Yeah, it’s not true at all. The guidebook for the show reveals that Touma comes from a rich family, and was raised by his father and grandfather. It’s just some idiot on TV Tropes misinterpreted episode 12 as revealing Touma was from Wodner World and MimicB0b, being the type of guy who dismisses Aruto as an idiot after one episode, was narrow minded enough to believe it.

Alright bud let's chill out, no need for that

This, if anything, is also not a spoiler, because it was not used not in the show, not in the spin-offs. For now. Just a small addition for those who want to know more about the character.

That's why you shouldn't watch episodes without translation.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with watching RAWs, as long as you don't take everything you hear as fact.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 13

Hey Ishida's directing his next set of Saber episodes I wonder--

https://i.imgur.com/S1TSx6B.jpg

C'mon Kamijou-san, don't flinch at that! Touma's never gonna look up to you as his senior swordsman of flames if you get scared by a little fire!

...Well, I mean, I guess the whole evildoer shtick is actually the real problem there, but still.

Anyway, I've never been the biggest fan of this episode, because my brain always wants to compare it to all the other Q1 power-up form debuts out there, and the last one of those Fukuda wrote is on the shortlist of my favorite Rider episodes period.

Of course, it's really an apples and oranges kind of deal, because this episode of Saber is still very much in the middle of a climactic arc, rather than being the conclusion to one, and as the next chapter in this saga, there's a lot to love, for sure. It's a suitably dramatic sendoff for Kento with a lot of great touches throughout. Ishida's direction naturally helps to elevate the material a ton. In particular, the visuals are doing a lot of heavy lifting to make you feel that emotional connection between this trio of childhood friends, and I appreciate touches like Luna hanging out in the background as Touma tearfully tells Kento how they're supposed to be together forever.

The whole context of Dragonic Knight's debut is really straightforward in that sense, which sort of disappointed me at the time, but looking back, I kinda like it a lot, actually? Kento asks Luna to protect Touma, so she literally gives him armor; it checks out! The episode stands up to that Ghost comparison better than I had it pegged for at first, because it's still making a bond between characters central to the protagonist's growing strength. It comes down to Saber fighting Calibur, but even then, it isn't Touma alone who fends him off.

The scene with Kento's little farewell to everyone is also extremely well done in general. A detail I forgot about until browsing back through the old thread is that Ren specifically is just bawling his eyes out the whole time, which is just *perfect* for that character, being both the most youthful and the one who was always particularly obsessed with Kento.

And of course, Swordsmen Chronicles continues to do a great job expanding on the series. You can sort of tell how this one doesn't ~quite~ line up the best with the actual episode in terms of continuity, from what I recall, but it also does so well elaborating on the characters it's sort of hard to care.

Actually, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd imagine even if that thought had occurred to them, they'd still go with Dragonic anyway. I don't know this stuff well enough to articulate why, but I'm pretty sure putting that dakuten on the コ makes the whole word roll off the tongue much better.

Oh, right, and I didn't talk about Dragonic Knight itself yet! It's really cool! Very straightforward in its concept, but thanks to this show's impeccable sense of aesthetics, it manages to nail it anyway. I honestly totally get where the whole "it could just be the final form" thing comes from, because if this were a Rider show from the 2000's, I can absolutely imagine this being Saber's singular other form besides Brave Dragon. In a Rider show from 2020, however, it's merely another cool form to throw on the pile of the things Touma has. Thanks to the short film coming out around this time, I always compare this form with Emotional Dragon in my head, and much like with Calibur, I could really go either way, despite having a preference. What can I say, whether transformed or not, Touma is just a total fashion star.

Japan very much does prefer to use hard Gs where they can. There's a reason a specific entry in Gundam is subtitled "Reconguista in G" afterall.

It's a thing that I can't tell if I like or dislike: this episode is supposedly about Touma's bond with all of his new friends -- Touma's telling Kamijo that all of the present swordsmen are why Kamijo's bound to lose -- but the subtext is way more about his old friends.

Like, there's some really interesting stuff in there about how both Kento and Touma are holding onto this formative trauma to the detriment of their surroundings; Luna's gift of armor is only for Touma, the entire SoL is still taking it on the chin for Touma and Kento's tragic backstory, Kento is cursed to death, etc. It doesn't really go explored too much, beyond Kento learning to put the past in the past right before he dies, but it's a neat kernel of an idea. It's a more interesting story to me if Kento is visibly culpable, while Touma is invisibly culpable. Fun to think about, for sure.

As promised:

Existence VS Nothingness is the most apt. The universe exists in constant duality, with things like light and dark, hope and despair, love and hate, good and evil being part of that. The Swordsmen can win battles against villains, but they can never win the war against the evil behind them, as more villains will always appear to threaten the world as long as there's a world to threaten. It's eternal, rising from the ashes like a Burning Falcon (another dude named Jin), or uh, a Phoenix.

Despite the Sentai film runtime (although I've praised Ryusoulger Dinosaur Panic enough times now so it's totally possible to tell an awesome story in 22 minutes if you do it right), I think Bacht managed to make a strong impression as a villain with his nihilistic philosophy. He thinks he's the hero, cause unlike the other Swordsmen, he's willing to do what they won't. To defeat evil once and for all, by sacrificing good along with it. To return duality to singularity.

But there's no point to a world where the whole point is that there's no point. Suffering may be endless, but people who hold to bravery, love and pride can always overcome it and smile in the future with their friends beside them. That strength inspires others to do the same, it becomes stories of hope and justice that help to create a better future. Everytime that happens, evil loses. Touma's sword weighed heavier than Bacht's, cause he believed strongly in that future and humanity's Infinite Potential!

The new suits are pretty awesome as well!

Falchion is void and destruction personified and it's a neat detail how where the Rekka/Nagare/Ikazuchi says [insert name here] Batto, the Mumeiken Kyomu only says .... Batto. Its whole thing is Nothing as a weapon so it doesn't even bother to announce its name, as .... is more universal and ominous than any name. Even the Haken BlaDriver, which is just an orange Seiken SworDriver minus two slots, succeeds in its minimalism to sell that concept of Nothing.

Emotional Dragon takes the pop-up book design of Jaou Dragon and the color scheme of Brave Dragon to create what is honestly my favorite form of Saber! Like En-chan said, base form with more dragons, what else do you need?

Overall, Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin is currently my favorite "Summer" Movie of the Reiwa Era (planning to watch Battle Familiar when Donbrothers ends but my expectations for that are low). I enjoyed seeing Wonder World in such vista-like detail as the backdrop for this epic fight and Taju Rokou was another catchy-as-hell song by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (I fully expect you to disagree with that part though). Of course, I thought this movie was way more profound and sincere in its storytelling and morals than the controversial RealTime, the typical Rider-length movie it was double-billed with.

I'm with Switchblade on Team Gaoh FTW. Eternal and Barlckxs are second and third respectively.

Oh yeah, I think I'm familiar with that convention. Like how Oo + Sora = Oozora. Sure, it makes sense to me for those native Japanese words, but a made-up word like "Dragonic" definitely sounds a lot better to Japanese than to my ears.

Dragonic Knight is amazing. That's all I got.

Life not well, so I'll just send a really long and winded post at some point later. But it also seems there's other interesting discussions I'm just going to have to put off for now.

They are! I dug 'em both.

Thanks for popping in! Hopefully things get a little better/easier for you soon.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 14 - “MY HEART AND SOUL, DWELLING WITHIN THIS SWORD”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber14a.png

Solid episode, with a lot to recommend it, even if it’s still a very Saber approach to a plot-heavy episode.

Lemme get the negative part out of the way first: this whole Calibur/Book Club plot continues to be first draft-level vague, with almost nothing specific motivating its tension this time out beyond our heroes’ desire for revenge and the inherent Villainy Is Bad ethos of this franchise designed to sell toys to Japanese children. Calibur’s constantly inadequate refrain of Universal Truth is now ably assisted by a boilerplate Humanity Sucks conviction, rendering his normally taciturn disinterest for the Sword of Logos into something almost insufferably generic. He’s just a sneering villain now, with nothing to say – but more verbose in his personal defense. That’s a bummer.

The Book Club stuff is similarly a shrug, where I don’t understand what they want, why they want it, or what they’re planning on doing with. It’s been fourteen episodes, and their plan is still frustratingly opaque. Like, they want power! And it’ll help them rule the world! The end! That is… boy, it wouldn’t be good enough for this show’s first arc, let alone something more than a quarter of the way through. I’m beyond sick of them.

But! Besides that? Pretty good episode.

I like how the show honors Kento’s baked-in martyrdom by letting the entire cast shoulder the burden of his goals in his absence. It’s a testament to Kento’s character growth that his quest is forcefully picked up by the entire Sword of Logos, who visually honors him throughout the episode by using his Wonder Ride Books to combat the Book Club. It’s a nice little We See You moment by Touma and the gang, to literally carry Kento’s weight in this story.

And to use it in an episode with wall-to-wall action? Even better! As this is clearly a two-parter, we’re in a fully action episode of Saber, for better or worse. I’m not as much of a fan of extended action sequences, but for those of you who want to see well-choreographed action across multiple locations with basically the entire cast, this episode is happy to exceed your expectations. There’s a bunch of clever tactics (I loved watching Kenzan, Slash, and Buster trade Wonder Ride Books to try and outwit the Book Club), and no shortage of exciting momentum shifts. It’s as solid a long-form TV fight as you’re likely to get.

For me, though, the episode highlight was exactly what you’d think: Rintaro gets a power-up, flanked by an energetic Mei. It’s mostly the second half of that description that did it for me, if I’m honest. King Lion Daisenki is a neat form–I like the cannons and more flattened-out lion head and blue Dragvisor–but I’m mostly here for Mei’s exuberant commentary. It’s so fitting for Rintaro’s power-up, you know? He comes in all forthright and commanding as a swordsman, and Mei’s like YAY CAT ARMOR <3 in the background. It’s that mix of Rintaro’s serious professionalism and Mei’s genuine enthusiasm that makes the two of them endlessly fun to watch.

I’m definitely finding little pleasures in this show, despite the main plot being a slog for me. (Even Rintaro’s new power-up mostly comes out of nowhere, as Rintaro and Mei just have to wait for it to finish baking, like it’s the world’s most book-shaped loaf of bread.) The teamwork of the cast this time out was exhilarating, and any one of them is compelling enough to keep my attention for an entire scene. But they’re in this story against villains who continuously fall beneath my sinking expectations, in service of an apocalypse that lacks any distinguishing characteristics. I need this part of the show to change! Soon!

—

PREFERS UNHAPPY ENDINGS

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber14b.png

Takayuki looked up into the sky, hoping things would be different. They weren’t. Still a glowing, gigantic book in the sky; still ringed by rotating flames.

It had been almost a day since he’d first seen it, along with other shop owners in the building. They’d discussed what to do, but no one could quite decide on which city service might be responsible for dispelling the nuisance, or if closing up would be safer than waiting out the supernatural event. As the owner of a liquor store, Takayuki voted in favor of continuity of community: namely, keeping their various shops open as a way of helping their neighbors feel a little more normal in light of unprecedented events.

(Secretly, he knew that folks would probably want to get hammered if an apocalypse was imminent, but that wasn’t the argument he thought might win over the room.)

But that was a day ago, and the glowing book’s presence was starting to feel normal. Which was its own level of troubling. The longer it stayed there, not doing much of anything, the more worried he was getting. Previously, it had been something he thought would either disappear or kill them all; now, he was afraid of what this status quo might actually be.

He was sweeping up in front of his store, when Desast wandered by.

“Morning, Desast,” Takayuki greeted the demon swordsman.

“Hey, Takayuki,” Desast responded as he meandered towards the storefront.

Desast had become a routine presence along this block the last few months. He claimed to be a demon swordsman, but no one really knew who he was. Some folks thought he was an overly dedicated cosplayer. Some folks thought he was an eccentric retiree. Takayuki didn’t much care, and didn’t waste any curiosity on Desast’s story. If he wanted people to think he was a demon swordsman who was looking for worthy opponents, Takayuki didn’t much care. It was a nice distraction from the day, and that was good enough.

“What do you make of that?” Takayuki gestured to the sky with his broom, as though there were any other possible topic of conversation that he could be referring to.

Desast looked up briefly, then looked back at Takayuki. “Make of what?”

“The–” Takayuki sputtered in astonishment, then caught his cool. “Oh, HA HA, very funny. You got me again. The book, funny guy. What do you think’s up with that gigantic book?”

Desast tilted his head slightly to the side, his rictus mask typically unreadable. He stared at Takayuki for a moment, and then spoke.

“What, that? Hell, man, that’s the book that’s gonna end the world. You guys are maybe an hour away from two worlds colliding, and the Megid gaining the power to fulfill their darkest, sickest desires. It ain’t gonna be a real good Tuesday for you chumps, I’ll tell you that much.”

Desast’s attitude was… controversial in the neighborhood. Some folks took his prickly demeanor as confrontational, or at least annoying. Takayuki was one of many who was able to see past Desast’s lack of refinement and poor social skills, to the people-person underneath. He was caustic, but approachable; smart-mouthed, but genuine. He had a disarming way of connecting with people, despite the bizarre costume and mask.

So while Desast’s comments might have seemed inappropriate to others, Takayuki understood what he was trying to do. Things were uncertain, and Desast was just trying to lighten the moment with some humor, gallows or not. Better to say the most ridiculous thing, and laugh at the absurdity of it, than focus on the more terrifying unknowns.

Takayuki snickered at Desast’s joke, and got back to sweeping. “That’s a good one, Desast. You sure come up with the craziest crap.”

“Whatever you say, Takayuki. I’m gonna get going, maybe see if there’s anyone to brawl with before the curtains come down on your whole world. See you tomorrow, if you’ve got one.” With that, the demon swordsman slouched off towards the park.

Takayuki looked back up at the glowing book, a little more relieved than he was earlier. “You bet. See you tomorrow, Desast.”

So I really do enjoy this episode. While like you said the villains in Saber are lacking (Though I do feel the Book Club does reach their full potential later on as best they can), the heroes are absolutely on point.

From the quiet and somber start of Touma staring at Ikazuchi, to all of them getting super pumped up and handing out all of Kento's equipment to utilize. Then everyone making use of them as well as new tactics in the fight? Incredible.

Everyone's spirit is on display here, everyone is fighting their hardest. And surprisingly no Dragonic Knight which... I didn't even mind? Especially when we get something as cool as Dragon Alangina. The idea that one of the Swordriver Rider's gets to use another one's main book? That's something really cool and seeing Touma dual wield and do combination fire and lightning attacks was great to see.

I think the only part of the fight I sort of rolled my eyes at was the book swap between the veteran members? Cause while cool in concept... only Daishinji actually bothers to use his alternate book's abilities to clone himself. Granted, this is why I consider Slash one of my favorites, dude knows how to work those books.

As for King Lion Daisenki... you basically hit the nail on the head of what I loved about this debut. You have Rintaro's earnest determination to fight his hardest, coupled alongside Mei cheering him on with all her heart/charisma, and you get a really good debut! The suit is pretty alright to me, I do like how it's a more tech and streamlined version of Fantastic Lion in a sense. It's very much a manufactured form compared to the more natural knightly look that Saber gets.

And that might be why I prefer how it came about compared to Dragonic Knight? While I'm alright with Touma holding his determination and not giving up to access his magic book he got in Avalon, Rintaro's way of getting it is a lot easier to digest. You've got Rintaro just straight up asking "Make me a power-up" to Daishinji who complies and then proceeds to wait until the power up is done cooking. It just... works nicely for me.

Also the story... oh man this story. I feel like you've got a real good handle on Desast and him writing wise. There was just a huge grin on my face as I kept reading further and further in, seeing about this sort of side story of a neighborhood that Desast just frequents that has no idea what his deal is but quite a few like him cause he's quirky. Great job, though I will offer a bit of criticism in that I think you renamed your guy at least once during this.

Yeah, I like that the structure for this episode is very much Kento Tribute Episode, so Touma and the SoL's fighting is all about harnessing Kento's power. Using Dragonic Knight would defeat the purpose here, which was to give Kento a sort of posthumous win.

Thanks! And fixed! (I did the episode and the whole post/story combo in about 90 minutes, and it looks like some corners were cut. Thanks for the heads-up!)

And this is what King of Arthur ultimately culminated with. Rintaro getting his own power up.

And like En-chan, I have to say I kind of prefer it over Dragonic Knight in, oh, pretty much every way. It’s got a cooler jingle (even if I mishear “ju-oh rai-oh” as “ju-oh rider” and “King Lion Dai Change” as “King Lion Dai Henkei”.), a suit that fits its user’s aesthetic, even the toy makes it easier to press down on the cover to trigger announcements/finishers (which may sound petty, but let me tell you, I don’t know how many times I thought I was going to break Dragonic Knight by pushing its cover. That spring is very tight)

But enough telling, more showing.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_tMhC6ljxMc

Transcending nature is the blue mane clad in armour and roaring on the throne…

And in other words, the cannon fire warrior!

Furthermore, Lion Transformation!

And like Dragonic Knight, the suit has its own version of the Booster, in the form of the King Lion Booster (basically, the same toy, but with a swapped out animal head and a two way switch allowing the sounds to swap out).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BPABuuemWZA

As for the episode, all I can say is that you can’t go wrong with a good old fashioned free-for-all. Complete with some very simply part swaps to give us some new forms (and it makes clear that the form simulator’s having Saber and Blades lacking Espada’s golden faceplate is canon, and not a glitch. How intentional that is is up in the air).

Next time, the most prominent writer and most prominent director for the Ultra Series come together to conclude this arc of the series. Why I’m bringing that up… well, you’ll see.

Well Kamijo does get explained more here, he seems to be set up as the type who was once noble but got maddened by certain revelation thus he changed to be hellbent on going after the universal truth. But the execution doesn't seem to be going well, as it's really not clear on what's going on with Kamijo (though I still wondered in the world what happened between Kento's dad, as Touma just sticks up to Kento's dad as well here, but it seems to be bias over Kento). But this shows that vague speeches isn't only exclusive on heroes, particularly the goody type like Touma who gets mocked as inherently one dimensional (and regarding Touma hate I'd think perhaps many people get sick watching Touma giving speeches here too; of being bored), villains like Kamijo also can - it depends on the execution for any tropes or character archetypes.

I wonder what'd you think of Kento's departure here if he will or won't be returning or something, or what'd you expect for his development. I kinda feel that this is whole cast's camaderie to treat Kento this way and continuing from before to prevent him from his self-destructive path to atone for his mistakes. Felt like if other people than Kento disappeared this way the others (except Ren) would react the same way. There's apparently a flashback of Kento and Ren training together which can show how he ended up simping for him but dunno (as a first time watcher). After inadvertently lowballing Mei before, Ogami also prevents Mei from blaming herself despite her apparent 'failure'. Dragon Alangina is the strongest out of all Wonder Rider forms, including Dragon Arthur and Dragon Hedgehog Peter, and also being slightly stronger than compatible two Books Forms.

Seems that a character move that is often hated by the audience of them being a mere cheerleader/supporter to others, done by Mei here towards Rintaro (and Mei can be frequently mocked as useless), is solved by the "over the top, wacky" type of execution (though Mei's also falling for him). Wonder (world) if there'd be another way to 'solve' this type of reviled character move. Action-wise, obviously Blades' mid-season upgrade is meant to be the highlight compared to the other Riders above.

Yeah, he sees himself as the hero, and there's also the phrase "every villain is a hero in their own story" (which honestly I want to be replaced with "every villain is a protagonist in their own story"). Some people can take any villain's words as gospel though, particularly with the help of that phrase, which paves the way of moral relativism and refusing to acknowledge which is right or wrong and deeming everything as determined by perspective like legitimately convincing that the villain thinking themseles as the heroes as having merits, using this to paint everyone as exactly the same (e.g. blaming the heroes for not understanding their perspective) or something.

I think that after Geats, the audience will stop believing without evidence even heroes, let alone villains.

I like this part in a series, before the power-ups tend to eliminate partial form changes. It's nice to get weird costumes and folks trying different abilities!

His whole Humanity Is Inherently Bad thing is such a random justification, though. Prior to this, he'd been hellbent on achieving his goal, and he didn't seem to care too much what the Sword of Logos thought of him. Now, he's vacillating between You Don't Know The Whole Story (while refusing to elaborate on what Touma et al. don't know) and Everyone's Awful, which is a hilariously idiotic deflection. The more dialogue they give Calibur, the more it seems like he doesn't have a single good reason for doing what he's doing.

I definitely think he's coming back. (Tassel even says that Kento "vanished", so the show isn't trying to make you think Kento's actually dead.) I honestly suspect that Kento is Calibur right now, but we'll see how that all plays out.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 14

Two more reasons I'm not as big a Dragonic Knight fan as I should be:

- It was always marketed as a set with King Lion Daisenki, and anytime I see those two in an image together, I realize King Lion Daisenki is even more up my alley. (A testament to how good the suits are, because again, Dragonic Knight is already amazing.)

- Dragon Alangina! What a beautiful payoff! The way the Swordrivers work meant everyone immediately wanted to see one of those three Riders using the other two's main Books, and while we don't get both of them here, just Touma using Kento's Book works on so, so many levels. Storywise, it's obviously great. It's also a perfect conclusion to Touma's shtick of using all the story Books on top of that. (Plus, thanks to King of Arthur, Saber dual-wielding swords also has precedent.) And then design-wise, I mean, Lamp Do Alangina is gold, so it inherently looks the part of a big power-up, even though it wasn't particularly meant to. It's a very memorable little form. And apparently the fans aren't the only ones that thought so, because Bandai later went ahead and produced a set of gashapon figures seemingly inspired solely by how cool this stretch of Saber was.

And like, yeah, it's pretty sweet! I think you can see it in how glowing my praise of it at the time was, but the series as a whole was REALLY starting to click into place for me as we reached the end of the year. Nothing but good things to say about it. From the whole 弔い合戦 vibe with everyone fighting to honor Kento, to the cool menace of Calibur, to just how much Ishida clearly loves using Mei (recall also Fantastic Lion's debut, with the comedic falling bit). As well as he should, because Mei is great! I mean, it's not even just in Ishida episodes, of course, but I feel like he in particular always seems to have extra fun directing those moments.

I don't want to be like I Am Watching This Show For Rintaro And Mei, because that's dismissive and inaccurate... but I am watching this show for Rintaro and Mei. They have never once let me down, and I'm not sure they even can.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 15 - “OUR RESOLUTION, AND WHAT LIES BEYOND IT”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber15a.png

*sigh*

This was an episode of relentless revelations, and I didn’t give a shit about most of them. They were either so basic that there was no point holding them off until the 15th episode, or so convoluted that they’d’ve needed a full 15 episodes of fleshing out to be comprehensible.

We’ll start with the So Basic one, since that’s the first to appear chronologically. The Book Club finally decides to explain their and Calibur’s scheme to the Sword of Logos, and it’s so unimpressive and generic as to be hilarious in retrospect that this show thought it was worth keeping secret. They’re after a map/instruction guide to the various Wonder Ride Books, which will allow them to rebuild the– whatever, the big book that started the world. Afterwards, they could reset reality to whatever they wanted, and rule everything.

It’s the sort of plot that the show ABSOLUTELY should’ve had the villains talking about with each other for months, since not only does it not change the tension or tone of the series if you knew about it all along, it actually gives it enough contours to feel like there’s a deliberate strategy behind the various weekly battles. (I mean, not a ton of strategy. I definitely don’t understand how any of the Avalon stuff was supposed to help them with opening a portal?) Withholding crucial context just made weeks of episodes feel aimless and inconsequential from a plot standpoint, and the mystery left in its place was never intriguing enough to invest in. When we finally get to the end of the road with the Book Club, they’re just hitting all of the most basic beats of a tokusatsu villain: We need to get enough collectibles to get godlike power, and then we’ll make you all suffer. That’s what they had us waiting for, instead of providing the minimum amount of information. It’s a stunningly poor decision, in retrospect.

As for the So Convoluted reveal, I… Jesus, I barely know where to start with Kamijo’s confession.

So, he’s a dedicated member of the Sword of Logos. He’s good friends with Fukamiya. One day, Fukamiya decides that he needs to sacrifice Luna to bridge the regular world with Wonder World, and gain Universal Truth. Kamijo sees that this is both lunacy and heresy, and takes down Calibur. (Not pictured in this flashback are the armies of Megid the other Swordsmen fought, so I guess Calibur raised an army via delivery app or something?) This is all vaguely in line with what we’d been told, even if the Fukamiya stuff still seems very He Just Went Crazy. But, this is all tracking so far.

Then.

Then, Kamijo comes to the conclusion that Fukamiya didn’t just go crazy, he was made crazy… by the Sword of Logos. Somehow, someone in the organization was the REAL traitor, and Kamijo needed to become Calibur (?) in order to destroy the Sword of Logos (??) by allying with the despotic Megid (???) so that they all could end all life on Earth (????) which would also give Kamijo the secret of the traitor inside the Sword of Logos. Kamijo decided that any sacrifice – including literal sacrifices, like the one Fukamiya made of Luna, which Kamijo found so abhorrent that he needed to murder Fukamiya – were totally okay, as long as they were in the name of rooting out corruption.

I honest to god do not understand any of this. There’s a thematic thread this revelation is reaching for (Kamijo lost everything by turning on his friends, while Touma gained everything by depending on his friends), and some plot-oriented The Villain Was Just Misguided horseshit, but none of it makes a single lick of sense. Kamijo’s villainy didn’t just happen, he’s been doing it for fifteen years. He happily worked with the Megid, who are legit apocalyptic monsters. He doesn’t care if any of his former friends are murdered in front of him, or by him. He doesn’t care if the entire world is destroyed, or at least subjugated by fiction monsters. All this guy was trying to do was find out which coworker screwed over his buddy. All of this is way out of proportion! You would’ve needed fifteen full episodes of insight and introspection and analysis to make Kamijo’s story seem like it's tethered to recognizable human motivations or psychology. To toss it into a two-minute monologue? You have got to be out of your goddamn mind. You had MONTHS of subplots where you could’ve explained this, debated it, unraveled it, etc. There’s barely any room for Touma to react to it, let alone try and understand the insanity of Kamijo’s reaction to his friend’s insanity. I don’t know that Kamijo’s story could’ve worked under the deftest hand, with the most runway, but it’s a complete misfire here.

The rest of it was good, though! I liked all of the Mei and Sword of Logos stuff! Up until the Book Club saw their master plan disintegrating and went NBD and wandered off! That was kind of disappointing as a viewer!

I’m very scared for the future of this show, you guys!

—

PROMISE IS A PENDULUM

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber15b.png

Of all the things that had changed for Mei over the last few months, the strangest wasn’t the proliferation of magical swordsmen, or the surprise appearances of fictional monsters, or even the secret society that lived at the North Pole. Those were all unusual, sure, but the strangest thing had to be that she’d started viewing Touma as dependable.

She’d spent who knows how many late nights trying to prod Touma towards finishing a manuscript; an incalculable amount of time hounding him about deadlines. While he’d never exactly let her down, she’d begrudged him the impact his writerly habits had made on her life.

But here she was, surveying the savage beatdown the Sword of Logos had just received, and praying for Touma to return from the Wonder World.

She saw the wounds on Rintaro and the other swordsmen, and she saw the malevolent grins on the faces of the Megid. This was a fight that was going badly, and may have already been lost. The Sword of Logos had tried pushing past the Megid in order to prevent Calibur’s ascendance, but things were looking too grim. They needed Touma, and they needed him now.

He’d made that promise, that he’d be there for them. Touma had his flaws – she kept meaning to talk to him about those hats – but when Touma made a promise, that was all there was to it. If they could only hold for Touma’s inevitable return from a floating book portal, after overcoming a maniacal traitor, they’d all be saved.

But… it wasn’t just Touma who’d made that promise. She had, too.

She’d fought to be included in Touma’s little group of sword buddies. The promise wasn’t that Touma would always be there for them. The promise was that they’d always be there for each other. She was counting on Touma to save them, but what about Touma? What was he counting on from them?

Well, she knew exactly what Touma was counting on: he’d needed them to destroy the pillars empowering Calibur and the Megid’s plan for ultimate power. If they stopped fighting now, Touma’s battle against Calibur might be in vain. They needed Touma to fight for them, but Touma needed them to fight for him.

So that was what they’d do. She couldn’t pick up a sword and fight a monster (yet), but she sure as hell knew how to badger a handsome young man into trying harder. If the months of threatening and cajoling a lanky daydreamer had taught her anything, it was exactly the right buttons to press when you needed someone to get across the finish line and deliver on their promises.

If they needed Touma to get back safely and help them, they’d start by finishing their end of the fight. After all, they’d promised him.

Hmm uh yeah I've got nothing tbh in terms of this episode in relation to the points you mentioned. So I'll just really say, the first reveal complaint doesn't really ring much for me since well, it feels more like a clarification. And the second reveal complaint, while I get that it's very sudden, I think you're downplaying things a bit too hard with the "What coworker screwed over his buddy" comment.

Anyway, Rintaro basically decided to go full toy salesman. We get King Lion Daisenki, the Lion Mode, a shit ton of Booster usages, all in all, very fun. Also I do enjoy that the form gives him to cannons to shoot stuff with, very fun.

Also I do enjoy Touma's fight with him sliding up the scale of power before ending in a pretty spectacular fight against Kamijo. The little touch of the cross-slash with Espada's ghost appearing is also nice.

Also the story was nice, always fun to get a bit of Mei introspection.

I can definitely relate to Kamijo's motivation not hitting me at all. I'm a very themes-before-plot person; if the mechanisms of the story or how it's delivered aren't quite working but all of what it actually means is still there I'm very happy to let it off the hook (to a degree I think it's necessary for watching Tokusatsu), but sometimes it's stretched just... a little too thin. It's as you say; it's way too much delivered in such a short space of time to really comprehend it and it needed far more fleshing out than what it got, but it's treated as... maybe not understandable, but they expect you to just take it as a baseline without anything further? It doesn't even begin to work for me.


I kinda dropped my little "saber-suits-are-so-good" corner because I kept forgetting but I'm absolutely gonna revive it for a bit to say Dragon Alangina is one of my favourite things ever? Strong contender for my favourite Saber suit and it's the one golden moment everything in this show came together for me; I haven't seen a Rider show really use the nature of its powers and tools like this purely for character work without it being motivated by a specific new powerup in a long time, and it just hit seeing Touma be powered up by two main Ridebooks like that and change up his entire fighting style to accomodate the sword of his lost beloved friend. Nothing in the Kento story even worked for me! It failed to hit me in the same way the Kamijo stuff did! But this form and everything they did with it was so incredibly good it made me believe in the strength of that story for a whole episode!


oh yeah and Dragonic Knight is really sexy too you really just can't go wrong with that thing

While the Book Club's monologue is a clarification, it still provides crucial details about what precisely they're trying to do, which I can only feel would've been helpful as they were each rolling out of their shadowy library to do the weekly monster plot.

For Kamijo's story, I sort of can't believe the show thought this guy dedicating 15 years of his life -- and almost perpetuating an apocalypse -- to uncover malfeasance didn't deserve a little supporting documentation? I'm not exactly sure what he's even supposed to be accusing some nameless traitor of doing here. He's just like Someone Made My Dude Crazy, and that's all we get. If this show wants me to feel the depths of Kamijo's sadness, and how it's inverted in the strength Touma receives from Kento's memory/ghost, they gotta give me more to go on.

I realized after writing all that up that... like, the biggest problem I'm having with a lot of these plot points is that there's almost no thematic cover I can give them, because so much of this show is weird plot stuff. With a show like Geats, I immediately knew and loved what it was doing, so it was easy to defend certain elements by thinking about how they were supporting or subverting the main thematic topics of the show. With Saber, I honestly feel super adrift? There's some general stuff about storytelling, or promises, or friendship, or teamwork, but almost none of it feels elevated or integral; meanwhile, this show keeps surfacing bizarre plot details that just suck all the oxygen out of the room. If/when I get a better sense of what this show is trying to talk about, I hope I'll be able to find more value in some of these reveals.

The First Annual Kento Memorial Stage Show Extravaganza was a very fun episode and a very cool suit, it's true.

Kamijo's motives will become clearer in the future, it is the information about the traitor that is important now. Because it is she who determines the further course of the story. Let me just say that Kamijo and Fukamiya are indeed the same, and this is the key to the reasons for their actions.
It's funny, by the way, that you fear for the future of the show just before what many consider to be the point where it started to get better.

I like to make people laugh!

As for the rest... I mean, yeah, I sort of assumed Ferreting Out The Traitor -- and getting us to be suspicious of the Sword of Logos -- was pretty much the next phase of this show. That's fine. I don't have a problem with this show suggesting that a secret organization with unknown oversight that's staffed entirely by people that were chosen by magic swords might be less trustworthy than we assumed.

And so, exit Kamijo. And also Desast for a few episodes, due to the suit actor moving over to Sentai.

Not much on this current episode thoughts-wise, besides liking the action. But I do have this to share.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...9/IMG_7957.PNG

Yeah, this one didn’t work that well for me. It feels like the show is trying to build a lot of drama out of revealing that the Sword of Logos may have some internal corruption, but it falls flat because the show hasn’t really established anything about the organization outside of the handful of characters we’ve already seen. Like, we know that they raised Rintaro and that everybody else works for them, but that’s pretty much it. It’s hard to squeeze drama out of upending everything the audience knows when the audience doesn’t know anything.

Agreed. That phrase is flawed as it doesn't consider how some villains like Evolt take pride in their reputation for villainy and would be offended by accusations of heroism or being misguided. Of course, amoral psychopathic types who rely on good publicity will gladly use that phrase to justify their behavior to others, even if they don't believe it. And some antivillains genuinely do believe it, that what they're doing is right even when everyone else says it's wrong, like the greatest kindest demon king Oma Zi-O, Amatsu Gai and Bacht here. In those cases, they're so deep in their ways, or insane, that they become resistant to the idea that they've gone too far.

Evil book gangsters will be evil book gangsters, I guess. The exposition about the Omniscient Tome only takes like half a minute anyway and this is merely the tip of the spear concerning the Megid trio, so probably shouldn't worry too much about their underwhelming transparency right now.

Did you see Zooous' flips though? Man, that guy can move!

When you put it like that, it sounds pretty absurd. However, for not only one, but two Calibur-users to go crazy in pursuit of the same goal, there must be something compelling about this Universal Truth that both Kamijo and Hayato, formerly friends and loyal members of SOL, would throw everything away to obtain it. Even Daishinji who loves Seiken Swords commented that Kurayami is a sword of many mysteries. You also have suspicions about that.

Even if the reveals left you disappointed for now, I still have to talk about that awesome climactic fight scene and intriguing aftermath!

I love how the Swordsmen courageously destroy the pillars, believing that Touma will make it back in time. How Ikazuchi gives Touma the strength of Kento's spirit to return from the darkness, defying Kamijo's expectations and showing how the magic of friendship can pierce through even the deepest despair and transcend the barrier between life and death. It's all profoundly heroic and emotionally moving in the way I've come to expect from Fukuda's writing, making this first arc land strongly for me, firmly establishing what kind of show Kamen Rider Saber wants to be. Touma is the living proof of the ideals Kamijo had lost faith in, where there's resolution, there's always hope and I think Rekka was right to choose him as the successor.

I love how Desast, who had nothing to do with this apocalypse, out of nowhere just shows up inside the giant book world that Touma and Kamijo struggled to reach, to live up to his title as a Swordsman Killer, literally cut short some exposition and retrieve his Alter Book. That guy's a wildcard with his own agenda.

And that's how you know it's Aruto!

Desast getting his curiosity engine in overdrive even before his Twitter career.

Yeah, that certainly was an episode, I didn't exactly have as much distaste as you did for the reveals here (I'm pretty sure Kamijo's reveal was just put in so that they could set up the 2nd arc or something along those lines), but I didn't exactly care for this episode either.

The choreography's good, and I'm perfectly fine with the first reveal, even if it should've been revealed way earlier than this episode, but besides those two things, it's just empty for me. I don't entirely hate this episode, but it wasn't exactly a fun one for me either.

I'm pretty sure that this is the end of the first arc? And the 2nd arc is where I've heard that the show improves, so I hope that rings true for me as well. I don't have much left to say, so I'll just say that this was a mediocre episode for me, I don't have as much hate for it as you seem to have, but it's still not very good compared to the rest of the episodes.

The only real touch of darkness the Sword of Logos has so far is that the Southern Base definitely feels shady, as I think Tassel told some guy on a phone once, non-canonically. Beyond that... like I said, Kamijo gives Touma (and the audience) absolutely to go on in regards to launching an investigation or even cultivating suspicion: suspects, method, goals, etc. Like, Kamijo very much seems like a crazy traitor who has a grudge against an organization that didn't want him to destroy the world in a bid for ultimate power, and that's sort of it?

Oh, for sure, the stuff with Mei and the rest was the high point of the episode. I love her rallying the troops, everyone finding additional reserves of strength, and them collectively getting the job done without Touma. It was a fun strand of this episode!

It very much felt like the end of a chapter, yeah. We've got a final Swordsman Chronicle tonight, a TTFC segment in a couple days, and then it's pretty much 15 or 16 episodes of the next arc. Cautiously optimistic about it!

I can only add to the people who didn't think the Kamijo plot lined up. It's not like "Sword of Logos is secretly evil" is bad plot point to go with, but like you say, Kamijou is the guy who's been working wth the apocalyptic book club for 15 years, who killed Kento all of fve minutes ago... maybe he's not the most trustworthy of sources, guys? You can hear the gears crunching as the show tries to change directions from Calibur being the villain to reframe the SOL, and it's a shame for the climax of the arc to end up like that. I'm not mad, just confused and a little disappointed.

To give you some postitivity before Fish shows up to tell you how this whole motivation is secretly genius, Saber imo does recover from this, it's not the end of the world. Just quite a big speedbump.

Yeah, for sure. This is a development that a different show would maybe consider seeding throughout its first arc a little more heavily: Add some structure to the SoL that the swordsmen chafe under; give Calibur a more mysterious or sympathetic point of view; add some ambiguity to the SoL's recent accomplishments. There're any number of things that would make Kamijo's accusations feel like they're explaining a suspicion that the viewer didn't want to acknowledge. Instead, we get Murderous Bad Guy saying I'm Not The Real Bad Guy and then getting killed. It... it does not feature the cleanest escalation of its plot, no!

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 15

Naturally, I love this episode to bits. Just, like, everything I could've possibly wanted out of the conclusion to a stretch of episodes that had me starting to utterly adore a show I was already quite enamored with. It should come as no surprise then that my post from the time takes a very different tack from Die. This is a show made for me, possibly by me, after all. Which I guess means I'm going to be picking on Die for picking on Saber, even though I'll probably feel bad about it later!

Why??? When you've already been assured by everyone that you've yet to reach the point where the show dramatically improves in quality? Do you think everyone who said that is just lying, or that you alone noticed all these glaring issues with the series' storytelling in its first act? Because, Die, if you're gonna pick on Kamijou-san's actions for being irrational, I'd appreciate you having some more faith in the people around you. Which brings me to my next point:

It's faith. Like everything in the show comes back to faith. It isn't necessarily the sole theme, but it's the best way to define a motif that ties much of the show's storytelling together. Blades and Buster's introductory episodes have people deciding whether or not to believe in Touma as a new member of Sword of Logos. Episode 5 saw Touma realizing he needs to believe his friend will open up about something important when he's ready. Ren is such a little goblin of a person because his one conviction in life is dangerously thin and flimsy. Touma obtains King of Arthur by believing the book is there. He draws out its full power by believing in his friends. Kento struggles with believing in his friends to help with what he views as personal problems. And now we have this episode, telling a cautionary tale about how once upon a time, Kamen Rider Saber let a tragic event destroy his faith. How he let it crush all his convictions and shatter all his trust, ultimately leading him down the path of darkness. The episode leaves us with the obvious nagging notion that our Saber might have to deal with something like that one day, and the question of if he'll be able to react any differently when that time comes.

Promises are nothing more than empty sentiment, only given power by the people who believe they can fulfil them, and the people who believe they will be fulfilled.

I've said similar things before, and I'll say something similar again -- there's plenty going on in this show already, and much of it is done with far more purpose than it's given credit for. I'm not ~particularly~ intent on finding fault with anyone for not enjoying how Saber chose to lay a lot of this stuff out early on, but I'll readily stand up to note that there IS stuff -- good stuff! -- that's being layed out, even with a development as abrupt as Kamijou revealing more about his motives here.

You shouldn't! I know how you feel about this show, so I was fully aware while I was writing what I wrote that you weren't likely to swoop in here a day later going Worst Episode Ever, or anything even slightly disparaging.

I appreciate you sharing your insight into this show, and its active themes. I don't know if they feel particularly prominent to me, but I would never ever ever tell someone that they're reading a show wrong or projecting onto it. All I can say is that I never felt Faith had a central role in a lot of the moment-to-moment storytelling, so much as it was trotted out as a formative catchphrase (Kamijo's initial appearance in Touma's backstory), or used to paper over some leaps in logic -slash- ill-defined character motivations. Like, I never feel like this show is saying something about Faith, I guess? I'm glad that it was saying something that clearly resonated with you, though. I long to find my own connection with this series!

(And I'm not abandoning my friends in order to war against them out of fear when say that I'm scared about the future of this show! It's just, there were a couple peerless episodes not too long ago, but this last stretch... very much not to my tastes. The fear is that this show is going to continuously make me think a corner has been turned, only for that corner to lead to a brick wall. I can't keep getting my heart broken!)

And it's fine if that comes later, or if something else entirely ends up coming along. All I was trying to offer there is something to hopefully make you feel even a little bit less adrift.

ないと思えばない。あると思えばある。

Those words from the mysterious hooded figure in episode 7, I mean, it's pretty much how storytelling works, too, you know? If you don't think there's anything of value in there, there won't be. If you think there is, there will be. The trials to see if you find Kamen Rider Saber worthy have only just begun, Die!

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

Oh no! TRIALS! It sounds ol' Kamen Rider Die is going to need all of his friends to have faith in him!

As far as keeping an open mind... I'm definitely always trying to? Each episode is a new chapter; a blank page. The possibilities are limitless, and I'm always rooting for this show to impress me. I hope that comes across?

Because, boy, I super hate venting about a show. It isn't fun, and it isn't cathartic. I love Kamen Rider shows, you guys. The last thing in the world I want to spend a night doing is complaining about the ways an episode let me down, and then spend a day rehashing those feelings in a forum. That sucks! I would much rather spend a night enjoying something, being surprised by something, and then get to geek out over those things with a bunch of other fans. I genuinely dislike finding fault in these shows to level that I have with a couple three episodes of Saber.

Believe it or not, though... I do have faith in this show. It's not logical, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I couldn't even begin to explain why I think this show is still for me, beyond vague gestures towards the second half of Ghost, and a track record of enjoying literally every Kamen Rider series I've started to at least some degree. I get excited about watching this show, because I know it's going to do something for me, even if I don't know what or when. I may not have resolve, judging by the last night's post, but I still have hope.

If I might walk back my own occasional frustration with seeing you occasionally dunk on Rider things I like, I absolutely feel like posts that negative still prove in their own way how excited you are about digging into these shows. It probably wouldn't get to you that much if you didn't care, right? And speaking of track records, while you mentioned how scared you are of mistakenly thinking a show has turned a corner, I can vividly recall plenty of instances of you mistakenly worried a show won't turn a corner? There was definitely a point in Faiz's final arc, for example, where I remember you being like Oh God It's Really Going To End Like This, only for the actual final episode to leave you so satisfied you completely flipped your tone around on the spot.

So yeah, hope is good.

Ha ha, yeah, I've only watched 22 of these shows without hating them, I'm not sure why you'd think I'd've learned my lesson by now. If only there was a show about how detrimental pessimism can be when you're trying to achieve your goals, and how that pessimism becomes a poison that only leads to harmful choices! I definitely feel like a show of that nature could appeal to me personally!

WAIT.

I am watching Swordsmen Chronicles Episode 4 right now, and it is so beat-for-beat a story I wrote a few days ago that I am losing my goddamn mind. It's 100% Rintaro winning a raffle on a first try, getting super excited about a camera he read about, Mei being a little baffled at his excitement, and Rintaro excitedly staring at his camera as he walks ahead of Mei. I-- I think I might actually be writing this show now?

Oh you had no idea how much I was actually laughing at the story you wrote.

It took all of my willpower to not say anything so you could get this glorious realization yourself.