It took 49 episodes but the detectives finally did something. It was in the dumbest way possible, but they did something.

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What are your pros and cons on Zeztz's penultimate episode?

I thought I liked Baku, but his tendency to befriend serial killers and being ok risking billions of lives to save Nem makes him kinda gross. He kinda deserves being erased from the waking world for this pull.

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She really did forget how to sleep.

Lesbian couple fought over custody and za LADY won at the cost of her life...

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To the people who want more kaijin final bosses instead of Kamen Riders, what's your response to Oblivion as the last episode boss?

>>23991932
>>23991934
I have 0 sympathy for this bitch but I’m glad she died unlike the other two killers who seemingly will survive the show unpunished. The scene where she killed the two of them was cool and showcases why villain deaths in shows like this are cooler than redemptions.
>>23991935
At the end of the day, it’s just a suit. Oblivion would have sucked regardless of being a rider or a kaijin, and he’s no better than Glion just because he didn’t transform. If My-Th ends with My-Th vs Mao, and they develop their animosity well, then that would be a better finale regardless if it’s a rider vs rider battle or against a kaijin.

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>>23991921

There were some neat visuals and I liked everything with The Lady, and on paper I like the stuff with Nasuka, Fujimi and Nox, as well as Nem coming back. But the character work and pacing are so lackluster in this show that these moments don't have the [IMPACT] that they would otherwise. For example, Nox actually having his own story arc or even just a C-plot actually showing what he was doing during the arc with Three would make him returning to Paranormal Affairs that much more cathartic. Same with Fujimi and Nasuka helping Baku restore Nem.

I also like the whole "dysfunctional rider group that rivals each other" thing this series had going on in the beginning but it's hampered by the fact that Sieg and esp Nox either have their development speedran or ignored. They just got their asses kicked last episode, outside of these guys finally becoming friends and transforming together (a whole 50 episodes in] it's hard to get excited about it when they job so hard already compared to Baku.

Also I predicted Oblivion would be the final boss but I'm kinda disappointed because I think he's a little boring. I don't know who else it would be without rewriting the entire show halfway through, but that goes for a lot of this season unfortunately. I think the human antagonists were just twice as compelling, which is why, even though it has major flaws, I think the middle was the strongest. Not a fan of how much "Oh, this happened. Oh no it didn't. Oh it did again" this season does either, so Oblivion coming back at the last minute because Nem did does nothing for me.

Anyone her know if the Minami spinoff any better written?

>>23991889
best reiwa unless they somehow fuck up the next episode but it's only 1 ep left it can't be fucked.

>>23991938
Can’t be worse written than this.
I never bought into the dysfunctional trio “just like Faiz” because that would imply any of these 3 had a compelling relationship. Baku just kept telling them they were good until they broke and joined him. There’s no interesting dynamic whatsoever, he has as much in common with Sieg and Nox as he did with Five and Six, both characters who have been dead for several episodes now. So anyone being hyped for this fake ass trio is crazy to me.

>>23991940
It's not even the second best.

>>23991945
you're right because it's the best of reiwa

>>23991943
I have seen Faiz used as a comparison but I haven't personally watched it so I have nothing to compare Zeztz's dynamic to. If Faiz does the dysfunctional rider thing in an actual satisfying way I'm excited to pick it up when I'm done catching up on all the other toku I wanna check out. But yeah outside of fights they don't really interact at all. Outside of jobbing, the Nox/Dawn teamup last week was also lackluster because they're practically built for interesting character interactions on account of having both parallels and being opposite characters. Odaka being basically a stoic rogue whistleblower with noble intentions and Sieg being a chaotic hitman fused with a monster, and both in a way being test subjects. But there's not any of that because the status quo got reset like 3 or 4 times and this is also written like a single rider show despite there being 2 more and a handful of psuedos. I know "protags vs the secretly evil organization they work for" is kind of a Takahashi trope but I feel like this was the wrong season to try and tone down that aspect for the third act.

>>23991921
7/10
This episode does some cool things and a lot of little weird things. The gang coming together to summon Nem back into existence was cool, but all of them grabbing capsems and color splashing was corny when it only sort of made sense with Exdream. Sieg and Nox coming in was cool but it was at the VERY END, as well as 80% of last week's preview. Oblivion comes back as the final boss and tries the same plan AGAIN. This last arc has been padded to hell and back and it's the very last episode that they've slowed all of it down to reach, for better or worse.

Props to The Lady for getting the kill on Phantom, it was probably the darkest this show has ever gotten. She's a tragic villain done right. It almost felt out of place with how macabre that scene was. Another good emotional moment was Minami saying goodbye to Baku for seemingly the last time, with the two of them doing the brother/sister bit like it's still the first half of the show. The way she broke down after she realizes she possibly just saw him for the last time hit like a truck, especially because it's over so quickly. It felt like seeing a person lose a loved one, which mirrors what happened with The Lady. Again, there's all this good with the core story beats. And then the wackyness and plot meandering peppered around it just kind of detracts from it. Peep Nasuka drawing an eggplant as her favorite thing when going to sleep. I wonder what she dreams about?

That being said, I will miss Zeztz. Despite their flaws, I like the core gang on paper, and seeing them come around to fully engage with Baku's mission is a strong sendoff. When they all embraced Nem, it was heartwarming. And it was clever that Baku's immunity to Oblivion's power was actually Nem's own. The finale either makes or breaks this series for me.

>Alt timeline where Baku accepts Nem being forgotten is the best for everyone and he bangs Minami
Me and Baku are not the same

>>23991954
You're a dumb ESL.

Anyone can use exdream... Baku the scientist should stick to capsem science.

>>23991889
>>23991921
A really great, emotional episode that really made up for the awkward setup of the previous two eps.

Really appreciate Minami, Fujimi and Nasuka getting a chance to shine, from individual moments throughout, to finally coming together to help Baku bring Nem back. And the detectives finally getting to lucid dream was as exciting as it was comedic.

Rie Mimura's performance as the Lady continues to be the standout of these last chunk of eps, and she really topped herself for her last ep. She's done such a great job of selling The Lady's madness mixed with maternal love. From the rage in her voice when attempting to steal Exdream, to her hysterical laughter after blinding herself/Phantom, to the dull croak responding to Nem calling her "mom", just really powerful acting.

Fujimi welcoming Nox back to Paranormal Affairs was also nice to see (as much as it felt like setup for the post-finale), as well as Kureha's lasting impact on Nasuka. Nem's rescue was also decently emotional. Of course Minami seeing Baku off was also powerful, second to The Lady's scenes. The denial and grief in that scene really rammed in the seeming hopelessness of the situation.

The ending fight put a small damper on the momentum, Baku using Physicam just to setup the triple henshin at the end, but it was still cool to see. Wish Baku had said "We're on it" though.
Also, it's kind of mildly amusing to see that now that Baku's being empowered by Nem, this and the finale is basically a slugfest between halves of a teenage starlet's psyche.

>>23992034
Also, can't talk up the setpieces and direction for this episode enough. The ocean representing The Lady's despair, the barren woods with the spider lillies during Lady and Phantoms' showdown, Minami and Baku's parting being stylized like a dream/flashback, it's all so damn good. I wish there was more of that in the show, but they always brought their A-game for pivotal episodes.

>>23991935
I'm satisfied, just for Takahashi avoiding going the Dark Rider final boss route when it could have easily fit into the narrative. Oblivion is a little bare bones in terms of motivation, but Junko Takeuchi's voice acting makes him enjoyable.

>>23991889
>>23991921
There were good moments even though the pacing was kinda awkward at points. Still, it's probably the best episode we've had in a while.

I wish Baku had tried to use Exdream's reset power to bring Nem back even if it didn't work. It's kinda weird how he hasn't used that ability much in these last few episodes despite the critical situations that have happened in them and the fact that he's pretty much resigned to his fate by now, a few more moments of Baku's body being strained due to Exdream's overuse like in the final fight against Catastrophe would've helped sell the idea that it's fucking him up a bit better.

I kinda like how Sieg made a callback to the conversation he had with Nem about whether or not the loss of a life could make the world better. However, although I know he's supposed to be kind of a tsundere who isn't honest about his true feelings, moments like this where he gloats over being proven right about something horrible just make it feel like he hasn't progressed much as a character. And Nox was just a doomer loser like always.

Nem acting like a senile child while talking to Oblivion after her mindwipe was creepy, ngl.

The Lady briefly went back to being a villain before Baku convinced her to stop and let him save Nem. The whole moment felt rushed and awkwardly paced, but at least we got another solid interaction between Baku and The Lady, I wish the show had more of those.

(1/?)

>>23992086
Nox being invited back into the police would've probably been a heartwarming moment if he wasn't such a huge fucking faggot who doesn't deserve a happy ending, it's literally the penultimate episode and he STILL refuses to help out, dude has been there since the very first episode but he's barely grown as a character at all. I did like Fujimi's speech about how they'll have to surpass Zeztz to save Nem and what seemed to be a hatsuyume reference when he said all 3 of them will make that dream a reality, as well as the fact that Nasuka remembered Kureha during her vow to not let someone die on her again.

The cops finally found a way to do shit in the dream world, too bad it took them until the fucking penultimate episode to do so. Also, I'm glad they acknowledged that Minami had gone through Dream Learning due to the events of her miniseries, wish she would've transformed into her Knight/Lord form at some point in the TV show, but I'll take what I can get.

Phantom finally tried to take full control of The Lady, but The Lady cockblocked her in a pretty edgy scene where she blinded herself and acted villainously crazy (complete with her old theme playing in the background), which was an... odd decision for a character that's supposed to be redeeming herself in that very moment. But I did like how The Lady talked back to Phantom and made her disappear by giving up her ability to dream, and thinking of what she wanted as a want/desire instead since she's a woman who doesn't sleep, that was pretty badass.

(2/?)

>>23992090
I wanted and was expecting a scene where the supporting characters saved Baku in some way with their dreams, and I'm glad we basically got that here, on top of showing us that Baku can't do everything on his own and that he does need the help of others. However, the heroes swinging the Capsems around at the air looked kinda awkward, and the scene would've hit harder if Nem had developed an actual relationship with the cops, as the only supporting character who said something of substance about her was Minami, who thanked her for helping her and Baku patch things up after it was revealed that she was an Agent (which was a nice callback btw). Also, Nasuka had a flashback to an event from the first half, another continuity error brought about by the pointless reset.

I kinda wish Nem hadn't been restored until the next episode to make her absence feel more impactful. Also, I have no issue with Baku indirectly restoring Oblivion by saving Nem since he also plans to beat him and save the world, but it was neat to see Nem get worried about that immediately after realizing she got restored.

The Lady's death scenes was pretty good, her actress is great and Nem's also did a good job here with the facial expresiones and line delivery. It was neat to see the flower symbolism at play again, as well as the callback to The Lady's debut with the butterfly POV shot.

Oblivion as a final boss is pretty whatever, outside of his speeches about Nem's psyche, he's kinda just a generic monster. His connection to Nem is the only thing about him that really stands out.

Nox really had the gall to smirk when he realized the good guys succeeded at the mission he fucking refused to help them out with. That doomer faggot should feel ashamed for trying to talk them out of it in the first place.

I think the way Baku obtained his final power-up should've had more fanfare than it did, he just pulled it out of one of the vending machines like it was an old regular Capsem.

(3/?)

>>23992092
I really liked that last scene between Baku and Minami, I'm a sucker for moments like this where a hero's loved one shows just how much their self-sacricing nature is hurting them. Minami's breakdown when she saw that Baku vanished right after he made a promise they both know he can't fulfill (at least not in the way Minami wants) was just so good, she really is one of the show's best characters alongside The Lady, Zero and Baku himself, props to her actress as well for greatly conveying Minami's uneasiness and despair.

Baku's fight with Oblivion this week was honestly underwhelming, and there was once again no reason for him to use a basic form against a boss monster like Oblivion, but I did like how Nem helped out a bit by using her powers and memories to prevent Baku from getting erased.

Episode ended a bit abruptly, just as Nox and Sieg showed up to help Baku out.

The finale will probably end up decent as long as they don't somehow fuck things up really badly in the next episode, I'm expecting Baku to end up trapped in the dream world forever while he continues to protect people from the Nightmares, since the plot point about him being able to break the Nightmare cycle thanks to Catastrophe's power seems to have been completely dropped.

(4/4)

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Three should have been the Final Boss...

>>23992094
>but I did like how Nem helped out a bit by using her powers and memories to prevent Baku from getting erased.
Feels like I'm watching yesterday's Bleach episode all over again!

>>23992152
Or The Lady.

>get rid of female riders
>quality of female characters goes up drastically

>>23992164
Well maybe not Nasuka but Minami and Nem btfo female riders

>>23991938
>Anyone her know if the Minami spinoff any better written?
Depends on how you define better written.
The plot is so simple so it doesn't fuck up nearly as much but at the same time there isn't much going on either.
My biggest issue was when watching weekly and there were weeks of "Should I help the comedian? Yes, I will" in loop until it happened but its probably better on binge.

>>23992164
>boring sister who doesn’t do anything but be an emotional support pet
>boring idol girl who needs other people to choose things for her and has 0 agency
>useless police officer who doesn’t do anything but abuse her superior by kicking him in the ass repeatedly
>useless agent who dies
Rabbit and Sheep riders from My-Th already have a bigger following than a single loser from this show. Also fucking Nem is just a repeat of Neon from Geats but worse because this writer’s a fucking hack.

>>23992092
>Also, Nasuka had a flashback to an event from the first half, another continuity error brought about by the pointless reset.
Oh, and she shouldn't have remembered that even without the reset since the one who had that interaction with Nem was Kureha's dream version of Nasuka, not the real Nasuka.

>>23991938
>Anyone her know if the Minami spinoff any better written?
It's a silly comedy that doesn't really take itself seriously, and the episodes are extremely short. It's not worth watching unless you really, really want to see Minami transform.

>Nox is 100% forgiven and got his old job back
he seriously ended up winning in the end by doing fucking nothing

>>23992212
So based

>>23992203
>doesn’t do anything but be an emotional support pet
That's what every female character should do, female warriors are cringe.
>Also fucking Nem is just a repeat of Neon from Geats but worse
Nah, Neon is worse, Nem at least isn't a selfish bitch like her.

>>23992222
Neon story is so fucking retarded and has the most forced drama in any rider.

>>23991974
Um based?

>>23992152
>>23992156
The Gore Nightmares just feel like Toei higher-ups forced Takahashi to have major kaijin villains for the second half.
Nightmares worked much better as a force of nature that The Lady was trying to cultivate to her advantage and not the high council of primordial conceptual fears.

Human vs human conflict on the right to control the subconscious with the Nightmares in the middle was much more interesting

Did they show Six alive during the next episode preview

>>23992318
I think that's Eight in the preview

>>23992212
But he did nothing that needed forgiving

>>23992618
His vagueness resulted on Zero's death

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>>23992627
>>23992618

>>23991954
Geats > Gavv > Zeztz > 01 > Saber > Revice > Gotshart

>>23992633
Geats is overrated as fuck and Gavv is only rated so highly because it didn't shit the bed AS hard as the others

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The penultimate episodes of Reiwa.

>>23992633
For me it's
Gavv >> Saber >> Zeztz > Geats >> Zero-One >> Gotchard >>>> Revice

>>23992636
That's because Reiwa tiers are about who shit the bed the least.

>>23992639
Somehow even less exciting than last year's, and the endgame wasn't one of Gavv's best qualities.

>>23992618
The detectives established in a previous episode that destroying CODE technically counts as an act of terrorism, and he himself wanted Fujimi to turn him in.

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>>23992639
Damn, you made me remember Fatzu

>>23992644
Saber > Gavv > Zeztz > Gotchard > Zero-One >= Geats > Revice

>>23992618
His laziness resulted in The Lady's merger with Phantom, which also led to her death.

>>23992636
>Geats is overrated as fuck
Kek, where?

>>23992733
nta but outside of this site I've seen Geats and Zeztz being overhyped by shounenfags but I think they're just a loud minority from people that weren't familiar with the franchise and decided to start with both
From what I've seen nearly everyone that's been a fan of toku before watching or normal people that started with Zeztz but marathoned other shows during its airing just consider both to be 7/10s

>>23992681
Do not trust this mans opinion ever

>>23992847
Meant for >>23992633

>>23992881
Gotchard is where it belongs so its far more trusting than the fucker that ranked it above Geats. Be serious brother.

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>>23992881
cope and seethe and dilate

>>23992882
>implying Geats isn't terrible
>implying Revice is better than anything
>>23992901
But enough about you.

>>23992906
>implying Geats isn't terrible
It isn't. Get your head out your ass.
>implying Revice is better than anything
Like comparing shit and vomit.

>>23992909
>It isn't. Get your head out your ass.
Get better taste.
>Like comparing shit and vomit.
Yeah, we're comparing shows from an era where most of them aren't good, which is partly because almost half of them are written by the exact same hack.

>>23992922
>Get better taste.
Uh nou?

holy fuck nox
can't wait to never see him again
>there is no way you guys can save nem
>omg they saved nem and now i believe in themes and such

>Baku doing a cool 1st episode tribute henshin one last time
>promptly gets his ass beat out of it in 5 seconds so he can Exdream again

welp

>>23993273
Bro tried the same shit with his part 1 callback. It doesn't work.

Is it bad I almost laughed during the Nem rescue scene? I mean it's a bunch of as actors swinging toys in a green screen what am I supposed to feel. Especially with how I felt with this show in general.

I was willing to give the slow burn a chance but from start to finish it never answered the questions I wanted or elaborated on much. Mostly Nox, which is funny since I remember at the start of the show the actor talked fondly about his time as Nox so I was a little excited but then 3 4 and 5 happened then juiced, blown and paperized before the last arc.

Show starts being about nightmares but midshow focused more on CODE and how eeeevil they are then went back to nightmares.

I loved the Lady definitely the high praise of the show but a little too late.

Also like, Nem wanted to sacrifice herself to save everyone but Baku wanted to bring her back anyway like wtf?! What's different between now and last time you fought Oblivion?

Compare this to something like Geats, which does do the "power of friendship and belief" thing but it had an I lore explanation where gods get stronger the more belief they have. What, am I supposed to believe that if you believe in your dream you can do anything or not be forgotten? Barf. Den-o did that memory concept better and that show was a train wreck at the end.

Not saying Geats is a great show btw just pointing out story bits

>>23992740
They must be a loud minority because the only other place i've seen is toku twitter and they hate it too, and their taste is literally "if /m/ hates something then it must be good".

>>23993605
>What's different between now and last time you fought Oblivion?
I assume it will be explained in the last episode.
Oblivion also said he becomes stronger the more insecure Nem is so that might end up being the key.

This week definitely had some of the highlights of the recent episodes that have been pretty poor. It largely feels like the "none of this ever happened" reset was a mistake that should have come way sooner so it could be used more instead of being replaced with 4 mooks. Like its clear from the capsems to the four bringing Nem back there was some underlying idea they wanted to expand on more but some shit changed midway through. Theres just so many ideas introduced that were forgotten.

That said the cops and the lady were great this episode. Honestly at this point i think the weakest character is actually Baku. By regressing him to "muh nemu chan!" he has no agency of his own and after zero being revealed as his father he really just exists to "go look for somebody" only to instantly find them and yell "no, uno reversi" which is a very weak protagonist. Everyone from his sister to sieg had some great moments but he just yells something defiant and then tries to punch a guy in a rubber suit. That is like season 1 mighty morphin power rangers level of character writing.

Maybe the precog stuff wrote him into a corner or they finished his narrative with the catastrom nightmare and went "...shit this guys the main character and has like 15 episodes left" but even the more mid stuff like Saber had the protagonist feel relevant till the end. Baku has just become two dimensional and its not the actors fault its square on the writers.

>>23993671
>Fuck it lets just use the gacha again that he was meant to have exhausted making exdream to just shit out a final form thats just a recolour.

They had to have their budget cut right? most of this episode was 2 sets, a greenscreen soundstage and just standing by a fucking pond.

>>23993676
Still surprised he has ended up as the goat of the show.

>>23992090
>hatsuyume reference
I'm just noticing that's what they were named after

Zeztz isn't outright bad but it is the single largest absolute fumbling of a premise and waste of potential Rider has potentially ever seen and that's almost worse than it just being plain bad.

>>23993678
He's one of the worst characters.

>>23993705
The biggest threat is just... not remembering dreams...? Lots of people already experience that every day

>>23993765
They treat dreams like a separate dimension akin to the world of granutes or helhiem completely forgetting multiple people in the world can dream at once.

Also still don't know how Nem appearing in people's dreams and how everyone basically knows her enough to be a celebrity work. Like that sounds like she'll become some magical mcguffin like idk... The power to connect dreams? Oh wait that's Exdream's power apparently

"Connecting dreams" and "the real world and dream world are merging" are used so interchangeably and its hard to wrap your head around it

>>23993659
Doesn't sound like a minority when the majority of tier lists and opinions keep saying how "goated" Geats was + the likes and upvoter they get are semi proof people liked that season

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>give me your power and I can make Nem come back, as a baby
Okay, so was she trying to take his zzzeed here? Was it rape attempt

When did nasuka and co learn to lucid dream at will???

>>23994334
That female villain is a known rapist.

>>23994340
Minami? She learned it in her miniseries. The cops? They just learned how to do it in this episode.

>>23991921
I didn't post in the previous episode thread since I watched it late but I thought that one was just kinda average.
This episode however was honestly one of my favorite of the show, kami didn't disappoint. Even though I wish Fujimi and Nasuka had done more in the second half rather than constantly getting their progress constantly deleted I at least appreciate them being useful now and being so opposed to Nox's logic, specially Nasuka considering how she was at the start of the show. The acting in this episode was impeccable, specially from Lady, both the scene of her blinding herself and her death were really well executed. My only issue with this episode was how annoying Nox and Sieg were this episode, I usually don't have much of an issue with Sieg but he was also pretty annoying last episode, I was hoping that after Nox finally getting at semblance of character development back in episode 46 he'd stop being a cunt but clearly that didn't change.

>>23994314
The fact the general kept defending that as good storytelling was just disappointing to see

>>23995464
>the general
It's just one or two retards.

>>23994317
>upvoter
sounds like a site you should avoid anyways.
>>23994314
> how everyone basically knows her enough to be a celebrity work
The same as any celebrity
>Like that sounds like she'll become some magical mcguffin
She did.

I've had a theory for a while that The Lady was Baku's mom. Since Baku and Nem and close in age and I could see having to give up her baby could of messed her up mentally for Phantom to exploit her dream of motherhood to create Nem.

>>23997095
That's a dumb theory.

>>23997095
I trust Zero knew not to stick it in crazy.

>>23993719
>HE'S A HECKIN KILLER! OH MY SCIENCE THESE CHARACTERS ARE SO BAD BECAUSE THEY KILLED PEOPLE! I'M SO MAD THAT THESE KILLERS ARE GETTING AWAY!
Yes we've heard your moralfag spergouts plenty over the past year, please go back to TVTropes or Discord or some other autism friendly community

>>23997254
He literally trained a psycho mass murderer criminal as one of his very first Agents.

>>23998728
>Yes we've heard your moralfag spergouts plenty over the past year
But enough about Baku and Nem. Also, that's not the only reason why he sucks, he's also fucking annoying and can't stop ruining the mood with his antics.

He can't be the best character when there's 4 characters that mog him in terms of writing and even acting, brainrotten redditor.

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>>23998728
>moralfag

>>23993676
honestly I like Sieg way more than I like Baku

>>23993719
Actually one of the best because he's more of a character than the retard who fell for every villainous trap in this show, to the point where the story had to rewind twice for him.