Kamen Rider Ghost showed a lot of promise prior to its airing, and while I relatively enjoyed watching it weekly, I've realized that Ghost was a huge missed opportunity in a bunch of aspects.
The show's protagonist, Takeru, isn't interesting at all. He's not shown having any sort of personality or quirks at all aside from saying different variations of, "I believe in humanity's potential!" throughout the second half of the show, nor does he have any interests aside from being a history buff. Heck, even Haruto from Wizard has more personality than Takeru, and all he has going for him is his love for donuts! The other cast either get some focus, or get put on a bus for most of the series only to be brought back for the finale, almost as if the writers didn't know what to do with them (Javert and Cubi suffer from this the most).
The show's plot isn't really interesting either, mainly because of how slow it is. Now, I don't mind shows with slow moving plots (Kuuga's still great), but when it seems that Ghost's plot is about to get going, it's always interrupted by a monster-of-the-week episode. I understand that this is a kid's show that's partially focused on selling toys, but previous Kamen Rider series such as W, OOO, Fourze and Gaim have all demonstrated that you can still have a strong plot backed up by well-written characters while advertising said toys.
The action scenes are, for the most part, good, but later in the series they begin to share Kiva's issue of just spamming the final form in almost every single fight scene instead of using the base form followed by switching to other forms. It's this lack of creativity that makes a lot of the fight scenes later on in Ghost seem a bit boring.
With all of that being said, is there anything praise-worthy about Ghost? Well, the supporting cast is pretty likable, especially Onari, who's fun to watch, and I find Alain's journey as a character to be really interesting until he gets sidelined once it's wrapped up. Plus, I also like the concept of the Heroic Eyecons and how Takeru has to connect with them. It really makes them feel more alive and something other than toys to sell.
In the end, Ghost is a sub-par Kamen Rider season. Its leading character is one of the blandest in a long time, the main plot seems to take forever to get moving, some characters are unprofessionally handled, and overall it's just a bore to watch. It's ironic that a show focused around eyes and opening them fails to keep my own eyes wide open.
Series Meh!
Kamen Rider Ghost showed a lot of promise prior to its airing, and while I relatively enjoyed watching it weekly, I've realized that Ghost was a huge missed opportunity in a bunch of aspects.
The show's protagonist, Takeru, isn't interesting at all. He's not shown having any sort of personality or quirks at all aside from saying different variations of, "I believe in humanity's potential!" throughout the second half of the show, nor does he have any interests aside from being a history buff. Heck, even Haruto from Wizard has more personality than Takeru, and all he has going for him is his love for donuts! The other cast either get some focus, or get put on a bus for most of the series only to be brought back for the finale, almost as if the writers didn't know what to do with them (Javert and Cubi suffer from this the most).
The show's plot isn't really interesting either, mainly because of how slow it is. Now, I don't mind shows with slow moving plots (Kuuga's still great), but when it seems that Ghost's plot is about to get going, it's always interrupted by a monster-of-the-week episode. I understand that this is a kid's show that's partially focused on selling toys, but previous Kamen Rider series such as W, OOO, Fourze and Gaim have all demonstrated that you can still have a strong plot backed up by well-written characters while advertising said toys.
The action scenes are, for the most part, good, but later in the series they begin to share Kiva's issue of just spamming the final form in almost every single fight scene instead of using the base form followed by switching to other forms. It's this lack of creativity that makes a lot of the fight scenes later on in Ghost seem a bit boring.
With all of that being said, is there anything praise-worthy about Ghost? Well, the supporting cast is pretty likable, especially Onari, who's fun to watch, and I find Alain's journey as a character to be really interesting until he gets sidelined once it's wrapped up. Plus, I also like the concept of the Heroic Eyecons and how Takeru has to connect with them. It really makes them feel more alive and something other than toys to sell.
In the end, Ghost is a sub-par Kamen Rider season. Its leading character is one of the blandest in a long time, the main plot seems to take forever to get moving, some characters are unprofessionally handled, and overall it's just a bore to watch. It's ironic that a show focused around eyes and opening them fails to keep my own eyes wide open.