Kamen Rider Saber (2020-2021) episodes 1 and 2 “In the Beginning, There Was a Flame Swordsman” and “The Water Swordsman Along with a Blue Lion”
If PBS made a Kamen Rider show, it would look something like Kamen Rider Saber. This time our hero, Touma Kamiyama, is a quirky novelist and bookstore owner who enjoys reading to kids and tormenting his editor as deadlines loom. He also happens to own this funky booklet thing that has the title “Brave Dragon” etched into it. One day, Kamiyama and his editor are transported into an alternate fantasy world when evil forces open an enormous magic book on the city, thus trapping and transporting anyone in a several-block area into an alternate fairy-tale dimension. Kamiyama finds himself in grave danger from this big ugly monster-man who has something like a cup for a head, but is saved when a flaming sword falls from the sky and allows him to transform into Kamen Rider Saber—a flame-themed Rider with a fiery sword and a dragon familiar. Kamiyama makes short work of the foe with vim and flair, and it seems as if everyone is teleported back to their normal world. However, just as Kamiyama is wondering if what he experienced in the fairy-tale world was real, a man riding a mechanical blue lion strolls into his bookstore, requesting Kamiyama turn over his magic book. Kamiyama refuses, and the new guy, named Rintaro Shindo, takes our hero to a neighboring dimension of awesome, where Kamiyama learns about the mystical tomes that created the world and the knights that protect them and the magical universe. Soon Kamiyama and Shindo are facing off against ant-themed humanoid beasties called Megids, zipping around on bikes, destroying giant ants, and invoking and interacting with characters and elements from popular folk tales and kid fables from around the world.
I was just waiting for Wishbone to show up.
This incarnation of Kamen Rider is easily one of my favorites yet. The acting is way overdone and the humor can irritate, but the magic book theme is brilliant and I love the idea of using fairy tale books as weapons and calling forth the giant beanstalk (from Jack and the Beanstalk) and chasing a rapscallion through the sky via said burst-growing plant. Of equal delight for me was the scene where Shindo and Kamiyama jet on their bikes and blast a scampering lot of overgrown black ants, which seems to be directly conjuring the Earth Defense Force series of games (especially with the quite terrible CGI effects). The splash and flash of the effects and battles is equal parts big cheese and hugely pleasing, and the costume work and especially the design of Saber looks very, very cool. The show further features an eccentric book lover narrator who bookends (heh) each episode with commentary—basically another version of that dude from Kakuranger who was both a rakugo artist and a peppy narrator. My main complaint is with Mei Sudo, Kamiyama’s editor, who is played with grating gusto and extreme exaggerated affect. Sudo really got on my nerves. Still, having Kamen Rider crossed with Thursday Next is a massive win in my book—I want more of this, please!