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03-12-2023, 06:15 AM | #1051 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 44
That last scene in this one man. Oooh, that last scene. I could talk about so many specific things from this episode, but once again, I'll leave most of that to the post I already wrote at the time (which is very long, so you know how much I liked this one!) Right now, those final moments are all I can think about, because it's a real culmination of everything Saber as a series has built over its run. Nine heroes walking together at the end of the world, not towards the fall of night, but towards the dawn of a new day. Simple, beautiful, cool, and just an all-around insanely well-executed moment leading into the climactic action of the next couple episodes. Grandiose yet understated. I love the song, and the direction, and all of that stuff, but mostly, I think I just love these characters, and that last fact alone probably gets at the real core of why this episode is so good. (The picture I'm using here is also not from the actual episode, but one a bunch of the actors all tweeted out after the episode aired. I feel like this photo's existence is a testament to how into the moment they all must've been at that point. Like I said -- it's a culmination.)
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03-12-2023, 11:09 AM | #1052 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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There's a real big weight to this finale that's being set up here. The fact that we don't get the credits like usual being one of those. Instead of dancing we get another beautiful song being sung where we see everyone spending their final hours doing whatever they need to before they all slowly but surely meet up. It gives me such chills whenever I hear it, and it's a scene I like to replay a lot... both physically and mentally.
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Do you think that, Rintaro kinda fridged Mei here? To tell her just to stay and wait, as she's not a fighter who can contribute much. It's explained that Rintaro wanted to say something, and obviously Mei won't survive going directly through this one of battlefield, but still.
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They're absolutely one of the best ensembles in Kamen Rider history. Recency bias keeps me from really ranking stuff objectively or comprehensively, but they're definitely in my Top 3.
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03-12-2023, 02:45 PM | #1053 |
Best Match!
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 62
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Going to make a belated note that I loved your writing on Desast's final episodes, the visual gallery for 43 was particularly great, I love taking the time to appreciate the direction like that. Red Pickled Ginger <3 (which i did not like at the time but have since gotten Used to.)
I will say that, yeah, the 'stay behind Mei' did strike me as a little patronizing at the time, but I think mostly in comparison to a similar moment Akiko and Ryu have in the W endgame where she ultimately gets to come along. We can't all have what light of my life Akiko got, I guess! Older Luna... man. It felt weird to me to age her up at this point, but I think overall I just would have wanted her to be this age the entire time. Maybe she could have been a bit more of a character along the way with an adult actress? Or she easily could have been the same abstract goal. Well... whatever. For the rest of the episode, I did particularly enjoy getting to see Buster's wife on screen, given that she premiered in another medium that was really sweet. |
03-12-2023, 03:41 PM | #1054 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,091
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Actually there isn't many fan of Ryoga simp, but for these kind of moments it can be dismissed as just a gag stuff and not a serious stuff. This is the reason why I talked about how comedy isn't always lighthearted, it can be about schadenfreude too. Some shows also feel this way to have even nice characters partake in domestic abuse for comedy, but got these ignored narrative-wise and still treated like a saint (and audience buying it). In fiction it seems that it'd be also easier to overlook bad behaviors if it doesn't cause bad consequences, attempted maiming or murder can be ignored entirely if it ends with no harm at all to the would-be victim.
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Oh, man, I love Luna turning into an adult in this episode. Maybe the smartest decision this show ever made. It's Luna taking control of her narrative for the first time ever, and changing her role from Helpless Victim to Integral Ally. And she does it herself! With no one else's suggestion or input! It's a fully-actualized Luna, just when Touma needs to put the past behind him and fight for the future. I love it so much.
So yeah, with this, I can confirm that my 3 main Saber beefs are Solomon, Reika and Adult Luna.
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03-12-2023, 05:37 PM | #1055 |
Kaiju or Hero?
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Even I Don't Know Anymore.
Posts: 1,397
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There is something about the whole cast gathering together to prepare for the final confrontation that just hits just right here. It's such a powerful scene that I can't help but love it.
Every one of them has walked their own path throughout this show, whether it be for personal reasons, alongside friends, for tradition, they all shine here as they walk towards this story's end. Sure, some of them (looks at Reika) still aren't as liked as some of the other cast, but even so, all of the swordsmen gathered gives off the weight of their journeys. Storius' Kamen Rider form looks great, like Solomon, but Storius just beats him out with the fusion of him monster form and the open book mask. I just enjoy it. And the bodyguards also have great designs! At this point, I'll probably just make big, long-winded posts about a bunch of things as we slowly but surely finish this season.
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03-12-2023, 07:30 PM | #1056 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Going to make a belated note that I loved your writing on Desast's final episodes, the visual gallery for 43 was particularly great, I love taking the time to appreciate the direction like that. Red Pickled Ginger <3 (which i did not like at the time but have since gotten Used to.)
Kento needed a story to believe in, and eventually he found Touma's. Kento was adrift in his own guilt, and suddenly there was a story that told him everything would be okay. It was a lifeline for him, and it proved that stories could help people find a happiness that eluded them. With Ren, though, he was trained to see strength as the only metric for success, and Touma's story ended up destroying him. Ren didn't take the story as something to challenge his assumptions or process as allegory, he was stuck in a story where everyone gets more powerful except him. He looked at a story and found himself unable to live up to the characters in it. The only solution for him was to stop caring about the story, since it was hurting him. Like, they go on this similar journey -- trying to fill a void through a better narrative -- and they experience it in completely opposite ways. Kento's saved by Touma's story, and Ren's almost destroyed. It's a neat way of telling kids that it's okay to learn lessons from Kamen Rider shows, but maybe don't take them too literally. Quote:
Maybe you can argue from a symbolic perspective, but from a logical perspective, it just doesn't make any sense in the story. Like, how does Luna become an adult? A kid can't just decide to become an adult, not even a 25+ year-old kid. I think it's especially ridiculous for this to happen in the fifth last episode of the show.
Like, I'm not saying the show dotted i's and connected t's, but there's plenty of expository scaffolding to say why Luna could be an adult all of a sudden. People don't like Reika? Scandalous! I won't hear of it!
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03-12-2023, 10:18 PM | #1057 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 45 - “THE TEN SWORDSMEN, WITH THE WORLD ON THE BRINK”
Oh, sure, we can spend a few episodes on the collateral damage of personal growth and the redemptive renewal of friendships, but let’s not forget what pays the bills around these parts: a squadron of swordsmen attacking a villain’s towering fortress! If last episode was The Calm Before The Storm, this episode is STORMS ARE AWESOME. Every single Kamen Rider gets a thrilling action sequence, and the entire cast fights from bell to bell. There’s a little bit of non-action in a riveting Storious subplot and a melancholy Mei subplot, but those only amount to the show catching its breath between bravura combat sequences. It’s… it’s almost hard to talk about it, since its merits are all in the fighting? Every fight scene gets a button of character development to it – Kamijo (who has grown out his hair in the afterlife) and Hayato appear to give Sophia a hand, reuniting that group of friends; Ren uses Desast’s book to finish off a foe, giving Desast one last posthumous victory; the Shindai Siblings simultaneously call out their identical motivation; Daishinji probably dies – but the meat of this episode is the guild acting like a goddamn guild. This is the reason for their existence: to war against villains like Storious. This is them literally going to work for an entire episode. Obviously, it wouldn’t have the same impact without being the culmination of so many character arcs (Ren speedrunning to the last boss and telling Kento not to hold him back!), but the success or failure of this episode was really down to how well the stunt team did. And, y’know, they did great! There’s a wonderful logic to every fight, where the teamwork of each set of heroes leverages the strategy of different styles, different elements. It’s got that movie climax thing of feeling like there’s thought given into how X and Y can stop Z, rather than just spamming attacks or wiping the floor because of some random power-up. The Slash/Kenzan fight is one of my all-time favorites, franchise-wide, and not even because I like those two guys. (They’re good characters, but they ain’t my faves.) It’s because it weds fantastic camerawork to inventive attacks, and it all feels in continuity with how those characters think and behave. Killer action, grounded in character. I don’t think a Kamen Rider viewer could be disappointed by this one. — WATCH ME JUMPSTART Zooous had been resurrected, and his heart flipped tentatively. He knew he was only a ghost, and his thoughts flipped towards Storious’s fall from grace. Zooous was here to reach out to his friend, to remind him of the ways they’d flipped together at the start of this journey. Legeiel had flipped from the grave as well, which warmed Zooous’s heart. He almost flipped tears from eyes, but stopped himself. They had a mission. They needed to flip Storious’s dark outlook. It would be difficult, flippingly so. Storious had dedicated centuries to the pursuit of a flipped version of storytelling, and it would be hard work to flip him back to the man Zooous once called a friend. Luckily, Zooous was ready to flip. Zooous was always ready to flip. This would be the flip that saved the world.
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03-12-2023, 10:36 PM | #1058 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,571
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This episode is Cool Action Scene, after Cool Action Scene, with some fun stuff as you mentioned that Storious and Mei get.
It's also why, as taciturn and lifeless as they are, I enjoy the Four Sages purely because they're there literally to show how far everyone has come. They can't be brute forced so easily and they need to be taken down after harrowing fights. The combo attack from Daishinji and Ren, to Ren pivoting into an Omnislash inspired Calamity Strike between both him and the last fleeting remnant of Desast. Probably one of my favorite Rider Finishers of all time. We also get Sophia as Calibur and really... when it comes to who would take up the mantle, I'm glad it got to be her? She has a deep connection to both prior Caliburs, so her getting to wield Kurayami feels right. And I'm glad she did end up wielding Kurayami purely because there were a lot of people who would've been fine with Yuri dual wielding Saikou and Kurayami and to them I say... "You guys are boring". It was that potentiality of Yuri dual wielding exactly why I was never fully comfortable with Kento sort of giving up Calibur even if his return to Espada was greatly appreciated (especially with the alternative who could've been Espada*). It was mostly because of Kento's actor's post that Androzani posted a while back that made me turn around on him being Calibur. The idea that Kurayami is very much his father's sword, and it being his sword in a way. The idea that Kento could push past the darkness of Calibur and turn it into something that isn't evil... I just really like the potential of that idea? *The alternative for bringing back Espada but keeping Kento as Calibur was an... interesting idea the staff had. And that was basically a new character with no prior buildup. So while I do feel a bit sad that Kento doesn't own Kurayami anymore, I am glad that Espada isn't being ridden around by a newbie who likely would've bloated the cast just a bit too much. Anyway, slight rant aside. Very solid beginning of the final battle episode, which sets up how things are likely to go for the remaining episodes we have. As for the story... I am glad to see that Zooous' flips are as much a meme to everyone as they are to you. Splendid flipping good job here. Flipping in the best ways possible. ===Zero Presents: Desast Walk=== Desast Walk #18: "See you" https://twitter.com/saber_toei/statu...011769857?s=20 |
03-12-2023, 10:44 PM | #1059 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
It was nice to get one last moment to remember Zooous in flippier times.
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03-12-2023, 11:04 PM | #1060 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: World of Ataru
Posts: 857
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I just want to point out the beginning of the episode where all 10 Riders were together was punctuated by the insert song "BOOK OF POWER" by WAЯROCK but for some reason it's the only instrumental?!?!?
It's a shame too cuz this is such an amazing song that was only half-used really.
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