Kamen Rider Ghost 30 – Necrom Rider Begins

About time.

In this episode, Alain once again experiences grief after the passing of Grandma Fumi, but also learned one lesson us humans will eventually learn after death. Meanwhile, thanks to what happened in the previous episode, the Deep Connect's President asked the help of Team Ghost to stop Igor. Wait, what?!

​This is yet another good episode and by the looks of it, the culmination of Alain's character development in the series. From the guy who barely understood humanity, to the man who realized the beauty of imperfections and why emotions are important. But before I can delve deeper into that, let's talk about some of the minor things in the episode, the stuff involving the Ganmaisers. It was boring, and the stuff that happened in this episode didn't move forward this plot point in the series. The only thing note worthy about it is Alia's concerned look... and that's about it.
 
Now to the stuff involving Deep Connect and the girl, it was really good. For starters, I like the fact that Deep Connect's President Bills didn't play the villain in front of Takeru and his crew. He acts like that concerned president who just wants Igor and his men out of his company. Even though it is obvious that he is still under Igor's spell, it furthers the plot involving Deep Connect and how they are tied in to Igor in a really significant manner. It diverts all suspicion to their activities in the company, making it harder for Takeru to crack what the Ganma are planning.

​Because we still have the plot concerning the girl in this episode, of course she eventually meets her "dad" and thanks to Igor, learned that he's just a hollow vessel for his plans. What makes this scene more significant is the fact that Takeru learned that she plans on surprising her dad on his birthday, making this scene even more heartbreaking. Just to make it sadder, he died in his birthday. This heartbreak also ties in with what Alain is going on right now, him understanding the concept of death and how we humans cope up and understand it.
 
When we first meet Alain, he's that cold Ganma general who is doing what his father asked him to do. By the time we reached at this point in the series, Alain has developed into one of the most human characters in the series. Him struggling to understand emotion and that scene in the funeral added more layers to this already interesting character. Thanks to Takeru and what he just witnessed, he realized that dead does not mean the end to that person. It just means that his body expired, but a person's heart, soul, and influence will forever touch the ones he or she met, and that's what happened to Grandma Fumi. 

In the funeral scene, Alain saw a mix of emotions, emotions of sadness and happiness. He saw people reminisce the good and bad times they had with Grandma Fumi. The memories of her scolding them, the takoyaki she makes, and how she helped one guy get through life and become what he is right now. What makes this scene so great is that it was done in a casual manner. No speeches, just a couple of guys talking and walking on how Grandma Fumi changed their lives. That was also the case with Alain.
 
The first time he met Grandma Fumi, he hostile towards her, but she keeps on opening up. At the time Alain was at his lowest, Grandma Fumi gave him advice that changed his outlook about life, and as seen in the latest episode, Grandma Fumi also gave him some great advice on how to start over. With a little encouragement coming from Takeru, Makoto, and Kanon, Alain wears the clothes that Grandma Fumi gave him, and starts kicking ass. 

​Alain casually strolling towards the enemy warehouse while eating takoyaki is easily one of the most badass moments in the show thus far; the fact that he eats his takoyaki while fighting Ganma made the scene really, really badass. This is that scene in action movies wherein the hero is busy eating when the bad guys start attacking him, and goes defensive over his good. This time around, the tables are turned, he's on the offensive and he is eating something. The best part about all of this is that he was able to finish his takoyaki before the Ganmaiser appeared to ruin it.
 
Thankfully, Takeru and Makoto arrived just in time for the most meaningful triple Rider transformation scene in the show. This is a triple Rider transformation that feels earned. Alain's moment earlier showed us that he finally earned his Kamen Rider stripes, he is not anymore the villain and he finally realized the reason why he will continue on fighting. He wants to protect the beauty of this planet, and one day, bring this same beauty to his world. It's a really wonderful scene, and finally, I don't see three Kamen Riders in name, but Kamen Riders both in name and in spirit. 

​What comes next is pure bike action goodness, it's been a while since the show showed us some bike action, but in this episode, we get a ton of those, and boy, I wish the series will do more bike action. Just seeing Ghost ramming his bike towards the enemy Ganma and Specter using Houdini's chains in battle while the form is still in bike mode is a wonderful sight to see. As for Alain, he's busy fighting the Ganmaiser, and not surprising, he's being beaten by it, which eventually lead to the Necrom suit losing its power. This is when things start to get interesting.
 
As revealed in Kamen Rider Necrom's debut, the suit is being powered by Ganma energy and Alain can just casually absorb said energy back when he was still a Ganma officer. Fast forward to this episode and Alain was able to power the suit without the need of external Ganma energy. He just did it on his own, his fighting spirit and his will to fight powered up the suit in its maximum that it continued to glow before the three Riders performed the Triple Rider Kick finisher. This exact moment culminated all of Alain's character development into one single move. He is not anymore bounding himself to his own limits, because if he can go beyond and destroy said limits. 

​Finally, the Triple Rider Kick, it's just too sweet. There are not enough words to describe how great that Triple Rider Kick was. It was a moment earned in the series and I wish that the series will have moments that feel earned. The episode ends and Takeru finally frees the girl father from being tied to the Ganma and the girl finally has her closure with her father. As for Alain, well, he's out there eating takoyaki and remembering Grandma Fumi on how she touched his life.