[DreamSword]

I have now finished all of the post-Ex-Aid content. So, True Ending, Final Stage, the Parad-DX HBV, Another Ending, and Mighty Novel X.

True Ending was very Ex-Aid in that I had no real strong feelings one way or the other about it overall. I will however compliment the movie for its very strong atmosphere throughout.

Final Stage, though. Man, this is easily in second place for the Kamen Rider stage shows that I've seen. It was funny, energetic, and overall just really fun to watch. Heck, I felt it made for a way better ending to the show than what the actual show's' ending was.

The Para-DX HBV was just simple fun for the most part, like the Lazer HBV. Emu having a different hairstyle really threw me off though.

As for the Another Ending Trilogy, boy, I got serious flashbacks to the Zero-One Others Duology with this one. While I could point to certain similarities outside of just the head writer, the big one for me was in how both are sequel movies that go entirely against one of the big themes of both shows.

In both Ex-Aid and Zero-One, one of the big messages is "Death isn't the answer, life is." and yet, with the way both sets of movies end up going, they essentially say the exact opposite, in how death is what ultimately results in the "happy ending." Needless to say, I did not dig these movies at all. Better than Others, but still felt like huge wastes of time in the end.

With how back and forth this last leg of Ex-Aid had been for me, I didn't exactly have high hopes for the Novel, but I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised! While sure, there is some minor retconning done to the show for the sake of the narrative, I overall felt that the story it was telling was rather engaging, and the added backstory to both Emu and Kuroto and how it makes their Duality so much stronger was incredibly fascinating to me.

Really, the entire story was essentially how I wished the final arc of Ex-Aid proper had actually gone if the focus on the Bugsters was to be dropped. It even followed up on a couple plot points that had seemingly been forgotten in the show itself. And heck, it even got me to dislike Hiiro a little less! I definitely recommend giving it a read, though I will warn that the novel itself is pretty depressing. Not to the point of being grimdark, but still, brace yourself.

So, does any of this stuff change my overall rating of Ex-Aid?

Eh... not really.

The story as a whole, while it does have some high moments, still doesn't do much for me overall. While I can see why people would like it, especially after all the hate that Ghost got, it's overall just a show that's not really for me. Love Parado, Poppy, and Kuroto though. Zero-One is much more my speed when it comes to Takahashi's' works. Time will only tell how I end up feeling towards Geats. Though it'll be quite a while before I get around to watching that.

For those who've been keeping up with my Rider Playlist(All two of you!) the song I feel that does a good job at symbolizing Ex-Aid is "All Together" by Illenium. It's a song whose lyrics I feel could fit many of the characters, and is overall one about unity, compassion, and understanding. (By the way, Build ended up being "The Only Way (Is the Wrong Way)" by Filter)

Whenever I go back to watching Rider, the next planned show to tackle is Stronger. I could use something more simple and fun to watch right now, I think.