[gashatfreak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

This is one of the best first episodes Kamen Rider has ever had and you won't convince me otherwise.

Not that Kamen Rider is bad at first episodes or anything -- most seasons I can think of aside from Zi-O do a phenomenal job and really stick with me; and even for seasons like 555 where I didn't enjoy it, I can still appreciate how good of a first episode that was at nailing the tone right off the bat. But Ghost's, to me, is very special in how much it's able to establish and how well it's able to establish that. I just talked in this post about OOO being a master of balancing a thousand things at once and this truly feels like it comes close -- Akari and Onari, even if you might find them a bit annoying (I have things to say about Akari later), are already very well-realised characters with a lot of personality from the second they open their mouths. They're very loud, very passionate; you can easily see what's going to be a big source of conflict for this season yet at the same time their love for Takeru rises above all of that. It's not like they're smothering him, but there's a real subtle natural element to the bond they have with Takeru that makes it feel real and that there's enough there to get them without fleshing out the details just yet. Talking of which, Takeru has a hell of a lot more self-esteem issues than I remember! Like. Oh good god we need to get this lad some therapy ASAP, though I guess a season of Kamen Riding will have to do for working out his feelings? There's a very relatable lack of confidence in everything he does and how he feels he's living up to his father that you might as well name him Rodimus and call it a day, and that seriously helps with all the 'believe in yourself' stuff later on. Usually that'd be pretty stock shonen/toku stuff, the kind of thing you tick off on your Sentai Bingo Card; but here it feels like there's a lot more legitimacy to it in both how he talks and his body language. I don't know why I didn't pick up on it the first time around but there's so much character to Takeru right off the bat. Like, hell, he lives shut away in a basement! To quickly shift gears, actually? Love Tenkuji Temple. The set design alone is drop-dead gorgeous, and the way the camera follows Akari running through it near the start gives such a great continuity of location to the place that you immediately map out the place in your head. Is that just me? Because despite how big the place is I straightaway know how all the main areas connect and am so ready to see it for 50 episodes. Pretty great parallel to how well the characters are set up, in fact!

So that's why I actually did kinda feel something when the main character dies at the 10-minute mark. I don't think I truly appreciated how much of a way this is to start off your children's show about funny ghost shenanigans and learning all about Beethoven and Himiko? Like just over a year from now parents are writing complaints to Toei about having to explain the concept of death to their kids on Christmas because Takahashi decided to kill the funny bike gamer man, but Fukuda's out here like. Nah. 10 minutes. That's all you get bud. It's kind of amazing and creates a fantastic hook within so little time, especially with the time limit!

The remainder of the episode is mostly a fight scene, but it's a fight scene riddled with wonderful and characterful choreography. Something I did have a complaint with in the later stages of the Heisei Era was how bad the fight choreography got; I adore Build and I liked Zi-O, but neither of these had me enjoying the fight scenes much because it was either a very simple repeated one-two punch or it was full of special effects; scenes like RabbitRabbit and Zi-O II's debuts were truly saved by the emotion behind it all. I don't know why this was, I assume maybe it was because Taikawa was probably getting a bit tired by that point... but in Ghost he's showing his stuff! Ghost has a very distinct style of fighting compared to any Kamen Rider we've seen before, with very intentional strikes and punches clearly derived from Takeru's background and training at the temple. This early on it's not quite perfected, but that's because Takeru isn't either -- he's clearly a novice at this with all his bumbling while trying to float around, getting hit back and forth, leaving himself open. Ghost's fight scenes are very very rich with great action and it's something I'm looking forward to!

There's a few complaints I have; particularly Akari and the fact a new form is used right in the first episode -- I really feel like first episodes should have the Rider's main form and nothing else, unless it's a pre-form like Den-O's Plat Form or... well, Ghost's transients; or you're pulling off something unique like Kuuga. But this was an issue I had with my literal two favourite shows in OOO and Build, and Musashi has a lot more emotional weight behind it than poking a Smash with a Hedgehog hand; so I can more or less excuse it. What is here is exciting enough to have me hooked!

Oh yeah, Ghost had a lot of potential and the first quarter of the series was definitely strong. Unfortunately, most of that potential went down the drain when the higher ups at Toei decided to funnel some of the budget into Amazons.