I was surprisingly okay with the callbacks to Re:Birth Specter, despite the whole “Makoto and Kanon are eugenic super soldiers” never really sitting with me. It just felt like it was going against the show”s “everyone has the potential to be special” by saying that these two were genetically made to be special. And the movie itself points out that the part where they’re supposed to be perfect gets contradicted by the fact Kanon’s death is a major inciting incident early on.

Anyway, enough complaining about V-Cinemas. Here’s what I came here to do. Show off the Legend Ridebooks, which cover every Heisei Rider, plus Ichigou and Zero-One (there is a book for someone else, but I”m holding off on that).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q09eRFFSMP8

Wielding the God-Beast/Clad in the Animal/Turning the Story Legend Rider! (Rider)! One Legend Book! The sword is imbued with more power from the heart of justice!

When the time comes for the legendary Riders to cross, the sword is empowered by the heart of justice! Legend Rider! (Rider)/(Rider)! Two Legend Books! The book of justice uses more power to slash through evil!

When the legendary Riders gather the sword of justice cuts through evil! Legend Rider! (Rider)/(Rider)/(Rider)! Three Legend Books! The Legendary sword with a heart of justice is here and now!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0qVAw91oCXI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UWOjmWxYc1Y

Kamen Rider Ichigou of the Beginning: A certain man running through a fight for the sake of freedom and peace against evil.

A New Legend Kuuga: With the birth of this warrior, legends were rewritten and a new history came to be…

Golden Dragon Agito: Once, a man with no memories awoke as a golden warrior…

Ryuki in Mirror World: Once a ferocious battle for life took place within the mirror…

Faiz Human Evolution History: Once, the chosen human race’s evolution was upon them…

Insect Game Blade: This sword that seals life forms can unleash their power!

Ongeki Legend Hibiki: Once, there was an Oni who fought with a disciplined body and sound…

High-Speed Kabuto Phrases: This man’s time pointing to heaven brings forth a new wisdom…

Den-O Fairy Tale Complete Works: A certain story going over time to encounter multiple other stories…

I am Kiva: This bat’s bites bring forth the king of the demon world on the moonlit night…

Decade (Neo) World Travel Guide: A certain passerby who completely destroys worlds with a myth…

Double Detective Diaries: A city full of incidents hunted in the story of a two-in-one detective…

OOO Animal Combo Log: This desire is granted the power of three different animals…

2011 Fourze Odyssey: A single student saving his buds, his school, and space…

The Dragician of Hope, Wizard: There used to be a warrior who obeyed the dragon and became the last hope…

Sengoku Gaim Tapestry: Once, the end of the battle for a fruit saw a samurai become a god…

Drive Police 24 Hours: None can escape when this gear is at the top…

Ghost Luminary Record: Burn your life with the soul of a great man who once lived in history…

Ex-Aid Medical Log: A certain illness which people are saved from by the rise of a genius gamer…

Pandorabbit no Build: These two powers mixing will bring love and peace to the world…

Zi-O Advent Calendar: At the end of a certain era, the greatest, kindest King ascends….

Zero-One AI Development Log: At the beginning of a new era, take off toward a dream with AI.

(Key: yellow = story books, blue = animal books, red = monster books)

And as promised, here’s the last Xross Saber jingle (the canonical books for which are Ghost, Build and Zi-O)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0arWRWIFznY

From the beginning in Showa, crossing through Heisei, opening the door to Reiwa! Henshin! Kamen Rider! Always keep justice within your heart… 50th anniversary!

I feel that as this is the part of making Kanon the female lead of Ghost's subsequent appearences replacing Akari, perhaps due to her actress Mio Kudo's popularity, but also that Kanon's quite a hated character previously, they seem to reframe Kanon's character here to what they think will appeal the audience, without regard of her hated original characters.... (other than keeping her surface trait of her big brother worship). Thus they make Kanon here, other than her being turned into a fighter (as girls are often measured by how strong/useless they're), her personality is also turned into the standard cold and merciless type, like attacking Touma for trying to help her, to further frame her as "tough" and "competent" (I thought the gothic lolita outfit is meant to emphasize her "toughness" here particularly the boots). Basically making her like Reika (including her recent flanderization) because it's the type the audience likes.... though for me dunno what'd happen in the next specials yet.

About Takeru using Grateful here instead of Mugen, it happens because one of the tie in novels has Takeru sacrifice the Mugen Eyecon to resolve it at the climax of the story meaning he no longer has that form. A display of Takeru fighting untransformed here, for prolonged time too.

Though Mei'd step in to defend Kanon, even standing up against Desast, it seems that Mei retains her superficial traits here, as she kinda puts down Javert here for being useless and failing to help in his attempts. My suspect about how Mei treats people who aren't charming is sort of right here... Desast's antics here is pretending to be Kanon's onii-chan for unknown reason, of which Touma won't buy that, but wonder if that's actually the truth.

I'd've been more shocked if this had been the only part, since the whole story is Kanon looking for Makoto... and Makoto never appearing. You gotta have him show up!

Ha ha, yeah, Touma's sort of randomly an asshole to Desast here, isn't he? Not to say Desast doesn't deserve it -- he's abducting a confused young woman -- but Touma's just like SHE'S MORE REAL THAN YOU and it feels a little mean-spirited.

I don't know if even the Desast's Lonely of it all really covers for how creepy he is here. All of the stuff with Ren was about giving Ren an option for a different path. Here, it's Desast sort of creepily declaring himself Kanon's big brother, and dragging her away forcefully. It's... I feel like it's a much darker level than the Ren storyline in the main show.

Holy crap! Thanks for doing all that!

I honestly think it's just to sell the continuity with the Specter movie? Visually, it makes her seem more like she's connected to the Danton plot.

Interesting! Thanks!

I mean, Javert is useless here. He's comedically useless. That's the joke. It only has a punchline if Mei complains about his uselessness.

Once again, I’ve come to a point of unveiling in terms of my expansions

I went in to this special expecting a fun crossover between two of my favorite Rider shows, so I was surprised how much Desast focus there was, even giving him more rivalry and interaction with Saber than in the show, reminding me of the early fights between Ghost and Specter.

Personally, I think Desast's a pretty intriguing antagonist here. I mean, yeah, his creepy stalker behavior is kind of misguided, but it shows how beneath the surface of the lovable free-spirited thrill seeker is actually a lonely man. He has his freedom, looking for fights, going to all kinds of places on Twitter, but he really just wants to find somewhere to belong and people who will accept him. He's like Rintarou in a way. So then Desast picks up the mysterious scent of this fellow artificial lifeform, lost and orphaned, been to hell and back. Just like him. He sees an opportunity for them to help each other, but his overly simple solution doesn't work for Kanon. She doesn't want a big bro, she wants her big bro, she wants Makoto. Desast doesn't understand that family isn't something that can be easily replaced, which is painful for him who never had a family.

I still think it's a little weird to see Takeru without his classic blonde hair, as his hair color is literally a plot point in the novel. Other than that, I'm always glad to see Takeru, love that guy. Kamen Rider Ghost is tragically underrated, so I have to respect Nishime for not letting that discourage him as he keeps coming back for the fans who do appreciate him.

Nice to see that Jabel got his promotion to head monk, he deserves it a lot more than those two incompetent apprentices. With Onari busy running his detective agency on the side, Jabel has a lot more responsibilities now and you can already see how much his training has developed, offering onigiri to Desast just like Onari did to him before. It's not quite as effective on Desast, but it did make a good diversion.

How'd Desast even get Kanon to co-operate for his blog? :lol

Yeah, yup, definitely fair. Framing...!!! (shakes fist at heavens.)

Some thing that I think is also part of it for me, is what an Abnormal entity they end up portraying this Kanon as. Like, Desast isn't really right in assuming she could be a Fellow Kaijin Playmate, but team Saber isn't really on the mark for what Distressed Damsel they think she is. This really is a special of no one being particularly on the ball to me- so I end up filing it closer to a misunderstanding.

Well, look forward to what you think of part 2 anyways!

On the contrary, I really liked Dezast here. That is, in fact, it was a special of the Ghost, until Dezast impudently got into it, dragging Toma and Mei along with him. Also, as Sh Ranger already noted, Fukuda enjoys the fact that he is the author of both shows and continues to develop the Dezast`s line, as if the special is part of the main show. And here I will repeat once again that late viewing has certain advantages.
The fanfiction was funny.

It's always fun to see Takeru come back. It's just nice to see him, he's such a friendly presence, and tying into the Spectre movie rather than just being a random "Oh yeah Ghost is here to help us fight" is an equally nice touch. Maybe it's because I'm a simp for callbacks like this, but I feel it makes the older Riders matter more, and like the story cares. Even if my memory of the Danton stuff is less than optimal - Spectre said something about Lust while screaming about Takeru's dad I think? Good times.

Dezast... yeah, he doesn't come off too great here. Unlike the Ghost stuff which is a deep cut, he's more here to be a vague menace and give us somene we don't feel bad detonating. It's also not really anything we've seen before - Dezast's story isn't really about wanting a family, he ends up with Ren because they're both losers, not really out of a filling a void of loneliness? Maybe he really did just want a family all along and Ren never asked.

Oh and yeah I forgot to talk about Xross Saber! He's Brave Dragon, but space-themed! He's neat! I don't really get calling it "lazy" which is still a dull take I see often, because it's clear there was thought put into why it was done that way, and it does allow for some nice thematic ties that I won't mention because I don't remember if they've been done yet.

I think it's easier and more difficult at the same time. Dezast does not know what he wants, but feels that he is missing something. This makes him a very flexible character, but also allows him to look different in different situations. Therefore, when he gets into fights that do not concern him, it looks funny, and when he pursues a girl who is interested in him, it?s creepy.

Fish Sandwich literally made the discussion thread for Kamen Rider Saber X Ghost

This thing is like, the cornerstone of my theory that I was secretly a producer on Saber the whole time.

Just to start off this post, I'm going to relate to you all the story of how I found out this was even happening to begin with. I happened to be coming onto the forum to write a post giving my thoughts on the MetsubouJinrai V-Cinema, in about the melancholic mood you'd expect having just seen that film, and as I'm poking around that thread? You see that box over on the right of the page labeled "Tokunation News & Rumors"? The latest item in there at that exact moment happened to be a thread simply labeled "Kamen Rider Saber X Kamen Rider Ghost", and I think my brain refused to even register it for a second. Like, what the heck could that possibly be? Even after I accepted that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, my best assumption was like, some kind of merchandising tie-up deal. Maybe P-Bandai has some new T-shirts or something, I don't know.

There's no way it would actually happen. No way.

But then I actually go click on that thread, and see that, not only is it exactly the crossover I dreamed of, there was already a trailer for it, which is good, because even reading it in text would still not have been enough to convince me. My immeditate reaction to the news was as follows:

If I wasn't on Saber's staff without my own knowledge, my only other theory is that I must've straight up inadvertently willed this thing into reality like Sougo in those episodes of Zi-O about Kamen Rider Kikai.

There's kinda only so much about the actual special I even feel like talking about right now, because it's like... what do you even want me to say that wouldn't be obvious? (Or that I didn't already say in that post about it from back when it was new?) Of course I loved it, of course I watched it at least twice, and of course I was extremely glad to see Fukuda and all the other people who worked on Ghost maintained enough love for what they'd made years down the line to find this excuse to go back to that world for a while. This special was an utter delight, and I felt that way about it before I even realized I'd only seen half of it yet.