I'll admit, Kamen Rider Zeztz Episode 1 started
off kind of weak for me, or it didn't start off
weak, it started off strong. By the end of it,
it felt a little bit weak, but I'm changing my
tune based on what we've seen out of Episode
2 and the series so far. This is MJ, I'm an author,
I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find
all my work at mjmunis .com. Welcome to Writer
Tears. So, here we go. Towards the end of the
episode... Well, at the very end of the episode,
there's this interesting concept of victim or
culprit that's brought up. And that's because
Mr. Detective Guy. Shijima? Kijima? I can't remember
his name right now. Anyway, he... Anyway, later.
He seems to be the one who's behind his nightmare.
Or rather, it seems like the nightmare that he's
having of the bomber generated with him. And
that's cause for concern because if he's the
one who... created the bomber, and that's where
the nightmare came from, then I guess he's the
culprit, isn't he? Or is he actually the victim?
Because we see different things happening to
Baku in his dreams that he can't quite control,
and he's not to blame for those. So where does
that put our victim of the week here? I don't
quite know. And they're not answering yet. They're
going to let us know in the next episode. So
we'll get to that a little bit later. So this
episode is called Explode. Case number two, explode.
And we have him, and by him I mean Baku, as Code
7, the agent, working with Nem again, sort of.
He thinks he's here to rescue Nem, but Nem is
actually here to arrest him. She says something
interesting, which is that she commits to whatever
role she's playing, and it would appear to me
that she's playing the role of a police officer.
She says she's like... police chief for the day
or something like that and She says that that's
the role that she's playing that she commits
that role with not Mulder and not Scully We see
or hear that each of them has dreams about NEM
or has NEM in their dreams as well And they say
well everybody does don't they and that makes
me wonder those two bits of evidence make me
wonder who she is, what she is, what she has
to do with this larger story of the nightmares
going on. I just noticed right now that Nem,
or Nemu, is kind of a contraction of nightmare
if you take the N and the M. Because of spoilers
and looking on the writer wiki, I know that the
nightmare captain guy in the suit who appears
in the white suit and talks about nightmares
and such, his name is Nox, which is another word
for night. Probably from Latin, but I don't quite
remember. If he's Nox and she's Nem and the enemies
here are Nightmares, then what does that mean
for everything else? I don't quite know, but
I'm just putting together a speculation based
on the evidence that we have in the show so far.
So anyway, we have this little thing happen with
Nem and she gets taken away very quickly because
the bomb or bomber Nightmare ends up showing
up and inceptioning slash doctor estranging her
out of the way because she's got... Baku handcuffed
and he can't transform. It's really funny because
he slips into his... Not Wataru. Wataru's the
good one. He slips into his Hidari... What's
his other name? Shotaro. He slips into his Shotaro
persona, kind of, and he's about to transform.
He's being all cool and everything, and he wants
to... I thought he usually uses his left hand.
Anyway, to strike the ball. Anyway, but then
he tries to use his right hand for part of his
transformation, and he can't do it because Nem
has him handcuffed, and then the nightmare slaps
the ground and little red lines go out and then
the transformation is allowed to happen because
at that point the Nem disappears and she's no
longer able to affect or negatively affect she's
no longer able to stymie the transformation and
he's able to do that and there's some maybe over
the top maybe frivolous CGI going on and he ends
up hopping into a good position where he's able
to attack the nightmare, and that's good, I guess.
And then he proceeds to, by he I mean Zetz, proceeds
to slap the ground as well and send out some
red lines that affect the dream world that they're
in. And I can't tell if they're in his dream
or someone else's dream at this time because
I think there's insufficient evidence to say
whose dream they're in, although... I have seen
some speculation that he was already in Mr. Fujimi's
dream, Detective Fujimi's dream, and that's why
he had less power and less control in his dream,
especially because both he, Baku, and Fujimi,
I believe that's his name, did dream about Nem
being in their dream. But there's no evidence
that goes to support that Nem would be police
chief for the day in Mr. Fujimi's dream as well.
So that's neither here nor there. So I'm going
to move on from that. I really like the action
in this episode. There was one bit that was really
nice. I have it freeze -framed here. So it was
like four or five minutes into the episode. By
the time I started watching, it was, well, whatever.
It was where it was. And he actually jumps on
the air. Zets, that is. He jumps on the air.
Instead of there being boxes there or whatever
for him to climb up. And he jumps over this.
Oh, I can zoom in now. I love that I can do this
now. You can, no. Maybe you can faintly see this
line of light down here. um this line of math
maybe you can see this line of light getting
here at the bottom of the screen it's kind of
covered up by icons uh from youtube uh that he
would have jumped off of and then he jumps onto
this girder he like flips over it and then he
swings down to kick the the bomb guy and it that
move was the bomb and i i don't know how we got
that i was really impressed by the um action
choreography early on in gov i dropped gov around
episode 10 or 11 because life got in the way
and uh also toby wasn't letting me watch it legally
so you know there was a kind of a good reason
i was waiting for them to uh i can't say that
i can't say that but i don't want to i was waiting
for them to um make their decision about what
they were going to do with stuff as far as it
being legally available. And once they did this,
I've decided I'm pretty much all in on Zetsun
once it blows majorly, which I don't anticipate.
So anyway, Gov had a really great action choreography
for the first 10 or 11 episodes that I watched.
And it was spectacular. And this has very similar
energy. So I really like this move. And it was
crazy to see. And it's something I could see
happening in Gov. I don't know what the credits
are for this director. I didn't capture all of
them because he's been working on Combinator
for a lot of years. So I won't be able to talk
about all of that. But moving on from here, I
like how much Fujimi and Baku were vibing and
how much they seem to be of a same mind. I believe
the lady detective one. saying is not Scully
for now. It was Nasco, or Nasco, Nasco, Nasco
is her first name. And she tells him, I only
let my parents call me that. And she has this
shtick. They're like very silly characters for
now. They're caricatures, sort of. She has this
shtick about, oh, I'm too young to be demoted.
I'm being demoted, aren't I? And he's all about
freaking out and being overly excited about the
nightmares. And they're, like, very touchy -feely,
but, like, in an aggressive way. Like, he doesn't
hit her, but, like, she kicked him in the back
of the head during this scene, I believe. She
was going to slap him or hit him, and he caught
her arm, and he, like, nudged her, like, tapped
her on her shoulder, like, sit down! When she
rolled into his van, which kind of like the X...
I made the X -Files comparison because in the
X -Files, starring David Duchovny and Gillian
Anderson... Whatever. He has, like, a basement
office in the FBI building in Washington, D .C.,
wherever that... particular building. It's on
another street or anything like that. And it's
like a really crappy office that he's in, and
she joins him there. Scully joins Mulder in there
for his, whatever, to be his partner, for his,
you know, exploration of these black cases, they
call them. And, you know, she doesn't like it,
and there's problems there, whatever, and there's
a tension between them, because he's a believer,
and she's not a believer, and she wants to figure
out a, you know, rational, logical explanation
for things, and he's saying, no, this is true,
I believe it. And even they have him saying things
in here, Fujimi saying things like, I believe
this, or I want to believe, which is a poster
on Mulder's, in his office, which is funny that
they kind of referenced that. I think that was
intentional. But what else? Oh, she's like just
very disappointed. Oh, he's in like his office.
His office, the department office is in this
old van. It looks like it's from World War II,
which is hilarious. odd and it seems like they
have to like crawl into it or roll in it to roll
into there's definitely a shtick because she
enters it at first and then all three of them
enter it later and it definitely looks like they're
all like jumping into this van and rolling into
it and it's it's very odd it's very funny how
this show has And I was disappointed by the tonal
whiplash in it last episode, but I'm rolling
with it now because I'm used to Kamen Rider,
but I still don't think this is the best showing
for a Western -facing show. And I will argue
this is a Western -facing Kamen Rider show because
it's the first one that they're simulcasting,
and they're doing that on purpose. They know
that they're doing that, and their development
had to have that in mind, especially when you
look at the trivia and stuff for the way the
suit is designed. It is designed to be a Western
-style superhero costume, and... That's I mean
to me that's enough signal that it's you know
Western facing and Yet they went ahead and gave
it this weird quirky humor and total whiplashes
and stuff that I don't think American fans are
going to appreciate so much But we'll see we'll
see what they think of it overall. We'll see
what everybody thinks about it. But uh Anyway,
um Yeah, we have this like weird tonal whiplash.
We have this dramatic juxtapositions. Oh yeah,
here we go. She says at one point to him, what
you're describing is the purview of urban legends
and occult magazines. I love Mulder in Skully.
I love the X -Files. I was watching it with my
sister growing up, so it feels very nostalgic
and very good to me. Anyway, so all of Skully's
skepticism is so fun, especially in those early
seasons where you just don't really know what's
going on in the show. But yeah, I'm a little
off track, a little off base, but that's okay.
We're rolling with it. We're doing a live, fun,
fresh review. But overall, I really did like
this episode. I thought it had a lot of things
in it that were working. The action was good.
I wouldn't say it was better than the last episode,
but I know what's going on, and the beats were
more formulaic, but they were more familiar.
And a lot more of what was going on made more
sense. So that was good. And just the spirit
of it all just felt a lot better. And it felt
like a more cohesive episode. So what was good
last time was good this time. But it was better
just because it felt like it all belonged and
it all went. And I feel like I'm understanding
what the show is about and what it's trying to
say and what it's doing. And I feel like I understand
its tone now. So now that I'm not hurt by the
tonal whiplash, I can find things cute and fun
and funny and not be bothered by them. It's not
going to be this. steady, serious show. Like
Kiva, one of my favorites, one of the greats
of Kamen Rider, has a lot of silly things in
it, but it's also pretty serious and it takes
itself very earnestly versus, and there are slapstick
moments in it, I guess. I can't think of any
offhand right now. Yelling about buttons is not
slapstick, by the way. So don't count that against
me or against Kiva. But here, I don't know. I
don't know if the slapstick is like not taking
itself seriously or what. I don't know how I'd
count that. I don't feel like Bulk and Skull
were taken seriously in MMPR until like season
three or so when they got a little more serious
as characters and took on a different role. But
like early on, they definitely, I don't feel
like it was earnest. I feel like it was like
an aside for the kids, which it was always for
kids, but more of an aside for the kids versus
like the slapstick moments here. I don't really
know. I don't know. It might just be a difference
in the humor between an American and Japanese
audience, especially American adult and Japanese
children. So anyway, I like seeing more of Minami,
Baku's sister, them interacting. It was fun.
I like that they brought up the concept of have
you ever had the same dream as someone else?
And that feels like it's going to be important.
I feel now like I can say confidently that Baku
was in Mr. Fujimi's dream. and that's interesting
that he can do that i really like that concept
as a character kind of reminds me of wizard um
kind of reminds me of the phantom thieves from
persona 5 uh reminds me of a couple other things
i guess like dream drop distance king of hearts
type stuff but less explicit um i love the headquarters
in his mind in his dream that baku gets to go
in like the set design here is lovely i'm pretty
sure this is um like the zero one set redesigned
the like ai president's office bay type thing.
I think it's that redesigned. And I almost feel
like it could be even the double garage, but
I don't really think it is the double garage.
The double garage actually feels more like it's
what they're using in Omega right now. That set
could be the same one redressed or remade. This
one could even feel kind of like Ghost's basement
area where Takaru lived and hung out. And I really
like, I guess this is Agent Zero. He's a bike
robot guy or he's controlling the bike robot.
Also, I love that Agent Zero speaks English.
And when he calls Baku on the phone in the middle
of the night, like 2, 3 a .m., Baku's like, I'm
sorry, I do not understand English. He's like,
my dream self does, but my awake self doesn't.
So then he switches and he's like. you know,
let me switch to subtitles. And then he does
that. It's great. It was a lot of fun for me.
It was like a cool joke. And like, that's something
I feel like is a good humor and it's funny and
it's clever. And it's something that acknowledges
that there's a Western or American audience watching.
I'm just going to say American because that's
what I am. That's what I care about. America
first, baby. America first. That's right. You
heard it right here. Anyway. And then, so like
there was a tension from the first episode where
I don't feel like Baku or I don't know that Baku
is pursuing his dreams. He did on his bookshelf,
which I neglected to mention last time, he had
all these books about how to cook and how to
get a job and preparing your CV and how to ride
a motorcycle and get your motorcycle license
and things like that. So he's skilled and he
has certain things he can do, but I just don't
know how hard he's been pursuing his dreams.
And it's unclear. But this thing about with enough
belief, your dreams can come true. Well, belief
requires action, I believe. And I hope they show
that through the show. We'll see how that goes.
But yeah, anyway, we get the mission statement.
He's supposed to infiltrate the dreams of others
and he's supposed to go and stop their nightmares
because this is really cool. A cool mechanic.
When a nightmare kills somebody or destroys their
self or whatever inside, this is why it reminds
me of Persona 5 a little bit. The nightmare takes
over that person and causes them to do some heinous
act. A bombing maybe in this case with Fujimi?
I don't know. Let's see. The dreamer becomes
locked away in darkness. Okay, never to awaken
again. and because the nightmare will have taken
over their body okay so it's all explaining it
but like look at this cool set this set is so
freaking cool and i like that uh down at the
bottom of the stairs um the bike slash uh agent
zero twists this he twists this clock back here
that i'm zooming in on he twists it and then
those stairs come out of the wall and he walks
up them as he's talking all fancy which is really
cool and he i don't know what he does with the
typewriter but he does something and uh oh the
screen change it had all these i didn't had different
sayings in different languages. And then it switches
to this like shared screen type of deal. Super
cool design choices. Like this is just like a
fun, cool, neat, interesting design or set of
designs that's going on here. And I really like
it. By the way, going back to Ishinomori, this
reminds me of Eagle a little bit, their logo,
sort of. It reminds me of probably like maybe
some shocker imagery as well from the manga.
And that's always cool to go back to the roots.
This bike looks very much like the Hongo's Typhoon.
which, no, Cyclone, yeah, Cyclone, the Typhoon
is his belt, looks very much like his Typhoon,
looks like shots from Shin Kamen Rider a little
bit, looks like shots from the original Kamen
Rider, obviously, because Shin Kamen Rider was
made to look so much like the original Kamen
Rider, shot for shot takes, in fact, in fact,
this is almost as dark as, this isn't even as
dark as the Shin Kamen Rider showing was when
they were in that tunnel, it was an awful scene,
I know the lighting was so bad there, anyway.
He looks cool on the bike, and I like showing
this. This was kind of a funny thing that he
complimented the bad guy for somehow punching
through a wall and blowing. It's weird because
it's dream logic, so there's random things going
on. He comes out of this tunnel, and then somehow
the bad guy punches through a wall, even though
he's ahead of him and not touching the wall at
all, and then it puts his rubble in there, and
then he has to go around it or whatever. And
he says, not bad. He compliments him, and then
he goes on, which is his cool, smooth agent persona,
which is fun to see. And then we get to see he
uses a new ball, a capsum. I don't like the naming
convention for these capsules, the capsums, the
different forms. It's very clunky. It's very
inorganic. It's very weird. So I'm just going
to call them balls. Nightmares are going around
the world, ruining people's lives, killing them,
and turning them into people who hurt other people.
And there's only one man who has the balls to
stop them. Kamen Rider Zets! Anyway, his name
is Baku. Whatever his last name is. Anyway, so
this cool uses the transform ball, transform
capsule, transform capsule to transform his leg
into having spikes on it. And then he goes and
pops the tires on this thing and it blows up.
And then he rides his bike over it because he's
a Kamen Rider. And then this is weird. This guy's
saying when the mind's knock says when the mind's
door is opened, the nightmare will begin. So
I guess the nightmare. begins i don't know if
that's like that means the inception or like
the birth of the nightmare comes from the dreamer
dreaming something and wishing for something
or what but then um i guess he says it loudly
enough that baku hears him and he's asking you
mr fujimi why yeah fujimi um like the dreamer
himself mr fujimi is causing this to happen why
and that's really interesting it's a really interesting
concept um like you know why does he says that
the dream his dream was to become a police officer
And he's doing these black cases and everything.
So you think things would be great. Obviously
he's not like in a real office and he doesn't
have a real, you know, like respected position.
So maybe that's why he's resentful and wants
to destroy. Some part of him wants to destroy
the police department or the police. I'm not
sure. So I didn't see ACAB written anywhere,
so I don't know what's up with that. But it's
interesting, interesting concept, interesting
conflict. He's about to destroy the bomb, Nightmare,
but then he stomps because, well, maybe Mr. Fujimi's
the one that needs to be destroyed or dealt with
instead. So I find that interesting. We get an
intense, we get an increase on the mechanic that
needs to be dealt with here. It's not only about
destroying the monsters, it's about fixing the
problem, kind of like in Kamen Rider Forze, which
I think is really good. Okay, jumping back real
quick, the credits. The writer on first episode
one and two was Yu Takahashi, and the director
on both episodes was Kazuya Kamino -Horuchi,
who has done a lot of Kamen Rider. Oh, I noticed
that the suit actor was a new suit actor, Kenta
Nita. He has done a bunch of other stuff. He
was a masquerade dopant, which is just the guy
in a black mask that gets beat up by the writers.
And he was an O's as a police officer. So he's
appeared on screen as well as, I mean, he's appeared
as a face actor and as a suit actor as well in
several other Kamen Rider shows. But this is
his first one. And I was thinking about that
big girder jump thing that he did. Maybe that's
why they picked him for this, because that's
some impressive athleticism. And I think they
just got... Seiji Takawa retired from the role
of Mr. Kamen Rider, you know, playing all the
main suit. pretty much all the main suits, uh,
commentators for years and years and years. Um,
I want to say at the end, like before Zero One
started and Zero One started with a new guy,
um, and then I don't know how many main writers
there, main suit actors there have been since
then, but this guy, he's new to the role of primary,
um, writer for the series. So it'll be interesting
to see what he does. He's bringing, he's bringing
a good physicality to it. I like the things that
I see, uh, Zets doing so far. So anyway. That's
my review. I wonder what you think about the
episode. What do you think about this victim
or culprit mentality or this idea that maybe
Mr. Fujimi is the problem? Maybe the nightmares
are seeded from within a person and like that's
the real issue and that needs to be solved. Also,
that kind of parallels how when he first entered
the dream, it looked like Baku was being blamed
as the bomber and having caused the issues. I
don't think he is, but is he causing some issues
in the mind, in the brain, in the dream? Is he
kind of like in Persona 5 where the Phantom Thieves
were seen as threats to the psyche and maybe
Fujimi's psyche is turning against him and maybe
it'll kind of be like the Matrix where agents
appear from within the system to stop the good
guys who are trying to stop them or stop the
bad guys from doing stuff or what? It's kind
of a mess, but I think you know what I'm saying.
But overall, what are your thoughts on Zets episode
two? Were you like me? Were you disliked the
first episode and liked the second episode? Or
were you unlike me where you liked the first
episode and disliked the second episode? Or disliked
the first episode and liked the second episode?
Or I guess it'd be flipped and reversed. Or are
you not liking any of it? Let me know your thoughts
in general. And yeah, we can have a good conversation
about this because I think there's a lot to talk
about. There's some juicy stuff going on here.
We talked about the localization. issues, strengths,
weaknesses, and we can talk about the strengths
and weaknesses of the show overall and what you
think is coming, what I think is coming. And
yeah, we can have a good time. And also check
out the trailer for my book, which is coming
up right over here. It's about magical bugs battling
monsters. It's pretty cool. It's vaguely tokusatsu
inspired. It used to be more tokusatsu inspired
than I realized in order to write it as a better
book, I had to... take some of that stuff out,
kill my darling, so to speak. And now it is what
it is, which I think is a pretty cool story.
So anyway, until next time, folks, until next
time, folks, take care and be well. Magical bugs
battle monsters in this exciting fantasy adventure.
Gremlins prey upon children. Grow bugs protect
them. When a gremlin finds a hidden grow bug
fort, the whole flock makes a surprise attack.
How will the grow bugs survive? Find out in Mockwing
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