WEBVTT 00:00:00.650 --> 00:00:03.350 So Yuya Takahashi really wants to go down in 00:00:03.350 --> 00:00:06.110 history as the greatest writer in the Kamen Rider 00:00:06.110 --> 00:00:09.150 series, I guess, huh? I just finished watching 00:00:09.150 --> 00:00:12.650 episode 25 of Zets, and I can't believe how good 00:00:12.650 --> 00:00:14.630 it is. The episode's called Get Started, which 00:00:14.630 --> 00:00:16.809 is, you know, not a big surprise. But what is 00:00:16.809 --> 00:00:21.710 a big surprise is how a lot of people are seeing 00:00:21.710 --> 00:00:23.350 New Game Plus, how it's doing this New Game Plus 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:25.850 sort of thing. But I want to focus on something 00:00:25.850 --> 00:00:28.260 else. There's two other things, and unfortunately, 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:30.199 I have not had enough time to digest this episode 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.439 for me to have a really cogent thing. Like, I 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:34.219 don't have that one thing I want to focus on. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.619 Except for this. At the end of the episode, when 00:00:37.619 --> 00:00:41.679 he, and of course this is spoilers for the show, 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:45.240 at the end of the episode, Baku says, I only 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:47.619 have one mission now, and that is, don't make 00:00:47.619 --> 00:00:52.399 my dream come true. That got me. I don't know 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:57.210 why. If we go to the context, What has Baku's 00:00:57.210 --> 00:01:00.030 dream been for years? Baku's dream, or dreams, 00:01:00.170 --> 00:01:02.130 have been about being this invincible agent, 00:01:02.310 --> 00:01:06.209 code number seven. And then it turns out, from 00:01:06.209 --> 00:01:08.609 episode one, episode two, whatever, that he is 00:01:08.609 --> 00:01:10.909 code number seven. And he's got Zero who he's 00:01:10.909 --> 00:01:13.950 working with. And Zero, I can't tell if, like, 00:01:13.969 --> 00:01:15.109 to me, Zero looks like he's supposed to be a 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:17.209 white guy, at least the agent Zero from the movie. 00:01:17.329 --> 00:01:20.790 But code agent Zero looks like he's not. He looks 00:01:20.790 --> 00:01:28.079 Japanese, or maybe he's hafu. Anyway. My point 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:32.000 is, Baku has wanted to be this guy. He's wanted 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:33.980 to be this invincible secret agent, and he thought 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:36.500 he was. And he had this whole crisis of confidence 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:38.719 when he realized that he wasn't this invincible 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:42.239 agent. And then he became the invincible agent, 00:01:42.420 --> 00:01:48.060 and he still got killed anyway. That dream where 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:51.519 Code kills him, and where the nightmares awaken 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:55.420 into the world and other things, is the... that 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:57.219 he's trying to not make come true. He had this 00:01:57.219 --> 00:02:00.719 premonition dream and he doesn't want the premonition 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.599 to come true because, of course, why would he? 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:06.079 It's a horrible dream. You know, people die. 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:08.560 Even he wants to save the lady, it looks like, 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:11.120 which is going to be interesting. Her redemption 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:14.080 arc is not going to be easy for me to swallow. 00:02:16.419 --> 00:02:18.719 Honestly, it seems like three is a bad guy. Seems 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.319 like zero is a bad guy from that conversation 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:24.500 they had. Five and six, I don't know. Kureha's 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:26.979 kind of... We'll see what happens. I really like 00:02:26.979 --> 00:02:32.719 her. I'm glad she's back. I liked 5, even though 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.060 he made me a little bit uncomfortable with him 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.479 saying he's a killer. Even though we've discussed 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:39.919 my thoughts on killing versus murder before, 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:41.259 but if you want, you can ask me in the comments. 00:02:41.300 --> 00:02:44.080 We can discuss about it. But I've made that clear 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:49.780 in previous episodes. So, it is a bad dream, 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:52.830 but... It could have been a good dream. Like, 00:02:52.830 --> 00:02:56.009 had he not died, he found Nem and he got her 00:02:56.009 --> 00:02:59.610 to wake up. He got Odaka to wake up, who's been 00:02:59.610 --> 00:03:01.069 wandering in dreams as well. Those things are 00:03:01.069 --> 00:03:04.330 still true. I guess because it's a premonition, 00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:08.189 it's factual, but I don't know how he had, like, 00:03:08.189 --> 00:03:12.110 accurately operating corollaries or copies of 00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:14.610 versions of these other people in his dream. 00:03:14.689 --> 00:03:16.979 I don't really get that. I don't know that we 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:19.039 want to dig into that. It doesn't really matter, 00:03:19.139 --> 00:03:21.860 probably. In the end, what's important is that 00:03:21.860 --> 00:03:25.000 he has this bad dream that he doesn't want to 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.360 make come true that stems from this lifelong 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.939 dream that he's had of wanting to make his dream 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:32.960 of being this invincible secret agent come true. 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:35.919 However, it's very possible that Code themselves 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.819 are the ones who implanted, who incepted that 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.919 dream into him and made him want to be this guy. 00:03:45.079 --> 00:03:47.900 Like, I think it's sad on one level that he was 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:50.099 manipulated as a kid to have this dream implanted 00:03:50.099 --> 00:03:53.159 in him. However, I don't think it's like... Like, 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.520 that didn't make me sad originally. Looking back 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:57.300 in the context, it's kind of sad. Yeah, like, 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:59.479 kind of his life was stolen from him. However, 00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:05.139 that makes Code a much stronger analog to Shocker 00:04:05.139 --> 00:04:07.400 because they went to Gishongo, they took him, 00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:09.139 they cut up his body, they put machines inside 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:11.460 of him, they... couldn't change his brain until, 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:13.180 well, they were going to, but they failed to. 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:15.400 And that's why he was the Comrader. That's why 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:17.540 he was the hero who defied them and who was a 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:20.079 traitor to Shocker as he should have been. Just 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:22.899 like if Code is evil, then Baku should be a traitor 00:04:22.899 --> 00:04:25.560 to them, even though he has his power given to 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:32.259 him from them. And... I don't know. It's interesting 00:04:32.259 --> 00:04:37.699 that we... There's so much we don't know, despite 00:04:37.699 --> 00:04:40.040 the fact that we have... A lot of the information. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:46.680 And... Moving on from the fact that it hurt me 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:48.500 so much to hear Baku say, don't make my dream 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:55.180 come true. I think... Yeah, I'm not really sure. 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:57.139 I'm not going to psychoanalyze myself live right 00:04:57.139 --> 00:04:59.060 here and figure out why that hurt me so much. 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.660 But it did. And I'm going to accept that. And 00:05:01.660 --> 00:05:03.620 I'm going to springboard off of that to say, 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:07.490 I think... Because of all the little facts that 00:05:07.490 --> 00:05:11.589 I presented to you right now, that once again, 00:05:11.670 --> 00:05:13.930 Yuya Takahashi is an amazing writer, amazing 00:05:13.930 --> 00:05:17.250 storyteller, and I'm impressed by the fact that 00:05:17.250 --> 00:05:19.769 he's been able to give us all these pieces. He's 00:05:19.769 --> 00:05:21.110 been able to put all these pieces on the board, 00:05:21.170 --> 00:05:23.009 and they're true from a certain point of view, 00:05:23.110 --> 00:05:26.009 and now we're going to see him replay them and 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:29.170 remix them into this story in this really skillful 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:32.730 way that does a couple things. One, it tells 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:35.829 an effective story. I, for the whole... run of 00:05:35.829 --> 00:05:38.829 Zets 1 through 24 was impressed by it. I always 00:05:38.829 --> 00:05:40.569 liked it. There were some things that I thought 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:42.029 were kind of lame or that I had a quibble with 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:44.850 or whatever, but always I was very much this 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:47.310 is a good show or it was a great show. Never 00:05:47.310 --> 00:05:48.949 this is a bad show or this is a bad episode. 00:05:49.209 --> 00:05:51.910 The episodes were always good or great and sometimes 00:05:51.910 --> 00:05:53.750 amazing, like, you know, beyond great if that's 00:05:53.750 --> 00:05:57.750 possible. But it's like they've been good, better, 00:05:57.769 --> 00:06:00.029 best as opposed to, you know, good, bad, worse, 00:06:00.250 --> 00:06:04.439 best, whatever. So... The quality has been high 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:06.740 the whole time. Again, it's high quality. You 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:10.560 talk about how she's writing. It's a 0 -1 reference 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:15.680 joke thing, okay? Anyway, so it's been really 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:20.480 good throughout, and he's an extremely skillful 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:22.459 storyteller because he's presented all these 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:25.259 things to us in a way that we get an entertaining 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:28.579 story on one level, but there's a deeper story 00:06:28.579 --> 00:06:31.019 hidden underneath that, and he's able to tell 00:06:31.019 --> 00:06:34.180 a... different story, an alternate route to the 00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:37.500 story using the same pieces, the same characters, 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:41.779 the same items, the same toys, literally. And 00:06:41.779 --> 00:06:44.759 somehow he's going to do that. And I have full 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:46.160 confidence that he's going to be able to do that 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:47.180 because that's the kind of thing that he did 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:51.459 with X -Aid, for example. I don't know that I'd 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:53.060 say that's the kind of thing he did with Zero 00:06:53.060 --> 00:07:03.930 -One. But anyway. I'm impressed with how, with 00:07:03.930 --> 00:07:11.389 the depth of skill, and the ability this man 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:15.389 has to take these assets that he has, these toys 00:07:15.389 --> 00:07:17.009 that were designed, these suits that were designed, 00:07:17.149 --> 00:07:21.129 and that are designed for just selling the toys, 00:07:21.189 --> 00:07:26.029 and from that craft this beautiful, heart -touching, 00:07:26.029 --> 00:07:30.110 emotionally stirring story, and I absolutely 00:07:30.110 --> 00:07:35.459 love it. I'm trying so hard to stay focused in 00:07:35.459 --> 00:07:38.379 these analysis videos, but I really want to veer 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:39.660 off and talk about something else. But I'm just 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:41.420 going to have to save it for another time. Except 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:45.040 to say this. It's ironic that we had... Now I'm 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:46.579 talking about episode 25. Just how good it is. 00:07:46.939 --> 00:07:49.579 Also, another thing. He very skillfully pulls 00:07:49.579 --> 00:07:52.199 together all the pieces. It looks like the nightmare 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:53.920 thing didn't happen. Fujimi's going to go his 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:57.160 own way. He gets fired. Or demoted, or whatever 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:01.920 it was. Nausicaa, who doesn't have any connection 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.300 to Fujimi because... They have no connection. 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.379 They just met. She's like, yeah, see you later, 00:08:06.459 --> 00:08:08.879 buddy. We don't know each other, so I'm out of 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.800 here. But then Baku's able to pull them together 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:13.720 by knowing something about him, Odaka, knowing 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.100 something about her, Kureha. And he pulls his 00:08:17.100 --> 00:08:19.079 sister right into it. She's now part of the group. 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.339 So all of the work that was done in episode 24, 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:23.439 this is why people are saying new game plus speedrun, 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:25.360 whatever. All the things that were set up before 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:27.660 are now pulled back together. We've got the team 00:08:27.660 --> 00:08:30.639 back together, basically. But with this new context 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:35.820 and... It's just amazing that we're going to 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.600 watch him get started. Like, we literally got 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:40.700 started in this episode. It's just, it's really 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:43.519 fantastic. And I just, again, I'm glazing, I 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:45.779 think is the term the kids use these days. Yutaka 00:08:45.779 --> 00:08:47.820 Hashi, because he's great. And I've liked him 00:08:47.820 --> 00:08:50.139 from X -Aid, which I almost quit. Me and a group 00:08:50.139 --> 00:08:51.539 of people were watching and reviewing Kamen Rider 00:08:51.539 --> 00:08:53.940 at the time. And we were like, X -Aid, this looks 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:56.299 dumb. We're not going to watch this. Let's check 00:08:56.299 --> 00:08:58.350 it out and see what it's like. And we were like, 00:08:58.409 --> 00:09:00.750 yeah, this is weird. It's uncomfortable. And 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:02.450 then a couple episodes in, we were like, this 00:09:02.450 --> 00:09:04.850 is really good. And then it turned out to be 00:09:04.850 --> 00:09:07.009 one of the greatest shows. And I haven't watched 00:09:07.009 --> 00:09:08.330 enough of Keats yet. I only watched the first 00:09:08.330 --> 00:09:12.929 13 episodes or so. But I've got to go back and 00:09:12.929 --> 00:09:16.490 watch it. How can it not be good? And whatever 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:18.490 else he's done, I'll check out his other Comrader 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:19.789 stuff if I haven't seen it. I've seen Zero One 00:09:19.789 --> 00:09:22.919 as well. But it's just... He's a fantastic writer, 00:09:23.019 --> 00:09:25.480 and he writes things the way I want them to be 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:26.940 written, and he writes things within the spirit 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:29.399 of Kamen Rider. I think if Ishinomori were alive 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:31.220 today, if Ishinomori was seeing his work, he'd 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:32.840 be proud of what he's doing with Kamen Rider. 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:38.279 Yeah, I think that's true. Anyway, let me know 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:39.600 what you thought about this episode. Let me know 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:41.720 what you thought about my attempted focus analysis 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:44.279 that kind of went all over the place, and help 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:47.659 me figure out what's... No, it will not help 00:09:47.659 --> 00:09:49.960 me figure out. Check the pinned comment for more. 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:52.320 I know I'm going to have extra stuff. There will 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:54.399 be stuff in the pinned comment linking to bonus 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.139 content because I'm going to have a lot of other 00:09:56.139 --> 00:09:57.559 ideas where I'm going to break down individual 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:00.320 things from this episode that are worthy, that 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.559 weren't being talked about. And I will talk about 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:04.320 them, give them the focus they need. But just 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:07.519 Takashi's great. If you disagree, let me know 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:10.080 how you disagree. Give me examples of how Takashi 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:12.059 isn't a great writer, isn't the greatest modern 00:10:12.059 --> 00:10:16.500 writer for this series. And, you know, we can 00:10:16.500 --> 00:10:20.220 talk about Ultraman. The weaknesses of Ultraman 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:23.679 compared to this, which I don't want to say, 00:10:23.779 --> 00:10:28.840 and even maybe we'll talk about Sentai. We'll 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:30.620 give Project Red more time. Let's talk about 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:32.059 Sentai and Ultraman compared to Kamen Rider. 00:10:32.139 --> 00:10:34.620 Just like, look, this is why Kamen Rider is successful. 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:37.120 It's good. It's good storytelling. It hooks you. 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:40.600 You are riveted by it. You want it. And the attachment 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:42.960 to the characters and the story makes you want 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.320 to buy the toys. It does. I hate the capsules. 00:10:45.340 --> 00:10:47.179 They're dumb, stupid Power Balls. But I'm... 00:10:47.450 --> 00:10:49.210 honestly feeling like yeah maybe i should buy 00:10:49.210 --> 00:10:50.970 one because it's so freaking cool or let me get 00:10:50.970 --> 00:10:54.029 a figure arts of zero not zero well maybe zero 00:10:54.029 --> 00:10:56.450 that's cool too but like let me get a a zed's 00:10:56.450 --> 00:10:58.789 figure arts because it's so cool but whatever 00:10:58.789 --> 00:11:06.250 incredible incredible again thank you for watching 00:11:06.250 --> 00:11:09.870 i love that too that minami i've got that play 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:12.529 in the background minami's like how did you get 00:11:12.529 --> 00:11:14.120 in here Well, you didn't answer the door, so 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:16.320 I climbed through the window, Nazca says. And 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:18.600 she's like, oh, of course you did. Why wouldn't 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:21.220 you? Anyway, very funny. It's a great show. These 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:24.120 are great characters. And, you know, cool toys. 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.440 I want to see, if we're going to do this again, 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.840 stop using Catastrophe and start using Wing. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:32.299 Because I need more Birdman in my life. Anyway, 00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:35.179 this is MJ with Writer Tears and Henshin Inspection 00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:36.940 signing out. Let me know what you thought about 00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:39.259 this episode and about the series so far. Check 00:11:39.259 --> 00:11:40.779 the pinned comment for the bonus content because 00:11:40.779 --> 00:11:42.539 there will be bonus content there. It's going 00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:44.159 to be great and you're going to love it.