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gameridernews · 8 years ago

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Ex-Aid review: Month 8 (Episodes 30-33)

After a bit of a break during the show's biggest status quo shaker, it's time to see how May turned out.

We left off with some major Kamen Rider Chronicle goings-on. Ride-Player Nico, Kamen Rider Poppy, and some other things I don't care about mentioning here because hey it's just cool to see those two still kicking ass. And I'm glad that the blue eyed version of Poppy from the toy catalog artwork and opening is a thing that's getting some use.

The collecting of the Gashatrophies is a bit abridged, though I can't complain since it does give me stuff I could use for fanfiction...

Continuing the plot where Parad possesses Emu, the two duke it out in what feels like final episode levels of brutality. I'm surprised at how well Ex-Aid can match his strength outside of the Maximum Gamer armor, implying that he still has some kind of power boost since he's technically using that form. And we even get to see Para-DX's Rider Gauge go down quite a bit.

Something tells me that Parad won't end up being the final boss. I mean, we clearly have what will be a final boss, but one could have assumed Parad was the kind of character to... well, do what he did to kill off Kuroto before. My point, though, I suspect this is what the show consider's his last big moment.

Still, Emu would have been killed, had it not been for our shining star in this dark dark world...

THE GAME MASTER HAS DESCENDED TO THE MORTAL REALM.

Okay, so everything leading up to this is just filler, because the clear meat of the month is Kuroto Dan's return, for many reasons. Poppy goes to the world of Mighty Action X using the Proto Mighty Action X Gashat Origin, and finds a Bugster who it turns out is Kuroto Dan. Sort of. He's got a jacket that says "Game Master" so I think he's legit.

We learn that Kuroto Dan has become self aware and is embracing the fact that he's now a meme. Or at least, that's what I'd like to think - he's become a very cartoonish guy, and somehow it doesn't feel out of character. When we learned of his true identity as Genm, it was clear that his calm businessman persona was just a lie - we're now witness to the Black Blood Of The Earth version of Kuroto Dan... go on, look it up, I know that’s a stretch of a reference.

Something that was made apparent to me, the more I thought about it... I'm not sure how this works? Like, they've clarified that the data of a person who died is saved in the game of the person that killed them, or something to that effect - Saki was killed by Graphite so her data is in Proto Drago Knight Hunter Z. Kuroto must've very recently, before his death, stored a "backup" of himself on this hidden Gashat... but then, would he have the memory of his own death? It's not something they've explained well, and I don't think it's intended to have a proper explanation. So that's a bit of a glaring plothole to me.

In his new Level 0 form (a form that could've used normal eyes since the silver makes him less evil), his game area does away with Parad's possession of Emu, so that's... convenient. He also has a kung-fu grip that brings your level down, which is kind of a fun idea. And of course, no one can hate the Continue pipe. Shapeways folks, make something happen.

With a new shirt likely plucked from the closet of fellow god Ryoma Sengoku, Kuroto gives us exposition aplenty about his... actually good deeds with regards to the Rider Gashat system and the battle against the Bugsters.

I say "good" but let's elaborate. With what he put into place, Kuroto decided that anyone who dies would not actually be gone forever, but instead reborn as immortal data. Or as a Bugster, as he calls himself. While it's implied that his mother's own health may have been part of his motivation, he makes it seem like he's in it for himself, but I feel like that's almost a lie.

The double edged sword here is... he basically invented immortality that requires a person to be killed, and being turned into data doesn't really sound like "living". Emu certainly disagrees with the notion and for good reason.

I find this fascinating because I - and many others - was skeptical about his revival since that one image of him and Emu transforming together gives this implication of "Oh, redemption arc." Kuroto Dan went a dark path and was fueled by a mighty god complex, and... I'm impressed that their version of a redemption arc for him didn't really change anything other than having someone FORCE him to aid the enemy of his enemy. He's still crazy, and the things he's doing that are meant to be good are still very grey.

I've been the biggest doubter saying "He should stay dead because they've done all they can with him", and now I'm marveling at how they somehow managed to take him from chaotic evil to chaotic good. Bravo.

I suppose I should back up a bit and talk about something that I skimmed over: He infected his mom with the Bugster Virus to help her when she was in the hospital for unrelated reasons, and it just so happens that she took form as... Poppy Pipopapo!

So, that means that Poppy is now Kuroto Dan's mom... and that's certainly not the twist I was expecting them to go with. It's a simple twist, I guess, but I do have to applaud them for catching me off guard.All this time the theory was that Poppy’s host was just some nurse or employee at the Ministry of Health.

Kuroto's actually got some semblance of good in him, and the show does an actually heartwarming scene with her embracing him to take an attack, showing the kind of care a mother gives to their child - regardless of how spoiled they are.That’ll wake you up real good.

Once they have a moment of rest, he even goes out of his way to give gifts, giving a Gashatrophy for Poppy, a second Gashat Gear Dual B so Hiro and Taiga don't need to share, and gives Hiro the motivation to get his girlfriend back since they've confirmed no one truly died. I'm sure that won't backfire...

Everything's comin' up Milhouse for our heroes! That's not a red flag, is it?

Oh, oh yes it is.

Here we have Masamune Dan, a character I've just been waiting to see have his day in the sun for a long time. From the moment we saw Kiriya talk to him in prison, I thought "Mm, this is a character we're gonna come back to." Every moment he had on screen, with Kiriya then with Emu and Asuna, it was framed in an ominous way... as if we need to watch out for this man. That's ignoring the implications of why he's in prison.

Which is why, when people were absolutely certain that Kuroto would go on to become Kamen Rider Cronus, a big ol alarm went off in my head going "Then what was the point?!"

In... what I guess is not a surprising twist if you've seen prison-relevant stories, Masamune was let out of prison for good behavior, and since this is a kids show with toys to get to, he is quickly made the president of Genm Corp once again.

The fact that everyone at Genm Corp is excited about this makes me realize how much the actual company itself ISN'T evil... they just have the same luck with presidents as Hogwarts has with Defense Against Dark Arts teachers.

At this point, the Gashatrophies are more or less collected, leaving only the interesting ones I would actually want to see in Gashatrophy form: Toki Meki Crisis, Drago Knight Hunter Z, and Perfect... Knock Out? They combine Para-DX for obvious reasons.

The only thing worth mentioning here is the appearance of Genm's Zombie Action Gamer form, which is Level X-0. If it were up to me there would be some Drive-style mixing of suit parts but it makes sense and I'm glad to see an oddball combo. Also this bit made me realize that Genm is armed with the Gashacon Breaker now, which finally justifies giving him Ex-Aid's Rider Gauge design with the hammer.

But, you know... you know that I'm stalling. There's a new Rider, and it's the one with the most intrigue out of any of these characters. Unless you count those pre-show days when we debated if Lazer was a robot.

KAMEN RIDER CRONUS.

We get an interesting teaser beforehand where Kuroto explains that the power of Kamen Rider Cronus is the only thing that can beat the otherwise unbeatable boss of Kamen Rider Chronicle, a game design decision that will likely be seen in the next Dark Souls game. When they drop that, someone who has seen that Cronus will become the villain... understandably lets out a dark chuckle at the cruelty of their storytelling.

Masamune Dan transforms into our new villain, and immediately shows off his ability to use ZA WARUDO-- I'm sorry, I have no right to reference that yet, I'm only on Part 2 of JoJo. But still, my understanding is that he's on the same level right now with the ability to pause and restart. Thems some special admin privileges you're abusing, chief. It doesn't matter if he has a level or not when he can just control time like this.

Something I'm not sure how I feel about is the explanation for how he's able to use the Buggle Driver II. He reveals that Emu wasn't the only first infected, but so was he? And has had years of immunity built up so that he can transform? I dunno, it sounds an obvious fancharacter idea or even a throwaway movie villain origin. Not a huge huge fan of the "You're not the only one who ___" origin, even if I'm prone to use it. I guess it had to happen at some point.

The thing that I am incredibly delighted by with this debut is his dialogue. They immediately establish his personality when he looks to Kuroto, his own goddamn son, and decides to stop calling him Kuroto Dan... and refer to him, as well as the others, by their game names. He dehumanizes them all, and he also talks in metaphors which may or may not be the fansubbers' liberties but they work so well.

Oh and since I did a rare thing and used subtitles in this screencap to show that... yeah I guess Lovelyka is gone. He was a lovely man and served his purpose as a beautiful character, a despicable villain, and a somber realization for his comrades.

Also he kicked Lovelyka in pause town, which means that he spends an eternity in a limbo where he can't be resurrected. That is not only a chilling way to up the stakes, but also it's kind of hilariously overpowered depending on how you describe it. I hope to perfect a proper description to share with friends who aren't watching this show.

Wasting no time, Masamune gives the Bugsters his condolences for killing their comrade, by which I mean gives them a mafia-style threat to keep Kamen Rider Chronicle going if they don't want to suffer the same fate. We see Parad at his most vulnerable, left as speechless as a scared child at the realization that they are really, thoroughly screwed. This was lovingly chilling to witness.

Especially when we learn what he plans to do next - he's going to import Chronicle to the rest of the world, and while it would normally be good to get your American hands on a Kamen Rider game without region locks, this not only delivers a worldwide Bugster threat but also seems to be tailored with the promise that they'll be on a tight leash.

As he demonstrates by literally erasing Salty from existence with the press of a button. Good lord, Masamune's threat level went from 0 to 120 in the span of 1 1/2 episodes.

Also a frequent point of discussion, as mentioned before, was Saki. I'm of two minds on this subplot - on the one hand, yeah, it checks out. Hiro lost a girlfriend, and is dueling with the morality of bringing her back as a data being. On the other hand... he hasn't really dwelled on her until this month, ever since the episode where he overcame his struggle regarding her death, and y'know... killing Graphite, the one who took her life to begin with. It feels odd in the same way that any subplot is when it hasn't been relevant for a couple dozen episodes.

Again, though, this isn't exactly something that a person easily recovers from - it was probably only pushed to the back of his mind in the face of Genm's heel turn, Bugster god genes, the Parad uprising, and the Chronicle controversy. These are all wonderful news article titles for the world of Ex-Aid.

After this, we get to see what Emu and Kuroto's big plan is to get rid of Cronus' pausing ability, which is kinda clever. It ultimately gets thwarted by Brave, who's decided to take the villain's side for reasons we can pretty much figure out. Good job... asshole.

I forgot what I took this screencap for, but I guess it makes a good wrapup image.

Okay, to followup the thing I just ended with on Brave's turn, I don't hate him for it. It's a rough spot for him to be in - Cronus has added a dynamic no one was ready for, and it's already making some huge hurdles for the team to deal with.

I'm very interested to see where this goes... annnd I don't have too much of a wait since I've let so many episodes build up! And despite being well aware of who makes an appearance, I have managed to stay spoiler-free.

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