I woke up at 3am to watch the premiere of Kamen Rider Zeztz, and I've been regretting it ever since. Not that the premiere was bad—although it wasn't really good either—but with my current work schedule and the time I have to be up in order to get the train, it's just too punishing. I spent the day zoning in and out of fitful sleep. All the while, somewhat fittingly, the first episode of Zeztz played on loop.

I've watched this episode in bits and pieces throughout most of the day since waking up, making tea, and sitting down with friends in discord. It's playing now as I write this, in fact. I don't have anything to say about the content of the episode, it's a typical episode by Takahashi Yuya, whose stories I don't really enjoy, but what I do want to talk about is the fact that a Kamen Rider show just aired with multiple subtitles for an international audience just an hour after its broadcast in Japan. When I say "international," I don't just mean America either. We got it! Hong Kong got it! Mainland China got it! Brazil got it! Even though I don't have strong feelings about this new show, I can't believe that happened! That it will happen next week! And the week after that! And for a total of roughly fifty weeks all the way to September of next year! I want to sing the praises of Shout Factory, who previously aroused nothing but my ire as whenever they would get the rights to a Toei show, it would mean the rest of us were locked out for good, and I definitely want to praise all the good that Sato Company are doing in Brazil. Before this I had taken Toei's commitment to an "international approach" with a pinch of salt, the missteps of the past few years feeling as if they were taking that salt and rubbing it in the wound, but this... maybe something good is going to come of this; maybe building success here and creating little Kabutack spin-offs for mainland China over the last few years is the beginning of something really good.

Every time I try and talk about things, I realise how tired I am though, so maybe this isn't making much sense. I'm going to bed now, but you who are reading this are assumedly not, so I want to encourage you to go and watch this looped stream of a show that I didn't really care for because maybe you do, and if more people care about these shows, even the ones I don't like, maybe we really will see Kamen Rider become as familiar to audiences here as Marvel comic characters have become. I'd really like that. For now, though, I'm going to sleep.

Good night.