[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 41 - “TWO THOUSAND YEARS, TO WEAVE A SINGLE WISH”



I sort of hate how perfect Storious is for this show’s final villain.

I still don’t like him. I’ve found his presence over the last forty episodes to be more of a distraction than an enhancement. His new Scratchy Deep Villain Voice is maybe funnier than the voice he did for the HBV. He lacks the compelling theatricality of Isaac, substituting a grim menace that comes off pedestrian by comparison. He’s never been entertaining, and that didn’t exactly stop being the case this episode, despite it arguably being his highlight. I don’t like watching him.

But, goddamn, the idea of him as the final boss is perfect.

Storious is a man of stories, and he’s obsessed with endings. To him, a story is only worth telling if the ending resonates. The ending is why we tell stories, to his thinking. So he wants to end the world because that’s what gives the world meaning; before they die, everyone on the planet is boring, pointless. He wants to see how it all ends, so he’s going to end it. While a character like Touma might value the journey of a story – the place where we learn about others and invest in people – Storious is only here to shut it all down. The destination is all that matters to him.

It’s the best meta villain a season-long story could have, and I wish the execution were as exciting as the reveal. Storious was a lame leader of a lame group. He was frequently upstaged by the lousy CG of his headquarters, and he’s barely able to rise above the other scenes of an episode full of exposition. This show gambled big on asking an average actor playing an adequate villain to somehow level up into a final boss between episodes, and it just doesn’t happen. The show tries to get him there by providing a brilliantly thematic motivation, but the performance and presence is just… it’s just henchman level. It’s not a big boss.

The rest of the episode is solid enough, with a mix of exposition (Tassel!), uplifting camaraderie (Touma!), and bittersweet foreboding (Desast!).

Let’s hit that last one first, because it’s easily the best part of this episode. Desast takes up the Sword of Ruin, henshins into Kamen Rider Falchion, and proceeds to have an epic battle against Storious. (I love that Desast has fallen into accidental heroism because he’s having too much fun to let someone destroy the entire Earth right this second. Later, maybe. But not now.) Sadly, it’s a thrilling battle that leaves Desast probably almost dead, so he’s going to have one last duel against Ren before he goes.

(The Ren stuff with Touma… it’s okay? It’s a very incremental restatement of their status quo. Didn’t super need it here, but it’s okay as a reminder.)

Touma gets a much more upbeat plot, despite being told by Tassel that he’s destined to choose between Luna and his friends. It’s a feint by the show, though, because Touma’s well past the point of taking anyone’s word about what he’s destined to do: he’s going to decide how this story ends. So he’s like Why Not Both, and reiterates his goal to have all of his friends – Luna included – as part of his life. It’s a great swerve away from a more generic Touma Has To Make An Impossible Choice story, because he’s grown beyond other people limiting his choices.

It’s a decent enough episode, for how it juggles a fun fight and a library’s worth of exposition. I even liked the reveal of Storious’s motivation. I just wish it were a motivation for anyone other than Storious. Think how much more fun it’d be if Zooous was doing flips right now!

—

HELLO SADNESS



Kento’s blood ran cold.

Luna’s absence had been an open wound in his life, and in his friendship with Touma. The battle to get her back had been fraught and painful. Everything in their lives hinged on Luna being back for good. Luckily, they’d found her. Touma had located a girl that had vanished through tragedy by never giving up on her.

But finding Luna never seemed to be as difficult as holding onto Luna. She’d barely materialized in their reality before she was kidnapped by Master Logos. Touma had saved her from apocalyptic sacrifice, but then she evaporated into glowing dust. Yuri’s friend had found her in the Wonder World, but it was only through the combined efforts of Touma, Kento, and Rintaro that she was kept from Solomon’s clutches. Everything about her seemed to exist in peril, continuously, almost gravitationally. They couldn’t ever seem to keep her safe for good.

Now she was with Yuri’s friend, who… what did they even know about him? That he’d been murdered at least once by Isaac? That he’d taken Luna to a place she was almost abducted from previously? That they had no idea if anyone else was looking for her? That she could already be captured?

Kento knew this feeling. This was the world he lived in for months, as he battled his friends to protect Touma and the world. This was fear, and guilt. It was him losing the faith that pulled him back from the brink of death. He felt it pull him back like all those foes who pulled Luna away.

He took a deep breath.

There was nothing to be afraid of. Touma had saved Luna. The end. It was over. She was safe in the Wonder World. Nothing was going to get to her. There was no reason to doubt their victory.

Kento was glad he could put this irrational fear to rest.