alchemicink

This week: Nox is finally back in action in Zeztz, and Akane's competitor updates an old story.

I decided to drop Girl Rules even though there are only two episodes left. The show just frustrates me too much at this point.

Title quote comes from Akane-banashi this time. Spoilers, as always, below:

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 36)

I'm still mad about last week's turn of events, but this episode was entertaining at least. It was really nice to see Nox back in action again (even though he gets conscripted by the enemy in the end). We got two "Shadow Redemption"s so I enjoyed that 😁 He's just a really fun character to me and I'm happy we get to see him again.

I'm still not sold on Three's Code Somnia plot, but there are some things cooking in the background that could prove more interesting. The Lady had an ominous scene with her Nightmare, so I'm curious how that will turn out. Sieg showed up long enough for exposition purposes ("dead people show up in dreams all the time" okay, fair enough). And a newly-freed Zero promises to make a new Zeztz driver. Which will be interesting because who's gonna get the spare when Baku inevitably gets ExDream back? (Please say Nem 🤞 I will also accept Minami 🤞)

So we'll see how things go from here. (But I'm still gonna write a canon-divergent fic where Kureha lives 😁)

Akane-banashi (episode 8)

I seem to want to start every review of this series with "this show is so fun" 😁 because it really is! I love that we spent the whole episode digging into rival Karashi's type of performance. He brings a different flavor to the stage, and it's one of modernization.

With an artform that's so rooted in historical context, it's interesting to see a performer update the story to modern times. It's more relatable to a younger audience, but as Issho points out (in the quote I used for the title of this post), it doesn't hit with the older crowd. I can see the merits of both sides, and this episode left me thinking about the debate, even after it ended. This show really does get my brain turning each week.

Akane-banashi is, at its heart, a shounen sports story (even though the sport is storytelling), and it's really fun to see those usual tropes play out in this story. Except the trope of constantly introducing new supporting characters. I'm so bad at remembering any character names 😅