Recap: Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 40 – Shining Friendship, the Three Swordsmen.
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Luna, the bridge, is wandering aimlessly around Wonderworld while Tassel flies with his umbrella looking for her.
Meanwhile, Master Isaac is with Storious at the Megido Manse. Storious expresses his excitement over the power of Touma’s new blade. But Master Isaac, as his god, says he did not give Storious permission to speak.
The Shindai Sibs are at the Southern Base, vowing to return it to its former glory by defeating Master Isaac. But Master Isaac shows up and forcibly turns brother Shindai against his sister in an effort to gleefully watch them kill each other.
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Ryoga screams at Reika to run away.
Up north, Yuuri informs Touma and Kento that his dear friend has told him their dear friend Luna the bridge has popped up in Wonderworld. Touma and Kento celebrate the good news, but Yuuri cautions that they have no idea exactly where she is. And if Master Isaac finds out she’s on the loose, she’s in grave danger.
Everyone starts to rush out to find her, but Yuuri stops them and says they all can’t set foot in Wonderworld. He will go himself. Kento gives him the Dark Sword and asks him to take care of it as a memento of his father.
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Master Isaac breaks through to the Wonderworld with his big hand and slaps Tassel out of the sky. Sophia feels the disturbance from Master Isaac using the power of the All-Knowing Book. And Reika pops in to beg them to help her save her brother.
It’s all going crazy. Ryoga, who has lost all control of his body again begs Reika to leave. Ogami-san and Tetsuo arrive to help, but Ryoga asks them to just kill him now.
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Master Isaac has Luna the bridge within his grasp. He swats Touma, Kento and Rintaro aside. But Yuuri is in Wonderworld and secures Luna the bridge’s safety. When Yuuri comes out of Wonderworld though, Master Isaac takes control of Yuuri and the swords of light and dark.
Touma, Rintaro and Kento henshin and they battle.
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Master Isaac is forced to dehenshin. He tries to gain control of Touma’s body, but as he expected, it does not work. The same cannot be said for Rintaro and Kento who come under dark control. They attack Touma.
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Over in Wonderworld, Tassel floats down to Luna and says he will explain what she is. Luna is not just a bridge, but she is Wonderworld itself. And her chosen one Touma will gain the power of this wonderous world. When that happens, Touma will spend the rest of his life with her here.
Luna says that sucks because everyone likes Touma and will miss him. As much as she wants to be with Touma forever, she doesn’t want the others to be sad.
Tassel says that’s just the consequence of her choosing him. It’s his destiny.
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Master Isaac is loving getting to watch Touma about to be killed by his friends. He taunts Kento about his father. But Kento says he now understands why Papa Fukamiya did what he did. He was a proud swordsman to the end, wanting to protect everyone, even if it means sacrificing himself.
Kento and Rintaro say Master Isaac is pretty pathetic. Rintaro especially regrets worshipping Master Isaac like a 神様. But now he is no god and is all alone.
Kento and Rintaro are able to fight against the dark control, angering Master Isaac. Touma declares nothing can break their bond.
Master Isaac cackles as he tries once more to use his power combined with the dark sword to defeat them. But Yuuri is able to break free and release Rintaro and Kento from dark control.
Down south, brother Shindai is also able to fight the dark urge and stops himself from cutting his sister wide open.
Master Isaac calls them all trash. But the threesome’s bond is strong enough to overcome being called that. Rintaro and Kento lend Touma the Lion Senki and Lamp do Alangina Books, allowing him to uphenshin to a triple Book featuring Saber.
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Rintaro and Kento, unhenshined, are able to help provide backup to the newly powered-up Touma. Their strong bonds allow Touma to deliver a friendship finisher at Master Isaac.
Mei does a kick at the same time Touma delivers the kick that knocks Master Isaac down and causes him to burn in flames.
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Down south, Ryoga is released from dark control as well and Reika cries by his side. They thank Ogami-san and Tetsuo for their help.
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Touma, Rintaro and Kento happily cross swords, with Mei joining in with her own stick.
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Over at the Megido Manse, Storious explodes in maniacal laughter.
A bloody and burnt Master Isaac stumbles around in a cave holding the remnants of his All-Knowing Book. He laughs when the pieces turn back into a nice Book, believing he is immortal like a god.
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But Storious pops up and says Master Isaac’s story has come to an end. Master Isaac demands Storious get on his knees for him. But Storious holds his hand out and Master Isaac turns to dust.
Storious picks the Book up and appreciates the completely hilarious and beautiful absurdity of Master Isaac’s eventual demise.
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A very different-looking Storious emerges from the smoke saying he will continue to weave this tale himself to its beautiful conclusion.
Episode Thoughts
Alright, two thoughts. First of all, that final scene of Storious is much hotter than it has any right being. Whew. And second, what in the bootleg Gaim was that?
Now, I think I’ve mentioned how very few things can come close to redeeming this season for me. One of them is very shallow and basic and that is full acknowledgement that Rintaro and Mei are OTP and they end up being a full-on couple and will end up married during next year’s crossover.
The other thing that can possibly redeem the season is if they can somehow, miraculously go out strong with these final episodes. And the only way that *might* happen is if Storious just completely owns this final arc.
I think I also said before that there’s very little, if anything at all, that can redeem the show for absolutely wasting the Megido3. Including anything they might do with Storious who, in his rare screentime this season, has been both awesomely cool and ominously threatening at the same time.
The final scene in this episode again just reminded me of the amazing potential the show left on the table with not just Storious, but with Legeiel and Zooous too. Now, I’m sure the other two members of the Megido3 could easily pop back up in these final episodes. And I would gladly welcome them back.
But I am just so ready to get past the rest of the nonsense and just watch and absorb Storious finally being able to unleash his apparently overwhelming and unprecedented dark energy. That is, compared to what we’ve been subjected to so far this season.
I’m sure if they somehow do well with this final arc, I’ll be even more upset that we didn’t get that kind of quality all season. But I’m still very much open to finishing out strong at least. I’ll take a couple of superficially great episodes at the end over 50 episodes of unsatisfying nonsense at least.
Anyway, that final scene of Storious ignited some bit of hope. But we’ll see.
As for the rest of the episode, welp. If an episode were to cure my apathy to whatever’s happening on Saber, this episode certainly isn’t going to do it.
I mentioned Gaim and really, that’s the first thing that popped into my mind when Tassel was explaining to Luna what she was. So, endgame is having a grown man in his 20s living happily ever after with a little girl in this magical, wonderous land? What?! It honestly feels like they needed to give both Touma and Luna a reason to exist and then looked at Gaim and thought, “Let’s do that!”
For the entire season, Touma’s been searching for his childhood friend (who it turns out only randomly popped up when he and Kento were reading a book under the tree and I think it was on That Day too). That was essentially his endgame. But they tried to give Luna some mystical backstory and instead just made things unnecessarily convoluted. Luna is Wonderworld itself? WTF?
Tassel apparently reveals all next episode in what the preview implies is the Saber version of the biblical creation story. We’ll see. I wouldn’t be surprised if Touma is the second coming of Jesus and Storious is the devil or something. This season has been that bonkers.
I will say, Master Isaac being all gross and bloody and burnt at the end was pretty crazy. That’s some V-Cinema-level gore. I only wish he actually had a legit story to go with this bloody demise. Anyway, it would appear this was the perfect time for Master Isaac to disappear only because Keisuke Sohma needed to go film the Gokaiger reunion, as was announced this week. lol
Elsewhere, it was another episode, thus another opportunity to show just how much they’ve watered down Reika’s character. She was basically #2 to Master Logos earlier in the season and now she’s some damsel in distress? What a horrible devolution of her character. Completely moved backwards. And somehow introducing her brother made her even more irrelevant than she was before that.
No Ren and Desast this week, which means they’re going to have to squeeze in the conclusion to their story sometime in this final arc. Which also means it better be something big to get a spot in this final arc like that.
Overall, this episode was more of “So much happened, yet nothing happened.” On paper, it was a typical “unbreakable bonds” type of plot. But with these characters and this season? I don’t buy it. Especially when just a few episodes ago, ten… TEN Riders combined their powers to bring about the new toy. A much more powerful one than the one introduced in this episode. And that was a loose (if any) bond, not the strong bond of the three here. Make that make sense.
Unbreakable bounds power up my ass, both these two spent more time hemming and hawing overing whether or not to work with Touma than they have back on his team. Compared to others from the past (especially ones like OOO’s final TaJaDol, or Build Rabbit Dragon) these feel weak and shallow. Then again I guess that fits the show.
Also, checked, and yeah Gaim managed to have (close depending on how you count) the same number of riders, yet because of how they were used they all feel better.
And wow, Storious taking over Isaacs slot as the big bad, who didn’t see that coming? Like I kinda appreciate Isaac and his actor getting into chewing the scenery, but what real purpose did having him as the villain for over half the show (even if he wasn’t revealed yet) serve, other than kicking the show out of MotW mode?
EXCELLENT point. Both Kento and Rintaro were off sulking I think half of the 40 episodes so far. Probably all 40 episodes combined between them. And them eventually getting back to #TeamTouma wasn’t really some big satisfying event either. I definitely agree that it feels hollow here, but yes it definitely fits the season.
I think all other Rider seasons have the same number of regular characters, but have done better with making them all mostly realized characters, unlike here on Saber.
And another good point about losing the MOTW once Master Isaac revealed himself. I think that coincided too with losing 2/3 of the Megido3 who of course were responsible for coming up with MOTWs. And we know how they’ve treated the Megido3.
I kinda dispute that this has the same size cast as most other seasons, 8-10 seems to be standard. And that is covered just by the riders. And then you have Mei, Luna, Megido3, Destat, and Isaac. I’m not saying blowing past the standard is a bad thing, but the pile on of characters, and not giving them room to breathe from the word go, was a warning sign.
Well the other seasons treat supporting characters as supporting characters. Whereas Saber has made them all main characters for some reason. I feel like the monks on Ghost and Shesta on Zero-One, and the donut shop manager on Wizard, for example, have fuller characters than the majority of Saber’s cast. Heck, Kiyo-chan from OOO has more story and personality.
It’s a shame this show hasn’t been nearly as good as it could have been, and I don’t believe an amazing stretch of final episodes can rectify that. I was excited for where this season would go with the whole fairytale/fantasy motif; there was an ocean of creative potential for that concept, and the writers have tapped barely a third of that. Isaac, despite the clear fun Keisuke Soma had in the role, was generic and two-dimensional from beginning to end. Him having Bacht’s backstory would have made him ten times more effective. His maniacal and scene-chewing attitude could have been a mask to conceal the pain he’s felt for centuries from his family’s death as a result of humanity’s corruption, and his downfall this episode along with Touma and Rintaro’s attempts to reason with him last episode could’ve been tragic due to him being completely lost to despair and hatred. While I am glad Storious will be getting the screen time he deserves as the final Big Bad, nothing at this point will be sufficient to fix the utter wasting of the Megido3, which sadly could’ve been negated with a few adjustments off the top of my head that revolve around the revelation of them formerly being humans.
Legeiel: His final battle and death in episode 27 could have been used as the catalyst for the seemingly dropped plot thread of the Megido3 not remembering their human past. His undercooked rivalry with and hatred of Touma could have also been fixed simply by having him cherish and take pride in the MotWs under him, so Touma permanently destroying the Yeti Megid would ignite the grudge.
Zooous: Perhaps he is reminded of his human past like Legeiel as a result of the two-parter when he turned Mei into a Megid, and his story from then on would be rediscovering his humanity and the perks of the regular human world, sort of like a parallel to Rintaro’s initial fish out of water behavior and similar to Ghost’s story with Alain. All of that could culminate in an ending where unable to live with what he’s done for over 2000 years, he has a final battle with Rintaro, which the latter would win and end up forgiving the remorseful Megid general for his master’s death.
Storious: Perhaps he could have been the only Megid general that was genuinely evil with or without his human memories, maybe having them all along and simply not caring.
Side Note: What’s your opinion on Saber’s final form? I personally think it’s a lazy repaint and that Elemental Dragon would’ve been more preferable as his final form, with Touma simply gaining control of the Primitive Dragon form.
I feel like they just dropped the fairy tale/classic novels aspect of the season sometime ago. Like a distant memory when they were talking about Jack and the Beanstalk and Hansel & Gretel, etc.
Definitely agree about Isaac having Bacht’s backstory. Both actors are great, but the material given to them was just not good and hollow. There was a lot of potential for a dramatic story there. But Isaac was played like a cartoon villain instead of anything substantial that could’ve in turn helped Touma and others too.
I feel like the Megido3 being humans and that whole plot thread should’ve been the main focus for at least these last ten episodes, if not more. Tassel/Victor also pulling a DJ Sagara or Sennin/Edith from Ghost would’ve been better too.
For these last episodes, I’m just going to sit back and “enjoy” it without really expecting anything anymore. Saber is beyond redemption, tbh. So I’ll just take what we can get I guess lol
Speaking of previous toku shows, the whole “boredom” motivation they used for Isaac can and has worked significantly better in previous shows. We had the completely immortal Long in Gekiranger who wanted to destroy the world to make his eternal life more interesting. The writers of that season smartly saved that revelation along with how thoroughly he had been manipulating both factions for the endgame so he could serve as the final boss and the catalyst for the main villains’ redemption. Going back to Gaim, the boredom motivation worked well for the Overlords as well. Demushu being a violent maniac that lived only for fighting and killing wound up establishing a completely new and dangerous threat, pretty much shattered the status quo of Toku shows by having his atttack on the city leading to an all-out evacuation, and made it so there was no going back with him indirectly causing Kouta to accept DJ Sagara’s final “gift.” Redyue doing things solely for her own amusement worked in making her a true monster and a threat both physically and psychologically, what with how she pushed Micchy further into villainy and preyed on Kouta’s deep-rooted fear of being rejected by people even if he saved them. She was such a sadistic scumbag that it was all the more satisfying when her smug and composed demeanor completely broke down and she was utterly curb-stomped by Kouta in the end.
Definitely. On paper, Isaac’s “bored” reason is fine. But of course, completely half-hearted and poor execution.
At first the show was interesting but when they kept playing with Luna here Luna there and said Touma will be forever with Kid Luna in wonderworld to me it is mess up. Im not a fan of Rintaro and Mei cuz they really looked like siblings (forget bout it) but I wonder if Mei is just a tension breaker or nobody special except “she’s a family’ kind of thing? We’re in episode 40 but we saw nothing bout her role yet Luna Luna Luna. I know she is the world itself but when it comes to the KenTouNa friendship I dont see their history was great enough to play as one of the main plot for Touma. As Tassel said Luna choose Touma, is she the writer of Destiny? Is Luna basically a god to this wnderworld? Well all I need to do is waiting for the rest of the episode. At least give Meis character a little improvement. I STILL cannot accept Rinta-Mei Please dont argue with me bout this hahaha
Luna is completely irrelevant and the “KenTouNa” friendship as you put is one of the least interesting things about this season. That’s probably the main problem. The show is completely centered around that friendship, but it is so dumb and beyond underdeveloped.
That’s why I like Mei because even if she’s just a “tension breaker” or comic relief, at least she is enjoyable to me. Which is something I cannot say about most everything else about this season. Most of the season is actually pretty miserable. That’s also why I have fun wanting to see Rintaro and Mei as a couple.
Robin Furuya is so fucking sexy. Damn. If the show was about him, then it would’ve been much better.
haha Agreed!