Coming over to Zeth's episode 12 was really interesting
to me. I think it worked. I don't want to say
it's peak. I don't want to say it's the best
episode of Zeth so far. But I do think it's a
very effective episode for a couple of reasons.
One, I think it had great spectacle seeing the
Nox Knight. in the fight was fantastic that suit
is really cool it's very dynamic like nem uh
and i'm sure everybody else was like nem shouting
it's a shiny zets and because that's exactly
what he is and uh it's really cool it's really
effective it works it definitely sells and uh
i don't know i don't know it's funny i don't
know if his design would be as effective had
we started with him like if that was the actual
zet suit and then uh this darker um suit that
zets has right now turned out to be the nox knight
or whatever like if you swap them would it be
as effective or not i don't really know um that's
a kind of interesting thought experiment though
let me know what you think about that would that
if they'd been flipped would we be all wowed
by this you know black and green like oh he looks
like the original camera with his red highlights
on him to uh kind of look for the nox knight
if it was the current zetsuit or not um just
something curious but i think what they did really
nicely was they really balanced out the emotional
revelations and the i guess the evolving lore
and like the story is growing at the same time
as we're seeing this revelation so um it's currently
december 3rd you know christmas is on the way
um i think around episode 13 or 14 is typically
now when commentator shows will have some sort
of big change or new form or whatever in order
to help tell a story that sells toys hopefully
Hopefully. And... Interesting. And, yeah, I think
that's what they've done here. They've really
effectively sold the Nox Knight, and they've
sold and deepened my interest in the capsums
as a lore item, possibly as a toy. I don't really
collect toys, though, so that's not an issue
for me, but I could see people who do collect
toys saying, ooh, I definitely want, you know,
a capsum now. Barrier got cooler because it went
evil, or... You know, that caliber, that Buster
caliber or whatever that Knox Knight has is really
cool. I want one now or I want his belt or whatever.
And I think that's really good because if your
product, if your story can't sell to people,
if you can't sell anything to people, if you
can't sell the characters, if you can't sell
its stakes and its drama, then it doesn't really
matter what it does or what it has in it because
it won't reach the audience who you want to reach.
Similarly, these shows are. very much based on
telling uh selling toys rather um and i've been
arguing in my heart and soul mini series that
i'm doing kind of investigating things about
how this all works that i think you need to sell
toys in order for the shows to continue to be
successful as we see by super sentai going away
and project red taking its place but trying to
focus on this uh i mean with that context in
my mind as i'm watching this episode i can't
help but think of what a good job zets is doing
of selling the show to me and selling the toys
to me and making it look cool even little things
like baku using the capsums in real life you
know he's running around spinning that ball and
making things happen making powers come out of
them it's really cool and i've talked about it
before how i don't like the capsums i have issues
with them and yet seeing him use them as the
face actor and seeing the face actor use them
in scenes and having cool powers come out of
them is really neat because it makes them more,
I don't know why it works necessarily on a narrative
level, but it does. But then additionally, I
don't have it with me right now. I might dive
too deep. Not Kaigan, but Icon. And I, you know,
bring it out every now and then I hit the button
and I get to hear it, you know, make its little
jingle and whatever. And it makes me, I don't
know, it's fun. It's fun. It gives me good memories
of Combinator Ghost. And somehow. in the body
of the show in whatever in the presentation of
the show in the presentation of the stuff in
the episodes they're making it work so that you
running around as a kid pulling out your cap
some and spinning it and making noises and stuff
is going to delight you and excite you and be
interesting to you and I just find it to be really
curious. Actually, I find it to be a brilliant
move that they're selling the toys with the show
and they're weaving it into the narrative because
he's using them in the scenes and it's to great
effect. It reminds me of the... They're not called
buddy droids. That was from Forze, I believe.
No, that was from GoBusters. Those were the food
droids in Forze. I'm thinking about the... Memory
gadgets? Yes, the memory gadgets from Kamen Rider
Double. You had the little beetles. There was
a couple beetles. There was a bat. There was
a spider. There was these different gadgets that
Shotaro used. And they worked, sort of. I didn't
really understand. There's a scene in like the
first, maybe it's the second episode where he's
facing the magma and the Tyrannosaurus Rex memory
where he activates his bat, which is a camera,
and it flies around flashing and it like blinds
the... It doesn't blind the dopant, or I think
it blinds the big dopant, and he's able to get
away, Shotaro is. And, like, I didn't really
understand what was even going on in the scene
when I originally saw it 10, 12 years ago, whatever
it was, when I watched Double. And it's not because
I'm an idiot, it's because it wasn't very clearly
conveyed with the effects. It was a CGI effect,
and just the way it was cut, the way it was edited,
the way it was composited, maybe, it just didn't
really sell it to me. I didn't really like it.
And I thought, these gadget animals are dumb.
They're inserting these things in here and they're
trying to make them cool, but it's not working.
And I think he's got like the stack phone and
whatever. The best thing that he had was the
watch, the spider watch that had the zip line
in it because he uses it in like the, I feel
like he uses it in the first episode. He doesn't
use that very much often after that. But I feel
like at one point he's holding Akiko, Shotaro's
holding Akiko and like dangling down from something,
which was really cool. I think they kind of used
it to like avoid an attack of something, which
like they. went up was like something was coming
towards them and they went up so that it missed
them which was pretty cool but um like the spider
is definitely my favorite of the memory gadgets
and i remember it all these years later um even
though i've only watched the show one through
one time um although i've seen the first two
episodes maybe two or three times total um i
have a very i have a media brain so it works
for me anyway um but what i'm saying is in zets
are doing such a better job of integrating this
uh right now I have it running episode 12 in
the background as I'm recording this. And by
the way, my interest would pop because I noticed
a little detail of these little pins of circles
and triangles and squares on Nem, which I'll
talk about later in a short probably. And that
seems to be related to Nox and these little things
he has on his collar, on his suit. And anyway,
talk about that later. But right now I'm going
to focus on... I can't remember his name. Nox
is Odaka? Odika? There's also Okita in Omega.
Sorato Okita, I think. And then this guy's like
Odaka. Anyway, a little confusing because the
names are so similar, at least to my ear. And
anyway, like we're getting all these revelations
about him and we get to see this glimpse of the
past of him and Fujimi working together and him
talking about the nightmares. And he talks about
how he wants to be the only one who takes on
the nightmares and like has to deal with them.
He doesn't want his boss to have to like interact
with the nightmares and like face the horror
of them. And he has this faraway look, and the
scene cuts, and we don't know what's going on
with him. But, like, there's a lot of interesting
stuff going on here. Even, like, Nazca is coming
around to the idea that he could be out there
still, that maybe he's, like, Nem, he's missing,
he's asleep, he's whatever. And, like, he can
be saved, just like they think. I don't feel
like Baku has talked to the detectives about
it. But he's pledged to save her if he can. And
now it seems like they have the idea that they
want to save her, which I think is interesting.
Hold on. So anyway, like that's all really big
deal stuff. And there's a lot of interesting
stuff going on with the story. And then like
Baku tries to go get more capsules and he can't.
And Zero tells him some mumbo jumbo like. this
is linked to your subconscious and like if you
don't feel like you deserve this power or like
you have access to this power like if you're
not the right mindset to gain this power this
time you won't gain this power and i don't really
know what that means um and then at the same
time uh zero is holding the this like super form
capsule i assume um and he's wondering if he
should give it to him at the end of the episode
when uh And Baku's sister, Minami, yeah, she's
Minami, comes in and sees him. And he's like,
oh, my, I bet you want an explanation. She says,
you're darn tootin', right? I want an explanation
for what's going on. And he starts to explain
to her, but then we cut away. And then also,
at the end of the episode, we have, you know.
kind of it's cutting back and forth i think between
these two scenes we have this amazing fight with
baku and nox and nox blows up the recovery capsule
or no the barrier capsule which he shot once
earlier now he shot it a second time and then
this phantom like uh zets comes out it's the
barrier form uh except it's using uh the barrier
to better use it has little cgi barriers that
float up on it one arm when it's holding it up
um as opposed to the big dumb props, which I
don't like. I appreciate Tokusatsu should use
practical effects when they can. I wish the little
capstone shows his hands have little clear gel
things around them with the green color. Maybe
just give him things that he even... He sticks
a hand and you can tell it's formed to fit to
his hand, but he holds them up and they act as
barriers, and he does that for the most part,
and then every now and then you just throw a
dome over somebody to say, oh, they're in a bubble
now, like they did when Barrier sort of debuted
before, when he protected Nem and Zero, the motorcycle,
in that one scene. um which was against mickey
mold from i think one episode ago not two episodes
ago anyway um so anyway i i have some issues
with some of the design choices that they've
made here but then you have like this like feral
it almost reminds me of from kingdom hearts when
i remember it was kingdom hearts 2 every now
and then when you would use the alternate forms
for sora every now and then this gauge would
build up in the background all of a sudden you'd
switch into this like heartless mode or dark
mode or whatever and uh or it's like a shadow
mode i can't remember what it was it's been a
long time since i've played kh2 but anyway uh
it reminded me of that that and he's fighting
that and it's really interesting that like there's
this idea that nox brings up that the capsums
are and i talked about this in my my short my
reaction to the episode which you should check
out too um i'll have uh the blog post version
of this all will have that linked to and integrated
so you have to go searching around for it and
that'll be linked in the pin comment here um
probably in the description too anyway um he
talked about the capsums being what It makes
nightmares possible. So that's a really bad Marty
McFly impression. So it's interesting because
I thought it would have been the other way around.
I don't want to belabor that point. You heard
that from me. If you want more insights, check
out the short or the blog post. We'll have that
integrated into it as well. But yeah, it's really
fascinating. And like the idea that code is this
old organization also fascinates me. And I want
to find out more. And I'm super intrigued. And
it's interesting because I also like the look
of the suit. So I like the captains more than
I've ever liked them before. They matter. They
have stakes for the story. They have stakes for
the lore. Nox is rooted in the lore even deeper.
I care more about his story. I care about seeing
him redeemed or saved somehow, which I usually
just want villains to be killed. And that'd be
the end of it so that we don't have, you know,
sympathetic villains all over the place because
it's just too much. um and then also uh there's
the thing with mako sister finding out and like
there's a lot of beats and there's a lot it's
a very rich episode and i feel like i could talk
about it for like 30 or 40 minutes easily but
i don't want to um i want to keep this under
control but like there's a lot going on here
and it was a really good episode very solid i'm
just gonna say yeah it is the best episode so
far And it's amazing because it blends the toy
selling aspect, the story selling aspect, and
the character aspect of well. Like, I'm sold
on these characters. I want to see what happens
with their stories. I'm even more invested in
them than I was before. And I like that suit.
It's a great looking suit that Nox Knight has.
And I'm interested to find out more about that
and what implications it has because it says
Knight System Initiate or something like that.
So, like, what's the Knight System? Night system
invoke I invoke I think anyway, like who came
up with that. How old is code? How do they work?
Did they weasel their way into Bacchus dreams
or did he because Apparently he didn't create
them like what does all this mean? Is he gonna
be able to dream the recovery of the barrier
capsule and the recovery capsule? Which is off
the board not destroyed. I think I think it's
still existing and but Knox has it like this
episode gives a lot of answers and it creates
a lot more questions and it draws you in as the
viewer and it does a really good job and it does
it with great visuals and great aesthetics and
great effects and uh it was all very exciting
and fun to see and like baku got to use the capstone
in the real world like awake and he was able
to block off the um the car from hitting the
kid and uh like that's cool too like that's expanding
i believe this is the first time we've really
seen him do that in the real world i think i
mean he's used the gadgets which are powered
by capsules to some extent like the little camera
tracker whatever i think he uses the before um
but like this is the most explicit i think demonstration
of his power being utilized like this in the
real world and maybe that has to do with the
cost that nox talked about from before a few
episodes ago so it's like it's moving things
forward and it's also connecting back to what
came in the past so it's all internally consistent
and all really rich and all really enjoyable
and i'm really pleased i want you to say i'm
enjoying it so much and it's very very good and
My hat's off to Yuu Takahashi for being a great
creator, a great comrader. I think he's probably
my favorite comrader writer. I've only really
seen Kiva, and I haven't watched Agito, which...
What's his name? The controversial guy whose
daughter did Jojo, and whose dad worked on the
original Comrader. He holds a pitch like this,
I think. Anyway, whoever he is, I thought he
was my favorite comrader writer. Because I think
he even worked on Combinator Black, but then
he worked on Kiva, I know for sure. And Agito,
he may have done some Kuga writing as well. Anyway,
it doesn't matter who he is right now. We'll
talk about it more later when I have the data
in front of me. And yeah, he was my favorite
guy. But I think Yutaka, she's my favorite guy.
I've seen all of X -Aid and all of Zero One.
And now I'm watching this. And I think there's
one more show that he did for sure that I should
check out. But yeah, I mean, that gives me even
more encouragement to check out his other work
because this is so good. X -Aid was so good.
And Zero One was really enjoyable as well. So,
yes, I will end the review at this point. Please
check out the pinned comment. Check out my links
to other stuff here. I'll have hopefully a playlist
for all of my common resets coverage, a playlist
for all of my Omega coverage, maybe a third playlist
for my Heart and Soul series where I'm like...
it's the henshin reflection series heart and
soul is a sub series within it where i'm just
like talking about the tokusatsu industry and
storytelling and different things like that in
a different way it's not a review episode it's
not an episode review it's more of like a thing
about tokusatsu and henshin heroes specifically
and discussing them and doing it in a little
bit of a higher way, a more exalted way, because
that's fun kind of stuff that I enjoy. And there's
room for speculation and conversation there,
which I would like you to participate in. Check
out my short from before, and then I'm sure I'm
going to have other thoughts. So I'll probably
have at least, well, I have at least one more
other short idea that I came up with while recording
this that I want to talk about later. So look
forward to that as well. That's it for now. Until
next time, folks, take care. This is MJ signing
off with Henshin Inspection and Writer Tears.
be well and don't make nightmares come true okay
it's not a good thing it's a bad thing