Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 18 – The Revealed Truth

Ex-Aid 18

Tsukuru is still mourning the loss of Burgermon, but he is confident he will be able to develop a game that can save the company. Kuroto Dan appears before him and compliments him on finishing a Gashat. But Tsukuru knows just what Kuroto Dan is.

Before Tsukuru can say any more, Kuroto infects him with the virus and says a simpleton like Tsukuru couldn’t possibly create a hit game.

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On the roof, Emu confronts Asuna and Hiiro about what Kuroto Dan meant about “Helping a Bugster? Did your body make you do that?”

Emu knows Kiriya, Taiga and Hiiro have all been keeping stuff from him and he wants to know the whole truth. Hiiro wants Emu to hand over all his Gashats. They get the emergency call about Tsukuru. Hiiro says he’ll take care of it, but Emu won’t have that. He runs off. Asuna follows.

Hiiro is regretful that he doesn’t have any Gashats he could use to cure Emu.

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Taiga and Nico arrive just as Emu and Asuna do. Kuroto Dan says he was only using Tsukuru as bait so he could lure them all here. It was he who called in the emergency.

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Kuroto henshins. Emu doubles up and Taiga goes Level 5. While fighting, Kuroto takes time to insult and mock Tsukuru to increase his stress. That unleashes the Motors Bugster. Asuna takes Tsukuru to the CR.

As Motors speeds off, Emu takes a Speed power up to chase after it. That seems to be part of Kuroto’s plan as well as he now has Taiga all to himself.

Taiga attempts a Drago Knight Critical Strike at Kuroto. Nico cheers her boyfriend on, but Kuroto is still standing. He in turn delivers a Kiri Kiri Critical Finish at Taiga which forces him to dehenshin and drop all his Gashats to the ground. Kuroto picks them up.

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Taiga says Kuroto will never be able to beat Emu. But Kuroto says he’ll be making a Gashat that will be able to.

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Emu gets back to them and is upset to learn Taiga’s Gashats have been taken. But that stresses him and the headaches attack.

Back at the CR, Tsukuru tells Emu about a new GENM CEO who issued a challenged to all employees to create a new game that could save the company. A lot of his team are confident in him, but Tsukuru isn’t as confident in himself and feels the pressure.

Emu says he’d love to play Tsukuru’s game.

While Emu is with Tsukuru, Taiga calls and talks to Poppy and Hiiro. Taiga warns them to keep Emu away from Kuroto to prevent the only Gashats they have left to be taken. Also, Emu’s body cannot handle using the Gashats any longer.

Nico slaps her boyfriend in the face and they hang up so they can have private time to play games.

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Poppy realizes Emu is infected with the Bugster virus as that’s the only explanation. Hiiro shushes her. She wants to tell Emu, but Hiiro says that would only stress him to the highest level and he would die.

Hiiro wants Gashats so he can save Emu.

In their lair, Kuroto Dan has finished whatever he was making using Taddle Quest and Bang Bang Shooting. Parado asks what exactly Kuroto aims to do with it. Kuroto says once he has eliminated everyone who gets in his way and collected every bit of Bugster data, Kamen Rider Chronicle will be complete. Any normal humans will be able to henshin and it’ll be the biggest, most ultimate survival game evah!

Ex-Aid 18

Parado says he would be the one to defeat M, but Kuroto Dan wants to do it himself. Kuroto Dan will not allow anyone to be a better gamer than him.

Kuroto says Parado is just one game piece in his master plan.

Kuroto Dan likes to control his creations as the gamemaster. “I am God!!!!”

Ex-Aid 18

Motors is at GENM and rampaging. Emu sees Tsukuru affected and he runs out. But Hiiro stops him and demands he hand over the Gashats.

Emu wants to know why he doesn’t want him out operating. Asuna tries to brush it off as Hiiro just being helpful. But Emu says he doesn’t want to leave this to someone like Hiiro who doesn’t care about the patient’s personal affairs.

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“I just want to treat the patient in front of me!”

Emu runs out anyway.

Before Motors can kill Tsukuru’s team members, Emu arrives. Kuroto Dan arrives and tells Motors that his purpose as bait is done.

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Hiiro & Asuna and Taiga & Nico arrive to watch it all go down.

Nico steps forward and says Emu’s Gashats will be theirs. Kuroto creepily smiles. Asuna tells Emu not to fight, but Emu changes the stage.

Kuroto pulls out the new Gashat and activates Taddle Fantasy which is a Level 50 game where the evil king defeats the hero to conquer the world.

Ex-Aid 18

Emu goes Mighty Brothers, but the thing that’s emerged from the Gashat easily swats Emu away and forces him to dehenshin with one bump.

Kuroto Dan approaches Emu, but Motors is still annoyed that he was only “bait.” Kuroto henshins to fight Motors and uses a Critical End to destroy him. Tsukuru is cured.

Kuroto turns his attention to a bloody and bruised Emu. Kuroto says he dispatches all his pawns once they have fulfilled their purpose.

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Before Kuroto can finish Emu off for good, an already henshined Parado steps in and knocks Kuroto away. Parado is incensed at Kuroto treating Motors as a mere pawn. Bugsters are not to be used like this and Parado insists on competing against each other in a game according to the rules. “That’s the Bugsters’ way of life!”

Kuroto will not have a game character rebel against the gamemaster. Parado will not have his heart hurt. He relentlessly attacks Kuroto and sends him into a huge explosion by the cliff.

Parado tells Kuroto that he fully understands what he’s doing. He goes Perfect Puzzle, muscles up and delivers a Perfect Critical Combo at Kuroto.

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Kuroto is forced to dehenshin and the game is cleared.

Kuroto smiles and says he will punish Parado by crushing his dream of defeating Emu.

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Kuroto turns to Emu and to the horror of everyone watching, drops the bomb that Emu was the very first person to ever be infected with the Bugster virus.

Emu tries to process the revelation but he is suddenly overwhelmed by a surge of Bugster.

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Episode Thoughts

Okay~! Alright. Finally big things actually happening to warrant the no credits.

I do think it was a pretty effective way to drop the bomb on Emu. Especially with the devolving of Kuroto Dan into a lunatic revving up to Mach speed (ayo!), him being the one to just blurt it out was good. And it also helped push forward Parado’s mini-rebellion which I kinda wish we saw a little more build up to. At least more than just the smirks and stares he’s had when not playing video games.

Speaking of, so Kuroto Dan’s been watching Zyuohger and basically wants his own Most Dangerous Game. Basically watching people kill each other for fun. Okay! Maniac psychopath confirmed! (As if it wasn’t already lol) He wants to be God and control the world as his own little playthings. Very interesting motivation. I wonder how long that (and he!) will last.

Parado mentioning how “we Bugsters…” aren’t meant to just be pawns and all that make me think of a Battlestar Galatica comparison and they’re the Cylons who eventually rise up and evolve to be more than just robots, or in this case, game characters.

But really, Kuroto Dan was just so demented all episode long, especially to Tsukuru. Absolutely insane. It was great to watch from a story perspective of course. But still so creepy!

I definitely felt Nico’s disgust at that creepy smile.

lol And speaking of Nico, she definitely started out the episode like she’s been the last few. But when she wasn’t being annoying in the second half of the ep, she was much better. I really hope they don’t keep her as she is. She’s got great potential if they knew what to do with her.

Moving forward, it’ll be interesting to see how Emu overcomes the Bugster virus. (Though I hate how much the previews always give away.) Or maybe he won’t and he’ll turn into or something. We don’t really know what could happen. After all, there’s still plenty we don’t know about the games and Gashats and Bugsters.

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