Kamen Rider Saber Special: "A New Page Opens!" Discussion
 

With the Earth & the Wonder World united, Touma at last feels he can relax- until a strange newcomer with a demon friend comes into town...

Saber's cast before the last episode: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E94kBelV...g&name=900x900

This picture really makes me wanna see them split watermelons at the beach with their seiken.

Touma show me that blazer could fit to the beach outfit. I'll take a note for it.

Will Rintaro confess his love to Mei, or will Mei get friend zoned?

Maybe in his movie.

I think the heroes have earned a staycation and eagerly awaiting Rintaro's confession to Mei.

The facial expressions between Mei and the Shidai siblings was hilarious.

Revice is a celebration of 50 years of Kamen Rider, so here's the Grasshopper Deadman! And it even jumps way higher than you would expect it would with that head.

Well, Vice sure knows how to make an entrance...and has a flatulence problem...I guess that's a first for a Rider team-up. No wonder Ikki wants him in the bath so badly.

I don't know if we'll ever get a SaberxRevice crossover movie, so I'm glad Saber and Revi got to meet here. Although we didn't get a lot of Touma and Ikki time.

I will miss Touma's snazzy fashion sense.

Look at Touma and Kento helping another trio of childhood friends who just so happen to be fans. I liked their Luna kicking the other two for being idiots.

So are the Deadman like the Imagin where they try to fulfill their users' desire in a messed up way?

I see Rintaro goofing off with Mei instead of helping Touma and Kento. Dude, you're the 2nd Rider!

They weren't kidding about the scientist being a Heisei Rider fanboy with all those Heisei Riders on his phone or the Zero-One and Saber plushies. I'm kind of surprised he didn't freak out more at seeing Saber or Touma. I guess the whole Zi-O thing of all the Riders being on their own Earths is just dropped now.

Vice can break the 4th wall and actually bites Kaijin. Although he and Revi fight long enough for Saber and Espada to finish the Deadman since it's still their show.

"Let's be family!" "Aren't we already family?" Rintaro undone by phrasing. Although they show up at the end in matching colored clothing, so maybe it worked out in the end.

Touma the only one who doesn't notice Reika with murder eyes at Mei because she thinks her brother likes Mei...and then Reika is on fire during the whole group hug moment...

Touma hanging up his sword until the inevitable next crossover or guest appearance.

I was kind of hoping for a preview at the end showing off the Revice Opening.

Rintarou is the new Master Logos!

I think.

When all is said and done, even Sophia is:
https://i.imgur.com/Ot7cNaf.png

"Kento..."

"Heh, Touma..!"


Wew, is it hot in here or is it Rekka?
https://i.imgur.com/OHrl6sK.png

This whole episode felt like how Revice is going to be going forward, going back to MOTWs and civilians, but also having it be Saber-focused since it's Saber's. It's great! So good to see Touma and co. finally interact with the outside world.

I feel really bad for Rintarou here, I feel like he's been on a terrible streak of trying to tell Mei something for the past year but some ungodly force is keeping him until this very moment. He's hilarious, like he lost a few IQ in here.

Touma and Kento still showing why they're childhood and it's great to see their brotherly bond. Saber starts how it ends, with these two (three technically). Of course we're going to see more of them, what with the beginning scene having Sophia say there are still some missing WRBs.

ReVice come to make an appearance! Aside from the, uh, awkward fart jokes, they're already winning me over with their hilarity. Tho, I do hope it gets toned down in the show proper, since it's not gonna be great if this keeps up endlessly.

And then Rintarou gets to confess, finally! Well, not properly, but he's got the spirit! And Yuri can see Vice, that's very interesting.

I'm really gonna miss Saber. The cast really won me over.

https://i.imgur.com/6yCYV9c.jpg

There goes Saber’s beautiful sword play. We’ll back to random punch punch smack smack with Revice. Oh well.

Felt off wit Vice’s fart jokes, simply not my cup of tea. Maybe The kids will find it funny, tho.

Thanks god its counted as special episode, not Saber’s final (not like what happen with W’s final. The feeling when Philip take off the extreme memory before disapearing is too good to be ruined by their reunion in the next episode, imo)

idk if i’ll excited every week for this next year. But well, this is the same tough that i havw when Saber’s start.

Guess that's why Vice wears a facemask :lol

I saw the thumbnail of mad Reika and sighed. But that's not why I'm here. No, I'm here to see the introduction of our new protagonists, Ikki and Vice, the collective Kamen Rider Revice. I'm also here for the Rintarou/Mei of course.

Ikki's high energy is pretty good and more or less what I expected from a Rider with such a big teeth grin. He's also the more heroic of the two, as stated in his bio, which means he'll be easier to sympathize with.

Vice is more vulgar than I expected though, a devil should at least have basic manners right? Good thing Revice Rex is Vice in Revi's a** and not the other way around.

The pink and black dino duo are totally overshadowed by George though! That guy's awesome and charismatic with how excited he is to see the Riders in action and I hope he also becomes a Rider in the future, preferably a Tertiary Rider. I think he could reach Woz levels of popularity. IWAE!

I appreciate how Ryouga has developed in to more levelheaded person who is willing to acknowledge Rintarou's merits as a potential successor to Master Logos. He's still a wasted character but otherwise a generally likable guy. It's nice how Mei gets the last laugh on Reika this way, since Ryouga smiled at her. There's the karma I've been waiting for.

The Rintarou/Mei was great, especially with them wearing matching blue colors at the end. Maybe they'll be married in the recently announced Trio of Deep Sin, since Fukuda really likes developing those relationships in sequels. Touma and Kento both seem happier now as well. The promise those four made finally came true.

Overall a nice bookend to Saber as a whole. But I'm dreading the inevitble who the real secondary Rider Blades or Espada lol.

Also it nice that George specifies that Ikki needs to collect these specefic 10 Vistamps.
https://i.ibb.co/Lv8F1nK/Vistamps.png
Since I get the feeling much like ZI-O were not going to see all of them used so to limit the Vistamps that going to be important enough tp be specfic means these are the one were getting forms for.

It's Garren VS Chalice all over again. :lolol
*gets popcorn ready*

I'm curious how reflective of Revice this crossover is, I remember in the last episode of Ghost with the ex-aid crossover it felt like Fukuda was only given very vague bullet points about Ex-Aid and didn't really have a sense of what the show was going to be

I'm sort of assuming it's the same here, (tho this ep was written by Hiroki Uchida not Fukuda, like the ghost one). I feel like it's hard to get a sense of what a show will be until we see something actually written by the head writer of that show, though I liked the energy from Ikki's actor, he seems fun, I also liked how lively Vice's suit actor was, very energetic and silly

I hope Vice doesn't fart (or at least not this much) in the actual show... Hopefully that was just smth Hiroki Uchida thought would be funny and it'll stay just in this episode, because I'd really rather not have that be a recurring joke....

On the whole I thought this episode was cute, but a bit of a passive experience.

Maybe it's because last week's episode (the actual finale) was so strong that this just felt a bit lacking to me? It was fun though, and I'm excited to see the v-cinema in May

Overall Saber was fun, and I'll miss it, it's hard to quantify but I had a lot of affection for it! It's also been such a hectic year that having Saber every week felt like it added a sense of consistency that I appreciated. In a year that sort of feels like it's lasted an eternity for me it also just feels extra strange that the show is over!

Like other's have said the sword based choreography was really cool too, hopefully Revice manages to make it's choreography stand out, I sort of hope we get another series with a specific weapon/battle-type focus again sometime, I think it worked out well for Saber




P.S. Did we know before this that Buster was taking classes to become a teacher? That felt sort of out of nowhere to me, but maybe I just forgot?

No, but his master whom he was close with - the previous Buster, was a teacher.

Okay, I think this is the most I've enjoyed Kamen Rider since, like, Zi-O. Everything about Revice so far is so high-energy and wild and, fart jokes aside I really hope that translates into the series proper! I think I might just have a great time with this

Oh yeah, did anyone else notice that the Bata Vistamp in this episode was missing Ichigo's face? It was also totally opaque rather than somewhat transparent like the ones Ikki uses

I wonder if in Revice all of Ikki's Vistamps all come from deadmans orginally, and George just repurposed them and added the rider references after they were/are collected from a deadmans?

(For example, maybe the Megalodon Vistamp came from a shark themed Deadmans originally, and then George repurposed it to work with the Revice Driver, and added the Decade aesthetic at the same time?)

George also seemed to be hoping that one of the 10 Vistamps we already know about would come out of this deadmans, so it seems to add up. Maybe we know how George develops the Vistamps already? I honestly can't remember

Like, maybe it's nothing, but the rest of the Vistamps we see in the episode all have the rider faces and the transparent plastic, so it seems like it's intentional that the Bata one was both from a deadmans and was lacking the Ichigo face and transparent colour, while the toy (and i think the one in the trailer too?) have the Ichigo face and transparent colour (and that all the one's from Fenix have the faces too)

Yes, it's gonna be the standard "MOTW has the incomplete item and I must defeat it to get my form" thing. Which is good actually, I prefer it over Zero-One's "Oh, here's the key to defeat this one!"

It definitely surprised me! I think it's very VERY nice though that the difference between a monster's power and Kamen Rider's power this time around is... well, literally Kamen Rider!

That's a fun way of thinking about it!

I'm excited to see that style again honestly... Build is the most recent one to do it that way right?

Whoa I just realized build started four years ago now?!?! That doesn't feel right at all to me lol

Anyways I liked Sento infusing the defeated Smash into the bottles, it'll be fun to see something similar to that again

After seeing this episode, I don't think I'm gonna like Revice. I know Rider has it's comedy, but I'm not a fan of an overly comedic Rider show, I mean we have Super Sentai for the light-hearted comedy.

I liked a good bit of the humour, but some of it was a bit much (I'm not a fan of fart jokes lol) so I can get what you mean, but to be fair, this episode wasn't written by Revice's writer (Hanta Kinoshita), it was writen by one of Saber's tertiary writers (Hiroki Uchida), so it's not necessarily a good metric for what Revice will actually be like, it sorta seems mostly like an excuse to show off the suits and give us a very surface level idea of the character's personalities

It does seem Vice largely exists to be comic relief tho, with how they've been promoting him at least, but while Vice was a big feature of this episode, he isn't going to be the whole show, so I think it's a bit too early to say if the show as a whole is going to be a comedic one

The trailer gave me the impression that it's going to have at least a bit of a serious tone, tho maybe more lighthearted than the most serious shows? But even the trailer may not be the best metric lol

The writer is apparently also well known for their mystery novels, which could imply he'd go for a serious tone? But yeah, who knows

Even if the actual show starts jokey, you also just never know, Kamen Rider can be odd, Gaim and Ex-Aid both started off very jokey, and became very serious

This episode was so weightless it's kind of amazing. Like, you know they're doing it on purpose through how Rintarou is treated especially. He's got these deep feelings he's trying to express to Mei the entire time, and he keeps comically failing to get them out at every turn, with no dramatic payoff or anything -- he just keeps failing. And then just when you think Touma and Kento might have it better because at least they get to transform here, they get to spend their fight scenes teaming up with some random new kid and his excessively flatulent demon buddy. Appropriately enough for an episode that starts with everyone enjoying a nice summer vacation (at home, no less!), you can really tell we're stepping back from any real drama this week. True to the episode nomenclature, Saber's story already reached its conclusion... but the end of one story is just the start of another.

I think it's really great that Saber decided to revive the whole baton passing routine for the next Rider. Again, it's evident from both this show and Ghost that this is a staff that loves telling stories about the value of connections. More so than it ever was for a show like, say, Drive, a crossover of this sort inherently makes sense for Saber. It's neat to get that extra week to breathe, as it were, seeing what all the characters are up to in a low-stakes manner, while looking toward the future for not only Saber, but Kamen Rider as a whole.

As an epilogue to the show, it does its job fairly well, setting up new paths for a bunch of the characters to follow, while also doing a cute story about a group of three friends that parallels Touma's own childhood friends. It's nothing too fancy, but it allows the show to tie a bow on its themes even more than it already has, while underscoring that whole point about new beginnings. They probably won't end a millennia-old conflict in the process, sure, but those three kids have a story all their own to write from here on, you know? It's an episode that's sweet and sentimental, without really making that the priority, since the overall tone is so extremely light-hearted.

Getting a little sneak preview of Revi and Vice in action was also fun, and they communicate the dynamic between the two of them very clearly. And loudly! I think my favorite moment in the whole episode might even be the shot right after Saber and Espada finish off the monster, where it's these two best friends for life calmly celebrating a job well done, and then in the background, there are two weird guys completely absorbed in their childish bickering. It's such a small thing, but it was almost profound in how much it gave me pause to think all over again about the way character relationships work in Saber, and how that compares to so many other Rider shows. Especially when it's Touma and Kento! Two characters so tight, not even Kento's stint as Calibur ever stopped them from caring deeply about one another. I'm looking more forward to Revice after this, yeah, but at the same time, I'm appreciating that what Saber is leaving behind is pretty special.

...Or at least, I clearly think Saber is pretty special, don't I? I'm going to try and give my overall opinion on the series now, but... man, where do I even start?

I recall, albeit vaguely at this point, that I wasn't especially excited for Saber from the earliest news about it, beyond it being the next Rider show. It wasn't until the announcement that this show would written by the guy who wrote Ghost, news that made everyone but me scared, that I began to grasp something it would take yet longer for me to understand the full weight of -- Kamen Rider Saber was made for me. I've made more than a few jokes about that over the past months, but the only part I'm not being serious about is simply that Toei was doing this on purpose. Because the root of that running gag is that Saber appeals to me so much, that being Toei's intention almost sounds more plausible than this all being a stroke of luck on my part. The reality of the situation is just so much more absurd.

The staff, as mentioned, is made up of all the people who made one of my favorite Rider shows in Ghost. The hero alone is already a grab bag of features from Riders I'm also fond of. Form changes like a horizontal OOO; the emphasis on swords from Blade; the heroic red dragon motif of Ryuki; the fire theming and sweet robe look from Wizard -- what doesn't Saber have that I love? And it goes so much farther beyond that, becoming its own unique thing, especially thanks to the choice to make books a central theme. Not only would this show be an epic heroic fantasy in Kamen Rider form, it would also be a story about stories, and the way they inspire people. Saber, the writer and swordsman who would save the world with his holy blade. (His name even has multiple meanings! I love that stuff too!)

I may not have realized it at first, but this was a show straight out of my wildest dreams, and for an entire year, those dreams kept coming true over and over and over again. A straight up Ghost crossover happening twice was easily the thing that solidified this for me the most, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Saber was just doing everything almost exactly how I'd want it. Aesthetically, thematically, tonally, you name it. And as a result, those episode posts I was initially intent on keeping small and concise eventually became as bloated and lengthy as ever, because there was no way I wasn't going to try and share everything I felt about Saber in return. And despite that change in focus, there are so many thoughts I have about Saber I've never shared at all. It's practically indescribable how much this show has meant to me over the past year. For all I know, this post is already totally incoherent. Really, this whole thing is a fool's endeavor, because my affection for Saber has long gone so beyond even my generally high standards of enthusiasm for Kamen Rider, there's no way to compress it into anything remotely convenient and digestible.

I've talked about how I feel about Saber so much already, and I'm probably going to keep talking about it in the future, so right here and right now, I'll stop for a bit to talk instead about how I felt about watching Saber. Not the episodes themselves, which I can always go back to, but the experience of it being on the air -- the thing that really is done and over with. This next part will explain a lot about why I feel as strongly as I do about Saber, and I don't think it's anything I've ever touched on before, because it's more about me than the show.

Basically, I was actively ensuring I'd be invested in it as soon as it started. Back during Zero-One, really late in, I found out about the episode guides that go up on the website every week, hyping up the next installment while also giving loads of behind-the-scenes info about the one that just aired. I've always had a deep interest in production stuff like that, so it blew my mind a little to suddenly find out about this whole treasure trove of anecdotes straight from people working on these shows. I would've wanted to start paying attention anyway, but I also had one little thought that blew up into something bigger -- "Saber is a show about books." This was a perfect excuse to get into the spirit of the show by doing some reading! On top of that, my ability to read Japanese has always lagged way behind my ability to listen to it, so it would be an opportunity for some "studying", while I was at it. I wanted to sit down every week and thoroughly read through those pages after watching the latest chapter, and that's exactly what I did. At first it was a little daunting. By the end, it was less so. The entire time, however, it was fun, and nearly every week, for around fifty weeks now, I've had this whole Saber Sunday tradition. I watch Saber, I write about Saber, and I read about Saber. It's this whole cozy routine I've created, and it made being a fan of this show a very lively experience for me. Early on, I was even doing actual proper no-quotes studying to brush up on kanji, which I haven't done in forever. (Incidentally, my background music of choice for this was just ALMIGHTY on loop, of course.) Lately, I've been reading a novel or two (in English, I mean), something else I never seem to get around to.

All of that came about because I had Touma and company to motivate me. Just like Touma, I have an embarrassingly earnest belief that stories connect and inspire people in genuinely meaningful ways, and Saber allowed me a chance to reaffirm that, even if only on some small level. I can say as a matter of objective fact that I have been inspired by this show, and I sure as heck feel connected to it and its messages.

Like I said, there's no way I can condense everything I feel about this show into one post, no matter how long I ramble on. It's just so much more than that. The memories it has given me over the course of its run are all treasures I want to cherish forever. Put simply, Kamen Rider Saber is, without a shred of doubt, a story I will never forget.

Is this something I should watch if I stopped watching Saber months ago but are very excited for Revice? Like, will I be missing out on any essential Revice stuff if I don't watch this?

You probably don't need to... Like from a plot perspective you'll only miss how Fenix managed to collect one particular Vistamp (and if that becomes important in the show they may do a flashback to it anyways), so there isn't much in the way of character or lore building

But, if you're excited for Revice it's probably worth watching just to get a glimpse of it? Tbh there's a lot of revice stuff in this episode, if you cut down the episode to just every scene that has smth revice related in it you have about 8 minutes! (tho a bit of this is sort of a cheat, like I'm counting what's basically just a regular saber scene but a vistamp shows up in it)

If you just wanna see Revi and Vice in action, and how they interact, then there's probably no reason not to watch this epsiode, unless you plan to finish Saber at some point later and want to avoid spoilers

Like I mentioned before in this thread tho, this episode wasn't written by Revice's writer, so the episode doesn't necessarily reflect how the actual show will be, so if you do decide to watch it just know this episode probably isn't a good metric for if you'll like Revice or not

So Dr. Selfie-stick. Who agrees if I say that has got to be our next Isurugi. I say there is a 50% chance of him going Isurugi on everyone with an additional 1% Sengoku.

Y'know, if there's one positive to Saber not doing anything for me... it's that I sort of get to look from an outside perspective of people loving and gushing about the show and being super happy for them??

Like... E3 2019, they revealed Banjo Kazooie as a Smash DLC character. And the thing is I knew barely anything about that guy; no real connection to him, and nothing else in E3 was really doing it for me either? So instead I just had this time of watching everyone else get extremely hype about that news, and being so happy that their dreams had been fulfilled, and just being really happy to see them like that? And what I'm getting at here is that I'm having this exact same experience seeing everyone celebrating Saber as a whole now it's over. I'm genuinely, honestly glad to see this show has touched so many people and it's heartwarming reading these posts of praise :)

Though actually... I've been saying this whole time that Saber unfortunately didn't get me, and that's true; but... hm. Perhaps it's because it's all over now, perhaps it's because I've consolidated those feelings, perhaps it's maybe even due to the stylings of a different writer (it's actually Revice's writer, Hiroki Uchida on this one!)... but I did really get some good feelings about some characters right at the end!

https://i.imgur.com/wJTEMCn.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/BukWSwH.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/HqED09i.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/e93Vqj8.jpeg

Like... again, in-series the connection between these two didn't land in my heart; but here? Just seeing their happy ending, and lying on the ground together, and being two swordsmen who protect humanity while living in a bookshop together? ... I dunno, it got me! It got a little smile on my face watching them leap into battle together, and I just got such a feeling for the idea of them as a duo from all this. There was just something very nice about it, and I'm glad to take that way from Saber literally at the last second. I'm very excited for Revice to begin next week, but it's great to have been left with this last little gift

Thanks, I'll probably watch it then. I'm not too worried about Saber spoilers, I've had most of the big plot points spoiled for me via social media already

It's no surprise that I already bought into Kento and Touma. These two are childhood bros separated by machinations from outside, so of course they'll be drifted apart from the course of the show. I love the parts when Kento's IQ drops and starts to go on his own. When he encountered Calibur again, and when it was revealed it was Kamijou. Touma sitting there completely unaware of what is going on. Touma completely distraught once he regains his memories and rushes to a dying Kento (tho how he got them back was kinda dumb lel). Touma tending to a starving Kento, and him trying to get him back by doing his silly roleplay. Touma may not completely know what Kento's going through, but he's there to help and I find that kinda relatable.

Kento's got a lot going on, and since it's family business as is typically in japanese tradition, he wouldn't dare involve Touma and the others to something that's about him. Calibur is his father's murderer, Kurayami is his father's sword.

But you can write this off as basically as a personal bias from me. Sometimes, sometimes, I see myself in Kento. In the "It's my problem, I have to deal with it."

Only that I don't think I have a Touma yet :lol

https://i.imgur.com/rMGXX3j.jpg

You saying that just made me think, like... remember when on this forum there were honest to god debates about whether or not Kento would ever pick up Ikazuchi again? And now him as Calibur instead of Espada is basically unthinkable?

I think one thing this show done very very well was solidly tying the identity of each Rider to their sword and their specific system. I think often there can be a lot of detachment in modern Rider, but Saber done a great job of making you think "no, this Rider and this sword is right for this character". It's amazing I think how long Kento spent as Calibur, yet by the end of the show I can only think of him as Espada

Is it weird I consider it as a Zero-One/Zero-Two situation? Calibur isn't a permanent identity to anyone. But the characters with most rights to it right now is both Sophia and Kento. It was Yuri's sword, but it was basically his sidearm and he casted it away to SOL for Saikou.

Calibur/Kurayami I think belongs to both Sophia and Kento, it's something both characters can take up in case of something. It's not the strongest sword either, so it perfectly fits with Kento's "I don't need to be the strongest argument". Like, I can see Kento carrying both swords, and then getting knocked out of Espada and then swapping to Calibur.

Or maybe it's just my rationalization for buying Jaou's SHF.

Hiroki Uchida actually is a writer for Saber not for Revice, he was brought on towards the end of the show (starting with Episode 32) and wrote 5 episodes by the end including this one

Hanta Kinoshita is the head writer for Revice, and likely had no hand in this episode

I don't want usually like to point out mistakes like this, and I don't want to come off as rude, but I think this could lead to confusion for others so I felt I should say something

Oh! Sorry, I must have got mixed up with something someone else said. I was sure there was something about a Revice person working on this...

No worries at all, I had mentioned Uchida sorta vaguely in my first post so I was worried maybe I had said smth confusing myself

I just didn't want anyone to be confused, so I'm glad it's cleared up :)

Vice seems to depend on a lot of fart humor and, well, I have strong feelings about that. None of them particularly pleasant. But it's a kid show so I can't really complain about anything.

For those who love back stage: in the scenes with the angry Reika, real fire blazed in the background.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E97ONFEV...jpg&name=large