[gashatfreak]

Just watched this. Holy moly, where do I even begin? Saber may not have been the best Kamen Rider series, in fact it kind of pushed my patience a few times, but it was certainly a fun one. The ending was absolutely heartwarming.

I'll begin with what I actually liked about the show. First, suit designs. Anything knight-themed or fantasy based will win me over, and Saber's suits just hit the right spot for me. Colorful, quirky and just fun without feeling too janky (although Solomon's suit threatened to push it for me when I first saw that thing), the suits really remind me of colorful children books' illustrations, something which, although possibly unintentional, personally fits the whole 'storybook' background the show has. If I had the mindset I had a few months ago, I'd be tempted to say that I'd buy every single Saber Rider Figuarts because of how awesome the designs are, but after me deciding to purge materialism in my life I think I'll just look forward to looking at the designs through a Detail of Heroes book. Second, music was great; medieval inspired flair with lots of angelic choirs and stringed instruments. Then again, Kamen Rider doesn't usually lack in the music department so I can't really say anything here except it's good as always. The henshin jingles were also wonderful, however long they might have been, and to me they really compete with the fun and quirkiness of Ex-Aid's own jingles; they all feel like they have personality behind them. And as a book lover, the Wonder Ride Books have been one of my favorite collectible items for a long time after the Rider Gashats. And now for something besides the visual and audio of the show; no matter how wony some of the character development are, the Riders themselves have some pretty memorable personalities. Touma may be a textbook protagonist, but he's not boring. Shuichiro Naito did a spectacular job at capturing Touma's earnestness and intense moments of emotion. Rintaro's 'homo sapien' shtick, Kento's emo phase, Tetsuo's obsession with swords, Yuri's hilarious moments interacting with the modern world, all the Riders have some memorable quirks and moments that I'll remember for a very long time.

Now for what I disliked. I do dislike how some characters get their development in jarring chunks or depend on sudden revelations with no prior hinting towards it. An example of this is Durendal. He was completely loyal to Master Logos but then when Master Logos becomes Solomon and discards it, Ryoga suddenly turns his fangs against Solomon because he only followed Master Logos out of a sense of duty rather than loyalty. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if it weren't for the fact that all of his previous actions imply the exact opposite. He never questioned Master Logos' orders, and if he ever had doubts about his job, we never really see any hint of it. His sudden betrayal is justified by a last minute revelation. Something else I wasn't too happy about was Desast and Ren. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved seeing these two together, but what I disliked is that they were basically pushed to the side, and when we actually do see them they're just sitting around and eating ramen instead of training or doing something to pursue strength. Ren's character development was mostly condensed to two or three episodes rather than a natural subtle process that should've been weaved throughout their appearances. At the very least Desast's death was satisfactory.

Now, as for the story itself, it was pretty good. Not the best, but certainly far from the worst and a HUGE improvement over Ghost. Don't get me wrong, some elements of Ghost are still here, but they've definitely undergone a refinement process that makes them more palatable. For example, Ghost's 'power of friendship' thing is alive and well here in Saber, but here their friendship is actually tested, tried and proven. The power of friendship doesn't power up the main hero from afar via a cheering squad of friends anymore, rather it actively fights alongside the protagonist and they help each other to improve. Blades' miniature arc was a great testament to this. The pacing in the beginning was pretty janky due to the push to introduce new toys, but after that initial period the series became more interesting with the inter-guild Rider conflict. The introduction of Primitive Dragon was excellent as it threatened to shatter Touma's attempts to reconnect to his friends, and ultimately Touma befriending Primitive Dragon, rather than feeling tacked on, complimented his efforts to reconnect to his friends. Something I disliked about the story was the portrayal of Luna as a damsel-in-distress character. Listen, I get it, knights save damsels and all that but the living embodiment of Wonder World being a damsel in distress just seems spiffy; the source of all knowledge takes human form and she can't defend herself? Dafrik? And then her turning into the Wonder Almighty WRB...I call complete hax on this one. I certainly would've preferred the Wonder Almighty WRB to be a culmination of all of Touma and co's efforts and friendship instead of a deus ex machina but what we got is whaat we get unfortunately.

Thus ends my rant. Although I don't plan on watching Revice anytime soon due to toku burnout, I do look forward to the special chapter next week for a final glimpse of the swordsmen before the inevitable team up movie or whatever. Saber has been a fun and whimsical ride (with some intense moments) and I'll certainly miss it, although perhaps I should be glad it didn't overstay its welcome.