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Here's a thread on the Japanese of Kamen Rider Saber.
Let's start with his catchphrase.
「物語の結末は俺が決める!」
"I'll be the one to decide how this story ends!"
The emphasis is on the conclusion of the story, with Saber announcing proclaiming he's the one who be ending it
The kanji on the right edge of the logo is 聖刃.
They read as the following:
聖/Sei - Holy/Sacred
刃/ha - Blade
Putting them together makes Seiba (ha becomes ba when joined).
In other words, Saber.

The second kanji is also used for Yaiba in Zero-One
Let's look at some of the henshin items!
This year they're called Wonder Ride Books.
Saber will be using Brave Dragon to transform, but in the trailer, there is a flash of "Jaaku Dragon".
邪悪 means evil/wicked, so I'm betting on a counter to Saber, my money is on Caliber.
Next is Kobuta 3 Kyoudai - "Three Piglet Brothers".
This from the fable The Three Little Pigs, but instead of using the official translated title 三匹の子豚, they've made their own version 子豚3兄弟.
"Lion Senki" is used by Kamen Rider Blaze.
The Japanese word is 戦記, which translates as military history/records.
What that could mean for the show, I am not particularly sure.
Sarutobi Ninja Den!
The kanji broken down is 猿飛忍者伝 - Monkey Jump Ninja Legend.
I believe this is in reference to Sarutobi Sasuke, a fictional leader of the Sanada Ten Braves, a 10 ninja clan.
Looks like they might have gone for a literal monkey.
Genbu Shinwa! 玄武神話
Genbu is the Japanese word for the "Black Tortoise", one of Four Symbols of the Chinese constellation.
The name ignores the snake that Black Tortoise is always intertwined with.
神話 Shinwa is the word associated with these kind of myths (Deity related)
Bonus fact:
They also used the Black Tortoise motif in Kamen Rider Gaim for Overlord Shinmugurun
This is a funny one.
It's obviously from Jack & the Beanstalk ジャックと豆の木, but the official title is slightly different.
ジャッ君と土豆の木 - They've removed the -ku part of Jack and added -kun, the affectionate honorific given to young guys - "Jackun-to-Domamenoki"
The Wonder Rider Books are categorized as 3 types:
- Divine Beasts: Brave Dragon
- Animals: Lion Senki
- Stories: Jackun-To-Domamenoki, Peter Fantasista
(this is important for the next tweet)
toy.bandai.co.jp/series/rider/s…
Kamen Rider Caliber's generals are named Lejeeru レジェエル, Zuosu ズオス & Sutoriusu.
It looks very likely a bit of creative use of katakana with the Wonder Ride Book categories:
Lejeeru - Legend
Zuosu - Zoo
Sutoriusu - Stories
Some people have pointed out Lion Senki might be a double nod to
The Heroic Legend of Arslan (アルスラーン戦記/arusuran senki) and the Arslan from The Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe (JP title ライオンと魔女/Lion & the Witch).
Arslan is lion in Turkish too
The tie-in Wonder Ride Book for Zero-One has a great pun.
"Hiden no Hiden Monogatari".
Hiden 飛電 for Aruto's surname and 2nd Hiden 秘伝 for "hidden". Different kanji, same sound. 2nd one is part of 秘伝書 secret book.
Literally "Hiden's Hidden Story".
Let's talk about Riders.
Kamen Rider Kenzan 仮面ライダー剣斬.
剣 ken/sword.
斬 zan/cut down/kill with a sword.
斬 can be used in the 斬る verb to mean the same thing.
(Presumably not confirmed) Kamen Rider Espada 仮面ライダーエスパーダ.
Espada is the Spanish word for sword, originating from Roman spatha swords.
(Please don't hate me if I'm wrong Spanish speakers)
Okay, let's talk about the most confusing thing so far, even for Japanese fans, Kamen Rider Blaze - 仮面ライダーブレイズ.
Looking at it without context, the first reaction would be Blaze. Diving deeper, Saber is using the fire elemental Brave Dragon while he uses Lion Senki.
He's also colored blue, which isn't usually associated with fire.
The current theory is that his name is actually Kamen Rider Blades. But wouldn't that be more like bureidozu ブレイドズ you might wonder? KR Blade uses bureido ブレイド, which has a harsh -do sound at the end.
It's not uncommon for loan words in Japanese to have harsh sounding endings, it signifies the end of a foreign word.
Having a -do preceding a -zu is a bit hard to say (give it a try, it's a tongue twister).
Blade & Blades in English sound different as well.
It stands to reason they've omitted the -do in favor of a word that's easier to say.
Given that we know the other Rider's names are all sword related terms, it's not a big jump to assume he follows suit.
Until a toy listing/ganbarizing card proves us all wrong & it's Blade-Z.
Theory - I think Kamen Rider Kenzan will use the Needle Hedgehog Wonder Ride Book.
Kenzan 剣山 (different kanji to his name 剣斬) refers to a spikey base used in Japanese flower arranging.
剣山 literally means "sword mountain".
Though he appears to have a different belt...
The belt! Seiken Swordriver 聖剣ソードライバー!
It's the same Sei- that's used for Saber's Sei 聖 Seiba.
Literally Holy/Sacred Sword.
Both the words Sword ソード and Driver ドライバー use a do ド, so they've omitted one when combining the two together.
Saber's sword is called Kaenken 火炎剣。
火炎 Kaen - blaze/flame
剣 Ken - sword
火炎 are both related to fire, 火 is used for anything fire, 炎 is usually for flame itself.
Blades sword is Suiseiken Nagare 水勢剣流水。
Water Force Sword Flow.
It doesn't make much sense translated straight, suisei 水勢 is the force of water, through piping or a rapid stream.
Notice it also has -seiken like the holy swords, but different kanji for sei.
Ryuusui 流水 is running water/flowing stream.
Although it's actually read as nagare 流れ, which means pretty much the same thing.
Nagare can be used as "flow" in conversation, explaining a method or guide or flow of a story.
I might be reaching in the latter part.
抜刀!!
For transforming & attacking, you plug in the sword, it shout's the sword name and battou 抜刀.
This just means to unsheathe a sword :)
一冊!二冊!三冊!
Japanese has lots of counter systems.
人 hito people, 枚 mai cards, 匹 hiki small animals, etc.
Though these aren't even consistent either:
1匹 ippiki
2匹 nihiki
3匹 sanbiki
冊 satsu is for books:
一冊 issatsu 1 book
二冊 nisatsu 2 books
三冊 sansatsu 3 books
必殺技!
Hissatsuwaza Finishing Move/Attack is a standard term. Den-O shouts it as part of his actual attack.
Here it uses 必殺読破 hissatsu dokuha, the latter being the term for finish reading a book.
You could translate it as "Finish Reading!"...
I love the silliness
一冊 issatau from earlier is back.
一冊撃 issatsu geki is a pun on 一発撃 ippatsu geki, a counter for a hit & 撃 for attack. It implies that one hit would defeat the enemy.
Or in this case, this one book will.
一冊斬り!
Issatsu giru is one book from earlier and the 斬る kiru to cut with a sword.
Combining kiru to issatsu turns ki- to -gi and changing -ru to -ri makes the verb into a noun.
"One Book Cut!"
ふむふむ! Fumufumu!
Essentially a
"Uh-huh"
"Yeah, yeah"
Nodding along to whatever was said.
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