Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 35-36
Episode 35: And I, Will Become A God
The episode starts off with the meeting between Touma and Luna... although it's not really something that lasts far too long. We lasted around a minute and twenty seconds before Sabela swoops in and steals Luna. And... and I don't know. I've gone on record in saying that I'm not the most invested in the Luna storyline because she's so much of a plot device that's just kind of there. We are moving forward with the plotline, though, and we're basically in that phase of a Kamen Rider show where the bad guy gets all of the Plot Devices in order to do the big plan, and this also involves Luna. Touma's actor most certainly tried his best to really sell his relief, but the Luna quest has been in the background so much that personally I'm just relieved we're getting some payoff -- I'm not particularly or personally invested in it.
Master Logos gets some really creepy vibes as he caresses a knocked-out Luna, and basically gets more and more insane in his rantings. Basically only the Shindai twins' fanatical loyalty are keeping them aligned with Sword of Logos at all, and it's clearly wavering. The two forces meet each other in the park, but with half of the swordsmen (Buster, Slash and Saikou) being unable to transform, all this translates to is just Master Logos on his throne gloating and gesticulating at the books being displayed on the table and the stolen swords he has stabbed into an ornate modern art piece. We get a fight between Blades and Durendal, but thanks to some dirty hostage-holding, Blades gets his sword and book stolen by Logos.
Somewhere in here we smash-cut to Ren eating cup ramen with Desast. Yes, Desast is also eating the cup ramen. It's kind of annoying that we really haven't gotten much out of Ren other than the constant reminders that he's just kinda there, but I do really like this Hopper-Bros-style 'yep, these guys are just slumming it out with cup noodles'.
Since we need all the holy blades, basically everyone else shows up one after the other. Kento shows up and transforms into Calibur, and almost immediately Bacht/Falchion shows up and attacks everyone. This is the moment of betrayal when Master Logos decides to use his sword-telekinesis powers to steal Durendal and Sabela's toys. Ren/Kenzan shows up, and after a very brief fight we get a repeat of last episode's scene where Kento jumps in front of a shot meant for his friend. Only this time, Kento falls and his toys gets stolen as well. Ren also gets his ass beaten. Touma shows up, busts out his movie-exclusive form and he gets a bit of a longer fight against Bacht. Bacht falls, then Master Logos uses an energy beam to knock down Touma and steal his toys. (Bacht appears to get blasted into oblivion here, but he shows up for one scene next episode)
And... and it's pretty fast-paced, actually, but I actually did like this sequence of events. It's just so chaotic yet most of the motivations for the wild-cards like Bacht and Ren and Kento are more or less foreshadowed in the past couple of episodes.
Master Logos begins the ritual and the swords, books and Luna form a ritual pattern in the sky, which forms the Omniscient Tome. We get a brief moment of Sophia who tries to sacrifice herself in place of Luna but she just gets zapped out of the sky. Speaking of which, man, that weird sub-plot just dropped into our laps out of nowhere, huh. Because of the power of friendship or something, Luna's yelling creates a magical golden staircase that Touma runs up and he finally saves Luna. Okay? Again, as I've mentioned a couple of times before, I really did think that the Touma/Luna storyline was a bit short-changed and I don't quite think that they built the character or the relationship enough beyond some vague 'they are childhood friends' stuff. But hey, Touma saved the little girl being zapped with magic, that's cool!
Touma then summons his sword and slashes the huge glowing magical book while Master Logos is monologuing, shattering it and returning everyone else's swords (Yuuri is back; Kento picks the dark blade instead of the lightning blade) but Master Logos gets the incomplete god-book as a transformation book anyway. He freaks everyone out with a vision, before buggering off. Luna is saved, and she's not dead, which is good, but she also disappears again regardless. Okay?
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Episode 36: To Be Opened, the Omnipotent Power
And this episode follows it up by finally debuting Master Logos (or 'Isaac', as his real name is revealed to us) as Kamen Rider Solomon. We also get some explanation to some of the cryptic things that Yuuri and Kento have been saying before -- Yuuri because he knows how the Wonder World works, and Kento because he's seen the future. Apparently Touma is chosen by Luna, and that means that he is suitable to become 'guardian' of Wonder World, which would also consume him in the process. Okay, sure -- it's not a particularly revolutionary story concept, and I honestly kind of guessed that some sort of heroic sacrifice is what Kento is trying to prevent.
Sophia also comes clean about her nature to the cast, but other than confirming that she's an artificial being (clone?) of Luna, we really don't learn too much about her situation. Everyone immediately just accepts her and move on, which is nice. Meanwhile, the Shindai siblings finally decide that they have had enough, and oath or no oath, they decide that Master Logos is no longer someone worthy to serve. Or, well, it's mostly Ryoga that says that. Reika is too, uh, busy, uh, admiring her brother. Yep.
While all of this is going on, Master Logos is hanging out with Storious, who just creeps around Logos's throne, and Logos basically wants to create a new sacred sword and a new world by consuming all the other books. He eventually uses the powers of the Omniforce book to make the sky dark, and when the swordsmen come, he gives a huge rant about how his clan is 'shackled with the duty of protecting humanity' and he hates the fact that they have access to all that power but refuse to do anything. It's still a bizarre leap of logic to go from 'wasted potential' to 'I want to remake the world into worldwide Battle Royale', but Master Logos really isn't someone that's quite right in the head.
He transforms into Kamen Rider Solomon, and his sword yells out 'fear is coming soon!' Everyone of the good guy riders transform and attack. And, well, over the past few episodes basically anyone who's not Saber, Blades or Calibur is basically treated as kind of second-rate. It's a problem typical of ensemble-cast Kamen Rider shows, but the choreographer at least had some fun with this rumble scene. My favourite part is probably Blades in a sword-lock with Solomon while Buster summons his giant glowing energy blade and slams it down onto Solomon. But Solomon is the main villain in his debut episode, so obviously he one-shots the five riders present, before summoning CGI books all over the world and declaring that everyone must re-enact Hunger Games and kill each other, and only the strong will survive. Okay, sure, you lunatic.
The team decide to gather all the allies they can find, but Ren is still wallowing in grief and basically hides from his friend. Desast is confused about all of this, but Ren gets a bit of a flashback to his master, who drilled into him that strength is the most important part in the pursuit of justice. We kind of get that from the glimpses of Ren we see in every episode, but it's nice to have some confirmation? Like the Luna stuff, I'm not the most invested in Ren. But we know him for a bit longer, screentime-wise, so I'm a bit more invested in what happens to Ren. Meanwhile, Yuuri talks to Kento on top of a building and talks about the revelation of Touma's potential fate, but Yuuri's on that 'believe in Touma's strength' train.
The third act of the episode begins with Sabela and Durendal finally making their betrayals formal and attack Master Logos on his throne. Somehow their battle moves from the throne room in the North Pole into some fancy building, but I guess they do have teleporting books. Touma's sword is able to detect the fight, and he and Rintarou rush in to aid the Shindai siblings. And, to their credit, between giant spider legs, smoke powers and the time-stop, the Shindai siblings put up a decent fight, but Solomon absolutely demolishes them. That's around where the episode ends.
And... and it's a pretty all right debut for Solomon. I can enjoy the fight, even if Master Logos isn't the deepest or most intricate of villains. At this point the show's nearing its conclusion and at least we have a relatively decent story arc to go that's not just 'beat the bad guy'. We still have Bacht and Storious scheming in the sidelines, we still have the situation with Touma needing to potentially sacrifice himself, we have the Ren/Desast situation... I have not been the kindest to Saber, and perhaps unfairly so considering the situation that the show needed to be filmed in, but the past couple of episodes have been admittedly pretty fun.
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