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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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The Great Ex-Aid Rewatch: Ex-Aid & Ghost, Part 03

Last time, in “This movie is Out There” land, Kamen Riders Ex-Aid and Ghost fought PAC-MAN. And won, thus earning the cure of countless civilians from a literal Pac-man fever.

I almost wish I were making this up, but I’m also so glad that I don’t have to, because Toei already did it for me.

(Liveblog under the cut)

–––

We resume on Zaizen nearly collapsing in pain as the reprogramming takes its toll on him – visual glitching and static, that weird bubbling texture, the works. Robol watches on, ‘monitoring’ the situation. Giril and Doral stumble in, in obvious pain from the fights they were just in. Robol makes a snarky aside about the ‘kids’ being tough – that’s a bit rude of you, your coworkers put up a very good fight, and they took three of the five riders out of commission. I’d say that’s a good success/loss ratio.

Zaizen says that it doesn’t matter how badly they were beaten. He’s just obtained the power they were looking for.

His voice has taken on a strange doubling effect – his regular voice overlaid with a voice-changer effect. Fortunately, this particular robotic distortion is more in line with the unsettling deep tones of Genm than it is the obnoxiously high pitch of Dr. Pac-Man.

–––

Nighttime. Seito University Hospital.

Alain and Makoto are unconscious, being tended by Hiiro. He’s not doing much better, frankly. He’s awake, but his balance is off. As he moves between their beds, he stumbles, winding up basically collapsing on Makoto’s. Taiga, having been watching and presumably having helped bring Alain in, is probably embarrassed by this whole display.

He tells Hiiro that he’s not sure who’s the patient here, and that he’ll take over from here.

Hiiro, clearly exhausted and breathing heavily, mentions that license or no, he supposes that Taiga is still a doctor.

Taiga just tells him to go find somewhere to pass out.

See, here’s the thing. Taiga is still a doctor. He’s still been practicing medicine the past five years, albeit illegally, and probably to a whole lot of yakuza and such, but he is still a decent enough guy.

As we’ll see later on, he doesn’t kick Nico out – which is in part because she refuses to be kicked out – instead, he becomes super protective of her.

If he didn’t care anymore, like he tries to make us all believe, like he tries to make himself believe…

Why would Taiga be a rider at all? Revenge? Nah. Even when he made as if he was holding the Collabos bugster hostage in episode 8, he did still defeat it. Not as a distraction, like he plays it. But he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer.

Taiga still cares. He’s just trying to make everyone think he doesn’t.

He’s trying to make himself think he doesn’t.

He’s only somewhat successful.

–––

Downstairs, at CR, Takeru is ‘sleeping’ in the quarantine ward – you know, as much as he can while wincing in pain as he sleeps.

(I tend to maintain that the bugster virus largely prevents the people it’s actively effecting from sleeping much, if at all. What better way to increase someone’s stress levels and weaken them than to deprive them of rest? They may get moments of rest, but not much, and it’s not helpful. But that’s really more of a headcanon than anything else. I just felt it was worth mentioning right now, since we don’t usually see how stays overnight at CR are handled, even though we know they happen.)

In the office, Emu is barely holding back tears. He thinks he’s failed, that Hiiro and Taiga did so much better than him, because they were able to save Takeru’s friends. But him? He’s not good enough.

Poppy points out that he’s not a failure, that he just saved a hundred thousand people, but Emu’s not really listening. He couldn’t save Tougo, so what right does he have to say he’s a doctor? Why is he even doing this in the first place?

Poppy heads down the spiral staircase, looking back at Emu, before looking forward to see Kiriya on the waiting bench outside of the ward.

He starts talking without being prompted, and asks if Poppy wonders why a ‘guy like him’ became Ex-Aid. She points out that Kiriya’s not supposed to be here, but he continues. The riders are supposed to have undergone a compatibility surgery to be able to use the Drivers, but Emu never has. Looking down, Kiriya laughs. Emu might just be the biggest mystery here.

Keep in mind, Kiriya’s known about the game disease for five years, and confronted Kuroto about it three years ago. He’s presumably been researching it all this time, to find a way to stop it.

And he says Emu is the biggest mystery. In the handful of episodes before this movie, he spent a whole lot of time looking into Emu’s past.

Poppy admits, she’s not quite sure what’s going on either, but that she wants to believe in Emu, and thinks that he has a special power.

Oh, sweetie. Poppy, sweetheart, single person in this show who consistently believes in Emu after episode 12… you have no idea. Nobody has any idea.

Least of all Emu, who’s basically just so, so tired of everything right now. Tired of failing, of being berated by his ‘coworkers’, pretty soon going to be tired of being locked out of the information loop.

I’m so sorry, Emu. It’s not going to get any easier from here.

–––

Back at the Next Genome hideout, Zaizen, Robol, and Giril are watching Tougo in the bugvisor. Because, you know, infected humans are totally supposed to be able to be pulled into those. Not like he’s been altered at all until now. He’s only just been told he’s ‘going to be’ the first test subject. That implies he hasn’t had anything done to him outside of the pac-virus detection program, and the bugster infection.

So… how could they pull him in there?

(Sadly, we never get an answer to this. I’m pretty sure it’s a combination of ‘they hadn’t decided what the bugvisors could do yet,’ ‘early installment weirdness,’ and ‘we needed a way to kidnap this brat that didn’t involve bodily slinging him over someones shoulder.’)

Doral calls in. Seems the cops have turned up, with a whole-ass swat team… and Shinnosuke, who tells Doral that this is his last warning, and that he needs to stand down, now.

Dorals response? They’re conduction a test right now, and he can’t let them interfere. He pulls out his proto-gashat, the cops ready their guns even further, and a giant fancy red circle appears in the air between them.

Please!

Nobody knows what’s going on, especially when the circle starts moving towards the police, and then all of them disappear.

Doral just looks at this, still untransformed, like he’s wondering what the hell just happened. He’s been incredibly stoic so far, when he’s not smug, so seeing him this flabbergasted is great.

An even smugger guy appears behind him, saying he ‘took care’ of those pests. Doral says that was unnecessary, he could totally have done it on his own.

New Guy just smirks.

Inside, Zaizen tells Tougo that he’s going to become an ultimate lifeform, just like he is. He decides it’s a great idea to show off his evolved form – and it’s… eh. I can’t say I’m impressed. It’s not a great design, in my opinion. Giril’s super ‘into it’ though, if that grin as he finishes transforming is any indication.

Not that Zaizen notices, while admiring his form, and proceeds to send a wave of his particular vaariant of bugster virus into his bugvisor to infect Tougo, who screams in agony. We can still hear him screaming for a bit as Doral and New Guy walk in.

Giril asks who Doral just brought in.

New Guy is the one who answers. He’s Souma Haruto, a wizard. This plan of theirs sounds awfully hopeful, and he’d like in.

Doral, apparently unimpressed, mentions that they have no idea whomst the heck he is, and have no reason to trust him.

Haruto’s offended, and points out that Doral’s the one who let the cops track them down, while he’s the one who got rid of them, so clearly he’ll be a way better lookout.

Doral continues to be unimpressed, but Zaizen thinks this all sounds very interesting, and is willing to let Haruto in.

THIS was my introduction to Haruto, you guys.

–––

Back at CR, in the quarantine ward. Which. Uh. Apparently they have two of? And we never actually see the second one again?

Because Takeru’s alone, in the dark, when he receives a call from Shinnosuke, via Takeru’s Condor Denwa, who flies in and turns back into a phone.

Yeah, Takeru’s ‘cell phone’ is actually a rotary phone that is also a condor, and can attach to his sword to turn it into a bow and arrow.

Now This Is Kamen Rider.

We cut to Akari being scanned in the ward we usually see, the one below the office, where… she’s not doing well. On the plus side, being unconcious means that she’s probably not feeling any pain. On the downside… well.

Takeru stumbles in, focused on seeing Akari. Poppy tells him he really needs to rest – but he just asks how much time they have left.

Eight hours remain.

Akari fades momentarily, and seeing this causes Takeru to fade, static crackling along both of them.

Takeru tries to run off, but Onari grabs him, asking where he thinks he’s going.

Shinnosuke told Takeru that he’d found the hideout, so Takeru’s going to try and take them down. Poppy tries to stop him – he’s incredilby wounded, he can’t go out there alone – but Takeru insists. Makoto and Alain are already down, because they were defending akari and him, so he has to do this. He has to!

Onari, reluctantly, lets go. He knows full well that once Takeru’s set his mind to something, there’s really no stopping him. That once Takeru’s decided he’s going to save someone, he’s going to save them, even at his own expense.

Emu watches blankly from the observation window as Takeru runs out.

He starts thinking back to Tougo telling him to ‘hurry up and save him,’ to his telling Tougo that as a doctor, it’s his job to save him, to his telling Poppy that he doesn’t just want to cure people, but also to make sure they can smile, and that that’s the type of doctor he wants to be.

“Excite” starts to play in the background.

Determined, Emu looks up.

“Tougo’s fate… it’s too early to decide!”

(I had to rewind just to watch the following sequence, not for the context and summary, but because I got too distracted by the full version of “Excite” playing to pay as much attention as I normally would. I love this song so much. Takeru got robbed that his theme never played in any form during this movie, but Drive, Gaim, and Wizard all had parts of theirs played. “Warera Omou, Yue Ni Warera Ari” isn’t nearly as good of an OP as “Surprise Drive” or “Just Live More”, and “Life is Show Time” is okay, but not great. But seriously, Takeru’s one of the leads of the film! He should have gotten his song in!)

Takeru is struggling to get onto his bike, which is notably not in it’s kick-ass ghost unicorn form, much to my disappointment. Emu runs up, limping slightly. Takeru has a reason to fight, right? So does he. He’s coming with.

Takeru nods, and they clasp hands.

This isn’t him nodding in agreement, either. This is him nodding in approval.

Takeru, who is 19, has to repeat his last year of high school, and is the senior rider out of the two of them, sees that Emu, who is 24, in med school, and only became a rider a few months ago, is truly ready for this job.

Cut to Shinnosuke making a call, letting Kiriko know that he’s going to be late getting home. He chuckles, telling her that she should be worrying about herself – she’s responsible for two lives now.

Kiriko’s pregnant. He’s gonna be a father.

Saying that he’s headed out, he hangs up the red-and-black phone, and straightens his tie, before walking off.

There are several closeups of his eyes through this – where his expression is more serious than in the wide shots. It’s understandable, really. His father was a police officer, and was killed in action.

He was killed in action, once, before being revived.

And in Surprise Future, Drive’s summer movie, the version of his son that Shinnosuke met? Never knew his father.

So he should always take the job seriously, yes, especially when going into the dangerous situations, but he knows full well that any case could be his last, and that he doesn’t even have the aid of Krim and the team anymore.

He can’t transform, he’s up against people who can, and he is still going forward.

It’s his job, after all, both as an officer and as a Kamen Rider.

Cut to Next Genome.

Zaizen tells Tougo to show him his new, ‘reborn’ form. Tougo’s in pain as he starts flickering back and forth between human and pseudo-bugster, and panicking. Which is fair on so many fronts. He’s being turned into a monster without his consent, because Zaizen is a terrible excuse for a doctor and a scientist. But also, his new form is clearly the same one as Zaizen’s, which is just bad.

Haruto watches, disgusted.

Outside, Takeru and Emu ride up on their respective bikes – Emu using the white one that is apparently hospital property? Or something? We never see it much in-show, but when we do, it’s almost always with both him and Asuna, and it has the same ‘AID’ written on it that’s on the wall in CR. So…

Wait, is this technically Poppy’s bike?!

ANYWAY. They arrive at the abandoned ‘lab,’ only to encounter a smug guy in a black jacket and bright pink pants. Takeru wonders who the heck this guy is, only without attempts at swearing, because Takeru is a Good Boy. Haruto all but rolls his eyes as he tells them it took them long enough, come on in. (It’s here that Excite finishes playing.)

Emu points out that this could be a trap.

Haruto is trying very hard not to roll his eyes at his latest successors. Like he’d set a trap for the good guys, he took lookout duty so he could get them in. (Besides, the newest new guy looks more like he’d belong on that side than he does, not that he’s saying that or anything.)

He’s Kamen Rider Wizard. He’s gonna be their hope.

–––

Okay, before I continue… Emu, no. You are terrible at detecting traps. You keep thinking that the good guys are the ones laying them, and yet accepting strange gashats from people who you know are sided with the bad guys. Every single time Taiga calls you out, you just waltz right on in, despite literally everyone telling you it’s a bad idea. But you realize this might be a trap?!

Emu, please learn how to roll a decent spot check, I’m begging you.

I know that my pleas will go unheeded, because you’re ten episodes in out of 45, and prove just as gullible in the after-series materials, but still.

(Oh, yes, sure, boys, just accept the invitation to play the game from the guy you were totally willing to leave behind on a bench less than one minute ago, there’s no way this could possibly go wrong! Never mind that he’s the one who set nearly everything that went wrong in your lives in motion, or that less than a minute ago he was begging you to let him out. No, just fall for his appeal to your completion egos and- okay, look, much as I love the Para-DX HBV, they made a terrible mistake, which led to the terrible v-cinemas.)

Okay, okay, sorry, sorry. I got carried away again.

–––

The doors to the lecture hall that Zaizen and his cronies have been hanging out in open; Takeru, Emu and Haruto coming in.

Emu shouts Zaizens name, much to said mad scientists apparent amusement.

Doral points out, pissed, that Haruto tricked them. Haruto, being the little shit that he is, says it was just a little magic trick. Surprise~!

Haruto, no. Do not blow a kiss to the guy who already hates you. This is why fandom accuses you of flirting with everyone. Well, that type of thing, and how your spell to get into peoples underworlds is literally called “Engage.”

(Now This Is Kamen Rider.)

Hatena summons some mooks, and we prepare to go into battle.

–––

Also, I’d just like to note that Haruto looks kind of surprised that Emu’s opponents have already brought out minions as early as they have.

The Masquerade dopants, the footsoldiers in W, didn’t show up until episode 13. Same with the Waste Yummies in OOO, and the Dustards in Fourze. His own Ghouls showed up in the first episode, but weren’t nearly as common until Nitoh showed up in episode 17, to give him something to keep him occupied. They weren’t usually summoned except as a distraction, or in a round two or more against a Phantom, so the fact they’re being pulled out pretty much right off the bat is pretty new for him.

–––

Fight time!

First fight scene is Emu versus Giril, in… I dunno where this is, an old lobby? Regardless, he’s not doing great. When he’s up against the mooks, he does okay, managing to toss them back. When Giril shows up, though? He doesn’t land a single hit on her, whereas she, in the span of about a minute:

Kicked him off of desk via knocking his leg out from beneath him; deflected all of his attempts to punch her; twisted his arm behind his back and delivered a few good blows to his torso in the process; kicked him in the chest, knocking hiim back into a column; shoved a rolling cabinet under him, thus flipping him over; and grabbed him around the middle, while bending down, and proceeded to kick him in the face. This last one is exceptionally notable, because Emu was standing up. She had her entire torso at his waist height, and kicked over her back to get him in the face.

–––

Next bout is Haruto versus Doral in a hallway. This starts with Haruto showing off his veteran status, using elbow blows to knock mooks down, and at one point sliding on the floor between the lot of them in order to get a more advantageous position, whereupon he spin-kicks them down.

(Casual note that both Haruto and Nitoh did not punch anyone as Riders. Since their main gimmick was the rings, their fighting styles both incorporated more kicking, and in Haruto’s case, a whole lot of running off of walls, than anything. That way, kids would be… well, less likely to try and punch with their own toy rings on. Also, it probably helped Takaiwa and Watanabe to not shatter their hands, because that would almost definitely have happened if they’d been using them.)

Doral shows up, and nods for the mooks to take their leave. He wants to do this fight on his own, clearly.

And it’s a pretty balanced match, too. See, when Doral’s been fighting as a human, he’s been using his legs, too. He only takes his arms from behind his back when he uses them for balance, or, say, to grab someone and keep them from moving. This way, the two fighting styles balance out. Doral is more stoic and restricted, but powerful. I’m not sure where Zaizen found three scientists who also practiced martial arts, but he sure did. Haruto, by comparison, is improvisational, using his surroundings as well as his limbs. For example, at one point he grabs onto the top of a door frame to pull himself up, so that he can get a height advantage on the considerably taller Doral. This lets him knock Doral off balance, and get him out of his stance, allowing Haruto to go on the offensive.

–––

Next up is Takeru against some Bugster mooks, and he’s doing a good job.

This is a type of fight he’s very used to, after all. The Ganma Commandos came out on day one, so he’s always had to fight against multiple enemies at once, all of whom had swords, just like the bugster mooks here.

He doesn’t have to fight them on his own for very long, though, when the two he’s grappling are hit by gunshots and fall back.

Officer Tomari Shinnosuke is here. Even if he can’t transform… he will always be Kamen Rider Drive!

He manages to take out a few mooks, before Robol shows up and immediately starts owning this fight.

Seriously, he just comes up, and the clothesline maneuver Shinnosuke blocks sends him rolling back a few yards.

Shinnosuke, with Robol grabbing onto the back of his neck (ow), struggles a little to ask if he was the one who wiped out the police squad. Switching stances, and now pulling Shinnosuke’s arm painfully behind his back, Robol just tells him that they need to just give up.

Shinnosuke attempts to go on the offensive, but to no avail. This man is made of solid granite, and seems very dead set on going for Shinnsosuke’s torso, shoulders, and especially his neck with his attacks. Case in point, he at one point grabs Shinnosuke off of the table he’d just been thrown onto, lifting him by the neck before slamming him back down.

He is very visibly having difficulty breathing when Robol then lands a hammer fist onto his chest, with Shinnosuke trying to get his legs around Robol’s neck, but being hurled across the room for his efforts.

Really, after Takeru, Emu, Makoto, Alain, and Hiiro – in that order – Shinnosuke is the next most battered in this movie. Emu’s position being before or after Makoto and Alain is up for debate, because he didn’t pass out, but aside from that factor… Okay, granted, there are only four more riders to include, but given that he’s one of the films Legend Riders, it’s not insignificant.

Emu, Takeru, and Haruto all arrive on scene, and help him to stand. Robol advances-

And someone drops through the ceiling, sending the riders ducking for cover, Robol hurriedly backing up, and the three martial scientists gaping in confusion.

Orange Arms! Hanamichi ON STAGE!

Warhorns and sound effects from 2013 play as Armored Kamen Rider Gaim rises up from his crouch.

It’s Haruto who says his name first – just shouting out “Gaim!”

Shinnosuke looks to be a combination of relieved and surprised.

Emu has zero idea whomst the heck this is.

Takeru is a bit confused, but is probably wondering if this is the guy whose designated enemy had no idea how to use a sword properly.

(For reference, in one of the Ghost special series, Takeru and Makoto fought the ‘final bosses’ of the previous six Riders. Takeru fought Overlord Baron, who uses his sword to try and stab his opponents. When he was Kamen Rider Baron, Kaitou also used his spear to try and slice them. Or bludgeon. It’s hard to say, but he was swinging it like a sword. The one time Kouta used the Banana armor, he used the spear like a spear, so it’s not like Toei wasn’t willing to let the spear be wielded correctly, they just weren’t willing to let its usual owner wield it correctly.)

“Sorry I’m late, guys! Here.” Kouta holds out a very familiar object.

Shinnosuke and his belt grin at each other. Turns out ‘someone’ broke into Krim’s Depression Garage Underground Drive Pit to come get him.

Shinnosuke just sort of smiles, saying that’s a god for you.

Over Gaim’s shoulder, you can just see Emu moving his head to look up at Shinnosuke in disbelief. (Oh, Emu, if only you knew… look, this one is actually a god, okay?)

(Also, I firmly believe that after this movie, Haruto took Shinnosuke aside to ask what that was all about. When he met Gaim, the guy was still a street dancer. Why the heck are you calling him a god?!)

Shinnosuke and Krim are ready for one more ride- and then Robol speaks up, wondering ‘what the heck, are all of them Kamen Riders?!’

Zaizen and Hatena step in, Zaizen holding up his bugvisor to show off the terrified Tougo. He’s evolving him into the Ultimate Lifeform, modifying his human dna to make him immune to disease. It’s the ‘ultimate form of medicine,’ at least, in Zaizen’s view. He also thinks that all of humanity will ultimately follow this path.

Emu staunchly disagrees – he’s not helping Tougo, he’s actively causing him pain, without his consent, very much against his will! Medicine exists to make people smile, and this is not how you are supposed to do that!

The ‘scientists’ response is for the three minions to pull out their proto-gashats and transform, shortly followed by Zaizen.

The four untransformed Riders pull out slash summon their belts.

Haruto puts on his Flame ring, saying it’s time for them to take humanities hope back.

Shinnosuke brings out the Type Speed shift car, saying he won’t let anyone disturb their peace.

Takeru activates his Eyecon, saying that he will connect Akari’s life to the future. He has significant shadows under his eyes that he didn’t have just a few scenes ago.

Emu triggers the Mighty Action X gashat, saying that he’ll change his patients fate with his own hands.

A merciless cacophony of sound effects play as they transform. Oh god, my ears.

It becomes painfully obvious that the reason Shinnosuke leans down so much when he starts to transform is an attempt to draw attention away from how much taller Takeuchi Ryoma is than Taikaiwa Seiji. Unfortunately, it’s a little hard to do that when the movie just had a lineup of the out-of-suit Riders, where Shinnosuke is noticeably taller than everyone else, and Takeru is notably shorter. Then they have a lineup of everyone after transforming, including having Gaim stepping into shot, and everyone is the same height.

“Alright, this is our stage!”

“It’s showtime.”

“Let’s go, Mr. Belt.” “Okay! Start your engine!”

“My life is gonna burn bright!”

“I’ll clear this with no continues!”

The Riders all pose as a team. Shit’s about to get real.

–––

And that’s where I’m stopping for the night. I know full well that the upcoming fights are going to take me a long time to get through, especially since the ‘Ex-Aid Versus Zaizen’ and ‘Ghost Versus Hatena’ fights are ‘kind of important’.

(They’re super important.)

So, seeing as I’m at about… nine pages, and it’s 1 am, I’m calling it here. I’ve got about a half hour of movie left, which I will hopefully be able to get to on my next night off, which is Sunday. I might be able to get two liveblogs out that night, since hopefully we’ll have Zi-O subs relatively quickly.

Key word is might, because who knows how much fangirling and/or raging I may wind up doing for that episode.

With all that said…

See you next game!

#kamen rider ex aid #kamen rider ghost #kamen rider drive #kamen rider wizard #sailorcressy says

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