Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episode 21- "Chasing The Mystery!" Discussion
 

Emu & Hiro delve further into the history behind Zero Day, and the reason Emu came to CR. What will they uncover?

Neat episode, I'll need to see the subs to actually know what actually happened. But I really loved the huge fight at the end.

That preview....Damn. Dan seems to be going full kaijin. And, destroying the drivers AGAIN? Jesus Toei.

This episode keeps mentioning "Kujo Kiriya" + flashback to the end of episode 12 and 17 + the Game Over sound being played twice really hurt my heart.

speaking of Kiriya, it looks like his friend from episode 4 will appears next episode. You know, the guy who was an Ultraman?

Actually, now that you mention it... The very name of the episode itself: Chasing the Mystery, sounds like a racing reference.

Looks like the Bugster virus started out as their version of the Y2K bug.

So if Bugsters were made from the Y2K virus. that means the Bugsters and the Diaboromon line from Digimon are cousins/siblings. That is awesome. So Emu's new gashat is in the works and will most likely appear in two episodes. Also anybody else wondering why Dan was naked in the preview?

First of all *takes a shot because no opening*
Second: I KNEW IT! I KNEW THERE WAS SOME OTHER REASON KIRIYA GOT KILLED

While I'm glad that we're finally getting some dang answers around here, I am soRELY DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF FOR NOT MENTIONING MY Y2K HUNCH BEFORE NOW! I mean really, Emu's operation seemed like the culprit for his game disease, and it happened in 2000, the dots just kind of added up. Except now I can't be all "OMG I WAS RIGHT" since there's no proof.

Ah well. I am still happy about the answers. I'm actually feeling kind of sad for Masamune since he was kind of thrown under the bus by his own son. Also felt weird that Hiiro just kind of appeared as full Drago Knight without any fanfare... Wasn't that thing supposed to be difficult? I mean he could use Lvl 50 just fine but still.

And Dan continues to be a crazy mastermind as we unravel his past and he achieves Level X. Seriously, who hurt you as a child? You looked so innocent as you discovered a virus that would eventually threaten humanity.

Kuroto got beat up a lot in school for playing D&D a lot, hence why he's hellbent on Kamen Rider Chronicle, to encounter his old bullies and yell "YOU ROLLED 1 BITCH" before killing them

Loving the idea that Snipe is going with...should be a fantastic unknown factor to deal with...but I will NEED a figurart of Dangerous Zombie!!! Man that battle stance is beyond beautiful! Oh did anyone notice when Mighty Action XX did his finisher you could hear the Faiz tones?

They reused the Titan Sword, Wizard's circles and more, after all, it IS the 45th anniversary

Yeah they are using them for the anniversary and they are totally not using them because its cheaper. >>

There's lots of references to the franchise itself in general so I feel that it's because of that

A nice touch if if Zombie's armour had parts of silver to accentuate his acension to Level X.

Don't feel too sad yet, that guy's still totally hiding something. We still don't know (meaning he didn't reveal to Emu and Asuna) what part Emu actually plays in all this--he revealed to Kiriya that Emu and Kuroto had some sort of contact in 2000. That he didn't reveal it to Emu himself sort of implies there's something there he doesn't want him to know...and I mean, whatever it was, I doubt Kuroto was already full crazy at 14, so I expect if anything happened Masamune may have been the one responsible.

Who knows is what I'm saying. I don't trust him one bit.

(as an aside, find it funny that they're still talking about "five years ago" and "sixteen years ago" when almost half a year has passed and it's been a new year for a while...)

Anyway, daaaaaamn. Zombie Gamer having to be defeated 10 times in order to unlock Level X is so damn clever. When he mentioned he needed another fatal blow I actually went back to count all the times he got his shit kicked in, and yep, this episode more or less marks the tenth. Damn clever writers.

Pretty interesting episode. Lots of plot meat on this bone.

Find it interesting that there are apparently some complete Bugsters running around. The votw's son probably wasn't done in by Poppi, and Graphite/Parad aside so far the Riders have just been dealing with incomplete ones, though...I guess it could be Parad for all we know, although I doubt that.

So I'm guessing Maximum's debut is gonna be 23 (Snipe already has the Gashat, although blank, next episode). Which leaves 24 for the crossover with Kyuranger? Probably won't be anything big or overly remarkable, but eh. Guessing that'll also be when Graphite et al. return.

...Dan is playing freaking Disgaea or some shit, grinding out his own deaths...

Have I mentioned how much I love the way they incorporate the video game theme in this show? Seriously, it's the first "big" show I've ever seen that feels like the writers might have actually PLAYED some in their life.

Anyone want to put bets that the cop's son is Parad?

Also, 17 years later and we're still blaming Y2K for all our problems. Damn you Windows 95!

LockonStratos - Dan isn't Disgaea. He's Parasite Eve. Just as obnoxious, and with a maximum god complex.

Things that have leveled up:
Bugster Virused Humans - They don't separate from the human hosts, and are leveled up versions of the original games defeated from Episodes 1 - current. Occurred after Emu leveled up to Mighty Brothers XX.
Power Up Icons - No longer in hidden boxes. Completely visible. Occurred after Perfect Puzzle Gashat was completed.
Bugster costumes changed - All bugster soldiers are now changed in uniform. Happened after Taddle Fantasy Gashat completed.
What else?

We're at Episode 21. Twenty Freaking One. And this series has bust through faster than Gaim did. Faster than Drive or OOO too. So much love for this series.

Dan Kuroto is my favorite Rider villain since Shadow Moon.

According to the Tokunetwork's translation on next week preview, Hiiro gonna find some astonishing browsing his... datas on Kiriya's laptop.

It seems that everyone is finally taking initiative to do stuff now (I'll bet Jeff and Liam over at Rider Club Radio will be thrilled to see that)

-Taiga is crowd/self-funding a game to beat Gemn.

-Emu and Asuna/Poppy to go to Dan-Er... Kuroto's Dad to get answers, thanks to the VotW bringing up the fact that Dan's dad could have some useful info.

-Hiiro once again remembering that he had a girlfriend who died. Although I guess him not mentioning it until last episode could just be a testament to his policy of not letting emotions getting in the why of his work, but I doubt it.

-And Dan as it turns out has been working all a long, turns out that by suffering extreme pain 10 times actually unlocks level X. So Dan's current plan is literally Fish's biggest problem with him; Every time he loses, he somehow wins.

Well this was aight'. On the good side of aight', but not as awesome as the last two weeks.

Love that Hiiro brought up Saki again. I actually love how Snipe spends long periods of the show just scheming in the background. It's a subtle thing that suggests his personality. He's a lot more aware of the bigger picture than Brave or Ex-Aid and is content to play the long game. Very cool.

I like that we finally got some backstory on Genm, because that's been the biggest question mark ever since episode 5 for me. I've held on to that line about "only the strong surviving in the world of games" or whatever from then as being significant, so I'm glad to see it progressively hold more and more meaning, especially since we found out what Kamen Rider Chronicle is. That being said, the new information presented here answered absolutely nothing about his motivations, which is the part that's been bugging me forever now. I've been operating under the assumption for a dozen or so episodes now that he spent a lot of time "talking" to the Bugsters or something before Zero Day and that somehow drove him crazy, but we'll see how it plays out in the show. The dude is so impossibly nutso it better be something big.

Yup. The whole ten times thing is very cute, but man, you know things are bad when Emu tries to do the whole dramatic declaration thing and then Dan just peaces out five seconds later. Admittedly it's an interesting and unique dynamic for a villain but at the same time I sort of feel like "maybe there's a reason villains aren't usually written this way".

I'm seriously starting to pity Emu so much at this point he's looping his way back into the running for my favorite Rider in the show. When you make Kouta Kazuraba seem like he had it easy, I... I mean, man, I just want to give the poor guy a hug or something. :lol

Lots of new plot happening! Really curious about what exactly level X is going to BE. Judging by that next episode preview of shirtless bleeding Dan, it's gonna be nuts. I thought it was nice to see Saki and Kiriya brought up again, and I'm still really digging Hiiro as a character. Definitely an episode that is more interesting in terms of what's going to happen next than the episode itself being interesting though.

It seems that Dan Kuroto manages to out-evil himself in every episode.

And it's nice to see Taiga finally take the initiative. Screw the rules, he has money!

So Dan gets infected in the next episode? Did the sudden power-up to Level X made him have to go through the operation again? I won't be surprised he had foresaw this and put an act in the next episode so Emu will exterminate the Bugster for him and he will be able to become level X freely.

I love how Hiiro has learnt to use the power-ups to make up for the power gap. The three riders are slowly becoming comrades in a sense...I wonder when will Hiiro and Taiga will address each other and Emu by name.

Man Ex-Aid is on a roll right now, so good, can’t wait for the next episode.

Also, its official now, Diaboromon is the source of the Bugster Virus! :lol

I don't really have an issue with Hands-On Dan-gerous Zombie because, it's like a fancy version of the main villain who sends his lackeys while he glowers in his lair - it's just that he's there, too.

Also - hilarious on the "Dan is his surname" collective oopsie.

Collective oopsie? I can't speak for everyone else but I've known his given name is Kuroto. It's just that the idea of this big, crazy, evil overlord dude being called something as mundane as "Dan" is extremely hilarious to me. It's like a pet name or something.

Not gonna lie, I totally did forget his actual first name was Kuroto, it's especially egregious for me since I use Hiiro, Emu, Kiriya, and Taiga for all the other riders, but just call him "Dan".

What's worse is that I was so used to calling him Dan at this point, I was actually considering to call Masamune "Dad Kuroto" in my episode micro-recap.

We've got those "Pony Riders", so why not have Digi Riders? :lolol

Aside from Brave being able to control Drago Knight Hunter Z completely by himself, just like Snipe, without any issues at all, did anyone notice that the suit is actually different now?

http://i.imgur.com/vYQyCKl.jpg

The back is completely closed up where as the original version has a gap for the Lv. 1 face. I actually went back to the episodes where Snipe was using it and it also was closed up.

I wonder why they made that change. Maybe Night of Safari had something to do with it? I haven’t seen the Brave special but could it be that that suit had a closed back and they reused parts of it?

Well done sir, well done.

Amongst the things that leveled up: Kuroto's laugh, it's more and more awkward.

Back when Snipe used the Full Dragon form and I noticed it was a lot bulkier now (you'll notice Brave and Snipe also have their heads completely covered by the helmet while Ex-Aid only had the Dragon face stuck to his own) I speculated that it's to make it a one-size-fits-all thing.

Like, I think the back part was originally made attached to the Level 1 head on Ex-Aid's back, and the helmet was obviously unique to Ex-Aid. I think the big armor is so the other Riders can just sort of put it on top without having to make new parts specifically to fit each of them.

But that's just my guess. For all I know it may have always been meant to look that way and Ex-Aid is only different because his hair is too spiky.

And, the Safari Gamer form does use the back part, but it's the exact same one they use here--black with the dragon spine. They sort of half-assed that part on the repaint. Actually, not even half-assed, they didn't even try. So I don't think that's where it came from.

Another good episode. It's always nice to see Taro Suwa pop up for a guest role again.