Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Chapter 12: The Promise, in that Place.

Tassel’s cloaked visitor walks out, much to his surprise.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Meanwhile, Mei is happy to see Rintaro has finally awaken. She’s been by his bedside while he is recovering. But all Rintaro cares about is how Kento’s doing. Mei tells him that Kento is fine and Rintaro is relieved.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Mei heads to the library and tells everyone Rintaro has regained consciousness. But she turns to Kento and scolds him for recklessly going off on his own, especially after their promise with Touma and Rintaro. Ogami-san butts in and takes the spotlight himself by telling Kento that he will die if he goes off on his own again.

Kento understands and says he’s fine now.

At the Megid Mansion, they are excited for the opened doors. Daichi is looking forward to the eternal truth being revealed to them. Storious is ready for world domination.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

At the North Pole, the Riders go over what they know. Six locations have been booked in the city. And they can no longer enter any section with a pillar of light. Kento recognizes this has happened before, but keeps it to himself.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

The Riders split up and out over the four remaining booked areas. Ogami-san tells Ren to bring Kento with him. Touma asks Kento if he is really, truly alright. Kento says he knows where he has to go, “to where we made our promise.” Touma has no idea what he’s talking about.

While Ogami-san and Tetsuo are able to enter the booked areas, Touma is stopped by Storious and Zooous. They battle.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Ren finds Kento has not followed him at all. Kento is actually visiting with a sleeping Rintaro. Kento says it is all his fault and lays his heart out to Rintaro about That Day, having feared Touma was dead, acknowledging a “Luna” is gone and the mystery surrounding his father. Kento asks Rintaro to take care of Touma for him. Kento leaves and Rintaro opens his eyes, having heard every word.

Kento finds Daichi at what he calls the epicenter of That Day. What is happening now also happened on That Day with six locations getting booked as well. This is the location where the sky opened up as a gate to another world. Daichi admits that is their plan once again.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Kento says this is the place he, Touma and Luna made a promise.

Kento henshins as does Daichi. They battle.

Mei heads into Rintaro’s room happily bringing him some eclairs. But he’s not in bed anymore.

Touma is struggling against Storious and Zooous and he is forced to dehenshin. Rintaro comes riding in on his Lion and says he will take over here so Touma can go be by Kento’s side. Rintaro says Touma must accompany Kento based on the promise they and Luna made on That Day.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Touma suddenly remembers everything and thanks Rintaro for being the catalyst. He runs off.

Zooous wants to fight Rintaro again, but Storious says they can leave now. Rintaro, still in pain, decides to go help elsewhere.

Tetsuo defeats his Megid and his sword glows. Ren and Ogami-san defeat their Megids and two more pillars of light emerge from the booked areas.

Rintaro also defeats his Megid and he notices his glowing sword.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Touma is on his bike and heading toward Kento where he is badly struggling against Daichi. Touma flashes back to the moment of The Promise where they vowed to always be together. He also remembers Luna getting sucked into the hole in the sky.

Touma realizes Kento has been carrying the burden of The Promise while he himself has been oblivious.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Daichi forces Kento to dehenshin. Kento is defiant and says he will risk his life to defeat Daichi all for his father, Rintaro and Touma. Daichi says he never thought Touma, the boy he saved on That Day, would become Saber. But if Touma stands in his way, Daichi has no problem killing him too.

Kento says as long as he lives, he will never let Daichi lay a hand on Touma. He henshins again and both he and Daichi prepare finishers. They attack.

It is suddenly nighttime when Touma finally finds Kento laying face down on the ground in That Place. Touma takes Kento in his arms and tells him he remembers everything. Kento says he thought his father was behind Luna’s disappearance and felt guilty about it. But he is happy when he learned Touma kept his love for books and became a writer.

With his final breaths, Kento says he is happy Touma has kept his promises. Touma says they will save Luna, like they promised. But Kento smiles and before he and Touma can pinky swear, his lifeless arm falls to the ground.

Kamen Rider Saber Episode 12 Recap

Touma cries in agony as Tassel and the cloaked man watch them nearby.

Episode Thoughts

First of all, how many hours did it take Touma to ride his motorbike to the location of The Promise? When people on the show usually make it to wherever there’s a monster much quicker on foot. It was about early afternoon when he left Rintaro and it was late evening with the moon high in the sky when he reaches Kento. Uh, okay.

So this is another episode that kind of highlights what my reservations are with Saber so far. They’re all nice characters on paper and I guess there’s a nice story somewhere here. But I don’t really feel much emotion with much of what’s happening on screen. Is that my problem? Maybe, I’m not sure.

But I don’t feel like I have a connection with any of the characters yet aside from Mei and maybe Rintaro. Like, Sophia’s disappeared and I don’t really care. Kento’s supposedly dead. But they also did this cliffhanger last week with Rintaro too. And I certainly would believe Ogami-san, Ren or Tetsuo are much more likely to get an early death before any one of the characters that’s in the ending dance.

I don’t really know why I don’t care much for Touma, Kento and Luna (whoever the hell she is) and their childhood friendship. Maybe it’s because like Touma, we have no idea what’s going on. So it’s hard to care about something that hasn’t been talked about or hasn’t affected anyone. We can’t really say it’s affected Kento much since his story has been all about his supposedly traitorous father. And now that plot point has been erased.

When Touma, our title hero, doesn’t care (or remember), why should we? That’s a major problem for me as I can’t then care about most of what’s happening.

To be honest, the only scene I really cared about this episode was Mei being by Rintaro’s bed side when he wakes up. No, not only because of my hopeless romantic self. But also because, of anyone in the season so far, we’ve seen the most character and relationship development from Mei and Rintaro. We’ve actually seen them go off together, become closer friends. She may or may not have a crush on him. Whatever. But compared to everyone else, that’s A LOT. So her being concerned about Rintaro makes sense and has a strong foundation to support that scene. Her being excited when he wakes up, but a little sad that Rintaro is more concerned with others than himself was great.

Even more when Mei goes to the library and attempts to scold Kento. I honestly wish Ogami-san shut the hell up at that point and just let Mei speak instead. Mei would’ve gotten the point across much better than Ogami-san who is absent most of the time. And really hasn’t even established himself as this “elder” in the team. He, like Ren, are almost like also-rans after their initial debuts.

We get that Kento is going through a lot. But didn’t the four of them (three, if they exclude Mei which they tend to like to do) just make a promise to each other, what was it, like last episode or two episodes ago? I don’t even remember.

When it comes to the Megid, they feel very much like Power Rangers villains. They only pop up whenever they send a monster to Earth. Otherwise, they are nowhere to be seen or heard from. By now, we should be getting a sense of who they are and what they’re all about. We don’t. We don’t have anything on their dynamics between themselves. We don’t have anything about what they’re capable of other than trapping city blocks into books.

It really feels like this season is very underdeveloped. Especially as we’re on Episode 12. And this looks like a pretty strong cast. So it’s not them. It is pacing? Is it lack of clear focus? I have no idea what’s going on. But it’s definitely disappointing considering the strong run Kamen Rider has had the last few years.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Chapter 12: The Promise, in that Place.

  1. LOL! I was thinking the same thing about the time shift from day to night.

    And I can assure you, you are not the only one who feels underwhelmed by Saber however, I still find myself enjoying the show.

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