Kamen Rider Ghost (2015-2016)

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

So, you heard my thoughts on my favourite Rider series, Kamen Rider W. Now you get to hear my thoughts on what I think is the absolute worst; Kamen Rider Ghost.

Keep in mind that the previews to this series was awesome. An undead Kamen Rider that uses powers based on historical figures? That's the kind of insanity that should make a great series, almost as crazy as doctors and gamers using video game cartridges to fight a computer virus taken form... Yes, I'll review Ex-Aid when it's done. And yet, despite all the build-up, it obviously didn't match up with expectations.

The story, as you will constantly be reminded in each episode, is that of Takeru Tenkujii, a boy who recently turned 18 a decade after his father was mysteriously killed. On his birthday, he receives the toyline gimmick of the year, an Eyecon, just a few minutes before he is killed by these spectral beings know as the Ganma. As he is killed, however, he meets an old man later revealed to be named Edith (and by that I mean in the late 30's), who offers him the chance to return to life by collecting the 15 Legendary Eyecons so that he can wish himself back to life. Oh, and he only has about 99 days to do it. "Helping" him along the way is scientist and long time friend Akari, crazy monk/comedy sidekick Onari and eventually Kamen Riders Spectre, a.k.a Makoto and Necrom, a.k.a Ganma Prince Aran... or Alain... or Alan? The show can't make up it's mind on his name (or at least in the subs that I watched).

Really, from that set-up, we should have a decent Rider series. There's a new theme for the powers that are wholly unique to this series, a sense of urgency to save the day as well as themselves and enough time to get some decent character interaction and development. But for whatever reason (namely, the head writer Takuro Fakuda was too lazy to write most of the show himself), the show seems to want to avoid that and do everything it's power to somehow waste time and not spend enough of it.

The pacing in this show is awful, with most of the main story events either not being focused on at the right time or being rushed by so quickly you barely even notice it. Most of the show is just spent with Takeru wasting his time just lazing around and not doing anything until some random Ganma attack happens, and even then that attack is not the focus. Most of the focus for this show is on superfluous, unneeded characters who hardly amount to anything outside of fuelling filler. And even when you get to the main story events, such as Takeru getting another 100 days by somehow connecting with the spirit of his father, they don't bother to explain the important details. For instance, they explain that the 15 Legendary Eyecons, containing the souls of historical figures, are connected to the Great Eye, which is the ultimate power where anyone can get their wish granted... they never explain how. It's just the end goal of the show and they don't bother to explain how it works. Then again, that's if the show will even remember half of the stuff it introduce.

An example of this is in the first 15 or so episodes where a minor antagonist, Saionji, is trying to collect the Eyecons for whatever goal he wants (as they don't explain it) and after trying to do so, he just disappears and is never seen again! They literally just made the character poof into thin air and hardly bother to mention him again! What was even the point of introducing him if they weren't bothering to expand upon him? And yes, I know, he does come back, but's that only in flashbacks where we learn he sided with the Ganma World and betrayed Takeru's father. But they still don't explain why he did it and it never matters to the main story itself. There is literally no reason for the guy to exist except just to fill in time. What an utter waste!

And speaking of wastes, let's talk about the side characters. There are so many support characters that ultimately do not matter to the story itself, that they may as well have their own fucking series! People like Onari's assistants add nothing to the show and get no development whatsoever; there are couple of Ganma that defect from the main forces and don't do anything that matters outside of a couple of comedy antics; but the biggest offence has to be Makoto's sister Kanon and Alain's sister Alia. Kanon is Makoto's main goal for the series as he wants to collect the 15 Eyecons to save her life, but Takeru uses his wish to do that for him after the first 10 episodes and after she's back, Makoto has virtually nothing to do. His purpose has been fulfilled and they don't anything else with him outside of having him in the fight scenes. Still, he's at least better off than Alia, who does nothing but sit around and stare at stuff. I can't even call Alia a character because she doesn't even have a personality! Why should I care for someone who doesn't even do enough to qualify as a supporting role?

Heck, Makoto isn't even that better off, as he just spends time doing nothing but joining the action scenes every once in a while. He has no character, no motivation and no sense of duty to protect this world. He is just a generic, bland character with no interesting qualities. And as for Alain, he doesn't get much either. He starts off as a mysterious bad guy, but through a contrived story where he becomes friends with this (later on dead) old lady that sells Takoyaki, he's suddenly a good guy fighting against his brother.

Oh yeah, there's a main villain apparently; Alain's older brother, Adel. This has to be one of the worst villains in all of Kamen Rider. Adel starts off as this whiny, petulant jackass who wants more power due to his birthright as a Prince and decides to stage a whole coup where he kills his father, Adonis, to take other and try to make everyone on Earth him. It's basically the Master's plan from Doctor Who's "The End of Time" two part end to David Tennant's time as the main character, except everything is done wrong. Adel does not actually change in the entire show and when they do try to change him, it's during the not-final battle between him and Takeru where they just add in this stupid "he just needed love" bullshit that somehow justifies the horrible actions he had committed. Remember, he tried to cause mass genocide, killed his father, sold out his family, is revealed to have killed Takeru's father and is manipulating his sister to be a mindless zombie... AND TAKERU FORGIVES HIM FOR NO FUCKING REASON! They try to say that he just wasn't himself, but they never showed us what he was like before taking over! He was always a spiteful, petty brat with delusions of grandeur! You can't just suddenly give him a redemption arc when he so obviously doesn't deserve it!

That's not even getting to how cheap the show could be. There were reports of the budget being cut in half, but a popular rumour (that hasn't been proven) is that Shinichiro Shurakura, an executive producer at Toei known for fucking over Kamen Rider Hibiki, stole half of the show's budget and put it towards funding Kamen Rider Amazons, which he was in charge of and was running at the same time. I'd certainly believe it, especially with the bullshit he pulled off in the past, but either way, the show really suffers because of it. They have to constantly reuse old Ganma suits for newer characters and Ghost's final form, Mugen, was not ready for shooting, so they had to CG in a bright gold version of the suit without having to show it. That's just complete and utter laziness on a grand scale and shows how much the execs at Toei this time just did not give a shit!

This show is the Toei equivalent of Power Rangers SuperMegaforce; it's lazy, it's stupid, there's no character development and most of the elements introduced in the show either are never explained or never matter in the grand scheme of things. The obsession with just shoving in new toy after new toy with no explanation really got on my nerves quickly and brought the show down to a whole new low. I don't even want to check out the material that ties in to the show after it was done; I don't revisit the show. This was downright horrible to sit through and is not worth anyone's time. Avoid at all costs!

Overall rating: 2/10 (Terrible)

Til next time, this Callum Lewis, the Media Man... I'm just done.