REVIEW: Ghost 03
With more Akari, more Onari, more parallels between the Ganma and Takeru, a pretty alright overall plot as well as the debut of Robin soul, this week’s Kamen Rider Ghost maintains the high quality seen in the past few weeks.
So as stated above, Akari and Onari get more screen time this week which allows them to really show their character, something I’ve heard people rumbling and mumbling against. So what do I think? Yeah! I like them both. It’s nice that Akari seems to have given up the whole thing where she has to be contrarian about the existence of Ghosts and tries her best to use her intelligence and scientific know-how to help Takeru in a genuine and earnest way. As for Onari, I feel he does need more to his character. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but he does feel like simply a happy go-lucky comedic foil. But there are very minuscule hints of something more because he does show some jealousy towards Akari for helping Takeru so much; but he did do quite a bit this week by helping them find the Little John thief and was valuable in the fight against the Axe Ganma.
Takeru continues to impress me with not only the acting from Shun Nishime, but also how he is characterised by the writers. This week he again shows how important life is to him, which as I’ve stated before makes him a great hero/character and shows realistically how someone whose on borrowed time would be like, but it also is just a great trait to give a national children’s hero who they can look up to. As for the victim/person of the week, it was extremely obvious that the reporter is the thief, but I do like the periphery stuff the show did with her. Firstly I like how Takeru had a direct emotional connection with her, something I hope continues on in the series; it really makes the story more personally impactful and meaningful. Secondly I like that via her we got a new development within the mythos.
This of course is that the Ganmas can create eyecons by themselves. They do this by pushing a person’s mind so far off the edge that they are willing to sacrifice their life for a ghost. Okay so I don’t know how the Ganma are going to convince a bunch of people to sacrifice themselves to summon something they may not believe in. It’s a less credible evil plan then what the Electric Ganma tried to do last week, but there is some interesting stuff going on with it. The most obvious is that it is a clear parallel to not only how Takeru obtains Eyecons, but the method to get them for the Ganma is ideologically completely opposed to Takeru’s. Thus the show is able to maintain the theme of the Rider’s powers being similar to the villains’, but put a unique and impactful spin on it.
What’s also interesting is Yurusen’s reaction to it, which is a sort of a dismissal of the person’s life and an opportunistic attitude towards the creation of a Ghost in that manner. Now I’m probably reading WAY too much into this, but from Yurusen and the Hermit’s attitudes so far, they surely must have an ulterior motive for wanting Takeru to gather the Eyecons. Or maybe Yurusen is a little shit and I’m looking deeper than I need to.
The story , as I said earlier, was just kinda okay. It’s a pretty routine plot for Kamen Rider so it’s not much to write home about, apart from what I said earlier with the stuff involving the characters. The mystery is pretty obvious and how it’s solved is pretty standard. It’s the stuff with the characters that really impressed/interested me. Which in all honesty is great; I loved Drive, but its need to have a complex plot really hampered everything else, specifically character development, so to have a larger focus on character for me is awesome.
But what is Kamen Rider but a show about selling toys, so let’s look at the new toys debuting this week: the Condor-Phone and Robin Soul. I have the same issue with Robin Soul as I did with Edison, which is the lack of anything going on around the legs. But at this point, I think I need to accept that design quirk. The overall coat/hoodie motif of the forms just allows for more of them to exist in a manner that is more significant than previous gimmicks like the Wizard Rings or the Shift Cars. Apart from that though, I really like the green of the form; it really pops and makes an impact. The yellow trims, the belts hanging off of the shoulders, the hood and the little feather on the cowl all add up to a nice little design that works well with the great hero that it’s supposed to represent.
As for the Condor-Phone, I adore it. Firstly it’s nice to have the collectable minions/familiars back in the franchise, but the fact that it transforms into three modes is even better. On top of that, I love how it modifies the Gan Gun Sabre into a Bow and Arrow, which in toy form actually makes some new sounds which just adds value to the toy itself. So the new toys shown off this week were really strong and worthwhile, and by the looks of it this is going to be continuing trend
So despite a middling plot, the character development, writing and showcase of Ghost’s new form help the show pass the three-episode rule with flying colours. If the show continues on this trajectory I’m sure it’ll steal our hearts.
