Kamen Rider Saber E39-40 Review: Solomon's God Complex

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 39-40:

Another pair of episodes of Kamen Rider Saber as we get closer to the end of the series.

Episode 39: Swordsmen, Follow the Path You Believe In!

Last episode, we had the debut of Xross Saber, Touma's (main) final form. Oh, and Tassel's back, because... he put his body back together? You know, on paper I do like the idea of a 'meta' character that commentates on stuff and then later gets actually involved with the story, but other than talking with Yuri a bit, and showing up in the backstory segments, Tassel hasn't really been an actual presence on this show. I mean, sure, the actor tries his best and he shows up every episode, but ultimately I felt like with so many characters on the show, it's hard for me to care for many of the secondary characters in the show, and Tassel really doesn't give me much motivation to really care for him. Also, Luna has apparently reformed/returned/something-something in Wonder World, so Master Logos decides to do yet another evil plan. 

But first, our heroes re-recruit Kento back into the fold. They last did this weird ore wa Huckleberry Finn skit, and this time it's a skit on the classic tale of Momotaro. I really don't find the whole sequence as funny as they probably thought it would be, but it's appropriately dorky for pre-emo Kento and Touma. It's neat to actually spend a scene to acknowledge this, which is the exact breathing space that this rather oddly-paced show really needs. 

Meanwhile, the Shindai siblings show up and confront Master Logos in Southern Base, and it does lead to one of the better fight scenes in these past couple of episodes since it actually features Durendal and Sabela using their unique powers to try and get their hand over Solomon's sheer power. It's a lot more interesting than just CGI effects being vaguely lobbed at each other, y'know? It's pretty short, and ultimately Durendal uses his time-stop powers to essentially distract Master Logos while Sabela turns into smoke and steal the remaining plot devices. Which, uh, I guess our heroes never got back? I think I would be more invested with this if the show actually took time to actually show off where the plot devices are. The siblings basically show up in the bookstore, and while Durendal collapses from his wounds, he returns the plot devices to our heroes and acts all tsundere about returning the debt. 

While all of this is going on, we get a minor B-plot about Kento meeting up with Ren. We get a conversation that honestly feels more like an afterthought, and Ren still goes off on his own until he 'finds the answer'. And... and I really want to care about Ren. I really do. But every single time he appears in an episode it's for like, maybe one or two scenes and every single one of those are just a rehash of the same "I think strength is the answer!" "Shit, strength is not the answer, but what is?" argument... it's hard for me to really get invested in him. Honestly I'm more interested in what Desast's game in all this is. 

Touma and Rintaro face off against Master Logos and discover that Storious is working with Logos. Did they not know this? Did no one ever figure out that Logos is working with the Meggido? Didn't Reika figure this out? Oh well, we lead into an actually pretty hilarious segment where Master Logos gives a pretty perfect delivery of him seemingly about to launch into a sob origin story... before ranting about how he has no sob story or a reason, was bored, and was pissed that his clan squandered the opportunity to be gods. Nice and straightforward, I appreciate this.

Logos also gives the revelation that Touma is doomed because Luna 'chose' Touma 15 years ago, and he delayed Touma's death so many years ago with his plotting? Or something? Okay, then. We get a fight, and Storious actually participates by creating the Charybdis Meggido out of books. We get a huge battle between the four of them with lots of explosions and stuff, but it's kind of unengaging if we're being honest. Rintaro uses his Tategami form to freeze-kick the Charybdis minion to death, while Xross Saber does a 'three volume' combo and accesses yet another powered-up form and beat down Solomon. Rintaro gets a particularly fun line mocking Master Logos as 'another Homo sapiens', perhaps the best usage of Rintaro's running gag. 

I feel like I talked a lot about this episode, but if we're being honest it's basically just Touma and Master Logos clashing once more as a bit of a buffer between the big events happening in 38 and 40. And... and I really felt like they could've done more. There were some neat lines, and there's the development of the Shindai siblings into becoming essentially real allies with our heroes, but there's also the fact that the Shindai siblings and Ren were barely in this episode. I don't know. I really just felt like they could've restructured this one into something more interesting. 

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Episode 40: Shining Friendship, the Three Swordsmen

Oh, right, the Luna/Tassel Wonder World storyline. Following up on the barely-developed plot point from 39 that Luna is wondering the Wonder World, we get Tassel narrating that he's running around looking for her. Meanwhile Master Logos is continuing to monologue and is getting more unhinged, referring to himself as 'god'. It's honestly so obvious in these episodes that Storious is just stringing Master Logos around in the background that it's kind of funny. 

This is essentially Master Logos's swan song, and the episode is actually well-structured, unlike the previous one. Granted, it also has Master Logos show off some last-minute powers, but at least it's thematic? We start off with the Shindai siblings again, but Logos uses his new powers to turn Ryoga into his puppet, and force Durendal to fight against Sabela. Sabela uses her smoke powers to somehow contact Northern Base, which causes the good guys to split up -- Buster and Slash go to help out Sabela, while the rest of the gang go off to stop Master Logos from getting Luna in the Wonder World. 

...which involves Master Logos stretching his hand like Mr. Fantastic through dimensions to grab Luna, which is at least a fun visual. Apparently they ran out of CGI sky-whales and dragons, because if not for the slightly-blurry filter, I wouldn't even really know that Wonder World is, y'know, Wonder World, so it's nice that something weird actually happens there. 

The main character trio show up to face off against Kamen Rider Solomon in the real world, while Yuri dual-wields the light and darkness blades to stop Solomon's hand in Wonder World. I mean, it really happens so quickly that I wonder why they even needed to show us the team sending Yuri off on his own to the Wonder World dimension, but eh. Solomon uses his vague puppeteer powers to gain control of Yuri, and dual-wields the swords of light and darkness. He can't use it on Touma because of Main Protagonist Powers, but he forces Rintaro and Kento to be his minions. The action scene is reasonably long and takes up much of the episode, but I did like that we had a dedicated scene for Solomon vs the three riders, and then Touma fighting his buddies, and finally later on the three of them working together against Solomon. 

Because they break free with their willpower and the power of friendship, because of course they do? It's... it's pretty basic, but since we're 40 episodes into this show and they've been doing a rather decent job at making the main trio feel like a bunch of buddies, I kind of buy it. It's just that I've seen this exact same plot point be done, and be done better even in Kamen Rider shows. Kento and Rintaro both get pretty good speeches but they both resist, and Yuri also resists to help them out. Touma takes Kento and Rintaro's primary transforming books and unlocks yet another new ultimate final form, which is called... Collaborative Three-Volume Xross Saber or something? If you can't tell, I really am kind of burnt out on them having a brand new final form practically every episode. The action scene of Kento and Rintaro untransformed but fighting alongside Touma is cool, especially Kento! He summons Aladdin's magic carpet and flies around and shit. They beat the hell out of Master Logos and set him and his transformation book on fire, which seems to be the end for Logos. 

Oh, all of this is inter-spliced with Tassel talking to Luna. Tassel is friendly and all, but he basically gives a bunch of exposition, giving Luna the choice to essentially bring her 'chosen one', Touma, into the Wonder World. Because Luna is apparently the living embodiment of Wonder World. Okay, that's... that's kind of neat? And makes sense with all the cryptic stuff being said about Luna by Tassel, Logos and Sofia. It's just that... if we're being honest, the show really doesn't do a particularly good job at making me care about this particular plot point. Again, it's nice that it's being developed and that there's this story going on in the background. Luna notes that she doesn't want to separate Touma from his friends, which ties in pretty well with the plotline of Rintaro and Kento breaking free from Master Logos's control. 

The Shindai siblings' subplot goes pretty much as you expect it to. Ryoga demands that everyone try to cut him down because he doesn't want to kill his sister, while Reika panics and refuses to kill her own brother. Buster and Slash show up, but they can't actually hold Ryoga down, but around the time that the emotional climax of the Yuri/Kento/Rintaro speeches happen, Ryoga also stops himself from slashing his own sister. I mostly make fun of the Shindai siblings for the weird brother-complex thing, but this was a neatly-delivered B-plot in this episode if nothing else. 

We don't really get a solid conclusion to the Tassel/Luna bit, but all the good guys have their friendships restored. We get a cute re-enactment of the credits scene with Touma, Kento and Rintaro crossing their swords together, and Mei uses a piece of wood to join in, that's fucking adorable. Meanwhile, the final scene in this episode has Master Logos crawl into some tunnel and the pieces of the Omni-Force book reforms while he's doing this insane laughing-crying bit... and then Storious shows up, disintegrates Logos while he's ranting and demanding that Storious kneel... and then Storious steps out with a brand new outfit and some killer lipstick, essentially cementing himself as the final villain of the show. 

And... and it's expected, right? It's basically what you'd expect, after seeing Master Logos so prominent as an antagonist while Storious slinks around in the background and just playing the smug yes-man. That particular plot point was well done, though. And... and I guess at the end of the day I really did enjoy Master Logos hamming shit up. If nothing else, the actor was entertaining. It's just that... well, a lot of these episodes feels pretty... vanilla, I guess? These sort of 'friends get controlled, but break free and get a power-up from the power of bonds' stories are very common in anime, and I've seen them done so much better. And these episodes are competently structured, but I just feel like I'm just going through the motions, watching them and talking about them. They're kind of missing that oomph that made me care for, like, the Zero-One or Zi-O or Build or Ex-Aid casts, if we're taking the last four shows into account. 

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Random Notes:

• A very small scene in the opening sequence of episode 39 is Tassel briefly noting that the little fairy-spirit of Fukamiya Hayato is moving on. I guess that's all we're getting out of Naoya Kaido, huh? That's very underwhelming. 
• An actually fun little running gag in the background of episode 39 is the return of Daishinji's sword obsession. Which means he gets to obsess all over poor, poor Yuri, trapped in his sword form. 
• No, seriously, I thought all the plot devices went back to their respective owners in that episode when Master Logos became Kamen Rider Solomon. This show is honestly not very good at making me remember who is in possession of the plot devices. OOO and Build had multiple plot devices exchange hands all the time, but they did it so much better than this. 
• RIP Master Logos. He's probably not quite of a hit of a villain compared to many of the other over-acted hammy god-complex villains we've had recently like Dan Kuroto, Amatsu Gai or Evol, but he was pretty fun and I definitely love the subversion that he doesn't actually have any sort of redeeming qualities or sob story.
• So part of Kamen Rider Solomon's powers is 'Solomon Zone', which teleports our heroes into an appropriate battlefield. An in-universe reason for the sudden tokusatsu action scene changes! And it's not into a warehouse this time! 
• I legitimately didn't realize that Touma's Xross-Saber-Three-Volume form is a new form until I checked on the Wiki. I thought he just used his three original books for a special attack. But then again that action scene had so much stuff going on that I honestly really didn't care too much for it.
• That triple-henshin of Saber, Blades and Espada with their visors glowing simultaneously in the smoke is very cool. 
• I gloss over the fight, but there was one cool quasi-slow-motion sequence with Espada and Solomon flash-stepping each other with their super speeds. 
• It's nowhere as neat as "I'll write the ending to this story" declaration Touma made in 37, but that's a... neat usage of Ryoga's "do not anger me" catchphrase.