Kamen Rider Zeztz 21

Watch Analysis

So, episode 21 of Zeztz sure sucks. I mean, it is great. Of course it is great. But it sucks because the bad guys are winning, and it is a big deal.

Not only are the Nightmares winning, but they are winning in pretty much the worst way possible. They are manipulating children and capturing them.

These kids go dead eyed, and then they walk into the Nightmare, and then that is it. It is over. Boom.

And what this episode does really well is it makes a victory for the bad guys happen, and it makes it matter in a very big way. If you were going to give a victory to the Nightmares, this is probably the best way to do it.

The Nightmares Victory Actually Matters

This is not one of those episodes where the bad guys win and it feels like a shrug. This feels like a turning point.

The children are in danger, and that is the point. I keep thinking of the phrase, wont someone please think of the children, but that is exactly who is being targeted here.

The Nightmare succeeds, escapes into the real world by pulling the kids into itself, and then manifests in reality. It is really rough. It is really creepy. It is really harsh. And I like that because it is extra dramatic, and it is important that we keep things as dramatic as possible.

By the end, Three literally says it. Worst case scenario. Code Red. Which is funny because they are called CODE too.

CODE and the Question of Children as Targets

It is also interesting because CODE targeted children too, if you want to be uncharitable. And I am inclined to be uncharitable toward CODE because I do not think they deserve a lot of charity.

Baku is a CODE operative, but he is basically rogue, even though he is working within the organization. That is interesting compared to Five and Six, who are very much following what the organization says to do.

That contrast feels like it is asking bigger questions. It makes me feel like there is something thematically larger going on here. I do not fully know what it is yet, but the show is clearly cooking something.

The Kids Trauma and the Lady

I think it is really interesting that all of these kids had dealt with some kind of traumatic event. Flooding, volcano, whatever. Multiple kids. More than just Sohta. The girl is Tomoko, the karate girl, who wants to be the fighter.

And it made me wonder if the fact that these kids experienced something dramatic pushed them toward the Lady as a psychologist. Maybe she treated them. Maybe she implanted the nightmare of the Demon King within them. That is very possible.

And then that made me think further back.

Is it possible that Baku, after being hit by lightning, after his parents died, after whatever happened to him, did he go to the Lady when he was a boy and receive treatment from her?

If this theory checks out, it is super sinister.

Maybe she was working for CODE at the time. Maybe she was identifying targets for them, or children who would be potential assets for the future. Maybe that is how Baku got assigned. Maybe that is how others got assigned too.

And then that made me think, did Kureha have something bad happen to her back in the day as well? Is that what got her into this cram school that Hodaka was overseeing?

If the theory does not check out and she is just traumatizing kids who already have nightmares and then giving them worse nightmares, that also makes sense. If she is a psychologist or psychiatrist who is seeing clients and injecting nightmares into them, that is evil in a very specific way.

And it would make her extra bad, which is interesting.

Because I can understand why CODE would want to fight against her and do whatever they have to do, potentially. But we do not know if she started as CODE, or if CODE is working against her and she started the Nightmare situation herself.

It is too early in the show to tell. But these are the kinds of questions this episode raises, and I find that very interesting.

Children, Dreams, and the Most Potent Nightmares

She mentioned something about children having the greatest potential for dreams, which gives them the most powerful or most potent nightmares.

That is an interesting concept.

I do not fully know where it is going, but it makes me uncomfortable. It also feels very true, which makes it sad. Somebody who knows how the mind works would know how to manipulate kids and turn them into vectors for nightmares to enter the real world.

That is the kind of villainy that feels real.

Baku Falling Asleep Early and a New Risk

One more thing.

Baku falls asleep super early, during the day. Then he goes into the dream. We see him in the dream and the kids are there, but also Agents Five and Six are there.

That would imply it is reasonably nighttime when they would be asleep too.

And his sister Minami points out, the kids are not going to be asleep yet. What are you doing. You are sleeping too early.

So is it possible Baku might be in danger of becoming a full time sleeper agent? Where the more he acts in the dream world, the more he becomes someone who is always asleep and always there, kind of like Nem?

I find that fascinating.

Why Episode 21 Works

I like that we are getting forward progression and more questions raised. We do not have the full shape of the mystery yet. It is like the mystery grows more arms and more tentacles as it goes, and we cannot see where they are all going.

That is effective writing.

And of course they went for the kids, which is horrible, especially because of the way it depicts the kids being victimized and harmed by the system. I am going to talk about that more in the bonus section at the bottom of this post.

What Did You Think

Let me know what you thought about this episode.

Did you think the horror of hurting these children was especially effective or really interesting, or did other aspects of the episode stand out more to you?

I know I basically skipped over the Nox fight versus Five and Six, which was interesting, but the kids storyline pulled my attention. If you want to talk about the Nox side of the episode too, lets talk about it. I am sure I have thoughts and opinions on that as well.

Drop a comment below or tag me @MJ_Scribe on Twitter. Let’s have some fun talking about this.

If you enjoy thoughtful stories for kids and families, check out my book Mockwing Mayhem. It is a heartfelt adventure about magical bugs battling monsters and protecting children.

You can find more of my reviews, reflections, and stories with spine at mjmunoz.com, and join the mailing list there for behind the scenes updates and new releases.

Bonus Reflections

When the Nightmare Wins

This is the moment in Zeztz 21 where the episode stops playing games.

Sohta’s eyes go dark. Not metaphorically. Literally.

This happens after the Nightmare wins. After Zeztz fails. And then we see it happen to the other children too. They do not scream. They do not fight. They just empty out.

What makes it worse is what happens next. The children are taken from their beds while they are sleeping and absorbed into the Nightmare as it manifests in the real world.

This is not just danger anymore. This is consequence.

Yes, it is dangerous, but it is also the direct result of Baku’s failure, and that is what makes it hit so hard. The show does not let him escape the weight of what just happened.

It is one of the most unsettling things Zeztz has done so far, and I was genuinely impressed by how far the episode was willing to go here.

A Very Strange Victory

I want to talk about this moment with Nem and the Baby Nightmare.

On paper, she defeats it. The problem is how.

She tries to use her powers, falls through a hole in the floor, then falls through a hole in the ceiling, and accidentally lands on it in a sitting position. That is what kills it.

I am not mad at the idea. I am confused by the execution.

Why not have her stand on it or stomp it? You could even argue there is a Mario-style butt stomp thing happening here, which might tie into the video game imagery of the dream world, but I am not convinced that was intentional.

The scene feels staged in a way that leans toward slapstick when the episode is otherwise dealing with real horror and real loss. Because of that, this moment feels like it belongs to a different version of the show or a different episode entirely.

It is not bad. It is just weird.

When Transformation Spectacle Goes Too Far

I need to talk about the transformation effects for Five and Six.

These giant glass containment vials that mirror the details on their drivers do not work for me at all.

We have seen this kind of thing before in Kamen Rider, and I have never liked it. Build’s transformation was ridiculous to me, and this feels like that same impulse turned up even further.

Kamen Rider can be silly. That is fine. But when transformations become this overengineered, they stop feeling dangerous and start feeling toyetic and unserious.

Nox’s transformation is about as far as I am willing to go and still call it cool. It is flashy and over the top, but it still feels cohesive. Shadows swirl, form, and become his body. It works.

This does not.

Being sealed in a vial, filled with liquid, hit by lasers that etch the suit lines, bullets impacting Six without the liquid reacting at all, panic effects layered on top of shotgun imagery… it is just too much.

For me, it kills the menace and seriousness that should come with these characters, and it also clashes badly with the tone of this episode in particular.

It is okay to say no to excess, even in a kids’ show. I really wish the production had more confidence in the suits, the belts, and the roleplay appeal of the toys themselves without needing to bury them under layers of spectacle.

Maybe kids love this. Maybe they think it is awesome. I honestly do not know.

What I do know is that it did not work for me here.