Huh, common core math seems to be in effect with this episode.

Another excellent episode. I wonder if the direction for Emu was 'do your best Kuroto'.

Everyone in this series is just fabulous.

Parad's one weakness: He's not great at math...

oh boy time for takeru to come back with the pythagoras eyecon to save the day!

I'm commenting a bit early this week because I'm watching KissAsian's RTA subs now instead of the OneDrive due to family computer usage complications, anyway on to the episode:
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I don't really know how to feel about the big reveal this episode.

On one hand, it feels like a letdown to find out that Emu has the typical Jekyll/Hyde relationship with Parad.

On the other, it really does make sense and explains a lot of the oddities/questions that happen throughout the series:
-The reason why Emu was acting like such a jerk after finding out he has the bugster virus is because Parad was directly possessing him.

-The reason why Parad has been around since the start was due to being surgically separated from Emu six years ago.

-The reason why Emu's bugster wouldn't come out when Emu had Hiiro operate on him is because Parad was currently already outside his body at the time.

Hell their connection was already obvious way back in the early episodes when people were suspecting that Parad was Genm.
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As for the big debut of Perfect Knockout (Still think they should've gone all out 90's cheese, and named it Perfect Fighter)

I actually like it a lot more seeing it in motion now. As I said in the rumor thread, I was really scared that the hair spikes would just be a flat disk that sticks out of the middle of his helmet but thankfully it's not. I was also worried that its shoulders would be the "Ixa" kind and just flop around when Para-Dx was moving his arms, but they seem to hold in place enough for me to not notice anything.

The fight itself was neat, with Para-Dx beating all three riders just like his original debut. And for bonus points he once again beats them via using a mechanic they all forgot about: Pressing the b button on your GashaCon weapon makes the attack stronger.

Sure, if that means saving them via a potential sacrifice. You never know!

I know Nico having a vagina makes this highly unlikely but, hey, Ex-Aid has bucked the "Girls Can't Be Riderzzz" stupidity this far...

Man Ex-Aid is soooooooo good. It's only 29 episodes in but it seems like we're already approaching the finale. Lots of great substance so far.

It's not her gender that makes it almost impossible - in this case, anyway - but her alignment. The scans show her very clearly being a hero with Poppy and the doctors...while also stating that Chronos's appearance turns the humans-vs-bugsters conflict into a three-way free-for-all, as he attacks both sides indiscriminately.
At this point in her development, I just can't see any way for Nico to do that.

Scans suck.

This was pretty excellent. That being said:

- Since I can't seem to stop nitpicking this show, I found it slightly weird how slow on the uptake with the whole "Parad is possessing Emu" thing everyone was, considering they were standing right there. I can buy not getting seeing Ex-Aid fighting himself, but come on Taiga, what do you mean "Why has he got Para-DX's Gashat?". Put two and two together, man. :lol

- Speaking of putting numbers together, apparently I'm not the only one who noticed the most juicy lore dropped this whole episode. Parad is really bad at math! No but seriously, if a Pokemon can be level 100, so can you, pal. Don't sell yourself short.

- (obligatory reminder that Parad is totally a way better villain then Kuroto "I technically died more times than Takeru" Dan was)

- So one of Ex-Aid's biggest strengths has been the attention to detail in terms of the Plot, and this episode really showed why. So much stuff that seems like obvious foreshadowing in retrospect! Why was Parad seemingly more special to Dan than the other Bugsters? Why did he just disappear when Emu's Game Virus broke out and then not show up again until the end of that episode when everything was sorted out? See, the fact that this show has so much cohesion is why I nitpick it. It's so smart, I get really surprised when I see something even remotely dumb.

- Also, props to the show for simultaneously confirming every theory about Emu & M all at once, even the ones that seem mutually exclusive. That's nuts. "M is gonna be the main bad guy!"? Yup. "M and Emu are separate dudes!"? Check. "No they're not!"? Also check. "Emu is the real one!"? Uh-huh. "M is the real one!"? Not too far from the truth either. Considering this was the one big thing I was worried Ex-Aid would handle in a way I didn't like, I'm really happy they're doing it the way they are. Emu may be right back on the pain train this week, but on a meta level this is still a victory for the guy.

- Also, even though I'm bad at speculating, I just want to go on record as saying that if Dan gets back in the opening where the purple static is right now, the odds of Kiriya not actually being dead too shoot WAY up there. Although this episode also had Parad explicitly refer to the KRC players as being "killed" rather than "erased" or whatever, which, even if he was just trying to get under Emu's skin, is kind of suspect.

- You know what? Screw it. Here's my real prediction. Hiiro's dad is Chronos. Why else has he been gone for like half the show? :p

That episode shed SO much light on everything. They finally explained the M/Emu thing in a way that even surprised me, with Parad literally being the M personality. Also character development, all the Riders worked together! I'm really curious about that the abilities of Genm Level 0 are going to be though, is it going to be a very non-combat oriented form that specializes only in healing the game illness or is it more like the level is so high it rolled over to 0 and will kick everyone's ass? I like how this show doesn't try and just exposition dump everything as soon as it comes up, but slowly feeds you information, it keeps me hooked!