[BrokenDreams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRaizin

At this point, I don't really care anymore with their toy shilling with the WRBs. Slash, Bremen Rock, and Crimson Dragon all shared the same debut episode which was a bit hectic since I feel Saber's combo form should've been moved to another episode to give Slash his time.

With that said, goddamn are the stunts in this one VERY good. The crazy camera motions and stunts are really good. Actor stunts came back a bit which nice to see as well. You could tell Sakamoto directed this, and he will for the next one. Hey! Maybe he should direct all of Saber?

The chroma effect is back, some may dislike it here or downright hate it, but I actually like it since it gives it its own identit- Aaaand its gone. Okay. We finally see Espada's rider kick, and Slash's debut was kino af. A bit iffy on his sudden personality change with Bremen, but I feel like this was gonna happen sooner or later with Daishinji. Being Slash is the only time he gets to express himself.

The true highlight of this episode, surprisingly, is Crimson Dragon. Again, Touma's fight with Calibur here was amazing. And Calibur is a cold bastard, grabbing the Megid and sacrificing him to defend himself. It might seem weird that Touma can just use three books already, but he does stumble around again and almost knocks himself out, unlike Rintaro who had no problems using it in his first try.

Next episode is the reveal of Calibur's identity who is most definitely Ex-Saber. His "People are the betrayers!" leads me to believe he defeated the previous Calibur who also betrayed SOL, took his belt, betrayed SOL, and became Calibur. Double betrayal, I guess. But why? Idk, maybe SOL has a dark secret that Ex-Saber and previous Calibur know.

They've kinda slowed this episode, I feel? But, again, the toy shilling is not for everyone. Tho, it might slow down next quarter, maybe? I don't know.

Edit: to you, the people who said that the pacing with Saber was atrocious, Toei will be releasing shorts that are probably cut content that details the SOL members. That's what I think these ".5" episodes are. This one in particular, is about Slash and Ogami and takes place between EP 8 and 9.

I feel like a lot of people are dunking on Saber as "atrocious" far too quickly. I read that article where they talked about how too many Riders were introduced far too quickly, thus making the show bad yet ignoring how Gaim did the same shit. Seven Riders had been introduced by episode six and four more by episode fourteen.

The pacing for a lot of Rider seasons first quarter is always fast because of the "GET THESE TOYS OUT BY WINTER" and every single time it slows down after those winter sales end. So far, Saber has held my interest compared to Ghost. I remember really not liking Ghost by now back when it aired. The pacing in those Ghost episodes felt bad. The pacing is fast here, but it doesn't give me the same utter eye-rolling dislike I had for it. I enjoy Saber and enjoy watching it every week. Maybe it's simply because it's fun in a time when I need it a lot. But even looking at it with a critical eye, I feel the goods in the show outweigh the negatives I have with it. Because I was a little bit "eh" with episodes one and two, they felt like badly paced Ghost episodes, but by episode three I was more onboard with it. This episode was pretty good, I liked it and I will continuing enjoying it. And I think the .5 episodes will help give us some more content to flesh out everyone. I can imagine this cut content being the time they spend with the ED, which while fun and I like the song, I find to be the biggest problem since Rider desperately needs that extra minute and a half of actual show.