[Fish Sandwich]

Saber really knows how to keep giving me what I want, but -- and I'm getting this out of the way upfront specifically so I can move on to everything I loved -- boy is that Southern Base subplot undercooked. I genuinely don't have any problems with the Shindai siblings on a conceptual level, but the show needs to do something with that pair to make having two of them around feel purposeful, and this was not that! If the episode could've found some way to use the idea of Durandal being controlled to make even the slightest point about their relationship or something, you know, build the characters like Saber is so good at, I wouldn't be complaining. Instead of being about Reika or even Ryouga though, the sole purpose of that part of the script is clearly only to get Buster and Slash out of the way of the primary friendship drama at the core of the plot here, which is kind of a bummer.

That being said, it's not hard to see why the episode's priorities are where they are?

First of all, this is a pretty brilliant final showing for Solomon, something I'm sure of specifically because that's the last thing I ever expected to say or think about Solomon. There's this real feeling out of the gate that he's already lost, and it's because he has. Like I said last time, we can clearly see Storious is the one taking real control now, and the opening scene here once again embodies that perfectly, with Storious deliberately riling Master Logos up so he'll throw one last tantrum, and then pretending to care about his hollow claims of being a god in a delicious display of irony.

That's really Solomon's whole thing here -- he's gone from the Big Bad to just sorta being bad, and he doesn't even realize it. He acts out of desperation, operating on a really small scale compared to his prior plans by just throwing a few swordsmen at each other, and in the end his amazing new power doesn't even work. Literally everyone he tries to control here gets over it with no outside help! It's embarrassing, and that's just how I want it to be. It's such a great fall from grace for Master Logos, really helped along by acting that's somehow like 10 times as crazy as it already was. (The way he says shimashou before charging into battle especially is downright inspired.)

And as always, all of this leads to plenty of nice moments for the heroes to shine. You kinda just can't wrong with seeing Esapda back in action together with Saber and Blades. Anything I could say about those scenes is maybe going to super obvious because of that. I loved the emphasis on their bond; it was neat that all of them had a proper bone to pick with Master Logos between him ruining Kento and Touma's lives and being an overall disgrace to Rintarou's beloved family; it was awesome that we finally got the long-awaited Dragon Lion Alangina in this fashion; it was even cooler that Rintarou and Kento stood around swinging their swords to activate Featuring Saber's moves like he's a Sentai robot; whatever those poses Kousuke Asai is doing as Saber is winding up for his Rider Kick are amazing; that ending theme is still sweet; seeing that bit from the start of the ED recreated was rad... basically everything about that part of the episode is a real winner. It's kind of like the show in its ultimate comfort zone, so it's not exactly wowing me with how fresh or surprising it is, but gosh, does it really need to be?

And it's doing all of that... with direction by Hidenori Ishida. Aside from Solomon getting lit on fire (made of CG, thankfully!) because duh, this means things like the super moody lighting in the bookending scenes with Master Logos and Storious, or the constant integration of Mei's reactions to everything going on, although that one is probably at least as much on Hasegawa's writing. I really loved her running up with that big stick at the end in particular, because she's still the only one who ever remembers she was technically part of that promise the three of them made back in episode 10. I love Saber for all its big dramatic moments and epic speeches, but those little touches often mean just as much to me.