Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episode 6 Live Reaction

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episode 6 – Feel the Beat In The Heart Live Reaction

The episode begins with Kuroto Dan, the president of Genmu (and Kamen Rider Genmu), allowing Emu to keep his Gekitotsu Robots Gashat because he 'won it fair and square' and they'll likely need it.

Emu shows he's still a doctor and decides to go see if he can find the victim the Bugster he destroyed came from. I like Emu for this: he's an intern, yes, but he's STILL a doctor and he's dedicated to that.

However, the moment he's left, Pallad and Graphite show up, Kuroto instantly reverting back to his more psychotic persona and declaring 'the experiment a success,' seeing Ex-Aid as a 'playtester'.

Graphite, however, is NOT happy about this, pointing out that he just killed another of their kind. We also learn what was going on with that Bugster: Genm had separated him from his host offscreen. However, Pallad doesn't see the problem, seeing the lower ranked Bugsters as completely expendable.

Apparently this entire thing is them trying to obtain some kind of data. So at least we know there's an END GOAL for these guys.

Graphite, however, has no desire to wait and wants to kill Ex-Aid now before he becomes a problem.

I do like that Graphite has that character trait of caring more about their kind than Pallad: he's from a Monster Hunter game, where parties do play a role in multiplayer, so him being a bit more of a team player does make sense.

Meanwhile, Hiiro is thinking about Graphite and Snipe's grudge on him, noting 'could it be'.

Emu, meanwhile, is looking for the Bugster's host, and notes that they DID have a particular target in their last attack, and that particular person must be the cause of the victim's stress.

Kudos to the writers: I DID NOT realize that until

Speaking of which, he instantly finds said person talking with a girl.

Which in this case, is the girl telling her boyfriend to take a break from each other...causing her stress to get higher and the gaming disease to rear up...

Now THIS is interesting: if the Bugster from the last episode was from her, why didn't killing it cure her? Did Genmu separate them incorrectly?

Hiiro, who was watching, approaches and decides to perform surgery...and bluntly tells her what he means...explaining stressing her out to the point the Bugster emerges is quicker.

Yes, but it's also kind of a jerk move. Not only that, you know you could...TAKE HER SOMEWHERE ELSE rather than letting loose a monster in a populated area! I do like that Hiiro is blunt and to the point, but I'm with Emu on this that that was not only a jerk move, but probably DID endanger people doing it THERE AND NOW.

Anyway, the Bugster is a snake-like creature with two long arms in it's 'Bugster Union' form (as it's called) and Hiiro transforms into Brave, revealing he can light himself on fire to attack and destroy the giant form to reveal it's real form.

In this case, it's the same type as the previous one, but with different, yellow armor. Turns out the reason for that is because it has one of the stolen Gashats: DoReMiFa Beat in its head...okay, question: how did they get it in its head BEFORE it emerged from its host?...eh, it's Toku.

DoReMiFa Beat is a rhythm game, which is Asuna's favorite genre.

Brave goes to fight the monster while Emu checks on the victim...and Graphite arrives.

Graphite reveals the Bugster's overall goal: to take over humanity and rule the world. OF COURSE! All things aside, it is kinda refreshing to just have villains with SIMPLE motives, especially when the entire idea is the Bugsters are video game villains come to life who WOULD have simple motives.

Graphite joins in and reveals exactly what happened: he infected the victim with TWO different strains of the Bugster Virus rather than one. Okay, interesting concept and fits with his motives to increase how many of his people exist.

Emu joins in as Ex-Aid and the two fight the Bugster in their Level 1 forms and do a pretty good job until it begins performing a musical base attack that requires dancing to the music, which Emu completely owns at while Hiiro has NO IDEA what's going on...and as a result, Ex-Aid takes zero damage and Brave takes a LOT of it.

Okay, THAT was FREAKING CLEVER! Good on you writers for coming up with a creative attack for a musical baddy!

Emu, being on effected, comes to help Brave...when Graphite joins in and begins overpowering them until Snipe shows up and tells him “he'll pay for what he did five years ago.”

The opening let's Brave level up to level 2, while Ex-Aid SKIPS Level 2 completely straight to level 3. As he said before, going to the higher level is normally better.

Turns out this was a good idea, as Graphite's attack floors Brave and Snipe at once with only Ex-Aid strong enough to shrug it off and start fighting Graphite.

However, as they fight, Kuroto watches and transforms into Genmu, interrupting and ordering Graphite to fall back before escaping himself.

Afterwards, Hiiro confronts Taiga and asks if Graphite was 'the Bugster he failed to defeat five years ago'. He tries to avoid the question, but Hiiro refuses to take no for an answer...and tells Taiga 'I could have saved Saki'.

Emu rushes in and pushes the two apart...and we learn that Graphite's host was Hiiro's girlfriend.

We see a flashback to him and Saki, with Saki trying to bring him something sweet to eat...and Hiiro being too caught up with his studies to pay attention, resulting in her walking away from him.

Shortly after that, Taiga fought Graphite...and lost.

Saki, dying from the Bugster Virus, tells Hiiro to become the best doctor in the world as she fades away and Graphite becomes 'perfect'...Which was his inspiration to be a Rider.

It's implied that on some degree Hiiro feels he DESERVED to lose her.

I feel sorry for Hiiro now...This explains his perfectionism, and his detached nature...Man, way to make someone I didn't like be sympathetic.

The victim of the week...turns out to be much the same: she doesn't want anyone to know she's sick so she won't be a burden, including her boyfriend, Seiichi. They're students at the same college, and he wants to be a great musician, but is struggling.

And the Bugster is attacking him right now to increase her stress.

Emu and Hiiro arrive and transform, with Hiiro now having a serious grudge on Graphite as welll, and Level up to 3 and 2 respectively.

Also, the monster's mooks take on the form of back up dancers. Love that theme.

Emu tries to get Hiiro to focus on saving the victim, but he's too focused on avenging his girlfriend against Graphite to care (particularly despite not being strong enough to beat him alone).

And then Graphite tells him what Saki was feeling when she died, or at least what he knows will hurt Brave to hear: that she gave up on him. This makes him go berserk with rage and nearly get himself killed, forcing Ex-Aid to take the bullet for him and be forced to cancel his transformation...and then Emu reveals what Yoko (the victim) said: how she didn't want to worry his boyfriend and distract him from his dream...and that Saki must have felt the exact same way and hid her own illness for the same reason...

...And for once Hiiro listens to him and gets serious, sending the fight to a forest with Stage Select.

I like this scene as it shows Hiiro GETTING what Emu was saying and having an epiphany without words. Good work there.

He switches the Gashacon Saber to ice mode and gets a speed power up dodge Graphite's attacks and give him the status aliment that comes with that...so he can take a page from Emu's playbook and switch targets, using the ice power combined with the speed power up to slide across the ground and nail the Bugster with a Taddle Critical Finisher, killing him and getting the DoRaMiFa Beat Gashat, summoning a little robot like the other one that uses that clever rhythm game attack to wipe out the mooks. I love that attack SO MUCH.

Hiiro transforms into Level 3, which is pretty dang cool looking! The metalic blue and yellow look great...and the DJ motif is actually somewhat funny, but awesome at the same time.

As to be expected, Brave's Level 3 requires rhythm game mechanics to work...which is kinda a problem given Hiiro is clueless about that...and uses CPR motions instead to keep the beat. Whatever works! That's actually pretty cool!

So from the looks of it, his Level 3 basically gradually increases in power the longer he keeps the combo to the beat going. Cool!

He uses the DoReMiFa Critical finish, which is a combo utilizing the rhythm mechanic. While he manages to badly wound Graphite, Graphite survives the attack and escapes, pretty dang ticked off.

With Yoko cured, she and Seiichi reconcile...and while he tries to be his stoic, distant self, it's implied that he has finally got some closure.

This was a GREAT episode! Probably my favorite yet! No only do I LOVE how the DoReMiFa Gashat's powers work, the character development for Hiiro was fantastic. I sympathize with him now and see how he is, and he grows a bit.

Great episode!