Recap: Kamen Rider Ghost, Episode 16 – Perfect! The White Kamen Rider

Ghost 16

Big Brother Adel sees Alain is finally getting serious. Indeed, Alain is now wearing fancy royal clothes instead of his hippie stuff.

In the human world, Kanon is enjoying the wind on her face. But her Oniichan is a little more serious. He says it’s time he settles things and rectifies his mistakes. “You don’t mean…?!”

Next day, Takeru, Onari and Akari are going over what’s happened so far in an effort to try and figure out the Ganma.

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They decide to try and ask Makoto about it. Luckily, he and Kanon arrive with flowers for Papa Tenkuuji.

Makoto tells Papa Tenkuuji that he wants to take care of things so that he can be like Takeru and follow in Ryu’s footsteps. And to do that, he must return to the Ganma World.

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Down in the lab, Yurusen scares Grampa Sennin who is listening to the conversation above and talking to Ryu himself. Yurusen asks if Makoto will be alright in the Ganma World since it is hell, after all.

Makoto asks Takeru to look after Kanon while he’s gone, but Takeru wants to come with. He doesn’t want anything to happen to his best friend of course.

Before Makoto can explain what the Ganma World is, Onari comes running out with a new case. They head inside to watch a viral video of Ganma Eyecons floating about in the city.

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Takeru asks Shibuya and Narita to stay with Kanon-chan while the rest of them go check it out.

They arrive in the general area of the sighting and start hearing strange moaning. Both Takeru and Makoto see what’s making the sounds so Akari shines Spider lantern to reveal dozens of base Ganma.

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Takeru and Makoto charge toward the Ganma and henshin.

They have a little trouble, however, since there are so many. Suddenly, an eye opens in the sky and something arrives, explosively!

Grampa Sennin senses it and is shocked.

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A brand new Rider! Makoto says he’s never seen him before.

With simple waves of the hand, the new green-trimmed Rider manages to control the Ganma to get them to attack. Takeru goes Robin Hood and saves Akari and Onari from a group of them and tells them to get to safety.

Before leaving, Akari picks up a piece of a destroyed Ganma.

Makoto goes Nobunaga and Takeru uses an Omega Drive to take care of the base Ganma.

But a familiar voice comes from the green Rider. It’s Alain! And he vows to get Specter to fight for the Ganma once more. Makoto is shocked.

Alain effortlessly knocks Makoto around. Takeru jumps in, but it only reminds Alain of how annoying he is and how it’s his fault Makoto has changed.

Makoto says he never changed. He never agreed with their way of thinking in the first place. “I merely chose to live as a human.”

“As a human? What rubbish.”
“Shut up! You took it away from me!”
“Your body? You’re still upset over that useless thing?”

Takeru is confused, but Alain says human lives are meaningless. Of course that gets Takeru riled up. But Alain points out that humans prey on each other. Do humans really enjoy fighting each other?

That’s why Alain vows to shape this world after his own for their betterment.

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Adel watches Alain from his throne room. Even though Alain used Necrom without permission, Adel wants to see how far Alain can go with it.

Takeru goes Boost and Makoto goes King Tut. But Alain has no trouble deflecting any attack they throw at him. He pulls out the Grimm and Sanzo Eyecons. Takeru remembers these must be the Eyecons Javert picked up in the forest.

Ghost 16

Alain presses the Grimm Eyecon and forcibly uses it to uphenshin. He again easily whips Takeru and Makoto around, marveling at the powers of the luminaries.

Makoto decides to go Houdini to get him and Takeru out of here.

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Alain dehenshins. He likes it.

Back at the temple, Takeru interrogates Makoto.

Makoto thinking to himself, “If Alain can use the Eyecons, it means that person…”

Takeru doesn’t get anything out of Makoto-niichan who gets up and leaves.

Kanon asks Takeru if he met “Alain-sama.”

“Kanon, you know Alain?”
“Alain-sama took care of us in the other world. And he was a very good friend of Oniichan.”

Takeru wonders Makoto and Alain have to fight if they’re friends then. Robin Hood Eyecon peeks out of Takeru’s clothes.

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Akari comes up with Narita and Shibuya to show Takeru the piece of Ganma Eyecon she picked up which they will examine. Akari asks Kanon how she became an Eyecon, but she doesn’t know.

Takeru notices Onari is not around. That’s because Onari decides to follow Makoto.

Ghost 16

Alain is by the water, annoyed by Takeru and his belief in the value of human life. But Alain looks up into the sky. His expression softens as he listens to birds chirping in the trees. Even a little smile.

Back in the lab, Akari, Shibuya and Narita are busy trying to get into the Eyecon piece.

Takeru is busy trying to figure out how to get Alain and Makoto to understand each other.

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Meanwhile, Onari has followed Makoto to the waterfront where he meets Alain. Onari leaves to find wifi so he can contact Takeru.

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Alain says they have nothing to talk about, but Makoto says he doesn’t know the whole truth. Alain says he knows the truth is that their way is the right way.

Makoto feels hopeless, so he decides to henshin. Alain also henshins so he can take Makoto back to his world through force.

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They battle.

Grampa Sennin stands silently at the Monolith.

Alain stops when the green trim disappears and it seems he’s run out of juice. He summons more basic Ganma and then absorbs all their power to recharge himself.

Takeru arrives and henshins.

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He tries to get the two friends to talk it out. Alain says Takeru is talking nonsense and Makoto says it’s no use. But Takeru insists that if they can understand each other, then everything will be fine.

Alain tires to attack Takeru, but Makoto takes the hit instead. Takeru goes Boost and delivers an Omega Drive.

But Alain seemingly just pops out of another Ganma. Takeru doesn’t understand what’s going on.

“I told you. A physical body is worthless!”

Alain turns his attention to Makoto, but Takeru goes Ryoma and counters Alain’s Omega Uruoudo with his own Mega Omega Flash.

That drains Alain’s body suit some more and he dehenshins. “Time’s up?”

Ghost 16 Ghost 16

Alain leaves as both Takeru and Makoto lay on the ground, dehenshined.

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Back at the temple, Kanon cries as her oniichan lies, badly hurt.

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Down in the lab, Onari almost dies and Akari apologizes as they continue looking into the Ganma Eyecon slice.

Takeru calls out for Gramps. But Yurusen says Grampa Sennin is not here right now.

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Takeru asks Yurusen to tell him about the Ganma world, but Yurusen says it’s better he not know. Yurusen flies away.

Takeru tries figuring out why Alain would think lives and physical bodies are worthless. But if Alain was Makoto-niichan’s friend, then he might not be all that bad.

Ghost 16

Robin Hood sucks Takeru into the Eyecon to talk to him. He says Takeru trying to understand the enemy means he has a good heart.

Takeru believes they can come to an understanding if they become friends. But Robin Hood warns against imposing your own ideals onto others. The men he fought also had their own ideas of justice. So Takeru must remember that justice comes in many forms.

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Takeru heads outside and watches the sun set while thinking about Alain’s justice.

Alain meanwhile feels the wind on his face and watches the same setting sun.

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Episode Thoughts

Wow! I think this might be my favorite episode so far! Lots of things going on and all of it was exciting and interesting.

I am loving Alain. (He’s French! lol) Seeing him in that royal outfit was pretty sweet. And it was good to see them not drag out “Ooo, who is he?” and just let the obvious play out.

This was definitely his episode. So much insight into his character. First, there’s got to be something nice or good about him. Takeru is right. Makoto befriended him and Kanon seems very fond of her Alain-sama. So there has to be something big there. (His Blu-ray special miniseries looks hilariously and endearingly odd. A clue as to his future in-series?)

Maybe Makoto-niichan’s mistakes or things he has to “settle” involves Alain. Something Makoto did maybe has made Alain become this way? Lots of possibilities here. Maybe Alain was a human-turned-Ganma? Or Makoto and Kanon’s friendship makes this coldhearted Ganma feel like he wants to be a human? (Hello Drive and Roidmude idols wanting to become humans! lol) Or maybe Alain is just jealous about sharing his BFF with Takeru?

But those scenes of him taking in the human world. The bright sun, the wind blowing, the birds chirping. He smiled that first time and then he looked emotional at the end of the episode. And then the show threw in that similar scene of Kanon at the beginning where she was enjoying the wind, having forgot what it felt like while she was a little collectable toy.

Definitely very exciting developments for Alain. If they do go a Chase-type of story, I hope they develop it better here than in Drive. They’re certainly starting earlier than last year lol.

And damn do I love Alain’s background music!

More fun stuff with Onari, Akari, Narita and Shibuya. Them helping out is good. And as I’ve mentioned in every season, it is important to develop and establish the bond between our heroes and their group of friends/family. If everything else about the story falls apart in the end, as long as you feel bonded with our main group of heroes and friends, then you’ll be invested in the ending.

Takeru wanting to help Makoto and his friend Alain is definitely him. They’ve established his character well and it’s only being reinforced every week. And his line about how trying to understand each other would basically help resolve or avoid conflicts. Oh Takeru, if only you could tell everyone in the world that, Earth would be a much better place. ='( Hee.

I think one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed this season a lot so far is Takeru is just a very likeable character you can very much root for. I guess it helps that he’s younger than our recent main Riders, that he’s not very loud or has a big personality and that he isn’t facing some huge adversary just yet. But Takeru is definitely a great protagonist and Nishime Shun has done a great job. Very charming.

So overall, this was definitely my favorite episode of the season so far.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Ghost, Episode 16 – Perfect! The White Kamen Rider

  1. Man, Necrom was just downright badass. And I agree, that background music was awesome. And is it me or are they hinting that Makoto and Kanon are, in fact, already both dead.

    I’ll be honest though, some of the conflicts kinda felt weak. Particularly that with Alain’s and Makoto’s friendship and that part about hoe worthless a physical body is worthless. The philosophical musings here were not wholly engaging simply because they have yet to give more of what is really at stake here. Not as bad as Drive’s but still a bit problematic.

    1. Yeah I guess since they haven’t really gone too deep yet and only focused on Takeru’s Eyecon collecting so far, we still don’t know pretty much anything about the Ganma. Which is why the developments this episode for me were very exciting I guess.

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