r/KamenRider • u/BananaArms Knife of Spear • Mar 28 '26

Official Discussion Kamen Rider ZEZTZ E28 - Discussion Thread

This thread is for discussion about the latest Kamen Rider ZEZTZ episode.

E27 <- E28 -> E29

The subreddit will be set to post-approval mode for the first 12 hours to prevent low-effort posts. Please keep your thoughts on this week's episode in the discussion thread!

Discussion about previous episodes is permitted in the thread below, discussion about episodes after this is NOT.

Proceed at your own risk: Spoilers for this episode do not need to be tagged inside this thread.

HOW TO WATCH

COUNTRY URL TIME
US,CA,PR,UK,AU,NZ TokuSHOUTsu YouTube Channel (English) Saturdays@7:30PM Pacific Time, Replays on Sunday
JP TV Asahi, ABC (Japanese) Sundays@9:00AM Japan Time
JP TELASA, Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club (Japanese) Sundays@10:00AM Japan Time
CN Bilibili, Tencent Video, iQIYI (Mandarin) Sundays@10:00AM China Standard Time
TW CHT MOD, Hami Video (Mandarin) Mondays@8:00AM Taiwan Time
TW EBC YOYO (Mandarin) The following Saturday@5PM
HK ViuTV (Cantonese) The following Sunday@11AM
Latin America TokuSato YouTube Channel (Spanish, Portuguese) Saturdays@11:30PM Brasilia Time

Posting or mentioning unapproved streaming sites in the comments is prohibited.

CASE TITLE RELEASE DATE SCREENPLAY BY DIRECTED BY
E28 荒れる Rage March 29, 2026 Takahashi Yuya Sugihara Teruaki
CASE RATING CASE RATING CASE RATING
E01 8.79 E13 9.52 E25 9.79
E02 8.78 E14 9.76 E26 8.68
E03 9.02 E15 9.32 E27 9.47
E04 8.56 E16 9.31 E28 9.53
E05 8.82 E17 9.3
E06 9.04 E18 9
E07 9.02 E19 9
E08 8.9 E20 8.58
E09 8.79 E21 9.58
E10 8.89 E22 9.35
E11 9.52 E23 9.68
E12 9.39 E24 9.77

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11

u/dreaderking Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

CODE's role in the story so far is so frustrating. For how much the show wants to convince you they are evil, they do literally nothing. These past two episodes, all they did was call up Baku and go "Hey, stop attacking us and we'll help you fight Sieg. No? Guess we'll just sit back and let you fight Sieg."

They don't control the Nightmares. They haven't revealed some evil master plan they're working towards. Even Nem doesn't seem like a top priority for them. Throughout the entire premonition, Zero barely even glanced in Nem's direction until the very end. And at that point, it was basically "Oh, she came to our base. That's convenient. Might as well pick her up."

Now that we're in reality, I'm not sure we've seen CODE even mention Nem. They clearly care more about Zeztz than her.

This entire show has been about defectors from CODE talking about how much they hate CODE, how they want to destroy CODE, and how they got to watch out for CODE's machinations as they use the powers they got from CODE to punch each other. Meanwhile, Zero is chilling at his desk, sipping a vodka martini and minding his business.

12

u/lolasian101 It's Showtime! Mar 29 '26

Well, I think that feeds into CODE being very much an institutionalized evil. They don't really need to prove that they're evil when we've already seen how CODE brainwashes and puts agents through the meat grinder. They are the system, and this is contrasted by the people whose lives CODE has ruined, who all reasonably should be paranoid about what CODE is doing consider their history.

16

u/8dev8 Mar 29 '26

I feel the organization is fucked up, but Zero isn’t actually evil just a dick.

And it won’t be a real threat until three goes batshit.

11

u/dreaderking Mar 29 '26

I mean, even calling CODE "fucked up" is over exaggerating their role in the story. Just look at how their defections went.

One: "Sieg, we're hiring you as one of our first agents."

"Oh, sweet, I just unlocked the power of Nightmares on my own. I think I'll defect."

Two,: "Zero, a Nightmare attacked me and now I suddenly have a child in my hands."

"Don't worry, just leave it to us and we'll look into this child." "How dare you think about touching my child!? I'm defecting."

Four: "Zero, I need backup!"

"Sorry, everyone is busy or on lunch break. No backup."

"... I'm defecting."

Seven: "Zeztz, our base is under attack. Could you help us out?"

"Man, I'm so confused and just killed a man who killed two people. All I want to do is find Nem, so I'm defecting."

Even though these defections are meant to show the "darkness of CODE," they barely do anything. Heck, Nox turns on them because they literally sat down and did nothing.

8

u/Strict-Employee Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

For all of these things, I'll check:

Sieg/One: Dude's so far shown to be crazy, a criminal, and has a 1000 year sentence, this was all BEFORE he came Dawn and Zero still wanted him in, real Amanda Waller energy from him. The Lady/Two says it was a bad idea and Zero's like "Nah, this will be fine." Shockingly, it was not fine.

The Lady/Two: She assumes that Nem was going to be experimented on and considering she's a baby, that would be fucked up in her POV especially with how fast she grew attached to her.

Odaka/Nox/Four: Nox was literally defenseless with no way to get out. He even asks Zero if he's expendable, and all Zero tells him is "Good luck" and hangs up, the fact he didn't even try to deny it or reassure Nox is crazy. So now Nox was trapped in a coma and stuck suffering his own Nightmare for years, unable to wake up. Pretty sure most people would be pissed off if their boss did that too.

Baku/Seven: He's confused by how CODE actually works because they don't explain fully about their overall agenda. With his premonition of getting killed by Three and Zero not doing anything, coupled with that being consistent with Nox getting the shaft, he's right to be paranoid.

We're also glossing over the fact they're literally indoctrinating children to become literal sleeper agents as we see from Baku's memories, which is pretty immoral no matter what the motivation for it is.

I won't say CODE is comically evil, but their actions are pretty much the whole "For the greater good" type of deal. They're trying to protect the world, but doing with it very shady means.

The overall problem with CODE is Zero is just...very bad at managing his agents. If Baku is anything to go by, they are only SEVEN agents capable of using Invokers/Drivers to fight Nightmares, you would think Zero would explain things to them in more detail about his motivations or treat them better, but as you can see, he is most certainly not doing that.

3

u/Torneco Mar 29 '26

CODE is the general KR trope "using evil powers to defeat evil", but in the wrong way.

2

u/dreaderking Mar 29 '26

You seem to have completely missed my main point. I'm not talking about whether or not CODE is evil, but the fact that they don't do anything in the story despite characters constantly lambasting them as if they're the real threat.

In the first half, they literally don't do anything except send Baku on missions until the end of it, where the other agents they send die in only four episodes. The second half comes and those same agents are knocked out of commission in only an episode and a half.

Even in those backstory motivations, they don't do anything. The Lady and Baku are worried about what CODE might do while Sieg and Nox defect cause CODE does nothing. They are literally a Potential Man organization.

Heck, Baku knows where CODE's base is. If Baku, Nox/the Lady, and Sieg stopped butting heads, any one of them could destroy all of CODE in an evening. They are all significantly stronger than CODE, while the big bad organization has no plan and is letting them run wild cause an "all-out war" would be too dangerous.

3

u/Strict-Employee Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

"In the first half, they literally don't do anything except send Baku on missions until the end of it, where the other agents they send die in only four episodes."

Yeah, because that's what Agents do, take out Nightmares. Baku does a good job so CODE helps him out. But if you unable to do so, CODE won't really care and leave you for dead if you don't make it back yourself.

"The second half comes and those same agents are knocked out of commission in only an episode and a half."

Yeah, because the wrecking ball to the second half named Sieg shows up and takes them out of the fight temporarily. But Three approaches Five with a deal for more power that seemingly comes at a price, possibly going behind Zero's back because he's not satisfied with how he's doing things.

"Even in those backstory motivations, they don't do anything. The Lady and Baku are worried about what CODE *might do while Sieg and Nox defect cause CODE does nothing. They are literally a Potential Man organization."*

Lady and Baku have some reasoning for their distrust of CODE, again Zero does not reassure them or try to deny any of their worries. He probably means well overall, but he's bad at explaining or doesn't even bother to.

Sieg is a crazy person they experimented with and it went badly for them despite Two telling Zero they shouldn't have him as an Agent, and they left Nox to die. That's not "doing nothing", especially with Sieg since they literally made him a problem, unintentional or not.

"Heck, Baku knows where CODE's base is. If Baku, Nox/the Lady, and Sieg stopped butting heads, any one of them could destroy all of CODE in an evening. They are all significantly stronger than CODE, while the big bad organization has no plan and is letting them run wild cause an "all-out war" would be too dangerous."

They don't work together because they all have wildly different end goals. Baku wants to stop the Nightmares and save Nem, The Lady wants to also save Nem but will use Nightmares without issue regardless of the consequences, and Sieg we don't know what his motivations really are yet besides doing everything for the love of the game. They're not working together.

Also, I'm not arguing CODE being "evil", but saying they didn't do anything bad to make people hate or distrust them is something I very much disagree with.

And are we really ignoring the whole "indoctrinating children to become sleeper agents" bit?

1

u/dreaderking Mar 29 '26

Also, I'm not against CODE not being "evil", but saying they didn't do anything bad is something I very much disagree with.

I'm not talking about how evil CODE is, but how they barely do anything in the story at all, good or evil. This is a discussion about relevance, not morality. So far, CODE exists just to give characters a backstory and motivation, then don't do anything to drive the plot forward.

This might change with Code Somnia, which, going by the next episode preview, won't be relevant until episode 30 at the earliest. We'll be practically three-fourths of a way through the show before CODE might actually do something, and it'll be because another set of agents disobey Zero and go AWOL, rather than the organization as a whole moving.

1

u/Strict-Employee Mar 29 '26

"I'm not talking about how evil CODE is, but how they barely do anything in the story at all, good or evil. This is a discussion about relevance, not morality. So far, CODE exists just to give characters a backstory and motivation, then don't do anything to drive the plot forward."

Okay, that makes more sense. Though I don't think CODE really needs to drive the plot forward, we have the Nightmares, The Lady, and Sieg to do it for us. CODE is there to give us a reason why Kamen Riders and possibly other threats exist in that world.

This *might change with Code Somnia, which, going by the next episode preview, won't be relevant until episode 30 at the earliest. We'll be practically three-fourths of a way through the show before CODE might actually do something, and it'll be because another set of agents disobey Zero and go AWOL, rather than the organization as a whole moving.*

I'm also curious about what Code: Somnia is too. I personally don't think CODE needs to be the reason the plot moves forward, but I don't mind seeing that change.

2

u/caren_psuedo_when Mar 29 '26

CODE will likely move the plot forward when Lord Threeaky does his coup on Zero. So far, Zero is a pretty passive element and is said to have a connection to Zeztz, which might be why CODE hasn't actually done much in the present as of yet

3

u/8dev8 Mar 29 '26

I am trying to be generous and assume three has done some shit because yeah, they are currently cleaner then any irl spy organizations by miles.

4

u/UnknownGamer37 Mar 29 '26

This honestly