[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 32

I feel like suprisingly little is coming to mind to say about this one, but it's a really great coda to the development Rintarou has had up to this point. Contrary to the image Saber created for itself early on, they really took their time building this whole arc for the guy, to the point we just did a two-parter where you could've easily imagined that being the big endpoint final form debut for Blades if they felt like it. Instead we get this fantastic extra step, with tons of gloriously kinetic Sugihara direction, and a script from a new writer that somehow manages to slip right in -- at the *end* of a storyline no less -- without feeling like it doesn't fit with what's happened before. Hiroki Uchida made a pretty darn great first impression for his work on Rider here.

Despite not being directly written by someone who worked on Ghost, this episode also does one of the most Ghost things imaginable by cementing Rintarou's growth with a new catchphrase, like all the Riders back in that show. I remember seeing the "I'll protect the balance of the world" thing before the show started, and not being able to gauge Rintarou's personality from it at all, because it immediately sounded weirdly, like, culty, I guess? It's a line I imagined would fit a typically aggressive secondary who would think the protagonist is disrupting the order of things or whatever. It makes perfect sense for Rintarou in context, of course, but seeing that change here to reflect what Rintarou now realizes is truly what he wants to protect, it felt like a very natural change.

I love Tategami Hyoujuu Senki by the way. The long white hair combined with the fact it's literally the collective power of generations of swordsmen makes me imagine it as like, this is what Blades will look like if Rintarou is doing this gig like a hundred years from now as this insanely respected veteran who everyone looks up to. He's the king of beasts, and now pretty much the king of swordsmen to boot. It's an appropriately different angle from Touma writing his own Wonder Ride Book, and every bit as fitting for the character. Plus, you know, I just like the white and blue color scheme a ton. The suits in this show, man! They don't miss!