Episode 22 of Kamen Rider Resets proves that
Yui Takahashi has us all duped. He's got the
characters duped, he's got the viewers duped,
and... It's interesting and it's frustrating
at the same time. What is the trick that he's
pulled on us? What is the wool that he's pulled
over our eyes? It's this. Baku asks a very legitimate
question. He's questioning... What code's true
purpose is? What code is doing? Is code even
righteous? And instead of exploring that question,
which is something that we should explore, something
that's thematically important to explore, Baku
buys into, you know, spoilers for 22 of Zets,
Baku feels guilt over letting Kureha die and
ultimately over letting number five die. I don't
remember his name, sorry. The watchdog, the guard
dog of code. Because of his guilt and because
of his trauma that was sparked by his inaction,
he totally buys into the idea that he has to
use the power of nightmares, this awful power
of nightmares, in order to become this, to become
something else, to become someone else. He uses
the power of Catastrum and he basically, totally
wrecks Knox. And it's so satisfying to watch
him wield this much power that it almost made
me forget that the question was raised about
what's really going on with code. And it was
just set aside. I don't think that's bad writing
for now. I think it's very effective writing.
Very clever. It's satisfying two different types
of people. It's satisfying people who are more
focused on the story. And it's satisfying people
who are more focused on the spectacle. It's interesting
because it works on both levels. Raising the
question makes it legitimate. Setting it aside
to have a crazy awesome fight where... He nerfs
Nox's gun. It's super cool. And even the fist
bump with his darkness, with his evil, with the
shadow, with this other thing that's the core
of the power of Zets is interesting. Also, there's
a question that's raised by Kureha, kind of an
invisible question, that there's something special
about Baku which enables him to use the Zets
driver. Our understanding is that code developed
the Zets driver, but that does not seem to be
true. What is it? Where did it come from? Those
are new questions that are being raised. Those
are new questions that will affect the story.
And the answer might be from Baku's dream. And
also the idea that as an infant, Baku was dreaming
about this catastrophe of the world is bizarre.
When did his parents die? We don't know. Could
that have anything to do with it? We don't know.
For me, it's simultaneously frustrating and enjoyable,
engaging, that Yuya Takahashi is able to craft
these stories, or craft this story, work this
story in such a way that he avoids giving us
answers, but we don't really care because of
the things that are going on in between. are
impactful and meaningful and entertaining and
it's something i brought up before and something
i'm repeating here but it really is shocking
that catastrophe is this huge deal at least on
a level of spectacle and it also looks like it
has deeper roots within the main story in the
background of the story and that's being focused
on as opposed to focusing on this very legitimate
topic that baku is raising and it's very interesting
it even allows us to not sit with and examine
the idea of whether or not it's okay to go along
with a system that is flawed and bad and might
be evil if in the short term you're able to help
people Even if they're willing participants of
the system. And one might be able to argue that
they're not deserving of help, assistance, salvation.
Whatever. Code agent number five claims that
they're saving the world and it's a thankless
job. But we don't really get to see that. He
claims that he never lets go of his target until
he's killed them. Which implies that he's killed
people before. And we know that he wants to kill
Odaka, and he tries to. I'm not a Batman shouldn't
kill people person. I'm a Batman should kill
people person. I'm a Batman should have killed
the Joker when he had the chance. And... Yet,
I am... Feeling myself question this idea that
code number five is willing to kill people, willing
to kill his target, and he's also so aggressively
pursuing them. It's more that he's aggressively
pursuing targets to kill. It almost makes it
seem like he enjoys it. But maybe he means that
when he has a target to pursue, he's assigned
to them because they are deserving of death.
They've given up their humanity. They've written
their own death warrant, whatever. These are
concepts I'm comfortable with. But I think I'm
uncomfortable with just accepting it from code
because code is shady already. We know this.
And also, there isn't enough information being
shared. There isn't enough context we have as
an audience to really understand what's going
on to know whether or not it's acceptable and
good and moral. What do you think? Am I off base?
Am I being ridiculous? Am I being too sensitive?
Do you think code is to blame for all of this?
I don't know. I got other questions. Check the
pinned comment for more. You can see my Zets
playlist as well as playlists on other Tokusatsu
weakness. And that's it. This is MJ with Rider
Tears and Henshin Inspection signing out. Till
next time.