Kamen Rider Saber Episode 36- "The Power Of The Almighty Is Opened!"
 

All swordsman must unite against Master Logos' ultimate plan.

I was hoping everyone would team up, but I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon.

Felt a bit empty with the first fight, maybe because there were too many people, but I did like that the other riders made use of their abilities and lost despite it. A bit different from regular losing when they suddenly forgot how to use them.

I'll be back lol

Think you got the wrong episode. 36 is the one that just aired.

Cut and dry episode that shows off how powerful Solomon is despite the incomplete status of his book. We get a tiny bit of backstory for Izaak, Logos, too. It seems that the title Master Logos isn't a hand-picked thing and is more of a bloodline thing. So, that leaves the question of "If he was handpicked, why he crazy?" out of the way. It is also interesting that he says that there is another sword he was supposed to get besides Caladbolg along with the completed book. I suspect this is Saber's final form, the first ever Reiwa final form weapon probably.

Speaking of Touma, it's pretty known he is a typical protagonist who "wants to protect his friends" and "do the right thing" and what not, but it's not terrible to have these kinds of protagonists every once in a while, it was much appreciated when he said "I don't want power, I want luna back!" since it pretty much tells you what he is. The Protagonist.

Now, Kento and Yuri. I will say again that I like Kento. And he's better written here I feel, since he feels more like his initial Calibur rather than the "all-or-nothing" jerk he kinda felt like during the Neko Megid episode. You can see trying to cough up a smile, but constantly turned down by his own demons or Kurayami. This also puts up reason for Yuri to be so lax for most of the show besides his 1000 year wisdom, he's seen all this. As expected for someone who has held Kurayami as well. Nice to see him stop Solomon's attacks as well.

Still banking on Kento keeping Calibur, but I feel the most likely endpoint for his character arc is giving Kurayami to Yuri and fighting alongside as Espada. Signifying his way of believing in Touma by attempting to change the future with him after probably failing to do the sealing thing he'll do next week.

Still weird that Izaak makes a declaration of all-out war yet there were no shown civillians doing just that. I suspect this to be a covid restriction or something.

Bacht is there, of course. He's definitely teaming up with the heroes soon or Yuri finally seals him. Ren and Dezast are still chilling, but I am excited for him to finally have his duel with Touma next week. Nice to see Dezast also somewhat supports Ren in fighting alongside his swordsmen. Also, I feel like Ren might have misinterpreted the teachings of his master, and he's got a nicer outfit there, too what the hell. His teachings were that Strength is to be pursued to serve justice, but I don't think the master specified that Justice is a form of strength.

That end part with Sophia, though. I somewhat somewhat suspect that that's not our Sophia. But rather Storious' Sophia. Why? I don't know. I have no basis other than she didn't call out to Kento calling him Espada or something. And also she didn't say anything about meeting with Kento, too, tho I guess it's in her character to go out of her way anyway.

I like the siblings. I do like that it didn't take long for Durandal to switch sides, it was always an option for him. It's not like these two are obsessively aligned with Logos, they were just harder in genuinely believing they were protecting the world with SOL. And we've seen the two in doubting Logos' words already. Also, I like Sabela. Lemme just put that out there.

https://i.imgur.com/sFeFFOW.jpg

I'm struggling to think of a way to start this post that isn't just like, the transcribed sound of me swooning over this show.

Uh, there's a new director, I guess! Hiroki Kashiwagi, apparently? One of the usual guys who spent years and years as an assistant director with Toei before getting some bigger opportunities. He directed at least a couple episodes of Ryusoulger prior to this, but I believe 36/37 of Saber are his first director credits for Kamen Rider. I don't really have much to say about the direction this time, beyond it seeming totally competent, but you know, trivia is fun, right?

Okay, now that I calmed myself down a bit with mundane facts, I think I can give this a better shot.

I think the overall reason I was so impressed by this episode was because it had meaningful moments for a massive percentage of this massive cast, and I found all of it natural and easy to follow. It's another occasion where I look back to the overstuffed early episodes of this show and feel like the current stretch succeeds because of those choices, rather than in spite of them, with how readily this show can now play off of all these well established characters.

It's in things as minor as Ogami and Daishinji being super giddy about having their swords back. It's how there's that space for Sophia and the swordsmen to reaffirm their mutual trust. It's that Touma is the one sincerely thanking everybody in that emotional moment, which is just about the most Touma possible thing to do. It's when Ren realizes like 30 episodes down the line that Kento knew exactly what he was talking about when it came to Touma this whole time.

And then it's also in more major things, like Kento's ongoing crisis of faith, and how Yuri is the one to go talk to him this time. It's a great example of what I'm talking about, because the show doesn't have to do any real work to find an angle for these two. Their brief but effective chat is merely an extension of something that's long been implied about Yuri -- that he knows all of this already -- combined with his even more established belief in Touma, all working together with the recent parallel the show drew between his giving up on Bacht in the past with Kento's current refusal to put his trust in Touma. Like, I'm sure I'm overselling it when I try to pick the writing apart piece by piece this way, but there are so many moving parts in this episode, and they're all moving so smoothly,

It's much the same deal with the Shindai siblings, who have a very quick but logical turn away from Master Logos here that I found myself surprisingly engaged by. I think there's a bit of a disparity between how much more depth Reika has had time to be given versus Ryouga, and yet the one thing I knew for sure about the guy -- that he is excessively prideful -- clearly plays a huge factor in the specific way he switches sides. I adore that little moment where Touma calls him out for being so petty as to refuse help fighting Solomon, and he thinks about it for a hot second, and then just plainly agrees that a team-up is the best way to protect the world. Ryouga's character is pretty much paper thin, and yet, even here, you can see the show making good use of the values it's established for everyone. Reika is obviously great, and both Durandal and Sabela are cool, so it's good to see them get such a nice spotlight here.

Their fight scene with Solomon is also extremely impressive for how it shows them making clever use of their tricky gimmicks to support each other while also further showing that Durandal and Sabela rely way too much on their tricky gimmicks. They manage to look cool while losing, which is way more than I can hope for when the newest evil Rider strolls into town to show off their new toys. Very satisfying to see, and that goes twice as much for when Saber and Blades join the action. I mean, it just makes sense as a line-up, you know? It's like two sets of red and blue Riders, and we got to see Elemental and Hyoujuu Senki standing next to each other fairly quickly. That's more than Dragonic and King Lion were able to get!

Oh, and I should probably talk about Solomon himself, shouldn't I? I unironically think that kitbash suit works great! I'll say that much upfront. Kasshiin was a weirdly cool design for such a minor role in Zi-O to begin with, so if anything, Solomon feels like that suit's true calling being finally realized to me. It all comes together pretty nicely as a straightforward big bad Rider. That's a type of character I'm liable to get sick of easily, which is always worrying, but I am liking the idea of Master Logos basically being an angsty teen rebelling against his family because he hates all these like, rules and stuff, man. It's mostly a question of where the show wants to end up taking that all thematically, and how many fight scenes in a row are going to be against the same one dude over and over again. Saber has some other villains still kicking around, fortunately, so I have a good feeling about that last point, at least.

Man. It sucks what they've done to Reika's character. At least Bacht is still here, somehow?

I mean he is immortal, it's just that whatever was going on last week made all the Swords and Book attract towards each other and cancelled out stuff.

Likely because he lost Kyomu and Eternal Phoenix he couldn't revive immediately. But once everything was broken and scattered he was able to revive off screen.

Maaaaan.... I feel pretty lousy about this but I distinctly remember during this exact point of Zero-One last year, feeling uninterested in the going-ons because every development felt really uninspired and it was all leading to an arc of just everyone fighting the same generic bad guy over and over... and I'm feeling that but like times ten now in Saber.

I cannot muster a care for Solomon/Logos (and especially not Storius), and I think I might actually resent the writing surrounding the siblings? Sabela's now defining characteristic is just being Durandal's brother, and said brother still feels like he was brought into the show to undermine the sole woman combantant in the show. Terrific...

My biggest hope remaining for the show now is that Kento has a triumphant return to the good guys (becoming Espada again would be preferable but not mandatory for me) and that wherever they're heading with Ren and Desast will be interesting/entertaining.

Aww man, I'm sad to hear that Reika is getting the short end of the stick. I hope she gets some better treatment in the future. I really like her during the early 2nd quarter, and when it seemed like she was questioning what her brother wasn't. I hope more comes from her.

Kento as Espada again still not happening. He's more Calibur than Espada.

I love how, two episodes into this whole major confrontation with Master Overacting, Ren is still absolutely useless. I really hope this never changes.

Didn’t Leangle have this same problem?

If Solomon' Omniforce is incomplete and i wonder what his evolution is?

Man, Ren wishes was as cool as Mutsuki. He is strictly Mihara-tier.

Definitely, and ended up being underused/overshadowed in the long run.

We've got more than enough episodes to find out, but if Build taught anything, the bad guy can have up to three power up forms before breaking out the big guns.

I have to agree that this was an episode that gave us a lot more character building time for each individual. Without it turning into something more focused on Touma since the last episode relied heavily on him.

I really think Logos is not the one pulling the strings like everyone thinks. If he really was, he would have immediately claimed Storious was unnecessary and eliminated him.

You gotta stop that before I become wholeheartedly fed up with that whole Espada thing.

It took me this episode to realise that the emblem on Solomon's chest is actually the Sword of Logos logo. I thought it was a magic circle!

Speaking of Solomon, that Omni-Force WRB really evokes something strangely familiar...

https://i.imgur.com/EzSyqzg.png
https://i.imgur.com/xaDew8z.png
https://i.imgur.com/ghd5aCO.png

Also, the shot of Desast licking the cup noodle lid killed me. I haven't said this before but I really love his and Ren's dynamic.

Solomon is also the same color as Fate Solomon! What a happy coincidence!

https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/up...7543-0256d.png

It really feels like Toei should've filmed Saber in a more exotic location. Even just like a forest or something would've been more epic. Big battle on a city rooftop just feels a little out of place with how medieval the show is. I hope the big battle at the end is somewhere with a little more interesting topography. In reality it will probably be a green screen with a bunch of worlds colliding.

This episode is much better than the last one, because it much better pace and organize than 35 while also giving almost the entire cast some good interactions.

Master Logos or Solomon despite his first fight being kind of mid, actually manage to be more threathening than Ark-Zero and Thouser thanks to him spreading doom books around the world, turning the day into a stormy night and his creepy expression and demeanor manage to make him more menacing because of how insane he is.

Shindai sibling betrayal also feels acceptable and doesn't really feels like it come out of nowhere thanks to them building it up a little by having Reika developing some doubt in the past few episode and they only join Touma at the moment because of ceasefire because they have a bigger problem to handle rather than them redeeming themselve also make it acceptable.

And just like what Fish said, the Shindai fight actually still look entertaining to watch despite them losing their fight against Solomon thanks to the sibling being more spammy with their ability than a normal rider (although this probably can be said to Saber in general and is something that i personally love about Saber fights)

Yuri interaction with Kento is also good as their conversation reveal that there's a price for Touma being a chosen one which raise the stake for the novelist (poor Touma never catch a break)

And i also glad that Bacht is still ready for another round

It's the obligatory "Big Bad Villain Rider Shows Off How Strong He Is, By Beating Up Every Other Rider In This Show" episode. And you know what? I kind of enjoyed it.

First off, let's get some negatives I have with this season so far out of the way, so I can appreciate the good stuff we've gotten.

So Reika was acting like a blatant Villain when she was first introduced to make us suspect she was the traitor (Which was almost obvious she wasn't) and when Durandal, her brother, showed up, she just follows whatever he does. Which kind of feels redundant now, not going to lie, because I almost thought that when she saw Zoous in the Northern Base, she would have been the first to turn on the Master, which would have made a good redemption episode to be perfectly honest. But I suppose there's no helping it.

Next, I'd like to talk a bit about Master Logos. I kind of think he's a little too over-the-top as a villain. It was obvious he was a villain when they said there was a traitor among the SOL, then there was that scene where he just gives Storius a free pass into his base, and now he has an evil Rider form (which is a cool form overall). But his personality is a still a little too blatantly evil. And Storius, who acts all according to keikaku, hasn't been doing anything but that, and yet it's obvious he's going to take over as the big bad.

And finally, there's Sophia. Now to be fair, I have nothing against her particularly, but what bugs me is that she doesn't act all that much like a leader. I initially thought she was Luna, and that Touma couldn't remember her, but then he got his memories back and that was thrown out the window, and that she's actually a clone... sort of. What matters is that she's supposed to be a leader, and yet she's just sort of... there.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded rant, but here's the good. I was wondering why Omni Force was the name they chose for his WRB, then it said "Open the Omnibus" and I felt stupid, good play. I liked how all of the Riders (except Kenzan, Falchion, Calibur, and Espada) got to show up this episode, since it's been a while since many of them showed up. And Dezast being your delinquent buddy with Ren, still wonder what Dezast's endgame is, was a fun little scene. Kind of hoped for a night fight, but I guess Solomon showing off his powers was fun too (Totally not getting war flashbacks to Gawain in the Camelot Singularity in FGO), and team Transformations are always great to see. And a detail I love that they used, was Kento's "Trust Touma" line, that they not only used for Ren, but for when Yuri brings it up to Kento himself. And thank you Yuri for bringing up that Touma was the Chosen One, so I don't have to wonder why he has so many plot McGuffins.

Next Week (because I went on for too long): Ren wants a rematch, and Calibur joins Touma, perhaps for the last time?

Thanks, it just now occurred to me!:lol

Of course, I was also thinking about Genmdeus Cronos.