REVIEW: Ghost 35
So my feelings with this episode are mostly the same as last week’s one because really this whole arc was kind of just a harmless bit of fun. Yes we did get some minor danger and plot/character development, but it’s not really enough to warrant an extensive analysis or critique. But as I said last week, this is fine. Its fine to have episode which are just okay and isn’t a masterpiece or a train wreck.
To be honest, thinking back about it, this arc really reminds me of the Ryouma arc quite a bit, yet here I’m not as annoyed as I was with that string of episodes. It could easily be due to my own personal growth as a human and of my opinion, but I do feel there is a deeper reason as to why these past two episodes aren’t as egregious as those ones. I think it boils down to the fact that back then, stakes were still relatively high in regards to the main plot and that particular arc didn’t play into the overarching story that well. I think that because back then we really didn’t know what the Ganma were doing and so what we were shown of their plan then didn’t seem relevant and on top of that, the victim of the week and the Eyecon didn’t really factor much into that plot or the wider one.
With these past two week’s episodes, since Takeru is on par with the Ganmeisers in power and the plot on the whole has died down a bit, I feel it’s perfectly fine and welcome to have this sort of side story that doesn’t end up doing much plot wise (of course emotionally/character wise I think it got quite a lot done) . On top of that the feud between the Grimms mirrored that of the two scientists, thus I think the story of the week tied into the grander plot a bit better than in the Ryouma arc. Additionally, from a more character development/emotional focused analysis, this arc got more done than the Ryouma arc since we see why Akari got into science, which also lead to the resolution of the two brothers’ argument, and we also saw Takeru being more than just a hapy-go-lucky-two-dimensional-protagonist since we saw him being quite emotional/sad/nostalgic about his childhood days.
Now I assume Takeru being a bit blue at the end of the episode was a set up for him to debut another emotion based Mugen soul attack in the next arc; frankly I think this technique is quite smart. Firstly it’s a nice integration of the action aspect of the show into the story/character aspect of the programme which is always nice to see; but more interestingly, it kinda forces Takeru through character development in a way. Now I’m of the opinion that Takeru is a fine rider and character, but there are indeed some moments where he does seem a bit too happy-go-lucky and flat. To me these aren’t anywhere near as prevalent as the more vocal opponents of the show say there are, and Takeru is certainly more three-dimensional than some other Kamen Rider Protagonists; but there are some moments where he is a little too shonen protagonist-y.
But with the introduction of these emotions based attacks that need the said emotion to be felt my Takeru to be used, it forces the hand of the writers to make Takeru go through a whole gauntlet of emotions, thus making him more of a three-dimensional character simply because he’s going to have more than one emotion. Now don’t get me wrong, I just want to re-state that Takeru is genuinely one of my favourite riders and on the whole is a well written character; it’s just sometimes he is written a bit flatly and I think that these emotions based attacks will help develop him further and make him more three-dimensional.
Speaking of these emotions based attacks, I think it’s high time I talk about the form that uses them, Takeru’s newly unlocked Mugen Soul! The reason why I’ve been holding off on it is simply because we didn’t really see it fully until now, which I’ve said before is very smart, so no that we have seen a lot of it, I’m comfortable discussing it; and boy howdy do I love it. So let’s start off with the design of the form itself: I really love it. I really love the colour scheme because well it’s just really pretty and magnificent. All the colours work well together and by having it be one unified glittery aesthetic, it doesn’t become a big clusterfuck like Grateful ended up being. On top of that, the wider shoulder pads, glitter and long goat give it this grand and bigger-than-life feeling that I really appreciate and I feel fits well with Mugen being Ghost’s final form.
Also I feel it overall thematically fits in well with being Takeru’s final form. The idea that it’s made from the infinite possibilities of life and emotion I feel is very appropriate to his character since a) he is dead and trying to come back to life and b) that sort of message is very much the sort of thing he would say and preach. On top of that I’m really glad that, as far as I can tell, it hasn’t completely brought him back to life. It means we still have that danger constantly looming overhead, thus a) not robbing the audience of that drama and b) making tensions kinda constantly high, thus kinda elevating all the stories a bit more since we are slowly creeping towards the end. It’s a nice reminder that the end is nigh for the show without the programme having to constantly remind the viewer or be always focused on the end in its plots. Furthermore, it’s a nice contrast to Takeru’s initial form since this one is so focused on life and possibilities, while his base form is so focused on death; it’s a nice contrast and really shows how far Takeru and the show has come from its humble beginnings.
I do have one big criticism with this episode though and it’s the use of the ‘man in a dress’ joke halfway through the episode. Now for me it’s really disappointing to see such a cheap and degrading joke used in one of my favourite shows. The reason why it’s degrading is because the programme presents these three men in dresses as the joke. That’s it. Its highly degrading since it sends a bad message out that people assigned male at birth wearing dresses are to be mocked rather than just thought nothing of. It’s the fact that the joke is that they are wearing dresses that really annoys me, rather than the act of the characters wearing the dresses. In fact if you want a similar joke in Kamen Rider that works really well and isn’t offensive at all is in Kamen Rider W when Phillip crossdresses and the joke is that he’s prettier than Akiko, rather than the fact that he is in a dress. The humour in that situation derives from Akiko being jealous of Phillip, something that is quite harmless, rather than from Phillip wearing a dress; thus that situation is far better and infinitely less offensive and problematic than this one in Ghost. Although I will fully admit that Shun Nishime looks cute in that dress.
So apart from that one awful joke, the episode on the whole was fine. Nothing special happened, but we did get some nudging of character developments and with such a large episode count, I think this is a fine practice for Ghost to do. On top of that the tying of emotional/character aspects and the action/toy aspects together through Mugen’s attacks I think is a really smart move. Furthermore it gives a nice framework/plan for the programme to follow which makes it always feel like something is getting accomplished, which is something that I might cover in a later review. But yeah, I enjoyed this episode and I hope you do as well.
