[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 2

Once again, I don't think this is necessarily any sort of all-time great episode of Kamen Rider. You can even see in my initial post about it that I inevitably went for the Kuuga comparison I always immediately jump to with second episodes of Rider shows, and didn't think it lived up to that (admittedly high) standard. I think Die's pretty on the mark here about how it's sort of a dramatically inert story in part due to that otherwise enjoyably fresh lack of interpersonal conflict.

But once again, I don't consider any of that to be a huge sin in of itself. There's a ton I enjoy about this one, the overall experience of watching it was incredibly fun, and while it doesn't do the job with the same gripping tight construction of the all-time greats, it does more than accomplish the usual goal of establishing a lot about the world, characters, and just the overall style of the series going forward. Rintarou is an immediately lovable character, and it really can't be overstated just how much he flips the usual secondary Rider tropes on their head. It's not just that he's nice; cooperation and camaraderie is everything to this man. It's the exact polar opposite of the typical grumpy loners often associated with the position. As far away from someone like Fuwa as you can possibly get. I definitely view Saber as something of a curveball Rider show, and Blades' introduction feels almost like a conscious declaration of that intent on the part of the staff.

Plus, you know, Blades is also the blue water guy, so I like him just on that front too. The lion head on the chest is, as ever, supremely fashionable, and the shape of the mane gives a very clear example to point to of something you can see in quite a few places on the suit designs in this show -- the overlapping flat layers are apparently invoking pages of a book, which is quite neat. I see it pointed out occasionally that Saber's designs don't seem to push the book theme to the forefront that much, but it seems like it was just much more subtle about that part than the swords jutting from everyone's helmets.

Anyways, yeah, I definitely have a really great time with this episode. One thing that makes it even more enjoyable on a rewatch (and this is true of quite a bit of early Saber) is that there are a lot of little moments of foreshadowing and stuff that will make you appreciate how cohesive the show actually was in retrospect... but of course, that's all in retrospect, so for Die's sake, I'm going to avoid getting into any of that. I guess something to say in the moment, random as this is, is how much I particularly like that moment where Rintarou gets confused about why Touma is shooting at the ground with Dragon Jakkun? It begins something of a running thing about Touma that I love, where he fights using his understanding of the stories that give him power, and contrasting it upfront that way with a trained swordsman failing to have that same level of intuition makes that concept much clearer through contrast.