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.

Kento... Man, even a year after finishing Saber, I'm still not sure of my feelings about Kento. Even Espada's suit design, I'm not sure if I like. I do appreciate how him and Touma are able to closer friends with each other here, but imo it's marred by the lurking amnesia plot, because you know it's eventually going to be a big thing.

Calibur though! Great looking suit for our main villain, and the idea of someone defecting from the SOL to work with the villains is a good hook when you're setting up the organisation.

I don't disagree! One of my main points about this last episode was that it should stick to what what's working (the interpersonal relationships, Desast) rather than shove in every type of traditional story element. I would definitely prefer no Monster of the Week stuff to underwhelming Monster of the Week stuff.

But -- and this is crucial -- I would prefer good Monster of the Week stuff most of all. I don't think it's a big ask, and excluding it because they can't execute it well just feels like an admission of defeat. I don't love that!

The biggest sour note for me in this episode was when Kento punted on explaining himself until Touma got his memories back. Like, why not just tell Touma what he doesn't remember? Why wait until it's tragic and sudden? It's like a doctor opting not to remove a giant metal spike in your arm, just in case the arm gets gangrenous and falls off on its own. These are bad, borderline inhumane solutions! You are not being a good friend, Kento!

honestly my biggest problem with early Saber is a lot of it is built around mysteries that AREN'T HARD TO FIGURE OUT or guess

While the Monster of the Week is usually a Sub-Plot, I feel it's really welcome to see Monsters with plans and abilities rather than just the grunting punching bag that we've had since Build.



To be fair, that's pretty much Kento's biggest Challenge that is addressed pretty much from the start: Wanting to take responsibility for matters rather than share the burden. I feel that he is a lot like Taiga (in Ex-Aid) in that both were involved in a past event that caused the main situation we see in the show, and both make poor decisions while attempting to take that burden upon themselves.

Also interesting is that Kento is slightly reminiscent of Aladdin (from the original story). He tends to make poor decisions that end up making things harder for himself and gets called out for it. Also pretty significant that he is introduced with Needle Hedgehog as his secondary book, representing his good-intentioned but prickly stance when it comes to directly helping others.

Something fun to share is that while I haven't seen notes in any of the Saber media after the show, there is a correlation between each Rider's books and their personality, as well as the events happening in the show during each book's debut. It's really cool!

Beyond "Calibur isn't Kento's dad", I'm not sure I've got investment in the other mysteries of the show to try and puzzle them out. I'm just not that guy. I look forward to how our heroes respond to the eventual revelations!

I don't want to push up my Ex-Aid glasses and Um Actually here, but Taiga's sort of a different thing? He's directly responsible (if memory serves) for his tragic, guilty backstory -- Kento's a kid whose dad became a supervillain, and sort of internalized the shame in a supremely unhealthy way. Taiga's story is about earning redemption through seeing the limitations of individual responsibility; Kento's story is about not letting someone else's choices dictate your own.

But I do see your point, and I don't think you're wrong about Kento's inability to stop flagellating himself for Calibur's villainy. Kento is probably going to continue to cause problems for the Sword of Logos, so long as he keeps treating Calibur like his own personal nemesis.

Zi-O gave the MOTWs their own powers and motivations in lots of cases, tbh, but yeah, it's been a while since the monsters had any plans of their own.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 6 - “LIKE THE WIND, HE ARRIVES”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber06a.png

Finally! MORE RIDERS!

Absolutely bizarre episode, even recalibrating for Saber’s baseline of WTF Was That. The Zooooous cliffhanger from last time continues into a barely-addressed B-plot that still manages to land some intriguing emotional punches; a brand-new Rider is introduced who makes a pretty terrible first impression, character- and acting-wise, before having a pretty thrilling battle against Desast; and the rest of the cast does a whole bunch of research to find Avalon, without it being especially illuminating, or even coherent. It’s easily the Saberest episode to date.

Let’s start with Kenzan, because he’s the biggest deal in this weird-ass episode. He’s a member of the Sword of Logos, but he’s mostly a gigantic, disrespectful pain in the ass. Nominally here to demonstrate the wrong way of being a superhero in the Kamen Rider multiverse – thinking might makes right, laughing at the idea of empathy, and relishing the opportunity to detonate monsters – the episode mostly just has Ren be an immature prick to Touma, and then absolutely prove that might makes right by single-handedly defeating Desast. In an episode of multiple fights, the only clear victory comes from the worst character on the show.

I’m sure we’re going somewhere with this. I’m sure we’re going to be getting an arc where Kenzan either gets humbled or killed. But to have his introduction be that not happening, when there’s so much horribleness to his debut… it doesn’t sit well? It’s annoying to watch, and then there’s no real catharsis to it. It’s just Ren Is A Goofy Dickhead, the end.

And worse, it doesn’t even really connect to the other plots? We’re still in an incredibly messy layout, where there doesn’t seem to be much of an overall theme to the episode, and several plotlines exist in isolation. It’s just a bunch of stuff happening, all to various degrees of success, with nothing unifying to elevate the material. Individual scenes sink or swim, and that’s all the episode can be measured by. Kenzan’s an irritating brat, but then the Desast fight is awesome. I don’t know what to do with that?

It’s the same way for Touma’s plot this episode. One of the Book Club guys locks his sword in its scabbard, so Touma… has to find a magical land no one’s ever been to in order to unlock it? And it’s the same magical land Calibur’s looking for, which is why the trap was set? Sure, okay, whatever. It’s nothing that makes a ton of sense (what does any of this have to do with the Zoooous stuff? Or with Desast?), but it at least gives us the Daishinji/Touma stuff, which is fairly appealing. It’s the right kind of physical comedy, where Daishinji’s poor social skills are leveraged by Touma to get access to the secrets of the Sword of Logos. The thing they’re after is worthless to me, and the supposed Eureka moment Touma has makes me worried (oh god he needs to collect thirteen eyecons oh god noooooo), but the chemistry between the two actors carries lousy material, the same way this show has dodged up to five bullets so far.

It is… man, I don’t know how much longer I can keep giving this show the benefit of the doubt? This was almost unforgivably messy, with what feels like four different episodes worth of subplots tossed in haphazardly and stitched together recklessly. It never feels like it’s saying anything about its world, to me. There’s no guiding hand that feels like it’s got something it wants to communicate, and that super sucks.

Desast fight was cool, though. Show still knows how to make that shit work.

—

YOU STOLE SOMETHING

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber06b.png

Rintaro was a good boy.

That was what he was told his whole life, from his earliest days, up to the previous day at the 7-11. (He’d helped an elderly woman with her bags. It was the proper thing to do.) He acted in accordance with his training, and with his sense of duty. He supported his friends. He protected the innocent. He served the Sword of Logos. He was honest, and forthright, and polite, and caring. He was a good boy.

“Now go home and have a good ol’ cry to mommy, okay?”

He had never felt this kind of rage in his life. He’d lost duels, and been bested by adversaries. He could handle defeat. This wasn’t that.

This was failure.

He’d never needed to tamp down his emotions. He had the strength of his convictions, and his role as a swordsman in the Sword of Logos preached a higher level of self-control that homo sapiens couldn’t understand. The anger that less-disciplined fighters – he didn’t want to think of Ogami, but he did anyway – would use to occasionally-detrimental effect, it just passed through him. He didn’t need to calm down, or manage his anger, because his anger didn’t exist.

Now, though, the anger was all that existed.

His failure in battle with Zooous was like a fire that destroyed every version of himself that he held in his mind. Whatever “Rintaro” was or meant to others was immolated, reduced to ash, and that ash was scorched into nothing. He’d been weak, been clumsy, been worthless.

He’d never liked that word, “worthless”. It suggested a state of no return, where improvement was impossible and effort was redundant. Effort could always yield better results, with the right attitude. Improvement was inevitable, with the right direction.

His failure put the lie to that belief. He’d worked hard, been resolute in his focus, and been humbled. Been embarrassed. Been made a laughing-stock by the very monster that had murdered his master, a crime for which Rintaro had trained himself to avenge. The shame of it was unbearably; the rage was unbelievable.

“RINTARO!”

Someone was shouting his name, he thought. A woman’s voice. A million miles away. It was difficult to focus on it, over the noise of a scream. An animal was screaming, probably wounded. It sounded impossibly guttural. Its pain was horrifying. He’d hoped the woman might put it out of its misery, so that he could find some way to focus himself back from the white-hot emptiness of his own pain.

He hated the Rintaro that lost to Zooous, that much he knew. He might not have been killed – as much as he wished he had been, there’d’ve been honor in that – but the nice boy that dishonored anyone and everyone he’d ever cared about was surely gone forever, burned at the stake of worthlessness.

The animal was screaming again. Rintaro grasped at the ground, hoping to distract himself from whatever could be in that much pain but still live.

He’d force himself up soon, he vowed. He’d get to his feet, and this new version of himself would succeed where the nice boy – the good boy, the honest boy, the kind boy – had failed.

Zooous had robbed him of his better self, but perhaps his enraged self could prove its worth.

Ah yes, Ren... as my friend affectionately (and probably derogatorily) referred to him as Green Bean for the entirety of Saber's run...

Ren makes a terrible first impression, Kenzan looks really cool though and I appreciate that our next non Swordriver Sword has a separate function to make it look cool. The fact that you can do two blades, one blade, or even shuriken? Pretty cool for a wind themed Ninja Rider. Anyway yeah, with Ren you either love him or hate him in his first outing.

And then you'll either continue to hate him or actually warm up to him eventually. Just the mileage will vary and I'm curious as to where it ends up with you!

I personally think the highlight for this episode (aside from Desast, because obviously) was the Rintaro vs. Zooous fight. It's an interesting sort of opposite to everything. Touma and Daishinji get somewhere in finding clues to Avalon, Kenzan beats Desast, Espada deals with a Piranha Megid... and then you've got Rintaro as the odd one out who just completely flops entirely. Like, the single most stunning scene I recall in the first 6 episodes of Saber is the one where you see Zooous just pick up the sword, hand it to a dazed Blades and pat him on the cheek while telling him to cry to mommy. Just... the damn disrespect in that scene is phenomenal. It makes the post credits scene where everyone's gathered with their findings/victories hit harder when you just see a defeated Rintaro lumber in.

Speaking of Rintaro further! That short story... I was not expecting you to do an internal thought sort of story with his just... rage at that singular moment. But it was very nice to see how you interpreted Rintaro's emotional state in that moment, very nice.

I don't really care for this episode, Slash is cool and all and I like his and Touma's chemistry together, but the "forbidden books" thing just seemed so contrived, and I didn't particularly care about Zooous having killed Rintaro's master and the resulting fight. I do somewhat like Ren acting prideful and going on about how strong he is and then actually living up to it, though I do think it's kind of annoying to just have that be his only character trait, and I hope it eventually fades. Besides that, This episode just did not work for me, and I can't say I really enjoyed any particular aspect of it all that much.

The most irritating thing about Ren's debut is how specific it is in trying to be irritating. It's just like, Ren's awful! Don't you feel for Touma? But it's so one-note in its application -- Ren's obliviousness should come off filter-less and dense, but it's just him shouting POWER and TRAINING and FIGHTS in every single scene. It's a dumb idea that actor just drives into the ground.

the what now

How... how long have they been doing these? I don't have the patience to sit through the dance number at the end of each episode, and I never want to watch the teasers for the next episode. How many of these have I missed?!

Yeah the research to find Avalon is yet another random-ass thing Saber drops in with minimal explanation or foreshadowing. Calibur says it, cryptically, an episode or so back, but the idea that there are hidden books with secret secrets in them is... I feel like they could've built up to this better? Or, at all? It's a plot point that's only given the instant it becomes relevant, which only furthers the impression that things are being pulled out of various production asses.

It's one of the few times it occurs and think this is the first time? But yeah there's a post credits sequence. If you're using FlameSubs for the subs on VLC there are chapter markers. Just be sure to check for any extra parts after the labeled credits chapter.

Ah yes, the one with the double meaning title. Specifically, in Japanese, “He Appears” is a homophone for “Sword slash” (Kenzan). Speaking of whom, he’s the only Rider other than the main trio I went all in on buying for (it helped that his items were released only two weeks apart and allowed me to store everything neatly). And this video was briefly my most watched video.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wgKv3WjHIZk

And while the American side of the fandom was pretty unanimous in hating Ren, my fellow UK Rider fans at least got some jokes out of him.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...3/IMG_1726.JPG

And also he fights Desast. Totally innocuous, nothing more will come of that, I assure you.

Kenzan... is a pretty solid suit, but doesn't quite get my brain firing as much as the other base Rider suits so far? It's fine at communicating the whole ninja thing; the shuriken visor is really nice, the suit in general is a lot more pared down than the others in what almost feels like a padded wetsuit, the colour scheme is pretty solid... but I just can't quite get into it.

I guess part of it is that for me usually a suit has to match up with the characters or be saying something about them or having something else interesting about it, and it leads me to the question of why is this guy a ninja??? To start it feels a little weird that the organisation of knights - where everyone else so far is just a different type of knight - would just have a ninja as one of them, but I could get around that if it matched up with Kenzan's character which it doesn't? He's the literal opposite of a ninja??? He's all about pure strength rather than speed or agility, he doesn't care for stealth or tactics or anything like that, and spoilers but learning to be a ninja or whatever isn't gonna be part of his character growth... I dunno, it's just weird. It feels like either the Ninja Rider toys got randomly applied to this character or vice versa. I'm not gonna go on about it too much because, sure, whatever; but it has always felt very weird and incongruent to me

Oh boy... I got a few things to say.

First, Kenzan is probably one of my top 3 Saber characters xD

Yes, I'm serious. I just really like the character, but can't get into any of the reasons why yet. But I can totally get why you hate his guts right now xD

That said, the Avalon part of the episode holds a little nugget of information that I don't think has been brought up yet. You can actually read the books shown in the episode. The symbols correspond to English letters and are written in Japanese. And yes, they aren't actually gibberish. There is a surprising amount of backstory written in them, stuff I won't get into, because spoiler.

It's just such a nice detail from a production standpoint

https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...Iw&oe=63C48DFA

I think after Naruto, ninja became more associated with noisy teenagers who want to prove their coolness to the whole world than with invisible shadow warriors. Also (but this is speculation, so not 100% guaranteed) I read somewhere that the Japanese don't really like the ninja/shinobi theme very much, and only exploit it because of its popularity in the rest of the world.

I didn't even know FlameSubs provided chapter breaks! Thanks!

I'm sure!

I really liked the Desast/Kenzan fight, and not just for how kinetic and propulsive the action was. They just... they both seemed like they were really into it? Which reflects incredibly poorly on Kenzan's value system, in a nicely subtle way? It was a clever choice for Kenzan's first big fight scene.

Which, if I'm feeling like being overly generous (decent breakfast, so maybe), is probably why Ren is cast as the stealthy ninja archetype? He doesn't get it. The entire episode is Ren not understanding the significance or emotional weight of anything going on around him. He doesn't modulate his POWER AND FIGHTING ethos for anything that's happening to anyone else. He's dim, and self-absorbed, and totally unwilling to examine anything that he's presented with. Making that kid a loud, boisterous ninja who's always shouting and laughing and taunting... feels like they're trying to tell us something about Kenzan, even if it's stuff that's readily apparent from his first goddamn scene.

That, or the show's just like Kids Watch Too Much Naruto. One or the other.

I was aware of this, but thank you for bringing it up here! I'm currently using this coaster, which I'd previously (and happily) deciphered as saying KAMEN RIDER SABER BRAVE DRAGON around the edge:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/IMG_5333.jpg

It's a very cool bit of production design!

Also in my fanon, Sword of Logos and Takeshi from Hibiki were definitely meant to crossover (I just love the idea that a crossover between Saber and Hibiki could happen at any time in history). This means that Kenzan and some of the weapons from future episodes may have been inspired by the musical oni, while the Book Knights influenced the more armored oni suits featured in Seven Senki.

Oh, what a fun idea! I think that's a fascinating concept for a Saber crossover.

The trauma of failing to keep a promise from 15 years ago weighs heavily on Touma as well, considering how he has repressed memory of that incident and even the friend to whom he made that promise, he can't recall anything when Rintarou asked about this trait. Kento knows about this, but he's afraid to trigger it in case Touma can't handle remembering the truth. A broken promise can be devastating for both sides. Of course, I suppose it would've been more accurate to say false promise givers are among the worst, not only them. And yeah, there can be rare exceptional circumstances that might warrant renegotiating or aborting a promise, such as the recipient tricking someone in to making the promise by lying or omitting important details, or the recipient doing something dishonorable that renders them unworthy of the promise, or a promise to somebody else conflicting with the promise.

:thumb:

Personally, I have to praise the actor Togashi for portraying just how much of a creepy psychopath Ren is. I mean, the way he always smiles like a kid in a candy store before his Henshin pretty much tells you that this guy loves to fight more than anything else, so it's not that surprising to me that he seldom expresses more than that one side of himself on the surface. Similar to Kiriya, he's pinpoint-focused on winning, which is why he was able to give Desast his first major defeat. However, he can still be beaten, like in his newspaper duel with Touma and their second competition was a draw, with Kenzan's victory over Desast occurring around the same time as Touma figuring out how to reach Avalon.

Zooous totally humiliated Rintarou with that iconic line! He's the only Megid other than Desast to be credited with the death of a previous Swordsmen and I thought this was the moment that made him stand out from his fellow "Book Gangsters". I like how you captured Rintarou's suffering here, both his failure to avenge his master and the pressure to live up to his example as a Swordsman as well.

Fun Fact: Rintarou's master and previous Blades, Nagamine Kenshin, is portrayed by Mikami Masashi, who you might remember as that fortune teller from Drive Episode 14-15!

You really dislike Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra that much, huh?

There's only one reason a Tokusatsu show ever needs to have ninjas: They're awesome! Not sure if you watched Ninninjer, but that show makes it a point that the heroes aren't traditional ninjas and that's okay. They proudly call themselves, "The ninjas that don't hide!" and even earned the respect of their sempais Ninja and Hurricane Red by showing how their way of being ninjas is different but still important to their unique sense of identity as a Sentai. That show also had a ninja cowboy, so Kenzan being a ninja knight is hardly the weirdest thing that's happened.

While I won't deny that Ren has some serious problems, his courage and motivation to improve himself in combat are totally good qualities for a ninja. To claim that he doesn't care about speed, agility, stealth and tactics is simply wrong, as he clearly shows these skills in his fight with Desast through his use of cloning and substitution ninjutsu and hiding behind walls constructed by the Kobuta San Kyoudai. Desast had an advantage in raw power and experience, but Ren's tactics gave him edge he needed to win.

I'm glad you're enjoying the performance! It's not really clicking with me -- I think the actor's just hitting the same button too many times -- but it's clear that Ren's got some real fans out there. I hope I'm eventually able to see what everyone likes.

And, in fairness, Ren only lost that duel due to his Totally Not A Crush on Kento.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 5

This one holds a real special place in my heart, even by Saber's standards. Namely because it's the first episode of the series that I felt like I properly connected with an emotional level. Like, sure, the insanity of these chummy swordsmen had been fun so far, but stories that really stick with me tend to do so because of some sort of humanity I find in the narrative, and the plotline with Touma and Kento surprised me with how much it delivered that.

I thought Kento's trouble opening up was extremely well-realized, and it was sort of shocking to see Touma coming to the conclusion that he needs to give his friend the space to talk when he's ready, when I could easily imagine a take on this plot that's more concerned with condemning Kento for being unhelpful or whatever. But I guess that's just the kind of emotional sensitivity you can expect from Takurou Fukuda's Rider scripts, and since Kazuya Kamihoriuchi was the directer, I guess that's also just the kind of quality you can expect from the dream team behind the Kamen Rider Specter movie.

Oh, and plus! This episode has Saber's second and final proper bike action scene, which apparently is only there because Kamihoriuchi wanted to do a bike action scene, further proving both how cool Kamihoriuchi is, and how little Kamen Rider cares about bike action now, which is less cool!

Naturally, there's a ton of other little things I love about this one; I'm barely scratching the surface here...

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 6

...because I've also gotta talk about the second Fukuda/Horiuchi episode of Saber, which wasn't quite the homerun I thought the prior one was. Eiji Togashi's acting as Ren didn't exactly win me over right away. I believe he was one of those young toku actors who was totally new to acting, and unlike some other examples of that, I think it kinda shows in his performance in this one, unfortunately. But you know, just like Ren himself, he's got plenty of room to grow. The upside is that his wooden delivery arguably enhances the creepy blood knight vibe Ren's got going on, and while this episode didn't make me like Kenzan the way I did with the other Riders so far, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him interesting. The other plotlines in this episode definitely grabbed my attention way more though, especially at the time. Daishinji is adorable and Rintarou was pretty firmly my favorite character at this point.

clearly this is the universe's way of punishing you for not liking ska

Even if I'm never going to be a fan of shows dragging out Secret Dire Revelations until it's most narratively convenient -slash- emotionally destructive to do so, I did like how supportive Touma is of Kento's secrecy and misplaced guilt. Like, his buddy isn't ready to open up? That's cool! They're still friends! That's a nice twist on the routine, for sure.

Yes, this distinguishes Saber from other shows (not just riders) where any secret is used as an excuse for conflict.

I never warmed up to Ren. I understand the character and I get what his deal is, but I never thought of him as anything but the show's worst character. This makes it all the more frustrating that he's a major player in probably my two favorite fight scenes in the entire series. This wasn't one of them.

If it's any consolation, this is more or less where I was at by this point, too. I can't guarantee that you'll have the same reaction as the show goes on, but for me the series did absolutely find itself eventually, but it wasn't really until it hit the second major story arc.

The universe knows damn well that ska is trash.

It does! I'm sort of concerned that its tendency to pass up the easy drama in favor of happier, healthier relationships is a good thing, though? Like, we do need drama in our cast! We need some guys to not get along, because that's where stories live. A show about a group of guys who respect each other's emotional boundaries and practice good self-care is... I don't know if that's the best version of a workplace dramedy?

I feel like I'll get there. I always do. I like Kamen Rider too much to stay mad at it indefinitely, give or take a soul-crushingly bad Amazons movie. I'm sure there'll be a mix of Stockholm Syndrome and Q2 improvement that'll get me to a place where the negatives seem trivial in light of the positives. Too bad we are still in Q1!

Just to spite you all, I'm going to listen to some two-tone and ska right now.

Ren is a weird one, in that he feels like he wandered in from a completely different show. The rest of the SOL feel like a coherent organisation - sure Calibur betrayed them, but they're profesional, reasonable people devoted to the protecting people cause. Then Ren is just over here being a gremlin ninja, the shonen rival character in an anime obsessed with strength and being the strongest and Hokage (I have not seen Naruto). If I were being generous, I'd say it's interesting to shake up the protagonists this way, bring in someone to aggravate the others and have some kind of story hook, except he doesn't goes that far, he's too minor a role (how many Riders are we on right now?), so he's just here to be annoying and give Dezast someone who will happily play along with his "enjoying fighting" schtick.

Meanwhile, Rinataro suffers his first bit of character growth... by getting his ass beaten. A good bit both for actually making the Megiddo feel like threats to our heroes, and giving a more personal stake to one of our heroes. Compare that to the Avalon thread, which even for a Fukuda script is kinda nebulous in how it works or what it is, and there's a that you have to hope will pay off if/when they get there.

Please remember this comment in a few hours when I get around to posting about Episode 7, please and thank you.

EDIT: Also, I don't disagree with your analysis of Ren as being totally incongruent with the (relatively-)stable group of adults who normally hang out at the North Pole, but I think the early episode establishment of the swords picking the users gives them a lot of narrative cover for why this possibly-concussed jerk-off is part of the team. Take it up with Magic Sword HR!

Oh yeah, I don't think it ruins the super-deep established lore of the Sword of Logos or anything, I'm totally ready to believe some of their swordspeople are more Rider-like than the normal men we've just happened to meet, but it's an interesting narrative choice to go "Yep, here's friendly Rintaro, and here's friendly Ogami, and here's friendly Kento, and here's violent blood-knight Ren." Especially in the course of, like, 6 episodes!

The only evidence of rushed storytelling in all of Saber, unfortunately. Weird how this error snuck in!