Ghost Concert: Missing Songs Ep.05 - Riku's backstory was...

Episode 5 of Ghost Concert: Missing Songs comes back with an interesting new series of developments, right when I was getting ready to drop the series altogether. The first interesting revelation involves Riku, who turns out to be much less of an air-headed *oneesan* character and has quite a dark past.

She, along with other children (like the one from this week's episode), was kidnapped and trained from a young age by TERA to fight in the Phantom Realm, and even ended up killing other humans. She has killed so many that she doesn't even remember the number at this point. Suffice it to say, she loathes the organization and is planning to take revenge on them. For Seria, it was a wake-up call, as things had been very light for her until now.

Childhood Seria and Kaede were ultra cute, hopefully they can go back at playing together soon. Happy end is a must

Yes, that's my question too Seria. Who is Reika and how did her influence Setsutei to start his group?

Riku's interaction with Setsutei presents her in a completely different light than before, revealing her dismissive and combative attitude. I guess she is a good actor, because I certainly wasn't expecting her to throw us a curveball after she interacted so differently with Seria and the others.

Setsutei himself has some shadows in his past; Seria has been investigating him and found a picture from when he was in high school, probably a decade ago, showing him with a girl named Reika who seems to be at the center of his motivations. Maybe she was possessed by someone from the Phantom Realm?

This episode also included quite a few moments between Seria and Kaede, with the latter blushing on multiple occasions. Seria is oblivious, but it's beyond any doubt that Kaede is really into her. The yuri couple of the series—we have to treat them well; they're rare!

They also featured a new song this week; it was a step up compared to the others, but it still felt "artificial." You know what I mean—those songs built by a committee that lack any real soul. They sound good, but you forget them the moment the episode is over.

I quite like her fighting style, but unfortunately the series revolves always around Seria solving the danger. Quite a shame as I would've liked the other heroines having a more impactful role.

Kaede is beyond choroi, at this point she's just shouting that she likes Seria. I don't mind you know, just...

The next episode will be a good test to see if the series has truly managed to recover from the boring content it delivered recently. I hope they keep up the momentum and surprise me again, because I really want to like this series despite all its flaws.