[Fish Sandwich]

Well in honor of Ex-Aid ending I decided to give the first 5 episodes of the show another go around. It took until episode 6 onwards for me to really start getting into Ex-Aid, and since my opinion of it has only gotten higher and higher, I wanted to see how the show's early days would look to me now.

It's not really a very interesting story though. I enjoyed them a bit more, but I more or less stand by everything I said at the time. The writing is very tight (I mean, it's Ex-Aid, so of course it is), the action is fun (you can tell the budget was there to show off early on), but the story and characters lack the emotion they'd be given later on. Some random other thoughts:

- Remember how Emu was supposed to be a klutz as an ironic contrast to his skills as a gamer and by extension as a Rider? Because they started downplaying it really quickly. Possibly for the best, given Kamen Rider's track record with slapstick comedy lately.

- Only now that the show is over does it finally occur to me that episode 3's title was a pun (i.e. they didn't forget the "g" in the word "bang").

- Speaking of that episode, Ex-Aid charging into a hail of gunfire to save a kid is still such an awesome moment. I always said one of the things that makes Emu different from a lot of similar Rider protagonists is his sort of stubborn edge, and that scene defines it.

- Oh man, this line from Lazer's debut:



He says this right after Genm, who has just transformed into a newer, more powerful form, nearly empties his Rider Gauge. Talk about irony!

- Those Vending Machine Bugsters are SO lame, and that's putting aside the part where they were just an excuse to skimp on monster costumes for a couple episodes.

Anyway, I found out just after watching all these episodes that Excite! Subs got the finale done in record time, so... I'm off to go watch that now, apparently!