#because being bald headed is considered the ultimate female insult

[champagnemoon]

You cut your hair more than like 2 inches and every man in your life start spiraling

[gameridernews]

Ex-Aid review: Month 7 (Episodes 25-29)

It's only a week+ late, let's talk about April. More specifically, some episodes that aired in April.

With the second half of the show upon us, we're graced with a new opening after many weeks of "Why aren't they using an opening?" - as a nice surprise, every shot with the actors is updated, meaning we get to see how much they've grown... into their hairstyles.

It also lays down some upcoming things, such as Kamen Rider Poppy (with blue eyes, incidentally), and Nico taking on a pseudo-Rider role. I don't recall if I had a chance to say this before but... yeah I've been spelling it Niko when an English spelling is available. Oops. Still calling Parado this and not Pallad since I can't find any evidence of an English spelling. Also, come on. Paradox.

But yes, after a long wait, "EXCITE" is back! Even though it's been used in the show in its absence. I like the opening, though.

Of course, the show has a cold opening first, immediately introducing us to a scene that happens later in the episode. Genm Corp's new absolutely-suspicious CEO Ren has put out their newest game, Kamen Rider Chronicle! Dan The Man's ambitions have been realized, as regular civilians buy the Gashat that transforms them into Ride-Players in order to take on Bugsters.

I like the Ride-Player suit. It makes use of the Legend Rider Ex-Aid bodysuit with the silver on black, Ex-Aid's helmet with only the white part of the anime eyes, and oddly makes use of the Ghost Gamer helmet to give it that "bald" head. Everyone likes calling them Goombas, which I guess is fair since Mighty Action X seems like a Mario/Sonic-alike.

Seeing the Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat being sold in that box design made me realize two things:

1. They need to make a Premium Bandai release to use that box art in some way... but now we know the DX Gashat has the Ride-Player transformation on it so that's probably not happening.

And 2. I guess Gashats are just what Genm Corp's games look like? You can see the terrible console for it with one jammed into the top. Looking back, episode 4 also made reference to how the "commercial cartridges" don't work in the Driver, implying they share the design but not the hardware. Gonna need to do an analysis on Genm Corp's design aesthetic at some point...

The brainwashed Poppy Pipopapo serves as a cute mascot of sorts, advertising the game and acting as the navigator. And in the context of this being a show, an exposition machine. She explains that the Ride-Players must clear 10 games to beat Kamen Rider Chronicle, reminding me of that whole "You must clear 10 games to defeat the Bugsters" thing that seems out of place at this point.

As an added bonus, she turns the Ride-Players on Ex-Aid and crew by referring to them as special game characters with power-ups that the Ride-Players can use in battle. We see some interesting uses of that near the end as they use his Gashats to summon weapons. Specifically using Mighty Action X to summon the Breaker, Giri Giri Chambara for the Sparrow, Mighty Brothers XX for the Key Slasher... and a second person tries using Mighty Action X but it doesn't work. Thought it was Gekitotsu Robots and found it funnier in that context.

With the Ride-Players now trained to think that the Riders are something they should beat up, Para-DX overpowers a whole group and reveals that Ride-Players who get a Game Over will die. So that's pretty brutal halfway into the show, yikes. As we learn later, there is an attempt to say "Oh, but they come back when the game is over" which we've yet to confirm. But considering certain events coming in May, it could very well be the case.

As it turns out, Parado wanted to get Kamen Rider Chronicle rolling as a sort of long-con. The game was made with the intent of humans triumphing over the Bugsters, but under Parado's control it will actually be a game that lures humans into fighting the Bugsters who will then kill them. He believes that humans have this coming to them for all of his brethren being slain by the doctors of CR...

It's pretty cruel. But it fits Parado. Obviously nothing good could come from Chronicle becoming a reality, but it's worse than what Kuroto would've done, in retrospect - Kuroto wanted to make the ultimate game. Sure, it involved turning people into Riders to fight Bugsters, but think about that:

Kuroto's version of Chronicle would have involved destroying all of the Bugsters. Sure, they would've probably resisted and even killed some people as a result, but Kuroto was ultimately using the Bugsters as pawns as well as the Riders. This would've been a morally grey victory for humans. Or not. Kuroto's kinda nutty.

You know what else is nutty? Kamen Rider Poppy! A female Rider enters the fray, and unlike Ghost you aren't left questioning why. Well, maybe you are if you hate Poppy and don't understand that other people can like her.

It's a nice suit, everything a Kamen Rider Poppy needs to be, and hey there's not really any reused parts apart from the bodysuit which is standard across all designs. Solid work there.

In her debut, Poppy is sporting red eyes since she's evil, and she also fights the Riders for getting involved with the Ride-Players, essentially doubling as an admin for the game. Clever.

This also introduces us to the Bugvisor II, a belt seemingly made for Poppy... and will surely never get used by someone transforming, for example,  with the Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat. Ignore the green lights on the toy. It’s Poppy’s alone. 

Episode 26 deals heavily with the repercussions of Chronicle, namely the Ministry Of Health's attempt to ban the game due to the Bugster Virus infecting people. Death is also a reasonable explanation. The doctors of CR are being held back, but they go against the wishes of the Ministry and fight anyway.

This all involves a nice scene where various gamers online are getting together to fight, only to have the Riders show up to be manly and take on this responsibility. Followed by a nice group fight and the first instance where Parado seems to be overpowered, thanks to Ex-Aid's Maximum Gamer form.

We get not just one female Rider, but SORRY TV Asahi's site doesn't list the Ride-Players as part of the Kamen Riders, it's part of the Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat. I know, ironic.

But Nico steps up and becomes a Ride-Player decked out with her personal gear, proving she is the best girl. As Nico fights, it occurred to me she IS prodigy gamer N, so it makes absolute sense for her to be a Rider. She gets infected, however, to the annoyance of everyone else. Poor girl.

This episode deals with a subject that I'm always nervous about discussing, which is female representation in Japanese fiction. It's no secret that, especially on a kids show targeted towards boys, female characters often get put into the supporting character role with female Riders being short lived... because they usually die quickly. That being said, female Riders have gotten better, ignoring Ghost’s terrible decision.

It's kind of refreshing that Nico's response to the others questioning her is "I just got tired of all of you being the heroes". She wants to be more than some helpless civilian. I like Nico. That's all I have to say.

Following up this talk of gender is Genm Corp's Ren transforming into the Lovelyka Bugster, with Bugster Viruses dressed as maids... yes. Turns out he is from the game Toki Meki Crisis, the dating sim that Poppy's transformation Gashat is based on.

I've gotta say, of all the things fans have joked/begged for since Ex-Aid's game motif was announced, I did not expect a dating sim in here. Ren's kind of a wonderful character because of it, perhaps providing some unintentional commentary on those kind of games?

Fun battle, regardless! The maids are kooky and creepy, and the way Lovelyka makes the male Riders' attacks fail is kind of clever. Bringing back game elements I was missing.

In this episode all about dating sims, Taiga pleases the shippers by having a moment with Nico. The episode hasn't JUST been about her wanting to be a hero, but also about Taiga wanting to save Nico. He finally puts into words something he implied to Hiro: No one else needs to be a Kamen Rider besides him... because he has nothing left to lose and will take every insult thrown at him. He puts aside his cruel persona to be perfectly honest about how he wants to protect people and about how Nico wanting him as her doctor honestly made him happier.

Mmm, all dat development. <3 That being said, things kind of go back to normal for these two as Nico continues being a jerk to Emu. Which I don't mind, cause that's when Nico shines.

In the next episode, things with brainwashed Poppy... actually get resolved quickly, to Parado's chagrin. He's quite salty about how much Emu wants to avoid playing the game as he intended, and Hiro is noticing a connection that the audience has been noticing for much longer...

In this episode, being Poppy is suffering. Not only do we get a patient who is specifically infected with her, meaning they might have to defeat her to clear up his virus symptoms, but the whole world is against her now.

The Riders must see her as a threat even if she seemingly has been turned good once more. She realizes the severity of the fact that her existence led a person to die. The Ride-Players know her as one of the Bugsters they need to defeat to win the game. Even her own kind is against her since Parado demands she play along with his game even if she doesn't want to.

All the girl wants to do is dance and make people happy. That's the kind of game character she is - she's not a boss made to be defeated, she's a navigator. Emu knows that, so when he literally hands her her Bugvisor and has its gun pointed at his chest, he knows she won't pull the trigger on him. Goddamn badass.

Using this, Emu not only proves to the others that she's safe to have around, but he also clears her game without violence and saves the patient in the process. That was a moment I wasn't expecting to be as emotional as it was, and I enjoy it - if the evil Poppy stuff is going to be short lived, it at least goes out with a bang. A friendly bang. No not in that way.

Parado is not pleased, however. In fact, he's so salty about this turn of events he leaves us with a terrible cliffhanger!

Funny story. When the raw for this episode came out, I peeked at the ending, and because I knew of this cliffhanger and what was going to happen in the episode... I watched the following episode without ever realizing that I didn't watch this episode. That's what happens when you drown in spoilers, I guess!

So I don't recall my exact wording on the matter, but one of my first predictions for the show was that Parado was either going to turn out to be the first Bugster, or an old friend of Emu, seeing as he took such a liking to him. And I kinda figured I was right about the first Bugster bit since Emu was patient zero, but I did not expect the friend part to technically be true as well - it's a one-sided friendship, a dormant virus that lived with him most of his life as the gaming persona M, and now that it’s free... it wants to play with Emu forever.

That explains so much about why Parado has been observing Emu, telling others that Emu was his to fight, ALL OF THAT. It's like a... a thing that's been split into separates pieces that you have to put back together. A p... pu... punching game? One of those games Parado likes.

In any case, Parado suddenly provides an interesting take on Mighty Brothers XX, as he and Emu fight each other using those forms, Parado obviously being the M side.

These developments affect the others as well. In particular, now Nico realizes she shouldn't have had Taiga go after Emu - now she wants to target Parado, the real rival. Which is another nice touch to her character, deciding that out on her own.

Meanwhile, when Ex-Aid seems to get the upper hand, it turns out his Maximum Gamer reprogramming... passes on some human genes to Parado? Which allows him to use his Gashat Gear Dual in Kuroto's old Gamer Driver (another nice reuse of corpse gear) to become Level 99.

It's a wild design, which in some ways feels like it breaks the theme of the suits... but since Para-DX is kind of like a secondary Rider - in that he works differently and uses a different type of device - it makes sense. It's a nice intimidating design too. Definitely gonna kick some ass for a while.

Poppy goes through some developments of her own. After what Emu did to undo the brainwashing, she's now having memories from the person she infected. Interestingly, she remembers a young Kuroto sharing with her some counter measures he developed in order to restrain the Bugster infection.

The last scene ends on quite a reveal. Following her memories, Poppy explores Kuroto's old hideout... which apparently is Genm-related, so I wonder how Kuroto was even able to hide out here for so long.

What she finds is a booklet and a Gamer Driver with a Proto Proto Mighty Action X. Technically called Proto Mighty Action X Origin, but y'know. It's a black/greyscale version of Genm's Gashat.

What could it mean?! Well, I've already watched the latest episode, so... see you at the end of May!