Sure, they can be in the same room without trying to kill each other, but unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think there have actually been any particular instances of the Riders in Saber working together *as* a unit until Touma came up with his little plan here? They fight bad guys together, but they're also mostly just doing their own thing in fights. It's definitely a step up from before, at the least.

And as for why Touma treats like it's a huge breakthrough... well, one, like I said, he can be very emotional, and two, I honestly love how anti toy commercial that aspect of the narrative is? It's cool to have a story where our lead Rider assumes at first that his much-hyped new trinket is the key to victory, only to come to his senses and realize the support of those around him is the REAL most powerful weapon.

Ha ha ha, The Real Power-Up Was The Friends We Made Along The Way. Hilarious! I don't know if I love the show's version of this story -- it just feels too much like Touma telling everyone what to do -- but I find this way of thinking about it delightfully corny.

But, like, the problem in this story wasn't The Power Of Friendship or Teamwork necessarily, it's that Touma wasn't gelling with the group. It's nominally a story about Friendship and Teamwork, but it's only a lesson that Touma needs to learn, really. (Everyone else is pretty good about collaborating here? Even/especially Ren?) It feels like it should be an epiphany that works its way through the entire group, but it's largely just about Touma being less obsessed with his new DX toy and paying attention to his friends that came over to play. Good lesson for kids! Not exactly what Touma's talking about in this episode, though!

Thinking about it more, I'm okay with this story's message if it's along the lines of Touma Needs To Be A Leader, or Touma Has To Learn To Work In A Group. I don't think either of those are where the story's landing (there's this weird sense of it trying to be about Touma accepting help?), but both of those make more sense to me in terms of the show's evolution of Touma from an isolated author to a collaborative artist.

I gotta say though, it's hilarious that Kamen Rider Saber lives up to his name here, and that... the spiked points on his head wasn't just for show. He literally becomes the saber for King of Arthur. I'd also think that a human-sized Rider fighting a giant can be something interesting to witness on how they'd put that thing down, like Geats also has that stuff, though ofc I hope King of Arthur shouldn't be used only here and actually got used against other giants later. Though I also have to say that Touma's also strategic in this battle to not split his team which invites Medusa Megid to gather in one location allowing him to defeat both at the same time.

Yeah, this is why they introduced the Sword of Logos too when they introduced Rintaro, it wasn't something that's merely a mystery in the past that doesn't exist now, it's to eventually integrate Touma and Mei to Sword of Logos! About the part of calling Touma's name.... yeah this is probably the bad indicator of how Touma would get similar treatment and shilling in series like Takeru before. So this shows Ogami hasn't removed his earlier traits entirely by stealing the credit, the others rightfully point out that he doesn't do anything (or if he did, only small part), but it'd likely be a negative influence for Sora, though Sora also has consistent belief in Touma, still believing in him even after his father got petrified thus he doesn't get moping.

I'd think that, Touma is obviously ok to work in a group, but doesn't mean others would be willing, thus yeah, he should learn to be a leader so that others would be willing to. Actually Ex-Aid also had Emu trying to get the other Riders to work together at ep. 10, only that it failed (and with not-so teamwork when M appears), but the attempt is still there. Ren probably is willing to work due to Kento, but yeah, that should be emphasized more in the story to have Ren making constant claims of it being done for Kento (then again they made Ren say Touma's name too...).

Yeah, I know she's from Wild Force (watched bits of it when little), how tf did I make a mistake in typing Time :( Otherwise, if your Saber love extends to Sophia too... I wonder if that'd be the hardest thing for you ever to do to try defending her from what you think undeserved criticism/hate, as she seems to be one of the most hated characters in entire franchise with practically near-zero fans (but I guess if you'd defend Mihara from Faiz, you'd have some experience for it too).

I feel like everyone else was fine with working together? It's their job, after all. With Ex-Aid... ha ha ha, yeah, Emu was pretty much doomed to fail there. The entire show is built around those characters not being able to work together because of their massive egos, so you'd need another 30+ episodes before they could really come together as a team. (Never as friends, though. Sort of the fun point of Ex-Aid as a show!)

KAMEN RIDER SABER: SWORDSMEN CHRONICLES EPISODE 1 - “AN EPISODE OF KAMEN RIDERS SLASH AND BUSTER”

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It’s nice to not really know everything about these shows before I watch them. Like, when I’m organizing stuff via the Wiki – all the side projects and HBVs and films and whatever – I don’t really look at details. I’m just looking for air dates and corresponding episode numbers, to get everything arranged correctly. So I didn’t really know what this was before I started watching it. I assumed it’d be a clip show, or the early-days-HBV thing of having powers recapped for the audience.

I didn’t know it’d be an actual all-new short story, with action and revelations. That’s a nice surprise!

I think this episode walked the perfect line of being inessential enough to not be part of the regular episodes (it’s pretty much just an extension of the 15 Years Ago fight scene we already learned about in Episode 1), while still finding something brand-new to make it worth seeking out. Namely, a little story of Ogami and Daishinji hanging out and being worn-out old men!

(Which… do the Sword of Logos guys not age? Both swordsmen look exactly the same as they did 15 years ago. But, Kento has aged at the same rate as his childhood friend Touma? It also makes Desast’s whole You Got Old jab at Buster seem like an even weirder insult, since Buster was his same dad-bod self when they last fought. If there’s a non-spoiler explanation that isn’t Don’t Ask Unnecessary Questions About Adult Circumstances, please let me know!)

It’s a nice look into a pairing we hadn’t previously experienced in the main narrative. They’re both more mature (if not, in Slash’s case, visibly older) than the rest of the Sword of Logos crew, and it gives them a chance to bust each other’s balls that the rest of the kids wouldn’t dare try. Both Ogami and Daishinji have been through some shit, so there’s a bit of support buried in all that teasing. It’s a charming little sidebar from the group-heavy storytelling of the last few episodes.

There’s also some legitimate original suit action, too, which I never would have expected. Buster in action is always fun, but the introduction to Slash was a real treat. I’ve always loved the Slash design, even before I knew what his deal was. (Thought he was a bad guy!) I think I called it Trapper Keeper Maximalism in some other thread a few years back, and I stand by that assessment now. It’s this hot pink and brown suit, with a blue starburst visor and a high collar. It’s roughly four different things that shouldn’t even be on the same show together, let alone the same suit, but they somehow work beautifully. It all works together to sell Candy Armor in just the dumbest, funniest way (the candy buttons on the collar!!!), and I love that the stoic, dedicated Daishinji wears gingerbread into battle. Absolute best suit to date, and I can’t wait to see it appear in the modern day.

This was a cute little story! It’s nice to get a better understanding of what some of the second-tier (in appearances only) Sword of Logos members are like when they don’t have to corral four well-meaning but troublesome youngsters, and it’s a nice surprise to see their camaraderie demonstrated with several minutes of ass-kicking. Worth the watch!

—

DIGNITY AND SHAME

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“Dad!”

Sora rushed towards his father, arms wide, ready to be carried on Ogami’s shoulders. Ogami, as always, was happy to oblige. Carrying Sora around on his shoulders was as much his favorite part of the day as it was Sora’s.

“Hey, buddy,” Ogami greeted his son as he slung Sora up onto the top of his back. “How was school?”

“Fun!” Sora kicked his feet a little on Ogami’s chest, their unspoken signal to start walking. “We learned about fractions, and elephants, and the moon!”

“Wow, that does sound fun,” Ogami said approvingly. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah! Are we going to get ice cream?” Sora squeezed his tiny hands on Ogami’s ears to emphasize his interest in said ice cream.

“Maybe later, kiddo. I told your buddy Slash that we’d go look for that Calibur jerk, so we gotta get to that first.”

Sora was quiet for a moment, and then he released Ogami’s ears. “Okay. We can look for Calibur first. When you find him, are you going to tell Slash? Is he going to finally bring his sword and let me see him fight bad guys?”

“I don’t know, pal,” Ogami said wistfully. “It’s like I told you before: Slash’s sword is real sad, and he won’t help Slash fight the bad guys until Slash cheers him up. Slash has been workin’ real hard to cheer him up, but sometimes swords gotta cheer up all by themselves.”

Sora rattled the hilt of Gekido, Ogami’s trusty sword. “Does your sword ever get sad, Dad?”

Ogami’s laughter was genuine and quick. “HA HA HA HA! Gekido, sad? Sora, that sword’s only sad I’m so good at swinging it that I don’t need to swing it that often. It doesn’t get sad, it gets even.” Ogami wasn’t sure Sora would understand a tough guy line like that, but he couldn’t stop himself from saying it.

Sora giggled in approval of his father’s enthusiasm, if nothing else. As his laughter faded out, he leaned the side of his face on the top of his father’s head, and sighed slightly.

“That’s good,” Sora said softly. “I don’t know what I’d say to cheer up a sword. I’m sure you do, though, Dad. You probably know exactly what to say to a sad sword that didn’t want to fight anymore, and wouldn’t let you be a superhero anymore, and made you stay in the North Pole for years and years and years.”

Ogami thought long and hard about what his life would be like if he’d had to face Slash’s fate. After a couple minutes of silence, Ogami responded to his son’s hypothetical.

“Hey, buddy,” Ogami said without affect, as his eyes focused on the middle distance, “what do you say to some ice cream real quick.”

Yeah this had me confused for a LONG while; I think they just... didn't want to hire other actors or do make-up and just hoped really really hard you wouldn't notice! Certain extra material like the Buster manga make it clear that they're normal people with normal aging; this is just strange presentation

This feels like a fairly avoidable problem: maybe don't have the heroes de-Henshin in the past. Kinda bonkers that they'd just hope no one noticed that Ogami and Daishinji haven't aged in 15 years. Maybe they both got the same surgeries Gai gave himself in Zero-One...

Trust me when I say the whole past and present thing is weird when it comes to actors aging. It is very much an adult circumstances do not ask questions situation.

Anyway welcome to the Swordsmen Chronicles, the Telasa Special that Saber got when it was airing. These are some fun little side stories that take place within the main story and provide a nice break of sorts. Because they're not really restricted by toy stuff and were clearly made to compliment the main series, they end up being a good set of side material to watch alongside the show since they give us stuff on our various Swordsmen who aren't Touma as well.

Now then if you asked me who my favorite, favorite Rider in Saber is. It'd be Daishinji/Slash. His role in the story, while I feel could be expanded upon more, is such an interesting one to think about. A Swordsman who can't fight anymore because he didn't heed his blades cries, to where he thrusts himself so hard into Swordsmithing so that no one else really shares his fate? It's so good! He's definitely like in my Top 5 Characters to write for my Symphogear/Saber crossover because he gets some real good stuff in this show.

And that's also not getting into how much I love Slash as a design too. It's loud, it's bright, and yet it somehow works.

Fun fact: Slash and Buster are the only two Saber Riders I have figures of, having gotten their RKF Figures when I had the chance.

As for the story... I really enjoyed the very "Dad tries to explain complex things to his Son" vibe with Ogami trying to explain why Daishinji can't henshin anymore. You got that down absolutely pat when it comes to that kind of wording. And then the hypothetical that makes Ogami just be like, "You know what, sure, Ice Cream", real nice way to end that honestly.

I actually really enjoyed this special, maybe it's because unlike in the actual episodes of Saber, the pacing here feels just right, it's eight minutes of content only focused on Daishinji and Ryo. The only thing I've felt that I've really liked so far in Saber, is its cast, so just solely focusing on two of those characters and developing them through flashbacks and a normal conversation between the two is right up my alley.

The information given to us in this special actually felt somewhat important too, such as finding out that the previous Saber's name was Kamijo, and seeing how Slash's sword broke, this stuff isn't particularly necessary to the story, but it still makes this special feel like not just some side thing, but an actual semi-important piece of Saber content.

Also, on the characters seemingly not aging in 15 years, I guess Toei didn't want to hire new actors for a side special, or even just put their current actors under some makeup to at least make them look younger, so I guess they're fine making all new effects and getting their suit actors to film new content, but won't try making the characters themselves look even a slight bit younger? I guess Toei just assumed no one would notice.

I would honestly love if every Saber episode kept this kind of pace, but of course, I know they won't, still, besides that, this is honestly my favorite piece of Saber related content that I've seen so far mostly because of how much I like the cast, and I hope that at the very least, the other Swordsman Chronicles specials keep up to this level of quality.