I know, right?! Alain's barely getting any focus. Don't worry, he'll start doing more in the 10s :lol

But seriously, I feel like the 'Drive situation' happened to Ghost for a bit where the main character has little to do with the conflicts of the story, but he's there anyway. Shinnosuke has little relation to do with the Roidmudes up until Deadheat debuts whereas Gou and Chase have some connections to the enemy.

Takeru's thing is collecting the Eyecons, but Alain and Makoto have things to do beyond it as well as connections to the lingering plot behind the scenes.

Not that it's necessarily bad, but it's just a thing I notice.

:lol You joke, but I was commenting yesterday as I watched that I'd prefer Makoto and Takeru if they swapped roles This in spite of the fact that so far Makoto has basically gone from overly confrontational, to brainwashed, to stuck in a body capsule with only a few moments to really shine between that chaos!

I'm actually about half way through the show! What triggered my comment in the first place was the fact I'm really enjoying the characters for the most part. Akari and Onari are great, Cubi is wonderful and I hope he comes back from his travels later, the other non-Riders are at least fun. Alain is a really interesting tertiary, kinda like they worked from the base of "Micchi from Gaim but with the ability to actually do some self-reflection". I enjoy everything I see from the antagonists. But then Takeru is just there, and I am really not interested in anything he has to add to a given scene, in fact I find his presense often detracts from the show a bit for me!

I think comparing him to Shinnosuke is fair, the plot treats them similarly in a lot of ways. I'm not a huge fan of Shinnosuke either, but I like him better. Probably helps that I think his actor does a better job with the role, in my opinion. I don't want to give Takeru's actor too much flak, but he was very young at the time and I think his inexperience often shows.

That's something we can't share, because I love Shinnosuke :lol

Hey, I respect it! He's a cool, cohesively written character with a ton of great moments to his name. I liked his dynamic with Krim a ton in particular.

He just isn't the most invested I've been in a Rider lead. I'm more of a Shotaro Hidari kinda gal when it comes to Riku Sanjo shows.

It's been a minute since I watched Ghost, but I feel like the show sort of sculpts itself around how much of an outsider Takeru is to these plots?

I think of it a bit like Ryuki, where the main character is frequently wondering why everyone can't get along, and all of the supporting characters have rich, vibrant motivations. (Takeru's main motivation is I Would Prefer Not To Be Dead, which is not nearly as specific and compelling as My Sister Is A Collectible.) The show basically has to pivot away from the title character's goal, and then has to reorient him as a POV hero who wants to help his friends emotionally.

I mean, yeah, Alain is great! Makoto is super interesting! But Takeru's relative blandness allows him to become this weird sort of glue for the show, where his selflessness and sacrifice help the more compelling characters reach their potential.

I don't know. I definitely felt like you felt at this point in the show - Alain in particular really saved the middle portion of Ghost for me - but I think Takeru's character really came into focus for me around the same time.

I've got a pretty similar thing going on where I last left Blade. Hajime is struggling with finding a place he belongs, with his Undead body and human emotions, and Tachibana-San is trying to prove to himself and Kenzaki that's he's strong and brave enough to be a Rider while being reliant on mysterious peacock man's magic seaweed, and then Kenzaki mainly shows up to talk really fast and then get his ass kicked by everyone else in the show. Now don't get we wrong, it's very entertaining, it's just not the role I'd expect of a main Rider. At least in Ryuki, Shinji played a big role in everyone else's life, even if he didn't have much of a plot of his own

I really owe Blade a rewatch, it completely baffled my the first time I watched it but I think my mentality was all wrong. I took the show dead seriously at the time and needless to say that isn't the best way to approach that particular show.

On the subject of Shinji-esque protagonists, I get the argument that Kenzaki and Takeru fall into the same sort of role, but I disagree. Shinji works as a protagonist because Ryuki desperately needs a character to ground the show because so many of the other characters are such desperate people. Shinji works as a connection back to reality, with his loser-ish personality and earnest desire to help people also helping to ground other characters around him. I don't know if I would consider Kenzaki a particularly grounding force in his show, since he is usually getting up to as much weirdness as everybody else, even if he does have the loser personality and earnest niceness going on. Ghost is also grounded enough already that I don't think having a protagonist like Takeru to ground it really helps the show in any way. Now Kagami from Kabuto? That is a character I think serves the same kind of role as Shinji, the only sane man in a world of unmitigated chaos.

Just wanted to post this poll. I have no idea if it's legitamite, but it is amusing

Probably not officially sanctioned, but I did spot JP users on Twitter voting when I was searching around with Hiromi's name. He's really popular!

I remember seeing that his acrylic stands always sell out frequently and fast-everybody loves Hiromicchi!