Kamen Rider Zeztz 32

Watch Analysis

Zero Is Not Baku’s Father

Kamen Rider Zeztz Episode 32 frustrated me.

Not because it was bad. Not because it lacked action or reveals or emotional weight. Actually, this episode has huge revelations in it.

But I think the story may be trying to push me toward a conclusion that I fundamentally reject.

Zero is not Baku’s father.

And I do not mean that biologically.

I mean morally. Emotionally. Practically.

Mr. Yorozu is Baku’s father.

That is the man who raised him. That is the man who loved him. That is the man who was there for him.

Episode 32 seems to present this idea that Zero has been secretly suffering for Baku all this time. That his emotional distance and manipulation were somehow part of a greater plan. That because he is Baku’s biological origin, there is some deeper emotional connection there we are supposed to respect or sympathize with.

I do not buy it.

And honestly, I think the episode gets dangerously close to confusing biological connection with fatherhood itself.

Those are not the same thing.

One of the reasons Spider-Man works so well is because it understands this perfectly.

Peter Parker rejects Uncle Ben at one point. He lashes out at him. But later, when Norman Osborn tries to emotionally manipulate Peter by saying, “I’ve been like a father to you,” Peter rejects him completely.

Because Peter already knows who his father was.

Ben Parker.

Not because of biology.

Because of love. Sacrifice. Presence. Guidance.

That matters.

And that is why I find myself pushing back against what Zeztz seems to be doing here.

If the show wants me to understand Zero better, fine. That is not automatically bad writing. Villains can be complicated. Broken people can still care about others in warped ways.

But there is a difference between:
“Zero may have cared about Baku in his own distorted way.”

And:
“Zero was secretly acting like a noble father all along.”

Those are not the same statement.

Right now, Episode 32 feels uncomfortably close to the second one.

And maybe that is intentional misdirection. Zeztz has done this sort of thing before. The series constantly introduces truths that later turn out to be incomplete or outright false. Maybe this is another one of those situations.

Honestly, I hope so.

Because if the intended takeaway here is that Zero’s suffering somehow validates the way he treated Baku, then I think the story seriously weakens one of its strongest emotional foundations.

Baku already had a father.

He was raised by one.

Loved by one.

Protected by one.

And I think the series was stronger before it started trying to blur that line.

Final Question

Is Zeztz trying too hard to morally complicate Zero?

Does the series actually believe biological connection creates obligation or emotional legitimacy?

Or is this another situation where the story is presenting a false conclusion that Baku himself will eventually reject?

Because right now, I find myself resisting the emotional framing of Episode 32 more than almost any episode so far.

I genuinely want to hear the counterarguments here because maybe I’m missing something. And if I am, I want to understand why this works for other viewers.

Drop a comment and let me know where you stand on this.

Inspector’s Notes

Not So Different

One thing I find really interesting about Episode 32 is this really beautiful rooftop scene where Baku and Nem get to have this moment together where we realize that they’re not so different from each other.

Despite the fact that she is the Nightmare Messiah and he is the Dream Messiah, the two of them are caught in the middle.

They’re caught in the crossfire between the Nightmares and CODE.

And I’m still leaving room for the possibility that The Lady and the Nightmares themselves are actually separate factions. Separate groups going for different things. Because right now it feels like both sides are using Nightmare power differently.

CODE is somehow capturing Nightmares and converting them into the power source behind the Capsems.

The Lady is also capturing and manipulating Nightmares, just toward a different end.

And what’s interesting to me is that both Zero and The Lady have selfishly, or at least self interestedly, chosen paths that have caused tremendous harm to their children.

The Lady is trying to rescue Nem.

Zero is trying to accomplish some greater good through CODE and ZEZTZ.

But both Nem and Baku suffer because of those choices.

And because of that, they understand each other in a way almost nobody else in the show does.

That’s why this rooftop scene works so well for me.

Early on, it felt like NOX was Nem’s counterpart.

Now I think the show is revealing that Baku actually is.

And I really wonder what the series is building toward with all of this.

Because the more we learn, the more it feels like Nightmares and humans are not actually that different from each other.

Dreams and Nightmares may not be opposites in the way everybody in the story thinks they are.

So I keep wondering if the endpoint of ZEZTZ is ultimately conflict…

Or harmony.

And if harmony is possible, I suspect it’s going to come through Baku and Nem somehow.

Is the Cat the Key to Understanding CODE?

A cat being the symbol for CODE is something that I’ve been wondering about for a long time. But now I think it’s very purposely done, and I think it carries a lot of meaning. Probably multiple meanings.

One of them is secrecy, slinkiness, spycraft, subtlety. Cats hide and crouch and pounce and perch and do all sorts of things that make them extremely effective predators. And CODE is a defense organization that sneaks around, spies on people, identifies threats, and attacks those threats. They have prey they’re supposed to target and eliminate. That alone makes the cat symbolism fit really well.

But I think there’s another layer to it.

There’s also this alley cat mentality where, when weakness appears, another cat moves in to challenge for dominance. I don’t fully understand cat social hierarchy or group dynamics, but that idea suddenly feels very relevant to what’s happening between Zero and Three.

Zero accuses Three of wanting to take over CODE Somnia and seize power for himself. And Three doesn’t deny it. He doesn’t really affirm it either, but look at that smile. He’s just so happy to be there.

That’s what makes the scene so interesting to me.

CODE may have started as a defense organization meant to protect people, but because it needs to wield power in order to do that, it may have attracted people who want power. Or maybe it’s corrupted people who’ve been exposed to that power over time.

And Three seems genuinely gleeful at the possibility of Zero being removed and a new hierarchy forming.

That suddenly makes the cat symbolism feel much more layered than I originally thought.

I also really like that, ever since we got the new opening, the show has apparently been quietly previewing this conflict between Zero and Three. That’s just really fun and clever.

YOUR MAMA SO…

The Lady might have completely changed my perspective on her because I spent a good chunk of this show really hating her.

She feels positively evil. Pretty irredeemable, honestly.

But you also can’t ignore the fact that she’s a mother, in whatever twisted way she is one. And that she’s doing all of this for her daughter.

That doesn’t make what she’s doing good.

But it does make it understandable in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

And I think this is actually one of the better sympathetic villain setups I’ve seen in a while because the story never stops letting her feel dangerous or unsettling. It just suddenly lets you see the pain underneath it.

You can really see it in the actress’s performance here.

This look of shocked horror when Nem runs away from her is incredibly effective because Nem was right there. Face to face with her. Just separated by glass. After all this time searching for her daughter, she’s finally that close to her again, and then Nem runs away.

And suddenly The Lady just looks helpless.

Not powerful.
Not mysterious.
Not manipulative.

Helpless.

And honestly, that really hit me.

Ironically, The Lady is currently way more sympathetic to me than Zero is, which I find really interesting considering how much worse she initially seemed earlier in the series.

I genuinely don’t know what to think about her anymore, and I suspect that uncertainty is intentional.

Blood is Not Enough

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite and a fool, I want to say that blood is not enough.

That’s still where I stand right now with Zero and Baku.

This confrontation between them feels like it’s supposed to be this huge emotional moment between a father and son, but I still don’t really feel like Zero is Baku’s father. Even if he is biologically, that alone doesn’t really mean anything to me.

But what’s interesting is that I now have this tension in my own thinking because I do feel like The Lady really is a mother to Nem in some way, even though Nem apparently is not biologically her daughter.

And I don’t fully know why that works for me while Zero currently doesn’t.

Part of it may honestly just be that The Lady’s pain feels clearer and more emotionally visible. You can see the desperation in her. You can see what she’s sacrificed and what she’s willing to do in order to save Nem.

With Zero, the show is presenting this idea that he withheld affection from Baku in order to protect him. That if he openly loved his son, the Nightmares would target Baku more aggressively and destroy him more easily.

Intellectually, I can understand the argument.

I think you probably could argue that this still makes Zero a father. Maybe even a tragic one.

But emotionally, it just is not landing for me right now.

I’m not being sold on it.

At the same time, the fact that I’m now willing to view The Lady sympathetically as a mother figure makes me wonder if the story is intentionally preparing me for a future moment where Zero finally does emotionally feel like Baku’s father to me.

And honestly, I think that possibility is really interesting.

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