[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 13

Hey Ishida's directing his next set of Saber episodes I wonder--



C'mon Kamijou-san, don't flinch at that! Touma's never gonna look up to you as his senior swordsman of flames if you get scared by a little fire!

...Well, I mean, I guess the whole evildoer shtick is actually the real problem there, but still.

Anyway, I've never been the biggest fan of this episode, because my brain always wants to compare it to all the other Q1 power-up form debuts out there, and the last one of those Fukuda wrote is on the shortlist of my favorite Rider episodes period.

Of course, it's really an apples and oranges kind of deal, because this episode of Saber is still very much in the middle of a climactic arc, rather than being the conclusion to one, and as the next chapter in this saga, there's a lot to love, for sure. It's a suitably dramatic sendoff for Kento with a lot of great touches throughout. Ishida's direction naturally helps to elevate the material a ton. In particular, the visuals are doing a lot of heavy lifting to make you feel that emotional connection between this trio of childhood friends, and I appreciate touches like Luna hanging out in the background as Touma tearfully tells Kento how they're supposed to be together forever.

The whole context of Dragonic Knight's debut is really straightforward in that sense, which sort of disappointed me at the time, but looking back, I kinda like it a lot, actually? Kento asks Luna to protect Touma, so she literally gives him armor; it checks out! The episode stands up to that Ghost comparison better than I had it pegged for at first, because it's still making a bond between characters central to the protagonist's growing strength. It comes down to Saber fighting Calibur, but even then, it isn't Touma alone who fends him off.

The scene with Kento's little farewell to everyone is also extremely well done in general. A detail I forgot about until browsing back through the old thread is that Ren specifically is just bawling his eyes out the whole time, which is just *perfect* for that character, being both the most youthful and the one who was always particularly obsessed with Kento.

And of course, Swordsmen Chronicles continues to do a great job expanding on the series. You can sort of tell how this one doesn't ~quite~ line up the best with the actual episode in terms of continuity, from what I recall, but it also does so well elaborating on the characters it's sort of hard to care.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Oh, there's the ridiculous name, "Dragonic", which is like, why? Draconic is already a word!

Actually, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd imagine even if that thought had occurred to them, they'd still go with Dragonic anyway. I don't know this stuff well enough to articulate why, but I'm pretty sure putting that dakuten on the コ makes the whole word roll off the tongue much better.

Oh, right, and I didn't talk about Dragonic Knight itself yet! It's really cool! Very straightforward in its concept, but thanks to this show's impeccable sense of aesthetics, it manages to nail it anyway. I honestly totally get where the whole "it could just be the final form" thing comes from, because if this were a Rider show from the 2000's, I can absolutely imagine this being Saber's singular other form besides Brave Dragon. In a Rider show from 2020, however, it's merely another cool form to throw on the pile of the things Touma has. Thanks to the short film coming out around this time, I always compare this form with Emotional Dragon in my head, and much like with Calibur, I could really go either way, despite having a preference. What can I say, whether transformed or not, Touma is just a total fashion star.