Kamen Rider Zetsu Episode 8 is called Serve,
and it has to do with serving food and also serving,
you know, biological weapons like you do. Anyways,
written by Yui Takahashi and director was Kazuya
Kaminoriuchi. I feel like I have seen this guy
a lot. I could have sworn he worked on Ultraman,
but he definitely works on Super Sentai and some
Kamen Rider. He worked on X -Aid, Build, Z -O,
just a little bit, Zero One, three episodes,
Saber, six, Revice 10. Didn't see that one. Geet's
two episodes, four episodes of Gob, and so far
he's done five episodes of Zets, which is, so
far there's eight episodes out. Actually, nine
episodes because he directed the next episode,
Poison, as well. So that's the deal with him.
I like the direction in this episode. It was
very smooth and very slick in some ways. There
was a lot going on both with the action and the
characters. I don't know this for sure, but I
assume, and I think, my understanding, is that
the directors direct the regular parts of the
episode as well as the action. So I think it's
a good balance. The beginning of the episode
really felt like a very cozy thing. There was
a lot of focus on the food. The food looked very
appetizing. It was shot very well. like action
in the kitchen was really nice. And it was interesting
to me too, because it was mostly, I don't think
there was any dialogue up until, um, the, uh,
sous chef, I assume, uh, went over to the big
chef, um, whose name I don't remember. Um, when
he went to him, oh, that's right. Sano. Yeah.
When he went to Sano and he, he tasted, uh, Sano's
food, like he was the first one to speak. So
it was, his name was, uh, Shinoi. Is that right?
Yeah, Shinomi. So Shinomi, the sous -chef, I
assume, goes over and he has this interaction.
That's the first dialogue, and it's like three
minutes into the episode, I think, other than
the voiceover recap of what happened from last
episode. And I was really impressed by that because
it held my attention, and I thought it was interesting
and good. And then when Shinomi falls over, dying
from this biological poison, he is very effective.
sorry it was a very effective turn because it
was very it was unexpected it was very surprising
um and i they waited to until then to uh cut
away and say you know stop the biological weapon
or whatever so it's nice it was a very disarming
opening and then a very dis disarming opening
it was done with very little dialogue just action
just shots you know sequential um you know uh,
visuals, uh, being shown telling it's a story
silently. And then you have this turn and it
was really impressive to me because it really
like, it was a good shock. They eased you into
it. They made you feel like everything was cozy
and nice. And then boom, this guy's dying of
poison. Oh yeah. Biological weapon. That's right.
I remember that from the preview from last week,
but I didn't really remember it until I saw this
just now. And the episode's called serve. It's
not called poison, which I think you don't find
out until. after he's been poisoned as well so
it works on all levels and like none of the surprises
were ruined and none of the like it's a very
good setup and uh and delivery and payoff uh
for what what was happening there so that was
really good it's like great filmmaking uh at
work right there um and then on the combat side
of it i enjoyed the fighting i loved seeing uh
stream used very tactically used as like a shield
um and used to help him avoid Baku, seven zets,
help him avoid getting hit by the poison from
this weird vegetable monster, which to me, it
looks like a vegetable monster, but I think I
read that it's actually the virus nightmare.
So I'm going to do a quick search real quick
and find out what, okay. So apparently it's the
poison nightmare, which makes sense, but it sure
felt just like a vegetable guy to me, which,
you know, some people say vegetables are poisonous.
So, I mean, I guess it works out, right? It also
felt feminine, which I thought was weird. uh
or interesting rather and i don't know we'll
see the suit actor and the voice actor are two
different people um we don't have an understanding
quite yet of who the voice actor is i believe
actually it does say her name i'm assuming it's
her name um but there's no um We have the suit
actor's name and picture, and it's a guy, for
sure, and I don't know who the voice is. But
it sounded feminine to me. Which, whatever. It's
just interesting. Anyway, so I really like the
suit design for Poison. It's very cool. Very,
like, it's a great design. I mean, these designs
are really fantastic, actually. This might be
the best monster design so far in the show, other
than the crow, of course. But yeah, I found it
really impressive, and it was fun to watch it
fight, and the fight was dynamic. They did more
of these crazy dream cuts, and these, I guess
they're like smash cuts, sort of, but they're
not really, because it's the dream warping itself
in, and we can see it happening as it's going
on. i thought it was a lot of fun you know transporting
uh that's this abandoned building to fight there
was great um i really like too there was something
else important which is that nem is now taking
a more active role in the dreams in a way uh
or in order rather to support baku or seven as
she calls him knows him rather uh in his fight
and i thought that was a really interesting idea
because nem is kind of this lost figure and she
gets cast in these roles in these dreams. And
now that she's decided to help Baku, Seven, it
almost seems like she can cast herself in different
roles in the dreams, for example. After Shinomi
gets poisoned, it cuts away and then we return
to the restaurant, to the kitchen, and she's
coming in in a ER, or rather like an EMT type
of outfit, and... Baku asks how Shinomi's doing.
I think she says he's fine. He's stable or whatever.
And then she, so she enters the scene this way
and then we cut to Baku. And as she's leaving
the scene, she pops up in her EMT outfit. She
pops up in the next cut away in her farmer girl
outfit, who was bringing the vegetables to the
restaurant, which was really cool. It's like
very slick. It's very subtle. It's very like,
they're not trying too hard. And they are, how
do I say this? I don't know, like it's very slick
and very smooth and they're not like shining
a big light on it. It's just something they're
consistently doing so far in these first eight
episodes where they're using the dream logic
and the fact that, well, they're using the dream
logic in the way that things change, the way
that things can cut, the way that things don't
flow smoothly and don't make sense. They're using
that consistently to pepper in the dream feel
and to give us that. that vibe. And I'm glad
it's not just like a color filter that lets us
know it's a dream. It's that things are happening
in the dream that shouldn't be happening. And
that's a lot of fun. So, and I don't know, that's
like another subtle storytelling type thing.
Um, you know, there's some kind of long tail
thing going on where Knox has said that he found
it when, uh, there's a new, there's a new capsule
in play and it's recovery. And I think it's the
one that Nem got. Cause there's this really other
really cool thing that Nem goes into his dream.
his code HQ, and meets Zero. And she's like,
oh, how quaint that you have a robot, or how
avant -garde that you have a robot. Who's your
mentor? And he's like, oh, it's not actually
a robot. He's being remote -controlled. So Zero,
Agent Zero, is speaking through the bike. To
her in English and it's funny later on she says
something like I understand about half of those
English words But like here this scanner tells
us what this thing does and you can use it to
recover, you know poison or whatever so that
was kind of cute and kind of fun and then also
like from a toy aspect like I remember being
a kid in the 90s seeing all these like spy toys
like Glasses that have little mirrors in them
so you can see behind you and stuff. That's like
obviously a toy But it's supposed to be like
a spy toy and it's secretive and it's like this
big clunky plastic thing. So he's got this badge
visor thing that is a scanner that can tell if
something's poisonous or not and can identify
hazards. And it also can allow him to, it's like
a universal key fob type thing where he can,
he puts it up to at one point this door and like.
tricks it uh with his spy craft his spy tech
thing to in order to enable him his agent secret
agent tech uh in order to uh open this door and
then it's funny because nam just comes through
the door and she scares him uh which is a lot
of fun because like he's obviously scared and
then he plays it off and then he tells her he
plays it off trying to be cool and then he tells
her that he's scared um or that she scared him
and i think she apologized and she's like oh
here look i have this for you and she gives him
the recovery at that point so like there's a
lot of I don't know. I'm just, I'm really enjoying
the storytelling and the way I'm enjoying the
story that's being told. And I'm enjoying the
way that the story is being told and it's really
fun. It's really nice. Uh, I really dig it and
I'm excited to see the next episode, you know,
big dramatic thing at the end of the episode,
he dies from the poison of the poison nightmare.
And I mean, obviously he's going to come back.
We'll see what happens with that. Um, I don't
know. I don't think he's getting a power up.
I think he's just going to come back because
the suit, the recovery capsule, whatever, activates
slowly, and I don't quite know why. But anyway,
I really liked, too, there was another moment
with Wing. He used Wing to fly over to Nem because
she was about to get hit by the poison, and he
shields her with his wings, and it just looks
cool. Obviously, it's a bird thing. If you've
been following my Zets reviews, you know I'm
into birds, so I won't say anything more. You
can have that little war nugget, too. I encourage
you to go back and check it out. But also, apparently
there was some venison and kraut. It's the signature
dish that has the sauce on it. The meat looks
super red. It looks delicious. I love rare steak,
whatever. It looks fantastic. Anyway, and it
was wrapped in bread, too. It looked like soft
puff pastry kind of bread. It looks delicious.
Anyway, so, yeah, that's all I have to say about
the episode. It made me hungry. Uh -oh, I have
something on the stove. I've got to go. Anyway,
until next time, folks, take care. Be well. Check
out my book trailer here and come back for more
reviews of Kamen Rider Zets. I'm going to keep
up with it. And I'm working on my own couple
side projects. I have a couple side projects
I think you'll be interested in. And, yeah, if
you like Kamen Rider, if you like Ultraman, if
you like Super Sentai, I have a couple side projects
I'm working on. And you'll learn more about them
later, but just stay tuned. By the way. I didn't
forget my lunch, but I do need to go. It's right
here. So we're all good. Until next time, folks,
take care. This is MJ with Rider Cheers and Henshin
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