Kamen Rider Ex-aid

Despite this show’s very unusual visuals for a Rider series, it also has the most intricate and well written plot and characters from a Rider series in quite a while.

The story revolves around an intern by the name of Hojou Emu, who is also known in the underground gaming circuit as M. Emu’s personality shifts when he games, from a quiet and meek guy, to a very aggressive and forward person. This also affects him when he transforms into the titular character.

His mission is to cure the world of the Bugster disease and to put a stop to their world ending infection that they hope to spread. He is assisted by Kagami Hiiro, a prodigy in surgery with a major addiction to sweets, Hanaya Taiga, an ex-doctor who lost his medical license 5 years ago, and Kujo Kiriya, a coroner with a habit of telling tall tales. Many other colorful characters come along like the Genm Corp president Dan Kuroto, and the ever hammy Pallad, a strange human with even stranger powers.

The belt this time around is a very bulky neon green and pink mess that I adore known as the “Gamer Driver”, and the collectible gimmicks for this year are strange cartridges known as “Gashats”, a pun in Japanese for the sound a cartridge makes when inserted into a games console. The Gashats are based on different game types like platformers, first person shooters, sports games, and racing games for an example.

So far the series is a quarter complete, with episode 15 going online quite recently. It’s worth a watch, trust me.