Yeah, the show is so far into full blown conflict mode it's hard to predict how it can sustain for another year without there being some other, deeper, yet unseen plot and characters.

Pretty great episode - with Fish in that it was the first that I didn't like more than the last.

Poppi is a mess, they need to better define the Poppi / Asuna divide.

I definitely enjoyed this one the most so far. I love where the series is going so far. Also, I really liked Poppi in this episode. It made it seem like she has to consciously try to be "normal" while in Asuna form, and the CEO calling her Poppi made her slip up a bit.

You know I think I figured out my problem with it.

This. The plot moved so fast I didn't have time to consciously think about it, but I think after the preview I was expecting a nice character-building plot where Emu maybe has to ask himself some tough questions or show dedication to his ideals and then get a shiny new toy as a direct result, but instead the answer to the question of "should criminals be saved?" turned out to be "gosh that Genm guy sure is a jerk huh?" and him getting Gekitotsu Robots was just kind of a coincidence.

There's nothing wrong with any of that, but going back to the comparisons to the last few shows, episode 5 of Drive was part one of a two part story where Shinnosuke had to overcome his manic depressive tendencies to use a new form and deliver a satisfying smackdown to Machine Chaser for the first time, and episode 5 of Ghost was part one of a two part story (kind of) in which Takeru learned to have some faith in himself and stop being so mopey.

I'm pretty character focused when it comes to TV shows so I kind of wish Emu had done a bit more to "earn" his win against Genm, especially since he was shown to be so tough even in Level 2, so even just on a logical level it strikes me as odd his Level 3 form isn't inherently tougher than everyone else's too. Emu basically wipes the floor with him.

I'm not actually that miffed for how long I just went on about it, though. It just kind of threw me off. Ex-Aid really has been a ton of fun so far.

Oh, there was something I wasn't clear on in this episode though. Genm thrashed most of the Riders and broke their transformation. Wasn't losing all your health supposed to be deadly, or did I miss them all undoing their transformation manually?

I didn't see any hands closing the Driver and removing Gashats, but you could presume that they could have been given they all detransformed while getting hit really far, realizing it was probably over.

Well we did see the leaver on Lazer's driver suddenly close without him physically touching it at the end of episode 4 when he turns back into level 1, so I'm willing to believe that the riders have some sort of mental eject function in their suits or drivers, either that or Brave took his gashat out right before the camera shows us him falling to the ground, and Snipe removed his gashat as he was rolling across the ground.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, yeah, they should have had Emu do something more to make it feel like he earned his power-up. Considering how Emu was even saying "I just want to cure your sickness"(I was watching this with RTA subs) right before Graphite showed up (I also didn't know what Graphite's actor looked like, so I assumed he was just a normal VoTW), I was actually expecting him to start encouraging Ex-Aid with some cliche "It's not me, get in there and kick his ass!" line, and then Emu gets the new gashat and wrecks Genm.

For me, this is a bit worrying and kind of leveled my enjoyment from "Fuck Yeah!" to "Hell Yeah!".

But then, Genm did seem to revel in his own assbeating, leaving me to wonder if somehow Emu is an unwitting pawn in all this. Black bar just in case? Are we bothering?

Me thinks Dan/Genm isn't all there. His last line while he insanely laughed kind of said it all. :lol

Well, I kinda have a bit mixed feelings here. For some points, the plot are progressing much more and more and it keeps interesting. But, at the same time, there're still a lot of negative parts here. First, like what MarsHottentot said, they really need to divide between Asuna and Poppi's role cleverly. Since, it's really annoying to see Asuna acted like Poppi and otherwise vice versa. Most of the times, it felt so out of place and a bit tad weird. The dry comedies here also make it even worse... Also, I feel that the pacing in this episode was too fast or too disorganized. At one point, they want to focus on Graphite's human form debut, at other places, they want to focus on Genm and Emu's constant emotion changing. They crammed too many points in this episode that it got a bit mess here.

Also, despite many people might love the big gathering in this episode, I kinda dislike the big Rider gathering here. I mean we got 4-5 Riders appeared in the last episodes and seeing them being crammed in so much early episode like this feel nothing more than a toy commercial. Seeing that most of the characters aren't fleshed out making the Rider gathering was a bit flat. Not to be mean, but I think even if Kiriya or Taiga don't appear in this episode it will still proceed like usual; especially how you would make Kiriya to fare with Genm who used Level 3? I'm also confused why that robot Buster and Graphite didn't lend any hand to help Genm in his fight Ex-Aid. It felt so stupid that the robot Bugster only reacted when Ex-Aid prepared to smash him out!

Well, I don't really think that the action is the one who shone in this episode. I should give it to the plot since we got to see more of Emu's character. I don't really care so much to the other Riders, but seeing Emu's development in each episode is great! Also, seeing him to be mad really help to give more tension to the series. I don't think any naivete main Rider like Emu got so frustrated or so mad. I bet his split personality might backfire at him later. I hope the series also flesh out the other characters, since I felt that some of them are quite flat, except for Taiga. Also, seems like the ending scenes are made by Toei to troll the fans. Wow! Really, we knew that the black Ex-Aid's name is Genm, but almost no one could be sure it was DAN!! We got so trolled to think that Genm is either Graphite or even Parad.

Why am I just now realizing this...