This review may contain spoilers
Mild spoilers ahead
Everything the show did well:>Excellent acting, easily some of the franchise's best
>Really great visual direction, atmosphere setpieces and shot composition
>The ability to warp the scenery of dreams remains a constant throughout the show making fights and scenes feel unique
>Great soundtrack aside from the insert songs
>Most monsters of the week are pretty entertaining, the detective work the cast does in the first half of the show too
>Baku is a really great protagonist, he's both endearing and stylish while not feeling absurdly overpowered despite his dream abilities, his gadgets and use of capsems outside of fights also make him feel resourceful
>All of the main villains feel menacing
>Most individual stories of the 2-parters are fun on their own even though the second half is fully serialized
Everything the show did poorly:
>The show's main rival Nox is a really frustrating character throughout the whole show
>The big plot-twist in the middle makes the female lead Nem considerably less useful in the second half in spite of her massive relevance to the story
>Another thing that doesn't help these two and the other characters that aren't Baku is the pacing on the second half, despite every 2-parter case in the second half being intrinsically tied to the plot they are placed in a way that works against the story/cast, it makes so that some characters don't have enough downtime to deal with tragedies, similar plot-twists happen back to back and most of the progress the show's cop duo Fujimi and Nasuka do in the second half be continously erased making them feel useless despite being likeable characters, this also leads to certain scenes with Sieg to feel awkwardly placed
>Most CODE agents are too underexplored
>The world-building behind the Nightmares feel really wonky
>The action direction feels weaker than other Reiwa Rider shows, but this is just a nitpick since the strong visual direction compensates for it allowing for most fights in the show still be really entertaining
Reasons for the show's strengths:
The show's lead director Kamihoriuchi is one of the best in the tokusatsu industry, the team of episode directors for the show were also really solid, despite most dreams taking place in urban areas this team managed to do a lot with the dream setting.
The chief producer Yanaka dividing his responsibilities among the other two vice producers and Kamihoriuchi allowed for certain aspects of the show like direction, bike scenes, fashion and casting to be enhanced.
Yanaka wanting to have more bike scenes and both him and VP Minato being hardcore fans of early Heisei Rider allowed for the show to have more bike scenes than usual.
VP Sota already has a lot of experience with casting due to having already handle multiple dramas so him being asked to handle it helped the acting being solid throughout.
Head writer Takahashi is good at creating stories with an exciting fast pacing, despite the story progressing kinda slowly in the first quarter of the show most cases retain this sort of pace allowing for the 2-parter stories to be exciting.
Reasons for the show's problems:
Takahashi likes to lots of villains acting simultaneously which results in them not getting the development they needed.
Yanaka's style of the 2-parter structure being more focused on creating an exciting story on the short term rather than a continuous story doesn't mesh well Takahashi's fast paced storytelling style making the pacing of the show's second half to feel off, this also leads to big twist in the middle being done for the sake of it rather than for an actual story reason.
Due to being assigned to make the first show with an international release Yanaka wanted to make this show as distinct from Power Rangers as possible, so he decided that every hero of the show should be continously against Baku throughout most of the story with to make him feel lonely. This feels as a conflict of interests with Takahashi who usually opts for the villains to be extremely evil, this leads to multiple characters feeling inconsistent since their moral conflict usually aren't enough of a justification for their nefarious actions, with the most egregious case of this being Nox.
The staff decided to not tell Nox' actor about his character so some scenes early on feel off once information later gets revealed.
For the enemies known as Lords the staff only made 2 suits, 1 male and 1 female. This seriously limited what they could do with these characters since it meant they couldn't transform together or that one character would suddenly stop transforming because the suit had already been cannibalized.
Overall:
Zeztz is a continuously entertaining ride but it's a show that feels bumpy the more you look back to. The small cases and certain plot beats work on a vacuum but the story as a whole isn't up to par. While most of the characters of the show are not only likable but well acted they feel severely underutilized aside from the protagonist Baku. Overall the show ends up being pretty good but not so standout, I at least feel that the staff succeeded in their goal of making a season that's good for beginners to toku to start with, I'd definitely recommend it as starting point for anyone interested in Rider or toku in general.
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Not the best series but a good starting point.
I've been a on again off again week to week watcher of Kamen Rider since Wizard so I was very interested to see how the first series to be simulcasted in the west would go and I gotta say it's pretty good, though far from perfect. The secret Agent aesthetic early on is probably one of it's strongest points, it really succeeds in evoking stuff like James Bond without straight up copying it, giving it that Rider spin so to say. Though I honestly found the Rider and Kaijin suit design the be quite wanting this series, with only the base and final forms of Zeztz fitting my own tastes enough to make me want figures just based on the looks and all the others just coming off as an oddly colored collection of shapes, sometimes with a very entertaining characters inside. I think the cast is also pretty entertaining, the younger actors are a little rough at times but they mostly hit their marks and the veteran character actors they join have some really fun out there moments when they're allowed to cut loose. Plus, while it is used quite repetitively, the score is very solid and helps to sell moments that would otherwise feel a little weak ether due to the acting or story. Personally though, I feel like the writing really falls off after the big mid series reveal and because of that I'm kinda leaning towards this being my least favorite Takahashi Yuya Rider series, it just goes in a direction that really feels like it's ignoring a greater point it seemed to be building towards in favor of something that feels more generic and makes some of the leads look like fools to me as a more critical viewer. It's not terrible though, the final arc still has a few very good episodes, the action direction stays good throughout almost the entire series if a bit special effects relient for my taste and the finale left me feeling fairly satisfied and interested in seeing what My-th will have to offer. Overall, I think this show did it's job as a good introductory series for new fans that was neat enough for long time ones like myself, but that's really all it works as, this isn't a show I think I'll ever feel the pull to revisit.Was this review helpful to you?
A great Kamen Rider to start out with!
I watched Kamen Rider ZEZTZ live from Tokusatsu's simulcast stream for the past year, which also happens to be my first Kamen Rider I've had the pleasure of watching live from beginning to end. Essentially, the show follows the main protagonist, clumsy and unlucky Baku Yorozu, who when he sleeps, can infiltrate dreams as his alter-ego, the sly secret agent Seven who works for the top secret agency known as CODE -- or at least, that's how the show begins. ZEZTZ plays fast and loose with not only morality, but with reality and trust. Even after the infamous mid-series reveal, there's almost always more secrets that are built up to be unraveled, and betrayals from every side.Is it the best Kamen Rider? Probably not, but it's still really good. Is it the best Kamen Rider to start out with? There's definitely a case that can be made in favor for it.
Pros:
> Probably the best part about ZEZTZ is how it's shot. All of the fights are super creative and plays a lot with the camera angles in a way that feels both epic and surreal. Hands down, ZEZTZ definitely has some of the best fights in the series.
> All of the three main Riders are great. Baku/ZEZTZ is a compelling protagonist that is worth rooting for, especially with his split between his endearing "real" self and his alter-ego Seven. NOX, in my opinion, is a very well-crafted anti-hero/anti-villain Rider reminiscent of a lot of Heisei-era Riders with a good character arc (albeit one that could've benefitted from more time) and a super fun presence in part due to his sheer determination. The tertiary Rider, Dawn/Sieg, is probably one of the best characters in the show. Not only does he has one of the best arcs, but he also is the reason of some of the show's best scenes in general. Every scene with Dawn is a delight to watch.
> Sans a few moments of delivery that are particularly off, the acting is very good in this show.
> I liked the mid-series reveal. It's pretty contentious, but to me, it was perfect for kick-starting the second half of the series.
> The soundtrack, although a tad repetitive, is very very good. I really like the insert songs!
> ZEZTZ starts off strong and sticks the landing. All of the characters are resolved in a very satisfying way.
> ZEZTZ is very good at setting up and paying off, especially with the various mysteries that are set up throughout the show. It's a great show to binge!
Cons:
> Personally, I felt the plot started to fall off after Case 34 and especially after Case 38 -- not enough to hamper my enjoyment of the show, but enough to be noticeable. It does recover, although a bit too late for my liking.
> Most of the side-characters are fun, but they do run into some issues. A lot of their progress -- specifically, Fujimi and Nasuka's in particular -- often feels undermined, and while Nem is a good character, she could have done a lot more in the grand scheme of things.
> CODE, as a whole, feels a tad too underexplored for my liking, and the world-building around CODE, the Capsems, and the Nightmares could have been executed better -- especially considering how Capsems are the gimmick of this series.
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A fun time
This was a fun show to watch. The drama, action, and the premise for this season of KR was very interesting to me. This is the first KR that I kept up to date with, and I enjoyed tuning in every Saturday/Sunday for a new episode. I think that around the halfway point things may have started to become a bit convoluted and the ending was a bit rushed but ultimately, this is a good show, despite how cheesy it can be and the CGI not being that good.Was this review helpful to you?
WASTED POTENTIAL!
I’m gonna be honest, I’ve given Yuya Takahashi way more chances than he deserved, but surprisingly, he still can’t seem to get any better. In fact, it keeps getting worse.Zeztz is definitely a style over substance series. The technical aspects really did a lot of heavy lifting to cover for the writer’s weaknesses. A lot of the pros come from the designs, score and soundtrack, and especially the direction in some episodes, like those directed by Sugihara and Kamihoriuchi.
This series fumbled hard after the first arc, and in my personal opinion, it has some of the laziest and cheapest writing I’ve seen. Even the big twist itself wasn’t executed well.
Most of the actors did a good job, but the main heroine, Nemu, played by Horiguchi, could sometimes be pretty bland in her acting. The side characters and villains were also a major letdown. And then I see some fans saying Zeztz needed more episodes. Like...what do you mean, more episodes?!! lol
It needed less and a much faster pace. The first arc dragged on for way too long, and it took almost half the season to execute that whole “thing.” The finale also felt really forced, as if we were expected to watch other supplementary content just to fully understand the epilogue. That’s just bad writing overall.
In conclusion, this series could’ve been an all-timer if it had been written by someone who actually understood how to execute a sci-fi, high-concept storyline. Toei relies way too much on Takahashi when, frankly, he just doesn’t seem capable of handling this particular concept.
I really don’t want Takahashi to touch another Rider series anymore. I also think Zeztz is by far one of the most divisive series he’s ever written, and honestly, I hope Toei takes the reception to this series as a serious wake-up call.
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