Ghost Concert: Missing Songs Ep.04 - Cleopatra first true real defeat!

Episode 04 of Ghost Concert: Missing Songs continues with another rather unimpressive episode that seems to forget how to make a compelling storyline. My first gripe was the "revelation" of Rui's past being just a lore dump that happens without any sort of actual lead-up to justify it.

It's the "I'm going to dump all my backstory" type of NPC that I've come to hate when playing. I think everyone has heard of the "Show, don't tell" rule in writing, but this is the absolute antithesis of it. It does give information about the nature of the world and how Rui is connected to Setsutei, but it all feels shallow when delivered in this way.

Seria comforting Cleopatra was an hilarious scene considering how high and mighty she was in the first episode facing Kaede.

Of course there's an obligatory scene to let us sniff the yuri, but they didn't actually develop on it. Shame on you writer, shame on you!

Then we get back to the "historical figure" of the week with Seria, Rui, and Cleopatra (inside Seria) infiltrating Ooku, the women's quarters of Edo Castle, to solve another spirit situation that seems to be caused by Tokugawa Iemitsu. The objective is to make Iemitsu feel attracted to women, and Seria is the bait.

Honestly, it wasn't a bad adventure, especially when it comes to Cleopatra using her charm, convinced she could charm anyone, only to fail miserably, which caused her to cry and need comforting from Seria. Turns out the seductress Cleopatra, who managed to make Caesar fall, wasn't that much of a hit with him.

They didn't deliver a new song this week, which was a bummer, but I guess it was too costly to deliver a single new song every episode. I'm still curious to see how many we'll get in total by the end; I'm sure we'll be over 6-7, but can we reach 10?

I'm still conflicted about this series. It's not bad enough to be something I'd drop and move on, but at the same time, the comparison I end up making with Symphogear makes me struggle to stop thinking about the failed potential of the characters and setting. It had things lined up, and the first episode was a huge hype for me, but now it's just...

Cleopatra smug before being defeated by Tokugawa's indifference and then insulting look.

What will be your story about Riku? I'm really curious as I can't still fully grasp her personality.

Now, I guess the next episode might focus on the last girl of the main cast, Aoki Riku, the "sexy" one of the group (at least compared to the others). I'm not sure exactly what it'll be about, though; she hasn't left much of an impression on me so far, as she's mostly been on the sidelines in these episodes.