REVIEW: Ghost 17
This is how you do filler episodes that are worth something. This is how you introduce a throwaway form and plot that doesn’t affect the plot on a great scale. The rest of Kamen Rider Ghost, please take note. With this week’s edition of the program, we took a bit of a side-track from the main conflicts and detoured towards gaining the Himiko Eyecon as well as advancing some secondary characters’ stories. Simply put, this is how the Ryoma and Billy the Kid arcs should’ve been done.
So apart from the introduction of the Himiko Eyecon, which I will get to later on, the most important part of this episode was some honest to god character development for Onari and Akari. Faced with the challenge of looking after the client without the help of either of our heroic riders, the two had to find a way to go up against the Ganma of the week, the Knife Ganma. Inevitably, the two were defeated at the hands of the Ganma and needed to be saved by Takeru. Now the ending to this seems quite disappointing, but, as with many things, it’s the journey there that really is more important.
We see the two throughout the episode genuinely feel broken and useless because of their powerlessness in the face of Ganmas. We see Onari being depressed over how he could not fight the Knife Ganma; we see Akari fold and break when Igor, the new superior Ganma, use her own logical and scientific thinking to conclude that humanity should be destroyed. But at the same time we see the two doing their best to help Takeru. For instance Akari creates a new Shiranui that could break-down the Ganma Eyecons and we see Onari get a few hits on the Knife Ganma. We are shown that they are actually growing and are important characters despite being sidle lined to being the support for Takeru. They don’t reach anywhere near as high as Takeru or Makoto do with their development, but judging from this episode there is still room for them to grow and their arcs have definitely not ended. I just hope the creators/writers/producers etc don’t waste them and do something with them. These two deserve to be Riders.
The rest of the episode, however, is a bit more of a by the books plot: A woman, who we surprisingly never learn the name of, comes to the temple claiming to be able to predict the attacks on various women by the Knife Ganma. Turns out she is possessed by the Himiko Eyecon and that the Ganma is trying to gather souls for the new Superior Ganma, Igor. So yeah it’s a pretty simple plot without much nuance or originality. What is important, again, is the development of Akari and Onari within the episode. They are the focus of this episode, not the weekly plot/Ganma. And that is the best way to do fillers from now on. Its fine to have them considering there are (roughly) 50 or so episodes every year and the main plot can’t be spread out too thin and needs to be supplemented by less important stories. But they should still advance the overall program a little bit, whether it be through hints of plots or, in the case of this episode, the advancement of character. I shouldn’t feel like I wasted my time watching the episode.
As I alluded to earlier, we are indeed introduced to a new Superior Ganma/Character, Igor. He didn’t get much screen time, considering the focus on Akari and Onari, as well as the fact that I think we are getting more of him next week, but I did get a reasonable grasp of his character. He is quite obviously meant to be a counterpart to Akari in the sense that he also is a great scientist and logical thinker, yet he takes these traits, strips them of their humanity and empathy and takes it to their cold and logical extent. He values human life far less than Alan does as he just sees us as vermin or a failed species. I quite like him as not only is he a good foil for Akari, but he is so damn unlikeable and so a great villain; the reason why is that what he’s saying does make sense in a sick way, so we are made more uncomfortable, thus his purpose as a villain is successful. Again we haven’t seen much of him so I can’t make any solid judgements yet, but I look forward to seeing more of him.
Another little tidbit that happened this week, which will be expanded upon in the next episode, is that Alan, using the Necrom Eyecon, has taken control of Makoto. Firstly, it’s interesting that after Alan’s big villainous entrance last week, he is put on the back burner a bit. I’m not necessarily complaining since we got all the wonderful stuff with Akari and Onari. It’s just an interesting development in the landscape of the show and I’m really curious to see how far they are going to take this villainous streak with Alan, considering that he is quite likely going to change sides. It is a pretty heinous act and it really shows that Alan cares a lot for Makoto, but not in a healthy way.
Which leaves us with the more superficial aspects of my reviews, the new designs put in font of our eager eyes! So this week we saw the debut of Himiko Soul, which I’ll say now is an eyesore. The bubble-gum pink is too bright, especially combined with the red undersuit of Toucon Boost. On top of that it’s a bit condescending to give the only female Eyecon/Heroic Figure a pink form in all honesty. But I will admit that I do like the gold accents and horns; it makes the form as regal as it should be. I also love the fact that Takeru’s fighting style becomes more elegant and smooth with the form, thus the suit actors are again doing some very interesting and good work with each form and making it distinct from the rest. Finally I just wanna quickly mention that the Knife Ganma is one of my favourite designs for Ganma do far in the series. I don’t exactly know why, maybe it is its complexity, but I’ve just taken quite a liking to it.
And I’ve said all I’ve wanted to say about this episode. It was, filler but it had a purpose and that’s where I think it really gets its worth. As I said earlier, this is how filler episodes should be like and how I hope the rest of Ghost will go when the time comes for us to fill time/episodes again.
