Movie Review: Kamen Rider Beyond Generations

Kamen Rider: Beyond Generations [2021]

You really do have to give these 'Generations' movies a huge leeway when you watch them. Most of the time it's just an excuse plot with some vague connection to the currently-running show's mythology, with handwaves to get cameos to show up and a relatively bland villain. It's usually the standalone movie that tends to introduce an interesting side-character (usually a movie-exclusive Rider) and tries to build up a more compelling story with a smaller cast.

Beyond Generations... isn't that at all. Admittedly, the showmakers have to face a daunting task of having to juggle FIFTEEN Kamen Riders from Saber and Revice, not to mention three additional guest-star riders. These aren't just a pointless voiceless cameo and a combined rider-kick that Decade or Zi-O facilitates for all the main riders either, because all of the Revice and Saber casts technically do have to fight and have their dialogue and catchphrases. And while it's not impossible to do so, the fact that we move through them so much means that barely anyone gets time to breathe. The only cast regular that arguably gets any sort of character arc is Vice being kind of forced to go through a "haha, I'm lying to hang out with demons in the future" to "oh no, lying is bad!" And... characters like Vice straddle a line of being obnoxious and funny, and with the rather forced script (Vice's VA works best when he has room to breathe and improv) Vice ends up falling squaerly into obnoxious and unnatural in this movie. Touma and Ikki are reduced to giving heroic speeches, and the movie itself kind of feels so rushed at moving all its pieces that even though nothing much realistically happened, the mess is still evident. 

And here's the thing -- this movie has three plots running through it. The Deadmans squad end up discovering Diablo, the cousin to Giff that we never heard of before, and Diablo ends up creating four minions (and turns Aguilera into his fifth) that rampage all over the globe to create a pentagram to power him up or some shit. There's also a bad future in 2071, where future George Karizaki sent back a young man called Ryunosuke Momose to 2021. Also, Ryunosuke has his individual plot where he's actually from 1971, and he's the Shocker scientist that worked on Takeshi Hongo, tying this mess to the original Kamen Rider series. 

Also also, young, time-traveling Ryunosuke has to meet his now elderly son Hideo, and for no real reason other than to build up drama (okay, George's mad science is reason enough), Ryunosuke needs to transform together with Hideo to form Kamen Rider Century, and only Century's power can defeat Diablo. 

This leads to some admittedly good acting on the parts of Ryunosuke, Hideo, Touma and Ikki, but... but it just kind of falls flat due to how rushed the exposition is and how one-note the characters of Ryunosuke and Hideo are -- they just go through the expected character arc of having a conflict with each other and then making up because of the power of family and love and dreams and somesuch. It's probably the strongest part of this movie, but we've... we've seen this exact plot so many times in anime and tokusatsu movies, and they're usually done much better. It's hard to fault the cast for this one, though, because, again, the movie just tries to do so damn much. 

Oh yeah, there's also some nonsense time travel, too, while Diablo is sending his minions to multiple locations all over the world to create a reverse pentagram that will blow up Mt. Fuji. On paper, this sounds like a fun excuse for a 'trip across the world', but all that this leads to is some poorly-disguised shooting locations (or CGI, in the case of the one snowy mountains or the Easter Islands) while the gigantic side-cast of Saber fight and fail against the four personality-less goons. 

There's also a small group that gets sent to 2071 for probably the most pointless fanservice ever -- 2071 is overrun by evil 'demon riders', ostensibly demons like Diablo/Giff/Vice that have became Riders. It's nice because we get to see some old suits like Ouja, Sorceror, Duke, #4, Eternal and Barlxkckxsks show up. But beyond the ha-ha-funny joke of having an elderly George Karizaki be a mad scientist in the future, all this whole plot point ends up being is just to put five characters (Touma, Rintaro, Vice, Sakura, Daiji and Yuri) into random Kamen Riders of the past and... and it's kind of... pointless and confusing since we don't really get to see anyone transform into anyone. It's hilarious to see Vice's voice come out of the normally stoic Black RX, I guess, but while it's neat to watch, it's also kind of a mess. 

And, well... Diablo himself has absolutely no personality so beyond being a generic world-ending threat, there really isn't much to drive the movie forwards beyond the Ryunosuke/Momose plot. And I suppose Ryunosuke being a former Shocker member that ended up being inspired by Kamen Rider #1 is nice, and that newly-shot-with-modern-technology Kamen Rider #1 scenes are nice fanservice for the anniversary aspect of this movie, but... but again, it's all so muddied up that I really would feel that if they wanted something relating to Kamen Rider #1, a plot more akin to Kamen Rider 1 (starring the cast of Ghost!) would've definitely worked much, much better. The time travel stuff is really just too much, especially since we're cutting from one fight to the next and there are like eight or nine different fights with multiple characters happening at the same time. There are ways to do this that isn't confusing, but Beyond Generations certainly isn't it. Everyone does their finishers at one point, you get to hear some old transformation or attack sounds from Saber, whoop-de-doo, I'd rather watch an episode of Saber instead, y'know?

Oh, and while Kamen Rider Century himself is certainly a new suit, we do get a brand-new form for Kamen Rider Revice... in the form of the Zero-One based Neo-Batta Vistamp. Zero-One, who doesn't have anything to do with this movie's plot at all, beyond a short cameo as one of the Clone Riders. Wouldn't it be better for them to make a Saber-based form or a Ichigo-based form? The remix grasshopper CGI is also probably one of the more atrocious ones, and I already loathe Revice's CGI remix forms. 

Anyway, it's... it's just literally passes the line of being 'serviceable', but there are Kamen Rider movies that actually function as compelling standalone movies and there are Kamen Rider movies that wholeheartedly embrace the crossover nonsense and have the plot work in the service of it. This isn't either of those, and there are some cool shots here and there, but ultimately the movie isn't something I'll ever bother revisiting.

Random Notes:

• Kamen Rider #1 is played in this movie by really, the only person who no one would complain if he took over the role of Hongo Takeshi - by Fujioka Maito, the son of Fujioka Hiroshi, Kamen Rider's original actor. 
• Continuity-wise, in Saber this movie takes place after the finale but before Trio of Deep Sin; in Revice this takes place around episodes 13-14 and the Neo-Batta Vistamp would make an appearance in episode 22. 
• Damn okay, Saber's base suit looks pretty damn good. It's a shame we don't really stick with that. 
• The Northern Base set is noticeably CGI'd in, probably because the set has already been dismantled after the shooting of the final Saber specials.
• The 'legend riders' or 'clone riders' or whatever the hell method that Future!Karizaki used to give the five time-travelers the powers and forms of previous riders doesn't really follow too much of a logic (beyond Sakura turning only into lady riders), but there are some interesting parallels -- like Daiji turning into Knight and Ryugen since they are all heroes that spent a chunk of their show becoming antagonists (particularly Micchy and Daiji); 'main rider' Touma turning into Kamen Rider Ichigo; Rintaro turning into Blade because... he's Blades.
• The full list of the Clone Riders are: Ichigo, Super-1, Black RX, ZO, Kuuga, Agito, Knight, Blade, Accel, Fourze, Meteor, Nadeshiko, Ryugen, Muteki Ex-Aid, Poppy, Woz, Zero-One and Valkyrie. 
• It's so bizarre to me that one of the Clone Riders is Ichigo, and despite so much of the plot already revolving around Ichigo, they don't even mention it. 
• Diablo's four goons are the "Crispers", and they're based on Himiko, Edison, Khufu and Leonidas. 
• Interestingly, among these four, Himiko and Edison were both members of the 'luminaries' that became part of Kamen Rider Ghost's core arsenal. 
• Additionally, Himiko is voiced by Rica Matsumoto, the singer for Ryuki's opening -Alive a Life-. 
• I know I don't regard Saber particularly highly, but damn, it 10000% slipped my mind that Sophia is able to transform into Kamen Rider Calibur and I went 'wait what?' when she showed up for her cameo during the montage in the final arc. 
• Poor, poor, Hiromi. His tenure as Kamen Rider Demons is really marked by him embodying the 'Worf Effect', isn't it? That whole plot of Fenix trying to arrest the Century duo really ends up being utterly pointless.
• Okay, I did get a bit giddy when I heard 'ETERNAL! Maximum Drive!' and 'Lemon Squash!'
• Right, right, Touma is retired and they had to have an excuse of Rintaro bringing Kaenken Rekka to him. At least it's not as convoluted as having Gaim or Drive show up, with later movies just shrugging and deciding not to have alien fruit god come from his planet every year for the crossover, or to have Belt-san and the Tridoron burst out from the basement every time. 
• I had to look back at the past couple of movies to confirm this, but I was about to make a comment about how Saber doesn't get a fancy new form... but sometimes the 'senpai' rider in these crossover movies don't get brand-new forms. That's news to me! 
• In a neat little foreshadowing, George gets super interested in Ren's sword, Hayate, because it can split apart. It's probably a sneaky hint at him making a similar transformation device that splits apart, namely the Giffard Rex Vistamp. 
• The credits show all the Kamen Riders from Ichigo all the way to Revice... and it's kind of bizarre that some of them are in their super-forms for no real reason. I guess it's just whatever suit they have at the moment? Gaim is in his Kacihdoki Arms form, for example. Is that why Muteki Ex-Aid was the one showed in the movie itself, and it's the only Clone Rider that isn't in his base form?

Kamen Rider Saber E46-47: The Saber in Your Hand Is A Pen To Write It Down

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 46-47:

Episode 46: Goodbye, My Hero

And so Saber ends. Probably one of the shows that I haven't been really in love with the most -- there were definitely a fair amount of good parts, particularly in the beginning and near the end, but for the most part, I think most people can agree that Saber has been a bit of an inconsistent ride. At least the quality of the episodes have risen significantly in this last batch of episodes, though, which isn't something I expected. 

Episode 46, "Goodbye, My Hero", starts off showing Mei meeting the fallen adult-Luna in the streets, fading in and out of existence. And... I guess they really needed Mei to be doing something in the finale? But in the previous episode, most of the characters had been fighting the Lords of the Wise, which means Touma is free to confront Storious in this one. Storious's monologue is pretty much the same as what he has been saying, except this time he has an audience in Touma -- that fate and everything is predetermined and nothing they can do can change the flow of destiny.

Touma, of course replies with a badass speech of his own, and it's a pretty good comeback to Storious's insane rambling. He's no hero, he's a novelist, and in his eyes, everyone is the hero in their own personal stories. And that he and his friends are fighting for things they are protecting and all that. Of course, we appropriately cut away to the other members of the cast yelling about what they're fighting for. Ogami flashes back to his wife and child. Daishinji gets up from his seeming death in the previous episode (I guess he's fighting for his sword?) and the two of them fight against a Lord of the Wise. The actors and the scenes really do a good job at capturing how ragged and beaten down these guys are. Ultimately they defeat their opponent -- with Ogami holding the Lord in place, and Daishinji shooting them both. Ogami survives, though. 

The Shindai siblings aren't quite as fortunate, and I feel like they get perhaps the longest fight scene in this episode. They just get quite bullied by the Lord they are fighting, whose powers seem to allow him to replicate the Shindai siblings' moves. Rintarou shows up to help out and freeze the Lord for a bit, but Durendal tells him to move on... which is a bit of a short moment, but it's pretty cool since the show makes it pretty apparent that the Shindais are in a pretty sorry state. They put up a good fight, but ultimately the dual-blade wielding Lord cuts down Reika, slices Durendal's trident and does an ora-ora-ora barrage of sword strikes on him. We get one of the most badass deliveries of Ryoga's "do not anger me" catchphrase, and Reika manages to deliver the final blow, stabbing the Lord (while untransformed!) with the pieces of Ryoga's trident. Both of them seem to fall as they reach towards each other, and if this was an early-Heisei show it'd be a pretty good indication that they're dead. 

While all of this is going on, Mei gives Luna a bit of a pep talk, telling her that she needs to go see Touma, and as Luna heads off, Mei runs into her publishing office to type in something that 'only she can do', which is typing Touma's manuscript down. (Meanwhile, Ren and Kento are still fighting the final Lord, though we don't see much of it beyond brief clash).

Storious continues his little speech, and it's probably the first time we actually see his motivations in full? It's still insane, of course, but I can understand it a bit more? Storious used to be a great poet, but then he realized that the Omniscient Tome that writes down everything in fate... has everything set in stone (or, well, paper) which includes all of his creations. Which means nothing he created was original, and it was pre-determined. It's something that would drive you crazy, of course. But since Storious is a main villain in a tokusatsu show, he takes it into such extremes that he wants to wipe out all of humanity because destiny is meaningless and stuff. He tries to make this apply to Touma as well, trying to tell him that Touma's own novels are also pointless since all the creativity pales beneath the grand destiny and all that. Touma gives his own big speech, about how stories bring happiness and bring people together, and says that, hey, even if his stories were predestined to be written... it doesn't really matter, since the stories that are written are new and precious to those who read them. Pretty cool stuff!

Of course, this show isn't going to end with a conversation, so Storious and Touma both transform and face off. We get perhaps the cleanest usage of Touma's Xross Saber form, summoning all the holy swords. And as Touma alternates between his comrades' swords, we get a brief glimpse of them yelling 'henshin' in the previous episode. That's cheesy as all heck, but also very appropriately cool. This isn't the final episode, though, so obviously Storious is going to have the advantage. His red-skies-apocalypse continues, and as everyone struggles, Storious beats Touma down... and kicks him down a conveniently-placed giant hole on the floor. Cliffhanger!

Anyway... yeah, not the most novel story. It's just a motivation rant tossed back and forth, and a couple of admittedly pretty cool action scenes for the secondary characters. But it's also clearly just meant to be a set-up episode. Which brings us to...

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Episode 47: The End of the World, the Story that is Born

This episode is pretty obviously telegraphed by the previous one, if we're being honest, just like most of this final arc. But it's better to have a final arc that's at least 'safe', but is solid and well-executed, right? Anyway, we start off with Kamen Riders Espada and Kenzan fighting against the last Lord of the Wise, who can open portals to reflect the Riders' attacks back at them. They quickly just swap books, and somehow this allows both of them to move really, really fast and stab the Lord a lot of times, blowing it up less than a minute into the episode. Kind of have to feel a bit bad for Kento, honestly... Ren at least had his big moment slaying the first Lord of the Wise, but Kento's been kind of sidelined in this final battle.

Which is where Yuuri comes in! He's been struggling to go through the evil lair all throughout the previous episode, and he comes across the fallen Ren and Kento. It's not explicitly stated, but the way the scenes are shot seemed to imply that at the very least Ren died in this fight, and Yuuri revived them with his magic powers... before Yuuri finally explodes and disappears into freckles of light, talking about how great it is to have friends that he can trust. Again, it's somewhat sad, but Yuuri has already been telegraphed to be shambling, half-dead, in this final arc anyway. I don't think it quite packs the punch of Desast or Bacht's deaths, if we're being honest... which is a shame, since Yuuri's a repretty major character that deserves more. 

While all of this is going on, we get to see an aspect of Storious's book-apocalypse, because (somehow?) as a result of Wonderworld being corrupted, all stories and books, including the ones in Touma's bookshop and Northern Base, are disappearing. I did remember that they said something about the Wonder Books disappearing, but I didn't think it'd apply to all stories. Mei, of course, keeps typing, asking people about what stories truly mean to them. 

Touma survives the big cliffhanger of falling into the dark hole on the floor because... of the Primitive Dragon book! Oh yeah, there was this whole sub-plot about Touma befriending the dragon inside of that book. Okay, sure. Touma transforms into Primitive Dragon and manhandles Storious with his CGI scorpion-whip... right until the book-rapture happens, and Touma is forced to de-transform when his Primitive Dragon Book vibrates and disappears. Luna shows up but she's unable to really stand up, while Rintarou and Kento manages to push Storious away even without needing to transform. 

Luna gives a speech to Touma about how she would like to hear her stories, and that he should keep creating, and then Luna floats up and creates a blue version of the red magical circle that brings all the swords to life, animating Rekka, which flies around and starts fighting Storious on its own. The swords of the six main Riders fly up and combine with Luna, all of which transform into a single new book: Wonder Almighty. 

So it's a final episode new form, and Touma equipping that book also somehow summons a copy of Nagare and Ikazuchi for Rintarou and Kento. Okay, sure! It doesn't make sense, but so does not having the two other main characters transform. Just like Zero-One before him, Saber's final form is exactly the same as his Brave Dragon form. We get a bit of the three main Riders fighting in their base forms, before Touma summons all the books and starts summoning the CGI animals to beat up Storious. Some of the power-up books even get to help... although, tragically, we don't get to see the return of Buff Tinker Bell from Peter Fantastista. 

While all of this is going, Touma basically tries to beat the love-for-stories back into Storious, all the while he's being beaten up by CGI beanstalks and cartoon pigs. Blades, Espada and Saber finally each get one hit each to beat up Storious. Storious gets a flashback to how he enjoyed writing stories in the past, sees the 'new story' on Touma's belt before disintegrating. 

But the apocalypse is still happening as the world is being consumed by the apocalypse, and even Touma himself succumbs and starts to disintegrate as well... but then we cut to Mei, who's still typing on the computer. And as Mei also gets consumed by the waves of disintegration, apparently her words reach all the other people all over the world... and then Touma wakes up in the void as vignettes of random children show up and talk about their favourite stories. 

And then we cut to one year later. Apparently Touma vanished, returning the rest of the world to normalcy. The Wonder Books can't be opened, Yuuri is still a sword (for around five minutes), and the Shindai siblings survive off-screen. And apparently, Touma's book, 'Eternal Story', won an award in the meantime. Apparently Touma got shunted off to a brand-new Wonderworld, writing stories while he was in there. All while he's doing that, Touma returned all of the disappeared people who Storious trapped in books a couple of episodes back. Touma also apparently met with the ghosts of all the dead people... including the villains, who are at peace. 

And... and that's a neat ending. Other than the bonus episode that's going to be a introduction to the next rider, Revice. But... yeah. That's basically as good of an ending as this story can get. Ultimately it's still bogged down by the ambiguous and overblown backstory about the Omniscient Tome and the nature of Luna and Wonderworld, which I really did feel like the show spends a lot of time building up but never really explaining all that well. So Touma's sacrifice and ultimate return feels... I can't really say it's convoluted, because I really wasn't sure what was supposed to happen and what's not supposed to happen. These final episodes are at least paced well? Particularly the (admittedly simple) action scenes? I think my real conclusion from this is that 'it could've been worse', but ultimately while I did have fun with this series, I still think that it's probably one of the weaker Rider shows. It suffers from having a bit too many characters, plotlines that are dragged on a bit too long, and while the villains are competent enough there's also not a whole ton of depth to it. I understand the show's made with a lot of restrictions put on shooting and stuff, but I don't know. I just really hope the next show is a bit better!

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Random Notes:

• Power-scaling is a bit useless in the newer Kamen Rider shows, but Daishinji and Ogami are two characters that have mostly been relegated to secondary roles and have never gotten power-ups, so I felt like they are definitely two of the less 'safe' characters. The Lord of the Wise they're fighting also has the cool energy-absorbing scythe, too! 
• I know Touma's sword-power-barrage isn't going to actually defeat Storious, but while the SFX team got pretty good mileage out of most of the cast... all they did for Durendal's sword was have it slam down? Really? The sword that can stop time, and that's the most interesting thing they could do with it? 
• We get a very rare appearance of Kamen Rider Espada's genie and tri-cerberus! The Lord of the Wise reflects it back!
• Since Yuuri disintegrates and he is a sword, and Ryoga's sword got sliced and blown up, I guess that's why only Saber, Blades, Espada, Sarutobi, Buster and Slash's swords got summoned.
• I've always been a bigger fan of Saber's original form and never really quite got into liking the looks of either Primitive or Xross Dragon, so I'm actually very happy to see them pushed aside in favour for the original look for Saber.  
• It's been a bit of a wild ride. I don't think I'll be reviewing the next season, Revice, as closely as I did with Saber and Zero-One. I'll probably do chunks of it at a time, maybe around ten or so episodes in one go, the same way I do One Piece anime reviews? Unless Revice really grabs me the way Zero-One did. 

Kamen Rider Saber E44-45 Review: Open the Grimoire

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. 

Episode 44: Open, the Last Page

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. 

Kamen Rider Saber E43 Review: Desast's Last Dance (ft. Crossover Episodes)

Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 43: Clash, the Reason for Existence

Okay, this one, I really, really liked. I know that I really haven't been too huge on Saber over the past dozen episodes or so. A lot of the plotlines felt like they just kind of happened without really leaving much of an impact, and a lot of character development felt perfunctory. Like we're getting the bare minimum for the story to make sense -- and sometimes not even then. 

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. 

Kamen Rider Saber E41-42 Review: Bonne Lecture

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 41-42

I am very, very slowly catching up to Kamen Rider stuff. I'm not sure if I'll do episodic reviews for Kamen Rider Revice when it does come up later, or if I'll do bi-episode ones, or if I'll just do larger chunks of episodes? I do have a huge amount of backlog of Kamen Rider stuff to catch up with... the RealXEyez Zero One movie, the Ghost x Saber two-parter specials... anyway, two episodes today. 

Episode 41: For 2000 Years, A Wish Spelled Out

Sometimes you just have an episode that's fully exposition. And most of the time, that's either going to be really interesting or really boring, and... and I really did feel like they could've done more to make me care about Tassel. He's around in the show, yes. He narrates the bonne lecture segments of the episodes. But ultimately, other than some one-off scenes meeting with Yuri and Master Logos, we really don't have much about him. So when he finally meets up with Touma and the rest of the cast, it really feels like 'oh, okay, finally we get this' and it feels... I wouldn't say that it's anticlimactic, but it most certainly feels like it could have been much, much more interesting. 

Tassel basically does a huge information dump and... and it's less new information and more contextualizing the flashbacks that we've had before about the ancient group of people who found the Wonder World and became the Meggido, and how Tassel and the original Logos split up the Book of Knowledge between them. Tassel is also utterly incapable of interfering with the world, because he's... basically just a spirit, I guess? Also, Luna is confirmed to be the personification of Wonder World, chose Touma, and end up causing the chain of events during Touma's childhood that led to the first Calibur's betrayal. There's a repeat of the dilemma of whether Touma will choose Luna or his mortal friends, which... yeah, I guess it's nice to emphasize that. 

What feels like a larger event, interestingly, is the B-plot. I have been kind of complaining about the show spinning its wheels with the Ren/Desast plot, where they quite literally just gather mould in the corner of the show doing nothing but repeat the same 'I want to be strong' complaints and eating ramen. But Desast goes off on his own to confront Storious, angry that Storious is trying to 'finish the story'. Having stolen the Eternal Phoenix book and sword, Desast actually straight-up transforms into Kamen Rider Falchion to fight Storious in his monster form! It's actually a neat way at showing off Storious's new power as the proper final villain of this show. Storious's monologues about how stories are beautiful because they have an ending (that's true!) is also pretty neat -- it's still lunacy, of course, but it's a different brand of lunacy compared to Master Logos's earlier in the show. And it does make Storious's obsession with witnessing other people's deaths a lot more interesting. Desast is mortally wounded, and it would lead to the pretty powerful Desast/Ren episodes coming up soon. 

Storious makes a Charybdis Megiddo to stall the heroes while he goes off to Wonder World. That's the obligatory third-act action scene. And... and after the very clean Desast-vs-Storious fight, the Charybdis Megiddo fighting against Slash and Buster, and later Saber, is kind of just... boring? I don't know. I think I've reached my fill of seeing too many huge Xross Saber giant sparkly explosion finishers. Is this even a new variant of Xross Saber? I don't even know. I did like him allowing Slash and Buster to dual-wield their weapons, though. 

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Episode 42: The Beginning, of A Beautiful End

41 was honestly kind of a weaker episode, but 42 is so much more interesting. Unaware of what's going on in Wonder World, our heroes are kind of confused why Tassel/Viktor hasn't returned with Luna yet... until Yuuri realizes from our heroes discussing the Charybdis fight that it's all a distraction for Storious to attack Tassel personally. 

And we get to see Storious confronting Tassel in Wonder World, with the two old friends finally arguing with each other. Again, I also like to reiterate that I probably would've cared more if Tassel had a bigger presence in the story. At least he had a role last episode? And if nothing else, his final scene, begging his old friend that they could've done what they should've done in the first place, which is to use the power of the Wonder World to bring peace to the world... Ultimately, Storious stabs Tassel and steals his book, leaving him to die into bubbles. It's actually kind of sad for what's a pretty short scene. RIP Tassel.

Tassel's death causes Wonder World to... it becomes red and creepy and it's causing some sort of dimensional clash with the real world? I'm honestly not quite sure what's going on, but they apparently do what the previous Saber did, and use the various holy swords to create small force-field barriers to lock the dimensional disruption into one area. 

Oh, while all of this is going on, we get a couple of short scenes of Mei meeting Luna, who has manifested in the physical world. We get a couple of honestly rather eye-rolling physical comedy scenes of Mei face-planting into a pile of mud... god bless Mei's actress for having to put up with this. 

Touma confronts Storious, who mocks Tassel's last moments as lacking any sort of beauty because he really wants to drive that jackassery home. Storious gives a typical villain motive rant, and his theme is endings and deaths. Meanwhile, Touma is of the opinion that endings and stories are supposed to inspire the next generation, transcending time. 

On the Desast/Ren side of things, Desast demands Ren fight him seriously. The audience knows that Desast is basically dying, and he's desperate to basically leave something, do something with this weird wind ninja guy that he befriended. Ren aborts the fight after a brief clash, however, noting that there's "no point to the fight", because finally after a dozen episodes, Ren takes Touma's speeches to heart? Or something. The two eventually just hang out and eat cup ramen again. While discussing why Touma and the rest can get stronger, Ren almost insensitively notes that Desast "don't need for a reason to fight or live"... and we get this absolutely cool black-and-white shot of Desast slowly disintegrating into tendrils of smoke. 

Desast eventually shows up and interrupts the Touma/Storious confrontation. I really do get a feel for Desast's desperation to find some sort of meaning in all this, and he ends up fighting Touma in yet another pretty well-choreographed fight. Again, just to drive things home even further, Storious mocks Desast as an unnecessary part of the story, as something that he would be happy to see Saber help him erase. Poor Desast is just being told that he's useless and has no reason to exist over and over, isn't he? It's at least for good narrative purpose, though. Storious leaves Saber and Desast to fight each other, and Desast gets super angry at Touma because he blames Touma for causing Ren to falter all the time... while Touma is of the idea that humans are meant to falter, and they'll be there waiting for him, something that Desast expresses confusion towards since it doesn't relate to gaining strength. Touma realizes how alike Ren and Desast are, and acknowledges that Desast is more human than he would care to admit to. After a clash of finisher attacks where Desast is knocked back, we get to see that Desast's body is slowly disintegrating, and he walks off. 

Ren sees all of this going on, and... and you know what? While I really don't care about Ren since he's kind of a flat character, these two episodes have given me such a huge, huge appreciation for Desast. He's a bit of a weird and complex character, and yet somehow he's quickly risen into being one of the more compelling characters in the story. The obsession with finding a purpose in life and his odd-but-cute friendship with Ren is most certainly something that I didn't expect to be really caring about, but I definitely end up enjoying episode 42 a lot more than I thought I would, and look forward to the conclusion of the Desast story next episode. 

Random Notes:

• Okay, 41 starting off with the team celebrating and playing around with the huge flowing soumen set-up is actually kind of hilarious. Highlights include Yuuri using a fishing rod to catch the noodles, and Sophia's disappointed face as she fails to get the soumen. 42's little skit is Daishinji eating an overly-salty onigiri made by Sophia. 
• Rintarou going "so you're not a regular Homo sapiens" at Tassel saying that he's 2000 years old is low-key pretty funny. 
• Ren has a short scene in episode 41 brooding by a river, and Touma exchanges dialogue with him, but it's literally the same thing as what we've seen before.
• The Charybdis Meggido in 41 enters a super-powerful state where it uses Desast's powers, and visually this is represented by an Attack on Titan style exposed musculature that rips out of his chitinous white skin. That's pretty nasty! I like it.
• There's a huge Zeronos/Deneb vibe with Desast demanding that Ren eat red ginger with his cup noodles, and demands that Ren apologize to said red ginger. 
• Touma is honestly a very basic protagonist, but one thing that the show has been consistent with him is showing how much he values friendship. And that brief shot of him getting visibly angry before catching himself at Storious's comment about Tassel's death is one of the best moments of acting in this episode.
• There's a particularly cool shot in the Saber/Desast fight where Desast lands in a shallow pool, and the camera briefly enters underwater to give us a shot of Desast's feet before panning back up, showing us both the scene above and below the water surface, just as Desast himself picks himself back up. 
• The location of the fight is pretty cool; it's in someone's fancy mansion-pool thing. It's nice to have a break from all the quarries and warehouses. 

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. 

Kamen Rider Saber E37-38 Review: Cross But With An X

Kamen Rider Saber, Episodes 37-38:

I almost published this a couple of days ago, but that was unfairly negative because I was in a bit of a bad mood. I still really am not the biggest fan of Saber's newest episodes, but I was being pretty harsh on it.  Anyway, another two episodes this time around. 

Episode 37: Change the Future, Who?

So after the big cliffhanger of Isaac/Master Logos/Kamen Rider Solomon's huge plan of summoning a bunch of giant magical books and demanding that the entire world re-enact a global Battle Royale, we just sort of... cut away to everyone going back to status quo? Kento pouts and walks away from Sophia, Master Logos sits on his throne while Bacht seems to be happy to work alongside him, the Shindai siblings walk off to sulk and declare that they aren't exactly allies with the good guys yet. 

Kento sort of becomes the focus of these couple of episodes, and his return to being one of the good guys instead of an emo anti-hero is something that we have been building up towards in the background. I don't think it's quite as underwhelming as the Luna subplot or whatever is going on with Ren and Desast, but it's also something that I really think the show could've given us a whole lot more gravitas? As it is, it just really seems that Sophia and Yuri are particularly terrible at communication to either Kento or the other swordsmen. Yuri finally talks to the others about the potential futures and the whole 'Kento is trying to stop Touma from dying and sacrificing himself' reason. 

Touma obviously goes off to talk to Kento and stop him from sacrificing himself, but Ren shows up and demands that Touma duel him. Since Ren was left out of 'Touma duels everyone' batch of episodes in the middle of the series, I guess we finally get some Ren focus! Only... only it's basically repeating the same story beat that we've gotten for Ren for the past couple of episodes. His old master told him strength is everything and strength is justice, and he is obsessed with that but is too immature to actually admit that he needs to join up with the other good guys. Even when Touma gives his regular speech and tells Ren about Kento's sacrifice, Ren buggers off. And... and it's nice to see that Touma's speech-of-friendship doesn't solve a problem, but it also made this encounter feel particularly pointless. 

The B-plot has Yuri and Mei go off to try and convince Bacht to see the good in humanity. And, no joke, Mei's plan to do so is to try and introduce Bacht to Instagram. God bless your heart, Mei. It's a nice attempt, honestly, with Yuri trying to get Bacht to see how humanity has changed in 3000 years, and while the ending is basically the same with the Touma/Ren interaction (Bacht doesn't give a shit), I felt like it meant more for Yuri -- who is a more stoic character and who we saw as a lot colder prior to his character development. Or maybe I just like Yuri, Mei and Bacht a lot more than I do Touma and Ren. 

Rintaro meets Kento and tries to talk him down, but before they really get anywhere, Master Logos gets bored of sitting on his throne. We get a fight between the three of them, and Touma jumps in as well. Again, we get another moment of friendship in battle as Touma and Rintaro refuses to let Kento get harmed. Speaking of harm, Master Logos activates the magical floating book and turns the entire city into dust. This bit is actually surprising -- around halfway through the Heisei period, the Kamen Rider shows have been particularly bloodless when it comes to civilian casualties, and Saber has been no different, but then suddenly an entire city gets absolutely vaporized! I mean, it's obvious that this is going to be reversed, and we don't see any people actually dying, but it's still pretty surprising. 

Oh, and also Kento tries to seal away Master Logos in the Huge Moment of Destiny (tm), but then Touma jumps in and stops him. And... and I really wish that this scene impacted more since we have spent so much time building up to this, but I honestly felt like it was just kind of there. It felt a bit less dramatic compared to the flashbacks to the visions that Kento had during his original return. Though admittedly, that was the perfect usage of Touma's "the ending of this story will be decided by me!" catchphrase. 

Master Logos blasts Touma out of his transformation, but then Yuri shows up, dual-wields the swords of light and darkness, and creates a black hole to suck away Logos. Pretty cool! Master Logos pops back out of the black hole at the end of the episode, but it's nice to see someone other than Touma actually harming the main villain. Kento still refuses to play nice, but at least he has no more excuse to sacrifice himself. Overall, it's honestly an episode that in theory should be dramatic, but I really did feel like they should've really focused a lot more on the Kento/Touma destiny moment in the final act of this episode, which really felt underwhelming for how significant it really should've been on paper. 

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Episode 38: Uniting the Holy Blades, the Galaxy Sword

Following up on the previous episode, the other Swordsmen basically tell Touma to go off and finish his business with Kento and bring him back into the fold, while they hold down the fort and fight off Master Logos. Okay, that's kinda nice of them, actually. We basically cut around the different parties as well (Ren/Desast, the Shindais, Kento brooding on a rooftop) before we cut away to Master Logos facing off against four swordsmen -- Kamen Riders Blades, Buster, Slash and Saikou. They predictably get beaten up, and then Kamen Riders Sarutobi, Sabela and Durendal show up one after the other. And... and okay, the action scene is honestly pretty standard and formulaic, but the five-year-old in me really find it cool for these guys to show up, say their catchphrase and do a special move or two.  

Touma talks to Kento and leaves the lightning blade Ikazuchi while telling him that they'll be waiting, and then the glowing ball of yellow light that has been following Kento all throughout the previous episode perches on it. Kento gets brought into an illusory realm (???) where he meets with the ghost of Kaido Naoya his dad. It's... it's a pretty well-acted scene, even if we're admittedly just going through the very expected redemption arc for Kento's dad. I really felt like I probably would care more if we actually saw a bit more out of Fukamiyo Hayato? It's a pretty simple 'be true to yourself' speech, but this leads Kento to finally pick up the lightning blade. I really wish that there's something to add here, but I really don't feel like Hayato's much of a character in this series. It's neat, I guess. 

Touma, meanwhile, shows up on the huge Kamen Rider rumble, only for Bacht to show up and give a grand speech about how humanity sucks and everyone is fated to battle, citing Kento and Touma's conflict as a prime example. Touma actually gives a pretty damn good speech about how Bacht has been continuously shoving blame onto others -- even if he was sealed within a book prison for a thousand years, he's also the one who adamantly refuses to change or listen to other people's arguments, actively choosing to wallow in anger instead of trying to overcome it. Touma asks Bacht why he can't change if he's supposedly so strong. Every other one of Touma's allies gets a badass line, they talk about believing in people, and then Touma, un-transformed, cuts a massive gash across Bacht's body that overcomes his phoenix powers and he finally dies, admitting that Touma has a point.  

You know what? Bacht was pretty damn cool. After the Megiddo trio and the Shindai siblings have been pretty lackluster, one-note antagonists, Bacht was pretty dang cool. Sure, I'm never a huge fan of the 'talk no jutsu' trope, but this was a pretty neat one. 

Master Logos does a 'Solomon Strash' and summons a gigantic CGI blade to smash down on Touma while the entire world around them turns dark, but Touma, having clashed swords with every single other member of the cast, rebukes Logos for having no conviction or hope behind his blade. The eleven swords stand against Master Logos, with the ghost/spirit of Hayato showing up to wield Kurayami. And then all the eleven holy blades fly into the sky, and all the random plot devices we've been collecting throughout the series -- Mei's book, Daishinji's master's prophecy, and the holy blades -- resonate and create a brand-new sword for Touma. It's final form time, and we get the Sword King's Blade, Cross Saber. No, wait, Xross Saber. It's spelled with an X, because X is read as 'cross' or something. 

Touma transforms into his (presumably) final form, Xross Saber, and it's pretty cool -- it's a form that looks a lot cleaner than Elemental Dragon, and the sparkly star pattern on the suit's blue colour works very well in the darker shots of this episode. Using this form, Touma summons the eleven blades, which fly to the different parts of the world to summon giant facsimiles of their respective Kamen Riders to destroy the books. Kamen Rider Solomon summons a bunch of giant CGI not-Gundams, while Xross Saber displays a power similar to some other final forms (like Kiwami Arms or Grand Zi-O) where he can just summon a bunch of other power-ups previously seen in the series. After a CGI battle displaying this power, Touma blows up Solomon's robot minions, and everyone celebrates his final form. 

And... and as far as final form debuts go, I've seen better. But I've also seen much worse. Again, I guess part of it is just that it all basically happens in the most predictable and standard way, which isn't always a bad thing, but it also felt kind of just there, you know? There isn't really anything that I particularly dislike about these two episodes, but I bet that there really isn't going to be anything I find super-duper memorable out of these two. Anyway, we do get the final form, and I think we're basically in the end-game. We've, what, around five, six episodes left? Again, what needs to be wrapped up is relatively obvious, and I honestly don't think we'll be getting too many surprises down the road. The episodes themselves are fine, but overall I look back at Saber as a whole and I really do feel like the pacing and the plotting structure could've been done a lot better. 

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Random Notes:

• Hoo boy, yeah, when the belt noises play at the same time while the relatively longer soundbytes play their entire verses, it's a bit painful to listen to. 
• There's an unintentionally hilarious line where Ren demands Touma tell him how he got stronger and Touma replies that he got stronger by 'fighting everyone'. He did that, sure, but I'm pretty sure the reason he overpowers Ren so much is that he's got like four different power-ups from legendary holy books while Ren is still stuck with Three Little Pigs. 
• Is the pier where Bacht is brooding the same one that Makoto broods all the time in Ghost? It looks like a similar pier. 
• It's kind of eye-rolling that we start off episode 38 with the heroes declaring that "the only course of action is to beat Master Logos!" ...isn't that the whole crux of the past couple of episodes? There is exposition-recap, and there is just sounding dense. 
• Granted, if there was a great comeback to 'you can't just shove blame to other people', it is probably 'I was sealed for one thousand years after a betrayal by my friend!'
• The eleven swords form a constellation that I am pretty sure is based on the Sefirot. I'm not sure if there's any real symbolism to the positions of the swords or if it's just there to look cool because 'holy blade'. 
• Speaking of the 11 holy swords, I guess Bacht's sword just wields itself since Bacht is dead when this happens?
• Xross Saber in this episode summons a gigantic version of Gekido, a rain of Ikazuchi blades, two spinning Hayates, a gigantic Suzune sound cannon, plus a bunch of spinning Rekkas.
• Desast steals the phoenix blade while everyone isn't looking. I mean, I know that Reika has been doing exactly that for like a dozen times, but Reika at least can turn into smoke! There's no excuse for the thirteen people there not to see Desast. 

Kamen Rider Saber 35-36 Review: Lunatic Book Man

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.