Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 34 – Wake Up, Immortal Swordsman.
Touma tells everyone back at the North Pole about “finding” Luna, but not about Sophia being a temporary copy. A fully recovered Ogami-san walks in with Sora. Mei gives Sora his pin and they all happily show off their own.
Meanwhile, Kento is alone on a rooftop thinking about the next events he saw in the future involving Luna and notLunaSophia. Despite some things having changed from what he saw, he is absolutely sure nothing else will change moving forward.
Down south, Master Logos asks the Shindai Sibs to keep an eye on Touma. After they leave, Master Logos opens up the Book and out pops a mysterious man who has a grudge against the swordsmen. The man initially demands the Book of Ruin so he can destroy the world, but is amused by Master Logos being different from all the Masters Logoses they’ve had before.
Back at the shop, Touma asks Yuuri to fight him so as to try and replicate the situation earlier when the Wonder Story Book glowed and Luna popped out. Mei accompanies them to their duel spot where they henshin and battle.
Nothing happens with the Book, however. But the mysterious man pops in and it turns out they know exactly who he is since he appeared in the movie. Bacht is the Immortal Swordsman who tried to destroy the world.
Bacht henshins to Kamen Rider Falchion and battles Touma and Yuuri. Reika watches Master Logos’ “hunting dog” from behind a tree.
Bacht is able to nullify their attacks. But when Touma brings up Luna, the Wonder Story Book glows and Bacht pulls back, acknowledging Touma is a “chosen one.”
After Bacht leaves, a schism appears in the sky and Luna reaches her hand out. But Touma barely even tries to stretch toward her so of course she gets sucked back into the abyss. Reika, who had prepared to jump in to grab the girl herself, leaves.
Back at the North Pole, Yuuri says Touma not being able to reach Luna means “it’s not time” for her in the story yet. He adds that Bacht retreated until Touma gains more power.
Yuuri explains that he and Bacht used to be part of the same circle of knights who swore to protect the world. That is, until the third guy in their trio murdered Bacht’s family. After Bacht killed the guy, he changed into a humanity-hating apocalypse-hungry psycho. So Yuuri sealed him away in order to stop him from destroying the world.
Yuuri tells Touma to save his friends and Touma promises to do just that with Luna and Kento. And then together, they can all save the world as friends.
Meanwhile under the bridge, Rintaro, Tetsuo and Ogami-san split up while searching for Ren. Rintaro encounters brother Ryoga and they battle. But Bacht appears, hungry for blood. He first takes on Ryoga and drives him away before turning his attention to Rintaro, forcing him to dehenshin after being badly injured.
Sophia senses the conflict and Touma, Yuuri and Mei hurry over just before Bacht kills Rintaro for good.
Touma tries to show compassion toward Bacht, but Bacht just laughs and says Touma will get consumed by a great power one day. Touma denies that will ever happen and instead will save the world. Kento walks in to say that Touma cannot save the world because he will seal all the Seiken himself.
Yuuri asks Kento why he won’t believe in friend Touma. But before Kento can answer, Bacht screams at Yuuri that being friends doesn’t stop humans from betraying each other. Yuuri admits he thought the same thing. That’s why he became the Sword of Light and sealed its powers in Avalon. But since meeting Touma, Yuuri wants to put his faith in Touma and humanity.
Reika listens from outside the Toei warehouse. An annoyed Kento henshins as does everyone else and it’s a free for all.
Mei runs over to an unconscious Rintaro, trying to get him to wake up.
Yuuri proposes he and Kento work together to seal Bacht away. But Kento says the only thing he’s sealing is their Seikens.
Kento and Bacht both send finishers at Touma and Yuuri. But Yuuri knocks Touma out of the way and absorbs both attacks.
Before he disintegrates into glowing particles, Yuuri says having friends was pretty nice.
Touma screams out to Yuuri who Bacht laughs is still a moron after all these years.
Bacht fires back at Touma, but Kento shields him from the attack.
As Rintaro wakes up, Reika sends her fog to swipe Yuuri’s Book and sword. She is excited to finally get the chance for her brother’s approval.
Mei helps Rintaro follow the battle between Bacht and Touma/Kento to the bridge. Touma’s resolve again makes the Wonder Story Book glow. Mei opens it up and that makes Bacht again pull back. He laughs that Luna is showing herself again and he leaves.
Touma and Kento dehenshin. Touma smiles at Kento who maintains his dour face. But their faces turn to shock when they see Luna smiling right in front of them.
Episode Thoughts
I have never felt such whiplash watching a season of toku as I do with Saber. I’ve remained hopeful for the season even when the show frequently does its best to try and ruin that feeling. But as nice as some of the late 20s/early 30s episodes were, these last two weeks have gone back to being the Saber I don’t really care for.
When Saber is good, it’s… tolerable. I’ll take it. But when Saber is bad, it’s really bad. It really does make Ghost (my least favorite Kamen Rider season) seem well put-together. And coupled with the Ghost arc being one of the best tributes during Zi-O, my feelings toward that season have become much more positive in the years since that absolute trash Specter movie.
So this upcoming Saber–Ghost miniseries will likely only worsen the comparison between the two for me. Ghost continuing to rehabilitate its image and Saber continuing to do its best to drag itself down.
Like I’ve annoyingly harped on about all season, I really could care less about Luna or her childhood friendship with Touma and Kento. The Sophia revelation only made things worse, I think. If only because it just adds something completely unnecessary to an already poorly-developed story. It’s like they had both Luna and Sophia as these hollow characters on their own and then decided to smash them together.
Luna popping out after that first battle with Bacht was hilarious because it was very obvious Touma wasn’t even really reaching out for her. I’m already so apathetic to this plot, scenes like that definitely aren’t going to help get me excited about it. lol
Of course, Saber wouldn’t be Saber without another new character! And of course he’s from the movie that most people haven’t watched yet.
Bacht’s backstory is a good idea. But I wish they had just given it to one of the other 75 characters this season. Maybe Daichi or even Master Logos.
Is this the first episode where none of the Megido3 have shown up for their five second weekly appearance? It’s definitely the first in a long time, at the very least. But honestly at this point, I don’t think there’s anything they can do with Storious to redeem the absolutely horrible treatment the Megido3 have gotten as characters this season.
Speaking of ruined characters. I don’t get what they’re doing with Reika. She had been a badass, cold-hearted b—ch. Then her brother pops up out of nowhere and she’s suddenly become this completely watered down, kind of pathetic approval-seeking younger sister character? WTF?
With Kento, I was really looking forward to seeing him mope around for a while. But damn have I really grown tired of him lately. Instead of actually showing him in conflict with Touma and the others, he’s only popped up every week to watch the episode himself and basically say “Yup, that’s exactly what I saw in the advanced screening spoilers.” Needless to say, that’s not very exciting.
The only things I liked about this episode was Sora getting his pin from Mei. And of course, all those fleeting Rintaro-Mei scenes toward the end. Because the one constant this season has been Rintaro and Mei. And my hopeless romantic self will cling on to whatever scraps they throw at us with respect to Rintaro and Mei’s “relationship.” lol
Overall, this was a Luna-centered and new-character-centered episode. At Episode 34. So for me, that’s definitely not a good recipe for an episode.
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2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Chapter 34: Wake Up, Immortal Swordsman.”
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I think you’ve touched on the key points as to why this season has been so lackluster. Lots of characters with insufficient personality and substance to back them up unlike with Gaim’s cast, unnecessary plot twists like with Sophia and Bacht’s sudden return, and the major underutilization of the Megido3. They had a legitimately interesting story thread to go on when their human origins were revealed. I was excited to see where they would go with the plot detail of Legeiel being unable to remember his human past until Touma reminded him. But nothing has been done with that since episode 27, nor with the implied friendship the Megido3 had with Tassel prior to their corruption. They’ve been as one note as ever. Because of that, despite his rivalry with Rintaro being one of the few well-developed storylines, I believe that Zooous was killed off too hastily, only five episodes after Legeiel. I also agree with you that Bacht’s backstory would’ve been preferable for another character, particular Master Logos. His family being killed as a result of humanity’s corruption would have gone a long way in explaining his desire to make a new and improved world from his perspective. As captivating and entertaining as Keisuke Soma’s performance has been, it doesn’t change the fact that his character is one note as well. As for the whole Luna storyline, it definitely would have been better if it was an essential and compelling part of the overall plot, rather than being sporadically mentioned every five or so episodes, which I think dragging out Touma’s amnesia beyond the first arc could have gone a long way in helping. FYI: I’m pretty sure the main writer behind Ghost is the main writer for this season, which may help explain a few things.
You definitely fleshed out some points I’d like to make too. I agree with everything you said.. And yes, Ghost and Saber have the same writer. That’s why I was a little worried before the season premiered. But I think even Ghost is better overall compared to Saber so far at Episode 34.