[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

If you haven't already watched the ED for this episode, then I recommend you do. It's a special edition!

Oh right, I forgot about that! It's just the three of them doing the dance routine without any of the cutaways, right? That was actually a really nice bit of detail to throw in there for the last episode that sequence gets used. I'm not sure this is a great way to describe it, but it has this sort of "look how far we've come" vibe I appreciate. Just reminding us that way back a whole year ago, those actors had to practice those steps to film that super early on, and the place it was filmed is actually of some significance if I remember right, and it's like this whole little story unto itself that we've probably been taking for granted after 40+ episodes of it, so they gave the dance one last chance to shine before the end. Again, real cool touch to throw in.

And you know, when just the end credits give me that much to talk about, it's safe to say I once again have an almost endless supply of things to talk about with an episode this amazing (the "almost" might legitimately be unnecessary?), so I think I'll take a page from Die here and just focus on how much one of the great Touma speeches of all time resonated with me a ton too. The funny thing is, is that I've seen enough people react to it different ways that it proves exactly the point Die was making there.

For me, though, the bit that always strikes me on a truly personal level is when Touma describes how happy it made him when Luna said she liked his writing, and how seeing her happy became his motivation to keep at it.

"It wasn't ever supposed to be a thing. I didn't write a lot, generally, or participate in fandoms. I'd lurk, but I didn't really post or discuss."

Those could be my own words just as easily as Die's. Despite having this account as long as I have, I wasn't all that frequent a presence on these forums until I had extremely contrarian opinions on Ghost I felt compelled to express. And Gaim, for that matter. Ninninger too! And I think it was because I was consciously realizing just how against the grain those opinions were that I felt the need to put them in writing. "I write these things for me" was definitely my attitude at first. It was simply exercise, more than anything. I figured sitting down with those thoughts and forcing myself to organize them would help those opinions become less vague. I might find out what exactly about Gaim rubbed me the wrong way, or what exactly I was seeing in Ghost that so few people seemed to. It was self-expression for its own sake, initially.

But I kept up that little exercise routine, and somewhere along the line, I found people who told me they were genuinely happy to read the things I was writing. It was an odd thing to process for someone like me. That huge Ghost thread I made all those years ago, it's one absurdly long single post because I wrote the entire thing before deciding if I actually wanted to share it or not. I was honestly terrified to put it out there. But as soon as even one person told me they were glad to see a positive opinion on the show, I think I started to see a purpose in what I was doing -- one that would only become clearer and clearer the more things of that sort I wrote here.

If it were only exercise -- something that only benefits me -- I highly doubt I'd have become a consistent enough presence around here for anyone to notice I was gone for a few months. If expressing my opinions on tokusatsu could brighten someone's day even a little -- if I could make someone smile -- that kind of motivation could carry me so much farther. That's part of why my signature is the particular quote from Kuuga it is. That's the simple reason that particular thread really exists. These are shows that mean the world to me, and if my writing, as amateurish and inherently niche as it is, can get somebody to find a deeper appreciation and affection for this stuff, the same way I always do myself, then that means the world to me too.

So yeah, needless to say, I connected a lot with this episode of Kamen Rider Saber. With a protagonist who refuses to despair, because he knows the true joy of writing is the joy you can give to others, and what a privilege it is to play any part in that, no matter how small.