Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 31 – The Forbidden Continue!?

Ex-Aid 31

Emu, Hiiro, Taiga and Nico are dumbfounded as they watch Kuroto fooling around in Poppy’s video game room.

Ex-Aid 31

Taiga demands Kuroto come out of the game. But he tells them that he is no longer “Dan Kuroto.” He is now “nuDan Kuroto.”

Ex-Aid 31

Emu wants to know how Kuroto could still be alive. nuKuroto says of course he had a backup plan just in case of a Game Over. Taiga directs his anger at Poppy for reviving Kuroto. She says she only wanted to help get Parado to stop forcing himself inside Emu.

Poppy tells Kuroto to apologize for everything he’s done, but he doesn’t remember doing anything that would require an apology. The others are floored.

Poppy reminds him that he is responsible for the deaths of many people. He responds by saying it’s okay as long as the data is intact.

Before they can comprehend what Kuroto is saying, they get an emergency call. Hiiro says he has an operation, so Emu, Taiga and Nico respond to the call. Actually, Hiiro leaves the hospital and goes out on his own.

Ex-Aid 31

Emu quickly henshins to fight off the Charlie Bugster, but Parado interrupts, as he wants to finish playing with him. Poppy arrives and inserts Kuroto into the situation to help Emu. Kuroto is more interested in punishing Parado for using his Driver so he henshins. Kuroto henshins and he and Kuroto battle.

Ex-Aid 31

Emu goes after Charlie, but Nico kicks Emu so she can get the win instead. She clears Charlie with a Critical Finish and that also releases the mother who played Chronicle to save her son who got a Game Over.

Parado grabs Kuroto, but Kuroto just laughs since just being touched neutralizes the Bugster virus. It causes Parado’s energy level to rapidly fall so he lets Kuroto go.

Kuroto explains that being reborn as a Bugster with former human genes made him Rider compatible again. Parado is annoyed so he delivers a Knock Out Critical Smash to kill Kuroto.

Ex-Aid 31

But Kuroto pops out of a purple Super Mario pipe because he has 99 Continues built in to his proto Gashat. Parado rolls his eyes and poofs away.

Emu and Poppy talk to the mother who says she will do anything to save her only son. Kuroto thinks that’s very heroic. Emu asks how Kuroto could feel such an emotion, but Poppy has a memory flash that explains just the answer to that question.

Ex-Aid 31

Back at the CR, everyone is present so Poppy can explain what she remembers. Her host patient was Kuroto’s dying mother, Sakurako, who was a patient at the hospital six years ago. Emu says he couldn’t find any record of her death. But that’s because Kuroto infected her with Bugster germs to turn her into data which he could preserve before she really, truly died. That act also released Poppy into the world.

Poppy posits that this is the reason Kuroto created Chronicle. But nuKuroto says no it was only to preserve his god-like abilities, like preserving human data and developing the continue system.

Ex-Aid 31

Emu is incensed that Kuroto would treat human lives like some kind of video game. Hiiro asks if Chronicle could resurrect the dead, but Kuroto doesn’t give a straight answer. Hiiro leaves and Taiga and Nico follow.

Emu calmly says this is a hospital, not a place for someone who thinks they can fool around with human lives.

Taiga and Nico confront Hiiro on the rooftop, realizing Hiiro’s hope that he might revive his dead girlfriend with Chronicle. Hiiro denies it, but Taiga knows Hiiro has been sneaking out to play games and collect Gashats.

Ex-Aid 31

Taiga and Nico tell Hiiro about their own work collecting Gashats. Taiga is resolved to use Kuroto’s own creation to bring about the end of the Bugsters. Nico says they only need a few more Gashats to move on to higher tier baddies.

Kuroto checks Twitter and sees Parado has popped up, so he gets ready to go. Poppy tries to stop him, but Emu says it’s not going to work. Instead of Kuroto being by his dying mother’s side, he doesn’t even understand the importance of human life.

Kuroto says he does understand. That’s why he will find a way to use data to bring back the dead, something mere doctors cannot do. Emu slams the table and grabs Kuroto by the collar, before quickly letting go.

Ex-Aid 31

Emu apologizes to Poppy, saying he cannot work with Kuroto. Poppy says while all the things Kuroto has done are unforgivable, the priority is to stop Chronicle. And working with Kuroto is the only way.

Poppy tells Kuroto that he too should work with Emu so there won’t be more victims. But Kuroto just poofs away to find Parado. Poppy follows.

Kuroto finds Parado playing with poor people by the dam. Kuroto henshins and they battle. Poppy screams out to Kuroto to stop going off on his own. She pleads with him for cooperation. Kuroto refuses so Poppy henshins.

Poppy delivers a Critical Crews-Aid… at Kuroto. Emu watches as Poppy approaches Kuroto. She tells him that she is grateful for fathering her.

Ex-Aid 31

She owes Kuroto her life. “You’re like a real father to me.”

Poppy apologizes to Emu for being too forceful and says she knows Emu could never forgive Kuroto.

Parado wants to eliminate Poppy for being a traitor. He fires a Perfect Critical Finish. Poppy moves to shield Kuroto.

Ex-Aid 31

The hug triggers Kuroto and he spins Poppy around so he absorbs the attack himself. Kuroto98 is gone.

Kuroto97 pops up behind them and says he will never let Parado eliminate Poppy, someone he gave life to.

Emu says Kuroto’s Continues are not his own lives, but chances for him to atone for his sins. And doing that includes defeating Parado and ending Chronicle while fighting with Emu. Poppy is happy.

Ex-Aid 31

Emu says he will never forgive Kuroto and Kuroto will never ask for forgiveness. But they’ll work together. They both henshin and take on Parado.

Emu and Kuroto deliver a Maximum Mighty Critical Finish at Parado and he decides to retreat.

Ex-Aid 31

Back at the CR, Poppy asks everyone to turn a blind eye to Kuroto’s sins. Kuroto says he has presents for everyone. He gives Emu the DoReMiFa Beat Gashat, Taiga a second Gear Dual Beta and Nico a lollipop. For Hiiro, he tells him that the data of the “vanished” people are stored in the Gashats of the virus that infected them.

Poppy gives Kuroto a yellow card for his god complex.

But in the end, they all agree to work together for now.

Nico tallies all the Gashats and sees they have all the lower tier Gashats. Now it’s time for the upper tier Bugsters.

Ex-Aid 31

Episode Thoughts

Alright, there are some interesting possibilities here. The idea of dead (or simply disappeared into a game?) people coming back to life, but only as digital avatars, thus not really a real “person” is something they can definitely play around with for the next 15 or so episodes. A moral, ethical dilemma? Could be interesting. Though I’m not 100% clear on the details, either things going right over my head or the show actually hasn’t been all that clear or specific yet. But contrasting the sort of magical nature of people literally getting sucked into video games versus science and medicine is, I think, something that’s been expected from the very beginning based on the premise.s

Once clumsy and still green Emu being the practical, grounded doctor while the genius surgeon Hiiro being the emotional one is also a great contrast to play around with moving forward.

It’s good that they addressed that it’s definitely not going to be easy to just happily work with Kuroto, even if he’s just some data avatar goofy version of Kuroto.

And speaking of, I don’t really know how to feel about that Mommy Dan revelation. The idea of Kuroto creating Chronicle to keep his mother “alive” felt very tacked on. Like, that would be a great idea for a story, but it feels too much like they pulled that one out of thin air. But I don’t know. I’ll go with it, especially as it relates to the greater picture.

Poppy as Kuroto’s mother is also interesting. Would be even more interesting if Kuroto made Poppy in his mother’s image. But maybe that’s a little too out there. lol

Especially when that little moment with Poppy and Kuroto felt more like sexual tension rather than son/mother or father/daughter. It was very awkward. Lol

Elsewhere, I did enjoy that battle at the end. It looked good and was pretty well done.

Overall, it was an okay episode. Very worklike episode. I just hope Parado doesn’t die next week. But they’ve been teasing decisive battles for weeks now.

0 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 31 – The Forbidden Continue!?

  1. This was one of the better episodes they have in the last few weeks. That fight in the end was awesome.

    I did have a hunch that Poppy’s host was somehow connected to Kuroto the moment they started teasing about the memories. But, yeah, they could have hinted at this e bit earlier. Still, this did throw in some interesting twist, Like the guy’s mommy issues being the root of his obsession with creating Kamen Rider Chronicles, though they still didn’t explain how that will reunite him with his mom.

    The memories plotline also throws in some amusing unintentional homosexual undertone between Hiro and Graphite owing to the latter being Saki’s Bugster. Man, if only they made Graphite female, they could have probably milked this plot thread more. (not that they couldn’t with this one).

    1. Ah! That just made me realize Hiiro and Taiga will probably clash over having to defeat Graphite vs keeping him alive until Hiiro gets his gf’s data.

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