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Recap / Kamen Rider Ex Aid Kamen Sentai Gorider

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Kamen Sentai Gorider is a three episode Web Video Series that ties into Cho Super Hero Taisen.

Emu wakes up on top of a rollar coaster in the middle of an amusement park with no memory on how he got there. He meets up with five other riders who have previously died or went missing:

They must figure out why they are here, all while something sinister is going on, as things are not what they seem to be...


Tropes:

  • Chekhov's Gun: The numbers Emu finds at the beginning ends up being used to indicate that the Kenzaki from the beginning isn't the real Kenzaki and is really Kuroto Dan, the true mastermind behind the events of the miniseries.
  • The Comically Serious: A good bit of humor in the special comes from the fact that the Gorider powers (which are deliberately goofy and firmly tongue-in-cheek) get handed to four serious characters from serious shows (and Kiriya). One wonders how much fun the actors had hamming it up and acting like 70s-era Toku characters.
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: Emu finds a broken shard of mirror with a sequence of numbers written on it in blood. It turns out to be his own blood, written during a previous loop after Blade fatally stabbed him.
  • Foreshadowing: The first episode leaves enough clues as to what's going on and the identity of the culprit.
    • The numbers Emu finds in the house, is actually code using Japanese Hifumi numbers: 2010 | 8 | 9609note  = BLADE | IS | THE MASTERMIND.
    • When they look at the mirror we see all but Emu have no reflection. Kenzaki should have a reflection because as the Navy Joker Undead, he's effectively immortal and can't die, not to mention the other bad things that would happen if he was dead.
    • A memory shows Blade stabbing Emu, not only telling who isn't the real thing, but also foreshadowing the nature of the world.
    • Although Kenzaki was always a nice guy he seems somewhat overly polite in speech and bearing compared to how he was in Blade since it's not him but Kuroto who's likely overdoing it with the politeness level since that's how he thinks a Protagonist style Rider would act and wants to gain everyone's trust. The real Kenzaki is more in line with how he actually was in Blade.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Kuroto's plan would've succeeded...if it wasn't for the fact that he chose the one "dead" rider that could actually thwart his plans. See Hoist by His Own Petard for more.
  • Goroawase Number: Early on Emu finds the numbers "201089609" written in blood on a broken piece of mirror; only later does he realize that it means "Bureido wa Kuromaku" (Blade is the Mastermind). After Kenzaki stabs him and reveals his true identity, Emu gets the mirror and edits the message, replacing the 09 at the end with 10, changing the message to "Bureido wa Kuroto" (Blade is Kuroto).
  • "Groundhog Day" Loop: This series has a variation It's actually a game that Emu enters each time with his memory wiped, and the events go as usual till he beats it.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Kuroto Dan, the main villain, does this to himself twice over. After he kills Emu while disguised as Kazuma Kenzaki, he can't resist the urge to engage in some Evil Gloating, revealing his identity to Emu and allowing him to leave a message to warn the others. However, the fact that he impersonated Kenzaki was his ultimate undoing: it drew the attention of the real Kenzaki, and once he entered the game world the rules of the Battle Fight came into effect. Since he's the last Undead left, he "wins" the Fight...but since he's the Joker, that means The End of the World as We Know It. Cue the game world crashing into the standard BBC Quarry and Kuroto's plans being completely thwarted.
  • In the Name of the Moon: For the Goriders.
    Kaito: "Aka-Rider!"
    Kenzaki: "Ao-Rider!"
    Kiriya: "Ki-Rider!"
    Kino: "Mido-Rider!"
    Yoko: "Momo-Rider!"
    All: "Kamen Sentai... Gorider!"
  • Kill and Replace: Minus the kill part Kuroto doesn't kill Kenzaki (and probably couldn't even if he tried) but since he was at the time missing and unable to be located he takes his form in the game, which while seeming like a good idea to him at the time actually caused the real Kenzaki to notice the goings on and come to see what was happening.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Each time he enters the game, Emu's memory is erased.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The special assumes that the viewer has already seen Agito, Blade, and Gaim, otherwise it spoils the fact that Kino, Kaito, and Minato all died and Kenzaki willingly transformed himself into an Undead. It also assumes that the viewer is up-to-date on Ex-Aid itself, since Kiriya's death not to mention Kuroto's are plot points.
  • Missing Reflection: Emu meets several slain Kamen Riders in a Closed Circle mystery. The room where they spend most of their time has a giant mirror, and none of the dead Riders casts a reflection — but Emu does, which makes them suspicious. This actually gives away real culprit: one of the Riders present is Kazuma Kenzaki (Kamen Rider Blade), who didn't die at the end of his series but rather turned himself into a monster (though he initially claims that's the same thing as being dead). When the real Kenzaki shows up, he casts a reflection just like Emu, exposing the impostor.
  • Spanner in the Works: Kiriya proves to be this to a point as he's the reason Kuroto had to pretend to be Kenzaki in the first place. He mentioned if he wasn't one of the dead Riders then Kuroto could have just approached them as himself and put on his friendly CEO personality to claim to be on their side. But since Kiriya would obviously know full well who he was and what he was up to, he had to come up with the Kenzaki disguise which ends up ruining his whole plan in the end.
  • Technically-Living Zombie: Inverted; Kenzaki is the only returning Rider who didn't actually die, but he says that losing his humanity by being turned into an Undead is effectively the same thing as being dead. This is a hint that he's not entirely being honest with the group; when the real Kenzaki shows up in Episode 3, he's alive.
  • Unwinnable by Design: The mystery simulation in which Emu finds himself at the start of the special seems this way. Every time he loses, he's booted back out to the real world with no memory of what happened, meaning that every time he goes back in it's with a clean slate. Poppy even describes it as such, using the Japanese term "murige"note . It only becomes winnable because Kuroto's decision to pose as Kazuma Kenzaki attracted the real Kenzaki, and his entering the game world invoked the rules of the Battle Fight — and since the last Undead standing is the Joker, it's game over.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn what happens to the real Kenzaki after he and Emu escape from the world - presumably, he returned to the real world, since if he didn't, the Battle Fight would result in Chalice winning and wiping out all life on Earth. Confirmed a few years later when Kamen Rider Zi-O brought both Kenzaki and Hajime back for its Blade arc.

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