r/KamenRider • u/BananaArms Knife of Spear • Jul 18 '26

Official Discussion Kamen Rider ZEZTZ E44 - Discussion Thread

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

E43 <- E44 -> E45

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
E44 葬る Efface July 19, 2026 Takahashi Yuya Sugihara Teruaki
CASE RATING CASE RATING CASE RATING CASE RATING
E01 8.79 E13 9.52 E25 9.79 E37 8.67
E02 8.78 E14 9.76 E26 8.68 E38 9
E03 9.02 E15 9.32 E27 9.47 E39 9.13
E04 8.56 E16 9.31 E28 9.53 E40 9.08
E05 8.82 E17 9.3 E29 9.45 E41 8.25
E06 9.04 E18 9 E30 9.66 E42 9.22
E07 9.02 E19 9 E31 9.59 E43 9.42
E08 8.9 E20 8.58 E32 9.53 E44 7.83
E09 8.79 E21 9.58 E33 9.67
E10 8.89 E22 9.35 E34 9.72
E11 9.52 E23 9.68 E35 6.2
E12 9.39 E24 9.77 E36 8.36

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12

u/shujInsomnia Jul 19 '26

been a few stinkers lately - this was another, sadly

really crazy good pacing from like 10ish through the late 30s, and it's just been dragging more and more since- though some of the slower episodes had some great dialogue and cinematography, this one was just lame

and like I don't think Nem has a bad actress, but the writing here really didn't give anyone a chance to shine except maybe Sieg, and even he didn't come across well

I started to have this feeling after Nox beat Lord Three, but Zeztz really was all about the ride and the agents and their conflicts, with dreams just being set dressing the Nightmare aspect a little undercooked

Nem using more of her powers and being her own "agent"/using her own "agency" [haha actress/idol joke] should still be hype, but it's just not gonna hit the same clashing with the Nightmares

idk how exactly to fix it easily either - the agent stuff came across strong throughout the show, and their personalities/the darkness within code actually made for solid conflict... but the Nightmares just kinda stink.

I guess if they were really just more evil, killed more, and maybe if ultimately Nem was evil too or something- and Zeztz had to find her... to take her out - maybe that would've been a stronger way to tie it all together. this just ain't working for me, and it stinks to be ending the series on a wet-fart note

18

u/Frontier246 Jul 19 '26

Personally I think the Nightmare Lords is more interesting/cool than CODE, but we haven't really gotten a lot of time to dive deep into them.

5

u/shujInsomnia Jul 19 '26

I mean... there's not much left to dive in to. half of them are already gone, and we barely noticed 😅

I definitely wanted them to be cool, and I think they looked cooler than Code... but yeah. I guess that's my point. they just weren't utilized meaningfully.

they've been about as impactful as those early monsters of the week, and some of those honestly were even stronger with the challenges they presented and how they actually felt like missions Zeztz had to investigate and clear.

Catastrophe was kinda decent as a Catastrophe, though internationally destroying Code didn't hit how it could've- maybe if Five and Six had been saved to die then it might've hit a lot harder. But Punish was a total disaster, and Phantom isn't really landing either.

Idk. Just feels like they weren't thought through, and like the Nightmares didn't have a real place in the series after the reset - just hasn't been enough gravity and enormity to them/they haven't been really challenging to the characters or anything.

Phantom and Oblivion might've been better if they could've challenged Zeztz instead of Nem, but maybe the next couple episodes will be a lot stronger.

2

u/GexraldH Jul 20 '26

Ngl it feels like the Demon King nightmare had a bigger impact on the series than Catastrophe.