REVIEW: Ghost 19
This is the thing I really love about Kamen Rider Ghost. It’s able to take the mostly inconsequential monster of the week plotlines and tie them into either the major themes of the show, or to sneakily slot them into the main plot. With episode 19, the show does this quite well with a plot involving a not-really-evil Ganma that Takeru tries to befriend, as well as more of Alain and his relationship with Makoto and Kanon. In short, even if the majority of the episode was inconsequential, it’s still an important episode to the overall program.
So I will fully admit that I do think this arc’s plot is quite clichéd. We’ve seen this sort of plot a number of times where we get one monster-of-the-week who turns out to not be that bad and the main hero befriends them. In fact we got this exact plot this time last year, albeit with a side-character befriending the MOW instead of the main character. Now it is an extremely overused plotline, but here it really does serve a purpose. In Drive, this plotline was used to highlight a minor side-theme that was, yes important to the overall plot, but wasn’t a key aspect of it. Here in Ghost, I feel that it’s far more of a focus, thus warranted.
The reason why I feel that this clichéd as hell plot is far more justified is because, I suppose that it’s been a theme for longer, the main character is trying his best already to make this connection, the relationship between an antagonist (Alain) and a hero (Makoto) is more established and the use of the theme feels much less half-heated. I like this usage of it more because Takeru is trying his best to understand his opponents, rather than simply fighting them. Again, this isn’t a knock against Drive at all, I just feel with this aspect/theme, Ghost is trying a bit harder with it, so it feels more justified.
Of course Alain’s narrative is key to this episode and its themes again. This is as his character arc and relationship with Makoto, Takeru and Kanon very obviously mirrors that of the Painter Ganma’s story. I really like that they are taking their time with Makoto’s turn, rather than just gunning with it and doing it in one go. Rather they are hinting at it bit by bit every week. It’s a showcase of a good, long term narrative, which is really needed in a program with such a long run of episodes. If they just suddenly made Alain change sides, not only would it leave the rest of the series quite empty in relation to plots they could use; on top of that, it makes his turn feel more justified if he slowly learns about the human world since it would naturally take a while to unlearn all that he was taught from birth.
Another thing I like about Alain in this week’s episode he is reacting/using Makoto. I like that he’s slowly learning that this really isn’t the way to get friends and that it is indeed a hollow victory for him since Makoto is not himself. Furthermore it ties more into the theme of friendship across any boundaries, at least when we inevitably get the two to be real friends without any brainwashing involved. I also love how it is ripe for a conflict later with Makoto not trusting Alain once he switches sides. Overall I’m quite enjoying this plotline since it fits well within the themes of the show, furthers the arcs of many of the characters and as far as I can tell isn’t something we’ve ever seen before.
But apart from those aspects, the episode was quite paint by numbers. Again the overall plotline of a MOW being befriended by the hero is quite clichéd, as I outlined above. But on top of that, this clichéd plotline took up most of the runtime of the episode without really adding to the overall show, until closer to the end. Again the reason why I’m criticising this plotline is because of its overuse in Tokusatsu. It’s still a good idea and worth our time, but since I’ve seen the same story over and over again, it’s kinda boring. In all honesty this is kind of an issue with the genre on the whole since recycled plotlines are quite plentiful in it. On top of that, because every season has the base premise of good guy Kamen Rider, fighting evil monsters, it’s always going to be quite samey.
But what makes this genre, and to an extent Ghost, worth the viewers time is the evolution and playing with of these reoccurring themes. With Ghost it is with the added nuance of the main antagonist being childhood friends with the secondary protagonist, which as far as I can remember, something relatively new in Kamen Rider, especially so in the hesei era. My point is, yeah this plot is overdone, but within Ghost’s iteration of it, it tries something different with it and also within a new context, thus making it interesting and worthwhile.
As for the rest of the episode, there were some interesting things here and there. I like that Igor/the Ganma are doing some smart things in their invasion of Earth. I like that they are gathering information and have a real drive to their actions. It’s quite refreshing to have an invasion plotline take its time as well to have a genuine morally grey reason behind it, rather than just for the sake of taking over the world. I’m glad that Boost is being used as an undersuit more and that it, well, boosts the powers of previously obtained Eyecons. It again shows that the Eyecons are quite dramatically valuable and that they aren’t just a simple collectable gimmick, they are part of the story proper and I will praise the show quite highly for that. On top of that I like that that each hero relates to the plotline of the week very well and shows some true intelligence behind which historical figures have been chosen.
Despite using a highly clichéd plotline, Kamen Rider Ghost 19 is still worthwhile and does indeed do something interesting with that said cliché. It is still a good show and very worth your time and I look forward to next week when they expand on this plot further!
