To each their own!

On the merits of its amount of characters, variety of form changes, and ubiquity of explosions? It's definitely a fun experience for any type of viewer.

Unrelated: I only *just* figured out the pun in "Kamen Rider Die." Awesome.

Ha ha, thanks!

Man yeah, that's the difference between the audience, who already knows character's traits, and the people inside who interacted with them. Dramatic irony or internal reveal is a stuff in stories, but as someone who'd have evasiveness like Kento, I'd think if only I got audience-like knowledge of the people, I'd know to accept or avoid support - in this case, I'd immediately confide to Touma as I'd know he's a goody two shoes thus he'd do best to support me, and also Rintaro as he's nice though he got problems in socializing. Other than that, there's also Mei who tries to get Kento to open up, and as usual, being pushy about it, though she also claims they're friends. For her though, kinda doubt here if Mei'd only open to listening because Kento is hot in her eyes, or because she's genuinely like that, if I'm in Kento's place I'd doubt opening up with Mei too...

Actually now I do wonder what actually happened behind the supposedly noble Daichi being the one who uses Calibur, and also fights the 3 main Riders without issue, and apparently the twist is really, about Kento's dad being a traitor still, as claimed by Daichi. I wasn't invested for Calibur stuff at all in the beginning, but this actually gave me a bit more interest about it, like why Daichi ended up like this.

About this being old information to the audience, I wonder if they actually know that the boy in the flashback was Kento, or this is actually a confirmation to them. Or that Kento being introduced as Touma's childhood friend already indirectly explained this to them (I knew this from basic Saber information... also got spoiled a bit).

This is why I disagree with the thinking of heroes as the strong and cool ones.

Well, it’s nice to see you enjoyed this movie. I certainly had a better time with it than Zero-One’s movies. And it allows me to introduce my new feature, in which I take a look at either some alternative jingles for one-book Swords, and share the multiple jingles that the larger books all have (in addition to the standby and transformations being part of the book, rather than part of the sword).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fIaIHt1nUBY

Battou! Eternal Power/Legend/Wonder! Kyomu! The flames of the God-beasts/the fangs of the animals/the dreams of the stories/power without equal return all to the nether!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7TtoKlkt5WM

Bravery! Love! Pride! The God-Beast with the three powers now arrives…!

Love! It’s is the power to care for everything!

Bravery! It is the power to unlock hope!

Pride! It is the power to pierce through your own will!

And you may notice that they brought in a female VA to do this book, in addition to the two male VAs we regularly get. Specifically, her name’s Miyu Fukuda (no relation to Takuro) and she’s part of an group called NEO-JAPANISM. We’ll be seeing her in a slightly more major capacity down the line.

Speaking of down the line, Falchion doesn’t die, he get put back in the book he escaped from and given over to a bloke in a cloak…

But next time, you’ve seen the the repaint in action, now you’ll see the og mould.

For how much I stated my dislike of fighting in my last post, I actually did like this movie, it's just plain fun, there isn't any real plot to the movie, it's just a big fight between the good Riders and evil Riders.

Considering how most of this film is just fighting, I don't exactly have much to say, the movie looks nice and Emotional Dragon is honestly a really cool form, so it's too bad it's a movie form meaning it'll probably never appear again, but I can hope.

I guess I didn't like how Touma was the only one there actually fighting the main bad guy, I know this is to be expected of Kamen Rider, but the other Rider literally just fighting a giant army of fodder for the entire movie's runtime leaves a bad taste in my mouth, though I'd probably be a bit more mad if it weren't for the fact that this movie was clearly just made for the sole purpose of making kids want to watch the show by showing them 20 minutes of cool fighting.

On the whole, this movie was decent, as I've said a multitude of times, it's merely just fighting for the whole thing, not even trying to explain anything, and it's hard to fault the movie for that, so I guess I liked the movie, even if I would have preferred that this film had a bit more substance.

I didnt end up doing much today, including not watching saber, si bleh.

Also! I just want to bring up how great the credits are for the short film. They're freaking adorable.

It's a pun? Like on ghost or something?

I'm really enjoying how much of a recurring sub-plot Handling Kento is. That dude came into this show brooding and ashamed, and the characters keep having to find some way to navigate his moodiness and bolster his self-esteem. I really love it? It's actually a nicely sensitive portrayal of depression, even if its root cause is My Dad Is An Evil Swordsman, rather than Brain Chemicals.

The latter, I'd think. That same flashback scene shows up in the opening credits, and Kento's debut established that he and Touma and an unnamed girl were childhood friends. I don't think the frequent cuts to it left any mystery as to who's who in that flashback.

Thanks so much for sharing this!

I mean, like it or not, this is pretty much the climax of every Rider movie? The other Riders (show Secondaries, Legend Riders, Sentai guest-stars) handle the mass combat at the quarry, while the title Rider handles the lead villain elsewhere. It's very much the formula for these types of battles.

No, it's a dumber pun than that. "Kamen Ride Or Die".

I will again note that the peculiarity of Saber is that it is a show of riders, which has few allotted episodes. Therefore, all additional content in it is more important than usual. Even such a short action-oriented movie.

*in Izu voice*
His username is a very funny joke based on the similar sound of “Rider” and “ride or”.

I figured! The post-credit scene very much makes it look like Falchion's story isn't over (even if that actor may not return; not sure!), and it introduces the weirdo Book Prison that's also maybe the Southern Base. Plus other stuff that I don't yet have a context for, possibly!

I'd say DON'T EXPLAIN THE GAG, but I already did, so instead:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zeroone/seriesb.png

But it was Sento who liked to explain names.

I was parodying them both! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yeah, the Saber movie is great, if you like your CGI swordfights to have some vague philosophy about returning to nothing laid over them. It's just, for the same reason I don't remember much of the dozen Sentai films I've seen, I don't remember much of this. But it succeeds at what it sets out to do - Touma gets to be the hero, the apocalypse is thwarted in less time than it takes to cook a meal, and it's a nice coda to the chaos that is early Saber. Plus... it's a 20 minute appetizer to hype 9 year olds up for the 01 movie. It's probably good it's not a deep character piece where the characters never transform!

And I know I just said all that, even in this Kamen Rider equivalent to the most sugary drink known to man, Falchion is great. The suit works amazingly for something bolted on top of a 5 year old default form (even the colour scheme is the same as Ghost), and Future Ultraman Decker here is doing his best to make the short have some emotional depth to it.

(Oh, and if we're doin favourite movie Rider, shout out to my boy Katsumi Daido, man still earning that undead paycheck even a decade on)

Well yeah, I mean, faulting this film for its lack of complex plotting or deep themes would make about as much sense to me as berating a Hyper Battle Video for not being serious enough, you know? I'm very much considering the movie in the broader context of when and where it was released and why it has the goals it does and all that, and I really do think they nailed it? It's a very traditional sort of Japanese kids' show movie deal where it is 100% about the simple thrill of going to a theater and cheering your favorite heroes on as they do cool action stuff on a bigger screen than usual. The only way it could be more old-school is like, if it were literally just a cropped version of one of the regular episodes from TV. Paradise Lost is still probably my favorite Rider movie ever because of how much it just feels like a *film*, but something like this, it's kind of in a different genre entirely the way I see it?

God, favorite movie Rider... my memory's terrible -- and these shows get pushed out of my brain so quickly, to make room for the current show that I need to think about daily -- but Eternal's a really good pick? I remember thinking Verde was too strong a concept to have kept just in a film. Eden definitely found some interesting depth in REALxTIME. I'd love to hear any and everyone else's picks, if only to selfishly jog my own memory!

Sure, and part of my reaction to it is from the expectation that I'd be given something other than an all-action opening act to a different film. But I... look, I'm not saying that this isn't successful as a commercial for a toy commercial TV show. I gotta think kids who hadn't sampled Saber yet were rushing home to set their DVRs afterwards. But I've seen HBVs that managed stories AND humor AND action AND new suits, all in half the time. I don't think it's impossible that this film couldn't've had a little more meat on the bone, narratively-speaking.

That's just me, though! It's clearly not what the filmmakers wanted, and (judging by the reaction in this thread) it's not something most viewers felt was needed. Giving the audience pure, unfiltered spectacle was probably the safest and most popular choice. For me though, as someone who generally loses interest in Kamen Rider movies as night descends on Kamen Rider Quarry, I would've liked to see something with a little more behind it than this.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 11 - “THUNDER CRACKS, AS DARK CLOUDS SPREAD”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber11a.png

Holy shit, I loved this. No notes!

I don’t know if this is the official start of When Saber Gets Good, but it sure as hell felt like it. An entire A-plot that’s dedicated to things like how we use our own stories to fill in the blanks of the people we love, a B-plot that just wants to goof around, and a C-plot that starts to wind up the Book Club storyline, or at least let it do something of value? That is exactly the type of show I want to see more of, and it’s got me legitimately excited to see the next episode.

It’s clever in the way it largely dodges Touma’s still-not-quite-resolved Narratively Convenient Amnesia, in favor keeping the focus locked on Kento’s confusion, frustration, suspicion, and general self-destructive martyrdom. In other words: it’s a Handling Kento episode.

I’m all for that? As previously stated (I think earlier today?) I really like how much this cast has to try and navigate the minefield of Kento’s mood swings, as well just, like, generally keep him from dying in a blaze of sword sparks and shouted accusations re: his dad, of which he’s only got the one memory. (It’s a good one! But, shit, I’d hope he’d interacted with his dad more than the one time!) Of the few recurring story engines this show has, Handling Kento is my favorite.

This episode does a bang-up job of interrogating Kento’s current grumpiness by having Rintaro get involved, who honestly pluses up every single plot he’s involved in. (Dude is seriously this show’s MVP so far.) The start of it was where I knew I’d love this episode, because it smartly makes Rintaro’s one and only appeal something that would be a critical hit on Rintaro, but a total miss for Kento. Rintaro tries to argue for the rules and duty of a swordsman, but Kento couldn’t care less about a guild that let a former member probably-murder his dad, and possibly cover it up for 15 years. Kento needs an emotional appeal, not a logical one.

The thing that makes this episode great for a Kamen Rider episode, not just a Saber episode, is how it reframes Rintaro’s original argument into him actually trying to appeal to Kento emotionally. To Rintaro, the Sword of Logos is his family; Kento is his brother. When Rintaro’s putting things in terms of how the Sword of Logos would be hurt by Kento’s actions, or how Kento risks expulsion, what Rintaro’s trying to say is that Kento is hurting this family. He doesn’t have any other way of saying it, because his story doesn’t include things like a father or a brother. He thinks he’s opening himself up to Kento, but Kento’s just hearing more office talk from an organization he no longer trusts.

It’s a type of miscommunication that’s really fascinating, and thematically appropriate for this show. Rintaro’s got a story he knows, about duty and responsibility and comrades-in-arms. Kento’s got a story he knows, about fathers and sons and guilt and shame. Those stories inform how they interact with the world, and how they view relationships. We get to see Rintaro eventually try and understand Kento’s story by the end, to his (physical) and Kento’s (emotional) detriment. Rintaro is able to see Kento’s need for answers through the lens of Rintaro’s own dedication to the other swordsmen, and how he’d risk his life for them. His sacrifice for Kento lets Kento understand that his bond with Rintaro (and Touma, and Mei) is something that’s more than just situational or professional, it’s familial.

(Even that screencap I used up top is two brothers who know how to get on each other's nerves! It's playful while still being intensely serious! A+++!)

Powerful, beautiful episode. It did everything right, and I didn’t even touch on the hilarious Gremlins plot of Kenzan thanking a monster for a fun fight, or Saber trying to call a time-out mid-battle because he's a little winded after the last couple days. This one was perfect! No notes!

—

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber11b.png

“That took a while. You went into the kitchen to make that call,like, five minutes ago.”

“Yeah, no, sorry… I was…”

“Was what?”

“I was calling the pizza place, but I guess I dialed it wrong, because I got some guy on the phone instead.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, he said his name was Tassel? And I was like ‘oh, sorry, wrong number’, but then he just starting telling me about the Sword of Logos–”

“He started telling you about a sword? What?”

“No, it’s not a sword. I guess it’s like some sort of cross between a religious sword apocalypse cult and that show The Office? It’s like if Jim and Pam were both trained killers with magic swords who were trying to prevent a monster armageddon.”

“...is the Sword of Logos?”

“Yeah. And they live in a base at the North Pole, but there’s another base at the South Pole, and that one’s real sketchy. Anyhow, the Sword of Logos–”

“Why is the South Pole one sketchy?”

“Uh, he didn’t say, and it– it sort of wasn’t relevant? It’s like he just wanted to dish about some lady who was real suspicious. He didn’t even tell me her name, but he was like ‘That Southern Base! I don’t trust them!’”

“Uh–”

“So anyway, Sword of Logos: they got betrayed by some guy named Calibur, and his kid Espada is in the group now, but it turns out Calibur isn’t his dad? It’s some other guy? Who used to be Saber, but not the current Saber, an old one.”

“So this guy’s dad used to be Saber?”

“No, his dad was Calibur, but then Calibur wasn’t his dad. Calibur is Saber, but not the Saber who’s friends with Espada. Oh, and whenever Tassel mentions Calibur his voice gets really low and menacing, even though he normally sounds real cheery and musical. Like– like he’s hosting some kid’s show?”

“Uh huh.”

“Right, so, Espada’s all freaked out about his dad not being Calibur right now, and Saber’s remembering all this stuff he forgot about this little girl he was friends with as a kid. It’s a whole THING.”

“Right.”

“That’s all I got, though. It sounded like some friend of his showed up, and he started telling them some of this? And then he hung up on me.”

“... Look, are you going to actually order a pizza, or what.”

Yeah I'd say the end of Q1 is when Saber gets into high gear with how it wants to go.

Personally I feel as though it's after Q1 where it starts getting more of its footing, but we're definitely on the uptick I feel in terms of how the episodes are turning out compared to say Episode 1 through 9.

But yeah, funny how you watched Saber's theatrical short yesterday because Jaou Dragon does exist first in terms of production order. And so does it's pop up book which Emotional is retooled from.

That being said, as much as I love Jaou Dragon and it's heavy metal jingle of death, I just... I really love Kento in this episode? He's the kind of guy who is self-destructive and while he can get help, he can easily slip back into those tendencies. As you said earlier, it's very interesting to see the cast having to navigate the minefield that is Kento's mood. It also feels realistic in that, sometimes you cannot so easily crawl out of whatever rut your in even with your friends trying their best to support you.

Kento's an interesting lad! Really love him to be honest! I wish he would take better care of himself!

That being said, man Rintaro... I'm glad you're loving Rintaro a lot because he's personally one of my favorite Secondaries in the franchise. And this episode is very much the start of me taking more of an interest in him.

As for the story this time... not much to say honestly. I got a chuckle out of the way this guy was explaining what Tassel was narrating. It reminds me of giving someone with no context, details about a plot in Kingdom Hearts. It's like... if you know everything surrounding those details it makes sense in context and isn't that weird. If you don't... it just comes off as confusing and you really hope your friend is going to get you that pizza he said was on him.

To paraphrase a quote I can't remember the source of anymore, Kento is one of those guys you have to know how to be friends with. He can be a really good dude, but you are probably also going to have to separate him in a bar fight someday. Being friends with Kento is like being friends with a time bomb: you think you've cut the right wire, but the damn thing still might explode at some point.

It's honestly really, really great.

And now we get to Jaoh Dragon, not only the first power up book to be released, but the one with the most WTF jingle of the bunch.

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

The zenith of evil’s darkness will armour up the various dragons whose hidden power is now released…

To summarise, the dark dragon messenger invades!

No one can get away…

And then there’s this meme, which has its own comment included for added funny.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...6/IMG_3099.PNG

Also Sophia gets kidnapped, which serves three purposes: 1), to leave the heroes lost as to what to do without a voice of reason, 2) to create mystery as to who did it using that method (Calibur’s thing is darkness, not smoke) and 3) it allows the actress to take a break from the show to meet a theatre commitment.

Yeah, the "movie" is short and to the point, but it works well enough. Also has some nice pieces of foreshadowing in it, and Bach feels solidly explored in his short time in it. Not much more to say.

That is actually not where it gets good. It's still in the "I like this, but..." period of the show. That said, I really like this episode, especially with how Rintaro's secluded nature as a swordsman mixes with him, revealing more about his backstory. It really cements his place in the setting in a great way.

For when I started really getting to that pure enjoyment part, very, very end of arc 1, aka, when they pull things together again.

I also actually enjoyed this episode; I've said numerous times that the main thing I love about Saber is its cast, and it's used to great effect in this episode. I've heard people say that Saber gets better after its first arc, and considering all of the 'rising action' going on, I'd assume we're getting close to when most people agree that Saber improves, and considering how much I enjoyed this episode, I'd probably agree.

There are still some things that weren't that great to me personally, there was a lot of transformations in this episode, and while a lot of them were off-screen, it still felt like a bit of padding, though this isn't something entirely unique to this episode. Also, they seem to have this cliffhanger making you think Rintaro might die, even though it's extremely unlikely for that to happen, and it just doesn't leave as much of an impact.

Besides those things, this episode was honestly pretty good, which isn't something I could state about many of the previous Saber episodes so far.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 11

Judging by how short my post from the time is, apparently I actually did not have many notes on this one. And like, I don't here either? Still a great episode, still really love Kento, agree with pretty much everything Die said, except that Saber obviously "got good" right from episode 1. :p (The point Die is referring to is more like When Saber Gets REAL Good from my perspective.)

So uh, in lieu of anything to say about the story, I'm going to go ahead and talk a bit more suit design, because I'm skimping over that in this thread way too much.

Calibur is a pretty cool dude. Jaaku Dragon is such a perfect Evil Saber, with pretty much the same armor layout, with the head on the shoulder on all that. The reveal that Calibur literally IS Saber, but a bad guy now just kinda makes it fit that much more. But then you've got Jaou Dragon, which I've always gathered is the more popular of his suits? I could go either way myself, but it's not hard to see why someone would think that, with how cool it looks. It also has one of my absolute favorite tricks of any suit in the series, where his entire torso armor literally IS the book, opening up from the center with all five dragons popping up out of it. The whole pop-up book design means the Wonder Ride Book doesn't technically have the usual picture of the Rider on the inside, and yet, it still kinda does? Just a really impressive suit.

And while that's definitely the bigger talking point for most people, I actually want to take a second to shout out Dragon Bremen's appearance too. I honestly have a huge soft spot for all of Saber's sort of W style two book forms, for a lot of reasons. I like how they fill out Brave Dragon's plain left side without getting rid of the aysmetry, I like how creative the fight scenes tend to get when Touma gets to play with these stories, and I'm also extremely fond of how nearly all of those books truly "belong" to other Riders. It's this really efficient way to distribute everything where I don't have to be bemoaning it when Saber doesn't use his basic form changes more than once or twice, because he isn't carrying that entire collection around the way most main Riders are.

Conflict will always be present as long as any living being exists, of which yeah.... the solution is technically reduce the population to nothing but this unjustly takes away their rights to live, and even when they're only caught in the crossfire between the aim to purge the conflict instigators. And honestly, if you're keeping living beings' population, there's no permanent, effective, 100% morally justified solution ever. I'd also say that for someone seemingly shallow and obsessed with social climbing (including social media), perhaps also in similar vein to Akiko, Mei's sweet here to run after some random kid, while also staying by his side to encourage him by talking about Kamen Riders.

And that is also something present in Ghost, its final form Mugen Damashii. As a Phoenix... Falchion can't truly die and for now Saber has to re-seal him in the Book of Ruin.

It's a cute comment, but we all know that Rintaro's secret internet shame is actually searches like Best Local Eclair Stores and Dessert Photos (SafeSearch ON).

That's fair! For me, this was such a confident shift into tense and captivating plotting, all drawn from character relationships and established history, that it felt like the show found a higher gear.

I mean, I'm okay with it because it's more about Kento's mental state than Rintaro's physical health. I don't assume most viewers thought this was going to be the death of the best character on the show. Like, it's not even Christmas. We all know Takahashi's deal by now!

I just really like this episode for how it gets at Kento's unsustainable psychology. Kento's someone who was trapped in one story - a great swordsman betrays his guild and leaves his son - who longed to rewrite it. He was going to make it a story about redemption, where an abandoned boy became a great swordsman, defeated his father, and brought honor back. Kento's the one who was always going to Fix This. That's his driving goal and moral center.

But then he finds out that Calibur isn't his dad, which changes the story. What would defeating Daichi even mean? Where's his father? Is he dead? Should Kento be trying to save him? Whatever moral clarity and peace of mind Kento's dedication and self-sacrifice had given him is now gone, and all that's left is the rage of a child who's trying to make sense of a complex world.

I am okay with this show landing more of this story's climax on Kento!

After only one episode, I definitely prefer Jakku Dragon. Some of that is a personal bias I bring with me to all of these shows, where the cleaner suits win more of my love. I don't generally love upgrade suits more than I love base suits. Beyond that, Good Dragon Guy fighting Bad Dragon Guy in similar suits is just more visually interesting to me? Once Calibur switches out some of his suit layout, I kinda tune out.

First suit, best suit; that's sort of my preference in Kamen Rider.

I always like that, thematically. These metaphorical fights aren't ones you can ever really win, so it's better to stop Falchion for now and hope he doesn't break out again.

Oh, I was saving this one for later in my rewatch. I'll put a Wonder Ride Bookmark on this page and get back to you in a few days. It's a promise!

Rintarou's and Kento's dynamic often gets overlooked by the typical Primary/Secondary dynamic of Touma and Rintarou and the best friend dynamic of Touma and Kento. But it's important to remember that out of the three, Rintarou and Kento have known each other the longest. Rintarou has a tragic backstory with the loss of his parents at an early age, but instead of brooding, he found new family in SOL and a desire to protect them. That's pretty cool! Even during his brief pursuit of revenge against Zooous, he quickly got his head together and swore upon the Suiseiken Nagare to protect the people he loved. That's Kento's conflict now, between avenging his traitorous father, or prioritizing the people who care about his welfare and are getting themselves severely injured to bail him out of poorly chosen battles.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. The mysterious abductor's method was pretty discreet, choosing the moment where nobody could afford to focus on anything except Calibur and the elemental pillars. But of course, Sophia's absence from Northern Base is a major problem in the long term, since there are things only she can do and I think maybe that's something that some people might take for granted. Sophia also showed bravery by putting herself in danger twice to try and help, despite not being a Swordsman.

I'm one of the people who prefer Jaou Dragon. I appreciate the symmetry of the suit, the commitment to the pop-up design and how it looks like Jaaku's cold silver mask was removed to show the hot passion beneath. The special Wonder Ride Book solves the aesthetic problem I had with the normal books. Jaou Dragon with its five intimidating golden dragons looks like something that demands to be on full display and jumping out at you, in contrast to the 2D abstract images we've had before. I love how the Engrish jingle screams Evil, without any concern for making sense. Make Might A Just, hell yeah!

He's a good boy! I wasn't sure how long this show could keep Rintaro from losing his sweetness and generosity, but I'm glad that it hasn't happened yet.

I enjoy Jaou Dragon for its shift in aesthetic storytelling. Calibur's role as a villain before was exactly as Jaaku Dragon's design told you: the dark knight; the rogue counterpart to the heroes working against them for his own means. But now he's got what he wants and he's in a much more active role, he's switched from dark knight to dark emperor; this overwhelming commanding presence that bests all before him. It's especially impressive to me that it gets off such different vibes when they're in fact the exact same suit from below the torso in order to work in an action figure gimmick. Just good visual storytelling!

I think I prefer Jakku Dragon? Even aside from it being "Saber, but the bad Saber", something about Jaou's design just doesn't click with me? I think it's the colour scheme, mixed with looking more like a Knight? Hard to say.

That's kinda part of the trick I love about Jaou though -- it puts so much weight up top that it definitely looks immediately bulkier and more menacing, but in terms of silhouette, detail, the overall layout... it's just as clean and readable as Calibur's base form, if not cleaner? Even the color scheme feels simpler and more unified, with the gold armor meshing nicely with the accent lines that were already there.

I don't know, Jaaku is generally the one I'd pick too, if forced to choose a favorite, but it's just too hard to deny the appeal of Jaou. There's just no losing with the suits in this show! They're all too good!

EDIT: wait a sec....

I only just now realized, after like two years, that Jaou's visor is literally the fire coming out of the dragon's mouth. Holy crap that's awesome.

Daishinji just tries to stop these 2 due to his hate of infightings, this is likely not only something about him being peaceful but about how he's shy and quiet and thus won't like any loudness in his surroundings (more personal reason), but using 'good' reason to stop it in how fighting is bad. Sophia tasking Mei to guard the base with the key does show her entrusting her but, that still means that Mei feels as if she's relegated into mundane tasks anyone can do, though, unfortunately that no one sees, she executes three-point landing while discovering the projection from the key (though her trying to getting to know the key's function like that is a reckless move).

I'd not like if something adds temporary negative side for someone just for drama's sake, but here while Rintaro does have well intention to keep Kento from going off the deep end, this seems to display Rintaro's actual negative side which can be more prevalent later, about how he can be too rigid and serious, towards anything that is Sword of Logos related and its view, I think, won't help Kento's issues, and instead can seem demeaning (worse consequence than him not expecting Touma's tactics, and can turn him into.... kinda typical edgy secondary Rider type) like forcing Kento to give up his position. Rintario seems to 'learn' in the end that he too can be irrational but well uh....

I'd say this episode's stuff is mostly Kento's fault, but obviously it's intentional as his character flaw, and as someone already brooding before, it came to light for now, Kento's emotions really consume him as Rintaro warned, like outright making the worst assumptions about Sophia and Calibur and jumping in the conclusions for that. Kento's also someone who'd use other's suffering as comparison and competition, brushing off other's suggestion and advice due to feeling that their sufferings are not as big/comparable to his father issues. What Kento did in this episode costed Rintaro's well-being, and like Rintaro above, though Kento seemed to regret making Rintaro end up like that, doesn't mean it's the end.

I saw someone mention this in the Figuarts thread a couple days ago, before I saw Jaou Dragon in the show. It's a very neat touch!

I don't know if I'd say Rintaro has a negative side in this one? He wants to keep Kento safe throughout, and his only "failing" is in how he can't quite see the situation from Kento's perspective. But, then, that's universal? This whole plot is about how the narratives we construct to explain our world are invariably different than the ones other people construct, and how hard it can be to (figuratively!) get on the same page.

It's the same trick as Cross-Z, and I really don't mind them being bold enough to use it again within a mere few years because it's a REALLY good design choice!

Good golly, this is some great analysis. Y'all are rad

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 12 - “OUR PROMISE TO EACH OTHER, AT THAT VERY PLACE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber12a.png

Liked this one a lot, but I didn’t love it?

The big problem I’m always going to have with Narratively Convenient Amnesia storylines is that they’re inherently backwards-looking: the character’s past is obscured in some way, necessitating an incremental clarifying of actions and events that occurred before the show began. The core trauma/revelation is a prequel to the main series, and I sort of hate prequels? It’s storytelling dedicated to filling in blanks, rather than propelling characters forward; providing answers rather than asking questions. I want to see characters make new decisions, rather than learn why they made old ones.

As such… not a super-illuminative episode of Saber? We don’t really get additional insight into our characters, so much as reiterating their motivations: Touma keeps promises, Rintaro is a steadfast friend, and Kento’s going to Fix This all by himself. The addition of Luna’s name or whatever… okay? I don’t care. I can’t care, because Luna–for all her significance in flashbacks–isn’t even a character yet. She’s a plot point. Touma might as well have lost a stuffed animal that day, or a favorite book. I can’t care about her loss because there’s nothing there to lose. I don’t care if Touma finds her or not, beyond a vague That Would Be Nice For Touma feeling. I really hope this is the last we have to learn about Kento’s guilty conscience and Touma’s Narratively Convenient Amnesia, because I literally cannot muster up any enthusiasm for backstory about characters that only exist in memories.

As for the rest of this episode, it’s solid enough to still be in the upper tier of Saber episodes. There’s no greater sense of what Calibur and the Book Club are up to (every time Calibur says “universal truth” like it's an explanation, I roll my eyes so hard), but the tone of the episode is nicely settled in This Is Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better, which makes for an enjoyable twenty minutes of superhero action and adventure. The focus is purely on Kento, Touma, and Rintaro, so everyone else gets very minor bits of business. (Favorite touch was Mei chewing out Kento for almost getting Rintaro killed. Mei’s great! I hope the show gives her meaty scenes in the future!) The whole story here is about Kento’s crushing guilt, and how his inability to share that burden has consequences for all the people in his life. It’s maybe not surprising or clever, but it’s efficient and effective.

I… this show is so special when it lets itself tell stories in the present with its phenomenal cast. When it thinks it needs to spend time with things that happened fifteen years ago, it becomes so much less compelling to me. And, like, I get it: Kento’s trapped in that moment he and his friends made that promise, right before it all fell apart for good, so it makes sense for the show to be trapped there as well. I just can’t find much pleasure in that storytelling. It’s nice to have a touching scene with Touma and Kento, but it’s a shame it needs to be grounded in events that we’ve only glimpsed in flashback.

—

BURY IT

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber12b.png

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

It was a question Kento got all the time. He wondered if he heard it more than any other.

He wasn’t okay, of course. He hadn’t been okay in fifteen years, since the world was saved and his was destroyed. Fifteen years since his father had betrayed the Sword of Logos. Fifteen years since Luna went missing. Fifteen years since Touma forgot him. Fifteen years since he’d been happy.

He didn’t say any of that. He never did. He took that part of him, the part that spent every waking minute working to undo the shame and guilt of his father’s actions, and buried it under the mask of the man he hoped to be someday; a man who took joy in his friends and the life he lived.

He looked Touma in the eyes, as he’d done before with everyone he cared for, and said “Yes.”

It was strange how easy it was to lie to the people who loved him. He’d had years of practice, but he always thought it should hurt more. He wondered if the shame he felt for his father’s betrayal, and the lives it had ruined, left him incapable of feeling it for anything else.

It could be that. Or maybe it was that this lie was in service to his debt to Touma, another invisible kindness to his childhood friend, to spare him the hardship of the truth. He’d been glad that Touma couldn’t remember Luna, as cruel as that might sound. Better to leave the pain to Kento. It was his oldest friend, these days.

But those days were ending, and they were ending now. He’d made up his mind, and there was nothing for it now but to see it through.

Kento smiled at Touma, a smile that was almost honest in its relief, and said, “I know what must be done.”

He turned towards the door, and readied himself to destroy Calibur. He’d hated Kamijo for his monstrous villainy and incalculable cruelty, but he almost appreciated the symmetry of their upcoming battle. To go back to the spot where his life stopped, and close that book– no, to rewrite the ending? It was the sort of symbolism that would make Touma proud. He was going to fix this, in the place where it all went wrong.

It was finally going to be okay.

I admittedly don't have much to say on this episode.

While I do think you were a bit premature to say last episode "This is when Saber gets good", I will admit I do think there's a general rise in terms of how the show is handled as we get closer and closer to the end of 2020 with each coming Saber episode.

Kamijo vs. Kento though? Probably the highlight fight for me, mostly in what I like to dub as Kento's last stand. You can tell he's really out of it mentally when for the past two episodes he's ignored doing the usual callout for his attacks, merely prepping them before going forward.

There's something gripping about him just charging forward, zipping around, batting away the army of dragons before unleashing one powerful strike... only for us to see him once night has taken hold, just on the ground in defeat. Pretty good scene, and honestly a scene I was looking forward to write my own variation of in my crossover story.

I think the only other thing I have to say is... oh hey, Tassel is out of his house! I feel like that also sort of helps push how dire/intense this entire scenario that he's not isolated from us anymore. Especially since tattered cloak man from Avalon came to visit him in the last/this episode and was with him at the very end as well.

As for the story, a nice sort of look into how Kento views the whole situation, not much else to say.

It's so serious of a cliffhanger that it'd be inappropriate for Tassel to do his normal high-energy comedy, but, like: we have to have Tassel bookend the episode. Him and Hooded Stranger showing up was a nice way to make that happen, while also providing some hope for Kento in the next episode.

Not much to say for this episode. But I do have a slightly classier meme (in that it comes from a fandom VIP on Twitter and Facebook)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4/IMG_3122.PNG

Yeah it'd be your personal pet peeve to hate prequels instead of it being something bad, but really, investigating a past isn't something that is only about filling in blanks. Filling in blanks and propelling characters forward aren't mutually exclusive. The solution to deal with something in the present and new decisions made for that can be done by discovering something in the past. Though I'd agree that Touma's childhood with Kento and Luna are so blurred for me to be invested at this point, compared to, the traitor for SoL (at least IMO), as that is the past event that affected the present cast more clearly, Kento's dad for obviously Kento, and Daichi for Touma and more. Though even then, it can be something that is more than just That Would Be Nice For Touma.

About Kento, this part seems to touch upon about how someone can perform similar actions and outcomes at first glance, but in context it's different. Previously Kento was consumed by hatred and vengeance, but now Kento has more clear head to deduce the locations of the opened gate to have Kento track down Daichi and face him. There are some audiences (not here, and not exclusively Saber) who don't take into account for the context behind an action and dunno if this'd be viewed as wasting time as they ended up doing the same thing.

Actually I kinda like that Mei didn't leave out Touma regarding Kento, she mentioned both Touma (and him first) and Rintaro instead of having a tunnel vision for Rintaro at that time or acknowledging Kento as hot. About Ogami's advice on Kento for his actions being reckless and can cost his life, that should be a reminder that, making a reckless action or decision that leads into them dying isn't inherently heroic or 'sacrificial' (or both that "it's heroic because it's sacrificial"). as shown by Kento here that he could've died due to being consumed by hatred and vengeance making it selfish one, not due to any sense of nobility. Though Rintaro carries a professional air, I guess he's an example, for now that is actually nice thus he claims him and Touma are friends, instead of viewing it as something 'weakness' or 'detrimental' for the mission despite Rintaro chastising Kento for being consumed by his emotion.

It can seem good that here Touma actually failed to arrive in time, creating this scene. And it's something ridiculous that Touma takes so much time to get into Kento, in opposite to where usually in toku the heroes arrive just in time to aid, here Touma arrives, probably still in 1 city, by nighttime, when he started to ride off since daytime.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12

This episode marks the Diago Speedy's third and final appearance in the entire series, from what I remember, which is clearly at least as tragic as anything involving Kento in this episode. I like that bike!

...

Okay, I mean, obviously Kento's crushing guilt and continued inability to avoid making self-destructive decisions even as the people around him try their best to support him is probably the real tragedy here. Especially when it's this well portrayed. The simple visual symbolism of how night is gradually falling as Espada and Calibur fight especially, it's the sort of on-the-nose thing that fits so darn well it's hard to complain. Helps that Nakazawa's direction makes the fight itself so cool.