Yeah, it helps that Saber, Blades, and Espada all have different types of Ride Books, God Beast, Animal, and Story respectively. Buster shares the God Beast typing with Saber, but even then his different sword basically gives him his own unique traits which is nice. Even Calibur's got something different going on too with his whole setup.

If there's one thing I'll give Saber, it's a nice varied set of suits all with their own neat little quirks.



I'll admit this and say the crossover/fusion element definitely comes in clutch here with the character interactions very much bouncing off the situations at hand if they're a bit dull. But thank you for the admiration.

Since the only part of Saber that I can really say I care about is the main cast, this episode actually worked for me, even if the pacing of the show is still a bit weird. We actually got more info on Kento besides his very short introduction at the start of Episode 3, and Ryo still remains possibly my favorite character in the whole show.

The story doesn't really do much which is something I've been saying frequently so far, which isn't exactly a good sign for the show, but hopefully they'll do something soon, and I don't want to judge the show too harshly when it's only been 5 episodes. Besides, I did really love the characters in this episode, and Ryo cheering up Kento is possibly my favorite scene of the show so far. Desast still remains a good villain, and Calibur is interesting, he hasn't yet gotten a chance to really do anything with his character, but hopefully, he soon becomes someone I'm glad to see on screen.

Also, I do agree that the Megid have been very uninteresting so far, I actually had to look up what they were called when writing a previous post because they had done nothing, which also applies to the other villains besides Calibur and Desast, besides those two, I can hardly say anthing about the villains in the show, which sucks because I really do like the main cast, and Desast, so for the other villains to have not done basically a single thing for 5 episodes, it's just another strike against Saber for me, even if I do somewhat enjoy the show.

The episode's great for how both Ogami and Touma try to cheer Kento up. It's the most minor thing, but the show's really invested in Kento's overwhelming sense of guilt -- for something he 100% was not in a position to prevent -- to a degree that I completely bought into the wacky antics of Touma and Ogami. Touma helps Kento stage an impromptu performance of a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn play. There's no way, outside of an HBV, that that should ever work. But it does, because we're all just like It Sucks That Kento's So Bummed. These characters are really well-conceived, if nothing else.

Had to go back to the old episode threads to verify it, but this was the episode that made me almost drop Saber.

It had nothing to do with the writing, even though I was absolutely having problems with the pacing at this point. Rather, it was the overuse of video filters that absolutely killed it for me. The Wonderworld scenes all had that kind of fuzzy haze around everything made it really hard for me to watch those sequences. I don't remember if I had it before I watched the episode, but I know that I had a headache by the time it was over. I wasn't sure if I could keep watching the show if it was going to keep doing that. Fortunately for me, the SFX guy calmed down and this was by far the worst case of this.

So like I said, here we are with episode 5.

We finally find out who Calibur is. Or do we? They are still using the voice filter and the dude in the suit isn’t speaking to Kento. Granted, I was willing to take it at face value (this is the kind of show I think would drop a reveal this casually)

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see Zoous turn into a monster rather than a Kamen Rider. Even the last show where one of the bad guys turned into a monster (Zi-O) had a caveat to it.

And now, all three Swordriver Riders have two books (with this episode airing the same week that the incumbent Sentai and Ultra shows also introduced their own, albeit more major, power-ups). As for their themes, Saber’s two (a dragon and an eagle) are based around flying, Blades’ have to do with stars (the lion being a Zodiac constellation, while Peter Pan’s Neverland is located past a star, at least in the Disney version) and Espada’s have to do with luck (Aladdin is about a guy turning his luck around with the aid of a genie, while hedgehogs are considered unlucky in China). And yes, the last remaining books for the three Combos also fit these themings.

And as one guy on Facebook pointed out (I have a picture, but it’s too large for me to share), if Touma and Kento read Tom Sawyer, they were probably exposed to the N-word a lot.

Espada!! VERY lovely suit; probably in my top 5 this season even if Brave Dragon just beats it. Lovely, downright angelic colour scheme of gold and white only broken up a little bit by some grey accents; all spun into this lovely elegance by that shoulder cape and all those sharp, upwards angles. Just a super beautiful suit.

Calibur is also pretty fantastic! Kinda takes the spot of the "evil version of the main rider" design this season even if it doesn't quite make sense with the lore, but hell with it; Dark Knight Saber, I LOVE it! That mask and all the jagged edges and the purple and black... it all just screams evil, which is really funny considering this is just another Sword of Logos swordsman and his design isn't any different from when he left. Don't mind the blatantly evil guy in the corner!

Well yeah, none said Touma isn't at fault. There can be cases where both parties can have faults.

For sure, keep Kento convincing Ogami. Just that Ogami arrives when Touma makes hypotheses about the still-trapped victims via his book knowledge, witnessing Touma's (non-fighting) talents, instead of just when they're about to jump into action.

Yeah... happens after all of you dismissing about Calibur previously (at least before Desast).

Ogami is mostly affable here towards others though gruff after previous episode, so I guess he's kind of like Ichijou in Kuuga in terms of change, hostile at debut but for a short time after learning the other party better. Also I'd think about conversation with Ogami, it's quite good that the cast actually knows well about their co-workers, and not acting like how the viewers see it, so if someone important to them apparently betrayed them, they can be sour of it for long time to not bring them up whenever possible.

Yeah, the tertiary Rider in Saber is Kento himself, a.k.a Espada. But yeah, Espada's fight with Saber is done to show the opposite of guilt/responsibility stuff, showing both having great chemistry despite that this is their first fight together due to being childhood friends. There's a comedy moment with Saber being sucked on his own tornado, and a consequence of spinning in fight, though it's a cool ability from Dragon Eagle a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶i̶s̶h̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶v̶o̶l̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶W̶ ̶C̶y̶c̶l̶o̶n̶e̶J̶o̶k̶e̶r̶G̶o̶l̶d̶X̶t̶r̶e̶m̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶i̶s̶h̶e̶r̶.

I repeat myself, love the cast and their antics. They are just fun to watch.

They carried the early parts of the show for me.

That said... I actually kinda appreciate how much of a none focus the MotW are. That is coming from someone who likes the MotW parts often the most. But it's clear they have no interest in telling a story with the MotW right now, so they are afterthoughts. And I vastly prefer that against Zero-One's first arc trying so hard to make the Magia plots compelling and never really succeeding, at least in the first arc, and dragging everything around it down with it.

Similar to how in the current show, the monsters are very much just a piece of the background, menacing, but no actual players in the episode's plots.

The Megid get exactly enough screentime and attention as they need right now, and I like it that way.

I don't know that I had a problem with it, but I definitely noticed it more this episode. Glad to hear it'll get toned down some in the future!

I am glad the show's decreased runtime saved us from that!

I think my favorite bit is the shoulder lamp, and how the draped cape coming out of it sort of sells the Magic Carpet aspect. It's a really solid design.

I think it's also that we meet Ogami in what's probably his worst nightmare, which is Sora getting abducted by a book monster. I gotta think he's going to have very little chill at that point!

I don't know that I love it? It makes things feel a little too insular; the focus is too much on the individual members of the cast, and their backgrounds. The Magia attacks in Zero-One helped build out the world, set the stakes, illuminate the cast's goals, etc. Here, the crew is interesting, but they might as well work as mechanics or cooks. I almost don't know why this story needs to be a tokusatsu one?

Fair enough. I just appreciate it when a show kinda knows what parts it feels interesting to explore and focus on those. For Saber, that's clearly the cast for now. For Wizard, it was the MotW plots.

Simply put, I rather watch a show that does one thing well and the rest alright, than a show that does a lot of things ok and nothing great.

But I can understand why others wouldn't.