[DreadBringer]

Saber's one of these watches where I haven't watched the series, so yeah, just going with the ride(r) here, not knowing much about it other than some basic stuff like Touma being the lead and Mei being loud/obnoxious comic relief type female lead. And dunno if I'd give a feedback or even understand the fanfictions here...

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 1 - “IT ALL BEGAN, WITH THE SWORDSMAN OF FIRE”

It’s nice to see the guy who did Ghost learn some lessons from that show’s start, though. Takeru was always an uphill battle for me because he never seemed to have a motivation outside of monster detonating, so the show rarely had a compelling B- or C-plot, something that generated out of the rest of the character’s life. Shows like Drive and Ex-Aid built complete worlds out of their protagonist’s day jobs; Takeru mostly sat in a basement until a Temple Nerd rolled in and shouted TAKERU, MONSTERS. Saber instantly corrects that, giving Touma both a relatable backstory (found early success in one field, but maybe lost the spark as an adult) and a normal-ass day job. Touma’s dedication to brightening the lives of children and stoking the magic of imagination is basically the first thing we learn about him, adding legibility and coherence to his motivation as a Kamen Rider. He’s a guy that cares deeply about the written word, and can’t stand to see it being used against people.

I'd say, Touma's one of the most disliked MC in Kamen Rider afaik, just like Takeru. Otherwise, you say here that Takeru only have monster detonating as a motivation actually as he recounts countless times in the intro, he wants to restore his physical body by collecting 15 Eyecons, and that is something often got thrown to, any characters who are established as goody-two shoes, to the point that I'd think it's undeserved hate/stereotype for those types, which consists of most main Riders. But it seems for you here, brightening the lives of children and being imaginative is enough to elevate Touma from that. It's good actually, but it can still be used to claim that character types like Touma "don't have anything other than wanting to do good to others".

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It didn’t really work for me, which, again: sort of a bummer! It sucks to hit that first big Henshin and be like I’m Not Seeing It. I think it’s rushed, honestly. I think the show needed at least another Act between the book monster’s attack and Saber’s debut. There’s just this Touma monologue (Toumonologue) to get us from his shock at being in the middle of a dreamlike disaster in a storybook world, to him berating a book monster about misunderstanding humanity’s connection to prose so harshly that a flaming sword is deposited for his use. That’s… that is a lot of ground for one Toumonologue to cover! It’s a good speech! It’s just not a speech that papers over the pacing issues.

I'd think it's how superpowers can affect and influence someone's life who is formerly a normal human. An unsuccessful example, but in Faiz there was Keitaro who is a laundry, seemingly a job that has no relation at all to hero journeys, but it'd make sense for him to attempt to protect others as Kamen Rider if he got a chance, because now he had a chance to get the power to act on his ideals, not only by proclaiming to make people happy by performing his job (but it's an indicator). A successful example was Shinji in Ryuki (another red dragon-themed main Rider) who also had journalist as a job, but as he by person can't stand people dying, if he got a chance to protect people by finding an Advent Deck, he'd do it. Touma's job is a bookstore owner, like you, but Touma as a person is shown to be sweet and caring towards children, thus how he is as a person is what drives him to become Saber.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

After that lurch in the episode, I kinda didn’t click with the rest of the episode. The action was fine. Aggressively fine. I don’t know that the CG was great, but it didn’t hurt me or anything. But the fight was so one-sided in Saber’s favor that I sort of couldn’t invest much in the outcome. Touma demolished the book monster with the sort of boastful confidence of a much longer roll-up, not a first fight after a surprise knighting. It all felt pre-ordained in a way that actually had me feeling bad for the book monster. Touma’s heroic debut felt rushed, and then his fighting felt massively overleveled. It took the jerky pacing of the middle of the episode, then amplified it as the climax approached. Not a super great way to experience the first fight.

Well yeah, I think Saber's design is the best/coolest IMO among the main Reiwa Riders. I'd say more kudos for the CG considering that it was done during the heights of Coronavirus pandemic. And for Touma, there's an intelligent tactic of him as human using the fire hydrant to save himself and Mei from the giant monster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The thing is… man, I like a lot of what this show’s made out of. I like how it’s exploring how retail can be its own type of beneficial human connection. I like the concept of finding the stories that help us be the better versions of ourselves. I like how it’s such a thinly-veiled discussion of what tokusatsu shows and tokusatsu audiences give to each other. I like all of the things it’s talking about. And, man, I like Touma and Mei! I think Touma’s slightly embarrassed laziness works great against Mei’s wacky bossiness, and their dynamic was warm and funny throughout.

Touma seems to have clear confidence when he confronts the MOTW and in his catchphrase to decide the ending, but it'd be a risky move to use the book story analogy to help Ryota. If Touma fails, it'd be a disastrous consequence for Ryota, not only in losing his parents, but also his worldview. I didn't expect for Touma to actually complete the manuscript in this episode though despite Mei's pushy demands making it sound difficult for him. For Mei, she's a female lead that brings Akiko to mind (though she has Kirihiko's surname), and she also has similar hit-or-miss reception from the fanbase. I kinda like a touch of real life modernity for the Wonder World being used to (attempted to) feed Mei's social media instead. In turn it's also relatable that Mei's motivation so far is to become the center of her friend circle. Rintaro had himself going extra on using homo sapiens term and also.. his smile at the end.