[Nokination]

I have to agree with you on the plot of this episode, besides Slash appearing and the mysterious girl with a Wonder Ride Book who's probably relevant to the plot, there's hardly anything else that seems relevant to the story at large, it's just your basic Megid plot that isn't very interesting. Though onto something I do actually care for, Slash, I love his suit(s), it's hard to describe, since there's so much going on with his suit, but it just really appeals to me. Besides that, I didn't really care about this episode, Sakamoto's great action direction does pull it up a bit, but even with that, I can't ignore how barren this episode is of any real plot progression.

[Androzani84]

Believe me, this scheme is going to have some long term payoff, as will Daishinji using King of Arthur to make a better book (and that’s where the former book’s narrative significance ends).

And our new girl. She’s played by the part - Filipino Angela Mei, who is part of a group of actresses/performers called 01 familia, who are basically to females in Toku in the new 10s what D-Boys were to men in Toku during the mid-2000s to early new 10s (of course, I say that like we didn’t just have a D-Boy as the previous Blades two episodes ago), in that they’re seemingly everywhere Aside from having an actress in all three major Tokusatsu shows this year (Hikari Kuroki in Ultraman Z and Nashiko Momotsuki in Kiramager), they’ve also had some major appearances in other more minor capacities (two of them were the main guests in the TTFC theatre specials, while another was a small but important role on Donbrothers). We’ll start to see what she’s up to next time as well.

[Enchilada645]

Oh right I didn't get to talk about this since I think I was too busy getting stabbed last night by the short story.

Crimson Dragon is pretty good for a Wonder Combo, I think what helps me like it more than Fantastic Lion is the fact that the Eagle chest for Saber is very flat in comparison to how bulky and popped out the Lion chest is.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nokination

Though onto something I do actually care for, Slash, I love his suit(s), it's hard to describe, since there's so much going on with his suit, but it just really appeals to me.

They've just got that exuberant Ex-Aid thing, where they're so goofy and busy that it's hard to logically critique them. They just look exciting and fun!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

And our new girl. She?s played by the part - Filipino Angela Mei, who is part of a group of actresses/performers called 01 familia, who are basically to females in Toku in the new 10s what D-Boys were to men in Toku during the mid-2000s to early new 10s (of course, I say that like we didn?t just have a D-Boy as the previous Blades two episodes ago), in that they?re seemingly everywhere Aside from having an actress in all three major Tokusatsu shows this year (Hikari Kuroki in Ultraman Z and Nashiko Momotsuki in Kiramager), they?ve also had some major appearances in other more minor capacities (two of them were the main guests in the TTFC theatre specials, while another was a small but important role on Donbrothers). We?ll start to see what she?s up to next time as well.

01 Familia sounds like an idol supergroup made up of actors from Zero-One and Revice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Crimson Dragon is pretty good for a Wonder Combo, I think what helps me like it more than Fantastic Lion is the fact that the Eagle chest for Saber is very flat in comparison to how bulky and popped out the Lion chest is.

I will always gravitate towards red suits, so it's difficult for me to objectively consider why Crimson Dragon works better than Fantastic Lion. That flatter chest piece... maybe that's a positive? I think it's just a prettier palette, which is super subjective, but it's all I got.

[weedle013ZiO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamen rider die

01 familia sounds like an idol supergroup made up of actors from zero-one and revice.

hahahahahahahahaha

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I've had to defend her a little before, but, "one of the most hated ever"? Nah, I think that's a slight exaggeration. Out of all the Saber characters, Angela Mei's character gets a lot more (often justified) criticism in the Western fandom, despite apparently having a cult following in Japan. That's for another talk though.

Regarding Reika, I'd say that she got quite a number of fans before that happened, though can't further talk about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 9 - “HARMONIZE, THE SWORDSMAN’S RESONANCE”

As soon as Storious opened his mouth, I knew I wasn’t going to love this episode. It’s another scheme that’s pulled from thin air, as three random Alter Books and a whole bunch of Wonder Rider Books will now give Calibur all sorts of crazy power. It is, as always, the dullest way to kick off a Calibur plot. He just stands in the room waiting for a new Book Club hoop to jump through – usually accompanied by a totally random Megid – and then we get to watch him jump through it in the most straightforward way possible. There was a time, once, when this show had Calibur and the Book Club and Desast and a Megid all working in unison, to manipulate our heroes into a cunning trap. That episode feels like it belonged to a different show, for all the similarity to this episode’s basic-ass monster attack premise. This one’s just A to B to C, with no particular cleverness needed from the Sword of Logos. It’s barely worth thinking about, thankfully -slash- sadly.

About the Calibur part, Sophia seems to be fine to try to confront him, even not flinching when she got attacked other than Ogami saving her. Wonder what was Sophia thinking in the attack (or if it's really Ogami defending her).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Much like Daishinji’s personality changes when he becomes Slash – wild and uninhibited – this episode shifts gears in a major way for its middle third. It’s like a rock song, where there’s no nuance or intricacy; it’s just loud, fast, and fun. Every Rider gets to detonate a monster, and turn their back on the explosion. Slash gets multiple form changes, both of them gloriously garish and stupidly fantastic. Touma gets his Wonder Combo form, Crimson Dragon, and it’s slick as hell. The whole fight scene against Calibur and the Ducklings was so jaw-dropping (and reminiscent of the killer Geats action scenes I’d watched just before starting Saber) that I had to look up who the director was: OF COURSE IT WAS SAKAMOTO. Love how he moved the camera during the Calibur/Saber portion of the duel; easily the best brawl this show has had to date. This episode is only really concerned with introducing Slash, but it made that introduction so indelibly wild that I kind of don’t hate that decision.

Slash has a case of split personality for his personality change to become a wild one when using Bremen no Rock Band. His flamboyant design also provides a contrast where the user is the shyest member, with a Kamen Rider that has powers come from sound. It's ironic that Touma's worry to Daishinji before was to try keeping him out of the Arthur book as he's not a swordsman, but obviously, Slash saved them from the trouble of the Ahiru Megids.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s nominally a Touma plot here, where he starts the episode wondering what to write about, and ends the episode deciding to write about his friends, but… that’s literally the whole plot. There’s no, uh, middle section of that story, unless you count Fighting A Bad Guy. It’s the sort of bookend sequence that could’ve landed on nearly any of the last five episodes, and I don’t even know why they bothered with it here.

Well yeah this one is a mystery, about Touma's childhood and who was together with him or who is the girl Touma failed to save that time. Wonder if you or some people'd think it's Sophia.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Wonder if you or some people'd think it's Sophia.

The case that it is both a correct and incorrect answer.I don't think this is a spoiler, but I'll hide it just in case.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Well yeah this one is a mystery, about Touma's childhood and who was together with him or who is the girl Touma failed to save that time. Wonder if you or some people'd think it's Sophia.

I didn't (I feel like she'd've greeted Touma the same way Kento did if that were the case?), buuuuuuut...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

The case that it is both a correct and incorrect answer.I don't think this is a spoiler, but I'll hide it just in case.

Now is maybe a good time to remind people that spoiler tagged things aren't spoiler tagged in the thread notification emails I get, nor are they spoiler tagged when I quote other posts. If we can just keep spoilers/spoiler hints to ourselves until after they appear in the series, that'd be great! Thanks in advance!

[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 9

Gosh, I don't know why past me is pretending I wasn't already deeply in love with Saber by this point. I'm trying to be vaguely objective and level-headed in that old post and it honestly weirds me out that I used to be capable of talking about Saber like that.

But yeah, I guess if my response at the time was also mostly "I liked the action and Slash", this is another case where I can't be too hard on Die for not seeing more in it either. (Although I'm totally sure I'd have plenty to say if I sat down and rewatched it.)

For now, though, needless to say, Slash is the man. He's like *this* close to being in the absolute top tier of my favorite characters from this series, between how much both Daishinji's personality and his entire aesthetic as a Rider gel with me. And, if I might take a second to do some retrospecting here, there are a couple things that make his debut in particular a little special. He even has that line after he transforms about making his long-awaited debut (or whatever you wanna translate 満を持して登場 as), and there are two particular things I feel like that was deliberately pointing to.

One is that Daishinji's actor, Hiroaki Oka, is a particularly big Rider nerd within this cast, to the point I recall there being an anecdote about him going on about CSM toys or something at the show's announcement press conference, so possibly more than anyone else here, he was psyched to finally take the stage as a Rider himself. (Another anecdote I fondly recall is that he was apparently a natural when it came to dubbing over the action scenes -- normally a hurdle for most, with all the unnatural grunting and whatnot -- to the point Sakamoto couldn't believe it was his first time doing it.)

Two is that Slash was, weirdly enough, the only Rider so far who wasn't on the show's poster, so despite knowing the name for a while, as I remember it, we never got a look at his design at all until some images of the DX Suzune's box started hitting the web, not too long before he was going to finally debut anyway? Maybe I'm getting this wrong, but I don't remember him being in any magazine scans beforehand, which was really unusual. Someone please correct me if I'm forgetting something here.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

One is that Daishinji's actor, Hiroaki Oka, is a particularly big Rider nerd within this cast, to the point I recall there being an anecdote about him going on about CSM toys or something at the show's announcement press conference, so possibly more than anyone else here, he was psyched to finally take the stage as a Rider himself. (Another anecdote I fondly recall is that he was apparently a natural when it came to dubbing over the action scenes -- normally a hurdle for most, with all the unnatural grunting and whatnot -- to the point Sakamoto couldn't believe it was his first time doing it.)

Aw, this is a very sweet anecdote. I'm never mad at actors for whom these shows are just a job (a lot of people work really hard at jobs that are not a major part of their lives!), but it's a neat plus when one of them turns out to be a dork about the fandom. I remember really warming to JK in Fourze after the Net-Movies game show stuff, where he was very invested in Riderman. I was already in the bag for Daishinji (he just makes a lot of fun choices in his performance) and Slash (THAT SUIT), but this kind of elevates him even more. Thanks for sharing!