KR Ex-Aid 18 released

[takenoko]

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Alt title - Dickishness and comeuppance

Last week's poll rating: 3.84 / 5 (25 votes)

The drama's still bad, but the ending was pretty sweet. It doesn't make any sense, but at least not telling Emu wasn't an idle threat.

I kind of enjoy Genm just being a dick to everyone, but seeing Parado kick his ass is pretty good too. Really loved the scene where everyone realizes what Genm is about to do and starts running toward him.

[TypicalStandUser]

I would have preferred Emu find out why he's patient zero himself rather than someone telling him that he is.

LOVED the action of the episode, especially the duke-out between the villains.

[Sinkuu]

lame payoff/cliffhanger.

we shall see next week if this really starts to prove interesting.

[Draccy]

Aside from random "Hiiro suddenly has emotions for Emu", I thought the episode was pretty good.
Dan confirms Parado is a bugster, but I'd still enjoy seeing another constant one appear soon enough.
Anyone surprised Dan has god complex? Maybe people called it, but it's out there now. Also, yay survival games
Parado's retaliation on him, though, was fantastic.

So, how're Hiiro and Taiga going to work with their new upgrade? Share? Drago Knight Hunter copy split? Hmm.
This is half the reason why I thought Taiga was next on the chopping block. I mean, he might could still be, but unlikely.

[CaptainTalon449]

For the number of times Dan keeps calling himself the "game master" I am now expecting to see anything related to Dungeons and Dragons in his scenes

[Catastrophe]

The best thing I got from this episode was characterisation for Parado. Like now I get how he behaves because is literally a video game character and it's how he is programmed.

If there was one thing Ex-Aid was missing it was delving into the monsters, which is typically a strength for Rider series.

[Jehal]

So Kamen Rider Chronicle is just Dan trying to recreate Ryuki.
Honestly, 4/5 episode. The pacing was great, and everything was well-executed. Parad beating up Dan didn't bring the smile to my face that I thought it would; but him saying Dai Henshin actually did. There was something great about that.
I'm more satisfied with how Emu gets the reveal than I thought I'd be, and watching everyone try booking it for Dan to stop him was amusing.
I never knew how much I wanted to see Taiga football tackle someone before now, and I'm sad we didn't get it.

Aside from random "Hiiro suddenly has emotions for Emu", I thought the episode was pretty good.

It's been showing this ever since he found out Emu has game syndrome, not really random.

[dannydice64]

Do you remember the trailer last time "be sure not to provoke Genm"

As for me, *TABLE FLIP* THAT'S IT DAN KUROTO, YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!!!

Nice episode for this week, while I'm waiting for Kyuranger

[Zenuku5]

I'm excited. I'm curious to see what happens to Emu now that he knows of his game syndrome and apparently just had a total freak out. Dan Kuroto is a dick. Pretty sure that was obvious from Kiriya but it's only becoming more and more apparent how the guy has NO humanity to him at all; least not anymore. Parad finally showing a 'true voice' for the Bugster's gives me more hope for the Bugsters. They live to play the game. They play the game by the rules. Something we can respect and understand.

Dan's just, as previously mentioned, being a total dick. For no real apparent reason than vanity and his god complex in his quest to create his ultimate game world over which he is 'god' as the Gamemaster. I kinda wanna see our resident Rider God, Kouta, come and give him a taste of what a real god is.

Also SUPER hyped for the reveal of the Taddle Fantasy/Bang Bang Simulation Gashat. I enjoyed hearing Genmu actually explain a little about how Taddle Fantasy is a different game from Taddle Quest. Might seem cheesy or dorky but I loved hearing that 'Taddle Fantasy' is about playing the Evil King. Which helps explain the design as well as just being awesome.

[HenshinForPie]

Man is Dan a sociopath. Seeing him get beat up by Pallad was nice, but I would love for Emu to do the asskicking next time, given what Dan does to him in the end. I wouldn't be surprised if Pallad does a heel turn sometime and fights with the Riders against him, even though I don't see that lasting more than an episode. That cliffhanger was actually gripping, even though I know Emu will most likely not vanish. But for the first time in this series, I'm excited to see what happens next.

[dannydice64]

Well, a main rider can solve his own problems while sub riders supports/against. I'm sure Emu will get his final form later on

About the next one

Spoiler

Genius Gamer M will be gone, there will be no more Mighty Brothers XX!

[redfarmer]

Parado turning against Dan was actually a pretty nice payoff.

I'm wondering if Tsukuru is going to end up a recurring character and make gashats for the riders.

I'm disappointed Emu is finding out he's infected this early, but I guess where else were they going to go?

[Draccy]

Well, a main rider can solve his own problems while sub riders supports/against. I'm sure Emu will get his final form later on

About the next one

Spoiler

Genius Gamer M will be gone, there will be no more Mighty Brothers XX!

Spoiler

It's more likely that Emu is "gone" and only M remains. He did use "Ore"

[ViRGE]

I'm a bit surprised to see as many 4s as there are. I thought this episode was fantastic. They're pushing all the buttons this week.

The award for character of the week without a doubt goes to Dan. While magnificent bastards are practically a Kamen Rider trope, Dan's in the running for the most magnificent of them all. He had already established his credentials as a card-carrying villain by killing Lazer, but just how wantonly he's disposing of bugsters and even non-rider humans (purely infecting them with the bugster virus) along with his utter contempt for and willingness to step all over other people is making him a fantastic villain. He's a bad guy who is a real threat, and who you love to hate.

But I'd argue the reason he's so damn good is that, superpowers and amazing technology aside, it's a rather realistic portrayal. The domineering gamemaster angle works very well here because it's firmly rooted in reality. if you've ever had the misfortune of playing with a controlling GM, then you know first-hand that people like Dan exist in the real world. There are GMs out there who have a meticulous plan for their games, and if the players disturb it in any way, they will get vindictive to punish the players for "ruining" their game. Of course, those GMs generally don't have players for much longer, but in Dan's case he holds all the power.

Which also makes is genre blindness both amusing and believable. The idiot is so sure of himself that he doesn't see the problem in making a level 50 Gashat based on two of the heroes, even though his first dual Gashat got co-opted by Ex-Aid and became a big problem for him. Worse, he was smart enough to infect what is presumably one of the only other people in the world that can make a Gashat, only to be dumb enough to kill the Bugster since he no longer needed the bait, rather than letting said Bugster fully mature and kill the Gashat-making host. Toku often struggles to come up with valid reasons for why the antagonists do dumb things that ultimately help the protagonists, and I feel like Ex-Aid is doing a good job of avoiding that trap.

On a side note, infecting the game maker as bait is itself rather smart. It immediately gets a reaction from Emu and ensures that he has a personal stake in defeating Motors, ensuring that Ex-Aid will chase Motors when the time comes. By all logical sense Genm should never, ever be left alone with Brave/Snipe since those two are well below Genm's level; Ex-Aid should be blocking Genm to make sure he can't do anything. But it's very much in character for Emu to choose helping the patient over playing with the indestructible Genm, which is what makes Motors such great bait.

Meanwhile, Hiiro's inability to talk to Emu is well played. We've already established that Hiiro has terrible bedside manner and likes to stay detached from his patients, and as a result he's absolutely sucking at trying to help Emu. When backed into a corner he even doubles-down on his poor manners by saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time, just further feeding Emu's belief that Hiiro doesn't care. That said, I like that Hiiro does in fact care - that he's opening up a bit as a person - but he's not yet in a position where he can show that to Ex-Aid and the rest of the world.

And of course, we now have confirmation that Parado is a Bugster, which explains the powers. Which makes his background all the more curious. What game did he come from? And why is he human rather than another MOTW? In the meantime we get just a sliver more of info on the bugsters; fighting to be the best, but with honor. I guess this makes them the NPC version of Klingons? And given that Parado has now seen the depths of Dan's megalomania, I guess that's the end of their partnership, and that he's going to strike out on his own...

On which note, I like how Dan got the last laugh. As Takenoko already noted, having him tell Emu that he has Game Syndrome while everyone else runs at Dan to try to stop him is an excellent scene. And sure enough, Emu is totally losing it.

Finally, this episode has laid down a few interesting threads of information for the future. We now have a basic idea of what Kamen Rider Chronicle is; Dan's going to make everyone a Rider and then have them kill each other. Which means Dan's not just a megalomaniac, but he's an omnicidal maniac. And I hope we won't have to wait too long to see who the new Genm Corp CEO is. Dan Sr. is still locked up, so maybe he's out now that his son is off trying to destroy the world?

Technical notes: in case anyone wasn't sure if this was an important episode, they pretty much blew up the damn quarry this week (seriously, that's a lot of pyro). And this is now the second week in a row that the episode has bled over into the first advertisement bumper. So I guess that's permanent, like the removed OP?

Edit: It's an amusing coincidence that Takenoko bundled the Excite music video with this week's episode. Turns out you can't actually buy the Excite CD outside of Japan; the label/producer has ordered retailers to stop selling all of their products internationally.

lame payoff/cliffhanger.

Eh? Last week wasn't really a cliffhanger, was it? I felt it had a pretty definite conclusion. It's this episode that's the cliffhanger.

Next episode preview:

Spoiler

A few weeks back, someone joked that we had M and Emu backwards, and that it's the Bugster who was the doctor. Given what we see in the previews and the fact that we know Emu didn't become serious about being a doctor until the surgery (where we now know he was made Patient Zero), I'm seriously starting to think that person was right...

[Dengar]

Spoiler

It wasn't really a joke. I was seriously wondering whether or not I had it backwards.