Kamen Rider Saber Episode 15- "Beyond the Resolution!" Discussion
 

Touma sets forth to defeat Caliber for good, unaware that this maybe a one-way trip...

Looking forward to see Touma cycle between all what could be considered super forms in their own right. That and I'm happy to see King Excalibur again! Seriously, we're at the tail end of Q1 and it strangely feels final.

OVER THE REVOLUTION! EVOL BLACK HOLE!!

... is all I can think looking at that title

that was quite an info packed episode. Definitely need subtitles this time.

Seems like both Calibur motives is SoL being evil or something as expected.

What I did not expect was Dezast move though.

Next week has Avalon guy turning into a rider and Ren will betray like his retsuden hinted ?

Feel like Bird from zyuohger bc mis communication . White wizard feel for Avalon arthur hooded guy. The desast twist felt like Gremlin from wizard or evena kazari from ooos. The flashback was so short. I felt like they wasted both caliber 1.0 and 2.0 actors. I can't believe they didnt film more scenes with them earlier. You can tell from the haircut, they were called back to reshoot the flashback scenes. The whole mystery deserve a spin off or better treatment especially it's more hype than the giant book in the air as well as touma's memories.

Yeah that's exactly what I thought when seeing kamijo.

I have no doubt the 15 years ago incident will have it's own spin off episode to explain things.

Kamijou is really the highlight of this episode. Loved him as Saber and he was awesome as Cailbur. I both want and don't want him to come back. On one hand, Touma inheriting his will and carrying on his legacy in a different way would be great to see. I'd love to see him back and do more awesome stuff, but it would also kinda cheapen this episode.

Next episode with Touma starting to investigate SOL will affect Rintaro the most, especially. Being born into the organization and all.

Yuri, the Avalon guy, will definitely be the highlight next episode for me, though! The Fate jokes never end for me!

There's so much inconsistencies. I wished they planned out and filmed a bulk of kamijo and calibur 1.0 scenes that can be used as proper flashback. The music saved the episode. I'm more intrigue about the backstory than touma kento, but they wrapped up so poorly with cliche backstabbing betrayal . Kill one to intro another next week. There's not enough suit actors prob. I thought kamijo seal away his sword when he stab the ground, but he was still able to use it to kill Kento's father. It make sense the first time where touma was able to called rhe sword out again. ironically, why is there a swordsman of darkenss in so call righteoous guild of sword of logo? Next arc probably involve special gal luna and south base. Speaking of which, sophia been gone/kidnap for ages. Talking about character development. They tried to make Mai stand out this episode instead of a comic relief similar to misora from build getting dramatic scenes as well as the one to cure tensions. They can't find a good reason for touma to cycle the weaker forms first because it'll instant ko calibur unless they alter the scale again. The rest of the non triple book riders are fodders now. They could out limiters or other reasons for touma to shell out all the forms , so it doesn't feel blatantly scream buy our toys. There was no reasons for the villain trips to switch to their human forms beside giving the actors some screen time. There's a lot of character, forced bonding/(suspension of disbelief) just ignore and believe touma already created a strong bonds with these master and in training swordsman. I hate to say it, but the writer can't balance the toys given there's a lot more characters because of extra riders/weapons like in ghost . However, gaim reached the same amount of riders plus more by eps15 as well. Even build and ex aid did a better job setting up the lore as well as pacing. I kind of want a retool if the next arc is another big rush with flashy budget, but no substance. We hardly know touma and his novelist job is shafted. I understand is a boring job and its a Segway , a title to match the gimmick of the series, but do we expect him to be physically fit to fight this hard already .

Anyway, people are really simping for the souther base gal. She seems to be pals in real life with kiramager yodonna.

Is Sophia’s actress sick? She’s suddenly gone and the swordmens act like its not a big deal (cmiiw, but Shopia’s disappearances only mentioned one). The way they treat it like how Ui from ryusoulger and kabuto’s hiyori.

Also, there goes my hope that Kamijo’s Saber base form is using storm eagle or saiyuu journey.

Ever since she was seemingly kidnapped, the world has continuously been ending. There is just no time for her disappearance.

"I'll determine how this story ends!"

Let's hope you can Touma because it seems as though we've got our big ambiguous countdown towards the end of the world.

So overall a really fun and bombastic finale to Quarter 1 in all regards. That final clash between Saber and Calibur was absolutely raw and peak kino.

And I will say that the next episode has me curious as to where we're going from here, and also it will definitely hit me a bit in the feels given these characters were working together and for the most part getting along for the past fifteen episodes. So seeing them all fighting breaks the heart a bit.

It is insanely rewarding whenever my initial faith in a series starts paying off like this. I'm sure there will a bump or two along the way at the very least, but these past couple episodes have given me so much trust that Saber has a solid plan for what it's doing, and it's also doing a great job at making each step along the way exciting in its own right.

I mentioned last time what an appropriately epic fantasy touch the use of Espada's gear was, and that kind of theming is proving to be a strong suit of this show. There are all these awesome plot elements at the core of the Saber/Calibur conflict here; proud warriors having to choose between loyalty and creed; legacies that are passed on, and doubt being cast on them; mortal enemies reaching a greater sense of mutual understanding through battle; it feels HUGE.

Mei's introductory shot in the opening has always been her in that office she's never been to, right? And that's always felt like it was from a version of this show I maybe would've liked more. The simple, human show about Touma Kamiyama, up-and-coming writer by day, and swordsman by night. One that maybe would've captured the same sort of slice-of-life vibe Ghost often had. The direction the actual show has is emphatically not that, and, perhaps as a natural result of the production woes of the year it's made in, Saber has gone out of its way to exclude any kind of extraneous civilian guest characters. But the tone and style they've found for the story instead takes excellent advantage of the motifs to feel natural anyway, and I'm super happy about that.

And hey, it looks like Saber will get to have a huge emphasis on differing perspectives and moral relativity going forward, and there are few writers I would trust more with those concepts than the people who wrote Ghost, so I have no doubt that much will be recaptured. The reveal of Kamijou's motivations didn't disappoint, and this was a suitably epic sendoff for him. I mean, they used my idea about letting him ride a dragon, so already it's got that going for it, but his reconciliation at the very end with Touma felt surprisingly earned; not really justifying his crimes, but also allowing him to gracefully admit defeat in his final(?) moments.

It's the kind of thing I was hoping for, where the show had a good reason for keeping his character so ambiguous, because it feeds directly into Touma's dilemma by the end here. Even the Sentai similarity hanging over the show is apparently just a set up to tear everything down in a way a Sentai show straight up can't do. It seriously feels like everything is starting to come together. I can even tell the Megid trio apart now! Though admittedly they still really could've used a focus episode each...

At any rate, this was an awesome conclusion to the first arc that did a lot of great setup for a shift in direction. As ever, I eagerly await the next chapter.

Oh, and I can't smoothly mention this, but I believe the music track that plays right after everyone transforms with Mei in the background was a new one, and it really stuck out and got me hyped up. Kousuke Yamashita has done some very stellar soundtracks (Gaim is one of my favorites in all of Rider), and while it's taken a bit for Saber's BGM to start sticking in my head, I'm finally hitting that point where I'm starting to really appreciate it.

Okay see it's funny you mention that in particular now because the website preview pictures for next week show her in said office.

Going to look at that page is generally the first thing I do right after posting about an episode of Saber (I've got it open as I'm writing this), so that actually is hilarious. :lol

Good to know the idea wasn't abandoned completely, I guess!

Lots of exposition this episode, and the fights were great. I dig it.

For the next episode preview, I've seen people on reddit and in some FB groups theorize that Touma will side with the Megid, but I don't think he would, considering that the Megid clearly endanger civilians and their leaders have not even shown a hint of kindness. Rather, that Touma will create a third faction that consists of former SoL he's convinced to join him (among which I hope Buster will be, since I like Buster, and I feel like his son would call him out on betraying Touma like that 'cuz he and Touma ended up befriending each other), vs. the SoL loyalists, and vs. the Megid. Hell, even in the episode Kamijo calls them demons, and they talk about how when they remake the world it's probably gonna be hell for humans.

And Reika, that lady from the Southern base, will probably be the one to manipulate the Northern SoL members into betraying Touma like that, seeing as she's been feeding Kento's anger and leading him towards his self-destruction while having some unknown ulterior motive. Like there's something fishy about her offer to Touma; she's probably is/or working for the mysterious enemy within the SoL.

Can't wait to see Kamen Rider Saikou, that's gonna be great.

And with that, the first arc of Saber is over. All in all, it's messy, the passing isn't particularly good and just technically not as good as Zero-One, yet...

Yeah, I'm sorry, this show got me in its grasps. I've been on the edge of my seat every second I watched the episode live, couldn't wait till it was subbed and sucked up all the dialogue like a sponge. That is something I didn't feel in zero-One until like late '30s and certainly not during the end of the Metsu arc. Yeah, at this point, I'm enjoying Saber way more than zero-One.

It has this weird spark that makes all the admittedly janky parts of it combine into a stunning whole, something I never really felt during last year. I love the characters, find their struggles interesting, and am really intrigued where this is going. And Saber now has a good chance to deliver a structure to a Rider War, if they chose to go that way at least, I wanted to see for a while now. Heroes fighting heroes and not just a competition of assholes. We know these characters are true Riders, fighting with everything they have to protect the world, as seen in this episode. Having them fight now really makes it hard to just root for one in my opinion.

In short, I'm loving Saber, janky as it may be.

I absolutely adore this show, but boy do I wish King Lion Daisenki was more relevant to what's currently going on. Not that they could have really helped it, but it doesn't feel like a big moment for Rintaro or Blades at all.
It's a shame, because I'm actually super excited to get the RKF from Amazon when it comes out next week, but the form just feels so underwhelming right now. I don't think I've ever cared so little for an upgrade.

I really curious to next Megid monsters after this episode.

Maybe next Megid Monster is Mandrill Megid and this monster are created by Zoous...

I'm scared of the North riders turning against Saber. Poor Touma's got no allies except Mei.

How will Touma get them back from whatever's turning them against him?

I pretty sure Touma vs his friends are just temporary. I think this conflict will be stopped by Avalon guy and he more likely are one of strongest knight in the show....
I think the North vs South war will be happening soon. Maybe in episode 20...

I've heard somewhere it's going to be Touma and Yuri (Saikou) for a good amount of Q2 and that there's seemingly only one rider in Southern Base whom is Flint (The black dezast-looking rider with Crimson Saber in the leaked pics). There was also that Reika scouts Touma for Southern but he'll refuse and she'll release Bacht (Falchion) from the book of ruin that's kept in the Southern Base.

Basically, Northern Base will keep up their fight with Megid but also adding Touma as their enemy, while Touma, Yuri, and Mei investigate SOL.

Woah woah woah, what leaked pics??

At least have Yuri save at least one of the four victimized swordsmen: Rintaro!!! Mei misses him!!!! <3

Finally watched the episode.

Well this show took an interesting turn.

Interesting how Calibur had a whole 'ends justify the means' thing going on. And possible tension within the SOL? I'm own for that.

Also, I find it interesting that the Ankokuken Kurayami was entrusted to Touma (I mean yeah it disappeared but whatevs). Is the Ankokuken Kurayami actually 'evil' in the sense of the word? It uses dark energy, but does that necessarily mean it's 'evil'? I mean, it literally means "Darkness Sword Moon Dark", not "Evil Sword" or anything like that.

Then again, "Jakku Dragon" and "Jaou Dragon" is definitely evil so maybe it really is evil, I dunno.

Wow there was a LOT of CGI in this episode. Thank goodness Toei switched to Unreal Engine for this show.

Also RIP Calibur. Another Rider Feliz Navidead.

It was funny how Touma talk about friends yet the fire dragon did not have any assist of minor dragons unlike calibur. Waiting for the next calibur, hoping it is kento.

First of all: Wow.

Like everyone else has said, this was a really epic episode. Saber's had a breakneck pace since the beginning, a lot happening with only the bare minimum of explanation, and sometimes that worked against it, but in this episode it really paid off. The final battle against Calibur and the reveal of his motivation was obviously the highlight, and it wasn't perfect, but it was exciting to watch and his explanation struck a good balance between being totally unexpected and making perfect sense in hindsight.

Also, wait a minute... Mr. Kamijo took up Hayato (original Calibur)'s sword to avenge him, just like Touma did for Kento! I don't know if that similarity was intentional, but dang, it's beautiful.

Or Desast

This one.

The same smoke that took Sophia is also the same smoke that made Kurayami disappear. I'm guessing it's some Southern hijinks. Maybe they have a plan of resurrecting Kento and make him be Calibur? Idk. Kurayami definitely isn't an "evil" sword what with it being Hayato's sword during his time in SOL, but nor is it a "good" one, with it erasing you from existence for what not. I'd love to see Touma use it tho.

Pretty much touma might say he can't trust the guild and by kamijo passing his sword to him and telling him to do what he did will probably make him seems like he will become and end up like calibur 3.0 to the loyal guild folks. It's amazing visually this epsiode, but the substance and characters is not there for the lines in the scripts to be spoken with such emotion , so they just filled in the opening ajd ending theme to hype it all up. We still don't know much about megidos, and were tracking down traitos and intro southern base riders along with hooded guy.

I think Megido's true leader will be showing his/her role in episode 30....

Maybe Megido's true leader is sacred Wonder Ride Book and this is similar to Ark from Zero-One....

I really liked this 15th episode, waiting for the next episode to see where this story goes, also the debut of a new Rider is really interesting,i think his color will be gold because of his driver appeared to be gold-black.

I haven't watched Saber for five or six weeks so these days and I've been binge-watching it and I don't know if I missed something that I needed to watch because a lot of the decisions in this episode don't make sense to me.

So it turns out that Calibur was looking for the traitor? Then why go with Megido? The enemies still don't have a personality other than destroy the world, which makes Kamijou's alliance with them even stranger. I don't get his logic behind this, they're obviously bad guys and who guaranties him that they don't have a Plan B. They let him go and get the power of a god? Either they're dumb or they knew his plan all along, which may explain how Desast came out of nowhere.

Second, the pillars came down way too easy. Rintarou managed to destroy all of them. Yes, he has an upgraded form, but it's the same level as Touma's. Wouldn't have been more easy to give Buster and Hayate one yellow Wonderbook and, with their respective other two, destroy each one a pillar while Saber destroys the other three with Dragonic Knight, they could've done that before Calibur even flies to the book, and if it was not possible in that time, have Slash and Rintarou entertain Calibur. I know they have to show off the new toy, but you could just say that the amount of power needed to destroy those pillars was too much for Touma so Rintarou uses his new form, brought from the Base by Mei, to defeat Megido. Or make the pillars have to be destroyed by a ritual with the swords, like we've seen before when Touma and Kento went for King of Arthur.

Finally, by the look of the preview that a temporary mistrust will be put upon Touma, but getting all the riders attack him seems rushed to me. Which is my overall feeling about this show, I feel that I'm watching it at 2x speed, things happen so fast that I have little to no time to appreciate them.

This feeling I think is encapsulated by the thing that, no joking, made me watch the progress bar of my video player: Touma getting out of darkness. He got out of there in less than three minutes, Garo Gold Storm did almost the same and it took two episodes, and it's half the number of episodes. This should be one of the high notes of the episode, I mean, at the end of the day setting the destiny of people it's a writer's job; it's kind of meta if you think about, because we know that their destinies are sealed by the writer and producers at Toei but these characters not. I'm not saying they should break the 4th wall like Akibaranger, but I think it's a subject that should put our protagonist at least in a small crisis, but it ends with the power of love which is very underwhelming, specially done so fast.

I truly want to like Saber, the designs are fantastic and the cast is growing on me, but the direction is all over the place, sometimes feels like forced drama and other times it comes with comedy at more serious moments.

Subbed 15.5 (episode of blades) is available on Tv-Nihon.

Nothing much about it. After Ep15 events, Rintaro mourns and blame himself for being weak. But Mei sheers him up.
it's mostly about Rintaro and Mei scenes so far with some extended shots.

It's probably here to insist again that SoL is both home and family for Rintaro, before next week events.


Speaking of which the timing is kinda weird.
In the end the lesson Touma tried to teach Kamijo was that he needed to do stuff with his friend and not solo/betraying and all.
And then "next time in Saber : "I can't trust SoL anymore !!!!""

o...kay...

They really wanted to ship Mei and Rintaro that badly in this week spinoff epsiode 15.5. Bouken blue master of water made another flashback appearance. This should be the final every other odd week episode.

I liked this episode, but I really wish we'd gotten maybe ten more episodes leading up to this point to better establish the characters and the Sword of Logos operation. It still feels like the show expects us to understand and relate to these characters and concepts more than we've been given time to.

I really don't care that obviously shifty lady probably betrayed the organization when I barely understand what the organization is. I also don't get that invested in the characters' faith in each other when most of them are still really one-dimensional. I like the ideas here, I just wish they'd been given more time to breathe.