REVIEW: Ghost 38
As you readers of my reviews know, my opinion on last week’s episode of Kamen Rider Ghost wasn’t that high. This week’s entry to the series blew my socks off. It made me cry just as hard as I did when I watched the Mugen episode. And when I say cry I mean that I was so moved at the episode that I couldn’t help BUT cry. That’s how touching this episode was and I honestly cannot think of anything to personally complain about the episode. It’s one of my favourite episodes of Ghost and Kamen Rider in general.
So the main conflict this week was that Takeru felt bad that he wasn’t using the heroic Eyecons anymore and instead relying upon Mugen to help deal with the Ganmizers. Firstly I wanna say that Ghost’s handling of upgrades is quite refreshing. Instead of giving the characters these upgrades and forms, then promptly forgetting and ignoring them once a better one comes out, the programme addresses this problem head on; and this episode is a very good example of this practice. I’m really, really happy that the show addressed this problem, especially with the Eyecons and Grateful. It’s always been a pet peeve of mine that Kamen Rider in recent years has given their protagonists a million upgrades and forms that are promptly forgotten, something that up until now Ghost was also guilty of. But again they keep coming back and addressing these upgrades and forms way after their introduction which is so so so refreshing.
This again shows how much value the show puts into its toy line because here, not only does the show make the heroic Eyecons their on characters with emotions, fears and anxiety, but with this episode they are brought to the forefront of the story again and are made active players of the story. Because Takeru worries about them so much they became part of the story again and I super-duper appreciate that since the heroic Eyecons and Heroes themselves had been put on the backburner for quite a while, only making a few cameos here and there. It’s just nice that this part of the show that had disappeared for a while, even though it was the initial premise, was still acknowledged and celebrated in such a wonderful way. This, as said earlier and many times before, makes the toys have even more value and makes them worthwhile since the show is actively making them important; Ghost is taking all of what Kamen Rider is as a toy franchise and working with it so intelligently and I can never stop praising it for that.
But not only does this episode focus on the Heroic Eyecons again and give them even more value, but Takeru again evolves and develops as a character. As I said last week, he had been a bit ignored a bit in the past few weeks for the sake of the idols in that arc, but here he is brought forward again and shown yet again to be a three dimensional character. In this episode we see his stubbornness and extreme amounts kindness really act as genuine and compelling character flaws. Instead of heeding the Sage’s advice to keep using Mugen to fight the Ganmizers, he instead over-relies on the Eyecons because he feels bad that he hasn’t been using them much, which of course leads him to get his ass handed to him by Adel in his new Perfect Ganmizer form.
This is a fantastic showcase of how interesting and good a character Takeru is. Here he is shown to have flaws and is shown to still kinda be a kid who makes stupid mistakes. This is really nice to see since character flaws and being three-dimensional is usually left for the secondary riders in recent years, but here Takeru is quite a real and human character. On top of that I love that his kindness and faith in his comrades is a bit of a flaw here. It’s quite nuanced frankly, since it shows that kindness by itself isn’t enough, it has to be used correctly and in the right way to be fully positive and useful. It again shows that Takeru isn’t a blank slate as many people have been saying; he’s quite developed and interesting if you dig deeper than a superficial look at him. Quite frankly he’s become one of my favourite Kamen Rider protagonists.
Another thing I really adored this week was the way it handled the various other plot threads that were hanging around. Now for me personally, I feel that when Ghost has a singular focus, it’s a bit better and more interesting, but with this week’s episode the show balanced the multiple stories quite well. Firstly there was Makoto’s arc, which to be honest wasn’t really focused upon this week, but it felt less intrusive and out of place as last week’s since the pace and drama of the blue Rider fighting his doppelgangers wasn’t brought to a screeching halt since dramatic tension was kept high by other storylines. I’m undecided to be quite frank whether I think this slow etching away at Makoto’s arc is a good idea or not; on the one hand interest is maintained over a longer period of time since its being slowly revealed, but on the other hand if it drags on for too long it’ll feel quite bad; I suppose we’ll have to see if the slow reveal of this plot will pay off or not!
However there is another not-main-plot thread that I 100% adore and that’s the one with Javelle and Onari. As you may remember last week, I was quite annoyed at the way Javelle was re-introduced into the show, since it really made no sense and was out of nowhere. With this episode, it was done FAR better and to be honest I wish this episode was the one in which he was brought back into the story. It sets it all up at the begging in a way that fits his character and doesn’t feel like an afterthought a la last week. What’s even better about this storyline is that it developed both Onari and Javelle quite a bit. With Onari, we again saw that noble monk that appeared up the first time he helped Javelle and it’s so great to see that side of him; it shows that he’s far more than a silly and clueless side character, that he is also growing and can be very very wise and kind. With Javelle it was the fact that we saw a lighter side to him that developed him as he is now more of a three dimensional character. On top of that, we are seeing Javelle grow more and become a better person which is always a plus; I’m quite excited for both characters’ developments by themselves and between each other.
I always feel a bit bad whenever I leave my discussion of the action scenes for the end because whenever I do talk about it, they are quite good and I feel like I’m being a bit disingenuous about them by slinging them at the end. This is very much the case with this week’s episode since it had some fantastic action. The use of all the Historic Parka Ghosts was a lot of fun since they all brought their own unique fighting style and look to the fights. Similarly it was really awesome seeing all of Takeru’s main Heroic Soul forms again after all this time because it brought diversity to his fighting style and also was a key moment in the story/ was a big emotional moment, thus making the action serve the story which is always wonderful to see. Add to that a continued usage of more dynamic and fluid camerawork and action, along with more impressive wire work and from an action standpoint, this episode was fantastic.
If you couldn’t tell already, I adore this episode. This is one of the best episodes of not only Ghost, but also of Kamen Rider. It has heart; it has great character development, great emotional moments and great action. It is fantastic episode and you are doing yourself a disservice if you like Kamen Rider and miss out on this episode.
