Papa Dan says they need more players for Chronicle so they can have more lives to control. He explains to Hiiro that the era of using medicine to sustain lives is over. Now, he will be the administrator of lives using video games which he will have complete control over.
Papa Dan threatens Hiiro to do a good job or his precious girlfriend will be a broken record forever. Papa Dan also warns Lazer Turbo not to fail as well.
The CR are filling Taiga and Nico in on what’s happened. Emu believes the real Kiriya would never willingly work with Papa Dan. They get a call and Emu and Asuna hurry out. Asuna confirms the Ride Player has Game Disease as Emu fights Aranbura.
Lazer Turbo arrives to help Aranbura, but Kuroto also arrives as he wants to unveil Lazer Turbo’s identity. Lazer Turbo levels up and prepares a huge attack. Emu is able to grab a steel power up to protect him from the attack. But Kuroto is not so lucky and has to a life to bring him down to 94.
Taiga and Nico arrive as well and they all wait Lazer Turbo to reveal his identity.
The guy dehenshins and… it’s Kiriya, but in dark clothes.
Kiriya finds Asuna and the Ride Player. Emu, Taiga, Nico and Kuroto come running.
“So you’ve revived too?” Kuroto asks Kiriya. The Ride Player perks up hearing that people really can come back to life from the game. He runs off.
Asuna asks Kiriya why he’s working with Papa Dan. Kiriya says it’s because Papa Dan was the one who revived him. Emu raises his voice, saying Kiriya is a doctor too. But Kiriya replies that doctors are no longer needed. Papa Dan is in control of all lives. And as long as he’s in control, “humanity is safe.”
Emu can’t fathom lives being played around with like a game. And he really can’t imagine Kiriya would ever go along with such an idea.
“So you’d prefer I remained dead? What’s more, you’re now working with the man who killed me.”
Kuroto smiles again. Emu is at a loss for words.
Kiriya says Chronicle has changed the rules of life and cannot be stopped by anyone.
Parado finds Graphite struggling with the propagating Gamedeus virus. But Graphite says Parado doesn’t have to worry since he chose this path just so they can defeat Chronus and take back Chronicle for themselves.
While Kuroto works on the ultimate Gashat, Emu and Asuna are on the roof thinking about Kiriya. Emu maintains that this isn’t the real Kiriya. He reasons that Papa Dan must have programmed Kiriya to be used as another pawn.
Parado appears and again proposes an alliance, especially with the arrival of another nuisance in Kiriya. He says as long as Kiriya can suppress their virus, they can’t beat Chronus. Thus it would be in both their interest to defeat Kiriya together first before they eliminate Chronus. Parado will not allow Papa Dan to step on the lives of Bugsters.
“Who are you to talk? You are the same. You trample on human lives!”
Asuna points out that Parado must have realized the value of any one life when Lovelica was killed. “Shut up!” Parado snaps back. He reminds Asuna that she too was born from a dead person. Asuna says that’s why she’s decided to fight alongside Emu.
Emu says he has no intention of fighting with Parado and he will do what he can to retrieve Kiriya’s smile. They get a call and hurry over to where Aranbura and the Ride Player are.
Papa Dan has given Kiriya the Jet Combat ProtoGashat and too heads over to seashore. He kicks Emu in the stomach and repeats that doctors are no longer necessary in this new Papa Dan world.
“Please don’t say that,” Emu says before thanking Kiriya for leaving the reprogramming research they were able to use very well.
“Your words kept me going all this while. You’ve always lived on in my heart. That’s how I’ve been able to overcome every obstacle!”
Emu henshins to Maximum, vowing to retrieve Kiriya’s smile himself. Kiriya henshins as well. Pada Dan shows up as Emu fights off both Kiriya and Aranbura. Kiriya levels up and bombards Emu with attacks. Taiga arrives and says he will distract Chronus.
But Papa Dan pauses and attacks Taiga. Luckily, Nico was able to toss a Heal token before they were all paused, so Taiga is immediately able to recover.
Emu unleashes a Maximum Mighty Critical Finish toward Kiriya who uses Aranbura as a shield. But Emu forces himself through and is able to reprogram Kiriya who is forced to dehenshin.
Emu hurries over to Kiriya and hopes he has returned to normal. Kiriya smiles. Emu thinks that he was successful. But Kiriya quickly kicks Emu in the face, sending him into the water.
Kiriya says this is the real him, no reprogramming necessary. He is following Papa Dan on his own free will because Emu did not keep his Christmas Day promise to eradicate the Bugsters and prevent any deaths. Kiriya regrets expecting anything of Emu.
Kiriya grabs Emu by the collar and says Emu wasn’t able to do a thing because his genius gamer-ing was all Parado.
Kiriya then pulls Emu closer to him and says something that absolutely shocks Emu to the core.
Kiriya starts to walk away, but Emu screams, grabs him and punches him in the face, sending Kiriya into the water.
“Since you’re up for it, then I’m on board too. You are no longer my friend!”
Papa Dan hits pause so he can whisk Kiriya away.
Back at GENM’s basement, Hiiro unsuccessfully tries to shake Saki out of her loop. Papa Dan appears and presents Hiiro with a Taddle Legacy Gashat.
Kuroto meanwhile has completed his Hyper Muteki Gashat.
Kiriya gets wet.
Back at the CR, Asuna, Taiga and Nico ask just what did Kiriya tell him. But Emu says it’s better they not know.
WetKiriya smiles.
Episode Thoughts
Well then! Wasn’t that dramatic!
What happened?! This was a pretty crazy episode. Some big developments, but even more so, its treatment. Very interesting presentation this week. Many parts of it, especially the brand new intro narration and that entire last sequence, felt so overly dramatic that I was wondering if this was some kind of special one-off episode or something lol
The new intro definitely should’ve been a signal that stuff was going to go down this episode. But I honestly wasn’t really expecting much. Honestly, I thought Kiriya would be in and out really quick. But I guess not! And that’s great!
That silent scene with Kiriya’s secret and shookEmu reminded me very much of Takatora showing Micchi the big secret of Helheim. Almost the same reaction from both Micchi and Emu too. lol
It could totally go a few different ways. Is it all an act by one or both of them? Is it actually some really huge, shocking secret? I hope it’s the latter. Like, Emu’s “It’s better you guys didn’t know” almost sounds like, “It’s too dangerous and I don’t want you guys to die, so let me carry the burden all by myself.”
I think the fact that we’ve gotten three different revived people really leaves a lot in the air. We have shinKuroto who doesn’t seem to remember (or maybe just doesn’t care) about his recent past. And is almost like a cartoon (video game?) character version of the original crazed maniac. Then we have Saki-on-a-loop. And now we are to believe we have a full, (relatively) normal Kiriya.
But who knows. I’ve raised my expectations really high after this episode. I might just be setting myself up for disappointment. But just the overdramatic writing of this episode really has me some kind of way. lol It got me unreasonably hyped for a big blockbuster ending. And I’m not even sure this Papa Dan arc stretches until Episode 50-ish.
Also, ShinKuroto’s smiley acknowledgement of killing Kiriya was very unsettling. So in that sense, if Kiriya really has gone dark side, it’s not hard to believe considering the circumstances. At least when it comes to the so-called doctors working with a murderer. It will be interesting to see where that relationship between Emu and the Gang will be with Kuroto in the end.
I’m definitely still rooting for the idea that Chronicle actually doesn’t bring people back to life. At least not completely. On the flipside, I wonder if Chronicle can “give” something to the Bugsters. With Parado, I feel like we’re getting into that “monsters looking for humanity” angle that is a very popular Kamen Rider and Sentai theme and plot. It’s certainly the theme I wished Drive had really driven home with the Roidmude instead of just tacking it on to the end.
Anyway, this was definitely a very dramatic episode. The fact that it was so overly dramatic made me like it a lot more than I would have I think. It was very refreshing and enjoyable for some reason. It may not have hit me as hard as Kyuranger did 2 weeks ago or as hard as ParadEmu slapped Poppy or as hard as Emu punched Kiriya, but I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe the most out of the more recent eps of Ex-Aid.
(Having watched the Pac-Man Movie War the other day might have also gotten me in the mood for this ep as well. lol)