TV-Nihon

mholden020 wrote:

Go-On Macaroni wrote:
Yeah but, those 15 weeks were also mostly just a barrage of toy sales, similar to Gaim's first dancing arc where we had new riders and lockseeds every week. I mean, if you liked that then hey cool, but out of what I've observed, the first cour of Rider shows kinda don't seem to have much actual substance nowadays; just there to please Bandai.

Like, I dunno, I wasn't sitting there going "WOO!!" as much as I was waiting for the actual show to start. XP

I wasn't literally sitting here yelling "WOO!" but the first arc never had an episode where things came to a halt like they have in the second half of the show. They packed in the toys, yes, but those actually had a story-related reason for each one. He had to get all 15 to come back to life, so they were introduced quickly and had meaning to the overall story. It wasn't like the Grapefruit form.

Feels like they're trying to emulate Gaim's success regarding story and toys, Drive almost accomplished the story IMO but toys didn't convince me in all honesty, Ghost managed to succeed in the toy department, not up to Gaim's level but pretty good to me but didn't convince me story wise

Now that the series is over, I'm bumping this down to a 2. It wasn't incompetent (the criteria for a 1), but the plot was unquestionably mishandled, and the supporting characters squandered. Furthermore there are a lot of leftover questions that the series never got around to answering.

After a bit of thought following the finale, I'm going to up my vote to a 2. Like Virge said, it wasn't a total mess, and the final episode showed that the writers were actually capable of a good story. I think it just got muddled up by way too much crap that turned out to be useless in the end. Bills & Demia could have been removed completely, Igor's part could have been leaned out, Makoto didn't need a doppleganger, and I don't think Javert and Gyro really added anything to the story either. With all that gone in the final episode, the story was much more engaging, and as a result, I felt at least something for the characters again.

So I think Virge nailed it: "mishandled" is the best way to describe this series. There was definitely the potential for a fantastic show, we just never saw it until the final episode.

While I do agree that the show was mishandled in several ways. Look at my rant here for an in depth opinion of why viewtopic.php?f=224&t=20239&p=237985#p237985. I do believe the show handled a few things quite well.

I may get some massive hate for this but I didn't have much of the problem with the characters. While most of them had little function, I think they functioned well as what Takeru sees them as: his friends. They gave him something to look forward to and it reminded me of Fourze in a sense. Everyone in the show doesn't have to be fully active or even useful in the show as long as it's not a surplus of them. It's like life, most of us have someone that really doesn't serve any purpose. They're just there for the party.

The friendship aspect was what I was missing in Wizard along with many other things and I felt like Ghost corrected most of those mistakes so I gave it a 4 for trying to be more than average. However, it came short of 5 for failing in certain ways.

The problem with Ghost is it trying to hard to replicate Drive, such as:
- The main rider is heavily influenced by his father and his death.
- The main rider earns his final form by revising from death.
- The villain is another race who want to destroy human world so they can build a better world for their own race.
(Sure that other rider series has race conflict as well, but the goal of the Ganma and Roidmude is basically the same)
- The second rider has a sister and loves her so much that he could do anything.
- The third rider used to be in the enemy side but then turn good and struggle on living the human world.
- We have a female scientist who is there to explain anything and comes up with gadget (at least Akari is not part in developing Ghost toys).
- A weird old man with creepy jokes.
- Both the teams investigate on unusual phenomenons.
- Second rider upgrade is similar to the main rider second form. (for Drive it's the same shift car, at least Ghost uses different eyecons but they are still the same)

Some of the plus points for Ghost:
- I like the design (especially Necrom), and how Ghost and Spectre weapon can be combined with different gadgets.
- Different ghost forms.
- Ghost can summon the luminaries to fight with him.
- Good starting arc.
- Good development for Alain.
- Cool visual effects.
- Good overall idea.

And the minus:
- No further development in weaponry after the sunglass slasher.
- Recolor of weapon for Necrom and Deep Spectre.
- Somehow they remove all the bikes in the late phase of the series.
- Forgettable supporting cast.
- The first 99 days are done in 10 eps and the second 99 days for the rest of the series.
- Bad distribution in the number of luminaries eyecon (Ghost 10, Spectre 3 and Necrom 2); I mean they have 15, they could easily divide them into 5 / riders and work on their weapons.
- Takeru revised too much.

So in the end, I give Ghost a 3. It has its moment, but its development is pretty bad and boring. I was able to watch the whole series but would say this is a skip-able series.

I have a mixed feeling for KR Ghost, it is not the "best" series but not the "worst" either.

It start with a good story and a basic KR story with the monster-of-the-weeks plus the main rider collecting new power each weeks. Spectre also has a good debut and his Nobunaga and Tutankhamun finisher is feels so OP. Midway of series the pace seems becoming weird and quite too fast, like the first 99 days is only taking like 10~ episode and the the other is taking the rest of the series. The way Takeru got his final form is also kind of absurd, he need a "feeling" from his friend to get mugen eyecon and come back to life and it's not even really explained. The finale is also not really satisfying, they use another "true villain" over "main villain" trope again like since KR Wizard (in this case the "main villain" is Adel and the "true villain" is the Great Eyeser(?) or whatever it called).

Despite all of that, KR Ghost still me some memorable scene like:
- The way Takeru revived the 2nd time by his father for me is really touching and cool scene
- On later episode when Takeru use all his 10 heroic spirit form while fighting Commander Gyro is also a cool scene
- And I can't forget the feels that time when Fumi-baa died, it's really breaking my heart

welp that's the reason i give KR Ghost 3 stars, it has promising start and cool design but sadly they can't keep those feeling 'til the end of series...

Spoiler

also this is my first post in this forum, so nice to meet you all and forgive me if my grammar wasn't so good

It's my turn to post, time to quote a line from one of the insert songs. OH WAIT! Two thumbs down. Better call a Ghost Buster.

Enjoyable enough to watch, but it fell short of the standard its predecessors set.

I have no idea what to make of it. I've only gotten back into toku in the past year, so this is the first new Rider series I've watched since Decade. I've also been watching Kuuga and Agito alongside my Ghost viewing. It puts it in stark contrast just how much the tone of the series has shifted over the years. If we have a show like Amazons to pick up the slack and carry on the traditionally darker tone of the series, I guess it's okay. It's hard for me to think of the show in terms of what I want a Rider show to be because it still feels a bit nebulous to me. Thinking about it in general, I'm not so much a fan of the villain harnessing some kind of evil power only to ultimately be overwhelmed by it in the end. I also agree that the Specter doppelganger was kind of pointless, apart from injecting some more drama into his story since all he really had left was his allegiance to Alain and Takeru after Kanon was saved.

wow ok wonderful. I made this account like one year ago. Never used it. Signed back in today.

Only so I can give Ghost the 1 star it deserves.

This is the first rider show since I started watching Kiva as it was airing that I checked out of. I definitely liked some of the rider series a lot less than others but I still thought the shows were pretty good. (OOO, Fourze) But I could just tell early on that this show was gonna bother the heck out of me. It sounds like it actually really tanked later in the series too, which makes me glad I didn't invest my energy in following it after the first about eight episodes.

This my favorite rider show in awhile.... Loved the characters and designs of the Riders... And Akari stayed much more consistent than Kiriko did in Drive, which sunk the show for me...

So while most complaints of a rider end game say that they are too rushed, I feel this one was too drawn out. They could have condensed what happened in the last stretch easily.

I feel that Ghosts real weakness was that it kind of did a lot of the stuff that Drive did, just not as well. It's not a bad series per say, but it definitely is bland.

I enjoyed it it got better around the middle the suits were awesome soundtrack was pretty damn good all and all 7/10 but the next rider all i can say is WTF.

Honestly, I think this show is far worse than Wizard. First things first, Ghost had interesting ideas, and gets really good when they reached the Gamma World and Alain's redemption arc. but everything else is just exactly flat. The characters are extremely boring and there's not really a favorite character outside of Akari. Even Alain, who's easily the best one because of his development, gets demoted as a bodyguard just after he got his character development.

And the main two Riders. Takeru is exactly what makes me hate these 'pretty boy' types. And also, he's the worst kind of Mary Sue you'll get, even more than Kyoryu Red. It's amazing for 50 episodes, we don't really know what makes Takeru so 'perfect' other than he believes in humanity's potential. And Sennin keeps saying Takeru is the greatest. Move on to Makoto. They guy had HUGE potential of becoming a good character, but he gets shafted very often and even his arcs are rather cliche, generic and not really that interesting. At the very least in Wizard, Haruto and Beast and likeable and can be hilarious. But the two Riders here are just the blandest of the blands.

The only thing I like from this show is the soundtrack (so glad it got released).