Baku is finally showing that he's the kind of
writer protagonist I want him to be. I've waffled
on him a little bit. He seemed very goofy and
too much like a loser for me to enjoy him at
first. Then I thought he was getting a job with
the police, but then he didn't, which kind of
hampered things for me. But then again... he
even without having a full -time gig right now
i don't know if he's doing any gig work at all
or full -time job i mean he is taking on his
mission as zero as this agent for code very seriously
and as part of that mission uh for code he has
been doing all these common writer things but
he's been listening to zero and kind of has no
choice zero is his superior zero says mentor
zero is i believe the fictional character who
he's idolized for all these years. So we don't
know if Zero is just an avatar that has appeared
to him. Because code is supposedly a creation
of his own dreams. It's what Baku has dreamed
that he belonged to. That he is this Agent 7
of code. And then he found out that it was a
reality. He was this invincible agent. Even though
he was kind of killed. He was this invincible
agent. He is this invincible agent. He's becoming
this invincible agent. And then we found out
that that was something that was possibly done
to him. That maybe code is this organization
that did something to him and these other kids
at this cram school. At least that's what it
looks like. And it looks like Adaka was involved
with doing that. And by the end of the episode,
we have the two of them leaving on equal terms
and having reached an impasse or rather an agreement
with each other where they both saved each other.
And they both helped each other in this serious
way. And now they're going to part ways. And
I think it's important to point out too, that
Baku was locked in this dream and Odaka was locked
in a dream, unable to wake up. And the same thing
was happening to Baku. And then by the end of
it, Baku is able to wake up because he defeats
the darkness nightmare that is stopping Odaka
from waking up. And then Odaka is able to wake
up, but it's unclear whether that's a good thing
or a bad thing by the end of the episode, but
we're not going to talk about that now. I'm going
to go back and focus on this. The most interesting
thing to me in the episode, which is that Baku
is getting the resolve that he needs to be the
man he needs to be, the hero he needs to be,
and to do what has to be done. It really seemed
like there was a very sharp contrast between
him and Odaka from last episode, because Nox
refused to face the darkness. He kept running
away from the darkness. And Baku chose to face
the darkness nightmare head on, and he was able
to destroy it. in part because he seized his
own darkness his own nightmare and drew power
from it in the last episode which he used again
here which was plasma and it failed last time
or there was a break in the story breaking the
episode last time because he was unable to handle
the darkness the corruption of the nightmare
i guess you could say we don't know why the yellow
capsum is a new thing it seems to be outside
of the red green blue purple paradigm that we
have that nox seems to know about has a book
about which i was beginning to think where did
this book come from it doesn't really make any
sense that it was there and we're kind of losing
that aspect of his character but by the end of
the episode we see something that could make
it seem or that seems like it connects to where
that book came from which i find interesting
but again focusing back on baku and his resolve
his will his rebellion you could say or his his
desire to do what he wants to and make his dream
come true at any cost or at great personal risk
to himself, he has effectively now, like Knox,
supposedly, betrayed code because he left his
phone behind when he went to go face Knox. And
when he did, well, when he went to go defeat
the enemy or eliminate the enemy, and he basically
decided for himself that it wasn't Knox that
was the enemy, it was the nightmare that was
the enemy. Even though... Nox has been helping
the Nightmares. And I feel like he left his phone
behind so that Zero could not spy on him, so
that Zero could not hear what he was saying,
and that Zero would be in the dark. And I think
it's really interesting because that whole scene
where he goes back to the Dream office, the HQ,
happens after he and Nox withdraw from each other.
Nox is warning him, and he's trying to get more
answers from him, and he tells him to protect
himself. And Baku never leaves the dream. He
temporarily leaves, or he never leaves the dream
world, let's call it. He does leave Nox's dream
in particular, or Daku's dream in particular,
and then he goes to HQ, and he is able to get
all the capsules that he once had. Zero says
something really interesting to me. He says that
it seems that we're of one mind or something
like that. Basically, their minds are in sync
because he was able to then access the power.
Previously, he had tried to get more power after
Nox had destroyed or whatever. One of his capsums,
Recovery, which was gone, and he has now. No,
no, he used Barrier. Barrier was destroyed, though.
It turned into a monster, and then it got destroyed,
and he has that back now. I think we're seeing
a shift in Baku. where last episode he questioned,
oh, you want me to just destroy this enemy without
asking questions? And he assumed that that was
Nox, and maybe it was Nox. I kind of think explicitly,
but Zero did say for him to destroy Nox. And
then he chose not to. He decided to instead destroy
the nightmare. But my point is that he had this
mental resolve and this mental fortitude and
this strength to get back all his capsums and
to activate this new boost capsum. And I feel
like it's because he's stepping out of Zero's
shadow. He's stepping into his own. And he's
taking ownership of who he is and the power that
he has. And he's deciding what he's going to
do with it without limits. He's already broken
the limits a little bit and gotten this thunder
or plasma capsum that he created somehow by capturing
his own nightmare of getting stricken by lightning.
Now he's broken from the mission protocol. He
didn't eliminate Knox. He instead chose to eliminate
his nightmare, which it's interesting because
we think that's a really good, noble, heroic
thing. But it seems like by the end of the episode,
we're seeing that it's not a good thing necessarily.
Maybe there's a negative consequence to it that
we'll talk about later. My point is, I really
appreciate the growth that Baku is showing and
that he's choosing to rebel against the system,
the individual that gave him power. to do what
he feels is right. And I really appreciate that
because it's very much in the spirit of the original
Kamen Rider. Also, the plasma form with its yellow
next to the green on his face reminds me of the
Shocker Rider number one, which had a yellow
scarf and yellow gloves and yellow boots, I think.
And Shocker Rider, if you can't guess, is a Kamen
Rider created by Shocker in order to destroy
the Double Riders, Hango and Ichimonji. And they
were created because they figured, hey, these
writers, I don't know if they're from Shocker
or Jail Shocker, probably Shocker on its last
legs. Anyway, they decided to create other grasshopper
kaijin, grasshopper cyborgs, because, hey, these
grasshopper cyborgs are killing all our kaisening,
and we need to stop them. So it makes sense to
replicate the power, you know, use the same battle
platform, you could say, and take them out with
that. And, you know, I haven't seen the show,
so I don't know how it worked out. Just the look
of that reminds me of, and it was also in Shin
Kamen Rider, right? Anyway, but the look of Plasma
kind of makes me think about a Shocker Rider.
So I was thinking, is Baku becoming evil? Baku's
breaking the system he's breaking and he's going
against, he's rebelling. As much as Kamen Rider
is like a victim who doesn't want to let other
people become victims of the same victimizer,
the same perpetrator, and then he fights against
them and he uses their evil power against them,
he's also in a way a rebel or a betrayer. Because
he was a Shocker member, or was supposed to have
been a Shocker member, but instead of becoming
a Shocker member, being brainwashed by them,
being taken in by them, and submitting to their
will alone, his mind was left free and he chose
to work against them. Baku's mind has not been
altered beyond him forgetting things or having
stuff wiped from his mind in that cram school,
possibly. But he's choosing to actively go against
the one who gave him power. which would be zero
in this case. And he's violating orders on purpose.
And he's not doing his will, zero's will, or
code's will. He's doing his own will. He's doing
what he thinks is just, what he thinks is right.
And I find that to be very interesting. And I
don't know if that's the point of Zets. I don't
know if that's just a little thing that... Takahashi
is playing with or what? But I think it's very
powerful. And I think it's interesting that if
we're going to get reinterpretations of Kamen
Rider, I would love to just see more like a sequel
to Kamen Rider with Fujioka's son, who would
also be a Fujioka, I guess, cast as him and like
playing out another season or whatever with him
being eternally young, you know, forever young
Kamen Rider. Like I'd be okay with seeing more
stories of him throughout the world doing different
stuff or even old, you know, harsh Fujioka if
he could do it, which I fully believe in him.
Like, I'd be interested in that. But if we're
not going to get that, if we're not going to
get sequels and continuations of the story, which
I know people say sequels are weird, but again,
that's a topic we can talk about another time
because I think I have a strong justification
for sequels. Sequels on sequels on sequels. But
if we're not going to see that, if we're going
to get reinterpretations of Kamen Rider, of this
original story or this idea, then the elements
that make it up should be taken and played with
in interesting ways and examined from different
angles. I think that's what Takashi's doing here.
And I think the rebellion of Baku and the way
that he's straying, choosing to stray from zero
and code is giving us those vibes. It's giving
us that dimension, that aspect of Kamen Rider
in an important way. And I don't know what it
means. I don't know what it's saying. I don't
know if it's good or not, but I think it's interesting.
And I'll be curious to see how the arc evolves
throughout the rest of the show. I thought Boosh
was dumb. Didn't like the look of it. I could
say other things about the show. I could talk
about the thing that happened with Odaka at the
end, but I'm not going to for now. I'm going
to leave it here because I really wanted to talk
about this idea of rebellion or betrayal or going
against and being of your own mind. That seems
to me to be a very important thing for Kamen
Rider. That's pretty much all I wanted to say
about it. Anyway, you can check out my full Zets
playlist. It'll be in the pinned comment. And
you can tell me what you thought about this episode.
Do you think I'm crazy for bringing up what I'm
bringing up? Or does it make sense to you? Did
you sense kind of the same things? Are there
other things that you hated about the episode,
liked about the episode, wanted to talk about
the episode that I didn't cover that we can discuss
in the comments? I'm open to it. Let me know.
Like, subscribe, share. Do all that good stuff
to help me grow the channel. And again, check
the pinned comment if you want to go deeper into
more of my Zets analysis as well as... other
things. Until next time, this is MJ with Rider
-Tiers and Engine Inspection signing out.