Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episode 7: "The Reason For Some Lies" Discussion
 

Today we learn the backstory of Kamen Rider Lazer. Could there actually be some truth to the story he told Emu?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvpSY9HZ_18[/youtube]
aka "The Quintessence of a Lie"
OHHHHHH!

Is it still 5:30?

Kiriya's past looks very sad.......

Interesting to see two Bugsters (Chambara and Combat) from one patient in one episode....

Ex-Aid and Lazer team up against Chambara Bugster look very cool especially they finisher in motorcycle....

So....Kiriya already know about Genm's true identity is Kuroto Dan since episode 5? Interesting.......

Lazer Chambara Bike Gamer looks more cooler than I thought and the battle looks cool too...

But.....after Kiriya in Lazer Chambara Bike Gamer shoot Genm Sport Action Gamer, Pallad protect Genm from explosion and after that, Dan Kuroto escaped and Pallad hold Proto Mighty Action X and Gamer Driver so Emu and Hiiro think Kiriya is lying again...

If in episode 5 Kiriya tell to CR members about Genm's true identity is Kuruto, I am pretty sure conflict between Kuroto and CR members will be started since episode 5....

Next episode, it seems Kiriya trying to battle again against Genm, Taiga obtain Jet Combat Gashat and he become Snipe Combat Shooting Gamer. Probably he used this new power to steal Gashats from Brave and Ex-Aid....

Hmm..I am remember...it seems Lazer has 3 Rider Gauges (gamepad with health bar) in chest, left shoulder and right shoulder...

The lady who plays the daughter of the patient apparently has been in the tokusatsu guest game for quite some time dating all the way back to 1998 where she had a brief part in Gingaman episode 28.

Based on Graphite and Pallad's first appearance in this episode, you can tell Graphite is the better table tennis player because the score says 24-14 if I'm reading correctly :D

Just finished watching the episode and Kiriya is officially my favorite rider so far. The truth to why he lies makes sense imo, because if he hadn't told his friend about the effects of the virus he would not have got into an accident.

We need to learn more of kamen rider Snipes story more.

Oh Lazer if only you know... well I just hope the misunderstood level not reach faiz level :D

...wow, that's how many episode now of everybody being a douche to everybody? At least Gaim and Ryugen as a legit friend for a while (amongst fellow riders I mean), but so far even Hiro is technically an ass to Emu, just one who won't take his Gashats.

I completely feel bad for Kiriya. That's such a painful back story and how messed up he is from that event. Though Lazer lv 3 was kick ass I can't wait to see more of it in action. The villains are wonderful right now, Parad, Kuroto, and Graphite work well together. Emu and Hiiro are awesome too. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Since his transform debut, despite having lots of moment to shine, Kiriya was put into a humiliation chain, from getting his butt kicked in episode 4,5 to losing everyone's trust in episode 7. I feel bad for him.

Maybe he'll come around after all the Gashats are collected & Kuroto reveals himself as Genm to all the riders unveiling his true plan.

Hopefully Ex-Aid will ride with Lazer again.

He told the other that the Buster Virus killed his friend. But then it's found out that said friend ended up dying in a car accident. BUT!! What the others don't know is that his friend ran off and got killed because Kiriya revealed to him that he had the virus. So, in essence, he died because of thr virus. While the virus didn't kill him, the knowledge that he had the virus was the cause of him being wreckless/fearful and getting killed in a car accident. So in short, the Bugster Virus did kill his friend by proxy. In other words Kiriya didn't lie.

Yea, this is what I LOVE about this Episode. This Episode really highlights Kiriya's characterization, and makes it remarkably sympathetic. At the end of the Episode where we, the audience, know he was telling the truth, and yet Parad came in to not only save Dan but to disprove Kiriya's claim.....Making the other Riders lose complete faith in Kiriya, and in the end, what's the sad part is, Kiriya chooses to go ahead & accept his fate, that he after all SHOULD be a liar through & through(since to him it's what keeps people from doing things his friend did).....That ending was pretty sad to me. GREAT Episode, and I'm really enjoying the writing of this Series.

Jesus Ex-aid, stop making everyone Woobies! My heart can't take it!

What are Woobies?

Awesome episode and did it look like Emu still trust Lazer

Hmm.....I hope Kuroto Dan will be defeated by Ex-Aid and Lazer. Hmm..about Graphite, I think it would really nice if Graphite will be defeated again by Brave.....

I feel like the match ups for who beats who is going to be Ex-Aid and Lazer vs. Genm, then Snipe and Taiga vs Graphite.

Hmm...yes, interesting to see development between Hiiro and Taiga. Hmm.....I am really curious to see their's character development especially when they team up...

Graphite is Taiga and Hiiro's problem so yeah thats will be chance about Hiiro and Taiga team up....

And I feel the 3 main villains in Ex-Aid is really similar with 3 main villains in Wizard:

- Kuroto Dan similar to White Wizard
- Graphite similar to Phoenix
- Pallad similar to Sora Takigawa

Yeah...Pallad really remind me to Sora Takigawa especially when Pallad smiling

Quote from tvtropes page "The Woobie":

A "woobie" is a name for any type of character who makes you feel extremely sorry for them.

Ah. Thank you very much.

Well, basically, this is one of my favorite episode of Ex-Aid. Despite my previous dislike toward Kiriya due to he was being a dick in the past episodes, I can't help but feel so sorry to him. As I said before, except for the villains, I think none of the main Riders are actually really that bad for now... Yes, they are acting like a complete jerk but none of them was downright so evil from the beginning. A bit mind screwing that Kiriya's friend actually died but he lied about it to Emu back in 4. But, yep, still his friend died indirectly because of Bugster. Once again, I'm really sorry to Kiriya due to his past trauma he becomes a peculiar liar and it was carved as his own personality. You could also say that he is being the only Rider beside Emu who goes heroic line, except in different ways than Emu himself.

I also liked the fact that they used Parad to help Dan faking Genm's identity. However, seeing this situation, am I the only one who want to see Parad becomes Genm for once? And yep, another top notch actions today either. I really love Lazer Chambara Gamer and it's my favorite LVL 3 form beside Ex-Aid Robot Gamer. I'm kinda surprised to see Kiriya to be a excellent fighter here despite being kick butted before. The way he used his sickles, arrows and environments really good. I'm also surprised that the suit actor could make a fluid movement despite the suit's bulk. I also I like the comedy in Ex-Aid now than before. It feels more natural than the first episode. Both Hiiro's father and Asuna didn't get overacting than usual and it actually really fun to watch them now. Even Emu didn't get the usual tripping treatment which is good.

The only bad thing that I found in recent episodes are mainly the pacing. I know that this series focus on the Bugster and the patients. But, I felt the patients were a bit overshadowed in the last few episodes. They crammed the whole plot progressing, actions, and new toy debut in one episode. So, the pacing was a bit catastrophic lately.Some patient cases were a bit forced to be resolved and I think that today episode's patient case won't be solved until the next episode. The Collabos Bugster also, as most of the people complain, felt a bit canon fodder. They almost barely give any challenge to the heroes and just when the Riders try to use their finisher, those stupid Bugsters only react until the last second. But, it mainly because the nature of the new forms that needed to be acquired from them. Usually, the Riders use new form to defeat these monsters, but they kinda broke it. The Chambara one was subpar due to its design and bit level of competence.

Lazer level 3 looks really cool in action. I'm glad we got more backstory on Kiriya. I just want them to explore Kuroto's background.

Lazer is officially my favorite character. I couldn't help but feel bad for him. His Lvl 3 form is also super cool.

So this ep was a bit of a roller coaster.

Kiriya lost his friend to an "accident" (I'm watching Excite-Subs, so I don't know what the exact accident was.) and is clearly still haunted by it.

We meet the VoTW, who is then rushed to the CR.

Kiriya sneaks in due to a binder getting caught in the doorway.

The CR riders try fighting the bugster in the operating room, but the room is way to small.

The riders use the "Stage Select" function on their belts to move the fight to a place with more space to move around (So that's why the belts have that function built in.)

The riders beat the CGI form but get attacked by Genm (I wonder if he's just able to enter into the CR because he's the CEO of Genm Corp, or if he also walked in because of the binder was still stuck in the door)

Genm and the two new Gashat Bugsters escape.

None of the CR member trust Kiriya except Emu.

We learn that the VoTW is trying to distance himself from his daughter so she doesn't have to see him die. More importantly we see a little more of Kiriya's backstory and how his friend (over)reacted to learning about the Game Disease and how it could be fatal.

The Giri Giri Bugster shows up again to attack the daughter, so Emu and Kiriya show up to fight and beat it, while Gemn and Brave(who oddly doesn't skip to lvl 3 and attack before Genm has a chance to retaliate with his own lvl 3) start fighting.

Ex-Aid lets Lazer shine by giving Lazer the new gashat and even pulling the transformation lever for him.

Lazer "reveals" that Genm is actually Dan.

Lazer lvl 3 using the new Gashacon Sparrow then beat Genm and revealing his true identity... Pallad! (If only Lazer didn't say anything until after Genm de-transform)

Hiiro then "reveals" that Kiriya's friend died in an accident, and Kiriya can't say why the friend got into the accident because that would mean admitting to breaking in and stealing documents from the ministry of health(which would open a whole new can of worms for him to deal with).

In the end, standing alone with his brand new power up he can't give away as a sign of sincerity due to various reasons, framed as the mysterious man holding all the cards, and surrounded by no-one who trusts him. Kiriya painfully accepts his situation, lying to Emu once again to keep himself from slipping into darkness.

This ruled. Ex-Aid is on such a roll now that all the characters are in place.

- Still really happy to see Level 1 action, still really confused as to how the stage select works. Even just one throwaway line would REALLY help me out here.

- Also happy to see Level 2 action, but it's a bad sign when my immediate thought was "wait, why don't they just go straight to Level 3 like they did 5 minutes ago?" I guess there's no real winning here.

- Dang! I was totally gonna call Kiriya's sob story about his buddy not actually being a lie back when episode 4 aired but I didn't feel confident enough.

- On that note, loved all the character stuff with Kiriya, and this episode has cemented his place as my favorite Rider in Ex-Aid, which is a big deal given I'm usually the guy singing the praises of the lead Rider every year. They did a lot of work this week to let the viewer understand his bizarre mentality a bit more, and his actor did a fantastic job throughout conveying stuff through body language. You can really tell whenever he goes from being his usual jokey self to having moments of genuine emotion.

- That being said, I'm a bit torn about the ending. On one hand, that was a clever move on the villains' part, and is the first thing Parad has really done the whole series. But on the other hand, it's kind of an abrupt left-turn reset button kind of deal. But on the OTHER other hand, dragging this arc out a bit longer isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it was great seeing how Kiriya clearly feels frustrated at the end when the one time he tires to open up a bit totally backfires on him. It could be mistaken for reverting things back to status quo, but the whole reasoning behind his actions is different now, with the end giving the impression he's simply resigned himself to being "the untrustworthy one", regardless of whether or not he wants to be.

Also, holy crap! Look at all those words I just wrote about actual plot stuff. SO happy there's some substance behind the show now. The first 5 episodes were fun enough, but last week and this one have really added in the element of character I felt wasn't quite there at the start. I really can't wait to see where this all goes.

EDIT: Really minor thing here, but I'd just like to mention that those "giri giri" jokes from Emu were surprisingly funny. Especially the fourth wall breaking one.

I'm guessing, again, that it's a virtual reality realm that can entrap bugsters. I was thrown for a loop when Genm appeared (I know!) but I think any driver user can access the same level. How did he know what level they were on, however....

Indeed.

I'm just gonna say it, Ex-Aid kicks so much ass. I legit felt bad for Lazer and felt even worse when he chose to accept his role as the liar. It's such a unique take on a character that I haven't seen before in Rider.


I'm pretty much loving this show as much as I loved Gaim around this time, so I have a really good feeling about this series.

Virtual reality needs some form of host, no? And who would own the server but the Genm corporation? This would give Dan multiple ways to keep track of them, being able to monitor the server and how it's being used.

...I was going to argue for it just being straight teleportation, but that's actually a real elegant solution now that I'm thinking about it. It does raise some questions as to what's happening when they first henshin, specifically whether they're entering a virtual reality or giving virtual objects a physical form in the real world until they actually use a stage select. There are arguments for both, although I'm thinking the former is the more likely.

...This actually makes me think of some rather mind-screwy plot twist possibilities. Perhaps having something to do with why Emu dissolves into "data" during the OP...

Screw it, I lay claim to the title of "first person to guess that it's ALL or at least mostly virtual reality to begin with, and that the Bugsters will become more sympathetic ala the Roidmudes."

That's basically what I assume too but the whole problem here is that we're left to just assume in the first place. Like, Genm could've showed up because that's how it works, or maybe given his secret identity he was just standing outside the room and nobody noticed. The show doesn't really show any evidence to particularly support either conclusion but there's an equal lack of anything to contradict it, leaving the whole thing in this slightly frustrating gray area. Genm suddenly appearing practically gave me whiplash. Thankfully the show is easily engaging enough for this all not to be TOO distracting. This and episode 4's whole "the patient isn't lost, she's just at the end of the game"(?) thing are really the only notable instances so far.

On the subject of logical oddities, while it makes sense that the room for "operating" on patients is tiny if the whole idea is to use the stage select, why don't Ex-Aid and Brave immediately know to do that? Hiiro especially is all about ~procedure~, so instead of Emu playing charades with his dad, why not have a quick little character-building exchange where Emu is really eager to start wailing on the Bugster (which would be in line with the hotheaded personality they've established he has when transformed), only for Hiiro to pull him back and tell him how things are supposed to go (maybe even work a "no thank you" in there).

I really don't mean to harp on this stuff because it's not actually hampering my enjoyment of the show that much but Ex-Aid just keeps leaving me with so many niggling questions.

Definitely. It's really cool they decided to flesh out his more sympathetic side this early on too. I felt like they were setting some things up with his debut that I'm happy to see realized so quickly, especially how we now have a reason why he's so unconcerned with honesty. It adds some layers to his actions and there's all sorts of potential for him to develop down the line now.

Ah! Good point!

I honestly don't think they've gone that deep into it. On some level, I think they're keeping in mind that these are kid's shows, there's only so many minutes in an episode and, definitely in Ex-Aid's case, the main goal is to entertain with action. However illogical as it was (and anyone who watched the scene immediately caught the weirdness of it as, at no point prior had they fought in the operating theater! ), the scene was pretty cool! I can't believe how much I love the LVL1 forms!

An aside: Kudos to Excite! subs for only using screen caps featuring LVL1 forms.

Oh daaaaaang! This is my favorite episode thus far and Kiriya is now my favorite! There was just so much to like on the acting and characterization front. Kiriya has a very unique backstory (especially compared to Hiro), and the way they played up his reasons for being such a pathological liar and having the villains turn his actual attempt to get the other Riders to believe him against him were all really interesting. I thought his actor did a great job conveying everything too. I love the direction this could take things!