Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 38 – Uniting the Seiken, the Galaxy Sword.
Thanks to Touma saving Kento, cities around the world are beginning to disappear into the Sky Books. Touma insists they can still change the future and the others believe defeating Master Isaac is the key. They also understand Touma is more concerned about Kento and they tell him that they’ll hold down the fort while he takes care of that situation.
Touma finds Kento on a rooftop staring at the Tokyo Sky Book as the others meet Master Isaac downtown. Master Isaac and the others henshin and battle.
Kento says he’s spent all this time fighting to protect Touma, so why would he make such a decision as to set the world on a path to destruction. Touma says he wants to save both Kento and the world. And the only way is for Kento to trust in them. The others especially are fighting their asses off to save the world. Kento reminds Touma that he’ll disappear if the world is saved. But Touma promises he will live.
Touma plants the Espada espada in the ground for Kento and leaves. Just then, the Tinkerbell-like apparition comes fluttering in once again.
Ren pops in to join the battle, pretending he’s just here to show off his immeasurable strength. Desast wants to partake in the fun, but Storious appears and tells him to stay put.
The Shindai Sibs also join the fun. But Bacht/Bahato swoops in and screams at everyone to butt out and embrace the apocalypse.
Touma arrives and also screams. He and Bacht/Bahato scream at each other about humanity being conflict-hungry beings and the fact that Touma crossing swords with his best friend is basically proof of that.
That friend Kento finds himself in a bright forest where he comes face to face with Tinkerbell, rather, his father for the first time since his death. Papa Fukamiya says he’s been watching over his son ever since the Wonderworld Guardian saved him and now is his first chance to speak with him.
Papa Fukamiya apologizes for leaving Kento alone. But Kento says an apology is not enough for everything he’s gone through. Papa Fukamiya hugs his son and expresses his sincerity. He brushes Kento’s hair behind his ear like old times and laughs at how tall he’s gotten.
Kento says he doesn’t know what he can do, but his father says he can start by being himself for once. Kento should do what’s in his heart at the moment. “I believe in you,” Papa Fukamiya says.
The father tells Kento to follow the path he thinks is right and that is to join his friends. Kento thanks his father for the guidance. He grabs his trusty Seiken and runs off.
As Kento leaves, Papa Fukamiya says he will pray for his happiness and future.
Back downtown, Bacht/Bahato says he learned the hard way not to put your faith in goodwill and bonds with others. Touma says Bacht/Bahato has no one to blame but himself for giving in to despair.
Bacht/Bahato shushes Touma and says his words aren’t going to erase his thousand years of pain. Both of them henshin and battle as the others watch. Touma can feel the weight of Bacht/Bahato’s sword.
Master Isaac forces the others to dehenshin with just one slash of his sword. The Tokyo Sky Book begins sucking up the rest of the city as Bacht/Bahato also forces Touma to dehenshin.
Touma says Bacht/Bahato is strong so why couldn’t he change after all this time. Bacht/Bahato says humans can never understand the despair he has felt. But Touma says humans do indeed feel all sorts of despair, yet they are able to have the strength to pick themselves back up.
The others agree and all pick themselves up to prove the point.
They all believe in the power of the peoples to build a better future for the world of tomorrow.
Just then, Kento comes walking in to declare that he believes in Touma and himself and their ability to control that future
Touma screams at Bacht/Bahato and repeats that he chose to spend a thousand years wallowing in despair. It’s all his own damn fault. And now, Touma vows he will create a future Bacht/Bahato never even imagined.
Touma screams some more as he charges toward Bacht/Bahato, slashing at his chest and forcing him to dehenshin. Bacht/Bahato marvels at the power of people’s feelings.
Bacht/Bahato stares at Yuuri and Mei and laughs his ass off as his body is split open before he disappears, saying he looks forward to seeing the future Touma speaks of.
Master Isaac laughs at the mildly entertaining show. But the Tokyo metro area is still getting sucked into the Sky Book and at a much quicker pace. The sky turns black as whole buildings disappear into flames.
Master Isaac fashions a skyscraper-sized version of his sword and attempts to bring it down on the Riders. But Touma is able to parry the attack, saying Master Isaac’s sword is lightweight. Touma can’t feel any hopes and dreams in it.
Touma says a true swordsman powers their blade with their hopes and dreams as they fight and Master Isaac has none of that.
Papa Fukamiya flies in and Kento hands him the dark sword.
The All-Star Riders have assembled. They point their swords in the sky, revealing a grand seal of swords that foretell the birth of a brand-new toy.
Mei’s Book lights up and a pop-up appears when she opens it. At the same time, the new sword comes flying down from space and into Touma’s hand.
Touma uses the new Haouken Xross Saber to henshin to Xross Saber. With the power of ten random Seiken, Touma sends swords to liberate the Sky Booked cities around the world.
Touma himself then focuses his efforts on saving Tokyo. Master Isaac is excited about the power of the All-Knowing being encapsulated in this sword which he looks forward to possessing soon. Touma easily takes care of Master Isaac’s robos that appear for all of five seconds.
Touma dehenshins and the others congratulate him on saving the world. He says it’s all thanks to their hopes and dreams.
Ren can’t believe Touma again got a new power-up. The Shindai Sibs leave to chase after Master Isaac. Kento tells his father that Touma has managed to change the future.
A gloved hand grabs Bacht/Bahato’s sword.
Episode Thoughts
I don’t get it! I really don’t. I wish I could be more hyped about a Final Form. But this season just really does its best to make you not care about anything that goes on.
So Touma’s final form involves bringing together the sword powers of his friends plus an evil, dark sword that corrupts anyone who wields it and the two swords of siblings who were ready to kill the rest of them just a few episodes ago.
Okay sure. But why stop at 10? Why not then throw Bacht/Bahato’s sword into the mix. Make at a cool 11 swords. He gets over his depression and sees the light and that’s the catalyst for Touma getting his new toy.
(Also, thanks for killing the idea of Mei being Espada 2. Hmph)
Bacht/Bahato’s screaming and anger is actually very funny to me. It comes across as something that’s like a spoof of something dramatic instead of actually being dramatic and emotional. And it all has to do with the fact that his character has been given such a poorly developed story. It really feels so forced and it’s kind of a shame considering the character itself could’ve had some great potential. Especially with Masashi Taniguchi in the role.
I also feel like the sentiment that someone chooses to wallow in despair is a little off. It’s almost like saying it’s your choice to feel down and depressed when obviously that’s not the case. I can sort of understand what they were trying to do. But at the same time, it almost came across as them invalidating someone’s feelings. Which, you wouldn’t necessarily do in real life to someone who might be feeling a certain way.
“It’s your fault you’re depressed!”
Yeah, that doesn’t sound right at all. In that moment, I almost started feeling sorry for Bacht/Bahato. Again, him feeling betrayed and hurt that his family was murdered is not a bad backstory. It wasn’t developed or presented with any kind of depth or care, but the premise is okay. So as amusing as I found Bacht/Bahato’s screaming at them to be, Touma repeatedly blaming Bacht/Bahato for his own misery (stemming from watching his family get murdered) made me empathize with him much more.
Touma felt the heavy burden in Bacht/Bahato’s sword. So instead of helping him to ease that pain, he kills him instead. Umm, okay.
In that sense, this episode basically made the case for having Bacht/Bahato’s story be Master Isaac’s backstory instead. A few tweaks here and there and it would’ve made much more sense all around. But oh well.
I can’t get over this shot though:
If one frame represents this season, it’s this. Why are there so many people?! And this isn’t even all the characters. Throw in Sophia plus the Megido3, Desast, Bacht/Bahato and don’t forget Tassel or Sora or Daichi. Oh and that little girl that pops in and out when she feels like it.
But this shot honestly has more people than right before the climactic all-henshin in a Rider Movie War or crossover. But this is just the main characters from ONE season! It’s that crazy! And not in a good way!
Three months left. Just three more months. Just, let’s get through it together. I believe in the future of our hopes and dreams. If Kento can bring himself to believe in Touma, I can bring myself to believe I can power through these next few months of Saber.
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6 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Chapter 38: Uniting the Seiken, the Galaxy Sword.”
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I think part of the reason this season fails to make people care is its too big. The plot has too many elements to cover, there are two many people acting with all the elements, the elements and people all stay in their own lane and then because you now have like 4 seasons of stuff crammed into one season, you have to rush through everything and everyone.
Like I could see an argument for folding Storious, Isaac and Bacht into one character. As well as folding Ren, Sound Sword Guy, and Earth Sword Guy into Kento. Like everything is so exploded as separate from each other.
That’s a very good point and idea. There’s really no reason to have so many characters. At the same time, I look at other seasons that have a lot of characters. Both protagonists and antagonists and they can have better cohesion than Saber has. It’s so strange. And disappointing.
The problem isn’t just the size of the cast. Its how stubborn everyone is about staying in their own lane, and how many lanes there are. So folding characters whose lanes haven’t really crossed into one character gets them more involved, and potentially reduces the number of ongoing stories. I for one could do without Ren swooning over Kento for 10 or so episodes with nothing to show for it.
They’ve completely ruined any potential good story with Ren and Kento now by having dragged everything longer than they should have. Now there’s zero incentive to pursue anything with Ren with regards to his relationship with Kento. Which previously, would’ve been one of the more climactic confrontations had they attempted it. And there would have been actual depth and foundation to such a face-off.
This episode was what was supposed to be, and what was designed to be, the biggest and epic moments of the show; (almost) all the principle characters/Rider joined together for and marked the introduction to final (or penultimate form) for Saber.
The big problems with this episode is that, there was not much drama and excitement, to this event, due to sloppy writing and lack of lead-up to the story; it didn’t felt rewarding.
It represents everything wrong with the show in nutshell.
Nice to see Kento reuniting with father at forest somewhere, where he got motivational speech, so he get to join the other; the problem is that, just like the issues I mentioned previously, it felt slapped on and came out on nowhere without drama. It’s supposed to se emotional and dramatic moment, but it utterly wasted.
As for Bahato, I wasn’t too surprised that he bit the dusts (literally), given that he’s been evil and there’s no way he wouldn’t have redeem himself regardless. Much like almost everything else in the show, he’s another wasted potential; then again, it’s extremely rare to see movie exclusive Rider playing significant roles in a series, and he did lasted more than I though I expected, so there’s that.
So long Taniguchi. Hope you deserve better show next time.
I’m kind of surprised we didn’t get to see 10 Riders Henshin together this time; I guess they are saving til the end. Though given how this show has been going, I don’t have high hopes for that.
While I was disappointed with lead up to Saber’s power-up, I like Xross Saber design, where it’s very simplistic and not bulky, similar to Zero-One’s Realizing Hopper or Zero-Two. I like that he has glitter design, which would have paired nice with Kiramager.
Even though Bahato is dead, someone (most likely Desasto based on hand) took his sword, so Falchion is making another comeback, which is probably the ONLY saving grace for rest of the series… I hope.
Overall, this episode just sums up everything wrong with Saber as the show.
What it was supposed to be an epic event felt wasted due to lack of build-up and drama.
I’m going to bet Toei is intentionally making this a lazy excuse so that they would move on with upcoming series, which marks 50th anniversary series; that’s my headcanon and I’m going to stick with it. lol XD
Absolutely agree. Kento and his father should be an episode on its own. But it was just like a throwaway scene.
It would be nice if they are building up a better season coming up. Something to help us forget this season. lol