[Fish Sandwich]

You know, at this point, it's honestly really nostalgic to have a lukewarm, moderately entertaining combination special interrupt Rider and Sentai for the sake of shilling a crossover movie in the spri-- er, well, summer, in this case, but still, close enough.

I quite enjoyed this episode of Saber, but you can definitely tell why it doesn't get to be part of the normal episode count. It's inevitably so completely disconnected from everything around it, like a glimpse into some parallel world where Saber is a way less serialized story, that it has basically no place being thrown awkwardly into the schedule like this.

But then, I've never been one to complain about fun standalone episodes of shows, and this is totally one of those! It's not like, incredibly fun, mind you, but there's a lot to like about it.

The biggest thing for me was that, since this episode IS allowed to disengage from the normally inescapable overarching Plot, we get to see Touma the novelist here, rather than Touma the swordsman, and I appreciated that. It's all these little moments that are hard to make room for in the show now: him suffering from writer's block, excitedly scrambling for something to write down some notes on when inspiration strikes, defending the quality of the books his store sells to Zox, and gleefully explaining the tale behind Tanabata to him. Touma being a guy who loves stories is one of my favorite aspects of his character (it's pretty relatable!), and it was nice to see that thrust into the spotlight again so much here, the same way it was nice to see Brave Dragon, Lion Senki, and Lamp Do Alangina all get to show up again.

There's obviously an aspect to all of that where Nobuhiro Mouri is writing this with the expectation that Zenkaiger fans who know nothing about Saber are going to be showing up this week, and I think it succeeds at giving a broad feel for what the show is about, without really getting bogged down in exposition and details. I mean, a lecture on the whole history of Sword of Logos or something simply wouldn't have fit the tone here as much as having Touma making silly faces and Mei being on the receiving end of comedic injuries does.

In terms of how the actual plot is structured, it's pretty much full power Zenkaiger all the way through. You've got a monster of the week with a creative and wacky ability, and the heroes have to figure out how to get around it. I thought the twist on how the particular power here works ended up being surprisingly clever, even, because honestly, Sentai villains doing things inefficiently for no reason at all would not be something I'd question too much. It was neat to see a proper explanation worked in there as a plot point.

The integration of Zox into everything was, again, nothing mind-blowing, but he's acting like himself, and that's a cute enough concept for a crossover. It's kind of an interesting choice to consciously avoid having Zenkaiser and Saber together on TV, and while Zox's concept of a pirate who sails from world to world makes him a natural fit for a crossover, his abrasive personality makes him stick out like a sore thumb in this show. Zox is a guy who really wants you to know he doesn't care about things, and I feel like every single character in Saber is connected by how extremely upfront and honest they are about what they value, whether it's books, family, fighting, or the destruction of the entire world as we know it. Zox feeling like he's barging into this series unnecessarily kinda adds to the dynamic in a way, and watching this episode, it's easy to imagine Twokaiser going on to have an entire career of popping up in random crossovers to steal stuff, constantly getting questioned about why he's always dancing. Imagine him running into Kamen Rider Diend! Would they hate each other's guts? Would they have an unexpected mutual understanding and respect for one another? Touma was right -- it's a heck of a concept for a story!

So yeah, at the end of the day, this is a very basic but harmless episode of Saber. I'm always happy to see the main trio in action, and I even got a two-for-one deal on hearing Almighty, but admittedly, it's not punching above its weight as a random crossover. It's about what you'd expect, and no more, but also no less.