[Matrixbeast]

Finished Ghost.

Going in with tempered expectations, it's not the house fire I was anticipating, but it was by no means good.
I felt it was just bland, with uninteresting characters that just go on and on about hearts and dreams.
Believing in one's self and your friends to forge a greater power is standard stuff, but the way it's just constantly shouted out each episode just got tedious. Like, when one of the morals of an episode is "Get angry, damn it!", you know you spew out the hope speeches too damn much.

Onari is annoying and actively hindered the plot because he wanted to be a Rider in one episode. Honestly, that was the peak of "Did this man seriously just..." for me. However, tuning him out wasn't too difficult, until he decides to spontaneously yell for no reason.

Onari aside, though, the show was just bland. Takeru takes too much in stride, and felt too flat. We've had flat main characters before, but the story is usually framed so that it's really the side character that evolves (See the Tendou and Kagami dynamic). Makoto was text book secondary. Kind of a dick at the start, warms up, then just becomes fodder to help against mobs. Alain had an interesting story with a nice resolution...Then he was just left to be...Part of the gang. His familial ties to Adel didn't play into things as much as they should have.

I've watched Kamen Rider series that were bad because they were just awful all around, such as Decade. I've seen some that were bad because they just flubbed up the execution, like Kiva. And I've seen some that were bad solely due to being boring and forgettable, like Wizard.
This is a series that gets cozy up beside Wizard, ultimately. Some interesting bits, some annoying parts, but ultimately, it's just an underwhelming series.

I did like the fact that Ghost got the chance to pull a Gaim and be a god, but said "Nawh" though. At least Takeru doesn't have his head up his own ass, Kouta...