[Paladin]

Baku awakens in a hospital.
Is it possible his previous adventures were nothing but a dream?

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Is it possible his previous adventures were nothing but a dream?

I mean... yes? That's kind of the entire premise of the show.

[Frontier]

It's an Un-Zeztz-edented development! Everything we've watched from the past 24 episodes HAS BEEN A DREAM BAKU HAD AFTER GETTING HIT BY THE CAR IN EPISODE 1!!!!

So of course we get fun moments like Baku knowing who Fujimi and Nasuka are before he's even met them!

It was kind of nice to see Bike Robot Zero again, even if Zero is confused as to how Baku has a bunch of Capsems (and Catastrom) that he's not supposed to have yet and Baku wants nothing to do with Zero now. Couldn't Zero have at least left the bike though?

It's kind of sad to see Baku and Nem's relationship get reset back from episode 2...although I guess it's karma that now BAKU is the one to handcuff Nem with the cuffs she used on him back then!

Guess we're just speedrunning stuff like Nem finding out about her mom and Baku not wasting any time fighting the Bomb Nightmare this go-around. The only thing more explosive than a bomb? Zeztz Catastrom.

NOX is back! And for once HE is confused as to what's going on and how Baku has Catastrom already...and that Baku might know more than all of them do at this point. At least he was nice to Nem though. Is NOX going to be nicer and less vague this go-around?

Did they actually have Lady's actress in that scene or just someone in her dress?

Okay, so I'm guessing Baku awakening Catastrom was to make him a fully-realized agent...but now that he's foreseen them betraying him, and is a possible risk to Code: Somnia, they need to speedrun Kureha rejoining the team with "Shock Therapy" to have her and 5 take Baku out.

So because Baku didn't initially fail against the Bomb Nightmare, it never possessed Fujimi, never proved Black Cases' legitimacy, and Fujimi lost his job. And because Nasuka didn't get her 24 episodes of character development, she's happy to ditch him. But Baku needs his team, and if that means telling Fujimi and Nasuka things only he could know from his dream, then he'll do it.

Baku knows the full weight of the reality that he witnessed in his dream, but he's still determined as ever to help Nem and those he cares about.

I love how Fujimi apparently came through the door like a normal person this time, but NASUKA is the one who came through the window, completely unprompted. Also, first chronological "THIS IS A BLACK CASE!"

Baku finally has his team again, and together they'll have to find some way to stop his bad dream from becoming a reality!

Could Baku dream project like that the entire time!?

Next week: CODE Agent Battle Royale and...Kamen Rider Dawn!

[DreamSword]

Unfortunately, I think I have officially checked out my emotional investment in Zeztz.

Like, thematically, I get it. In real life, people have been able to have dreams that predict the future. But narratively speaking, I feel robbed.

All of that great character development we got throughout the show up to now essentially just got undone, and all for the sake of the plot twist that seems to be CODE having locked a bunch of people in a simulation of some kind.

I would've been fine with it if this episode were simply a "what-if" story, and then we returned to the story at hand, but no. The episode leans all in on the only "real" part of the show being most of episode 1. It's the sort of storytelling decision that I don't think was executed in a way that satisfied me.

Will I still watch the show to the end? Yes. But it's going to have to do alot to get me back in its good graces after this. I'm not angry. I'd drop the show entirely if I was. But this episode seriously killed my motivation towards watching further episodes as they air. So I'll probably just stick to the proper uploads on YouTube from here on out.

I'm almost positive that I'm in the minority on this, and I wish anyone who has feelings opposite to mine to continue having a great time with the show going forward.

[Golden King]

Big risk this episode and I would say it's hard to see if it will pay off until further down the line because it could make the first half feel pointless in exchange for a huge shake up and a massive character moment for Baku. For now not knowing what the future holds this episode was hype, so excited to see what CODE really is. I just hope the side cast's character development doesn't take a hit thanks to them basically being speed-runned.

[Fish Sandwich]

Upfront, I do have to commend the commitment to actually going through with using "the entire first half of the show was a dream" as a plot point. Even when you "decide" on something like that from the start, I would not have been surprised to see that concept end up as nothing more than a lot of foreshadowing that was ultimately repurposed or outright left hanging entirely, just a neat anecdote the creators will explain in interviews where they discuss how they decided to back out of doing something that might've been a little too crazy.

Because, yeah, I do think it's an insane idea? There's no way the staff didn't already have the same doubts I'm about to mention. You risk the viewers never trusting any of the rules you establish again, you risk making a massive chunk of the story feel like it didn't matter... the trope itself is far from uncommon or without merit, but in this specific context, for something like Kamen Rider, where you're telling this sprawling 40+ episode narrative? And you want people to be okay with 24 of those being put in that position? It takes some serious confidence to even try and walk that tightrope!

In that sense, without speaking for anyone else's experience, I do kinda feel like my relationship with this show now has to build itself back up from scratch in the same way Baku has to recreate all these connections only he remembers. But hey, maybe that's just a chance to do things better the second time around, right?

Honestly, despite all the rational reasons I didn't particularly want to see anything like this, I wasn't even slightly bothered by anything in this episode? On the contrary, I really got into it pretty quickly. There was a basic fun to watching Baku nervously scramble around trying to do a speedrun of the pilot trilogy that instantly created a thrilling momentum in the places where I find these sort of looping stories can drag. And then from there, I think they did a great job establishing that clear new direction, with the new theme song kicking in as Baku draws together the people he knows he count on most to help him with a mission he's learned he can't let anyone decide for him. (And indeed, that mission is literally the exact opposite of what Zero told him when handing over the ZEZTZ Driver.)

Even though there is that inherent sadness in the way things have gone back to square one in so many ways, the ways in which they haven't at all make a solid case very quickly for how everything we saw still "counts" for something. The strength of those pilot episodes meant that Baku was always kinda my anchor in this show. As long as I felt like I got what was going through his head in a given moment, I could always buy into that journey he was on on that level. Which is probably why some of my biggest complaints early on were times where I didn't understand things like, say, how Baku almost seemed to be dozing off when it came to a lot of the larger Plot stuff I figured he'd be as curious about as I was.

So hey, if that is the big picture concept here? If the back half of this show is going to be Baku blossoming into this focused hero using the experience he gained in his sleep to take charge and turn that bad dream into a good morning? Yeah, I think I'm down for that.

[Layton13]

I don't think I have had such a desperate need to watch the next episode of a Rider show since thefinal 4 episodes of Saber (not counting the Revice crossover).

This was gutsy, hard to pull of and an insane idea.

And somehow, they pull it off flawlessly!

This episode is as stuffed and paced as fast as any episode 1, but given the experience with this world and cast, they were able to nail it!

The way they make everything till now still matters is great!

The power Baku has accumulated leads to an immediate different outcome, and the knowledge he has about his friends leads to them all assembling when he needs them most. It wasn't Seven's pure determination; it was his belief in them, the wish to help, and pulling back when he came in too strong and was about to hurt them, giving them space.

We now know how great and awful everyone in this show can be, and we can see how they edge out that happy ending for themself. This time, they can become even better. Not broken people, angry and confused at the cruelty of the world, but people who will defy that.

God, Zeztz is just knocking it out of the park so hard!

This is exactly how I like my Rider! And it really feels the change in production, starting with Gavv, to be able to simulcast in China has paid off in spades in this season. I don't think this episode would have been nearly as good if they had more chances to "course correct" with viewer feedback like they used to.

[JusticeMagnum]

Not much to say for me beyond I dug this epsiode a ton and this new arc feels bold and very promising to me. Also Dawn next week is super exciting.

Also (forgive the machine translation) but turns out the crew was very careful to not film the moon at any point in the "real world" during the first 24 episodes of Zeztz as it would've given the twist away immediately, which implies this that this was always the direction the show was building towards right from the start, so that's neat.

[Frontier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JusticeMagnum

Not much to say for me beyond I dug this epsiode a ton and this new arc feels bold and very promising to me. Also Dawn next week is super exciting.

Also (forgive the machine translation) but turns out the crew was very careful to not film the moon at any point in the "real world" during the first 24 episodes of Zeztz as it would've given the twist away immediately, which implies this that this was always the direction the show was building towards right from the start, so that's neat.

That was my impression when Baku seemed surprised at what a normal moon looked like.

[JusticeMagnum]

Just got done reading the full interview that excerpt came from and there's a very interesting new piece of info about Dawn in there that I'm really curious to see how it plays out.