[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 31 - “THE STRENGTH TO BELIEVE, AND THE STRENGTH TO BE BELIEVED IN”

It’s the toughest gig in Kamen Ridering, probably. You have power, and goals, and sometimes a touch of ambition, but the entire narrative is oriented to diminish what you accomplish. You’re a sidekick at best, a late-stage adversary at worst. The story is only about you to the extent that you complement the main character’s journey. It can never really be your story.

But, like, that’s life? We all feel like the main characters of our stories, but this is a world with billions of main characters. Sometimes our story is about helping other people, letting them attain their true potential, and giving the support necessary to excel. It’s okay to be the person in the background sometimes. Not everything has to be about us.

Honestly, I know it can be tough for people who gets overshadowed by others, but yeah, the very wrong thing for this (and honestly, many audience who complains about character's existence being useless when there's someone who seemingly can solve anything) is that, being weaker than someone else doesn't mean their existence is useless as they can provide extra support somewhere. Though obviously they can't rely on their supports forever and the problem is that when you're on your own you'd want to be able to accomplish things as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

From Touma, he learns to never give up on himself, even when it seems like he’s pretty much there to eat shit while someone else gets the win. Setbacks don’t mean you’re weak; giving up after a setback means you’re weak. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort, there’s still a chance for victory.

Honestly other than Mei's boundless optimism, Mei being a normal person who can't fight and contribute nearly as much but still tries should've been brought up here as an example (though it's not successful to some audiences who'd view Mei as useless), when Rintaro has much less setbacks as an actual Kamen Rider. Otherwise, in their duel, it's kinda a reverse scenario compared to Touma's duel with Daishinji, where it's now Rintaro fully feeling the burden Touma carries for all the victims. But I wonder how was Rintaro's skills compared to Daishinji and Ogami, is his actually also significantly less compared to those where the more novice Touma can equal him, or that Touma catches up really fast where he's now on Daishinji and Ogami's level, or closer to them, but represented with Rintaro.

From Mei, he learned that having a good attitude is a multiplier for any group. Everyone does their best work when they’re in

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

the trenches with friends, so providing a friendly atmosphere is a strength that even a non-swordsmen member of the Sword of Logos can provide. Mei’s just as strong as the rest of the team, because she helps them all stay positive and happy. There’s strength in that kind of positivity.

I didn't talk about this before when Touma tells others that he wants to be left alone due to Kamijo's words in ep. 18 (fair enough), but here when Touma first met Mei, he was kinda standoffish, when Touma's portrayed as an ultimate nice guy. And it seems as if the past displays their relationship more akin to their current relationship, as Mei was friendly and smiley when meeting Touma that time, where I thought Mei was the one having problems with Touma (I get it, it can be also about watching his work progress later), with her being bossy and kinda putting him down for it, compared to her swooning over Rintaro and Kento. That past scene feels more similar to their relationship since Kamijo died.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s a very sweet little story about positive thinking, and accepting the support of people around us, which is a neat recurring topic for this series. This thing could’ve easily been a story where Rintaro gets strong and Finds His Conviction and single-handedly saves Mei while Touma cheers him on from the sidelines… but it just refused to take the easy way out. Instead, we get this fun three-hander about how the effectiveness of any team is down to how much they can lift each other up, rather than how strong each member is. Such a great twist on this sort of traditional Secondary story.

Usually, having more people is useful as they can split up and handle different stuff, but here... it seems that Saber and Blades manage to triumph when they gang up, on the Neko Megid, then on Zooous, instead of them fighting both individually. I guess that'd also mean that sacrificing yourself shouldn't be main solution for heroism, as Saber saves Blades after Blades decide to sacrifice himself instead for feeling useless. It seems that the Book Club's trait, where it's porrayed as a small detail, is that, after they're killed, their humanity returns where they assume kinder approach compared to their usual personality, like how Legeiel dies with a smile, and Zooous actually compliments Blades' current strength and is looking forward for his further growth. Still kinda wasted trait of them that is only used as a small detail.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The title, which is one of my favorites in the series. I adore Saber's shtick of always having a comma, and while I also love all the dramatic pauses, I'm quite fond of ones like this that make each side one part of a pair, working together for greater effect. Kinda fits the teamwork theme, even!

I also love that title. It's so smart in the way it tells you right up front that there's strength in accepting the support of others; that part of Rintaro's struggle in the past few episodes has been letting himself be cared for by others. It's there from the very first scene of the story, where you can tell that Rintaro's processing all of the warm wishes and joy of his friends and family as both You Are A Child and You Are A Fraud. To point out in the title that believing in yourself or others is only half of the battle for a guy like Rintaro? Yeah, I love that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Still kinda wasted trait of them that is only used as a small detail.

It's not my favorite part, no. I guess it's nice that it's there, give them a little bit of depth, but I don't think it really adds any poignancy or anything.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 32 - “MY HEART AND SOUL, CRYSTALIZED IN ICE”



If you’re going to conclude Rintaro’s emotional growth, it’s sort of necessary to do it in a Base Under Siege story.

Rintaro’s whole thing is seeing his coworkers and friends as a surrogate family, so the most effective visualization of an attack on Rintaro’s value system that he can dramatically overcome is, basically, a home invasion story set at his work. If we need to create a situation where Rintaro feels most connected to the peril, and we’ve just done a story where Mei’s in danger, the only other option is for Master Logos and Storious to mount a two-pronged (well, three prongs: Durendal's trident) assault on Rintaro’s family home.

It’s a fun callback to the season’s earlier assault on the Southern Base, with a whole bunch of moving parts, some hallway chases, and a dazzling fight in what’s clearly a ballroom – this time with square columns instead of cones. (The Northern Base is too kind-hearted for your sinister cones!) We’re doing similar matchups, as well, with Yuri and Touma taking a second run at Durendal, while Rintaro gets his own storyline to address.

And it’s, really, a Rintaro episode. We get some slight movement on plot stuff – Sophia’s key finally gets used, Reika’s suspicious of the Megid involvement – but this is definitely the climax of Rintaro’s character arc. We’ve seen him deal with his inferiority complex alongside his friends; now it’s time to see him deal with it alongside his dad's memory.

Which: this is completely a story about Rintaro trying to come out from under the shadow of his dad. In the incredibly weird way Rintaro has reshaped a family dynamic around the workplace he was adopted/indoctrinated into, he had just finished seeing his value to an organization when his coworkers are better at their jobs than he is, through being a great team-player. Now, he has to find a way to make his boss proud, and honor the hard work of the people who built the company.

It’s a fun conclusion, where Rintaro literally embodies the institutional history of the Northern Base and uses it to defend his home and family. It’s as perfect a Gets A New Power-Up finale to this type of story as I can think of for Rintaro. He acknowledges that his mission is to protect his family – not just a guild or a code – and has the entire history of the sword of Logos go You Finally Figured It Out, through the bestowal of a slick new Wonder Ride Book that allows him to obliterate Zooous, the Megid who killed his boss/dad. It’s Rintaro’s whole story, wrapped up with a bow.

It’s so focused on Rintaro that it kind of doesn’t leave much else to discuss! The Saber/Durendal fight was fun, with Touma’s, like, sonar being able to track Durendal’s time-dilation and negate his advantage. (I love the little PINGs on the soundtrack!) There’s also the requisite fun moments of characterization, like Ogami geeking out over his new pin, and every weird thing Daishinji does in the background. It’s just, none of that even comes to the level of a B-plot in this one. It’s Rintaro’s story this time out, from front to back.

Which is okay by me! I don’t know that I felt like Rintaro needed more after last episode’s thrilling battle for his place in the group, but this is a neat little coda for that accomplishment, at the very least. (I just… I’ve never really cared about his relationship with a boss/dad who died fifteen years before the show started? It’s way less vital to my understanding of Rintaro than any of his current relationships.) We’re in that pre-endgame part of a show where non-Primary Riders need to wrap up whatever character arc stuff they’ve got outstanding, because once we hit Episode 40, there probably won’t be room left. Typically courteous of Rintaro to get his character work done so promptly! He’s a good boy.

—

A SONG FOR OUR FATHERS



Daishinji thought of himself as an expert on swords, not swordsmen – but over the years he felt that he’d grown to appraise both well. He understood swords in a way that he’d never understood a person, but a swordsman was an extension of their sword, so there was a bit of overlap between the two. Not enough to call himself a good judge of character, as evidenced by the ways Master Logos had plotted unseen, but enough to speak with authority on the qualities of swordsmen of the guild.

Rintaro was the best swordsman the guild had ever produced.

Daishinji followed Touma because of his ability to fulfill prophecy, and because of the strength of his convictions, but he wasn’t the swordsman that Rintaro was. Ogami could swing a sword in a way that the earth itself respected, Ren was powerful beyond his age, Kento had mastered a sword as old as the guild itself, the Southern Base produced unstoppable killers, Yuri literally was a sword man; none of them held a candle to Rintaro.

Rintaro’s greatness as a swordsman wasn’t his technique, which was practiced and focused. It wasn’t the strength of his swing, which was powerful. It wasn’t even his dedication to his craft, which was all-consuming. It wasn’t that he needed the guild, or respected the guild, or feared the guild.

It was that he loved the guild like family.

Daishinji had worried about it some, over the years. Rintaro was just a child when he was rescued by the guild. He’d been raised with all the care the guild could offer, but it wasn’t what Daishinji would have considered the most loving upbringing. They were warriors on a sacred mission, and they each had their own battles to fight. They did their best, though, and Rintaro had seemed to develop into a stalwart, happy young man. It was still something that nagged at Daishinji: Did they do a good job, as guardians?

The answer stood before him in a freezing, glorious form.

Rintaro had received the blessing of the history of the guild. While Touma may have been ordained by the Sacred Swords, Rintaro had been honored by generations of swordsmen. He loved the guild, and was loved by the guild in return. He was a child of the guild, and he’d made his parents proud.

Daishinji felt that pride as well. Now he just needed Rintaro to turn the cold down some.

[Enchilada645]

So fun fact, the past four episodes you watched aired during the same month. Which the production blog joked as "This month we are airing Kamen Rider Blades" I believe. So yeah, Rintaro really got a whole month to himself, his struggles, and his triumphs after being on the bench for the most part after Q2 started up.

Anyway Tategami Blades is a fun design. I feel sorry for it as a suit though due to it being pure white as well as that fur! That fur will not last!

But yeah, real nice that we just evolve Rintaro's water move-set into something relating to ice, because of course that's a good natural escalation. It's also a fun debut in the setpieces it gets.

Zooous definitely left more of an impression than Legeiel, his rivalry with Rintaro, while they could've kept it up a bit more prominently, is definitely what sealed the deal in him being stronger than Legeiel to me in terms of character. He also gets a nice little one-liner at the end when he realizes, "Oh hey, I'm beat. Maybe next time" before dying.

I also like how Zooous didn't even get this new form out of some forbidden magic technique either. He just got seriously angry that Touma and Rintaro beat him so thoroughly that he uses his anger to bypass what should've been his first death and shaped it into a monstrous form that tore through a lot of things. It's pretty cool, and the scar on the chest from where Touma and Rintaro clearly cross-slashed last episode is a really good detail to have.

Other points of note, I know it was already confirmed about how Durendal's powers worked in the thread. But here we get to basically see it in full force... and he is just King Crimson. Like I said, you know the Futurama episode with the Harlem Globetrotters? That's basically how it works.

Not much else to say other than a fun siege episode and a good cap for Rintaro as we start progressing deeper into the story. Since, well, despite winning, the heroes still lost quite a lot of stuff as a result of the siege. Very much a give and take situation.

Also very nice story. It's nice to see you write for Daishinji again and I do love that you delve into him figuring how to read Swordsmen because of how they're extensions of their blades. Real fun insight and I agree with Daishinji's observation about Rintaro being the best of the guild! Also I'm glad you added that little touch of how Daishinji was absolutely cold while in awe at the end there.

===Zero Presents: Desast Walk===

Desast Walk #11:

"Hello, humans.

I'm Dessert.

I've been looking around the world for a while now, but I don't see a place for me.

I find it most interesting and fun to fight against strong guys.

You think so too, don't you?"

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Anyway Tategami Blades is a fun design. I feel sorry for it as a suit though due to it being pure white as well as that fur! That fur will not last!

It's a fun design! I'm never really that into fur/hair on Rider suits, but I like how it sells that this is a Northern Base upgrade. (Plus, it just feels like Rintaro is wearing his home into battle, which is a very neat touch.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Also I'm glad you added that little touch of how Daishinji was absolutely cold while in awe at the end there.

That's in there because I was laughing pretty hard at Daishinji's actor doing a little Brr It's Cold Now bit when Rintaro's new suit debuted. He's a funny actor!

[r4bbitdragon]

So. Fun fact(?). Up until now, Saber has had 3 writers, who rotated just about every two episodes. (Takuro Fukuda, Keiichi Hasegawa, and Nobuhiro Mouri). I probably got a little too into assessing Who Had The Reins Each Week as Saber was airing but... well, there were definitely times it felt illuminating to Saber's sometimes weird swerves.

Anyways! Welcome to Saber's 4th (not counting side content) writer, Hiroki Uchida! He's joining the rotation with the rest, so there'll be longer gaps between every writer's turn now :P. (I did think Uchida did a good job joining the show in progress though, I did actually mostly like his episodes. Not bad, since he's a younger writer and this was his first work for Toei.)

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by r4bbitdragon

So. Fun fact(?).

That was a fun fact, thanks! I'm terrible about knowing the behind-the-scenes stuff for these shows (can't read the credits, won't check the Wiki until I finish a series), so I honestly had no idea how many folks were writing on this show, or who wrote which episodes.

[GrandComplete]

Here's a fun article about Hiroki Uchida & him joining the Saber writing team

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2021/05...-writing-team/

[Androzani84]

Well someone beat me to it on the writer thing, so I’ll once again mention what he didn’t. While he doesn’t get a writer’s credit, most of Rintaro’s big speech was devised by his actor, Takuya Yamaguchi on the set.

And bizarrely, the big piece of the broken Mcguffin every collectible is a fragment of goes to the Secondary this time (as opposed to Build, where you may not remember that Katsuragi and Sento had a Pandora panel cannibalised to create the Genius Fullbottle). Tategami is the first Rider thing that I bought after moving house around this time (the first thing in general was the Zenkaiger belt with the Gears for Gaon, Magine and Vroon). So, instead of the videos by people who forget how the gimmick works after 3 videos, you get two videos from me.

Leading 100 beasts through a blizzard is the hundred battle-scarred silver mane.

Lion, Peter Fan, Pegasus, King Lion and finally, Tategami!

And there’s two more jingles, but since they’re in neither of these videos, all you have to go that they exist is to either buy one yourself, or check the wiki

I swear on this Tategami, I will defend this world!

Homo Sapiens! The Frozen Beast King.

I did have a parody comic for this episode, but aside from it not being translated, I couldn’t tell what the joke was (it was basically ghostly apparitions of KickHopper, Meteor and Woz appearing during the fight with Zoous).

Also, Reika’s starting to have second thoughts. I have something for that as well, but I’m saving it for a more appropriate point.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 32 - ?MY HEART AND SOUL, CRYSTALIZED IN ICE?

Yes, great episode. I especially like that given the presence of different factions in the show, no one is left behind, because they decide to attack at the same time. Also, it's great that it doesn't feel like a repeat of the South Base story, because there was an infiltration, and here it's a clear intrusion. Rintaro gaining the power of an ice beast to protect his home is great, as is his massive CGI fight with Zous. Also, although this has already been mentioned, I will still write that Rintaro's speech is an improvisation of the actor, which shows how much he understands the character and how much the scriptwriters trust him. And now only the restrained and silent Storius remained with the Megid trio.
Touma's fight with Ryoga is also good. It should be noted that, despite his cheating abilities, Durandal is in many ways a video game boss: once you figure out how to defeat him, everything becomes much easier. And Reiki's suspicions will obviously not be ignored. I won't spoil it, but I applauded what they ended up with.
All in all, a good episode that completes the Rintaro line and lays the groundwork for what's to come. The fanfiction is good, but due to the fact that it is from the perspective of Daisinji, I kept mentally returning to his entries from previous stories