While Tassel inexplicably shrinks himself, Touma, Mei and an uninterested Yuuri try to chase Shingo/the Megido around town. But he is always one step ahead of them. Touma and Mei try to figure out why the Megido would be building walls around the city.
Touma suggests they split up and that Mei accompany Yuuri who seems to be amazed by all the modern conveniences of 2021.
At the South Pole, Tetsuo fills the other defector traitors about humans being turned into Megidos. Rintaro begins to realize that Touma might not have been lying after all. Reika tries to brainwash them some more.
Meanwhile, the Megido3 are laughing about the brewing SoL civil war. Storious wonders if there is anyone in the SoL who might share their goals in acquiring power.
Ren goes up to the roof thinking about his dearly beloved Kento-kun. He remembers Kento-kun trying to get Ren to trust in Touma. And that memory only angers Ren even more.
Reika approaches Ren and continues her gaslighting. But Ren is already absolutely infuriated.
Downtown, Mei tries to have Yuuri keep up with her as they search for Shingo. She finds Yuuri entranced by an escalator and tries to explain to him how to get back down.
Meanwhile, Touma runs into Shingo who begs him for help. But Shingo forcibly transforms into the Megido again and proceeds to resume building his car wall. Touma henshins and is pained by hearing Shingo call out for him.
Legeiel appears to join in the fun and he and the Megido tag team against Touma for a second. That’s when an angry Ren appears so he can also exact his revenge on Touma. He henshins and charges toward them.
Ren demands Touma return his beloved Kento-kun’s sword, saying Touma is not worthy of wielding it. Touma tries to fend off his multiple attackers.
Mei drags Yuuri over. Seeing Yuuri completely spaced out, Mei decides to slap on his Driver and lock in his Book herself so he can henshin.
Ousama Megido sends a huge attack toward the battling Touma and Ren. Mei gets caught up in the explosion and gets blown away.
Touma uphenshins to Dragonic Knight and tries to get Ren to calm down and focus on saving Shingo. But Ren doesn’t care about that. Touma reminds Ren that he promised Kento to save the world. Ren says he will take the Sword of Light himself because Touma has no right to have his beloved Kento-kun’s name come out of his dirty mouth.
Ren continues screaming. And that’s when Desast appears to make things ever more insane as he wants to take on Ren. Legeiel tells Desast to butt out, but Desast says he is free to do what he wants now.
Desast and Ren target Legeiel and Touma, respectively. Desast chuckles and says Ren might just be one of them with the way he’s acting right now. Ren says that’s bullshit and he turns his attention to Desast.
Desast disappears and Ren turns to find everyone else has gone as well.
Touma runs off to look for Shingo again. But he instead finds Rintaro who happily runs up to him, saying he believes that homo sapiens are being turned into Megido. With a big smile on his face, Rintaro offers to help and work together to save homo sapiens.
But Rintaro’s mood quickly changes when Touma brings up the traitor hidden in the SoL. An annoyed Rintaro tells him that he is wrong.
Reika appears and accuses Touma of being power-hungry. Touma tries to confront her, but Rintaro protects her, saying she is Master Logos’ representative. Touma has no idea who the hell he his.
Rintaro says Master Logos is the figure that governs the SoL.
Reika says they cannot let Touma wield the power himself. But Yuuri says Touma is destined. He asks what the southerners are really after. Reika answers that they want world peace and declares that Yuuri will join them soon as well.
Reika leaves and Rintaro follows her like he’s her pet.
Mei calls Rintaro back to the shop. She is completely wrecked from getting blown up earlier. But she has figured it all out. She mapped out the location of the Megido’s walls and realizes that Shingo-kun is making a life-sized version of his diorama. That means the last piece he will be building will be a castle right in the middle.
Touma hurries out and Yuuri slowly follows.
Ousama Megido begins building his castle. Touma and Yuuri arrive and henshin. But Storious arrives as well. Yuuri goes into his shadow form.
Storious sends a huge explosion Touma’s way, forcing him to dehenshin. Yuuri steps in and says he will take care of this. But Touma says it’s alright and tells Yuuri to focus on saving Shingo-kun.
Yuuri says Touma is just looking for pain. But Touma says by experiencing this pain, he knows how it feels when someone else is suffering as well. And that gives him the resolve to keep fighting to protect them.
Touma again henshins and this time uses Tetsuo’s swordplay against Storious. That manages to send Storious back and it impresses Yuuri, actually motivating him to free Shingo.
Touma is able to finish off Ousama Megido, even as he is suffering intense pain. Storious disappears and proclaims that they will soon obtain Touma’s power.
Yuuri heals Shingo and they all head back to the shop.
Touma and Mei are completely wrecked. Bandaged up and casts on. Despite that, Touma asks Mei to retrieve some books from the North Pole for him. In return, he will quickly write the manuscripts for next month’s deadline.
Mei is surprised. But Touma says Rintaro and the others are coming around to the right side and he must do all he can to prepare. He believes the old stories will help them find Luna and figure out what the true enemy in the SoL will do.
Yuuri, meanwhile, says he will prepare as well by reclaiming his old swordsmanship. He gets inspiration from a comic book and decides to heal both Mei and Touma of their injuries.
Down in the South Pole, Tetsuo and Ogami-san whisper about what they know so far. Including about Sophia’s true captors.
Sophia is in a dark room when someone approaches her and caresses her shoulder.
Episode Thoughts
Well this might have been the silliest, most random episode of the season so far. And I enjoyed it. I guess. It was quite fun. Though I suppose it’s because I didn’t need to try and figure out what the hell was going on with 81 different characters and 42 different subplots in one episode. So just sitting back and hopping along for the 30-minute ride and not getting confused, frustrated or upset is a positive thing when watching this season.
To get the serious stuff first. Of the four traitorous defectors, Ren was always the most annoying of course. Fueled by his love for his dear Kento-kun, you can kinda sorta understand him. But also not at the same time. The four of them are all irrational in their blind loyalty to South SoL. (Though we’re seeing Tetsuo and Ogami-san waking up, finally.) But Ren was the most irrational. And as we saw this episode, to the point that he’d rather battle Touma than save a homo sapiens.
Tetsuo was similar last week. Like, you can wait and do your investigating until after Touma’s saved the victim of the week, yeah? But Ren, coupled with his immature attitude, was on another annoying level. So it’s hard to really empathize with him. Even if the immense pain from losing his beloved Kento-kun, on paper, is a valid reason to feel that way.
Rintaro though. I honestly thought that was a fake Rintaro that popped up in front of Touma. Like, what in the world was that? He was all happy and smiley, ready to work with Touma again. I thought it was some shapeshifting Megido or something. But nope.
I mentioned last week how I would like to see the climactic reunion for Touma and the traitors be focused on Touma and Rintaro. There’s a foundation in that relationship that would make such a face-off-turned-reconciliation feel very much earned. Even emotional in a season that hasn’t really connected well in that way.
So seeing him cheerily skip toward Touma like that after weeks of fleeting scenes of his inner struggle was pretty bad. And even more when he again chooses to get yanked along by Reika. At this point, this goes completely against the Rintaro they established for the first 15 episodes of the season. And that’s sad considering Rintaro had been one of the season’s few well-written characters.
Interesting that they decided to insert an after-credits scene like there were some shocking developments. Tetsuo and Ogami-san continue to slowly wake up. That’s fine. Sophia looking like she was about to get assaulted by a sexual predator? Uh… okay.
Meanwhile, Saber has a knack for name dropping random things that are apparently supposed to pass for plot development. Touma had to bring up Luna again at the end. But who the hell is Master Logos? When was that a thing?
Anyway, the most enjoyable parts of this episode were the more comically random things. Such as everything Mei did during the episode.
Or is it just really: I enjoy pretty much every single scene Mei is in, every episode, no matter what? lol
But I also liked Touma’s scene at the end where he talks about experiencing pain so he knows what others might feel like as well. That resolve is something the show hasn’t done too well in establishing for Touma. So it is very much appreciated here.
The show is apparently going with a fish out of water story for Yuuri. And that’s fine, though they certainly could’ve eased into that better rather than make him look like a kleptomaniac last episode. Like here in this episode, that short scene of him and Mei at the escalator was funny.
But an amusing character moment for a character whose trolling in previous episodes put a person’s life at risk. I’d prefer more escalator scenes or running bikes into cats rather than having to watch him again just be nonchalant while Touma gets ripped to shreds and a Megido’d human is screaming in pain.
The scene of Mei slapping the Driver onto him was amusing. And then I realized if she didn’t, he’d probably just stand there again doing nothing. That’s definitely not funny.
So I’ll take Mei getting blasted away and her and Touma wrapped up in bandages over pretty much everything else the show is doing at the moment.
Heck, I even forgot about the Megido3 again. The show is seriously wasting those three guys, both the actors and characters.
Hmm… I remember I started off saying I enjoyed this episode because I didn’t feel confused, frustrated or upset. And yet I just listed several things about the episode that made me feel confused, frustrated and upset. *sigh* Oh Saber. lol
I almost forgot that four-way battle between Touma, Ren, Desast and Legeiel. If any battle can accurately depict the clusterfrak the season can be at times, it was this one. Lol
Though now that I think of it, I kind of like the idea of Ren going to the dark side with Desast. It would at least put his yelling and negative attitude to good use. But I’d still rather they give the Megido3 more to do.
Overall, it was a reasonably fun episode. Only at times, I guess. Plenty of things to nitpick about, which is par for the course this season. But ultimately inoffensive. And for Saber, that’s good.
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4 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Chapter 20: Destroy the Stronghold, by Will of the Sword.”
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I completely agree with your opinions on this episode as usual. I have my own comments/ways the show can improve itself down the line:
1. I really find it strange that Desast just appears in and out of episodes with no real impact. Like with the Megido3, he has potential that has been mostly squandered. The rogue villain who only cares for fighting worked wonders in Shinkenger, another Toku show about swordsmen.
2. Yuri’s general absent-mindedness during inappropriate times, I feel, should have actively been explained by the thousand years in Avalon doing a number on his mind.
3. Tassel, while clearly quite insigificant at the moment, seems to be building up to being a DJ Sagara-like character with casual knowledge of secrets involving the swords and knowing Yuri. It may be interesting if he turns out to be the one who created the world in this series or even just the Megido3.
4. This idea stems mostly from frusturation with the traitors. I’m sure you’ve seen the scans of Touma’s new form, Primitive Dragon, which appears to be another berserk form like in OOO, Build, and Zero-One. Something unique they could do this time is not have the form make him totally mindless, instead just causing him to be more angry and unhinged in battle, therefore making him attack both sides. It would be nice to see him call out the traitors for turning on him so easily. Sort of like Blue Buster when he’s overheated.
Desast is definitely a good base of a character. But they have really of substance for him to do.
They want to do a fish out of water story for Yuri, but have merely played off his weirdness as some kind of quirk instead.
And I haven’t seen any scans of upcoming forms. But I like your idea. I definitely want to see Touma more fired up. And if it means the traitors get their butts kicked by him, then that would be awesome! lol
LOL! hat sword fight with Touma was definitely an accurate representation of the show so far.
I mean I like the show but it’s a MESS.
Right? it was crazy! lol