Kamen Rider Zeps Episode 9, Poison, was a fun
one. I enjoyed it a lot. It was written by Yuya
Takahashi, directed by Kazuya Kamihoriuchi, who
directed the last episode as well. And I enjoyed
a lot of it. There were some revelations for
sure. And I want to talk about the whole dream
logic thing and how the dreamer works and how
the nightmare works because there's interesting
things going on there. And yeah, basically I
thought it was cool. The action was a lot of
fun. His axe form is very enjoyable to watch
fight. He's very fast, very agile, but he also
does a lot of very heavy moves, overhead chops
and things like that, which is a lot of fun to
see. I don't know, I'm sure there has to have
been at least one other Kamen Rider who had an
axe in Ryuki. I'm going to say it was a gazelle
guy or a rhino guy or something like that, but
I don't quite remember and I haven't seen all
of Ryuki. I've seen Dragon Knight, Kamen Rider
Dragon Knight, and they use the same suits for
that. I'm having a hard time remembering which
one had it, but one of them was called Axe, so
it was probably Kamen Rider Axe from Dragon Knight,
but he's something else in Ryuki. So anyway,
I thought that was a lot of fun. I thought the
action was a lot of fun, and the visuals that
came along with it were quite enjoyable. I gotta
say, that fakeout in the beginning of the episode
where we think Baku's dead, or I guess his heart
or breathing did stop, and then Nem proceeds
to shoot him with the recovery capsum was pretty
cool. I find it interesting and I find it strange
that when she... When he used it previously,
it damaged him. And... In the last episode. And
then when she used it at the beginning of this
episode, it blew her out of the room and knocked
her into another area in the dream or whatever.
And then, after he's revived, because she shot
him. That's fun. He takes the capsule and he
rolls it or activates it along... the bodies
of the two sous chefs who are taking over from
Sano or Shano? It's got to be Sano, right? Yeah,
Chef Sano. Anyway, so he rolls it along their
bodies, and it seems to activate just fine on
them without causing them any harm. And I find
that interesting because firing it from his weapon
and using it himself seems to cause harm and
cause strain even later on when his axe is broken.
And he repairs it. experience his strain. And
I don't know if that has anything to do with
what Nock said last episode, that he'll learn
the limits or the cost of the power. I don't
know if that was the power of that specific capsum
or if that's the power of dreams in general.
And we're not told that and we're not really
shown that either. It's just kind of left to
be this vague thing that's kind of hanging out
there. It's something, I guess it's a mystery
going forward that we'll have to contend with
or deal with. So that was kind of interesting.
Getting to the dream logic thing, or the dreamer
and nightmare logic, I guess what happens is
that people's dreams are being turned into nightmares
against their will, obviously. And that's not
very nice. And that's the power or the... The
method, I guess you could say, of the nightmares,
it's to take someone's dream and twist it into
something scary and painful for them. And I don't
know if the nightmares feed off of that or get
some sort of energy off of that specifically,
or if they need to, or frankly, I don't even
know if that needs to be explained. It just needs
to happen so that we can have the action happen,
the action take place and, you know, entertain
us. But I do just find it interesting that we
don't really get what's happening there. and
we don't know the mechanics of it yet. So yeah,
like I said, that's interesting, and I like it.
Let's see. That's it. That's the only two images.
Great. Anyway, so I don't like that we don't
get the full insight into the mechanics, but,
you know, whatever. We have to take what we can
get, right? So besides not knowing the mechanics
of the nightmares, what interests me is that...
uh i mean i i guess that sano's the dreamer and
his dream is to have a successful uh time a successful
mission feeding the uh this foreign dignitary
and whatever japanese ambassador was there to
meet with him and his dream is to do that so
that he can have a successful last showing in
order to help him accomplish his goal his dream
of passing on the shirogane or the royal shirogane
restaurant reputation and and prestige whatever
to his sous chefs so that they can take over
because he's old and ill and dying and like that's
why we got the the scene in the hospital from
the end of last episode it's because he knows
there's something wrong with him and he knows
he's not gonna be able to do this forever so
his dream is to pass it on to the next generation
who can take it over for him just as he took
it over from whoever was before him i know i
don't know if it's a family business i don't
think it is specifically i think there's just
people that come along and you know take up the
mantle from the predecessor which i think is
a cool idea i like that um and just the nightmares
messing that up and I mean, Knox refers to himself
as a wanderer of dreams like Nem, and by the
end of the episode, spoilers, but you've already
seen the episode, right? So, you know, why would
you be here if you hadn't? We find out that Knox
is Fujimi's old partner, and he was like a junior
partner, and he ends up disappearing. We don't
know why he disappeared, but that's what Fujimi's,
you know, part of... his disappearance is what's
motivating fujimi to solve these black cases
partly so he can find his partner and also just
because you know if he can help people then he
wants to it's his dream to be a police officer
to help people and it makes me wonder what does
knox mean that he is a wanderer of dreams just
like nem is and how is it like mechanically what's
going on was nem an ordinary girl and when she
was hit by that car something happened to her
and something interacted with her and turned
her into a Equivalent actor to Knox and he's
Knox and she's Nim or Maybe the name doesn't
matter so much. Maybe there's something deeper
Maybe there's some secret name that she has that
makes them the counterparts of this dream interaction
thing inter acting and intersecting with the
nightmares i don't know what i'm saying is i
don't know but i'm intrigued by the mystery that
it's setting up and they did this thing where
they zoomed in on her earlobe and she has like
a butterfly earring on and i don't know that
i've noticed her earrings before this episode
it's possible she was always wearing butterfly
earrings or she wasn't always wearing butterfly
earrings but if she was that's it feels significant
because they put emphasis on them in this episode
and it would give us a clue of how they're linked
especially because the dreams The nightmares
and the dreams appear as a butterfly. So the
butterfly connection I want to talk about. Butterfly...
Hold on, why is it Psyche? Something about Psyche,
which means soul in Greek, is associated with
butterflies. Not just from Persona, but just
in general. And there's this old saying from...
Zhuangzi? Let's see. What does it say? And I
do know this from Persona. So, only after the
Great Awakening will we realize that this is
the Great Dream, and yet fools think they are
awake, presuming to know that they are rulers
or herdsmen. How dense. Now I do not know whether
I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am
a man. That's an interesting thing. This does
not have the whole excerpt, but you can see there's
definitely an old... An old connection between
butterflies and dreaming, and it makes sense
that the nightmares spread out on the night that
the bomb nightmare escaped and manifested in
the world. They went out as these butterflies,
and then when Baku has saved people, the dream
flies away from them as a butterfly. And even
in the opening, there's this really cool shot
where he walks up to the camera as Zets, and
then he transforms or whatever, changes back
into Baku, and then he lifts his gun and shoots,
and this bullet goes through a butterfly. destroying
it, kind of representing that his mission is
to destroy these butterflies that represent the
nightmares. But nightmares only exist because
dreams exist. So I'm wondering what's like the
big stakes world building cosmology of it all
being stated with Nem and Nox being these wanderers
of dreams, especially when he went missing as
one guy and then came back as Nox, who has this
power over dreams. And Nem is kind of similar
in a way. She had this accident and... she actually
she vanished in a black case type thing and now
she's somebody who appears in people's dreams
at different times and anyway there's a lot of
fun a lot of fun a lot of exciting stuff going
on here and i like it um it's really cool because
we get the the moment between him and them and
i noticed that he has you know these triangle
circle square circle and she has let me see ah
i don't have it here unfortunately hold on this
might be a stretch, but she kind of has these
similar, she's got a triangle, she's got a square,
she's got circles in these appliques here on
her outfit. And that's kind of interesting. I
wonder if that's supposed to mean anything or
if that's just supposed to make us wonder if
it means something and maybe it really doesn't.
Anyway, I just think it's interesting. There's
interesting, you know, storytelling writing stuff
going on here. I'm very curious to see how this
all pans out. And let me know what you thought
about the episode itself, what you think about
these things that are going on with the lore,
what you think about the fact that Space Sheriff
Govan is replacing Super Sentai in TVRC's 930
slot, according to official sources that I saw
from August Ragone and this affiliate of TVRC.
Anyway, I think it's pretty cool. that we're
getting some firm knowledge on that. And if you
want to talk about that, we can talk about that
as well as the content of this episode. And I
guess of my review. Anyway, let me know what
you thought in the comments. You can find all
my work at MJMunich .com. And I'm spiffing some
things up. I'm going to be catching up on Omega.
I have a lot of plans to keep going solidly with
henshin inspection, doing a lot of cool, fun
stuff here. And I asked that you would join me
so we can have a good conversation about these
things. Anyway, until next time, folks, take
care. Be well. This is MJ with Rider Tears. Brought
to you by Henshin Inspection, signing out. Oh,
wait, before you do that, check out the trailer
for my book here, too. It's pretty cool. It has
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