[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 22 - “EVEN SO, I WISH TO SAVE THEM ALL”



We get a lot of focus on the remaining SoL members this episode, which is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for right now in the narrative. With Daishinji’s defection, it’s the perfect time to drill into what’s keeping Rintaro, Ren, and Ogami around.

Ren’s easy: he just wants to fight and detonate monsters, which Reika is a-okay with. (Funniest part in the episode is Rintaro being like There’s A Lady Inside That Megid, and Ren being like DON’T WORRY I’LL MURDER HER. He’s so shallow and excitable that he makes regular one-track minds look like the Den-Liner’s acrobatics by comparison.) Rintaro’s equally obvious, in that he’s trying to protect his rapidly-disintegrating family, and assuring that those who left have a home to come back to when they inevitably wise up. Them two aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

But Ogami… it seems like he should leave, doesn’t it? He seems to intensely dislike Reika, and rightfully so. He was fine with Daishinji leaving, because he trusts Daishinji’s judgment. He’s been the first one, in nearly every fight, to try and de-escalate things with Touma. There doesn’t seem to be a strong reason for a man of his convictions to follow cruel orders from an organization that doesn’t seem to care about its soldiers. (Maybe the SoL has really good tuition reimbursement for Sora? Single dads got it rough!)

But we get this sweet little scene with Sora, and it all makes sense. He’s a dad. Most of these swordsmen are kids. You don’t leave your kids behind just because things are tough, or because some of them are traitors to a guild of fairytale-powered superheroes. You rein them in when necessary, and you stick around to protect them. Ogami can’t leave, because, like, who’s going to look after Rintaro and Ren? He’s got responsibilities, and that means he’s got to stay in situations he’d maybe rather not.

It’s another episode of Saber where the drama with Touma’s former comrades dwarfs whatever MotW shenanigans are going on in the foreground. (It’s Touma advocating for the protection of people’s individual dreams, which both makes sense – it’s another facet of his deeply specific empathy – and also is maybe yet another Fiery Declaration too many from Touma. I don’t need a variation every other episode!) It’s all about Touma proving to Ogami that he’s not just some tourist in the SoL, a bystander who lucked into a sword he should’ve never kept. Touma’s the guy who won’t stop fighting for people, ever, even if he’s not convinced that he should be fighting for an organization.

The Remi/Mami stuff was fine, it was whatever; the SoL stuff was amazing, and showcases a grasp of character dynamics and conflicting motivations that match or exceed any other Kamen Rider show. Another huge mark in favor of this show exploring its gigantic, excellent cast!

—

GETTING INTO KNIVES



Mei held up the stack of papers to Daishinji. “What is this?”

Daishinji looked up as briefly as he could to verify the content of the papers, then returned his gaze to his workstation, and the sword on it. “Those are the initial reports on my study of Yur– Saikou. Raw data, nothing you’d understand or be interested in.”

Mai dashed around to the front of the table, and crouched down so her face would be unavoidably in Daishinji’s line of sight. Her face was… he wanted to say Happy, but there was something else to it that Daishinji was wary of.

“Oh, yes, ‘raw data’,” Mei said with a mocking tone. “Very dry, very technical, very official. ‘Business, business, business’,” she said in a haughty voice, as she pretended to page through his report, “‘Numbers.’”

Daishinji stopped his analysis of his sword, and readied himself for a battle he always dreaded: a brief conversation with Mei.

He respected her as a valuable ally in the battle against the Megid, but he found her energy, enthusiasm and outgoing nature to be discordant at best, cacophonous at worst. She was an explosion, at all times. He wasn’t sure he could survive another detonation.

“Is there a problem with my examination of the Sword of Light?” Daishinji attempted to look Mei dead in the eye, to communicate his displeasure with this interruption, but barely made it halfway through before he swung his eyes to a random spot on a far wall.

Mei gripped the papers tightly, in a weird delight. “Problem? No. Oh no no no no,” she said with a manic energy, before a brief… was it a squeal? Why was it a squeal? “You were, um, VERY thorough. Can I tell you my favorite, uh, data point?”

Daishinji wasn’t expecting this. He’d always assumed that Mei would be disinterested in his data gathering; too flighty and emotional to care about the technical details that went into maintaining the Sacred Swords. Had he misjudged her? Could she be one of the few to find his expertise to be a source of excitement, rather than boredom? (He’d tried to walk Ren through some basic sessions on the science behind maintaining the Sword of Wind, and Ren later told him it was the closest he’d come to laying down his sword forever.)

Daishinji smiled slightly, overcome with happiness that his work had ignited something in Mei. “Please do,” he said.

She smiled back in a way that alarmed him – it reminded Daishinji of Desast’s rictus grin, for some reason; too wide, too many teeth – and flipped through the report until reaching a dog-eared page. She cleared her throat, and began reading.

“‘The sword was smooth, and felt warm in my hands. I gripped it tightly, and felt its power overwhelm my senses. Its heaviness belied its size, and I longed to–’”

Daishinji ripped the pages from her hands, and ran to hide under his workstation. From underneath, muffled, he shouted, “THAT IS AN OFFICIAL SWORD OF LOGOS DOCUMENT AND IT IS NOT FOR CIVILIANS THANK YOU GOOD DAY GOODBYE DON’T LOOK AT ME.”