Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is a Japanese tokusatsu drama in Toei Company’s Kamen Rider Series. It is the eighteenth series in the Heisei period run and the twenty-seventh series overall. Toei registered the Kamen Rider Ex-Aid trademark on June 13, 2016. The show premiered on October 2, 2016, one week after the finale of Kamen Rider Ghost, joining Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger and later, Uchu Sentai Kyuranger in the Super Hero Time line-up
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Emu Hojo is an intern in the Pediatrics Department at Seito University Hospital and a genius video gamer who goes by the alias “M”. Emu was inspired to practice medicine after a doctor, the future minister of health Kyotaro Hinata saved his life from an illness when he was a child. Kyotaro also gave him a WonderSwan handheld video game console as a reward that ignited Emu’s interest in video games. Recently, a video game company known as the Genm Corporation, or Genm Corp for short, has become aware of the existence of the Bugsters, a form of computer virus that spawns from their company’s software bugs. Led by the mysterious Parad and his partner Graphite, the Bugsters manifest themselves in the physical world by infecting humans that play Genm Corp’s video games at a cellular level. Once a Bugster fully manifests, the human host gradually fades away as a consequence from stress experienced by the host.
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genm Corp counters the Bugster threat by developing the Gamer Driver belts and a series of transformation and summon type trinkets, the Rider Gashats, for doctors who underwent a special procedure to be allowed to use its powers. One of the chosen doctors is Emu himself, who transforms into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid to save his patients from the Bugster viruses. But Ex-Aid learns of other doctors who are also Riders besides himself: elite surgeon Hiiro Kagami/Kamen Rider Brave, the unlicensed “dark doctor” Taiga Hanaya/Kamen Rider Snipe, and coroner Kiriya Kujo/Kamen Rider Lazer, who can transform into a motorcycle form. Assisted by Poppy Pipopapo, a Bugster who joined their side under the name Asuna Karino, the four also face the opposition of the prototype Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Genm, eventually revealed to be Genm Corp’s CEO Kuroto Dan. Revealing himself to be the creator of the Bugsters after deleting Kiriya, Kuroto has been using them and the Doctor Riders to create “The Ultimate Game”, an AR MMO called “Kamen Rider Chronicle”, where everyone is given the power to become a Kamen Rider known as a Ride-Player in a fight for survival. Kuroto reveals that he infected Emu with the Bugster virus years ago, making him patient zero of the current Bugster infection. The group is then joined by Nico Saiba, Emu’s gaming rival known as “N” who becomes Taiga’s assistant.
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Once being defeated for good by Emu, Kuroto is killed off by Parad who gained the ability to become Kamen Rider Para-DX as he completes Kamen Rider Chronicle with a revived Graphite and a briefly reprogramed Poppy, who becomes a Kamen Rider herself while Nico becomes a Ride-Player. Parad explains his intention to wipe out the human race with the game, revealing himself as Emu’s Bugster counterpart while Poppy convinces a revived Kuroto to join the CR after reminding him of his mother whom she manifested from. Not long after, a new threat to both the Riders and Bugsters appeared in the form of the powerful Kamen Rider Cronus, revealed to be Kuroto’s father Masamune Dan who is both the true mastermind of the first Zero Day and the “other” patient zero. Revealing his true colors once Kamen Rider Chronicle is completed, Masamune uses the game to further his own plan, such as mass producing Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashats worldwide. Later on, Kiriya is revived as Kamen Rider Lazer Turbo. In the final story arc, the Riders learn that the only way to stop Kamen Rider Chronicle is by destroying the Bugster who serves as its final boss: Gamedeus. When the Riders developed a means to defeat Gamedeus, Cronus retaliates by absorbing the Bugster and transforms into the new final boss Kamen Rider Gamedeus Cronus.
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
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