KAMEN RIDER EX-AID RRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Takahashi at his absolute best and brightest, which I definitely need a reminder of right now while Geats is (wobbling hands).
A love letter to gaming without feeling like it's done entirely by out-of-touch suits with perfect imaginary playground fight logic that fuels the constantly escalating stakes in the best way. A robust cast that all feel like they get their needed time in the sun with some delicious and fun dynamics in almost every direction imaginable, even more "niche" ones. The best tonal dissonance in a toku, bar none, and I feel like it'll hold onto that title for a long, long time. Some of the best suit designs ever! I love the eyes! The neon! Their little jumpsuits! A super fun villain cast - Kuroto steals the show, obviously, but I think Masamune is criminally underrated! My genuine only complaint with the show is that Nico didn't get to use Cronus in the end - it's otherwise absolutely perfect TV to me.
And on a personal level, not really to do with the show - the most fun year of my life! Excite formed on a whim, and none of us had even opened Aegisub before. I really don't recommend trial-by-firing your way into subbing with a yearlong weekly now that we've done it, but hey, it worked for us! I met so many of my now-closest friends through this show. Even if the truly perfect toku starts airing tomorrow, Ex-Aid will always be so irreplaceably special to me.
EX-AID SAVED MY FUCKING LIFE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUBBING IT
Agreed I think the PERFECT capstone for both Taiga AND Nico's character arcs would've been if they BOTH got to use Cronus and had the sickest possible tag team match kicking Gamedeus Masamune's ass in that cave. All they had to do was make a second small Cronus to put Fujita or Uchikawa in!
Holy yeah Ex-Aid has a special pace for me, it was the first Toku series I went out of my way to find and watch as it aired