[GoldenXtreme]

I watched Ghost, the Ghost movie, and Heisei Generations Final!

I have to be honest here, I know this isn't exactly an uncommon opinion, but I think Ghost was pretty bad. I didn't have a miserable time watching it or anything and there were quite a few aspects I liked, but as a whole I found it to be a complete mess. I think I will start with what I did like though. I liked quite a lot of the characters: Akari, Onari, Alain, Igor, and Cubi (my beloved). I thought visually the show was very neat looking. Alain's whole arc from villain to hero was very satisfying, and I also thoroughly enjoyed the stretch of episodes where Makoto has to be saved from the Ganma world. Beyond that though, my opinion sours a lot. I found Takeru uninteresting as a protagonist and often felt like he was detracting from the more interesting characters by hogging the screen time. Makoto has to be the single most *bafflingly* written character I have ever seen in a Rider show. I can't even articulate how surreal I found the way the show managed to do almost nothing with him in spite of coming up with ideas like "what if this guy fought an army of clones of himself". I think this kind of gets to the core issue I had with Ghost, the show felt like it really lacked in any internal consistency. The show would forget things like which characters should be able to see Ganma, who had what items at a given time, and just generally felt like the plot was created on the fly for the most part. Even the way characters interacted was usually so stiff I just had no investment in it. I honestly found watching the show a bit fascinating just because how how strangely it all went wrong! It definitely hurt a bit because it felt like a diamond in the rough, but sometimes you just can't have the show cut into the glistening gem you know it could be deep down. I think this metaphor got away from me, much like how the story seems to have gotten away from the writers of Ghost.

I watched Heisei Generations Final after Ghost though, and found it to be a good palette cleanser. Watching it reminds me of how much I love a lot of the shows it featured. I love Build, I love Ex-Aid, I love Fourze! It was nice to see everyone again, and it reminded me of how much I enjoy the characters and writing in these shows! On the other hand, every time I see Eiji crop up in something like this I find myself wishing they would come up with something different from the incessant Reviving Ankh plot they always do. Given how Ankh always finds a way to conveniently die again every time I can't help but wonder if he is just as sick of it as I am.