You're right to call it nitpicking (like most movies that aired during a series, they don't really "matter" to the continuity of the show), but Argos's Eyecon literally says Dark Ghost on the top of it.

Yeah, I feel a lot better about this plot-point nowadays. It's purposefully goofy, where the honesty and simplicity of Takeru's desire for normalcy - so that he can better spend time with his friends - still gets him laughed at by all of his rapidly-disintegrating friends. It's dopey, but that's sort of the point? I didn't mind it so much this time.

There are a BUNCH of weird reveals and restrictions in this movie. Argos just having Takeru's dead body feels like a thing you'd have to explain, and yet no one does. Also, we're informed by Yurusen that destroying Takeru's body would also destroy his Ghost form, something that feels poorly-to-not established prior to the climax of this film.

(I don't know if the show spent any time on Securing Takeru's Carcass? Here, it's key to both the villain's plot and Takeru's survival. What?!)

Okay, this one I know I skipped. If there's anything I learned from Ghost it's that you only live five or six times and life is too short for another 75 minutes of Onari.

He's... you know what I figured out in this one, as I was watching Onari immediately fall to pieces at the slightest hardship, while still expressing the utmost faith in his boss to rescue him? He's C-3P0. He's a buffoon, and of negligible help in almost any conceivable circumstance, but he's completely dedicated to Takeru.

I mean, I like Onari, but he's in this movie to mostly be the put-upon droid that everyone ignores.

Really excited to see you tackle Heisei Generations.

I did two of 'em already, for the Ex-Aid Movies and Build threads, so some write-ups for those are already kicking around on this site. But, yeah, I'm also excited to rewatch them! Dr Pac-Man is a fave, and I like chunks of HG Final.

(The Banjou stuff from Final was something that didn't click with me, and I'm curious if I'll have a better take on it now. Everyone else loved that plotline, so we'll see!)

I really intensely dislike that specific brand of exaggerated facial expression, wildly flailing comic relief that shows up in these shows from time to time. I find Onari to be the most intolerably persistent example thereof (Skyrider had a character that was even more aggressively over the top, but he was only in one scene for less than ten episodes, not one of the main characters).

Onari's like a Shunpei, where I think the actor is good, but the specific decisions they made for their character (coupled with the writing having a tough time giving them anything to contribute) keep me from getting a lot out of their work. Onari ended up having some late-stage stuff with Javert that I found really thoughtful and interesting, but too much of the early-going was Onari Mugs And Screams And Flails And Now He's Knocked Out.

Listen, food is something all of us share. It's incredibly important. Takeru wanting to eat again is not only humanizing, but also shows his deep connection with others. I think it was fish who pointed out this isnt the first time rider emphasized the importance of food.

Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Ghost" on August 29th, 2019:

KAMEN RIDER GHOST MISCELLANY PART 3 - RIDER SPIRITS

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/spirits1.png

It's hard to talk critically about this series of shorts because it is 100% fan service. Like, there's sort-of a story, but the whole point is to debut Rider Spirit Eyecons. Any themes are purely accidental, I'm sure. If a good story is a balanced meal, consisting of a variety of ingredients that all support a healthy experience, these shorts are a pile of candy. Even more so than the average sugar-shock episode of a Kamen Rider show, there is no nutritional value to these shorts. They're designed to spike your system.

Much like eating too much candy can be bad for you, watching seven of these shorts in a row got a little exhausting and maybe gave me a headache. I love all of the shows these forms were calling back to, but the pattern of "old monster reappears, Ghost or Specter get beat up, Rider says totally out-of-character phrase that calls back to a Legend Rider, collectible item appears, Rider Spirit henshin and catchphrase, monster explodes" was maybe done four or five too many times.

But, dang, how mad can I really be? I liked seeing the old monster suits again, I liked the Rider Spirit suits, I liked hearing those goddamn catchphrases again... It's fan service, and as a fan I felt served. Why complain?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/spirits2.png

~EVENTUALLY, IN 2022~

Yeah, didn’t exactly change my mind on this one. By the time you get to your fifth Ghost Or Specter Suddenly Has Strong Feelings About Hopes Or Cities climax, you’re pretty exhausted. The pacing on this series is just nowhere, with a repetitive structure and absolutely no explanation to anything. Xibalba is just there, Frey/Freya are just there, nothing in the vague backstory helps explain who was behind the creation of the Alexander Eyecon in the Kamen Rider 1 movie -slash- how any of this intersects with the movie beyond Rider Collectibles… it’s just Suits, and that’s about it.

Well, there’s one other thing: returning villain voices!

It’s weird to see that I didn’t bother to bring this up, because it’s arguably a bigger selling point than the suits. (Heisei Grateful or whatever is gorgeous, the rest are a real mixed bag.) I probably didn’t even realize they were the original villain voices, is the thing. I have a really tough time picking out voices in other languages, so I’m not sure I would’ve gotten that it’s The Original Baron or whomever. I was a little curious this time, so I checked the Wiki, and, yep! All the original villain voices.

It’s a nice idea, bringing all those villains back for a few lines of dialogue. Heisei films would reuse villain suits constantly, but they’d all just be mute fodder. Here, they’re actual characters. They’ve got their actual motivations! It is awesome to see Baron get brought back as a pawn, only for him to immediately assert his need for autonomy and just walk off. (To, uh, do exactly what Frey/Freya wanted him to do in the first place, but still!) The resolution to all of those villains’ motivations coming into conflict with our heroes was… less awesome (when Specter has to give an incredibly convoluted speech to get to Don’t Make This City Cry, I was rolling my eyes so hard I could see the Gaia Library keyword of “tenuous”), but at least it feels like the sort of thing these villains would get up to, rather than helping Shocker or whatever.

So, yeah, I liked the little story in each episode, but I didn’t love seven repetitions of it.

My favorite part of these was how the twins eventually showed up on the show itself with no explanation and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing.