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09-13-2020, 10:52 AM | #21 |
Dai Shogun
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 7,519
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Okay-ish episode? 24 minutes passed but sadly it felt a bit like I wasted my time. Literally nothing exciting or impressive happened. I’m trying my hardest not to rip this episode apart and thus dwell on negative thoughts towards Saber as a whole so… pass, it’s over, next week there’s another chance for this show to do better.
And honestly, #1 Dad Rider has the best suit in this show so far so I’m pretty excited to see him in action. |
09-13-2020, 11:20 AM | #22 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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If the vibe for this episode was 'RPG tutorial', then it absolutely nailed it. After all, it just straight-up turns into a, fairly decent-looking, video game cutscene whenever the CGI kicks in. Kamen Rider Dragon Quest continues to be fun popcorn material (if popcorn was something you ate on weekend mornings), and I look forward to seeing the party slowly assembled.
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09-13-2020, 11:30 AM | #23 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,326
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The story of the grasshopper and the ant is about the grasshopper playing music all day while the ant prepares for winter.
Why would the grasshopper protect the ant?
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09-13-2020, 11:59 AM | #24 |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 778
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Here you go
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09-13-2020, 12:19 PM | #25 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,403
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A little surprised to say this, but the show is starting to grow on me. It's not capturing me nearly as strongly as Zero-One did, but I'm less pessimistic than I was after the first episode.
The show definitely still has issues. The clown is still pointless, especially the bit where he recapped the episode's ending literally seconds after it happened. Mei is definitely demonstrating the kind of comic relief traits that I hate in Kamen Rider: over-the-top facial expressions, exaggerated posing, excited squealing (and Touma's getting in on the act, too, which doesn't help). The awful dance credits are still here and joined by opening credits that look good, but have possibly the worst opening theme in the franchise's history. The pacing still feels badly rushed. It feels like we skipped over some necessary scenes that would have better explained what was going on. I am interested by the show's premise, though, and we got some stuff teased here that could turn out to be very interesting. I hope the show slows down once we get through the introductory elements because I think it has some potential. I'm also hoping we get more room for character development, because I don't have a very strong grasp on any of them yet (except Mei - less of her, please). Anyway, on to the main thing that really struck me about this episode: the action scenes. Now, off the bat, I think the show is significantly inferior to Zero-One here. Zero-One had some fantastic fight scenes with good choreography and stunt work; Saber is almost entirely green screens, stock footage, and CGI. I don't like it, but it does still impress me. For all the talk about Zero-One being the start of a new era, it still felt a lot like another Neo-Heisei show. Saber looks really, really different. I can't say that I love having action scenes that are mostly CGI with little, if any, practical stunt work, but I can't deny that it looks really unique. I feel that this has to be at least partially a Covid-19 thing: cut down on the amount of time and people needed to film by doing a lot of it on a computer. I don't want this to be what Kamen Rider looks like from now on - and I have serious doubts that Toei will have the budget to keep this up for ~48 episodes - but I do appreciate the new and unique feel that it gives the show. |
09-13-2020, 02:05 PM | #26 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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This was an extremely crowded episode with a bit too much going on in the story for its own good, and an emphasis on a style of action I fundamentally don't really want to see in a tokusatsu series. And yet I still really loved it?
It's a bit difficult for me to even try unpacking. I guess starting with the action, since that's a little simpler to explain, I'm a little too impressed by all the CG to be upset about it. I would never, ever want this to be the standard going forward, but, right here, for Saber in particular, finding new ways to make a show is apparently an explicit goal for the production staff, and that is absolutely coming through in the finished product. I haven't seen an episode of Kamen Rider that looks like this one does before, and on a technical level, the visuals they're pulling off here are a real technical achievement for the franchise, even if they don't always look as good as something more simple can. But even when it gets a little ugly, there was a creativity to all the wild bike chases and giant beanstalks I can't deny I had fun with. The plot... maybe has a weird structure? Except maybe not? I'm thinking through this as I write it, and there's a pretty straightforward beginning (man on lion comes invites hero to exposition), a middle with a conflict playing out (man on lion and hero need to save chunk of city), and of course the resolution in the end of that chunk of city being saved. So maybe it's just the sensory overload of the action making it seem more chaotic in my head than it really was. At any rate, this was a fantastic introduction for Rintarou, who quickly proved himself to be an endearing character with a refreshing dynamic with Touma. It was maybe a tiny bit less good at giving attention to Touma himself. Not every show does this, granted, but a second episode of a Rider series, ever since Kuuga, is often the point where we see the protagonist get to lay out their beliefs and goals in a way that sets the stage going forward, and it feels like Saber kinda half did that here. Like it was actively attempting to, but couldn't quite stick the landing. There's not a lot of conflict for Touma here, not that heavy of a decision for him to make about being Saber. He just wants to save people and keep promises. And, admittedly, I appreciate the consistent theming when his Rider name is in fact deliberately meant to also sound like "Saver", but those are two things we already knew about him. Not a huge detriment to the episode, but certainly something that had room for improvement, I think. I do like that the exposition dump included giving a clear and explicit definition for what a Kamen Rider is to this show, however. I feel like there's more I could dig into again, but overall, I definitely enjoyed this one a whole lot. It's maybe not as good as the premiere, but if it isn't, it's no huge gap in quality. It's definitely still got me looking forward to next week and also hopefully strangers bursting into Touma's house becoming a series-long running gag. Quote:
One thing I'm trying to figure out, though, is Rintaro's Rider name. I've seen both Blades and Blaze, but I'm starting to see Blades used a lot more. But when I look at the actual Japanese writing of it, ブレイズ , wouldn't Blaze be correct? That reads a lot more like Blaze than Blades to me, since there's no character in there with a "d" sound. I'm still pretty new to learning Japanese, so it's extremely possible that I'm misunderstanding somehow, but from looking at that word I just don't see how it's getting translated as Blades over Blaze.
Quote:
Blades is the romanization Toei are using and it fits the sword motif but you can use whatever you prefer, even though "Blaze" makes no sense for a water elemental Rider.
Regarding which name is more correct, ズ (zu) and ヅ (dzu) sound the same in Japanese so they're both valid. Saber is usually written as サーベル while Saber, the Rider, is written as セイバー to match the kanji 聖刃. This is also as good a time as any to bring up the title card from episode 1, which had the names of seven whole Riders written out in Rider-Moji. For anyone who hasn't learned this yet, the runes are just heavily stylized alphabet letters rotated 90 degrees. Tilt your head to the left and read them top-to-bottom, and you get SABER, ESPADA, and KENZAN on the left, plus BLADES, BUSTER, SLASH, and CALIBUR on the right. So if we need to argue about the official spellings for any of these guys, the matter's been settled already.
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09-13-2020, 03:02 PM | #27 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: France
Posts: 294
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Well, lot of comments about cgi, but even if it's technically limited I think they made the best they can about it. Imagine the FX guy getting the script '... and then they go to alternate fantasy dimension where things are burning like books'. It's not exactly the same thing as 'rider guy got a tornado final move'
Now I wonder where this show is going, because for now it looks 60% Kamen Rider, 20% Sentai and 20% Garo.
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09-13-2020, 03:09 PM | #28 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,403
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09-13-2020, 05:07 PM | #29 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,563
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Hey can we talk about how Santa in Saber's world likely doesn't exist, but a secrety society of magic knights that fight against book monsters do?
Or do you all think they share the land of the North Pole with Santa? I feel like these are the hard hitting questions we need to be asking. |
09-13-2020, 05:31 PM | #30 |
New Member
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 15
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Santa gets the geographic North Pole, the Sword of Logos gets the magnetic one?
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