[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 40 - “THE SHINING FRIENDSHIP, OF THREE SWORDSMEN”



The Book of Omniscience is a device that makes other stories subservient to it. Solomon is a character that sees everyone as a minor tool to further his own greatness. These are both things that act against the central thesis of this series: that the world is full of individual stories, each with their own author, and we only succeed by embracing that diversity.

It’s a fun way of thoroughly defeating and disgracing Isaac. He gets humiliated in this episode, from the theme song to the end credits, from Storious talking over him to Storious evaporating him. But the main thrust of this episode is all in how Isaac can’t possibly win against the teamwork of Saber, Blades, and Espada.

They’re all in sync in this one (struggling not to say “on the same page”), where even their basic teamwork is able to overcome the majority of Solomon’s attacks. The three of them are unified in their goals, and able to understand what each of them brings to the table. They know each other so well that the moves effortlessly bleed into one another; the camerawork lingers on the moments of transition, like when Blades ducks slightly to open a lane for Espada. There’s cohesion in their fighting that overcomes whatever cheap tricks Solomon can pull.

The twist is that Solomon can now infect the Wonder Ride Books, turning swordsmen into his puppets. He only uses them to cause chaos, which is about as simplistic as you’d expect from him at this point. He’s never been able to see his underlings as anything other than disciples and cannon fodder, so it follows that he’d basically point them at a target and then wander off. In contrast to their stunning teamwork of earlier, the possessed swordsmen swing like drunken zombies, flailing and screaming and generally being incredibly bad at actually damaging an immune Saber. (Durandal fares better in the Southern Base. Instead of blaming his opponents, let’s just say that the smaller arena gave him an edge?)

But, again, this is a show that fights back against predetermined narratives. The concept of losing your own point of view, your personal story, is anathema to this world’s themes. This show isn’t about similarities, it’s about differences. Shoehorning every character into a single narrative misses the point of their uniqueness, and how their differences allow for a greater potential.

Even the new Saber upgrade… it’s this show’s version of Trinity Form, but it keeps all three guys separate. That’s the point. It’s three individuals working in unison, but operating in separation. It’s three points of view collaborating on one success. It’s Featuring Saber; Saber’s just the most prominent member of a team that he needs at his side to be his best.

Boy, I just thought this was the smartest episode. Absolutely on-point new form, and a thematically consistent repudiation of everything Solomon was about. Very happy with how this one turned out.

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LINES IN THE SUIT



It was weird how many new superhero outfits Touma got.

Mei had known him for a couple years, and seen him wear maybe a half-dozen outfits before joining the Sword of Logos: billowy pantsuits and pastel shirts and so many hats. Terrible, pretty much across the board. She wondered how he even found some of these shirts. Who makes a front and back cape?

But even with the breadth of cut and color, Touma’s fashion landed pretty firmly on just a few outfits. (Mei supposed that when your style was as unique as Touma’s, new additions to your wardrobe were infrequent.) That all changed when he became a swordsman, though.

Today was… Mei lost count of how many new armors that Touma had manifested over the last year. Twelve? Fifteen? Some she’d heard about in passing, most she’d seen first-hand. Primitive Dragon. Emotional Dragon. Elemental Primitive Dragon. Crimson Dragon. Dragonic Knight. Was there one where he was a hedgehog? Did she remember that right?

This new one, Featuring Saber… she liked it. She liked the whole starfield motif of the new suit, Xross Saber, and this one was equally pleasant to look at. She liked how it matched well with Rintaro and Kento’s uniforms; Touma’s fashion sense precluded wearing any uniform that the other two would be caught dead in, but this new armor made him look like he was on the same team as his friends. She approved.

It was strange that Touma should get so many new armors, and other guild members would get so few. She hadn’t seen Daishinji or Ogami or Ren in anything but the first armors they wore, which felt a little weird. She wondered if they were less powerful. Or, maybe it was a choice? Daishinji’s suit was high-class; she couldn’t imagine him wanting to lose it.

The important thing, as far as Mei was concerned, was that Touma kept getting new armors. Hopefully, one of the new designs would teach him what actually looked good on his tall frame. Maybe he’d understand why the universe hadn’t manifested Kamen Rider Saber - Culottes Dragon for him yet…