REVIEW: Ghost 11
With this week’s episode, Kamen Rider Ghost’s first arc comes to a close and what a close it was! Despite a return of the rushed conclusion to a cliff-hanger, the rest of the episode, with its action, resolution of storylines and character development, more than makes up for it!
To begin with, yes the dreaded rushed conclusion is back. As last week’s episode ended, Saionji had gathered all 15 Eyecons and had trapped our heroes in a force field, which is admittedly quite a pickle. So we ended on Saionji with all the Eyecons in front of the monolith and what happens this week? He summons whatever force that grants wished from them and then promptly dies because he did not have a belt. This is such a cop out and a deus ex machina since we had no idea that only belt users/Riders could get their wished granted. It was a really cheap way to a) get rid of Saionji, whose true motives we still haven’t learnt, and b) to solve the issue of Kanon/ gathering the 15 Eyecons. It was poor pacing, but I still have faith in the writers since there are still so many plot threads, unanswered questions and repercussions of this week’s events.
Speaking of repercussions, Takeru has definitely created some large ones for himself with what he did this week. With the gathering of the Eyecons, Takeru was the one chosen to have his wish granted and surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on your reading of the character, he wished for Kanon to come back to life, which of course this means that Takeru is on track to die proper in 22 days. Firstly, it was a nice way to tie up this arc of the show since it means that the inevitable reconciliation of Takeru and Makoto can occur sooner, which is for the best I think, since the rivalry ran its course already and to drag it out longer would’ve been a mistake. Secondly, it creates more compelling drama since Akari and Onari will understandably be frustrated with Takeru and his resurrection is still up in the air. Finally, it really cements Takeru’s heroic and noble nature as he has finally found what he is fighting for, to save others, and also shows how altruistic he is. I love how the 15 Eyecons plot and Takeru’s arc turned out because I really appreciate a hero who is willing to sacrifice everything to save others. On top of that, I also am enjoying how the show is addressing how this sort of attitude can in fact, be harmful. Basically I’m getting my cake of a selfless hero and eating it so I get a critique of that trope.
Apart from Takeru’s cementing as a true hero, Makoto’s face turn has finally occurred and he is now one of the good guys. I really loved the moment where he realises that Takeru has taken the wish and all the things he had to do to get to that point. We see his cold exterior break down and see the hurt and scared boy who lost his sister 10 years ago. It shows that he isn’t just a cool guy, but that he is a living, breathing character with more than one emotion; I also liked that he specifically mentioned that he was being overly cruel to Takeru in this moment. Furthermore it was so nice to finally see the two of them fighting together, with each of them using different forms that compliments the other’s and Makoto saying that he believes in Takeru. This all culminated into the best moment of the episode: the two high fiveing/fist bumping after they finished fighting.
Yet again, we have an episode low on number of events as I have pretty much outlined the episode and its impact above; the majority of the episode was dedicated to the fight between the Riders and Javelle. As I said earlier, this fight had a lot of emotional and thematic impact as the two riders were fighting together for the first time. I really liked the parings they used, but it did feel a bit lacking in the sense that Takeru seemed far more overpowered than Makoto since he has more Eyecons. On top of that, when Takeru was using the Iguanastriker, Makoto was just riding his motorcycle. It looked quite silly and a little too improbable seeing Makoto driving on top of the Kundali. But I am still grateful that we did in fact get a motorbike scene with the riders dodging the attacks of the Kundali.
Now I don’t have much else to say about the episode apart from my concluding thoughts, so I’ll dip into what I hope is and isn’t next for the show. I am looking forward to the fallout of the events this week in the next episode with Takeru fading away after using Boost and the rest of our heroes trying to bring him back. No doubt this will be solved and hopefully, it will continue on for a while. I also hope that it won’t be belaboured and that we will get some other plot points as well. I am a little scared that all the tricks in the writer’s sleeve have been used, but we still do have the invasion of the Ganma, Aran and his family and whoever Necrom turns out to be. I had hoped that the collecting of Eyecons would have continued on for longer, but in hindsight it would’ve lead to a formulaic overall plot with lots of filler. Hopefully this won’t be detrimental to the series and we get even more compelling plots going forward. I am a little apprehensive about what is going to happen with Makoto since his arc seemed to be over and as far as toy scans are showing, he will not get any new forms apart from Houdini. I hope that his character doesn’t become stale and that he gets a proper upgrade that puts him on par with Takeru’s power development.
So yeah, this was yet another great episode. We did indeed get another episode where not much happened and with a rushed conclusion to a cliff-hanger, but it did get a lot of plot points that were long in the tooth out of the way, which will hopefully lead to even more interesting developments. I’m also pleased to see the cementing of Takeru and Makoto’s relationship, which the older brother/younger brother dynamic of the two is something that is fresh and new and I very much look forward to seeing more of.
