[Fish Sandwich]

Saber!

This show just spoils the heck out of me, what can I say? Going into this episode, it's like "aw sweet, a ton of awesome action with everyone directed by Sugihara! Probably doesn't need anything more than that to be fun, right?" And then it gives me more anyway, because this is the episode where Storious started making complete sense for me, too!

It's a pretty simple thing, but that scene with Luna accomplishes a whole lot to add context that more clearly fits him into the overall themes and plot of the show. As I'm (pretty sure) I've mentioned before, Master Logos was a glaring and deliberate exception to how villains in both Rider shows by this producer and team of writers have been handled. There's generally some level of humanity to even the most evil of them, or some sympathetic seed behind their twisted motives. Again, this is why I love Calibur in the first arc so much.

And now here, with Storious, finally, I think we've got something like that to go on? Not only do they rope in Legeiel and Zooous again to remind us of their honest beginnings, but it's very strongly implied that the reason Storious turned to villainy was because, as a poet, he had a deeply romantic outlook on life that was violently crushed under the weight of horrible knowledge. You can see that, especially, when Luna tells him Touma is capable of creating stories even she doesn't know. That look on his face, those little twitches -- I think that's envy, for sure. We saw with Bacht, too, how hard it is to let go of despair that deeply rooted. Storious swats Luna away there because the implication that he's spent thousands of years submitting to the cruel fate of the world for no reason is too much for him to handle. And it's all of that which also makes me appreciate Robin Furuya's performance in this last stretch even more. Because it's so over-the-top, like I'm blatantly watching an actor, and now I realize that the dumb voice and all that is because Storious is literally performing the role of the story's main villain, Being fake is a feature, not a bug!

So yeah, I don't know, maybe I'm reading into bits of this too much, maybe not, but I thought this was a great episode for the guy. All this stuff about fate and everything has been hinted at since WAY the heck back, too, so this is all shaping up to be a very fitting, perhaps even beautiful conclusion to the story of Kamen Rider Saber.

Or I mean, it's at least looking real pretty when Sugihara is the one directing. All that stuff I said about Storious, that's like, a bonus, on top of an episode that would've succeeded big time at what it was doing anyway. I love everything about the structure of this one. It's a pretty classic formula, the ensemble of heroes gradually breaking off into groups as they make their way towards some overarching threat that needs stopping, and it's a formula you see so much because it just kinda IS good? Especially for something like Saber that's always been especially fond of big dramatic displays of camaraderie and trust. It's fundamentally awesome seeing everyone get together, all in their base forms and everything, and head off to fight a huge army of goons. Even Sophia got invited to the party! And if Desast can be Falchion, then sure, why not have her wielding the literal sword of darkness? I appreciate how all hands on deck this one is, with even Mei running off to get actively involved by the end. There aren't really any bit players here, and that's exactly what I'd hope for from Saber.

Ren is a big standout. That's a phrase I'm still not totally used to saying, but he is! He gets possibly the coolest and most elaborate action sequence, courtesy of Sugihara flexing those Zero-One skills, and right as I'm thinking "but it's sort of a bummer he's not hanging out with Kento"... he goes to hang out with Kento! They're really dedicated to keeping Kenzan's arc going, even in an episode with so much else going on, and that's commendable. It almost makes everything else feel small by comparison, but even if those other moments are smaller, they still leave an impact. Daishinji snuggling up to Suzune after collapsing from his injuries especially is weirdly touching in the way only he could make it. If that guy says his sword is singing him to sleep, I believe it! And pretty much everyone else gets at least a tiny moment playing off of their established characters. I like Kento being the one to stay with Touma the longest; I like Ogami saying he's gotta live to do dad stuff; I like him paraphrasing Rintarou; I even like Reika and Ryouga mutually declaring their intent to protect one another for how it implies the depth of their bond, because darn it, I just like this show that much!

As usual, there's still a million other little things I could mention, like yet more new songs, but it really is those broad strokes that are important here. I said at the start it didn't even need more than the cool action, and I meant it. It's an episode of Saber where all the Riders get together and stylishly beat up monsters; I would've called it a great episode before the theme song even played.