[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 5

This one holds a real special place in my heart, even by Saber's standards. Namely because it's the first episode of the series that I felt like I properly connected with an emotional level. Like, sure, the insanity of these chummy swordsmen had been fun so far, but stories that really stick with me tend to do so because of some sort of humanity I find in the narrative, and the plotline with Touma and Kento surprised me with how much it delivered that.

I thought Kento's trouble opening up was extremely well-realized, and it was sort of shocking to see Touma coming to the conclusion that he needs to give his friend the space to talk when he's ready, when I could easily imagine a take on this plot that's more concerned with condemning Kento for being unhelpful or whatever. But I guess that's just the kind of emotional sensitivity you can expect from Takurou Fukuda's Rider scripts, and since Kazuya Kamihoriuchi was the directer, I guess that's also just the kind of quality you can expect from the dream team behind the Kamen Rider Specter movie.

Oh, and plus! This episode has Saber's second and final proper bike action scene, which apparently is only there because Kamihoriuchi wanted to do a bike action scene, further proving both how cool Kamihoriuchi is, and how little Kamen Rider cares about bike action now, which is less cool!

Naturally, there's a ton of other little things I love about this one; I'm barely scratching the surface here...

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 6

...because I've also gotta talk about the second Fukuda/Horiuchi episode of Saber, which wasn't quite the homerun I thought the prior one was. Eiji Togashi's acting as Ren didn't exactly win me over right away. I believe he was one of those young toku actors who was totally new to acting, and unlike some other examples of that, I think it kinda shows in his performance in this one, unfortunately. But you know, just like Ren himself, he's got plenty of room to grow. The upside is that his wooden delivery arguably enhances the creepy blood knight vibe Ren's got going on, and while this episode didn't make me like Kenzan the way I did with the other Riders so far, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him interesting. The other plotlines in this episode definitely grabbed my attention way more though, especially at the time. Daishinji is adorable and Rintarou was pretty firmly my favorite character at this point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

the post credits scene

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

the what now

clearly this is the universe's way of punishing you for not liking ska