REVIEW: Ghost 25
So last week I was complaining about how the tone of the episode was really jarring, but y’know what? At least something interesting and different happened in the previous instalment of Ghost. This time around it just feels like the writers are spinning their wheels and creating filler and aren’t doing anything particularly significant, at least in regards to the plot. Character wise? Well that certainly is a different thing all together.
So I will absolutely just get it out of the way now: nothing much really happens in regards to the main plot moving forward. The CEO of Deep Connect reveals some ominous OS that honestly just sounds like the internet (I really can’t be bothered to make a cheap shot joke about Apple here). On top of that a new Ganma, the delightful Plane Ganma, is spreading the red air from the Ganma world into the human world. Apart from that, not much happens. It’s a very by the book episode where you feel like there was some progress, but looking back not much was really done. It also doesn’t help that the first couple minutes of the episode are dedicated to re-capping the whole of the Kamen Rider franchise, minus the Showa movie exclusive riders (ZX, Shin, J and ZO).
Now the only reason I can assume this exists is because, well Kamen Rider shows have a very specific schedule and they need to fit this. The lack of having seasons or breaks, does indeed lead to strings of episodes, no matter how good the show is overall, that are for lack of a better word, filler. Now I’m not necessarily against episodes where nothing much happens; because well, one of my favourite episodes of Ghost, episode 12, where Takeru gains Boost, doesn’t have that much in regards to things happening. But what it does do is that it spends it’s time contemplating and having some kind of drama in the absence of plot. Here it’s just a whole load of nothing happening with no emotional drama.
However, as usual, the character moments, especially Alain’s, were the more interesting parts of the episode. This week we saw more of Alain learning to be human with an especially amusing moment where he learns that eating too much causes stomach aches. These little vignettes of Alain learning what having a body and emotions are like are a real treat and in all honesty, do a better job conveying that theme than in Drive. As I’ve said before, I feel in Ghost that this theme is given a proper amount of time and thought, compared to Drive where it felt like an afterthought. Here, despite having an overall similar shape, Alain’s story is more important and relevant. Maybe this why Ghost is utilising filler episodes: rather than having a breakneck pace plot where something is always happening, it’s taking it’s time to develop characters; but because of its genre and the fact that it’s a kids show, it has to have lots of fight scenes and all that, which leads to the empty feeling.
But back to Alain; not everything was all sunshine and rainbows in regards to our prince as it seems like he might have an ulterior motive in returning to the Ganma world or certainly, he is not being completely honest. Now I have no clue what is up with Alain; he certainly does want to help bring Makoto back to the human world, but there is something up. At one point he does try to transform into Necrom when the protagonists try to gain wishes through the Eyecons, but for what reason?
Now this is something actually quite interesting; Rather than Alain simply and easily becoming a hero, he’s growing and learning to become one. I think this is the best move and the most interesting way for him to become one of the protagonists. If he just immediately became good I think that would be quite unnatural and not at all how real sentient beings act. He would need to unlearn all the beliefs the Ganma world has stuffed him with and learn how to be moral, rather than amoral. In short, by having him be still slightly villainous, it makes Alain more of a three dimensional character.
Yet again I have a bunch of things I want to say but really no clue where to put them, except in one jumbled mess of a paragraph. So I love the plane Ganma, just simply because it makes plane noises and it shoots from its fingers which it makes gun shapes out of. If that isn’t the most charming thing ever, I don’t know what is. Another thing I found really interesting was that it seems that the Eyecons may be using the same source of power as the weird monolith things in Adonis’s prayer room, channelled power into the Eyecons when the protagonists tried to make a wish with them. On top of that they all have the same colours as each Eyecon. So what does this mean? Well as of now all I can say for sure is that the age old Kamen Rider theme of the heroes using a good version of the villains’ powers is certainly being emphasised more than usual. Also that moment where the different heroes launch Takeru in the air was pretty great.
So yeah there really isn’t much to say about the episode apart from “It’s filler, but Alain got more character development”. I would say it’s a shame, but it was inevitable that Ghost was going to do this considering its long episode count, it was bound to happen at one point. Hopefully this lull only lasts for a few episodes and the writing team haven’t run out of ideas for the show.
