.jpg)
While a very giddy Legeiel plays the organ, Storious warns they must keep an eye out for the Swordsman of Light.
Meanwhile, Mei is trying to change Yuri’s mind about striking down Yuki-san. But Yuri says Touma is very naïve to be overly concerned with his friends over his swordsman responsibilities.
Touma leaves for the North Pole to have some time alone.
.jpg)
Meanwhile down at the South Pole, Reika updates the traitors on the latest Touma news. Ren wants to go beat his ass, but Rintaro stops him. Ren gets in his face, but Rintaro remains calm. Tetsuo says he will go talk to Touma and Rintaro goes with.
Back at the North Pole, Yuri approaches Touma and clues him in that it was he who gave him the Arthur Book. Touma asks who the hell Yuri really is.
Yuri explains that he too was a swordsman who protected the world. The first swords were those of Light and Darkness. When unified, an immense power is unleashed. In order to keep the Sword of Light from falling into the wrong hands, he gave up his humanity in order to fuse with it. He feels it was a wonderful thing in order to fulfill his responsibility.
.jpg)
But the world is in danger once again. Yuri says the Megido aren’t the only threat they should worry about. That’s why Touma must have the resolve to use the power he has to save the world. And the resolve needed to wield Yuri.
Touma heads to his rooftop where Rintaro and Tetsuo are waiting for him. They ask Touma if he is seeking the great power and say that he was just misted by Daichi.
.jpg)
Touma says Daichi may have chosen the wrong path, but he believes what Daichi said to him. Rintaro warns that this could make them enemies one day. Touma asks Rintaro if he trusts him.
Before Rintaro can answer, Yuri pops in and says infighting amongst swordsmen is dumb. They should be focusing on their just responsibilities.
Just then, the Yeti Megido appears and Rintaro springs into action. Touma henshins as well to stop Rintaro from hurting Yuki-san. He tries to explain that the Megido is a human, but Rintaro refuses to believe such a preposterous idea.
Yuki tells Touma that he needs to finish off the Megido now. Touma refuses and Rintaro thinks he’s now aligned with the Megido. Rintaro goes crazy and takes on the Megido. Touma tries to get him to stop.
Meanwhile, Tetsuo decides to spar with Yuri.
The Megido shoots his ice at Rintaro and Touma shields him, getting both of them frozen. Yuri melts them and the other peoples out of the ice, wowing Tetsuo.
Rintaro proceeds to send a finisher at the Megido, but Touma again steps in front and absorbs the attack himself.
.jpg)
Touma’s arm is ripped open. The Megido stumbles away and Yuri whisks the injured Touma away.
Mei bandages Touma up while Yuri plays with the shop’s gashapon. Touma insists that he must save Yuki-san and Yuri says he has to strike her down then.
Mei tells them about what Yuki-san taught her when she first became an editor. Books should create worlds that bring happiness to people who read them. Their job is to make sure people can enjoy those books. Thanks to Yuki-san, Mei understood the importance of her job. And thus she also understands the importance of the swordsmen’s job as well. But she still wants to save Yuki-san. Touma promises he can.
Touma says there are people all over the world working to make the world what it is today. And protecting the world is the same as protecting the people of the world.
.jpg)
Yuri appears to understand that 2021 is different from the year 1021 and he asks Touma to show him just what he means.
When Yuri plays with a toaster, Touma gets an idea on how to save Yuki-san.
The three of them head to the warehouse where Yuki-san is suffering in the cold just before she turns into a Megido one last time. Legeiel comes in, laughing that the Book is almost ready. That means they are running out of time to save Yuki-san before she dies.
Touma and Yuri henshin. Yuri takes on Legeiel so Touma can focus on saving Yuki-san.
Legeiel says one more attack by the Megido and the Book will be complete. Touma absorbs the attack and is frozen in ice. Just then, a Book pops out of the Megido’s body.
Touma says this is his chance. He breaks out of the ice and slices at the Book, releasing Yuki-san. Mei hurries over and helps Yuki-san to safety.
.jpg)
Yuri understands what Touma did. Touma explains that he covered himself in a flaming tornado before being frozen so he could break out. Yuri flies over to Touma and says he admires his resolve. He declares Touma is worthy of wielding him.
Touma uphenshins to Dragonic Knight and together with Yuri as a sword, finish off the Megido for good.
Outside, Touma says he will no longer doubt himself. He will do what he can to convince the traitors of his resolve. He will save the world. And then he will find Luna.
Yuri says he will fight alongside Touma, but they must weed out the real traitors within the SoL. Also, the way Touma separated Yuki-san from the Megido was too dangerous. Using Yuri on the Megido would’ve resulted in the same thing.
.jpg)
Touma cannot believe Yuri didn’t say so from the beginning.
Over in the South Pole, Reika continues brainwashing Rintaro.
.jpg)
Episode Thoughts
A pretty solid episode. The focus was primarily how to resolve the conflict between Touma and Yuri which I think they did alright with. The Southern Traitors were again limited to pretty irrelevant scenes. And Mei was being awesome again. So, all in all, a pretty good episode.
First of all, with the traitors, my goodness. Can they be any more annoying? Lol I don’t know if the show is intentionally making them so disagreeable so as to help prop up Touma which they hadn’t really developed too well so far. Whatever it is, it’s definitely working! Ren especially is so grating. We get it, you miss your beloved Kento. He’ll be back in a couple of weeks, don’t worry. lol
It’s so fascinating that even with limited screentime, they can feel so annoying and dry away from the North Pole. Weird! Even dependable Rintaro and Tetsuo came off so closed-minded when they went to talk to Touma. They wanted to speak with him, but then didn’t even try to listen to what Touma had to say. Good job guys. And then Reika seducing Rintaro into more bad behavior at the end. Whatever. Mei will deal you later Rintaro lol
But like I said, it’s certainly helping Touma as a character though. The focus can now be solely on him instead of the 121 other characters on the season. And he’s done pretty well these last two episodes.
Other than namedropping Luna at the end, which was whatever, we’ve gotten to see Touma being much more resolute and much more about his principles that have otherwise been overshadowed by the clusterfrak of a narrative so far.
The MVP of the episode though was definitely Mei. I mean, her speech at the shop that essentially got Yuri to wake up a little bit was key. As funny as Mei can be many times, I really love when she’s calmer and serious. And when it’s in good scenes like this, it helps carry the episode.
Yuri’s expository explanation of how he’s a sword was alright as well. I don’t know if I really care to know more about the situation that forced him to fuse with the sword. But knowing the basic reason why is alright and helps make him less random. Lol
Also the fact that Yuri could’ve ended Yuki’s suffering all along. Gee thanks a lot. lol
OH! And there was BLOOD!
Overall, a pretty good episode. Again, the focus mostly on Touma helped a lot.
Definitely love the new focus on Touma and Mei.
It definitely helps calm things down.
Yuri was such a troll in this episode. As for Mei, she really is stepping up to be among the best support characters with her humor and more serious moments.
Definitely agree! Mei has been so good
Happy New Year!
I normally don’t post anything outside Power Rangers related topic, but I want to address few things regard to this show, which I’ve been following from beginning; something I haven’t done for while.
(It’s a pretty awkward way to start the year huh?). We’re in little above 1/3 of the series, where total episode count might be around 47~49, depend on preemption due to pandemic or other unforeseen circumstances, so I think it’s about time I express my opinion of the show.
When the show was first announced along with the production team, I was optimistic, due to the fact, writer is Takuro Fukuda, who previously wrote Kamen Rider Ghost, which was somewhat polarizing and panned by fans and audience (I thought it was meh), and a fantasy motif involves book, which felt very Sentai-esque, similar to Zyuranger and Gaoranger.
As the show began, it felt bit refreshing and promising, due to fantasy setting and book motif, but execution felt flat. Despite potential, the world setting is bit of mess and convoluted, even for tokusatasu standard.
The characters, Riders, are very weak in terms of character development. Main character, Touma/Saber is very bland and dull, where there’s not much personality and not interesting.
As for other, while they has interesting debut, there’s really not interesting.
The characters I like so far are RIntaro/Blades (my favorite), Daishinji/Slash, and recently joined Yuri/Saikou (…since he’s the SWORD!). The rest is… barely worth mentioning.
I really didn’t care when Kento/Espada “dies”, even though he might comeback… or something.
I’m quite surprised and shock you like Mei, despite how much you didn’t like comedic relief, especially for Power Rangers in recent year. She’s definitely the WORST part of the show, where she’s been very annoying and useless, who pretty much serve no purpose other than the fact show needs female/token girl, and she has “key” that was given by Sophia (remember her?). I don’t mind comedic relief, if it was done right and appropriately, but the tone of the show just doesn’t feel appropriate for character like this. Not only she’s the WORST female supporting character of franchise, but she’s probably the WORST supporting character of tokusatsu in general.
I take Ben and Betty over her; I even go far as to say Vick and Monty of Ninja Steel are better, funnier, and useful character than her. I feel bad for the actor who plays Mei, where she would have worked better in other show… with better writing.
As for villains, they are very forgettable; I can’t even remember half of the name of the members.
Calibur was decent, but killed off recently, leaving main boss a mystery.
Much like the poor world setting, even Megid as villain felt flat, where there motivation are not very clear. The only villain that I think is interesting, aside Calibur, is maybe Zooous, who at least has more personality and actor are having fun with it.
Bottom line, while the show has become interesting when Yuri/Saikou shows up, the show feels like it’s still struggling to find its footing of what its wants to do and it also feels the show is trying to get itself over with, where they just shoving more stuff and move on with it, without any payoff.
It lacks a direction and just have so much wasted potential, which is a shame, since you would think after Ghost, Fukuda would have learned lesson or two.
Despite my issues, there are few things I like. I kind of like action, which was done fairly well. Some of the effects are kind of decent, where it work well for fantasy setting. I also like some of the mystery elements, such as Tassel, the 4th wall-breaking storyteller, who I have a feeling might play bigger role… hopefully.
I don’t like this show so much. I don’t hate it. It’s just there.
The overall reception of the show from social media has been pretty lackluster~lukewarm and even toys aren’t selling well from what I gather.
The show is essentially a filler for upcoming potential 50th anniversary show, where I have a feeling Toei is going to do something epic.
Kind of remind me your feeling of Power Rangers in recent year, where you had same feeling with Beast Morphers (which I rather watch). Sadly, I’m looking forward to see new episode of Power Rangers (with upcoming Dino Fury) than Saber as of this writing, which is just depressing.
Granted, I’m not a big Kamen Rider fan and haven’t seen many series, but that makes my criticism even more, since even as standalone tokusatsu show, it felt really flat.
This is probably going to be a first and probably last time I comment for Kamen Rider, but I might do it more depending on how I feel about it and how story is going to progress.
Awkward place to start a year eh? lol
I am the opposite about the pre-show. When I found out it was written by the writer of Ghost, I was already worried. Ghost was horrible. But Saber is doing its best to be worse.
I absolutely agree that the characters are poorly developed. Both the heroes and the villains. But I have to absolutely disagree about Mei. I believe she is the best part of the season, to be very honest. The tone of the show a mess. And her comedic scenes are balanced with dramatic and emotional scenes. Really, the only effective emotional scenes we have had so far this season have involved Mei or Mei being the reason for those scenes at all.
And to be even more honest, I hope there are no Ben, Betty, Victor or Montys on Dino Fury or any Power Rangers seasons in the future. They are horrible, irrelevant characters who offer nothing to the show. Sorry. I’m glad at least Sentai doesn’t have similar nonsense characters.