Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 32 – Judgment Passed!

Ex-Aid 32

Papa Dan is released from prison. Shin Dan Kuroto, meanwhile, makes Poppy feel like she’s in prison by taking over half her room. Anyway, Hiiro wants to all the Proto Gashats Kuroto had. But the Ministry of Health has confiscated all of them.

Kuroto repeats that Saki’s data is stored in the Proto Drago Knight Hunter Z. Poppy realizes Hiiro wants to bring Saki back from the dead, but he tells them not to get involved.

Ex-Aid 32

They get an emergency call as Parado faces off against a Ride Player with Loverica Ren watching with his lady Bugsters. Before Emu and Hiiro henshin, Taiga and Nico arrive as Graphite shows himself and his new Level 99 form.

Emu, Hiiro and Taiga henshin to their max levels. Hiiro takes on Loverica, Taiga takes on Graphite and Emu and Parado play.

But Graphite and Loverica easily force Hiiro and Taiga to dehenshin. With Emu alone, the Ride Player jumps in. Parado slaps him and sends him rolling away until he dehenshins and reveals himself to be… Director Kagami?!

Ex-Aid 32

They retreat back to the CR and Emu confirms Director Kagami is infected with Loverica’s strain. He begs them not to tell the Ministry of Health that he played Chronicle.

Ex-Aid 32

Hiro asks his father why he would play Chronicle. Director Kagami says he thought he could revive people, yet he couldn’t even defeat a single Bugster. He asks if there’s anything he can do to help and Hiiro asks him to get the Ministry to let them have the Proto Gashats.

He makes the call and gets it done. Asuna comments that even though Director Kagami may act goofy most of the time, he can get the job done. Hiiro says of course he can. His father is the reason he wanted to become a doctor in the first place.

Ex-Aid 32

Over at GENM, Papa Dan is in the CEO office, smelling everything. He opens a drawer with a Driver and Gashat, but before he can play with it, GENM employees come in to welcome him back.

Ren pops in to speak with Papa Dan and the employees leave.

Ren wants Papa Dan to get out of his seat, but Papa Dan says Ren is no longer in control of the company. He pulls out the Bugvisor II from the drawer. Ren warns that if a human tries to use it, he will be infected with a huge amount of Bugster virus which would immediately kill him.

Ex-Aid 32

Back at the CR they do some inventory on their toys and see that all they have to do is defeat Parado, Graphite and Loverica to get to the final big bad. But to defeat the three, they have to work together as a team. And that includes Shin Kuroto.

Asuna asks Shin Kuroto what the big bad is like and he says he is the ultimate Bugster: Gamedeus.

Ex-Aid 32

Graphite is upset that they’ve never met Gamedeus, but Ren says only Kuroto knows anything about the big boss.

Shin Kuroto goes on to explain that Gamedeus is more powerful than all games combined. He appears only when all game tokens have been collected. But Kuroto says no one can beat him. Players will challenge Gamedeus, but eventually be killed.

The only way the game can be cleared is with the power of Kamen Rider Cronus. And the only way a person can handle Cronus is if they have developed the perfect antibody against every strain of the Bugster virus. Emu is up to the challenge.

Cue a theme song montage of everyone getting ready for the decisive battle. But that’s what they all think.

Ex-Aid 32

They meet next morning. They all maximum henshin with the goal of finishing off Loverica first. But before Nico and Asuna can henshin to help, something strange happens. Everyone freezes for a few seconds as morning suddenly turns to night.

Papa Dan makes his entrance while a huge clock ticks down. He tells them that they are all playing an illegal game and that Kamen Rider Chronicle should be a well-beloved game to be enjoyed forever. He can’t let them finish the game just like that.

Papa Dan commends Kuroto and Parado, rather their game characters, on a job well done completing Chronicle while he was rotting in prison. But Kuroto’s god-like talents and the Bugsters’ powers are merely products of GENM Corp, which Papa Dan created in the first place.

Ex-Aid 32

Papa Dan prepares to judge everyone as he henshins to Kamen Rider Cronus.

Papa Dan admits that he was Patient Zero when he infected himself with the Bugster virus 16 years ago.

Emu, Hiiro, Taiga and Shin all charge toward Papa Dan only to get frozen and shushed by him. He then attacks them while frozen, forcing them to dehenshin with no opportunity to defend themselves.

The Bugsters attempt the same futile move. Papa Dan walks over to attack Parado and Graphite while deciding to deliver a Critical Crews-Aid at Lovrica which kills him for good. Parado and Graphite are forced to dehenshin as it turns back to daylight.

Ex-Aid 32

Director Kagami is cured. Graphite think Lovrica can be revived. But Papa Dan says one cannot use a Continue when dying during frozen time. They’re stuck in the moment of death forevah.

Papa Dan proclaims that he will determine all their fates from now on.

Ex-Aid 32

Episode Thoughts

An interesting episode. First, I find myself unimpressed by Cronus’ debut only because he is basically the embodiment of cheat codes in a way. His power may seem unbeatable for now. But then again, thinking about cheat codes, Kuroto may have very well programmed one or a few himself into the game. Or Parado can manipulate such a possibility as a Bugster.

And so with that, there’s the interesting possibility of an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation where everyone teams up to take out Papa Dan Cronus before turning their attention back to each other as endgame.

At the same time, I have no idea what direction the show is going in so I’m just along for the ride at the moment.

It was good to see Director Kagami involved in a way. But I definitely see him getting pulled out of recurring land only to contrast the relationship between the Dans. Still, it was nice to see Hiiro basically admitting that he looked up to his father. Even though I seem to remember him being pretty cold to his dad early on which kinda annoyed me and I mentioned it. lol

Overall it was a fine episode. Another episode that got me looking forward more to what happens next rather than being excited about what was happening now.

0 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 32 – Judgment Passed!

  1. Okay, that twist of Papa Dan becoming Chronos (or officially Cronus) is admittedly Banno-esque in that the guy wasn’t even significant for, like, the the entirety of the show so far. He was featured once but none after that. BUT unlike Drive’s handling of Banno, there wasn’t really any sort of vacuum created by Papa Dan’s absence in the story that made you frustrated about the aimlessness of the plot ( cough *Drive’s Promised Numbers* cough). Both Kuroto and Pallad were engaging villains that really carried the weight for Cronus’ eventual appearance. And hey, at least this time, they actually created a full suit design for him compared to what seemed to be just a last minute decision to just repaint a spare Drive costume for Banno.

    I like your notion of Cronus’ powers being essentially cheat codes. His debut is also quite awesome actually. The one thing I am a bit worried about is that Gemdeus/Gamedeus character. The last two seasons tried that “final boss is a god” bit and both turned underwhelming. They really need to emphasize just how powerful and dangerous Gemdeus is long before the final episode battle to really build that excitement.

    1. I agree. This episode (and next episode as well) are pretty good in terms of writing and making sense.

      But Gemdeus really needs to be built up properly before its debut, otherwise it’ll be an anticlimactic final battle, or pull a Kuuga/Hibiki on us and skip the final showdown.

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