Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 43: Clash, the Reason for Existence
But then we had the Desast moments in the previous episode, and not only is it a surprisingly well-done episode for a character that I admit I never really cared about until episode 41, it also suddenly propelled him into someone I'm invested in. Certainly moreso than I do many other members of the main cast, anyway! And it's interesting that in the grand scheme of things, just like Storious notes, Desast's story is honestly kind of a footnote. This isn't some grand, epic battle for the fate of the world like when our heroes were fighting Kamen Rider Solomon, or when they eventually fight Storious. On paper, this isn't as impactful as Saber achieving his final form by combining all the collectible toys, or as Tassel's death. And yet, I daresay that when I look back at Kamen Rider Saber as a series, I would most fondly remember Desast's story as being one of its best parts, even though it's such a small fraction of the show. That's what a good story is, I guess.
And it's honestly not even the first time a story like this has been explored even within Kamen Rider itself. Someone questioning his purpose of even existing? Someone obsessed with battle realizing that he cares for another person? Someone seeing his imminent death in the future, yet does his best to make it count? All things we've seen before, and I think particularly prevalent in the earlier Heisei series.
And I really do love that we keep getting shots of Desast's shattered ride-book, and that shot of him in shadows as parts of him just waft away into tendrils of smoke. Ren actually knows this, but he's not making Desast aware of this. But it does get him thinking into what Desast says to him, how 'throw everything into fighting' is something that might end up in the meaningless death that Desast so nearly succumbs to. 
Ren faces off against Desast in a warehouse, wanting to take Desast on 'just like he wanted'. The fight is even one of the best we've had in a while -- Saber's fight scenes have way too often devolved into just huge, flashy and sometimes migraine-inducing CGI fiestas. Or feature so many players running around that it's disorienting. But throughout this episode, it's just a one-on-one brawl between Desast and Kamen Rider Kenzan. The fight is simple, yes, but such a delight to watch! The CGI used for Kenzan's wind ninja abilities are just enough to give the fight a bit of a spice, but not distracting.
Even in his weakened state, Desast manages to push Ren down and toss him into a convenient pool, and Ren bemoans his weakness and is reduced to a state where he's scrabbling away while Desast is about to cut him down and talk about how his 'existence has no meaning'. And just before Ren gets struck by Desast's blade, he remembers their first meeting -- "don't you want to see the absolute limits of strength?" -- and it gives him the motivation to keep moving, to dodge away from Desast's strike. He clings to this as his motivation, noting that he can't die there, and we get a pretty cool shot of an un-transformed Ren dual-wielding his swords and pushing Desast into the pool.
They yell out their names, acknowledge each other as warriors, and Ren basically gets serious in putting his everything into defeating Desast. I love that both these guys basically still doesn't have their emotions or motivations sorted out, and through this final bout they find new things about themselves... that makes this so much more interesting than if the episode was just Desast or Ren wanting to teach the other a lesson. The battle and the music is pretty awesome as the two clash, Desast gets a flashback and wonders what it'd be if they never met, and then Ren slashes down in a cross-slice down Desast's chest.
Desast dies in battle, telling Ren that he has to go now, and, of course, brings up the red ginger from the previous episode. It'd be so much more impactful if this had been a running gag for the ten or so episodes that Ren and Desast had been hanging out together, but you know what? Yeah. Yeah, this is a very well-done death for a secondary character that I really didn't give two shits about. And the way this is executed is so much more impactful than, honestly, a lot of the other 'big emotional moments' like Touma and Luna or Kento and his dad in recent memory.
And... yes, there's the main storyline happening, cutting in and out of the Ren/Desast stuff, and then taking up the final five minutes of the episode. Storious got something something the original magical supreme ancient plot device that he stole from Tassel and Logos... I genuinely tried to type this sentence down, but then I realize that I realistically don't particularly care about it beyond the fact that Storious got a power up and he's going to get a final form probably in the next episode. There's something about Luna running around in the real world. Storious gets a Charybdis Megiddo to eat a bunch of people's souls, a Sophia clone, and then himself? I don't know. I really find myself not all that invested in the main storyline. Plot devices are being moved around, we quite literally have the cast running around finding nothing... it's neat to show some progression for the main plot, but I really don't particularly find myself invested in the slightest bit.
What is fun, though, are the Shindai siblings' attempt to apologize to Mei. They haven't really been super memorable as antagonists, but making Ryoga this utterly socially awkward guy and giving Reika this questionable jealous brother-worship thing going on at least makes them far, far more memorable than their rather bland stunt as fanatical antagonists. And... okay, that one bit where Durendal and Sabela double-teams the Charybdis Megiddo with a time-stop trick was pretty cool. But otherwise... yeah, pour a glass out for Desast, as we move into the final couple episodes of this show. Hopefully the ending will be much better than what we got before. I personally really wasn't hoping for too much, but the fact that we got a couple of great episodes back-to-back does give me hope that they might actually crank up a banger for the final act of this series.
Kamen Rider Saber Crossover Review!
- There are a couple of crossovers, so in lieu of reviewing a second episode of Saber, since I had enough to talk about with 43, I'll talk about them here.
- Kamen Rider Saber X Kamen Rider Ghost: An entirely unexpected crossover. Ghost has been off the air for a while! And it's interesting that while we do have the typical crossover form and whatnot, and it's most certainly welcome to see Tenkuuji Takeru and Kanon back again... it's also interesting that this crossover two-parter is sort-of doing an epilogue to Ghost's own epilogue V-Cinema? Which I had to look up and re-read a synopsis of, because I genuinely do not remember anything about Specter's utterly bizarre origins and that the Fukami siblings are actually like, weird Ganma clones or something. It's odd that they chose Desast as a recurring character in these two episodes, as well, as someone obsessed with the idea of having a 'little sister'? It tracks with how he treats Ren, and we have the bonus of Kanon II being not actually human... but the way it's portrayed is more than a little creepy.
- I absolutely love that this special episode is just 'Kanon knees people in the gut a lot of times', though. For someone that's such an underutilized character in her home show, I absolutely love that Kanon's actress is allowed to go ham and assault everyone in her path.
- Kamen Rider Specter X Kamen Rider Blades: Where Saber x Ghost is more of a traditional crossover, Specter x Blades acts as a bit of a heavier story conclusion to the story, or what little of it, anyway, with the revelation that the villains are Danton's minions or whatever, and that the Kanon we're following in Saber x Ghost is not the real Kanon. It is interesting that the 'Specter' in this special is probably not referring to Makoto -- who only shows up for like three minutes in the final battle -- but rather to Kanon. Whose rider form is also called Specter! Both original Kanon and the clone Kanon get a relatively large amount of screentime in this special. Much appreciated for basically a secondary character that I've always thought deserved better.
- I do like that unlike most female supporting characters, Kanon is allowed to basically stand on her own all to the end. Makoto shows up to help out, yes, but at no point does she feel like she's basically failed and someone else has to take over. It's baby steps in terms of real gender equality in Rider, but it's appreciated nonetheless.
- Considering the abysmal quality of the Genm/Thouser crossover, this turned out to be surprisingly good. Crossovers don't actually need to build up on plot threads from one of the shows, but the fact that it did and that it gave its spotlight characters some time to shine definitely is a plus point in my books.
- "Special Chapter: The World Pirate is Coming, Intersecting Worlds": A crossover with Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger. Or, rather, with the sixth ranger from that Sentai series. I haven't been keeping up-to-date with Zenkaiger (and I actually thought this was a character from Gokaigers) but this was basically a pretty basic crossover episode... though not in a disparaging way. It's basically just a fun crossover where a character from a different show shows up and interacts with our characters. The plot's pretty simple and thematic to the single 'stories can be treasures' theme. It is interesting that they chose to apparently follow this up in Zenkaiger's part of the crossover by having Durendal and Sabela go off to the Zenkaiger world. The siblings have been basically kind of under-utilized throughout Saber, so it's probably nice to see them have a bit more of a role in a crossover.
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