[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 16 - “SAVING THE WORLD, THE RAY OF LIGHT”



A couple days ago, I complained that I couldn’t really see much thematically in Saber that connected with me. There were platitudes, and speeches, and catchphrases, but the topics weren’t particularly engaging to me. With this episode, I think we’ve really hit on something that I like thinking about.

What’s more valuable: An organization, or the people within it?

It’s an interesting way the show chooses to explore this question; namely, by having this close group of friends IMMEDIATELY fracture and fight at the first whiff of dissension and/or betrayal. Kamijo only yesterday suggested to Touma that the Sword of Logos is up to no good and that Touma might have to choose between honoring his promise and siding with his friends, so here’s Reika to turn everyone against each other to draw out Yuri. It’s a plot that, in typical Saber fashion, eschews a slow burn of character-motivated paranoia and natural workplace incompatibility by just having Reika take control of the Northern Base, whisper lies into everyone’s ears, and then wait for the sparks to fly.

There is some actual character-based conflict, though, which is why this episode worked for me. While Reika pushes everyone into a standoff, things only get really bad when Touma suggests that the guy who murdered Kento and conspired with despotic fiction monsters might have a point. It’s the sort of empathetic A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day argument that lands easily with a fellow SoL outsider like Mei, where both she and Touma can telescope out Handling Kento to a point where he’d’ve likely become Kamijo, therefore finding some possible humanity within Kamijo. But it’s got about zero traction with the soldiers who’ve been risking their lives to defend multiple worlds from Kamijo’s nihilistic zealotry, and the people who loved Kento the most. It’s a neat escalation throughout the argument, because a lot of it just comes down to both sides not being willing to hear the other out. Touma’s goal of ferreting out a traitor was always going to piss off his coworkers, and his inability to appeal to their sense of justice dooms this friendship to failure. Reika might’ve lit the fuse, but this bomb was already there.

Not that this is, like, the smoothest episode around. We’re in a transitional space, where we’re getting some restated background on Touma’s overall goals (Luna, traitor) as well as the Book Club’s revised plan of attack. (I really love the little fortnightly Kamen Rider stories where someone gets turned into a monster and the Riders have to find some way to liberate the victim, so this is already more interesting to me than a random Megid showing up in a plaza.) There’s a lot of side-stories filling out this already-packed episode of heroes battling heroes, which doesn’t do the components a ton of favors. There’s a lot of ground to cover on the Touma section of this episode alone, leaving the book victim stuff to feel slightly irrelevant at the present. It’s not a distraction, exactly, but it doesn’t add anything to the main story.

(That said, we did get to see something I’ve been waiting for since the second episode: MEI’S WORK! It’s been in the credits without being in the show to an almost hysterical degree, where it felt left over from a version of this show that Covid made impossible. But it’s here! Sort of! Very happy to finally see Mei in a different context.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how much this episode came together for me. When Kamijo’s warning took about eight seconds to make Touma an outcast from his friends, hunted as a traitor, I was like That Was Fast. But then the show pulled back the reins a bit, and let the characters’ lingering resentments and lack of shared history pit the Sword of Logos against Touma and Mei (and debuting swordsman/sword-man Yuri) in a way that feels inevitable. It’s an episode that starts exploring something I find fascinating, which is how we imbue organizations with power and personality due to the people within them, but then forget that said power and personality is only there because of those people. Touma and the other swordsmen see the Sword of Logos as something worth protecting or destroying, but it’s really just a collection of people. We lose sight of that to our peril, which is what everyone discovered this episode.

—

AREN’T WE ALL FOUND OUT



Yuki was glad to see that Mei was coming along as an editor, even if Mei wasn’t quite there yet.

Mei had greatly improved as a writer, since coming on staff. She’d grown in her ability to multi-task. Mei was a strong communicator, who forcefully argued for her point of view in editorial meetings, in emails, and once by yelling at a coworker at a coffee shop on her way to work.

(The HR intervention was mercifully brief, and both sides came to an understanding regarding editorial hierarchy and professional boundaries.)

It wasn’t really Mei’s writing or editing that Yuri thought needed improvement. It was Mei’s managerial skills.

Mei had done as solid a job getting work out of Touma Kamiyama as could be expected. She might get his work turned in at the very last second of the deadline, but it was always in a t the deadline. They’d never needed to bump one of Touma’s scheduled pieces, which was a rarity for an author as young as he. (Sadly, it was a rarity for an author, full stop.) Mei made sure that the magazine never suffered a setback if she could prevent it.

But all of that was just for one author; a magazine editor was responsible for an entire staff, plus countless freelancers. Yuki wondered if Mei had it in her to provide structure to a group of people with their own goals, their own levels of experience, and their own personal baggage. Mei was a talented young woman, and an absolute dynamo when it came to cheering on a writer, but could she somehow motivate an entire organization to put in the effort to cross the finish line, when they were all exhausted and ready to quit?

Yuki wasn’t sure.

But she’d help Mei get there. Part of running an office well meant trying to elevate the people you worked with, having faith that they’d find new reserves within themselves. Yuki hoped she’d be able to impart these lessons to Mei. She’d make the time, once she was back from her camping trip.

Yuki looked out the window, lingered briefly on the floating fairytale world that hung in the air, and saw Mei as she was exiting the building. She smiled as she saw Mei going through paperwork, organizing it as she walked. It was nice to see her so dedicated to her job. Mei stopped as she saw someone across the courtyard. It was Sayaka, from the HR complaint. Sayaka had brought up a concern at the last staff meeting that the magazine was running too much fiction and– oh no. Mei was shouting now, waving her arms. Sayaka was moving away from Mei. Mei was following, quickly.

Yuki raced for the stairs. Maybe she could have one last conversation with Mei before the camping trip.