[Fish Sandwich]

Alright, first things first, it's finally happened -- I noticed Gekido flopping around like a wet noodle when Buster is using it. It's utterly hilarious, and I also might never be able to take Buster seriously again. So that'll be weighing on my mind for the next bit.

The actual episode though, oh man did I love this one; easily surpasses last week for me. I might be hugely biased just because it does the thing I want to see with the toys every season. If you're going to have a million forms, it's okay to HAVE a million forms. Reading the thread, it seems I don't need to point this out to anyone, but it'd be completely expected for Touma to just stomp on everything with Dragonic Knight almost exclusively for the next 4~12 episodes. I was at least expecting it to show up in this one.

But instead, the show does this really cool thing that's pulled straight from the sort of chivalrous knight fantasy archetypes Saber is modeled after, which is that all of Espada's fellow swordsmen treat his gear like it's a part of him; precious mementos to be wielded in reprisal against the vile foes who struck down their comrade. The end result is a bunch of really interesting action scenes where the use of the toys synchs up with and enhances the emotional throughline. Dragon Alangina especially was just awesome to see, and since it came directly after Saber got a power up, it gives me hope the show will find an excuse to one day give us the main trio's books getting used together in some suitably epic moment down the line.

The episode pulled off something even I don't think Saber always does too well, which is being as fast as it is without ever feeling too hard to follow. It swims from beat to beat super naturally, and all the form changes are used almost like punctuation, refocusing the narrative at each new turn. King Lion Dai Senki's debut came off as infinitely cooler to me than Dragonic Knight's as a result. It could be because Blades is kinda my favorite Rider in the show at this point; maybe it's because that suit and its transformation jingle turned out to be pretty sweet; maybe it's because Mei's cheerleading that I'm sure looked like pointless filler to some people was a fun way to reinforce her crush on Rintarou... it could be a lotta things! For a lot less screentime than Touma's new form got, it made at least as much of an impact, I thought.

As always: far from some perfect, defining episode of Kamen Rider, but extremely entertaining throughout. Saber is the kinda show where I get done with an episode and just want it to be next week already.