Kamen Rider Z's episode 26 is the best recap
in the history of Kamen Rider, nay, in the history
of all Henshin Hero tokusatsu shows. I think
that's true. And the great thing about that is
it adds proof to my assertion that Yuu Takahashi
either is or wants to, or both, be known as the
best writer in the Kamen Rider franchise. Because
he's just fantastic. Anyway, so I love... This
was a recap episode, 26 Zets, and I almost skipped
it. I thought, I really need to watch it. I thought,
well, but I've seen people online kind of talking
about it and saying how cool it was and how interesting
it was. So I thought, okay, fine, I'll stick
around. Plus, the show threatened me. It said,
you Zetsers, stick around to the end. So I thought,
oh, better. I don't want to have any bad dreams.
So anyway, I watched till the end, and it was
cool. I noticed, I think, three things that prove
my point. One is that the dialogue was natural.
And it made sense, the whole conceit of the recap,
it made a lot of sense why they were doing it.
Two, my second proof is that the recap is extremely
efficient. It really does a great job of encapsulating
the 24 episodes in, I think it was 18 minutes
or less. If you count, if you subtract what you
should, the opening, which was, I don't know,
a minute and 30 seconds or something like that.
And then proof number three is that it also moves
the story forward and it moves the story forward
in a couple of ways. One, we see Agent 3 giving
orders to 5 and 6. We see 5 and 6 coming to confront
or capture whatever, Baku. They really want the
driver, but that's not important. They're sent
after Baku. And then number three is that we
have this new guy show up at the end. Dual wielding
knives, I believe. He's got two knives. And then
knives drop down from the ceiling. It's kind
of fun. Anyway, so that's great. We have the
conceit is that... Baku had all this stuff happen
to him from the first 24 episodes, 25 really,
in his dream. And now he, well, he had all this
stuff happen to him in episode 24, or through
episodes 1 through 24. In episode 25, he wakes
up for a real reel, and he encounters these people,
his sister and the two agents, Fujimi and Nasuka.
And then he basically tells them that he has...
history and connection with them that goes deeper
and that he's this agent and that there's all
this stuff going on and they don't really believe
him, but they're kind of intrigued and they're
kind of hooked. And then by the end of the episode,
they're all primed to want to learn about what's
going on because he falls asleep in the Zets
room, which I guess that's all it's called. And
then he appears on the screen with Nem and that
sets us up for this episode where he says, okay,
now that I've got you all hooked, now that I
have your attention and you believe me, sort
of, you're open to believing me. Let me explain
to you what happened. And then he goes ahead
and does that. And all of them, because none
of them were there in the events of the dream,
or his premonition really, and I'll clarify why
I think premonition is more important than dream,
none of them know what's going on, but they should
want to know. They should be invested in knowing
what happened, and they are, so they ask questions.
And Nem, which this part doesn't... Okay, I'll
jump back real quick. I, at one point... in talking
with people in my comments, and some of you,
and in seeing people talk about this online and
thinking about it myself, was kind of thinking,
oh, this is a Wizard of Oz scenario. He goes
to sleep, and as he's dreaming, people from the
real world get pulled into his dream, into his...
So he's dealing with cognitive versions of them.
They're not really the real people. They're versions
of the people based on whatever, and that's all
it is. However... I don't think that's true because
I think this was a premonition, a vision of the
future of a potential reality that could have
happened had things gone a certain way. But now
that things are changing, that reality will not
fall out the same way. However, people will still
be the people who they were. So he was dealing
with like an alternate timeline version of them
almost. And the people who he got to know, he
really did get to know them. And those connections
really did happen in a way where they had the
potential to happen in his waking reality, in
the waking world. But they didn't have the chance
to because of circumstances. So now that he's
awake and they're awake and they're drawn into
his story and they want to know what's going
on, there's a chance for him to repeat those
same dynamics with them, if not beat for beat
the same sort of scenarios. Nem is the exception
because... I don't know what happened with Nem,
actually. Was he dealing with the actual Nem,
or was he dealing with a potential version of
Nem throughout the dreams? I don't think he was
dealing with the real Nem, because she doesn't
know that the lady's her mother, and she seemed
very much like when she wanted to arrest him
and all that stuff, like she was reset to the
beginning, and Baku's the only one who had those
sorts of meaningful interactions with everybody,
including Nem. So Nem was also asking questions,
and it made sense because she's a person, a character,
who did not have the premonition, therefore she
had things to ask about like the others did,
which makes a lot of sense. So very natural way,
very clever way to set up the synopsis, the recap
segments, with having the characters say, well,
what happened about this, or how does this function,
as opposed to in Gokaiger or whatever. Hey, do
you remember when this happened? Oh yeah, that
was crazy. Let's talk about that now, and then
show the clip. So I really like that. And let
me see my notes. So, I mean, I don't think I
need to prove that it's extremely efficient because
I've already basically stated that it is extremely
efficient. No further proof needed. It went by
like that. You get it. You're caught up. You
could even say you could jump all the way to
episode 26 and just start from there if you really
didn't want to watch the first 24 episodes. But
I think you should because they're really good.
Good stuff happened. We had Mickey Mold. We had
running around. Ball as a tiny purple guy. It
was incredible. And then my third point, or my
third proof, is that the episode moved the story
forward. So we're learning a little bit more
about the structure. Agent 3 is offering, is
giving orders. His orders are absolute. Even
though Agent 5 objects to them, and Agent 5 in
the dream, in the premonition, he said he doesn't
let go until his target is dead. which is interesting,
and I always felt kind of funny about him and
funny about that idea, but I think it makes sense,
especially if they're going after bad things.
Also, yeah, I'll focus on that somewhere else.
More importantly than that side tangent I was
going to get distracted by is that we also see
this new Kamen Rider come along, who I won't
name if you're not into the spoilers, but I've
seen spoilers or maybe the name reported on scans
or whatever, but I won't share it here. We have
this dual knife -wielding guy come in. So, pause.
Baku's catching everybody up. He is actually
showing some cool agent status, some chops, because
he's going to get surprise attacked by these
people by five and six, but he knows they're
coming, so he's using his Techno -Lom. projection
power from one of his capsums in order to put
out a decoy that they attack which was super
dope and a super great moment because it shows
how much he's grown and how much he's developed
from the zero he was in episode one to the uh
you know whatever he is in episode 24 or 26 whatever
so that's really cool and that's part of the
plot progression and then this new guy comes
in who's this new enemy who he attacks all of
them and Baku even makes a statement, I think,
in that moment that, oh, our fate is changing
already. So it's cool because you have the recap.
You have everything. The stage is set for things
to continue now, but they're not going to continue
in the same way. They're going to progress. They're
going to go forward into a different direction
based on everything that's happened. And I find
that really exciting, really cool. It's a great
recap episode because it catches you up. If you
came from zero and had nothing, I think you could
just jump into the show here. But again. If you
are a full -time watcher of the show, then you
are being rewarded by seeing a cool recap episode
with all these interesting little things happening,
going on. There's little lore tidbits that are
dropped throughout. And now we have this big
reveal of this other person who we don't know
who they are or what they're doing. And they've
got a cool suit and they've got six eyes, which
I think links to Baku's shadow thing, Nightmare.
But that's something I'll talk about later as
well. And I find this all really exciting, really
compelling. I think it's great. I think Takahashi
is the GOAT. Which is funny because goat is in
the lyrics of the first song at the very end.
Anyway, please let me know if there's a better
writer recap episode, Sentai recap episode, Ultraman
recap episode. I'd love to know it because I
don't think it exists. I don't think it's out
there. I think this is the best. Prove me wrong.
Anyway, check the pinned comment for more. You
can find playlists. You can find my inspector's
notes where I'll have extra information there.
Good, juicy tidbits that you can... bite into
and enjoy and other good stuff. So until next
time, folks, this is MJ with Henshin Inspection
and Rider Tears signing out.