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01-28-2023, 08:31 PM | #421 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
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Quote:
This also brings to question the motivations of Hayato, Kamijo and even the Megid trio for seeking it. Like, sure, Universal Truth, exposing the traitor, generically evil world domination, etc. But to an end that's still left to our imagination to wonder why they would believe it worth obtaining at all costs. Just makes all those unknown variables even more ominous to find out, what could be so terrible to induce such empty nihilism and apathy for human lives. - Promote their video game - Hungry - Drug money - Showa villain / showa villain reunion, organisation probably has "EVIL" in acronym - Funny The Book Club Trio just don't have enough personality, unique motivations, or honestly enough breathing room to make their motivations that interesting. The show's emotional core is on the Kamijou betrayal, pivoting to the SOL, which leaves the Meggido hanging around because, hey, need someway to produce MOTWs before the show inevitably forgets about that being a thing. Being given something so wooly, in the same episode as the show reorients itself, doesn't really make them stand out as characters, it just adds a little fluff to their goal to remind you "Yep, there is a point to this!".
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Last edited by AkibaSilver; 01-28-2023 at 08:46 PM.. |
01-28-2023, 08:33 PM | #422 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,409
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Haha, that was me.
I mean, why not? What, with Ikazuchi being vacant now and the ED theme's Mei/Espada comparisons. Not sure what specific criteria a person is required to meet to get chosen by a Seiken Sword (other than arbitrarily having god kanji in their name), but I think Mei ticks most of the boxes for sure. On the topic of fanfiction, I actually read a series where an author ran with this idea. |
01-28-2023, 10:56 PM | #423 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 16 - “SAVING THE WORLD, THE RAY OF LIGHT”
A couple days ago, I complained that I couldn’t really see much thematically in Saber that connected with me. There were platitudes, and speeches, and catchphrases, but the topics weren’t particularly engaging to me. With this episode, I think we’ve really hit on something that I like thinking about. What’s more valuable: An organization, or the people within it? It’s an interesting way the show chooses to explore this question; namely, by having this close group of friends IMMEDIATELY fracture and fight at the first whiff of dissension and/or betrayal. Kamijo only yesterday suggested to Touma that the Sword of Logos is up to no good and that Touma might have to choose between honoring his promise and siding with his friends, so here’s Reika to turn everyone against each other to draw out Yuri. It’s a plot that, in typical Saber fashion, eschews a slow burn of character-motivated paranoia and natural workplace incompatibility by just having Reika take control of the Northern Base, whisper lies into everyone’s ears, and then wait for the sparks to fly. There is some actual character-based conflict, though, which is why this episode worked for me. While Reika pushes everyone into a standoff, things only get really bad when Touma suggests that the guy who murdered Kento and conspired with despotic fiction monsters might have a point. It’s the sort of empathetic A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day argument that lands easily with a fellow SoL outsider like Mei, where both she and Touma can telescope out Handling Kento to a point where he’d’ve likely become Kamijo, therefore finding some possible humanity within Kamijo. But it’s got about zero traction with the soldiers who’ve been risking their lives to defend multiple worlds from Kamijo’s nihilistic zealotry, and the people who loved Kento the most. It’s a neat escalation throughout the argument, because a lot of it just comes down to both sides not being willing to hear the other out. Touma’s goal of ferreting out a traitor was always going to piss off his coworkers, and his inability to appeal to their sense of justice dooms this friendship to failure. Reika might’ve lit the fuse, but this bomb was already there. Not that this is, like, the smoothest episode around. We’re in a transitional space, where we’re getting some restated background on Touma’s overall goals (Luna, traitor) as well as the Book Club’s revised plan of attack. (I really love the little fortnightly Kamen Rider stories where someone gets turned into a monster and the Riders have to find some way to liberate the victim, so this is already more interesting to me than a random Megid showing up in a plaza.) There’s a lot of side-stories filling out this already-packed episode of heroes battling heroes, which doesn’t do the components a ton of favors. There’s a lot of ground to cover on the Touma section of this episode alone, leaving the book victim stuff to feel slightly irrelevant at the present. It’s not a distraction, exactly, but it doesn’t add anything to the main story. (That said, we did get to see something I’ve been waiting for since the second episode: MEI’S WORK! It’s been in the credits without being in the show to an almost hysterical degree, where it felt left over from a version of this show that Covid made impossible. But it’s here! Sort of! Very happy to finally see Mei in a different context.) I was pleasantly surprised by how much this episode came together for me. When Kamijo’s warning took about eight seconds to make Touma an outcast from his friends, hunted as a traitor, I was like That Was Fast. But then the show pulled back the reins a bit, and let the characters’ lingering resentments and lack of shared history pit the Sword of Logos against Touma and Mei (and debuting swordsman/sword-man Yuri) in a way that feels inevitable. It’s an episode that starts exploring something I find fascinating, which is how we imbue organizations with power and personality due to the people within them, but then forget that said power and personality is only there because of those people. Touma and the other swordsmen see the Sword of Logos as something worth protecting or destroying, but it’s really just a collection of people. We lose sight of that to our peril, which is what everyone discovered this episode. — AREN’T WE ALL FOUND OUT Yuki was glad to see that Mei was coming along as an editor, even if Mei wasn’t quite there yet. Mei had greatly improved as a writer, since coming on staff. She’d grown in her ability to multi-task. Mei was a strong communicator, who forcefully argued for her point of view in editorial meetings, in emails, and once by yelling at a coworker at a coffee shop on her way to work. (The HR intervention was mercifully brief, and both sides came to an understanding regarding editorial hierarchy and professional boundaries.) It wasn’t really Mei’s writing or editing that Yuri thought needed improvement. It was Mei’s managerial skills. Mei had done as solid a job getting work out of Touma Kamiyama as could be expected. She might get his work turned in at the very last second of the deadline, but it was always in a t the deadline. They’d never needed to bump one of Touma’s scheduled pieces, which was a rarity for an author as young as he. (Sadly, it was a rarity for an author, full stop.) Mei made sure that the magazine never suffered a setback if she could prevent it. But all of that was just for one author; a magazine editor was responsible for an entire staff, plus countless freelancers. Yuki wondered if Mei had it in her to provide structure to a group of people with their own goals, their own levels of experience, and their own personal baggage. Mei was a talented young woman, and an absolute dynamo when it came to cheering on a writer, but could she somehow motivate an entire organization to put in the effort to cross the finish line, when they were all exhausted and ready to quit? Yuki wasn’t sure. But she’d help Mei get there. Part of running an office well meant trying to elevate the people you worked with, having faith that they’d find new reserves within themselves. Yuki hoped she’d be able to impart these lessons to Mei. She’d make the time, once she was back from her camping trip. Yuki looked out the window, lingered briefly on the floating fairytale world that hung in the air, and saw Mei as she was exiting the building. She smiled as she saw Mei going through paperwork, organizing it as she walked. It was nice to see her so dedicated to her job. Mei stopped as she saw someone across the courtyard. It was Sayaka, from the HR complaint. Sayaka had brought up a concern at the last staff meeting that the magazine was running too much fiction and– oh no. Mei was shouting now, waving her arms. Sayaka was moving away from Mei. Mei was following, quickly. Yuki raced for the stairs. Maybe she could have one last conversation with Mei before the camping trip.
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01-28-2023, 11:34 PM | #424 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,409
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Parts of this episode bothered me. I think that it might have worked a little bit better to break up the team if they had waited maybe more than one week from the bit where everyone commits to being friends and allies forever. Or maybe if Reika was trying to be at least a little subtle about gaslighting all of the non-Touma Riders. Ultimately, though, it's hard to care because splitting the cast into Touma/Mei/Yuri and Literally Everyone Else is a decision that leads to some of Saber's best episodes to date for reasons I will talk about in a few days.
Secondly, I get to do something that I haven't had a chance to do since we were back watching early Heisei shows: casting trivia! I think it's no surprise to say that Koichi Sakamoto directed this episode as his style is still instantly recognizable. What's fun, though, is that he brought along some friends from his time working on Ultraman Geed. The couple with the baby who are briefly spotlighted are Hideyoshi Iwata and Mayu Hasegawa, who played Zena and Moa, respectively, on Geed. The baby is their actual daughter. Touma's editor is played by actress Hitomi Hasebe, who had a minor recurring role on Geed but was also - and much more importantly - DASH officer Mizuki on Ultraman Max, my personal favorite Ultraman series. |
01-28-2023, 11:36 PM | #425 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
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Okay so right here? I feel this is where we finally shift gears and this is the point where Saber starts finding a sort of... new identity so to speak. Which is what I assume a lot of people say when they mean Saber gets better after the start since we aren't in Q1 anymore thanks to the introduction of Saikou.
It's a rather slow episode with a lot it wants to say, but I really enjoyed it as our last episode of the year. It makes a pretty strong impact in many ways, and it very much demolishes the old status quo we'd been building up the past 15 episodes. I talked about how Saber's hectic nature really makes it feel like Touma sort of just got shoved into a job and is trying to roll with all the new coworkers and information he's working with. And like, I'll continue to say, I feel like that was on purpose in a way because like... just the whole fallout of everything. It's wonderfully done in a way that I enjoy greatly. While the Swordsmen have a camaraderie with Touma, at the end of the day he's a newbie and if a high ranking official from their work tells them something is suspicious? Who are they going to trust immediately? Likewise on Touma's side, the minute he sees the Swordsmen waltz up, all looking prepared to fight if he disagrees... I can't blame him for immediately jumping to the traitor argument. Touma's always been an emotional guy, and he really let his emotions get the better of him in how he was trying to explain his side of the story. Speaking of emotional levels, it's nice to see the different reactions all the Swordsmen have. Ren and Rintaro are obviously the most emotional, with Ogami and Daishinji being more reserved though Ogami is still fairly loud when it comes to all this. It's why I don't mind the very clear shift to Rider vs. Rider this show is setting up, because I like it when it's done in different ways. Geats does it in a fun way, setting up competitions and only ever really having Riders brawl occasionally. While Saber built up a team of heroes only to take a sledgehammer and shatter them entirely. Anyway Yuri debuts this episode! He's a sword! I have not much to say on him other than I love the Saikou Drivers jingle "I am the best!" looping over and over again is hilariously catchy to me. Also hey, we've got some other named characters showing up besides our usual characters. I suppose Covid restrictions got a bit lightened up around this time so there's definitely a sense that the world feels a bit more lived in than before. Speaking of named characters... the story! It was interesting to see you do something for Yuki here, since I wasn't expecting it. I always do like when you do these sort of introspection stories, and having her think about Mei and how far she's come/how far she still needs to go, is really nice. |
01-28-2023, 11:37 PM | #426 |
New Member
Join Date: Mar 2022
Posts: 89
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I too actually enjoyed this episode, while I had some issues with how fast it took the Sword of Logos to think that Touma is a traitor, considering how he acted once they confronted him (him taking the word of a traitor who murdered Kento instead of trusting them), I would probably also think he was a traitor.
There were some minor problems I had with the episode; I didn't really care about how many side things they had going on. Like the New Year's thing which I'm pretty sure is just there so that the audience can get a feel for the relationship of the Sword of Logos before the supposed betrayal, but if you've already watched 15 episodes of Saber, a movie, and 4 specials, then this just feels like an unnecessary addition. Though, as I said, these things are pretty minor, all things considered. I don't have much else to say on this episode, but I did actually enjoy it a bit, it wasn't the best exactly, but it wasn't the worst either, just a pretty good episode overall. |
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01-29-2023, 12:22 AM | #427 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Parts of this episode bothered me. I think that it might have worked a little bit better to break up the team if they had waited maybe more than one week from the bit where everyone commits to being friends and allies forever. Or maybe if Reika was trying to be at least a little subtle about gaslighting all of the non-Touma Riders. Ultimately, though, it's hard to care because splitting the cast into Touma/Mei/Yuri and Literally Everyone Else is a decision that leads to some of Saber's best episodes to date for reasons I will talk about in a few days.
But, yes, it all happens incredibly fast, and with virtually no real effort on Reika's part. I think that's sort of the point, though... Quote:
But for Touma, he doesn't... there's nothing in the Sword of Logos for him but his friends, and Kento, and he's okay interrogating the organization if he thinks it'll keep his friends safe. He's doing this for them, and he's not sure why they can't see that. It's such a fun episode for digging into how we value organizations over people, and why we do that. Quote:
There were some minor problems I had with the episode; I didn't really care about how many side things they had going on. Like the New Year's thing which I'm pretty sure is just there so that the audience can get a feel for the relationship of the Sword of Logos before the supposed betrayal, but if you've already watched 15 episodes of Saber, a movie, and 4 specials, then this just feels like an unnecessary addition. Though, as I said, these things are pretty minor, all things considered.
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01-29-2023, 04:08 AM | #428 |
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Iwata has also been the suit actor for every major Ultraman since Max, except for Ginga This episode’s other minor guest star, Kaito Yamagiwa is the grandson of Eizo Yamagiwa, the director on the 4 70s Ulta shows (including Sakamoto?s personal favourite, Ultraman Leo) And this is also writer Keiichi Hasegawa’s first time working with Hitomi Hasebe, since Ultraman Max was the one Heisei Ultra series he didn’t write anything for (which is saying something, because he?s basically the Inoue of Heisei Ultraman, in terms of output, to the point one of his wiki pages says he?s written more for the franchise than anyone else) And I’ll mention that Hasebe is marked as a regular (which someone else I know found laughable, for reason you?ll see in a while), which wasn?t revealed until the final episode was done airing. She announced she was a part of the series after the episode aired in… a unique way. And also, after a few episodes of hints, we see the Sword of Light and meet the man in the hood… both are Yuri (a name which fits into the show?s theme naming by translating from Russian as “light of god”) And his book is essentially a super mode one in all but name, so it has 4 jingles… which are actually two jingles in Japanese and English, but I digress. Gold or Silver? Two become the shiniest one! As for the episode, I remember sharing an argument that someone else on another forum had tried and failed to use to rationalise how quickly everyone turned on Touma over some new woman. And while I don’t remember more than the exact specifics (maybe Fish can help with the words), I had a better time convincing people of it than he did. |
01-29-2023, 04:29 AM | #429 |
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Also "Who is this sword shining?" stuck in my memory for a long time. But about Yuri, perhaps, I?d better write in more detail through another episode. Also, since Reika is no longer referred to as "incredibly tall", it should be noted that she is only one meter seventy-two centimeters tall. Also, wasn't the first episode of TTFC Theater planned for today? I would just like to talk about this mini-show, especially since during the Saber's broadcast failed to discuss it. P.S. Your story is nice. Last edited by Mesnick; 01-29-2023 at 12:25 PM.. |
01-29-2023, 11:55 AM | #430 |
I have a problematic type
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