MF GHOST : Episode 7
Current Episode Score: 5
Well after finishing Overtake, lets go back to MF Ghost. The other, and honestly worse, racing anime of the season. Honestly I can’t believe how long it is taking for this show to do a single race. Even though the race is long in distance, and didn’t need to take this many episodes. Most of this episode could have been cut, and the show would have been fine for it. I’m sure there are people who are enjoying this show at this point, but to me this is all just very dull.
Again going back to Overtake comparisons obviously, I have none of the excitement for this race the way I did watching something in Overtake. And I think it is down to two major things, amount of episodes and lack of stakes. After seeing the same thing episode after episode it just becomes dull, I can only watch an animated car drive for so many episodes before it becomes dull and boring. No matter how fancy or nice they try to make it with visuals and CGI.
The other issue is character stakes and development that can happen at the end of the race. Overtake you were engaged with this story of a good driver who was trying to overcome issues that he didn’t have much ability to change. His team just didn’t have the money to truly let him achieve his goal of a podium finish originally, even though you saw he could compete with the richer teams all the time. And he had a relationship with the drivers in first and second that felt good and real, it just gave the show something very real to want to cheer for. But man, MF Ghost has just none of that. Kanata has no relationship with the other drivers to make it feel personal, the main two he is competing with at the moment have never talked and just introduced basically. And there is nothing real that Kanata is trying to achieve, he isn’t trying to get on the podium following his fathers footsteps like Overtake. Why is Kanta racing besides liking the sport? I still don’t have an answer for that question half-way through the show. There also isn’t an obvious way for him to climb up the pack of cars, and really improve his standing in this racing serious. He has a very under powered car that has no chance of competing with anybody outside of the last 2 cars, and that itself is stretching disbelief to be true. So unless the race ends and somebody gives him a new supercar, I don’t see where it goes.
Of course we also have the terrible Angel stuff and strange sexualization of the female characters in this show if they aren’t racing. Pretty much all of which could be cut, and nothing really would be lost. What does a romance between a 17 year old high schooler and an older racing driver add to the show and episode. Or gratuitous shots of the female characters in skimpy outfights add. Not to forget the strange part about Ren’s parents knowing their daughter is doing this job, and the father commenting on her appearance, super strange and very awkward.