Kamen Rider Saber E30-31 Review: Rintarou's Therapy

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 30-31

I have been slacking, huh? I'm sorry, I just haven't got the time to really watch the episodes. I'm up to 32, I think, but there are apparently a bunch of extra episodes and a couple of movies both from Saber and Zero-One. And I'm not sure why... the series is just not really clicking with me, I guess. 

Episode 30: Bonded, Even When Apart

After last episode shows off that Master Logos has became a card-carrying villain who doesn't care much for subtlety, we get almost all of our good guy cast gathered together in the base. It's nice to have that Rintarou moment of him apologizing and everyone else just palling around him and going 'don't worry we're your family'. That's very nice. We also get a bit of exposition from Yuri and Sophia about the Sword of Time and the Book of Knowledge. 

Sophia and Buster go off to recruit the other Kamen Riders that haven't joined their little group, but a Megiddo appears and the episode doesn't really try to hide that this is actually Mei, transformed into the Cat Megiddo. We get a two-vs-one between Saber and Blades against the Cat, but she's transformed other humans into like talismans that she wears all over her body. Zooius also shows up and fights them a bit, before they escape. 

The crux of the conflict here is that the Cat Megiddo is preying on Rintarou's inadequacies specifically, mocking him and lying to him about how Mei thinks he's useless and can't save anyone. The combination of the whole Master Logos ordeal and seeing Mei get turned into a Megiddo really makes poor Rintarou snap. He's low-key the best-realized character in the show, isn't he? He keeps seeing Touma succeed and get better and better power-ups and successes as a swordsman, while he sticks true to his convictions and don't necessarily see himself succeed cleanly. 

We get a brief sub-plot of Ogami trying to recruit Ren, who has made a weirdo-friend-slash-hanger-on in Desast, who basically plays the tempter role. Ren, who is confused and yells at Ogami that he's wants to 'think about it on his own', pushes Ogami away and buggers off. I hope he gets an episode to himself soon -- I see what they're doing with the character, but he gets so little screentime that I really can't say I care. 

Rintarou charges in and fights Zooius and Megiddo Mei on his own, while the Megiddo mocks Rintarou about his failures. Kento watches from afar and says a bunch of ominous stuff about how their death is 'necessary' and the future is set and stuff. But Touma shows up and helps out. We get a pretty extended fight, but ultimately Touma decides to not slash Mei to free her from being a Megiddo and knocks Zooius away from delivering a killing blow on the unarmed Rintarou. Rintarou is understandably pissed at that, since his goal is basically 'save Mei, my life doesn't matter'. It's pretty self-destructive, and I enjoyed all the drama. 

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Episode 31: Believing in Strength, Strength Believed In

We pick up after 30, with Rintarou till angry that Touma chose to save him over Mei, and he's just utterly crushed at everything going on around him. The guy just has terrible self-esteem and breaks down, begging that Touma at least tell him straight-up that Rintarou's holding him back. He just cries that he's lost a lot of the things precious in his life, and he doesn't want to add Mei to that list. He storms off after Touma says something about "I also feel fear", but we're interrupted by the attack of the Cat Megiddo. 

We get Saber fighting off against the Cat Megiddo, and Zooius also shows up and mocks Touma and Mei for their faith in Rintarou. Touma himself is pretty obviously 100% in believing that Rintarou would show up no matter what. And he does. Despite how badass Elemental Dragon has been in its debut episodes, turns out that Zooius and the Cat Megiddo can easily overpower it, until, of course, Rintarou does show up and save them. 

The episode honestly plays out as you expect it to be... but it's still very neat to watch. We get an interesting second act where Rintarou is still utterly confused about everything, and asks Touma to fight him in a duel. It's pretty short, and Rintarou learns about Touma's duel. It's just kind of jarring to see the two of them lying on the ground after their duel and after Rintarou figures his feelings out, and then we cut to Mei half-dead on the ground. Then we get a set-up as they confront Zooius and the Cat Megiddo. The fight scene is pretty neat, and Rintarou basically uses the power of friendship (tm) to believe in his friends (tm) and fight for them. Touma purifies the Cat Megiddo and saves Mei while Rintarou holds back Zooius. Zooius doesn't actually die, and gets saved by Storious. 

The episode ends with some ominous Master Logos foreshadowing, some Kento 'they can change the future?' (tm) confusion, while Mei reveals that she made a bunch of little tiny caricature portraits of everyone (which I bet is going to be a collectible item they sell on Bandai Premium or something). 

Ultimately... I think this two-parter is just a bit too over-wrought? I feel like the stakes are a bit artificial and there were a couple of points where I wonder why Saber couldn't just use his special glowing Rekka blade to get Mei out of there a bit more quickly. But the Rule of Drama is pretty strong in this episode, and I honestly didn't really care because of the pretty good Rintarou drama. And it's something that's been building up over the past couple of episodes. It's just that... well, at the end of episode 31 it's basically ticking off a whole ton of shonen manga tropes that just made me eye-roll a bit. And they're not done poorly at all! It's just that the episodes themselves are a bit too predictable. They're a neat watch, though. 

Random Notes:

• I had almost done a review for the 'Presidents Special' crossover between Zero-One's Kamen Rider Thouser and Ex-Aid's God Kami Dan Kuroto, but it's... it's really a whole bunch of nothing? It's a two parter that kind of goes nowhere, but I absolutely love seeing Dan Kuroto absolutely ham shit up and chew the scenery in ways that no other toku actor can. It was fun to watch, even if the conclusion is bizarre and out of nowhere. 
• All the forms in Saber kind of really blur together to me. While typing episode 30's review, it took me a long, long while of trying to think up of the name before finally remembering that it's called 'Elemental Dragon' and 'King Lion Dai Senki'.
• I still don't entirely get why Touma didn't go with Rintarou in 30 and why he showed up late? The drama's all right, so I'm willing to overlook that. 
• It's technically "Book of All Knowledge and All Power", but that's a bit of a mouthful. 
• Zooius's actor knows parkour, and you can tell because he does a couple of unnecessary but absolutely awesome backflips while talking to Mei.
• Did we really need that nasty zoom-in to Logos's saliva-filled mouth at the end of 31?