Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 44-45
With two more episodes to go, we're rocketing towards the conclusion of Kamen Rider Saber, and... and it's surprising how much better these two episodes were to the indifference I felt towards this show during its Master Logos era.
After the events of the previous episode, the stage is set for basically the final arc of the episode. Master Logos and all the other side-villains are dead; our hero has the final form; the exposition for the backstory is done; Storious emerges as the one pulling the strings all along; and the one glaring sub-plot with Ren and Desast has been very neatly wrapped up.
So yeah, with giant books heralding the apocalypse that Storious envisions, we get all the available Kamen Riders running in to help stave off Armageddon. We get an absolutely glorious and elaborate transformation by Storious, which includes one of the best villainous deliveries of the word 'henshin' ever, six black angel wings, a bunch of goop rising up from the ground, and a cape that explodes into feathers. If nothing else, I also enjoy the gratuitous English used for Storious's transformation. his face is a book! I love that!
The six primary riders are about to fight against Storious, but then he summons the Four Sages. Which, uh... the Rider Wiki tells me they actually did show up in previous episodes, killed off-screen by Master Logos. Apparently they're a big deal, but... you know what? It's not the first time a Kamen Rider show summoned a bunch of super-elite enemies in the last couple of episodes. I genuinely don't remember (or care) for these guys, and I feel like there's a lot more interesting zombie warriors that Storious could summon, but okay, sure. They get transformed into... okay, their rider/monster suits are pretty cool, and at least they get to wield fancy weapons.
The choreography for the fights are a lot easier to follow despite the large amount of combatants. Maybe it's them actually being a bit more restrained with flashy CGI, or maybe it's a lot easier to tell who the bad guys are since they look so distinct, colour-wise, from the good guys. The 'Lords of the Wise' (as the Wiki calls them) are apparently the inventors of the same sword styles that our heroes fight in, and the scythe-Lord has a particularly cool move where he used his scythe to absorb Buster's attack and toss it back at Buster and Slash in the form of an exploding fire tornado. Even Xross Saber gets overwhelmed by one of the Lords replicating the same 'summon a bunch of swords' move, and he barely summons a sword barrier to block Storious's own attack.
With all of the heroes defeated by an attack from Storious, he talks about the conclusion of the story and all that jazz, before summoning a gigantic CGI rock tower with swords jutting out of every inch. We also get a bit of a timer -- people like Yuri and Sophia are slowly fading in and out because of something-something-Wonderworld, and if they don't make their move quickly, even their Wonder Ride Books will lose their power. Rintarou, Kento and Touma give a speech about the goodness of humanity and all that... it's an all right speech, all things considered. We get a couple brief scenes collecting some of the side-characters (the Shindai siblings returned from their sojourn into Sentai-land and are just training; Ren is all tsundere about joining Kento but ultimately decides to come; Sophia gets Dark Blade Kurayami to stabilize her existence). And then we get some cute scenes of Buster having a dinner with his family, and Rintarou asking Mei to wait for him on the rooftop.
The rest of the episode is the conclusion of the Luna sub-plot, which I've expressed my indifference multiple times against, but at least they're sticking with it instead of shuffling it away awkwardly. Touma and Kento meet with Luna honestly quite randomly in a park, and then Touma and Kento jump straight into an over-the-top rendition of one of Touma's stories, and somehow this leads to Luna being aged up to be their age? It's bizarre and out of nowhere, but okay, sure. It's a cute moment, I guess, the three young friends playing together as adults. And reaffirming their promise, and Touma finally getting a chance to apologize? Sure, okay.
Then we get the set-up to the finale, with a lot of monsters being summoned by Storious, which sets up for the next episode. I did like this one. A short action scene with the new elite goons, the Lords, before we get a bunch of scenes emphasizing what our heroes are fighting for. It's pretty cool. The episode even goes a bit over and plays through the ending theme, with the nine swordsmen walking through the daybreak to challenge Storious.
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Episode 45: Ten Swordsmen, Betting the World
Which brings us to this episode! I get the feeling that the next couple of episodes are going to be more of the same with this one. It actually kind of brings to mind Kamen Rider Build's finale, kind of? It also features the good-guy cast storming bastion of the main bad guy over the course of several episodes. This episode starts off with Sophia showing up with Kurayami and declaring that she will fight alongside them. Which wasn't something that I felt was foreshadowed or really built up beyond that one scene in the previous episode of Yuri giving Sophia the Dark Sword to stabilize her. Sophia is also mostly MIA throughout the season so it's hard for me to go "hell yeah, she deserves to be a rider!" the same way that I felt when other side-characters became Riders. Not like... Izu or Kanon or Nico or Zack, you know? But you know what? Sure! Why not? At least it gives her something to do, and we get another girl rider! We get a ten-rider henshin scene, leading to a really cool shot. We even get the return of Saber's original black-and-red form! After 45 episodes, I can safely say that I actually prefer this much more than a significant amount of Touma's other forms.
Kamen Riders Saikou and Calibur do a combo move to forge a way through the giant horde of Meggido that Storious has summoned to swarm all around his tower of doom. And it's so cool moving from fight to fight, with each rider showing off their power here and there. Oh, look, Durendal is doing his Kaiji Erasure thing. Oh, look, Sabella is turning into smoke! Oh, Buster hits the ground to summon a gigantic earth-dust cloud! Slash's sonic blasts! Kenzan's green wind slashes! Espada turning into lightning bolts! It's like watching the climax of an Avengers movie. I like it.
Saikou and Calibur stand behind to hold off the horde of faceless goons, and as our heroes run through the dark castle, one by one part of Touma's team 'stay behind' to fight the Lords of the Wise. There's a cool moment when Sophia falters, and the two previous Caliburs briefly show up in a flashback to help her up. But then after they clear the massive crowd later on, apparently this is it for Sophia, because she's fading in and out of existence? Kind of a bit of a raw deal for her as a rider, honestly.
And then we get Storious on his very fancy throne... and then he hallucinates because of Luna's interference? We get the spirits/ghosts/hallucinations of Zooous and Legiel -- or how they were in the past -- asking Storious to remember his old dream of bringing prosperity to the world. Luna talks to Storious (telepathically?) and they discuss how the world will end. how the 'book of everything' has everything that humanity has done recorded in, including their end. This is intercut pretty well with vignettes of Touma's allies staying behind to fight the Lords, and, for the most part, they seem to be losing (and even de-transforming) just as Storious waxes lyrical about how humans will struggle to fight and to be a hero, only to fail by the conclusion of the story. Luna does a typical "Touma can change destiny, even though I know everything" speech, before Storious dismisses her mental projection or whatever.
Ren and Daishinji get the biggest scene, which... Ren really needs to, in order to justify the huge multi-part episode with Desast, let alone all the episodes he spent moping around eating ramen. There's a particularly cool scene of them charging at the Lord without transforming, Daishinji shooting pink bullets from Suzune, before jumping into the air to allow Ren to toss his giant toy shuriken at the Lord. A combination of the three pigs book and bullets from Daishinji's sword-gun hits the Lord, and while he does manage to knock Kamen Rider Slash back, we get a particularly badass sequence with Ren running in, dual-wielding the phoenix and wind blades and yelling out Desast's "Calamity Strike" attack. Swords fall down all around the Lord, and we get a particular fade-to-white-with-silhouettes of Ren and (the ghost of?) Desast doing a double-slice to take down the Lord.
Desast's ghost? A hallucination? The remnants of Desast in the book that Ren is holding? Ren moving so fast that his afterimage represents Desast? Who cares, it's cool and executed amazingly. With the first of the Four Sages destroyed, the visage of Desast disappears, and his book disintegrates. Again, I've stated time and again how much I like the Desast episodes, so I definitely approve of this scene.
Ren 'goes on ahead' while the wounded Daishinji catches his breath. It's... kind of weird? The phoenix blade is also left behind, and Daishinji collapses into the dirt, whispering to his sword that he 'hears Suzune's voice'. Is he dead, or just unconscious? At least he helps out Ren, I guess, but it would be such a weird way to kill off one of the longer supporting characters in the story.
We get other fights. The Shindai siblings also fight their own Lord, swearing to protect each other. Rintarou and Ogami fight against another Lord, but after getting up, Ogami just holds back the Lord by himself and tells Rintarou to help Touma. Ogami does give some huge death flags talking about his son's graduation being next week... but I don't know. I don't think this show is going go for that depressing of an ending. Touma and Kento fight against their Lord, who can reflect all their attacks back... but then Ren shows up, and then Ren substitutes in and holds back the Lord alongside Kento.
While all of this is going on, Mei also finds the draft of "Eternal Story, by Kamiyama Touma", but we don't really learn what's in it, beyond some depressing words like 'despair' and 'ruin'. She cries because of it, though, and when Mei runs to join the rest of her friends, she meets Luna on the way. Sure!
Ultimately, the episode is a bit chaotic, but I really do feel like it's got that sense of excitement and epicness that I never really got from the show since... oh, since the first Calibur, I guess. Maybe it's because the choreography and execution of these past couple of episodes have been pretty good, or maybe it's the pacing... but I actually really enjoyed this episode so much more than past episodes of Saber. It's mostly action, yes, but sometimes there's nothing wrong with a bit of action. Tune in toon for the final two episodes of the show!
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Random Notes:
- Episode 44 has some cameos by pervious victims -- the ramen-eating twin ladies, Touma's fanboy and Mei's editor boss -- who can witness the giant books encroaching on the real world.
- GRIMOIRE! When the holy sword and the book intersect, rewrite the world! OPEN THE GRIMOIRE! THE END OF THE STORY! KAMEN RIDER: STORIOUS!
- I'm not sure what the suits of the Four Sages reminded me of. Kamen Rider Chalice, a little bit? Odin? Ohma Zi-O? Not quite, I feel. The shape of the eyes reminded me of the Build suits, for sure. But they look pretty familiar to something and I can't for the life of me place what.
- The choreography of these two episodes have definitely had a step up from the past couple dozen episodes (Desast episode aside), so I paid a bit more attention to the "Lords of the Wise". They all have different weapons! A scythe, a rapier, a sword/axe combo, and dual scimitars.
- The first fight scene between the Lords and the Riders happened in the castle-like cafe that Master Logos fought Saber, Blades, Durendal and Sabella.
- They're flat characters, but I really did like how Durendal just asks "when?" with no preamble when Rintarou shows up to ask for their help.
- Rintarou asking Mei to stay at home and wait for him to come back does admittedly feel a bit outdated, but let's be honest... Mei really has no business on the battlefield considering that unlike the other women in this show, she's completely and utterly incapable of fighting.
- I wonder if there's something revolving around the child actress for Luna that made her unavailable for the rest of the show, because it really did feel out of nowhere for her to age up randomly here.
- God damn Storious can chew that scenery. He sounds genuinely threatening, too, a different vibe of madness compared to Master Logos's complete lunacy.
- The background rock music for the raid was particularly good! I approve!
- It's a bit low-key considering the amount of screentime devoted to it, but Ren's motivation has been revolving around Kento's death so much that it's nice to see them fight side-by-side again.
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