[barnstenchfartface]

It really is starting to feel like Kuroto is going to kick the can very soon. The way the story is building things up I can't see how he could reasonably last beyond this arc, if not next episode. Pretty much all his secrets are out in the open, this is, as Nico and Parad aptly put it, a really last stage, last boss type of development, and now that I think about it the way the last catalog worded the Chronicle Gashat's creation is suspicious as hell.

Not to mention that Kiriya, his most notable victim, is becoming ever more relevant. I fully expect that to culminate in Emu using Kiriya's Driver as a replacement next episode when he uses the Maximum Gashat--which itself was made by the game-dad of his other big victim and is loaded up with a program provided by Kiriya. What else could be more appropriate for the final battle? In a sense, he'd be taken down by all four heroic Riders' efforts. They couldn't set things up any better for his defeat.

Also that "my dream is immortal" line in the previews is exactly the kind of thing a boss would says before dying.

'course, Kuroto exiting the stage at this stage would present some big problems, particularly in regards to Chronicle's creation and use. One way or the other, I expect that the series will end up being bifurcated structurally, into pre- and post-Chronicle completion arcs. It's so strange to think we still have more than half the show to go...but I expect Chronicle will be a pretty big deal for that half.

But anyway, that's just my blabbering about the unknowable future.

As far as this episode goes, it was pretty good. More information! More nice character moments (despite what they would have us believe, it is quite obvious Taiga is this show's true tsundere)! More Kuroto being a petty little shit (even as a teen)! Bike stunts!

Kinda curious about how exactly Kuroto managed to infect himself with the Sports virus though...pretty sure he had the same immunity the others did (kinda hard for me to make out what he was saying when the others asked him how he was infected but I'm pretty sure he says that too...'course, could be a lie?) because if he wasn't he really...should have been infected ages ago. Maybe shooting up with it straight up the jugular makes it more effective, somehow? Who even knows. Also kinda suspect that they didn't notice he kept the Bugvisor in his hospital robes or whatever, but hey, plot.

Anyway, needless to say, very hype for what comes next.