Kamen Rider Saber E16-17 Review: Mistrust Issues

Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 16-17

Episode 16: Saving the World, a Ray of Light

After the huge arc-ending previous episode, this one is a bit slower... but, again, just like everything else in Saber, still manages to feel really rushed. Kamen Riders fighting each other -- even good guys -- isn't something new. Hell, I'd argue that it is the best part of some of the previous Rider series, particularly Gaim, Ryuki, Ex-Aid, Blades and Build. 

This episode basically builds up Reika, the mysterious lady from southern base, who is in contact with the Meggido and they hatch a plan to get the missing Blade of Light and manipulate Saber. It's... it's kind of a bit bland to build up "ooooh who's the traitor???" last episode and then immediately tell it to us within two minutes of this episode starting. And of course it's the one minor character that got a huge introduction and proceeded to get shuffled into the background. 

And this episode is a lot more slower-paced. The good guys try to have fun with preparing a soba banquet to celebrate the upcoming year, while the three Meggido talk about how many humans were connected to the Wonder World. We get a very Heisei-esque sub-plot of a character-of-the-week being subjected to the weirdness of the setting, in this case Mei's editor-in-chief, who keeps seeing visions of the Wonder World that she blames on overwork, and gets transformed into a Meggido minion (the Shirayuki Yeti) at the end of the episode.  

Touma tries to hang out with everyone, while Reika tries to scout Touma for the Southern Base of the Sword of Logos. Reika is clearly unhappy, and proceeds to tell the other Riders that there are orders from the Southern Base to capture Touma. And... and I get it. I get that they suffered a huge betrayal at the hands of Hayato and Daichi. And Touma did just return from the infinite book dimension or whatever. I even like the fact that it's the very childish Ren that's the one that lashes out the most throughout the episode. But the others? The episode tries its best by highlighting Rintaro's duty and both Ryo and Tetsuo's past experiences with being betrayed, but it's still very, very jarring to see them go from "we're all BFF's and a family" to "Touma is totally crazy and is a renegade warrior". I don't buy it at all, and I think most of the viewers didn't, either. 

Granted, Touma did talk a lot about finding the real truth, something that both Hayato and Daichi ranted a lot about, but it's mostly to Mei. That Touma/Mei scene is probably some of the strongest character moments for Touma, too, by the way. But then we get the fight and... well, both Touma's unwillingness to trust his friends and de-escalate the situation, as well as the four surviving Riders being so trigger-happy... the fight scene is fun to watch, but the buildup really felt like it's just there to set up the new status quo as soon as possible. 

Then the enigmatic hooded Jedi-man that shows up and didn't do anything around the time of the King of Arthur episodes shows up, and turns out that he is Yuuri, Kamen Rider Saikou -- whose transformation straight-up just turns him into a sentient, floating sword. Oooookay, that's... different. Nowhere as interesting as King of Arthur using Saber as a sword, but okay, sure. He drives off the four other Kamen Riders, and both Touma and Mei are basically renegades with a mysterious ally. Ooookay. 

Again, this is honestly a pretty slow-paced episode, with not a whole ton in terms of content. But at the same time the pacing of the characterization feels so rushed and abrupt. Like... they could've gone with a single two-parter showing Touma's growing obsession with 'finding the truth' and being paranoid with the Sword of Logos, y'know? To make the other Riders' distrust actually justifiable? I dunno. This episode just feels kind of underwhelming. 

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Episode 17: The Ancient Messenger, Either Light or Shadow

This one is a lot less cluttered, and a lot more enjoyable even if the scale of the events that took place in this episode is a lot less exciting compared to the previous two. Ultimately it's a "monster of the week" episode with an additional focus on the new rider, Kamen Rider Saikou, but it feels so much better paced than the previous two episodes. We've got actual breathing room for character development, plot decompression, and more organic exposition. 

It also helps that a lot of the side characters don't take up a whole ton of screentime here. Legiel and the Yeti Meggido are the only antagonists to really get much screentime, while the bulk of the Sword of Logos people just get a single scene in the first half of the episode where they argue about what to do with Touma. Ren's the most gung-ho and willing to attack what he views as the next traitor, while Rintarou's the most conflicted. Not a whole ton that we haven't seen in the previous episode, but pacing-wise and emotionally, it's done a lot better than the previous episode. 

The first half of the episode is mostly just Touma and Mei trying to interact with Yuuri's antics, which is genuinely fun and actually puts a fair amount of focus on the character without the audience being distracted by a half-dozen other things. I certainly appreciate this! And while the fish-out-of-water act isn't something particularly revolutionary, it's pretty fun to watch. 

The main conflict ends up being the arrival of the Yeti Meggido, who is different from the previous Meggido because she's, well, a human being transformed into a monster. There's not a whole ton to that and both Yuuri and Legiel give a helpful monologue about what this is all about... but the conflict ends up being that Touma is very much willing to try and stop his editor-in-chief Yuki from being killed for no reason, while Yuuri is an extreme lawful good paladin who will cut down Yuki to stop an Alter-Book from being created. 

The action scenes in this one is all right, mostly because we only have a couple of suits running around. Saikou ends up getting a 'humanoid' form in a sense with his Shadow Form, where a shadowy version of what I assume will be his full suit appears to wield the blade. I do like the concept of this, even if execution-wise it's pretty much just a regular suit. Ultimately Touma blasts away Yuuri's attack to protect the editor, leading to the two to fight as the cliffhanger. Okay, that's pretty neat. 

And... and 17 has a lot less content, but man, it's such a nicer episode to sit through than the previous two! Okay, I'm certainly willing to give this new status quo a chance after the previous two or three episodes were rushed and cluttered. 

Random Notes:

• 
  I genuinely don't remember when Sophia was abducted. Was it in one of the .5's? And if she had been abducted and not just off-screen... wow, no one really did anything to look for her? 
• Buster's "a lot of things happened this year" is an absolutely meme-able screenshot, huh. 
• On the roof that Touma is moping in episode 17 is a kiddie pool and an Earth-balloon. For some reason. 
• The idea of books transforming people into monsters, I feel, could've been done in something that's a lot more thematic. It's like... comparing it to something like the Dopants (the plot device that transforms them is an analogue to addiction), the Imagin (the plot device that transforms them grants their wishes) or the Phantoms (the plot device that transforms them does so by driving them to despair by highlighting a specific moment) and many other Kamen Rider enemies, this one doesn't really do much beyond 'they become monsters'. Kind of a shame, I felt like books and stories would have so much potential for thematic victims-of-the-week. 
• Yuuri complaining that the X-Men Sword-X-Man spends way too much time brooding is a very apt description of not only superhero comics, but the superhero genre in general. 
• Yuuri transforming his clothes to match everyone around him and being baffled with boba tea is actually pretty fun. "Is this a product of human technology? However, I am a sword, and I cannot drink."
• I guess they didn't want to spend too much budget on the special effects to transport the 'real world' into the Wonder World for every single episode? Fair. 
• Mei and the civilians yelling in pain when Touma defrosts them with dragon fire is more hilarious than it should be.