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