Kamen Rider Saber E01 Review: A Brave Dragon

Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 1: In the Beginning, There was a Flame Swordsman

I wasn't really planning to talk about Kamen Rider Saber that much, but I guess it'll be a 'when I feel like it' thing? I'm thinking of doing this series monthly, but I guess I can talk about my first impressions of the first episode in general.

And for the most part... it's okay? It's honestly perhaps a bit too short-paced, and not trying to knock the actors or anything, but a lot of the civilian comedy stuff between Touma and Mei feel... forced. None of them are unlikable, but they're just kind of there, y'know? Kamen Rider shows, especially everything after the highly popular Den-O, have been pretty great at showcasing our character's quirks and character traits in the first episode. Even if it's terrible jokes, like the previous show's protagonist, it's something. Right now I've just finished watching the first episode of Saber and... Touma's character is... he's a generic hero person, who has amnesia of his true origins, and also keeps his promises. Also he's a writer. Those are neat, and the episode's scripting does display all of them very well, but I do feel like Touma is just missing that extra spark to make him really like him. Not trying to be too harsh here, but... I just am not really feeling him all that much beyond 'okay, I don't hate him, that's something'. A lot of his dialogue honestly feel pretty stilted, like the show makers had a lot of book and story related catchphrases and they wanted to burn through all of them in one go. 

The main 'girl' of the show, Mei, is also another character who feels like she's kinda there. She's just hyper-focused about basically being Touma's naggy editor, before the whole Wonder Book dimension transplant thing happens and they get thrust into madness and Mei just eeks and aahs at everything. Kind of a shame, and I do hope that they find something interesting to do with her.

The actual world-building of the series is pretty neat, though, again, all the things I find interesting in the show are basically things that we sort of gloss over or quickly get a brief exposition before it gets shunted aside for later revelations. As the funky green-haired narrator Tassel tells us that there exists basically a magical world within a book, which was shattered and split into many smaller books by the bad guys. And our hero, Touma, lost his sister and got sent to the human world by the a Saber predecessor before getting amnesia and running a bookstore. 

And then, of course, the bad guys strike from their mysterious room of mysteriousness, unleashing the Gansekiou Golem Megiddo to open a gigantic book that teleports a chunk of the city to the magic book-world. And after the wonder at the CGI dragons, auroras and the large amount of bubbles have subsided, Touma fights the Golem, ranting about how dare you use books to do evil before being crushed. But hey, turns out the magic book from his amnesiac backstory gives him a sword that allows him to transform! Golem's a pretty cool monster, with floating hands and everything, and through the fight Touma is observed by a mysterious man in blue (clearly our secondary rider) and the group of shady men looking at what's going on through a magical portal. 

The fight is... it's adequate, I guess, is the nicest thing I can say about it? Some of the CGI just doesn't look all that smooth, particularly the bit when Saber got teleported into another dimension, and... I dunno. It's a serviceable first episode, I suppose, but it doesn't quite rope me in quite as much as Zero-One's first episode did. Part of it might admittedly be due to pandemic safety regulations (which I guess is why the action scenes are so CGI-heavy and so green-screen-friendly) but still. I'm cautiously optimistic -- there are a fair amount of Rider shows whose first episodes did not impress me at all but I ended up liking it nonetheless. We'll see!

Random Notes:

• My favourite visual in this episode is a toss-up between the bad guy person opening the Golem book and a stack of books pour out and arrange itself in the Golem's silhouette; or those utterly bizarre wire-suspended metal hands that write down the story as the bad guys observe. 
• Let's talk about the Golem Megiddo! It's honestly not a particularly over-the-top design, but I really love the visual of a mask-face bolted into like a giant bowl head or something with two statue-like arms clutching the sides of the head. 
• Kamen Rider Saber's design is... it's all right. It looks different for sure, like someone took Ryuki and Faiz and smooshed them together with the Double aesthetic in mind. I don't dislike it (though the eye-flames are just a mite too tacky).  I do like the colours, and the half-trenchcoat deal he has going on. It'll just take some getting used to. 
• I do find it absolutely hilarious how majestic the sword looks when it first manifests, before Touma reaches it and it turns into the chunky small Seiken Swordriver. 
• Between the ending theme, the gigantification of the Golem, the dead predecessor and the generally more light-hearted feeling of the episode, this episode does have a lot of Super Sentai vibes, huh?
• The purple bad Kamen Rider man is called Calibur, and he really looks like a shinier, spikier Kamen Rider Ouja. I approve!
• The backgrounds of the CGI fighting scenes are a bit underwhelming, although the giant sword bit (which is in all the trailers) is a pretty cool background. Just seeing Saber hitting rocks and not the Golem itself is kind of a missed opportunity, though. Still, considering safety regulations, I'd rather the show's filming team be safe than not.