Kamen Rider ZEZTZ Review — Is It Worth Watching?
A spoiler-light review of Kamen Rider ZEZTZ: the dream-agent premise, what makes it stand out in the Reiwa era, and who should watch it.
Kamen Rider ZEZTZ premiered on TV Asahi on September 7, 2025 (September 6 internationally) and wraps its 50-episode run on August 30, 2026. Here's a spoiler-light take on whether it's worth starting, written for both new Tokusatsu viewers and longtime Kamen Rider fans deciding where to jump in.
The premise, without spoiling the twist
Baku Yorozu is a lucid dreamer whose real waking life is a mess — bad luck, no job, a sister covering for him. At night, his dreams cast him as an invincible secret agent for an organization called CODE. Case 1 plays that split completely straight, right up until the final scene reveals the fantasy has real, physical stakes in the waking world. We cover exactly how in our spoiler-aware Episode 1 recap and Dream Twist explainer — this review stays out of specifics.
What stands out
The chest-mounted ZEZTZ Driver is a genuinely new piece of Rider design language — every prior mainline season wears its belt at the waist — and it's paired with a swap-blade weapon (the Breakam Zetser) that reconfigures between four combat modes. Visually, that gives the show a distinct silhouette from the rest of the Reiwa lineup, alongside Zero-One's tech focus, Saber's storybook fantasy, or Gotchard's card-game brightness. See our Reiwa era history for how it fits the broader run.
The cast is compact and well-defined: Baku's sister Minami, police investigators Fujimi and Nagumo chasing the "Nightmare" phenomenon from the outside, and Nem tied into the plot in ways that go well past the damsel role Case 1 first suggests. Full breakdown in our cast guide.
Who it's for
If you've bounced off Kamen Rider before because the premise felt too monster-of-the-week, ZEZTZ's dream-vs-reality structure gives every fight more narrative weight than a standalone action beat — it's rarely just "hero beats monster," and worth watching for the mystery as much as the transformations. It's also a reasonable jumping-on point for newcomers: prior-season knowledge isn't required, and the show had an international day-one release rather than a delayed dub.
If you specifically want lighter, more episodic Tokusatsu with less ongoing continuity to track, this isn't the easiest entry — the dream-reality ambiguity is a constant, deliberate presence rather than a once-per-arc twist.
Where to start
Start at Case 1. The show's cold open works specifically because you don't know the twist is coming, and the recap and explainer pages linked above are written to be read after you've seen the episode, not before.
Related reading
ZEZTZ Episode 1 Explained · ZEZTZ Cast Guide · Reiwa Kamen Rider: A Brief History
Written by Kakebo · Updated August 19, 2026.