Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 19 – A Sudden Fantasy?!

Ex-Aid 19

Emu awakes to find himself in the CR. Hiiro and Taiga, separately, wonder why a Bugster did not emerge from Emu. It’s a strange situation. Hiiro believes there is a Bugster dormant inside of Emu.

Emu interrupts Hiiro, Poppy and Director Kagami’s conversation. And to their surprise, Emu is in his “ore” M personality.

Ex-Aid 19

Kuroto Dan does not understand why Emu isn’t dead yet after his ultimate stress inducing-revelation. He is upset and frustrated, but says he will gather every single bit of Bugster data to complete Kamen Rider Chronicle. He notes that there are six Bugsters left.

Meanwhile, Mai, a dancer from Takino Ryuu Japanese Dance Hall is overcome by the Bugster virus thanks to her bossy teacher. Interestingly, she begins to do the robot dance all over the place.

Speaking of dancing, Emu/M enjoys playing DoReMiFa Beat, putting Poppy to work. Hiiro wonders if Emu is being possessed by the Bugster. But the wondering has to wait as they get the emergency call.

M is eager to go play the Bugster “game.” Hiiro and Asuna hurry after him.

Ex-Aid 19

The Level 30 Bugster, Gatton from Gekitotsu Robots, takes over Mai’s body. M knows him well and prepares to henshin, despite Hiiro’s protests.

M henshins straight to Level 3 Gekitotsu Robots and fights Gatton. M is able to get Steel and Muscle Up power ups, forcing Gatton to switch to Sleep Mode and recharge. It sinks back into Mai’s body.

M is eager to keep playing, but Asuna pulls out his Gashats so he can dehenshin.

They take Mai back to the CR. Hiiro tries, but is unable to analyze M and wonders if he has a different, evolved strain of Game Syndrome. M insists he’s not sick and just wants to play games. He says eing a doctor is Hiiro’s job.

Ex-Aid 19

Hiiro grabs M by the collar and tries to get him to snap out of whatever this is. Something clicks, but M is still ore.

Hiiro says to forget it. He’ll take care of the patient and says there’s nothing Emu can do that he can’t. He picks up the Mighty Action X Gashat M dropped.

Ex-Aid 19

Nico is trying to figure out if the M who beat her in the tournament was just because of the Bugster virus. But Taiga is more concerned about obtaining Emu’s Gashats and crushing every single Bugster.

Nico thinks it’s because Taiga wants to be “the only one that’s needed.”

Ex-Aid 19

M is back to playing with Poppy who does her best to try and snap him out of his gaming stupor. But she’s just as unsuccessful as Hiiro.

Hiiro talks to Mai who explains how stressed she is about her performance coming up. Hiiro tries to build up her confidence, saying she has a weak resolve to be feeling this way. Overcoming stress is something she must do on her own.

Suddenly, Gatton pops out again and disappears from the CR to start terrorizing people downtown.

Ex-Aid 19

Hiiro follows and prepares to henshin using the Mighty Action X Gashat, but M arrives and grabs it out of his hand.

M henshins. Asuna stops Hiiro from jumping in as Kuroto arrives as well. Kuroto and Gatton are able to knock M down. Kuroto pulls out his super Gashat and summons the Taddle Fantasy armor.

Just then, Hiiro grabs Emu’s Gashat and challenges Kuroto to take it from him. The Taddle Fantasy thing chases after Hiiro who is able to avoid its attacks. He has managed to cleverly lure it to a Confusion power up and that causes it to go crazy, even attacking Kuroto.

Kuroto drops his Gashat and Hiiro picks it up. Kuroto warns that it’ll be difficult for Hiiro, who has only cleared Level 5, to handle a Level 50 Gashat. But Hiiro is confident. He uses the Gashat and henshins to Taddle Fantasy, Brave Level 50.

Ex-Aid 19

The Gashat seems to take over Hiiro’s body as he seems to summon some basic Bugsters. The basic Bugsters go after M and Asuna.

Kuroto laughs at Hiiro being possessed. But Hiiro does not want to be lumped together with Emu. “I am the world’s best doctor!”

Hiiro regains control of his body through his strong resolve as a doctor entrusted with people’s lives. Watching this allows Emu to break free himself and regain control of his own body from M.

With control over his new powers, Hiiro is able to completely manhandle both Kuroto and Gatton. Kuroto attempts a Taddle Drago Knight Critical Finish, but Hiiro counters with an even more powerful Taddle Critical Slash.

Hiiro knocks Kuroto on his ass and is able to separate and destroy the Bugster from Mai’s person. Hiiro is able to grab his Gashats back after falling out of Kuroto’s pocket. Kuroto gathers the latest data and leaves.

Ex-Aid 19

Hiiro dehenshins, but his body isn’t feeling so hot right now. Having watched the whole thing from around the corner with Nico, Taiga says Hiiro was being reckless.

Hiiro checks on Mai and confirms she is virus-free. Mai thanks him and invites him to her dance performance. Hiiro apologizes and says it is his policy not to get involved with his patients. She understands.

Hiiro walks away, feeling some effects from his Level 50 fun. But he’s relieved to see Emu is back to his normal self.

Ex-Aid 19

Emu apologizes for how he acted, but Hiiro just tosses back his Gashat and says for Emu to train his mental health.

Parado has also watched from around the corner.

“Welcome back… Emu.”

Ex-Aid 19

Episode Thoughts

So I’ve mentioned how I enjoy seeing the little scenes of contrast between Emu and his gamer M personality. It’s always been very interesting to watch. But now that we got 2/3 of an episode of M, I think maybe he’s just a big douche and I probably couldn’t stand him for more than a few minutes at a time. lol

Anyway, should be interesting to see how that plays into what the Bugster virus can really do. Why would M emerge and have control over Emu? I’d like to think there’s definitely something more to Emu than just getting infected.

I didn’t mention it last week, but now at the start of this episode, I really liked the way Emu physically bracing himself for Kuroto’s bombshell revelation. Nice little bit of acting from Hiroki Iijima.

As big as that revelation was for Emu though, I do kinda feel like this episode lacked a certain amount of heft or excitement.

It was nice to see some development from Hiiro. It was a good episode for him after taking a little bit of a backseat to Taiga and Emu the last few weeks. I hope the effects of him using the Level 50 Gashat are long lasting and not just a quick 2-episode plot.

But when it comes to our title character, I felt like the whole “M” plot was too simple. I guess it was just a tease for what’s to come while we got the Hiiro-focus. Though again, it did provide more detail to M other than just being a genius gamer that gets activated when the wind blows through Emu’s hair.

This “I’m the only one needed”/”I’m the best” idea from Taiga and Hiiro is interesting. We still aren’t completely sure what’s going on in either of their heads. (I mean, just a few weeks ago, Hiiro was more concerned about cake than Emu and now he’s risking his life for him.) So inserting that game or competition aspect into their characters right now (or at least making a point of it this episode) is intriguing.

Finally, the teacher and Mai both keeling over at the same time was legit surprising to me. Like, wow! Two infected people being attacked by the virus at the same time?!!?! Then the teacher says her foot fell asleep and I laughed. Now that was funny.

Overall, a good episode.

0 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 19 – A Sudden Fantasy?!

  1. Wow! Hiiro is going full Kumon Kaito/Lord Baron in this episode. And I never even realize that he was that acrobatic. Actually, he was already showing signs of breaking out from that “I don’t care about the patient’s wellness” bit even a few weeks back, most notably that arc about the surgeon with the cancer. And now, he’s coming around. I like to see where they would take this further.

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