[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 33



I was really into the scenes with Touma and Kento in this one, if that's any surprise to anybody. Them talking under that tree is yet another scene I immediately think of as defining why I love Saber.

The direction the show took Kento in by making him Calibur, it was always so impressive to me how it did that without ever trying to make him a villain, and more than that, how we see with scenes like this that he's barely even an antagonistic force right now. The person Kento has always been the best at getting in the way of is himself, you know? That's what makes that conversation so immensely compelling to me. It's these two dear friends who still love each other deeply despite being unable to reconcile their differences, and that's where the drama comes from. It breaks my heart when Touma can't help but bluntly ask his friend to come back to him, with a desperation in his voice suggesting he knows that's exactly the wrong thing to say right now. They're both hurting deeply, and they don't know how to make it stop. That's such a neat angle to me, as a way to tell a superhero story. Where most shows might make a strained friendship a cautionary tale about the danger of giving in to hatred, Saber chooses to portray a suffering that can only come from unwavering, unconditional love, and explore how the characters navigate that instead.

There are plenty of other great things in this episode worth talking about, of course, but none of them are ever going to feel as special to me -- as particular to this series -- as that.