[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TTFC DIRECT THEATER: KAMEN RIDER SABER ACT 2 - "SAVE EVERYONE, SABER & BLADES! "

Still neat to be experiencing a Saber thing for the first time, but beyond that, yeah I can't think of much to squeeze out of this either. Which makes it sound bad, but of course, it's totally solid light entertainment. With Rintarou this time! I think that automatically makes this sequel the superior installment? At any rate, I still think the whole conceit of using viewer-submitted clips to make the audience part of the story is cute, not that it's any real focus here.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Neat! I think the main lady is from a Sentai? I don't know anyone else in that poster (I don't think?), but I wish them well in their creative endeavors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

With Rintarou this time! I think that automatically makes this sequel the superior installment?

It doesn't hurt! I love how Rintaro is almost eager to eat a loss from Saber, more content with a team win than any glory for himself. He's right back in that early-series "Boyle from Brooklyn 9-9" role as Touma's delighted and deferential sidekick, which is kinda nice to touch back on this late in the show's run.

[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.

—

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…

[Enchilada645]

And so we have, as Storious put it, a "truly laughable and miserable... yet beautiful" end for Isaac.

The man showing his cards this early while Storious kept to the background made it clear that Isaac was only going to be a speed bump, and he did his job rather well. I really enjoyed Isaac as this sort of 3/4ths of the way through antagonist as he inadvertently got everyone on the same side because of his actions. You talking about Isaac's differences and inability to understand things beyond what he knows is also very accurate and I do like that about him.

And it's clear the man was not going to even learn from his defeat this time. So long as he could restore the Omniforce Book, he was going to keep at it for as long as he took, going further and further into a screaming tantrum, even more so than he did at the end here.

Featuring Saber is also a really nice suit. We got a taste of this before with Dragon Hedgehog Peter, and Dragon Alangina, but now we get a true trinity form between Saber, Blades, and Espada. It's a really cool suit that just works nicely in the Xross Saber colors.

Shoutout to my favorite directed moment of this episode though. In which Luna says "They all get along really well, after all" in reference to Touma and his friends. Only to hard cut immediately to a possessed Rintaro and Kento slashing into Touma who's shouting at them to stop. Like absolute props to the people who put together this episode, I don't know if you wanted me to laugh, but I laughed so hard when that scene came up.

As for our story... a nice little one about Touma and his many outfits, both in and out of suit.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Shoutout to my favorite directed moment of this episode though. In which Luna says "They all get along really well, after all" in reference to Touma and his friends. Only to hard cut immediately to a possessed Rintaro and Kento slashing into Touma who's shouting at them to stop. Like absolute props to the people who put together this episode, I don't know if you wanted me to laugh, but I laughed so hard when that scene came up.

It had to be intentional, and it's one of the funniest gags in the entire series. She's very heartfelt in her desire to protect Touma's precious friendship... with two dudes who are wailing on him with swords. It's a solid gag!

[Androzani84]

Well, exit Isaac. I don’t know about you, But I saw Storious taking over the big bad spot as far back as Episode 32 (indeed, if you read the fic I shared after episode 30, there’s a point in it with the two together where one reviewer on FF.Net pointed out that Storious was clearly the one in control of things). Though from a more canonical viewpoint, the whole reason his plan got any further than “wait for them all to die or have their swords sealed” was because Storious blew up the Northern Base’s barrier.

And in that same conversation where I mentioned Isaac’s motives to my brother, I also mentioned Storious’s, to which he responded “So, he’s insane?”

[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 40

It probably goes without saying this is another one I particularly adore. Like, when I think of how much I love the really early episodes of Saber, I always think of that promise between Touma, Rintarou, and Kento (and Mei), so it's only natural when I think of how much I adore the later stretch of the series, my mind often goes to Featuring Saber's single yet extremely memorable appearance. We're at the point in the story where all the swordsmen have managed to overcome everything that was keeping them apart to become this epic team of heroes, and few things are as emblematic of that as this particular episode, where a villain who was previously an unconquerable threat, playing the entire cast with his sinister scheming, is reduced to an ineffectual bumbler who can't do anything to get in the way of these people and their bonds anymore.

It's pretty much perfect, and I think Die put it at least as well as I could. Everything in this episode just fits, and it's also directed by Ishida, because, again, pretty much in heaven by this point. In my post from the time, I'm weirdly critical of the stuff that isn't directly about the Three Musketeers, but like, I even look back on that stuff quite fondly in retrospect? There's just way too much to like about this one to waste time asking more from it. Solomon needing to get defeated three times in a row could've felt redundant, but much more so than 39, this one does an incredible job making all that extra humiliation feel truly fitting for what Saber as a show is all about.

(I do wonder if it slightly dampens the impact of finally seeing Espada again that Die watched the Senki stuff first though? Like, clearly not, given the glowing opinion of the episode, but it is worth noting this was originally the first time we'd seen him in action since Kento gave up being Calibur, which only makes the triumphant feel of the story here that much more palpable.)

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Neat! I think the main lady is from a Sentai? I don't know anyone else in that poster (I don't think?), but I wish them well in their creative endeavors.

You're right, it's Yodonna from Kiramager! Yeah, I don't recognize anybody else besides her and Reika either, most of them look like live-action Sailor Heroines or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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

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.

This is the episode where Isaac completely lets his delusions of godhood go to his head, like to Shin Dan Kuroto Kami-sama levels of delusional. Storious was nice enough to let him crash at the Megid base and even he's not spared from Isaac's insanity. I guess this is a moral that can be applied even to villains, that you should still treat your fellow villains with respect if you don't want them to betray you later. In the end, Isaac was only playing at god and he died without fanfare, pathetically, making way for Storious to reveal himself as the true final arc villain.

Anyway, humorous story, the scene where Touma, Rintarou, Mei and Kento did their swordpile was first revealed in a magazine and at first glance I thought Mei was holding a new Seiken Sword, before realizing a minute later that I was looking at a stick. Even though this episode debunked MeiEspada theory, I was still hoping Mei would become a Swordsman. Now that I think about it, Touma had Rekka spare, he could've at least let her borrow that for a few seconds to make the swordpile look more official!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

While I like the design of Featuring Saber for sure, like all Xross Saber's form changes, I think Rintarou and Kento mimicking his moves in the background made it look a little silly to me. Not sure why Blades even got de-henshined, as Lion Senki was only removed from the Hissatsu Holder, not the Seiken SworDriver. Like, it's only so Espada doesn't get overshadowed due to his lack of power-ups, but then it's like him and Blades get overshadowed by Featuring Saber anyway. I definitely preferred Zi-O Trinity as the more literal example, although I don't like the suit.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Well, exit Isaac. I don?t know about you, Jet I saw Storious taking over the big bad spot as far back as Episode 32 (indeed, if you read the fic I shared after episode 30, there?s a point in it with the two together where one reviewer on FF.Net pointed out that Storious was clearly the one in control of things). Though from a more canonical viewpoint, the whole reason his plan got any further than ?wait for them all to die or have their swords sealed? was because Storious blew up the Northern Base?s barrier.

I think for me it was when Storious watched Isaac set up his laser lightshow at Promise Park, whichever episode that was. The show took pains to let you know that Storious had just been handed the blueprint for Isaac's masterplan, which made Isaac superfluous.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

In my post from the time, I'm weirdly critical of the stuff that isn't directly about the Three Musketeers, but like, I even look back on that stuff quite fondly in retrospect?

I think the Durandal stuff works in this context because Solomon can't even control his two formerly most loyal lieutenants, the folks that were the instruments of his will for a dozen episodes or more. Seeing the heroes collectively overcome his power in the Southern Base, the seat of his former authority, is kind of a great companion piece to the forest beatdown. Dude's losing on boards he forgot he was playing on!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I do wonder if it slightly dampens the impact of finally seeing Espada again that Die watched the Senki stuff first though? Like, clearly not, given the glowing opinion of the episode, but it is worth noting this was originally the first time we'd seen him in action since Kento gave up being Calibur, which only makes the triumphant feel of the story here that much more palpable.

I can't say it bothered me, no. Kento had already rejoined the team two episodes prior; the suit's just a suit to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Even though this episode debunked MeiEspada theory, I was still hoping Mei would become a Swordsman. Now that I think about it, Touma had Rekka spare, he could've at least let her borrow that for a few seconds to make the swordpile look more official!

In almost every other circumstance of the Female Sidekick getting an official role, I'd agree with you... but not here. I like the point the show's sort of making that editing is a useful skill on its own merits -- it's not lesser than writing. Mei doesn't write in the way that Touma does, but her ability to help shape his work and steer his direction is arguably the thing that makes him effective, the thing that separates art from trash. She's doing great as the manager of these superheroes! There's no shame in that role!

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

In almost every other circumstance of the Female Sidekick getting an official role, I'd agree with you... but not here. I like the point the show's sort of making that editing is a useful skill on its own merits -- it's not lesser than writing. Mei doesn't write in the way that Touma does, but her ability to help shape his work and steer his direction is arguably the thing that makes him effective, the thing that separates art from trash. She's doing great as the manager of these superheroes! There's no shame in that role!

Sure, Mei's an amazing character in her own right and not being a Rider doesn't make me love her any less. I just think it would be cool, is all.