I just find it weird odd that Kureha was only supposed to serve a minor role in the show? Considering her relationships she has with CODE, Natsuka, Baku, Nox, and Lord 5 she should’ve been considered to be a very major character. It was just so utterly wasted every time I think about her character and the potential she could’ve had in the show. I know I’m being annoying about it and I ranted about this before but like damn. I lowkey feel like she was supposed to have bigger plans but it was cut short cause of actor scheduling but again this my problem though. Why do they keep hiring actors that can’t be available for their shows? I’m also tired of that always being the excuse. I still like aspects of Zeztz and I’m kinda looking forward to the final arc but yeah ever since CODE Somnia arc I’ve been having issues with this show regarding the characters and how some moments are kinda lackluster.
Been MIA for a couple days because I really really hated this episode from all fronts.
Blame scheduling conflicts all you want, but I doubt it would have fixed such horrendous pacing and writing for this season regarding focus on characters and side characters despite initial set-ups and the information they give. It's even worse for Kureha and Nasuka.
Spoilers below:
The thing about Kureha is that, even as a minor character, she still played a part in Baku and Nasuka's stories as well as having her own set-up to be more. She's considered to be the most empathetic Agent before Baku given her Nightmare in Cases 18 and 19 preying on her wish to protect others as well as her understanding his issues with killing Nox in 22. She is also the one who confirms the cram school is a training facility meant to turn children into future agents while also confirming she, too, was also groomed by CODE much like Baku. There is an unnamed enemy organization that figured out her identity which led to her dismissal to prevent intelligence leaks.
The problem is that all of these were erased by the time Baku woke up at the end of Case 24. All of her interactions with him that led to her choosing to return to CODE is gone. Her brief reconnection with Nasuka that led to the latter wishing to take a larger role in Black Cases is gone. She has no connection with Baku to hear him out and she is still an Agent loyal to CODE and follows orders as she was trained to do.
This episode was literally piggybacking off of the erased development of Chapter 1 to, once again, use her death to drive Baku's story like in Case 22. Nowhere in Cases 25 or 26 has ever given her any substance to lead to her hesitance in Case 35. If it was CODE forcibly returning her memories and disregard the entire point of mind wiping that could be the start, show that. Her staring at the ring in 25 isn't enough as it could be read in so many ways.
And as mentioned before, she plays a huge part in Nasuka's involvement in this half of the season. If it wasn't for Baku even uttering her name to Nasuka, Nasuka would have never went to the apartment to hear him out. Currently, because of Somnia, Nasuka has 0 memories of Baku, CODE, and Nightmares, but the real world still has evidence of their relationship as colleagues working on Black Cases.
Do you know what will happen when she gets her memories back and learns that the reason she is even joining this fight fucking died when she was amnesiac?
Yeah. Exactly. And I doubt once she has Case 22 Breakdown 2.0, it'll ever be mentioned again. Maybe if they pull a Boshimar 43/49, but I will not hesitate to splurge on a flight ticket and throw a molotov cocktail at Toei Studios if that bullshit does happen.
It really sucks that this episode tries so hard to tell us Kureha yearns to be with Nasuka again and was moved by the barbecue dream, but there's just 0 buildup prior to that. The only time we see her enjoying it is in the flashback when she died later on in the episode. If they truly wanted us to care and be moved by her death as an expendable tool who wants to regain her humanity, they should have expanded on that rather than cramming it into a single episodes 8 weeks after she was thrown into the ICU.
Like it's being told to us that this is Nasuka's Dream; someone who deeply cares for Kureha even after losing contact and wishes to see her again which was why she was able to enter said Dream. That should have stirred a reaction out of her and should have expanded on her doubts on CODE:Somnia because she had to see someone she held close prior to joining CODE be mind controlled by this new technology. Five was correct to question her loyalty and her believing she's still a human instead of CODE's tool, but it's not enough when we've had 0 buildup prior to this episode and we don't expand on it in this chapter.
And it does piss me off that since the new chapter started, not once has Nasuka ever became a topic for Kureha to think about despite the premonition showing us outright she still cares for her with and without her CODE memories.
If this chapter and death truly wanted to tell us that Nasuka is the emotional driving force for Kureha to betray CODE, they should have shown this to us with more than a 2-minute dream with 5 seconds of KureNasu interactions or flashbacks of said dream when Kureha was dying in the same episode. It just makes everything fall flat and reinforces that she is a woman who is disposable and her death is used to drive men's stories before becoming an afterthought.
It's made worse when she's the only female character that can transform in a cast where the only female character with agency is The Lady. Nem is always a damsel in distress, Minami is reduced to a cheerleader, and Nasuka is reduced to her stupid fucking window climbing, Fujimi-kicking gag character. I don't care if it's a boke/tsukkomi bit, that shit should have died when Chapter 2 started
I had low expectations after hearing about Takahashi and his treatment of female characters, but HOLY FUCK
But if you really wanna talk about casting, fine. Let's fucking talk.
I've been against Yuzuyan being casted as Six ever since the fucking rumors started which was November 2025 aka the month after she wrapped filming. Everyone has known this or should have known this because if people know me, they know I'm a huge fan of her previous role, Rita Kaniska aka PapilloOhger.
KingOhger finished airing in February 2024 but guess fucking what? She did not finish her duties representing her role as Rita until May of 2025 when she was a guest in the Super Sentai Poll Results on NHK where Rita ranked #12 out of 300 heroes.
Zeztz filming started in July 2025 for Kureha.
She only had 2 months of respite from Toei until she was dragged in to become fucking cannon fodder with shit character writing. That means Rita Kaniska is still fresh on the minds of at least 50% of Zeztz watchers.
So many watchers actually started Zeztz or came back to it after dropping it because of her. Myself included. They also dropped it when she died in Case 22 and have dropped it again after 35. Myself, included.
But one of the problems with that is that so many of these Zeztz watchers who also know her for her previous role refuses to respect Kureha as her own character and I fucking hate that. Every fucking time I log into any form of social media, all I see is people calling Kureha "Rita-sama" even if the episode has Nasuka calling her by name 20 fucking times. Even to this day, these people claiming to be fans are still calling her Rita. Not only is that disrespectful to Yuzuki, it's also disrespectful to Rita as a character because they're being misgendered again by having their name attached to a female character completely unrelated to them. It's made fucking worse when TTFC pulls this shit in the Agent Minami Substory.
References are supposed to be cheeky. An "I see what you did there" moment. A prop, a line, a pose, a sound effect. Literally anything that could be brushed off by casual watchers but have diehard fans go "I SAW/HEARD THAT".
THROWING A CHARACTER THAT THE "FANS" CAN'T RESPECT INTO THE COSTUME WITH THE SWORD, GOKKAN SIGIL, AND "PAPILLONOHGER" ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT THAT.
That's stupid. That's desperate. It just screams Toei had 0 fucking faith in Kureha and would throw her into the fucking trenches of characters with potential but given to people who don't know what to fucking do with them.
I. Fucking. Hate. It.
All this does is prove that Yuzuki was casted to bring in viewers and wasting her talents as an actress with the excuse of "oh we need someone who can keep up with Rina in basketball for a focus episode that will be thrown into the trash a few episodes later".
So yeah. Everything is shit, but nothing—NOTHING will ever convince me that this would have been any different with an actress that had a more flexible schedule. ZEZTZ's writing has always been shaky and forced to be pushed by toy sales, but this is the last fucking straw when there is so much fucking potential for these characters thrown into the trash.
