Man, this was really good. For a lot of it I was having that same frustrating feeling I have a lot with Ex-Aid of "I wish I was more into this than I was" but by the end I was totally into it. Just a great episode. In detail:

- Farewell, Genm, you crazy motherf***er. You will be missed. Probably not by me though. This was a good sendoff, and time will tell, but right now I'm really happy they're not dragging him out past his time. Bring on Parad, I love that guy.

- Oh, wait! I just realized writing this post! Gold Drive was also a way better nutjob villain in my mind too! I mean, Kuroto comes pretty close at points, but I don't think I've ever seen a guy that sociopathically obsessed with himself in Rider. He left a way stronger impression in a much smaller window. Not to s*** too hard on Genm. I mean, I like the dude, it's just... I wish I could like him as much as some of you guys do.

- I liked Maximum Mighty X. It's bulky and awkward, but I find that charming and am glad it's an actual suit instead of awkward CG. Although in a lot of those shots in was awkward CG because it was too bulky and awkward to do what they wanted... Oh well!

- Seeing the Riders gelling as a team continues to be awesome. Hiiro especially pulled a lot of the weight this week. I mean, I've seen this exact stuff before in Ghost and Drive and Blade and I guess pretty much any show with multiple Riders, but it sort of never gets old.

- Plus they're still honoring Kiriya's legacy. He was so awesome he managed to straight up posthumously save the day simply by being that proactive. And Emu is indeed rocking his Driver in tribute from now on, which is rad.

- Hey, speaking of everybody's favorite total loser in his own dang show, Emu FINALLY got to make a good showing again! Like, a REALLY good one! This is what elevated the episode from "a good episode of Ex-Aid" to "wow this was such a great episode of Ex-Aid" for me. Ex-Aid has always excelled at creating these big soap opera plot developments, but its emphasis on characters can be hit or miss. I was a little shocked at how well Emu was portrayed here. It's everything that made me like him early on played up fantastically. I'm so happy this bullet point is getting its own sub-bullet points just to break up the wall of text:

- For a little bit I was prepared to come in and whine about how "I'm a doctor before I'm a Kamen Rider!" would be this really great, weighty line if the title of Kamen Rider meant anything in this show, but thinking about it, they've made it clear enough that "Riders fight Bugsters" so... yeah, sure. Even failing that, it would still sort of work on a meta level.

- On that note, I loved seeing the emphasis put on Emu's morals. One of the things that I think really separated him from your standard "nice guy protagonist" was just how bullheaded he could actually be about the things he believes in, and seeing how unfaltering he is even when presented with pretty much the most repugnant human being imaginable was amazing. It really did his character a service and gained him major respect points from me.

- Which brings me to my last point. The last short little scene at the end was amazing. Perfectly capped off the episode. Just a super genuine bit of emotion from Hiroki Iijima, who like pretty much every Rider lead lately is really quite impressive when given the chance to be, and basically shut me up about the opening being gone. If this were Ghost, that scene would've been half as long as it should've been and gotten awkwardly cut off by the "See you next game" bit. But it didn't, and I'm super happy about that.

I find this really interesting, as a person who just finished Drive. I heard all this hype about Banno and then he's there for what? Ten episodes at the end? While I really enjoyed what there was of him, Dan had a lot more time to shine and cement his sadism and insanity. I wish I liked Banno as much as you did Fish!

While you're right, Banno's the reason for the show existing. It's like Fire Emblem Fates. "Banno did it"

Perhaps it's a different experience watching it after the fact? Ten episodes is two and a half months of time to sink in when it's airing. And the stuff he did in those 10 episodes was great. Dan was (and possibly is?) around longer, yeah, but I feel like because of that his craziness had its lows and its highs. But with Gold Drive? Maximum crazy at all times. Their list of achievements reads really similarly (responsible for most of the plot, killing a fan-favorite Rider), but Banno managed it all in half the episode count.

EDIT: Oh, and also I think his very personal dynamic with Mach is something Genm didn't really have that added a lot. Sure, framing your dad is pretty nasty, but telling your own son "a family is just another group of subordinates for me to rule"? That is BEYOND cold.

This show just keeps getting better!
I'm gonna miss Kuroto but damn this was a hell of an exit for him, i'm not sure which of the dead riders had the better death but Dan's death was horrific in a twisted way, first he loses his henshin ability then just as Emu and the others were trying to redeem him, Parad decides to teach his own lesson and hits a game over in what seemed like torture
Parad went from a sort of joker to dangerous in one fell swoop, i did think the death count would have been higher when they were talking about One death vs many
The moral argument throughout the episode was really great and was played out perfectly and it does seem this was a mini sequel to the Christmas episode where Lazer died,
Felt like everything came full circle
The CGI was kinda imperfect but it fits with the theme of Ex Aid a great deal so i don't mind it
The Maximum Gashat was a great addition and did remind me of the Suika Lockseed but i do think it needs to be used sparingly but with Parad and the Bugsters on the rise again it does seem like it will be the go to gashat like Mighty Brothers was
While i can't say im looking forward to the crossover exactly, at least next weeks episode looks like it will be as a great as this one was
The ending of Emu crying on the rooftop was just perfect for everything he had been through and I'm honest enough to admit the episode moved me too
and if a story does that then its successful in my book

Banno is crazy purely because HE'S AN EVIL BELT. Seriously, it's about as good as Shockers Evil Underpants. He is so wrong in personality he literally gave up his body and became a belt. And wants to kill his kids. That's crazy.

Actually, my personal "you ain't right in the head" villain will always be Ryouma with Sid as a close second, but Kuroto definitely has this years award.

Really, Sid is on that list? I mean, he's a nasty little puke of a man, but full-on crazy? Nah, he's just that particular kind of rotten that can pass as human most of the time because of fear of reprisal. You've probably met dozens of folks like him and never even realized it.

Finally got around to posting, and I thought this episode was amazing. I love Maximum's transformation, the "Emu"pathy plot was a pretty good one, and Kuroto throughout the entire thing was both fun to watch and horrifying to experience. Just... his death scene. I'm pretty sure Parad was injecting him with the death data in Dangerous Zombie, which means he killed him with his own death. Very fitting, very metal.

Though, after reflecting on the episode something's making me feel uneasy. The lack of flowers for Kuroto's death, plus his final words... With all this talk of Banno, I'm honestly thinking that he somehow copied himself into Chronicle. It'd make sense for his character, making a crazy contingency for his own (actual) death. Heck, maybe there's no info on who Chronos is because it's either Kuroto's data or has some new AI made by him...

Heheheheh...every day friend. Every day.

He's on my list because he tried to step too far ahead of himself after Takatora, and got juiced for his aspirations.

That's still more stupid/arrogant than crazy to be honest.

I dunno, I like my words to mean specific things, so I don't like it when people throw them around inaccurately, at least as I understand it. Just... makes my life harder in the future.