out scene) that flees the fight scene. Does this mean that Baku/KR Zeztz fails and or has no sufficient capability to permanently destroy the Nightmare seeds (the purple butterflies)?

Or does this mean that the purple butterflies are infinitely recyclable/reusable, or even indestructible?

Heck, does Baku/KR Zeztz even realize that Nightmares are created from Nox's purple butterflies and will return to that form every time they're defeated?

Baku/KR Zeztz has managed to defeat 2 Nightmares, yet he hasn't seem to be able to connect the dots. Heck, Commander Zero also hasn't even told him about the Nightmares's life cycle.

Next week:

Baku's mission this time is to protect the VIP bride. Perhaps the crow-looking Nightmare is created from the bride's jealous/possessive ex-boyfriend's mind? The crow-looking Nightmare seemingly has a contract with the victim (the bride's jealous/possessive ex-boyfriend) to harass her (and likely to kidnap her as well) in the dream realm which would then cause her to change her mind and cancel her actual marriage. Or maybe not. Maybe the ex-boyfriend is not jealous/possessive, but a nice guy that broke up amicably with her but still can't move on, haha.

That's the most plausible plot twist. A jealous/possessive ex-boyfriend would be too easy.

Nemu is shown posing as the bride's bridesmaid (or maybe just the EO). Does this mean that she has an actual, real-life existence, not just incorporeal one? I don't think so. That scene could likely only happen in the dream realm, not real world.

Tetsuya and Nasuka are shown talking to Tsukasa. Are they talking about giving Tetsuya's MID a 2nd chance? That could be the case, although Tsukasa could (still) be sabotaging the MID from behind the scene. Nasuka is also seen about to ride Zero the robot-bike. Does this mean that she already discovers Baku's identity as KR Zeztz as early as episode 4?

The debut of 3 new DX toys that looks like they have a Christmas theme, haha.

Mmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeee...

Frontier · 09-20-2025, 10:01 PM

No OP three episodes in a row? Bold, are we?

I honestly wasn't expecting the Nightmare to be able to cause real world damage before they possess their host body. Then again that car that tried to kill Baku was a Nightmare attack, wasn't it?

So the Capsem conveniently follows him into the real world too?

Minami has cute PJ's.

Why would you drink fuel like tea? Why wouldn't you if you were a sentient gentlemanly bike robot!?

I love the staircase popping out while Baku followed Zero.

So it's not just about destroying the Nightmare: Baku has to get to the root of the dreamers' subconscious that the Nightmare is preying on.

Well, admittedly the director was kind of a condescending jerk, but it is probably hard to justify a police division with no concrete evidence and no one having ever seen a Kaijin in their life.

I'm glad Baku has mastered the art of conveniently falling asleep when necessary. That will serve him well.

So it doesn't seem like Baku's relation with someone outside their dream tansfers to their dream perception of him. Baku became friendly with Fujimi outside his dream but inside of it he still sees Baku as public enemy #1 and throws him in Dream Jail.

I'm still not sure how aware Nem is of everything but she seems loyal to the dreamers and role she plays a part in.

It is kind of rough seeing someone you came to respect was actually deep down invested in the idea of blowing up his own department. Though you gotta appreciate the Bomb Nightmare went out of his way to blow up the directors' office.

So it's not just the Nightmare taking over the body of its host and appearing in the real world, it seems like the fabric of reality starts falling apart and Zeztz has to stop them in the real world.

I...guess that clarifies that Baku can Henshin in the real world? Or was it only because things were starting to get...weird? Either way, at least we know that if he stops the Nightmare in the real world, it can save the person being possessed.

Loving neon Zeztz!

Reed Richards, eat your heart out with this stretching Capsem.

How to stop a Bomb Nightmare? By defusing him, of course!

If only Nasuka had actually seen the Bomb Nightmare at all, but I mean...at least now the police HAVE to think something really weird is going on, right?

Look, an out of suit bike ride while riding straight in front of the camera at the end of an episode! Like the Showa days!

So...Nox is after completely destroying the world or reality? Checks out.

Next week: A dream bride! A bird nightmare! And Zeztz takes flight!

Fish Sandwich · 09-20-2025, 10:02 PM

I would've loved to see the version of this series that managed to run with the conceit that ZEZTZ only exists within dreams, but I can appreciate the poetry of the Rider becoming real in the episode where the stakes finally become real for the protagonist. I ended up really loving what it brought to the story to have it be Baku confronting the Nightmare in the end, rather than Seven. The way he's so scared throughout, the way he can't pronounce English as well, there are a lot of nuances to that section of the episode that made it really enjoyable. Credit to the actor for managing all that so early on.

More importantly, I like how this concluding chapter lays out a proper motivation for his heroism in a way that's more about how intensely he feels his mission deep down than how much he understands it rationally. It's really easy to get a sense how much this whole experience with Fujimi has affected Baku by the end. In the premiere, Baku was only stepping up to protect his own good dreams, but I can totally get how this guy would now feel a burning desire to do the same for others after this. Pretty strong conclusion to this opening trilogy; kinda makes me wanna see it as one long director's cut movie, even?

Switchblade · 09-21-2025, 01:29 AM

Really impressed with the cinematography on this show. I hope that we can keep knocking it out of the park like this every week.

I think they were definitely wise to hold back the stretchy limb stuff for a couple weeks to get people hooked on the plot first. That said, it looked about as decent as it was ever going to.

GoldenXtreme · 09-21-2025, 08:20 AM

I'm still enjoying this show, but my feelings towards it are cooling awfully fast to be honest.

Anyways, this episode seems to be the last part to this show's introductory arc, where the show fully establishes how Baku has to stop the Nightmares within the dream world, and what exactly happens when the Nightmares take over their host. Since the dreams affect reality, it gives to real stakes even to the dream world sequences, which is nice. We also get to see Baku steel his resolve and fight in the real world. As Fish said, the actor did a good job feeling like just a normal guy who has to confront a monster to save someone, but I did find myself wishing that he had a more faltering fighting style after transforming too, to reflect that he doesn't have any actual combat experience in real life. Would have made for an interesting contrast.

I do want to reiterate my comment from last week that I really wish Baku had more of a supporting cast, an issue aggravated by the divide between the real and dream world meaning the cast doesn't really transfer between them. I think it might actually be intentional at this point though, I genuinely think they are aiming for a "lonely Showa era hero" sort of Kamen Rider for this show. Not sure I like it, but it's an interesting idea.

Sh Ranger · 09-21-2025, 08:20 AM

Zeztz is like reverse Wizard. When Wizard fails in the real world, he has to take the fight to the Underworld. When Zeztz fails in the dream world, he has to take the fight to the real world. The way the Nightmares enter the real world is the opposite of how the Imagins enter the past.

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