Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

Saber runs into Assasin, who reveals that he used to be Sasaki Kojirou. Saber is eager to reveal her own name, but Assasin realizes that she is clearly a bit slow in the head, and doesn’t want to ruin the challenge by learning her name. Instead, he readies his famed “Tsubame Gaeshi” (Turning Swallow Cut) and attacks. Rider watches all this during her evening yoga practice, and tries to gather some information, but is apprehended by Caster. Caster clearly thinks of Rider as a weak floozy, and easily blocks the knitting needles.

When Saber draws a tremendous amount of power to the invisible sword, however, Caster is momentarily distracted, allowing Rider to return to watch Saber’s fight. Unfortunately Emiya outs Rider the intruder, and Assasin decides to let everyone go for now. As expected, Saber was just bluffing and collapses from exhaustion. Shirou has to carry her back, but when he tries to go off on another sexist, anachronistic rant, Saber lets him know that he tanks about as well as a piece of paper. Shirou ends up getting tricked into agreeing to some sword lessons, and Rin can’t believe how stupid (and perfect for each other) the two of them are. Anta baka?

I really felt bad for Saber in this episode, as the other Servants treated her the way the other Masters treat Shirou. It’s like being summoned by Shirou lowered her intelligence by 10 points. Still, it was so great when she finally stood up to Shirou’s ridiculous rules about protecting women stronger than him, and told him to put up or shut up. It probably would have worked better if Shirou wasn’t so excited about being given the chance to tank.

It was nice getting to see what Saber’s normal clothes look like, too. Until Shirou shows some skills, he remains frustratingly stupid, whereas I consider Saber loveably stupid. However, their house is quickly turning into an episode of Three’s Company.