Yeah, like... I wanted the final one to have Touma in it, and I'm not sure how integral (or available) he'll be for the last few pieces of content? Maybe he'll be on the Sword of Logos's Satellite Of Love for the final specials, conveying his support via a single day's worth of filming! I don't know!

Sounds appropriate for a special called Sword of Logos Saga.

I agree that Kamijo's development seems like more of a reach now. I would've expected him becoming Calibur and joining the Megid to be events dotted throughout those 15 years, but this implies he saw one Kurayami vision and suddenly everything was clear to him, while Hayato and Kento were filled with doubt and took a more realistic amount of time to arrive at their respective conclusions.

However, I ultimately enjoyed this special for filling in the gaps in the lore and showing us what the previous generation of Swordsmen was like. We learn that while Daishinji has been working for SOL longer, as a swordsmith, Ogami became a Swordsman before him. We get to see how Kenshin fit in the group as a cheerful and friendly man just like his protege Rintarou. There's some other stuff here that gets elaborated on in the Buster manga as well.

A Swordsman Killer is going to kill Swordsmen. That's just what Desast does and that's what he was notorious for. He even told Ren in Episode 41 that he was responsible for Kagami's death, but thanks to SOL Saga, we know he killed Shinsen as well.

It's humorous how Kagami's defining trait is that she mostly talks about training to get stronger, like that's something universal to Kenzan users.

You've been consistently writing them for months, you deserve a break. I enjoyed reading them. Whenever you decide to write another fic, it should be when you feel inspired, not to meet expectation.

I can ignore Reika's weird brocon behavior when it's limited to interactions with Ryouga. That's a problem between siblings. It's mostly when that turns violent towards others like Mei that I draw the line. I guess I should commend Uchida for his attempt to push back a little on Fukuda's and Hasegawa's escalation of the Shindais' dysfunction. It's not much, this tea party scene, but I appreciate the sentiment.

I definitely enjoyed these more than Die did, but they're also another example of a Saber thing that sort of slipped through the cracks without any particular post from me. They didn't leave enough of an impact to be some super memorable thing which I can eagerly bust out some elaborate counter-opinion on (and you know I'd love to do that!), but I thought they were cute enough for what they were.

To be fair, I don't think you're meant to watch these specials back to back- you're supposed to watch the episodes in the first bluray set, see Desast kill two dudes 15 years ago (lol, go ahead bud,) then watch the episodes with the second bluray set, then see a cute ramen battle. There was probably a gap in their writing/filming too, so it just goes to show again how the show evolved and decided how it wanted to portray it's characters over time!

It's like the pilot episode for Sword of Logos: The Old Generation, where all of these new swordsmen get one (1) defining character trait, and it's simpler if they can be proto versions of our usual cast. It's hard enough to remember which new face is which, so Espada is absolutely going to wear gold, and Kenzan is absolutely going to talk about getting stronger.

I'm glad they didn't make you as angry as they made me!

Maybe! I think there's something to be said for narrative coherency, though --even if we're thinking of these as two separate specials, the wacky Ren/Desast/Shindai stuff doesn't exactly sit well alongside Kento's emotional annihilation. There doesn't really seem to be an overall story being told with the scenes and characters they chose to spotlight, which makes the unevenness of the two halves stand out to me.

KAMEN RIDER SABER: SHORT STORY MANGA ANTHOLOGY

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These Anime shorts… just completely my speed. I love how ridiculously deep-cut they are, and nothing could be more straight from my brain than an in-character prelude to the closing credits dance number. I was never the biggest fan of that thing until this very second. The rolling arm motions are for a lottery machine! Rintaro counts in French because fencing terms help him remember the moves! Mei says STA-AFF with a weird, addictive pronunciation! No one wants to hear out Touma’s concerns regarding the choreography! All of these insane details (RINTARO’S EXPLANATION OF THE SLASHING MOTION!!!) made me go watch the closing credits again, and I loved it so much. This bizarre, non-canonical short absolutely made me appreciate Saber more as a show.

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Nothing’s going to top MetsubouJinrai Game for me, probably, but an entire short where Zooous gets clowned on by Storious and Legeiel, Storious gets clowned on by Legeiel and Zooous, and Legeiel gets clowned on by Zooous and Legeiel? Outstanding. Incredibly funny, throughout. Huge props to the creative team for having Legeiel’s actor mention that he has maybe one definable trait, which is so mean. The costume stuff for the other two is minor in comparison to No One Knows Why You’re Here, and I love that this ridiculous sub-series went there. Easily the best use of the Book Club, and it’s not even a contest.

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Saber’s a very earnest show. There’s a disarming sweetness to it, where interpersonal disagreements are as catastrophic as any apocalypse. Like, Rintaro is the first new Sword of Logos guy we meet in the show, and he’s just the most direct, caring dude. That’s the template that everything for the SoL swordsmen spins off of; even the jerks and dummies are never cruel, really, just misunderstood. So it’s delightful to see that – short Kento – they’re all hot-headed assholes here, with Sophia being an impulsive and chaotic leader who is electric-shocked and superfluously-skateboarded enough to really scream at Ogami. It’s perfect? I wouldn’t trade the sweetness of Saber for nearly anything, but this story about five members of the Sword of Logos disintegrating into acrimony under the pressure of an escape room is kind of making a good case for itself.

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I really love how much Sophia hates Daishinji in this? She just absolutely destroys him here, and it’s exquisite. (“I don’t trust Slash today” is a catchphrase equally as heroic and memorable as “I’ll decide how this story ends!”) Between that and her Trash Tassel introduction, this is maybe the most I’ve ever enjoyed Sophia.

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Yuri is a terrifically bad scene partner, leaving Tassel to fluster his way through the weakest one of these shorts so far. There’s good gags in it – Saturday Dad is the funniest version of Tassel’s opening narration – but it’s a more uncomfortable form of comedy than the rapid-fire version of the other shorts. This one lets non-sequiturs hang in the air, and allows a brusque Yuri to steer an increasingly disjointed pre-credit sequence into nearly Dadaist waters, but it’s more clever than it is laugh-out-loud funny. I liked it okay, but there were long strings of me nodding approvingly, rather than cackling like a lunatic.

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Aw, that’s a let down. I thought this was going to be actual flubs, not just more ridiculous versions of scenes we already saw. I wanted to hear these actors lose it! What I got instead was cute, but not exactly the heights of humor that this series hit previously. Sophia being an on-set diva was probably the best part, with Storious’s fixation on Corn Soup being a close second. Everything else… it was fine? Weird, not super funny.

As a whole, I thought this series was exceptional. Incredibly high marks for the first four episodes, and a few gems scattered in the final two episodes. Saber really came through on these animes!

Funny cartoons. It was nice and interesting. Also, the last two not so successful episodes were most likely made by a different team, because I recall that they appeared much later. Although, maybe it's just the translation was a little delayed.

These anime shorts are always the best thing. I don't even like 01 or Saber and I had a blast with them! Can recommend them without hesitation. It's a shame Revice's still aren't subbed...

I only ever watched the first four when they came out.

I think the last two came out later so I never did? Though it doesn't seem like I'm missing much tbh.

I do agree with those who think that Saber is a series that got more improved in later parts (of which the next one, Revice, would be the opposite), though there are ofc, many who'd think Saber stays mediocre all around.

The show didn't touch upon it, but I think what sticks to me is that other than her main romantic interest, Mei becomes more tightly- with Touma since Kamijo's death, where they're almost never at odds with each other anymore, but it seems to be writing stuff rather than 'development' or something considering that the flashback of them first meeting with each other is more similar to the part post-Kamijo death. I'd still think that in this part Saber's mystery isn't really compelling to be followed with too, even though this is all important somehow is what mysteries do.

But even with the improvements compared to the beginning, there are still shortcomings later like I think, for informations, the reveal of Sophia as a Luna clone, but it being something redundant and unused (or, minor part of Sophia's attempted sacrifice), and with adult Luna being played by different actress. There's also still arcs that lasted too long like Kento's fatalism. I'd still think that the finale fight scene won't necessarily need Four Divine Sages who are important part of SoL, of which it's also not touched upon in the fighting style they invented part in the series. I'd think that Xross Saber's power is used well though there are parts of it only using swordmanship, don't understand the people who find the form underwhelming.

I'd also like for the story premise to be more directly used, but it's only done in specials like the Zenkaiger special of entering stories. I'm interested in how Touma solves problems with his knowledge of books and creative thinking, but even then I'd also think the later part focuses more of his friendship speeches rather than that, which is what people complain about him. I'd agree that Rintaro is a more enjoyable secondary Rider than I expect him to be, but Rintaro isn't that well-liked from what I get by people, for him being lacking in the series with even him being considered overshadowed by Kento in how significant they're and about Touma's relationship with them. Yuri and Desast are the most well-loved ones, but among fandom Saber has extremely polarizing cast in Ryoga, Reika, and Ren, while it also got some of the most hated characters in all franchise for Sophia and Luna. I often see you showing disappointment for KR's villains, and it seems that Saber won't (likely except for Isaac, or the Shindai siblings at the beginning), I wonder if you now, or long ago, has accepted the fact that KR is bound to have underwhelming villains, like the Book Club for Saber's cast.