So Yuya Takahashi really wants to go down in
history as the greatest writer in the Kamen Rider
series, I guess, huh? I just finished watching
episode 25 of Zets, and I can't believe how good
it is. The episode's called Get Started, which
is, you know, not a big surprise. But what is
a big surprise is how a lot of people are seeing
New Game Plus, how it's doing this New Game Plus
sort of thing. But I want to focus on something
else. There's two other things, and unfortunately,
I have not had enough time to digest this episode
for me to have a really cogent thing. Like, I
don't have that one thing I want to focus on.
Except for this. At the end of the episode, when
he, and of course this is spoilers for the show,
at the end of the episode, Baku says, I only
have one mission now, and that is, don't make
my dream come true. That got me. I don't know
why. If we go to the context, What has Baku's
dream been for years? Baku's dream, or dreams,
have been about being this invincible agent,
code number seven. And then it turns out, from
episode one, episode two, whatever, that he is
code number seven. And he's got Zero who he's
working with. And Zero, I can't tell if, like,
to me, Zero looks like he's supposed to be a
white guy, at least the agent Zero from the movie.
But code agent Zero looks like he's not. He looks
Japanese, or maybe he's hafu. Anyway. My point
is, Baku has wanted to be this guy. He's wanted
to be this invincible secret agent, and he thought
he was. And he had this whole crisis of confidence
when he realized that he wasn't this invincible
agent. And then he became the invincible agent,
and he still got killed anyway. That dream where
Code kills him, and where the nightmares awaken
into the world and other things, is the... that
he's trying to not make come true. He had this
premonition dream and he doesn't want the premonition
to come true because, of course, why would he?
It's a horrible dream. You know, people die.
Even he wants to save the lady, it looks like,
which is going to be interesting. Her redemption
arc is not going to be easy for me to swallow.
Honestly, it seems like three is a bad guy. Seems
like zero is a bad guy from that conversation
they had. Five and six, I don't know. Kureha's
kind of... We'll see what happens. I really like
her. I'm glad she's back. I liked 5, even though
he made me a little bit uncomfortable with him
saying he's a killer. Even though we've discussed
my thoughts on killing versus murder before,
but if you want, you can ask me in the comments.
We can discuss about it. But I've made that clear
in previous episodes. So, it is a bad dream,
but... It could have been a good dream. Like,
had he not died, he found Nem and he got her
to wake up. He got Odaka to wake up, who's been
wandering in dreams as well. Those things are
still true. I guess because it's a premonition,
it's factual, but I don't know how he had, like,
accurately operating corollaries or copies of
versions of these other people in his dream.
I don't really get that. I don't know that we
want to dig into that. It doesn't really matter,
probably. In the end, what's important is that
he has this bad dream that he doesn't want to
make come true that stems from this lifelong
dream that he's had of wanting to make his dream
of being this invincible secret agent come true.
However, it's very possible that Code themselves
are the ones who implanted, who incepted that
dream into him and made him want to be this guy.
Like, I think it's sad on one level that he was
manipulated as a kid to have this dream implanted
in him. However, I don't think it's like... Like,
that didn't make me sad originally. Looking back
in the context, it's kind of sad. Yeah, like,
kind of his life was stolen from him. However,
that makes Code a much stronger analog to Shocker
because they went to Gishongo, they took him,
they cut up his body, they put machines inside
of him, they... couldn't change his brain until,
well, they were going to, but they failed to.
And that's why he was the Comrader. That's why
he was the hero who defied them and who was a
traitor to Shocker as he should have been. Just
like if Code is evil, then Baku should be a traitor
to them, even though he has his power given to
him from them. And... I don't know. It's interesting
that we... There's so much we don't know, despite
the fact that we have... A lot of the information.
And... Moving on from the fact that it hurt me
so much to hear Baku say, don't make my dream
come true. I think... Yeah, I'm not really sure.
I'm not going to psychoanalyze myself live right
here and figure out why that hurt me so much.
But it did. And I'm going to accept that. And
I'm going to springboard off of that to say,
I think... Because of all the little facts that
I presented to you right now, that once again,
Yuya Takahashi is an amazing writer, amazing
storyteller, and I'm impressed by the fact that
he's been able to give us all these pieces. He's
been able to put all these pieces on the board,
and they're true from a certain point of view,
and now we're going to see him replay them and
remix them into this story in this really skillful
way that does a couple things. One, it tells
an effective story. I, for the whole... run of
Zets 1 through 24 was impressed by it. I always
liked it. There were some things that I thought
were kind of lame or that I had a quibble with
or whatever, but always I was very much this
is a good show or it was a great show. Never
this is a bad show or this is a bad episode.
The episodes were always good or great and sometimes
amazing, like, you know, beyond great if that's
possible. But it's like they've been good, better,
best as opposed to, you know, good, bad, worse,
best, whatever. So... The quality has been high
the whole time. Again, it's high quality. You
talk about how she's writing. It's a 0 -1 reference
joke thing, okay? Anyway, so it's been really
good throughout, and he's an extremely skillful
storyteller because he's presented all these
things to us in a way that we get an entertaining
story on one level, but there's a deeper story
hidden underneath that, and he's able to tell
a... different story, an alternate route to the
story using the same pieces, the same characters,
the same items, the same toys, literally. And
somehow he's going to do that. And I have full
confidence that he's going to be able to do that
because that's the kind of thing that he did
with X -Aid, for example. I don't know that I'd
say that's the kind of thing he did with Zero
-One. But anyway. I'm impressed with how, with
the depth of skill, and the ability this man
has to take these assets that he has, these toys
that were designed, these suits that were designed,
and that are designed for just selling the toys,
and from that craft this beautiful, heart -touching,
emotionally stirring story, and I absolutely
love it. I'm trying so hard to stay focused in
these analysis videos, but I really want to veer
off and talk about something else. But I'm just
going to have to save it for another time. Except
to say this. It's ironic that we had... Now I'm
talking about episode 25. Just how good it is.
Also, another thing. He very skillfully pulls
together all the pieces. It looks like the nightmare
thing didn't happen. Fujimi's going to go his
own way. He gets fired. Or demoted, or whatever
it was. Nausicaa, who doesn't have any connection
to Fujimi because... They have no connection.
They just met. She's like, yeah, see you later,
buddy. We don't know each other, so I'm out of
here. But then Baku's able to pull them together
by knowing something about him, Odaka, knowing
something about her, Kureha. And he pulls his
sister right into it. She's now part of the group.
So all of the work that was done in episode 24,
this is why people are saying new game plus speedrun,
whatever. All the things that were set up before
are now pulled back together. We've got the team
back together, basically. But with this new context
and... It's just amazing that we're going to
watch him get started. Like, we literally got
started in this episode. It's just, it's really
fantastic. And I just, again, I'm glazing, I
think is the term the kids use these days. Yutaka
Hashi, because he's great. And I've liked him
from X -Aid, which I almost quit. Me and a group
of people were watching and reviewing Kamen Rider
at the time. And we were like, X -Aid, this looks
dumb. We're not going to watch this. Let's check
it out and see what it's like. And we were like,
yeah, this is weird. It's uncomfortable. And
then a couple episodes in, we were like, this
is really good. And then it turned out to be
one of the greatest shows. And I haven't watched
enough of Keats yet. I only watched the first
13 episodes or so. But I've got to go back and
watch it. How can it not be good? And whatever
else he's done, I'll check out his other Comrader
stuff if I haven't seen it. I've seen Zero One
as well. But it's just... He's a fantastic writer,
and he writes things the way I want them to be
written, and he writes things within the spirit
of Kamen Rider. I think if Ishinomori were alive
today, if Ishinomori was seeing his work, he'd
be proud of what he's doing with Kamen Rider.
Yeah, I think that's true. Anyway, let me know
what you thought about this episode. Let me know
what you thought about my attempted focus analysis
that kind of went all over the place, and help
me figure out what's... No, it will not help
me figure out. Check the pinned comment for more.
I know I'm going to have extra stuff. There will
be stuff in the pinned comment linking to bonus
content because I'm going to have a lot of other
ideas where I'm going to break down individual
things from this episode that are worthy, that
weren't being talked about. And I will talk about
them, give them the focus they need. But just
Takashi's great. If you disagree, let me know
how you disagree. Give me examples of how Takashi
isn't a great writer, isn't the greatest modern
writer for this series. And, you know, we can
talk about Ultraman. The weaknesses of Ultraman
compared to this, which I don't want to say,
and even maybe we'll talk about Sentai. We'll
give Project Red more time. Let's talk about
Sentai and Ultraman compared to Kamen Rider.
Just like, look, this is why Kamen Rider is successful.
It's good. It's good storytelling. It hooks you.
You are riveted by it. You want it. And the attachment
to the characters and the story makes you want
to buy the toys. It does. I hate the capsules.
They're dumb, stupid Power Balls. But I'm...
honestly feeling like yeah maybe i should buy
one because it's so freaking cool or let me get
a figure arts of zero not zero well maybe zero
that's cool too but like let me get a a zed's
figure arts because it's so cool but whatever
incredible incredible again thank you for watching
i love that too that minami i've got that play
in the background minami's like how did you get
in here Well, you didn't answer the door, so
I climbed through the window, Nazca says. And
she's like, oh, of course you did. Why wouldn't
you? Anyway, very funny. It's a great show. These
are great characters. And, you know, cool toys.
I want to see, if we're going to do this again,
stop using Catastrophe and start using Wing.
Because I need more Birdman in my life. Anyway,
this is MJ with Writer Tears and Henshin Inspection
signing out. Let me know what you thought about
this episode and about the series so far. Check
the pinned comment for the bonus content because
there will be bonus content there. It's going
to be great and you're going to love it.