[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 3

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Kamen Rider as a franchise barely acknowledges moms (give or take a memorable Build HBV and some physical abuse in Geats)

Man, it's fascinating to me how you still worship that Build HBV to such a degree that it comes to mind here before Asumum in Hibiki or like, the couple of options you had from Kiva.

Anyway, yeah, Saber is still very much in its early weird messy phase with this one, which leaves my thoughts on it, going from memory at least, pretty much identical to the prior episode. Fantastic introduction to a new main character, lots of breezy fun action, surprisingly strong world-building under the hood, all packaged together in a very strange way that's almost certainly going to drag the overall experience down for people who aren't just inherently on the show's wavelength the way I am.

Buster's real great though. Most of the things I could say about him probably don't need explaining, so I'll guess I'll take this opportunity to mention suit actor trivia because why not? I haven't brought up that Saber himself is Kousuke Asai, who has become a new favorite for me in recent years thanks to his ability to emote on a level that approaches Takaiwa's heights (just watch him as Don Momotaro!), Blades is Eitoku, who I've felt similar about for even longer, and as Buster, we've got Jirou Okamoto, Kamen Rider Black himself, who is perhaps the only real choice to portray a seasoned veteran member of his organization who can dominate a scene with a touch of old-school intensity. Like, man, I wonder how hard it was for him to get inside Ogami's head! (Plus, Calibur is Kuuga's suit actor, Kenji Tominaga, making this the second year in a row a Heisei star came back to beat on the new kids as a purple bad guy.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Speaking of COVID safety measures, we're three episodes in already so I'd be remiss to not mention the Eyecatches which were almost most definitely added as another way to fill some kind of time.

I went to look this up out of curiosity and, just in case there was any doubt, apparently it has been mentioned in some magazine interview or another that the ED and eyecatches were indeed a conscious decision to reduce the amount of new footage they'd need to fill out an episode. Between this and the stuff I've heard about the early story plans, it's curious to think just how many things I like in Saber only came about because of the unfortunate realities of when it was produced.