REVIEW: Ghost 34
So after last week’s emotional and wonderful rollercoaster, we are definitely back to having the usual wacky adventures of the week with Kamen Rider Ghost. Not much happened in this episode in regards to plot development, but it was certainly a light-hearted break from the intensity of last week’s episode and the overarching plot on the whole.
So as I have said time and time again, Ghost has this thing it does after every major plot point or development in the serial storyline, it takes a few episodes off, per say, to take a break. This is quite an interesting story structure to take since sometimes it does mean that the pace of the show is a bit stop and start. This could be the detriment for the programme, but it also kind of benefits it. Having a constant high impact and energy storyline does get really tiring after a while and if all a show is, is twists, plot dumps and big massive events, it gets really tiring and a bit one note. Additionally these smaller, less impactful, arcs tend to be used for moments of levity and bits of character development.
With the first point, this is extremely important in my eyes for Kamen Rider. I know a lot of people tend to like the darker series, but when all that a programme is, is darkness and grittiness, again it’s super depressing and is draining. This is more so for Kamen Rider, which is inherently and will always be a silly show since it’s about costumed karate bugmen fighting rubber monsters. By having these episodes of levity it gives the audience a nice break to catch their breath. In fact this is really important in regards to the fact that it’s a kid’s show: it gives the kids a break from the heaviness as well. All in all these ‘breaks’ after big moments do contribute a bit to a wonky pacing, but I think they overall serve a good purpose so are quite welcome. Plus through them we get great moments like when we see our heroes’ various dreams.
I suppose what I’m getting at is that when Ghost takes these ‘breaks’, it gives the show and its writers some freedom to address other things that may not be possible to do so if there is a big pressing plot thing happening. An example of this from this week’s episode is that we learnt more about the Ganmeisers as well as the Eyecons. If this episode was part of a big and major arc, we wouldn’t have the quiet moments to expand upon certain things that have been left aside because the big major plot arc would be taking up all the time and focus of the episode.
On top of that, as shown in previous ‘filler’ arcs, we tend to get a lot of character development in these more quiet stories. It’s not necessarily apparent in this episode of course, but I do get the feeling that we will get some more in next week’s entry. This is still a bit of a fault however with this particular episode. Yes we may get some nice stuff next week, but with this episode we only get the set up to the development. This is indeed a fault with this episode and I’m not particularly happy with it. But I suppose that is more to do with Kamen Rider’s issue of for whatever reason sticking to a two-episode plot format and I’ve honestly spoken a lot about that already. My Point is that the ‘filler’ identity of this arc isn’t bad because it does provide some great character moments, but this first episode of the arc suffers since its pretty much there to set it all up for the second episode.
One thing I really do want to praise Ghost about, since it’s such a heavy part of the latter minutes of the episode, is the amount of restraint it has given towards Mugen and its reveal. For those who don’t know, the Mugen form was gained in episode 33, but was only teased and silhouetted. Then this week we saw it at the very end, but we are only getting to see it in action in next week’s episode. So there are multiple reasons why I like this subtle approach to Mugen’s debut; firstly it simply makes me, and presumably you the reader, want to come back each week. By only showing the form in incremental steps, it keeps the viewer coming back week after week to see its full debut; it’s a really clever way to keep viewership in my opinion. Another reason that this slow reveal is good is because it gives the form a good chunk of time to give a good first impression.
With previous riders ,by having the forms be revealed in one episode, the forms felt less important since they have to rush all the key features of the form into a few minutes. By giving Mugen a few episodes to develop and build up, Ghost I feel is making its final form’s reveal a bit more interesting and important. Additionally just having a more subtle approach which is over the course of a few episodes I feel is just good in it of itself. It builds the importance of the form up and when the viewer finally sees it, Mugen becomes grander, and so its reveal better in quality. So in the end, I feel that with this arc’s slow reveal and introduction of Ghost’s final form, the reveal of Mugen becomes better because of it.
As you can tell, I really don’t have much to say about this episode. It’s not a bad episode at all, it’s charming and cute like the majority of Ghost, but it’s nothing special apart from what I’ve said above. The premise allows for some funny moments with everyone in their dreams, but that’s all it is, some cute and funny moments. These are of course important, but humour is really subjective and I don’t necessarily feel the need to critique or mention it in this review, because again it wasn’t exceptional. This episode is just fine; not too bad, nor is it extremely good. Personally, I think that’s A OK! Every episode can’t be an immediate hit or an absolute disaster. I do think this arc should be interesting and I am very much looking forward to the next episode when we see the full potential of Kamen Rider Ghost Mugen!
