KR Ex-Aid 23 released

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Ratings

Poll ended at Sun Apr 02, 2017 1:10 am

☆☆☆☆☆
28
78%
☆☆☆☆
6
17%
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1
3%
☆☆
1
3%
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Total votes: 36
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KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by takenoko »

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Alt title - Game Over

Last week's poll rating: 4.12 / 5 (16 votes)

Oh yeah, that was a good episode. The only tweak I would have made was having Emu being tempted to kill but hesitating because his beliefs as a doctor. As it stands now, it seems a bit unbelievable for him to loudly declare "I can't kill 'cause I'm a doctor" when so many lives are at stake. Like Taiga so helpfully reminds him, many lives are on the line, compared to this one life.

But otherwise, that was a perfect Ex-Aid episode. The action was fun. Genm acted like a maniac. Parado had some sweet villainous moments (Was he always so tall?) Even Taiga and Hiiro had some small good moments too. I'd like to see Nico officially become Taiga's nurse. She's already helping people get away, which is more than you can say about Poppy.

What happened to all those people that got infected? Did they just die? Disappear? Turned into Bugster troopers? Was something cut?

I actually genuinely like the new form. I like how bulky it is. It reminds me of the ride armors from Mega Man X and fits well with the big headed cartoony design of Ex-Aid. I also find it interesting when they switch between real guy in suit to CGI.

Man, I don't know how this series will continue without Kuroto though. A good story needs a good antagonist. And I believe Ex-Aid has been good lately because of Kuroto's hard work. I guess we'll see if Parado can fill those shoes.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by TypicalStandUser »

I don't like the midseason form. Kids may, yeah, but I am not a proponent of pseudo-Hulkbuster suits. I guess it can also reference the power armor trope and its usage in games like Megaman or Fallout.
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And with Dan's death, I may as well quit doing the cosplay I planned on and plan a cosplay on whomever uses the Bugle Driver II+KR Chronicle Gashat. Not to mention, since the Bugvisor and Dangerous Zombie's now in Parado's hands, he may as well give the Bugvisor back to a resuscitated Graphite, who from the very start has the belt buckle for it. Now let's play your game in Ultra-Nightmare, Parado-kun.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Dengar »

I could do without the usual tropes that save the hero from having to kill a person.

They could just as easily NOT have killed him and just have him go to prison like what would normally happen in these cases.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Ashki »

I think Emu's refusal to kill was perfectly in-character and necessary for his development. Remember that he has been described by multiple people as being pure, innocent, or a crystal in danger of shattering. From day 1, he has kept on and on about how he will save his patient and has even put others in danger to protect the patient. So to do everything in his might to save a patient, curing his disease, and then watch him die before he's off the proverbial operating table is pure devastation.

One of the flaws in Western medicine is that interns are often placed with the terminally ill so that they can get used to losing patients before becoming fully responsible in life-or-death situations. This frequently leads to a fatalistic approach that can do more harm than good. So for Emu, who was training as a pediatrician (and thus likely would not have ever been responsible in a life-threatening situation), this is a ball game that he's not prepared for. Hiiro is a surgeon, so death is a harsh reality for him, even if we're led to believe he's never lost a patient on the table. The Brave side story suggested he's volunteered in emergencies before where he likely couldn't save everyone. And what he said is very true... how you handle the loss of a patient is critical.

So back to Emu. He did his job and cured the patient. He should have been celebrating that fact. Yet the death of a patient in front of his eyes only moments after curing them is tearing him apart. He's told he's a hero, but he's failed in his mission and could not retrieve the smile of a patient. Was it out of his control? Of course. But during the last moments, you can palpably feel that shining crystal inside of him breaking. The Emu we see from here on out may be very different from the one we've known up until now.


I'm kind of liking the mid-season break. When done poorly, killing off the main villain mid-season can be a show-killer, but when done right, it can keep things fresh.
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Take Amazon and GoBuster, for example. In both shows, the main villain died mid-season, and a new plot arose from the ashes of the old, breathing new life into a show that was at risk of becoming repetative.
We knew that Chronicle was coming, and it's very likely that Parado will NOT be the final boss, but rather one bourne of the new mega-game. With Dan out of the way, the show has once again become unpredictable. Although he will be missed...

And speaking of Dan, I actually felt that death, which is something I haven't been able to say about a character in a LONG time (well, the coroner's death hit me, but more because it was a bold move in a franchise that should be playing the Safety Dance on loop in the background than the scene itself). Watching him writhing in agony, his insanity going into overdrive, and the reactions of the CR crew was absolutely brilliant, and proves the writers aren't afraid to step out of the "kids must be coddled" mentality that didn't exist in the Showa era. I really do think Ex-Aid is going to usher in a new era for the ailing franchise.

The only problem I have is that we now have the first Level 99 at the halfway point. If it's really the ultimate form by gamer standards, then how will Emu gain his late-season powerup? The only thing I can think of is that the games hit a "Next Gen" stage where combos and new items boost the L99 beyond its limitations. Of course, now that Emu has the Ex-Aid version of a Game Shark, maybe the future will involve mods, hacking or cheat codes. Or maybe he'll break the L99 limit by making a Mighty Brothers version of the gasshat to achieve Level 198.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by takenoko »

I mean, to clarify my point, it's not that it's out of character for Emu to not want to kill. It's just presented in a way that makes him look naive. Take Shinji from Ryuki. He had an internal struggle about whether he wanted to participate in the battle. In real life, what's best for everyone or what's the best decision isn't always obvious. So if a character goes "I will never kill, and I will never sway from my viewpoint" comes off as bad storytelling to me. The drama is taken out and the character is rewarded for their conviction without any sort of internal conflict, which would have been interesting to watch. People like dramas because of the big decisions people have to make. The decisions that cause people to live or die.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Catastrophe »

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Ex-Aids upgrade gives me Kirby Robobot vibes. I didn't like it initially when I saw the designs but it actually looks pretty good in action.

I think this was a nice wrap up for the first half of the series. Dan this episode was great and both the actor and suit actors nailed it.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by VerusMaya II »

takenoko on the frontpage wrote:Give the poor man clothes!
No, do not give him clothes. Thanks. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)



Real reply: Actually this episode sucked, and I'm confused why y'all are fawning over it. The plot was abrupt and disjointed for no discernible reason. Episode opens with a sudden chastising - I legit thought I missed something because it seemed like a recap of a full conversation had in a previous episode. So, okay, kill order goes out for Dan. I can buy it, but it does make very little sense: why is it the CR doctor's job to hunt him down? They're there to treat and cure Game Syndrome, not bring criminals to justice. And putting their jobs / department on the line? Uh?? Who is gonna take care of the still viral Game Syndrome, bro? It was an empty threat.

And then, Dan just happily waltzes out of his ivory tower to... uh...? Gloat I guess? Whatever, they begin fighting. And Emu does something that, I agree, was in character, and I do think was a good point. They're doctors, they in theory took the Hippocratic Oath; they're not there to take lives. So Dan stumbles off........ but we spend like 2 minutes just to hunt him down again and resume the fight like part one never even happened?? In the meantime, Parado whispers sweet nothings into Emu's ear, somehow convincing him to... fight Dan again? But he made the same choice in the end, just did an additional extra reprogramming! Waste of time, could have done that the first time.

Parado shows up, dissolves Dan (he's not actually gone, is he), and then takes over the KR Chronicle development. That part is fine, but he really hasn't seemed to care about it much up until now, and if he was always capable of finishing the game himself, why did he even keep Dan around for so long? He's clearly been irritated by him for a while.

Left unmentioned but eventually going to come back: all the people Dan gassed, somehow, will magically grow DoReMiFa and Drago Hunter Z Bugsters... which will likely lead into a Poppy mini-arc.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Catastrophe »

Well, I wonder if there is actually a deeper reason as to why those 2 bugsters didn't show up? Like Poppy is a bugster from DoReMiFa and Parado has the proto DHZ that Graphite used, so maybe Dan never could complete chronicle?

Also, next week looks to be the usual shitty crossover arc with Sentai, but if Christmas and Burger taught me anything, Ex-Aid likes to pull some heavy shit during the dumb episodes.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by fenrir »

dan kuroto is a great character from ep5-now. will miss him for sure.

ok ex-aid is get better these days bcoz of him, kinda wonder what will they do next with the show.

emu should be the final boss in my opinion. definitely something strange is already inside of him
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Greenstalker »

takenoko wrote:I mean, to clarify my point, it's not that it's out of character for Emu to not want to kill. It's just presented in a way that makes him look naive. Take Shinji from Ryuki. He had an internal struggle about whether he wanted to participate in the battle. In real life, what's best for everyone or what's the best decision isn't always obvious. So if a character goes "I will never kill, and I will never sway from my viewpoint" comes off as bad storytelling to me. The drama is taken out and the character is rewarded for their conviction without any sort of internal conflict, which would have been interesting to watch. People like dramas because of the big decisions people have to make. The decisions that cause people to live or die.
Doctors vow Hippocratic Oath before becoming intern (I think it might change from country to country) part of oath is never let someone die intentionally (well at least translation of it comes down to that there is more to that vow) so I find Emu's actions in this episode quite on the mark not only because of his personality even Hiiro said that doctors can't kill or let someone die. Taiga being unlicensed means he is no longer under oath's responsibility though most (if not all) doctors keep this oath even if they lose their license. It is Taiga's response in here is the one out of line but well someone needed to be pro-death.

My theory for last arcs is pippopoppidoppiguppiluppiharibo.......whatever her name was being some sort of Mercy like character(as in she can heal and can even bring back other bugsters) from Drive and will turn evil or shown as being a spy to nurture Emu's bugster later episodes.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Draccy »

Yea, Parado has always been that tall. I know it first hit me back when he spoke to Emu by the river/lake. Can't remember what episode it was, maybe around Mighty Brothers? or when Kiriya was killed.

Parado finishing Kuroto off was great, and I take it we'll see the fall out from all those infected people in the next few episodes.
Everyone is going to be doing damage control, that's for sure.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Alessar »

VerusMaya II wrote:I'm confused why y'all are fawning over it. The plot was abrupt and disjointed for no discernible reason. Episode opens with a sudden chastising - I legit thought I missed something because it seemed like a recap of a full conversation had in a previous episode. So, okay, kill order goes out for Dan. I can buy it, but it does make very little sense: why is it the CR doctor's job to hunt him down?
Because in last week's episode he was captured by Ministry of Health officials and Emu took him away from them to cure his acute bugster infection (which was just a trick, he was just cooking up a new Gasshat in himself), and then he got away, attacked Genm Corp HQ, and reinstalled himself and a horde of zombies in the building.

I'm fine with Emu stopping where he did. It was just awkward how his character expressed himself and I'm unsure if it's his personality or a cultural trope thing. If Emu had just said "kill him? Are you nuts? No I've defeated him and I'm going to take his gasshat and belt, then give him to the cops" we wouldn't have a complaint. That's ACTUALLY what Emu meant to do. Seriously. The end was a do-over with directly blocking his power to prevent an interruption. But what happened is something I see a lot in K-dramas.

The hero is verbally attacked and instead of just replying the hero stops and shuts down and is all penitent and then shit goes bad because the villain takes advantage of his hesitation. It's so convenient for ramping up drama that I think it's a trope! For instance there was a scene in the K-drama Misaeng (a workplace drama) and some random intern was doing a presentation and a high exec asked a question. An actual "give me a bit more detail on this point" type question. The intern's response was to put his head down and splutter "I'm sorry" repeatedly. NOT to answer the question, which the exec actually wanted. Basically he took it as being criticized by a superior and turtled. And I know that Korea is very much blame & shame driven because it's super-hierarchical and people think everyone else needs to be "kept in line." And certainly that culture is not the same as Japan's but I see a lot of this kind of response when someone is challenged in the various Japanese and Chinese dramas I watch, not just Korean ones. I almost never see someone in any Asian show self-defend if criticized. At least not at first, it's like the go-to priority is reversed from the Western viewpoint.

I want to stress I'm saying I see this as an Asian drama TV Trope not necessarily the way all the southeast Asian cultures actually work. Because it certainly IS convenient to attack the good guy and then when they're down go in for a nefarious plot twist or spread slander further to ramp up the drama. And that's exactly what happened here.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by ViRGE »

Ex-Aid is nothing if not entertaining. Even when it's pulling stuff out of its plot hole (reprogramming), it still feels like it fits. It's still exciting to watch.

It's an odd thing when the only real complaint I can leverage at Ex-Aid is that the rider forms as of late have been kind of lame. Snipe's level 50 we've covered, and I'm really disappointed that Genm X didn't change anything. Since Dan bit it, i can see why they didn't bother with a new suit, but even a slight repaint would have been nice.

As for Maximum Mighty X, I can certainly appreciate the style of this suit. As others have noted, with all of the Mega Man homages in the series, MMX (oh hell, I just got that. Maximum Mighty X = Mega Man X) looking like a Ride Armor fits right in. Still, from a practical point of view it's a big, bulky suit, and that's not good for fight choreography. So like Snipe L50, it's going to greatly limit what they can do with the suit. The suit isn't very mobile, and they'll have to resort to CGI when they want to do anything crazy (but I appreciate they made it an actual suit and not pure CGI). I suspect this means we won't see it used as much as the other forms, but we'll see. At the very least, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on, I'm really digging MMX's jingle. (Though what does "Dariragan Dagozuban" mean?)

And finally, Chekhov's Driver makes its mark after a dozen episodes!

As for the rest of the episode, Kuroto Dan will go down as one of the greatest bastards in KR history. Dan died like he lived: like a boss. And it's only fitting that he's undone by his own hubris: the virus he put in Emu, and the walking Bugster that he's PO'd and hasn't been keeping an eye on (Parado).

I'm almost worried about how the show tops that, because he was that damn good. I haven't enjoyed a villain like this in a very long time.

Overall we've had prior series that sort of clear the board between arcs, but I don't think anything has has been so blatant as Ex-Aid. This is not a bad thing, but it means we're moving into uncharted territory. It also means that, depending on how the writers tackle it, Emu having to face his role in Dan's death (even if he didn't cause it) could end up being very compelling. Unlike the title-only OP, I'm Excited! :P (KyuuRanger, why can't you be this good?!)
takenoko wrote:Parado had some sweet villainous moments (Was he always so tall?)
Yes. The camera angles usually don't highlight this, but the main actors are all quite tall. Hiiro's actor is the short one at around 5'9", if I recall correctly. Dan and Parado are the tallest, which makes for an interesting dynamic since they literally look down at the protagonists.
What happened to all those people that got infected? Did they just die? Disappear? Turned into Bugster troopers? Was something cut?
I noticed that as well. It looks like something was cut. Given that Ex-Aid has had no trouble filling its extra minute since the OP change, I suspect that these episodes are regularly running a bit long.
Catastrophe wrote:Well, I wonder if there is actually a deeper reason as to why those 2 bugsters didn't show up? Like Poppy is a bugster from DoReMiFa and Parado has the proto DHZ that Graphite used, so maybe Dan never could complete chronicle?
That Poppy is from DoReMiFa is exactly what I wasn't expecting another DoReMiFa Bugster to show up. It is however strange that Dan didn't appear to know that she was a Bugster. We still haven't had her backstory (and while I'd complain, this hasn't been a show with much filler), so I expect there's a good reason for that, which we will soon find out.

DHZ is odder. Given that they're dangling the mystery in front of us, I'm sure there's a good reason here. But while we don't have Parado's origin either, I don't think he's the DHZ Bugster. Which means someone else out there is.

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So next week is the Spring Break Special. Ghost's was rather lame, but then so was Ghost in general. I hope they can improve on things this year.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by Lunagel »

ViRGE wrote:At the very least, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on, I'm really digging MMX's jingle. (Though what does "Dariragan Dagozlban" mean?)
Absolutely nothing. It's pure gibberish. Think of it as a sound effect.
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Re: KR Ex-Aid 23 released

Post by takenoko »

Lunagel wrote:
ViRGE wrote:At the very least, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on, I'm really digging MMX's jingle. (Though what does "Dariragan Dagozlban" mean?)
Absolutely nothing. It's pure gibberish. Think of it as a sound effect.
It's just onomatopoeia. The da sounds like dai and the gan and ban are big imposing sounds befitting his bulky, powerful new form, would be my guess. Like Luna said it's more there for feeling than any actual meaning.
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