Everyone’s at the Pit as Belt-san talks to his former teacher Harley Hendrickson in the US asking about Gou. Apparently, Gou has cut his training short and returned to Japan on his own. Harley-sensei says Mach is complete, but still very dangerous. Harley-sensei asks Belt-san to please watch over Gou.

Rinna explains to Shinnosuke that Mach was developed with next generation system to surpass even Drive. And Gou was picked to be the user.

But Kiriko is not happy. She shakes Belt-san demanding to know why he secretly decided to make her otouto a Kamen Rider. Shinnosuke tries to get Kiriko to calm down.

Gou sees them and says they look great together and would make a great picture. He’s happy his pretty, but stiff sister has found a nice guy for herself.

Kiriko and Shinnosuke separate as Gou smirks and flips around the Pit. Gou says he’ll call Shinnosuke “Shin-niisan” from now on.

Gou’s neechan and new niisan get defensive and try to explain they don’t have that kind of relationship. Gou gets on his bike and just laughs.

Later, Kiriko and Gou visit their parents’ memorials. Kiriko says they should go home now, but Gou says while he knows she cleaned the apartment for him, he’ll find his own place.

“I know I’m a troublemaker, but I really do love you, Neechan. In this world, all we have is each other.”

“That’s why I need you to trust me. I’ll fight my own way.”

Before Kiriko can process her brother’s sincere words, Shinnosuke calls as the Gravity Shift wristbands have popped up again.

This time, it is being used by a trio of masked robbers who call themselves the Heaviness Gang and are planning to rob a bank at noon. Rinna believes the wristband is some kind of terminal to allow the Roidmude to distribute his Gravity Shift ability. Shinnosuke thinks they must be selling the bands from somewhere.

Shinnosuke and Otta interrogate Todokawa, but he has no memory of even buying the band. Shinnosuke says perhaps the bands erase memory when used.

Before leaving, Otta gives Todokawa some advice.

“No matter how horrible a person is, if you kill him, then you’re as bad as him. Don’t ever sink to that level ever again!”

Over at their latest hideaway, the Roidmude idol group bosses are discussing how horrible the humans can be after watching another display in the Heaviness Gang.

Medic dances around and says all this publicity is great for 018’s band business especially since Gunman and 018 took on bodies of two brothers who work in the underworld.

“I already know all of that!” Heart says, annoyed.

Heart says they must protect 018 so he can evolve and asks Chase to do it.

But first, Chase says he saw his number for the first time and wants to know who he is. What he is. Especially as he has no memory before the Global Freeze.

Heart says Chase is a “great warrior” and that Zero is a glorious, honorable number. Chase needn’t worry and should just fight for now.

Chase says he trusts Heart.

Otta and Kiriko are at the targeted bank with a wall of police in riot gear ready for the Heaviness Gang’s arrival. Shinnosuke is there with Tridoron as well.

But as the Heaviness Gang drives to the bank, Gou, already henshined and on his bike, stops them in their path.

He activates a Gravity Shift Controller Limiter and the Heaviness arrives, also affecting the three Heaviness Gang members. Shinnosuke hurries into Tridoron and Belt-san says this Heaviness is not from the band’s Gravity Shift.

Shinnosuke henshins and hurries over. Gou has already removed the bands from the three gang members and Shinnosuke realizes Gou activated the Gravity Shift.

Shinnosuke jumps out of Tridoron and he and Gou fight.

“Gou! Do you know how afraid the people are of the Heaviness?!”

Fine, Gou says as he de-henshins. “That’s why we’ve got to destroy the bands, right?”

Shinnosuke de-henshins as well and says that even if it is for a good cause, if they use the Gravity Shift on people, they are the same as the Roidmude. They should not sink to their level.

Gou says his Shin-niisan is pretty serious. But if they use the enemy’s power to fight them, aren’t they monsters too? They’re already at their level. If they can beat their enemies that way…

Shin-niisan has no time to answer as Kiriko arrives.

Back at the SID, Chief Jun has returned from golfing with the important people and sees they are in the middle of something. Shinnosuke says they’re just dealing with some obstruction of justice. Otta tells Chief Jun the kid’s Kiriko’s little brother.

“Ah! What a naughty boy! You shouldn’t have let him tag along in the first place.”

Kiriko apologizes, but Gou introduces himself to the Chief and says he’ll be dropping by the SID often from now on. He’s even brought some exclusive photos…

Of the Kamen Rider!

Chief Jun, Otta and Kyu are all very excited.

Chief Jun is making strange sounds.

Otta is shocked that the Kamen Rider is all white! Kyu rips Otta’s original drawing of the green/red/black Kamen Rider.

Chief Jun says Gou is welcome anytime. Kiriko protests, but Chief Jun says her little brother is bound to be a good kid.

Shinnosuke drags Gou outside and Kiriko and Rinna follow. How did he get those photos? Gou says he set up the camera and the Signal Bikes took the pictures for him.

Gou says Drive being a police officer has its advantages, but it has disadvantages as well since Gou can do things Shinnosuke may not be able to in his position.

Gou takes two flowers from his jacket. “Now for the fun to start.”

Back at the Pit, Belt-san says Mach Driver Flame has its own supportive AI. In exchange for greater offensive capabilities, it puts a greater burden on the user than Drive does.

An ambiguously acting Rinna snaps out of it and tells them that Professor Harley was looking for a way to reduce the strain on the user. But then why did Gou run back to Japan instead of waiting?

That gets Shinnosuke into top gear. “That idiot!”
Shinnosuke asks the Shift Cars to look for Gou.

Wearing a hood and sunglasses to cover his face, Gou goes to where Gunman and 018 are, posing as someone who wants to buy a band.

Chase, here as bodyguard, tosses a pool stick at 018, revealing the money is fake. Gou shoots. Gunman fires back.

Gunman tries to initiate a Gravity Shift, but it doesn’t work. Chase realizes he is the Kamen Rider. He goes Mashin and chases Gou outside.

Chase, Gunman and 018 continue shooting at Gou. Gunman tries another Gravity Shift and this time it appears to slow Gou down. But before their bullets can hit him, Tridoron blocks them.

Kiriko returns fire. Seeing her, Chase gets a headache of some sort. Shinnosuke pulls Gou behind some crates.

Shin-niisan explains how he figured out what Gou was planning to do, including having already tangled with Gunman and 018 in America.

Gou is very impressed by his niisan. He shoots at 018, giving Shinnosuke time to henshin.

Gunman tells Chase to snap out of it and Chase and Shinnosuke fight.

Gunman and 018 corner Gou and Shinnosuke wonders why he doesn’t henshin.

Shinnosuke goes Wild and Chase goes Spider.

Gunman continues shooting at Gou as he runs. Kiriko comes flying in to return fire and her shots hit 018 right in the eyes.

018 initiates a Gravity Shift and both Kiriko and Gou are affected.

While tangled, Belt-san sees Chase’s number is 000.

Signal Bikes arrive allowing Gou and Kiriko to move freely. He shoots at 018 and the bands drop out of him. 018 had been using several of them at the same time to try and slow his movement, but Gou was just holding back until he figured out the brother’s power.

Gou tells Kiriko to stand back. Kiriko doesn’t want to leave her brother.

“Neechan…”

Kiriko gets to safety and Gou henshins.

With complete roll call.

Gou then proceeds to handily take care of the brothers. He uses the Danger Signal Bike and a big black shark-like thing pops out and chews on the Roidmudes.

Gou then uses the Stop Signal Bike and sends a big electrical stop sign towards them.

“It’s getting a little uncomfortable, so let’s finish this quickly, eh?”

Gou then uses the Split Signal Bike for a finisher and then uses Bend Signal Bike to kill the numbers as well.

Chase wants to turn his attention to Mach, but Medic appears and whisks him away, saying Gunman and 018’s cores cannot be revived.

An exhausted Gou de-henshins and lays on the floor. He asks how many enemies are left and Belt-san says 88.

That’s a lot, Gou says. But Mach’s operational time is slowly getting longer, “more and more… more and more… I’ve got to hurry.”

Gou drops fast asleep. “Such a goofball,” Kiriko says. But Shinnosuke says he’s not so sure. He’s not just some reckless thrill seeker. “There’s more to him than meets the eye.”

Back at the station cafeteria, the ladies are very smitten with Gou as he’s taken some nice pictures of them. They also want to see some pics of the Kamen Rider.

Kyu pops in and says he wants to see too. The girls start attacking him for being so creepy and gross.

Kiriko says she’ll go scold Gou, but Shinnosuke says he’ll talk to him.

Gou calls him “Niisan” again, but this time Shinnosuke says he doesn’t mind if Gou thinks of him as an older brother.

“You’d have been in serious trouble if I hadn’t made it in time. So I’ve got to keep my eye on you. I’ll be your brakes.”
“I wonder if you can keep up with me, Shin-niisan.”
“There’s no way a car enthusiast like me will get left behind by some biker. I won’t lose.”

Gou and his Shin-niisan bump fists.

Episode Thoughts

Gou is awesome! He’s so much fun to watch. I loved seeing him be all badass when he was shooting up the pool hall hideaway. It’s fun seeing him play around and basically troll his new big bro and everyone else around him. But it was also nice to see him and Kiriko visit their parents and have a nice, calmer moment between them. It helped to add a little bit of depth to Gou other than being just cocky, mischievous and awesome.

And he’s a Shinnosuke-Kiriko shipper too lol.

Learning more about the Mach Driver and other people Belt-san has worked with helps expand the universe. Definitely some great teases for Gou’s story moving forward.

With Mr. 000 Chase, I think it’s become pretty obvious he’s connected to Kiriko in some way. And him mentioning losing his pre-Global Freeze memory just adds to the possibility that he is Proto Drive.

Speaking of Gravity Shifts, what were they trying to do with not using the usual slow-mo effect for the Heaviness? Yes, Gou was just trying to figure out what the Roidmudes were doing. But then he and Kiriko both were supposedly affected by the Heaviness. Doesn’t Kiriko wear a holster with Shift Cars all the time? And if they really were affected by those extra bands of Heaviness, why not use the usual effect instead of having the actors pretend to slow down?

It was a little awkward. Though not as awkward (and hilarious) as Chief Jun and his strange noises. Like seriously, what is with Chief Jun and his strange sounds and faces? lol

But I guess it’s not just him since most everyone does the strange faces and double takes. I guess just a random quirk for the season. And I love fun, random things. lol

Good episode. Things are definitely moving.

It is nighttime and a beautiful woman is being stalked.

Meanwhile, across town, Chase also seems to be stalking a beautiful woman. Kiriko, in this case. She demands to know why he’s here, but he gently approaches her.

At the Pit, Belt-san, Shinnosuke and Gou are discussing #000 Mashin Chaser. Shinnosuke asks if Kiriko knows of Chase’s identity, but Gou says there’s no reason to tell her. Gou is very forceful in saying they should just kill all the Roidmude since they are the enemies of humanity.

Shinnosuke asks Gou what’s up, but Gou just leaves on his bike.

Chase steps forward toward Kiriko, but his head begins to ache once again. This time he hears a voice; “Protect the humans.” And he sees Kiriko’s face.

“Who are you?! Why are you appearing in my memories?! WHY!?”

Gou sees them and drives up. He points his gun at Chase who runs away.

“Don’t be fooled by anything he says!” Gou tells his neechan.

Everyone’s in for work at the SID the next day. Kiriko wants to ask Shinnosuke about Chase. But after Chief Jun is saddened by today’s fortune, a special guest is introduced to the SID.

Popular actress Nanao Rira! Everyone is shocked and excited, except for Tomari-san who has no idea who she is.

Rira’s company president explains that someone’s been stalking her lately. And this seems to be an SID case since she says she felt the Heaviness when she faced the stalker.

Elsewhere, the hooded figure Rira had seen that night has a table of tarot cards and has just flipped over the “Fool” card.

At their new church hideout, Brain asks Chase to reset a newly born and very undesirable Roidmude.

But Chase asks Brain if he knows anything about 000. That’s not important, Brain says. Chase turns to walk away and Brain says he’s not about to disobey orders is he?

Suddenly, Chase gets another headache with the same “Protect the humans” message. That’s when Medic twirls in and offers to take care of the job for Brain. “We don’t want to disappoint Heart-sama.”

Chase recovers. “Don’t butt in!” He leaves.

Brain agrees that it was bad timing for her. But Medic is happily excited to see what will happen when Chase finds out the truth. Indeed, Brain is intrigued too.

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta are Rira’s bodyguard for the day. She’s currently at a commercial shoot. They are surprised to see Gou has talked his way onto the team as well. And to calm Otta and Kiriko down over his presence, he gives them some info he’s dug up. A Sunahara Tadashi is the president of Rira’s fan club, a master of disguise and has been very pushy in offering her presents.

Otta agrees to investigate him.

Shinnosuke takes Gou aside and says he’s only here just to keep an eye on Kiriko. Gou is impressed by his niisan’s instincts and promises to take care of Chase next time he approaches his sister. Kiriko sees them and asks what they’re whispering about.

Rira has wrapped for this commercial shoot and has 15 minutes before they leave for a magazine interview. On the way out, Shinnosuke and Gou see a suspicious fedora’d man peeping in the window. They pursue while Kiriko and Otta stay with Rira.

Sunahara pops up with another present and Otta takes him by the neck. But when the fedora’d man escapes behind a fence, the Heaviness arrives. Shinnosuke and Gou run back to the others where a hooded monster has just slashed at Sunahara and turned him blue and unconscious.

Gou puts his belt on and chases after the hooded person. Shinnosuke checks on Sunahara and sees the Fool tarot card next to him.

Gou has already henshined and before he can finish his roll call, the hooded person attacks and tries to fly away. Gou uses the Split Signal Bike to knock the guy down to the ground. That gives him time to finish his roll call, but that also allows the hooded thing to escape.

Back at the SID, Kyu has found the identity of the fedora’d man: Sakaki Kouichi, a makeup artist who used his job to get close to dozens of women.

Kiriko and Gou are with Rira as she returns to her apartment. They will keep watch.

Shinnosuke is out asking around, but Otta calls to say that Sakaki was just arrested while stalking another girl.

Sakaki sits in the jail cell, laughing. Otta is disgusted. He demands the “Rori Shoujo” show his true form. “Oh, you into that stuff too Detective-san?!”

But Sakaki knows Otta means to say “Roidmude” and that they are talking about the “bat-like monster.” Otta takes this as a confession.

But Shinnosuke realizes Sakaki let himself get caught on purpose to lure them out while the real Roidmude is off somewhere else.

“You finally figured it out! But you’re too late. Right now, the other me is stealing Nanao Rira’s heart!”

Shinnosuke hurries out.

Rira is alone in her apartment when the Roidmude pops up at her window. Kiriko and Gou hear her screams and they hurry into the apartment building. But the Heaviness stops Rira.

069 laughs, but suddenly, the hooded Roidmude appears to save Rira. Turns out the hooded person saved Rira that night as well. He holds up a tarot card as he and 069 fight.

Gou henshins and fights 069.

Rira asks the hooded person if he is “the one from before.” He approaches her, but Kiriko arrives and shoots at him. Shift Cars come to help as Shinnosuke arrives as well.

Shinnosuke henshins, but Gou tells him Sakaki is the one he’s fighting, not the hooded thing upstairs.

The hooded person flies off again.

Shinnosuke and Gou are now both taking on 069. 069 gets very disgustingly creepy when he gloats about the joy he gets from seeing women in fear.

Boiling mad, Shinnosuke decides to cool off with Type Technic and a new Shift Car, Road Winter. Shinnosuke freezes 069 in a block of ice.

Before they can finish off 069, Chase arrives.

Kiriko sees and tells Rira to stay where she is as she heads down.

Chase says he will reset 069, but first he will defeat them two Kamen Riders. He
Goes Mashin Chaser as Shinnosuke goes Wild. The three of them fight.
Chase shoots at Gou. Kiriko calls to her brother. Chase turns to look at her, but Shinnosuke pops in. He asks what Chase is fighting for and why?

Chase gets another headache and the same message. “I don’t need a reason. To defeat the Kamen Riders… is my mission!”

Gou rejoins the fight, but there are suddenly blasts from above. It’s Brain.

Brain tosses a few viral cores into 069, saying he’ll give him one more chance before he is reset. 069 evolves into a huge bat and grabs Kiriko as he flies off.

Shinnosuke uses Hooking Wrecker and latches on 069, but he merely gets pulled along for the ride. Both Gou and Chase hop on their bikes to follow.

Gou and Chase are side-by-side when suddenly, a Combination System activates on both their bikes. Chase gets hurled off and the bikes join together on their own, taking Gou into this new vehicle.

Belt-san calls it the Ride Crosser. Gou takes control of it and shoots at 069, forcing it to let go of Kiriko. Shinnosuke catches her and they safely fall to the ground.

Gou uses Ride Crosser and its new tricks to finish off 069 for good.

Chase jumps in and wonders why his bike did that on its own. But Brain has the explanation.

The reason the two bikes combined is because Chase is Proto-Zero.

On the night of the Global Freeze, Chase defeated many of the Roidmude to save humans.

Chase dehenshins. “What?!”

Brain continues. “That’s when I gave him the name… Kamen Rider.”

Chase is shocked. Kiriko is shocked.

Episode Thoughts

Ooooo! How soapy! Lol

I think it became pretty clear with each episode that Chase was Proto Drive. The intriguing part though is seeing how and why and where and what. Plus, the preview had the tagline “So many feelings…!” lol Indeed! “The feels” that may pop up in the next episode should be fun to watch.

One of the interesting things about this episode was how “crime drama” things got when Shinnosuke and Otta were investigating and then seeing Sakaki in jail. It looked like some primetime crime procedural. Very slick and such a contrast to the rest of the episode of course. I liked it. Plus it fit with the creepy sexual predator perp. What is it with Kamen Rider and victimizing beautiful women? lol (Lookin’ at you Gremlin Sora.)

I enjoyed the new toys. And it was fun seeing the new toy introduction play into the big reveal.

I wonder what was with Gou’s intensity at the start of the episode when it came to protecting neechan? Interesting. I hope they go somewhere with that moving forward and I assume it has something to do with him intent on just wiping out the Roidmude.

The case itself this week with the actress and 069 is pretty interesting on its own, but the whole Chase-Kiriko-Proto Drive developments are definitely center stage.

Shinnosuke, Otta and Second Division detective Misaki Junko are tailing businessman Amagi Shu who they suspect is a Roidmude. Amagi calls them out and just laughs before continuing on his way. He indeed reveals himself to be a Roidmude when he arrives at the safety of his manse.

The SID is working on a case of eight women who recently withdrew all their savings and even go into debt from loans. They then are put in a vegetative state before going crazy without warning. The common link between all of them is Amagi who runs a popular matchmaking service, Lovers Castle. All of the victims signed up for a mixer event. Otta knows Amagi manipulated the vulnerable women looking for husbands.

Rinna seems very distressed listening to all this. Shinnosuke notices and brings it up later. Belt-san says Rinna hasn’t been coming to the Pit recently.

Speaking of, Chief Jun is not in either. Kiriko says he’s on vacation with his wife and daughter.

A picture comes flying toward them and it is from Gou who has already found that Lovers Castle holds secret events for only a select group of applicants. And it just so happens the latest one is tomorrow.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko go directly to Amagi and ask to participate in the event. Amagi chuckles and says this is just like that cop show where the boring, out of touch detective sticks to the celebrity suspect. Shinnosuke says he liked that drama and if he isn’t mistaken, the detective always wins in the end.

Amagi says fine, they can participate just so they can see he is innocent with their own eyes.

Back in Tridoron, Shinnosuke and Kiriko are going over the details when Chase suddenly jumps on the hood.

Shinnosuke and Chase both henshin.

Shinnosuke calls on Dream Vegas, but Chase is very persistent. Shinnosuke tries to get Chase to wake up from his Roidmude stupor, but it’s no use. Gou arrives to help and says Shin-niisan shouldn’t be so naive as to try talking to Chase.

Chase goes Cobra and knocks both Shinnosuke and Gou around. But Heart suddenly pops in. He says they are no longer just machines, they are a new species.

Belt-san knows Heart and Medic turned Proto-Zero back into an evil fighting machine. Heart says that’s a pretty cocky thing to say. Chase says Heart freed him from being a tool for humans and now he will protect the Roidmude.

Gou tells Heart to fight him. Heart says Gou’s friends should’ve told him what happens when pushed.

Before Heart gets overheated again, Shinnosuke calls Deco Traveler which inserts itself into Chase’s Break Gunner and produces a happy traditional scene.

This allows Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Gou to escape.

Chase wants to go after them, but Heart stops him. He is very amused.

Later, the Roidmude brain trust meets. Brain says they must wary of the police, especially the Special Investigations Division who appear to be close to the Kamen Rider. In fact, the Kamen Rider might be one of them.

That doesn’t matter, Heart says. He doesn’t care to reveal his identity. Chase says there is no value in defeating him in his human form. Medic chimes in and says while Brain is smart, he is such a coward.

Brain gets hot and bothered again. But Heart says he is now fully recovered thanks to Medic and the after effects of the Dead Zone have also been reduced.

At the Pit, Kiriko is practicing using new bullets Rinna developed that can help pierce through the Roidmude’s protective shell. Rinna comes in with another present for Kiriko.

Kiriko tries on the new pair of boots that are fitted with a pressure generator allowing Kiriko to deliver a very powerful Rider Kiriko Kick.

With everything seemingly in order, Rinna excuses herself. But Belt-san asks about the status of the new Shift Car sent over by Professor Harley. Rinna scolds Belt-san and says she’ll get it done, but she also has her own things to take care of.

Rinna hurries out. “That was rather harsh.” Belt-san wished Rinna would at least complete the Dead Heat Shift Car first.

Detective Misaki calls a meeting at the SID and tells Shinnosuke to immediately abort the undercover mission to Lovers Castle. Shinnosuke says that’s overstepping her authority of the SID, but Misaki slams the table and insists it’s an order.

A spoon falls to the floor and the sound suddenly causes Misaki to go crazy. She ends up in a vegetative state in the hospital. This reminds Otta that the other female victims also only went into a rage after hearing the sound of metal clanging.

Shinnosuke is in top gear and calls Kiriko before she enters Lovers Castle.

Kiriko is greeted by Amagi who tells her to enjoy and “let me share my dream to you too.” Kiriko just bows and proceeds upstairs.

Shinnosuke hurries in to meet his date who is waiting at a table. He apologizes for being late because of the traffic.

“Did you drive here yourself?”
“Yes. I love to drive.”

DRIVE?! The woman turns around and it is Rinna! They are shocked. Rinna runs out and Shinnosuke goes after her.

Meanwhile, Kiriko looks around and starts feeling a headache. She then hears a voice calling her to come out.

Shinnosuke catches up to Rinna. She says there’s nothing wrong with her wanting to get married soon. Nothing wrong with that, Shinnosuke says, but this is a suspicious event. Wasn’t she listening?

“I was just embarrassed to mention it.”

Rinna turns away from Shinnosuke. “I cannot move on if I don’t put myself out there.”

In the nearby forest, a nice, calm voice guides Kiriko to a clearing. And there, she meets a very smiley Chase.

But why is Chase here? she asks. Chase is shocked she knows the Grim Reaper’s name. Another headache and Kiriko sees this guy is actually a Roidmude, Amagi.

She uses her new boots to deliver a big Kiriko Kick, allowing her to whip out her gun and new bullets.

Gou hears the gunshots and hurries over.

The Heaviness hits a Shift Car-less Rinna as Shinnosuke quickly runs as well.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Kiriko work together to get Amagi to show himself. Kiriko explains that when Shinnosuke warned her to be careful of sounds, she wore the earplugs she used earlier when practicing with the new bullets.

So she was able to lower the effect of Amagi’s voice which he’s been using to control women. Just like what he did to Detective Misaki while she questioned him. Kiriko says as soon as you hear his voice, you’ll see him as another person. Shinnosuke says the women will see an illusion of their ideal type of man.

Kiriko recalls, it was Chase she saw.

Defensive Kiriko: “I’m not so sure it actually is their ideal type though.”

Shinnosuke adds that since the women happily thought they really had found their ideal man, they were willing to give up all their money.

“I thought I would be able to get that woman under my spell too!”
“She’d never be that easy. She’s the sister of a Kamen Rider, after all.”

Amagi goes Roidmude again and Gou henshins.

Gou uses Danger Signal Bike and manages to easily knock around Amagi. But two other Roidmudes arrive. Shinnosuke henshins.

Gou initiates a Full Throttle finisher on Amagi, but Heart arrives to stop him and in his evolved form.

Shinnosuke recognizes Heart is using the same hot power from last time. Gou realizes his time is almost up while Shinnosuke is also struggling with Amagi and the two Roidmudes.

Shinnosuke decides to call on Dead Heat which he knows was developed to directly counter Heart. Yes, Belt-san confirms, it is currently the strongest they have. But it isn’t ready yet. The same thing that happened to Heart back then may happen to him too.

But Shinnosuke says he’s done thinking about it. They’ll deal with whatever happens. Belt-san says okay as Gou is in danger.

Shinnosuke inserts Dead Heat and he uphenshins to Type Dead Heat.

“Oh, the body… kinda looks like Mach.”
“Yes, Shift Dead Heat can be used by both you and Mach.”

Shinnosuke revs up past the Roidmudes and goes straight for Heart who gets overwhelmed by this new form.

Shinnosuke matches Heart punch for every hot punch.

“You’ve entered the Dead Zone too?!”

Shinnosuke sends Heart flying and then finishes off the two unevolved Roidmude while Amagi gets tossed aside.

Kiriko and Gou head over to Shinnosuke, but an alarm sounds and a big thrust of energy runs through his body.

Shinnosuke says the Shift Car was designed to enter the Dead Zone. And now he can’t control it.

“Stop me! I’m counting on you!!!”

Meanwhile, the Gravity Shift is gone and Rinna is able to move. But she hears a voice. She follows it and she sees… a man. Someone she seems to recognize.

Episode Thoughts

A solid, fun episode.

I’m gonna need more Rider Kiriko Kicks in the future please.

It was very clever during target practice when they muted Rinna talking to Kiriko. I honestly thought something was wrong with the sound lol

And aww, how cute. Kiriko is, like, totally into Chase. Hee.

It was good to actually see Heart fighting, but I feel like they are still just hanging out at, well, their hangouts most of the time. I guess I really have been spoiled by how awesome the Shadow Line of ToQger has developed separate from their conflict with the ToQgers themselves.

Anyway, getting new toys is always fun. And they got a few this episode. I think it was last week where we established Gou is able to use Shift Cars as well. And of course that was to setup Dead Heat being able to be shared as well. (I see you what you did there Toei and Bandai. From sharing trains to sharing Shift Cars eh? lol)

There’s got to be something with Chief Jun right? This isn’t just some quirky thing or the actor actually having another job right?

And how can you not be amused by hot and bothered Brain?

I am looking forward to learning more about Rinna. I assume we’ll be meeting her husband or something in the next episode. Maybe we might also learn how she got involved with the whole operation?

Good, fun stuff all around.

To get himself under control, Shinnosuke reluctantly tells Gou to unleash a finisher on him. Gou pulls out the Stop Signal Bike and sends a Full Throttle punch right to Shinnosuke. And that does the trick. Kiriko hurries over to remove Dead Heat from the Shift Brace and Shinnosuke dehenshins.

Belt-san tells them good job, but Kiriko says only 046 and 085’s cores were destroyed. The Voice Roidmude is still out there.

Chase walks up to Heart who admits he is very happy, despite lying in a hole.

Gou helps an exhausted Shinnosuke walk when they see Rinna talking to someone. The longhaired man reveals himself to be the Voice Roidmude and he shoots at them before leaving.

Shinnosuke and Gou want to go after him, but Rinna stops them. She screams.

They take her back to the SID and chain her up to a chair. Otta and Kyu are getting a little overboard, so Kiriko unchains Rinna who says her not being sensitive to noise should be proof she is not under the Roidmude’s power.

Shinnosuke is thinking. If the Roidmude is supposed to show your ideal type, he should not have looked the same to both Shinnosuke and Gou. That means the Roidmude has copied both Amagi and this other man’s appearance.

They ask Rinna who it might be, but she’s escaped.

Meanwhile, Medic is fixing Heart up again while Brain watches. But Brain is unsure why he’s fallen so low as to be creeping around.

Heart compliments Medic for being able to erase Chase’s memories. She says it’s just because Brain did such a bad job before. But since she can’t completely remove all of the Proto Drive programming, she just altered the code to have Chase protect Roidmudes instead of humans.

That means, however, Chase can no longer be the Grim Reaper since he won’t harm Roidmudes.

Brain can’t believe this. How can someone else be more useful to Heart than he is? He must redeem himself.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko update Belt-san on Rinna. Belt-san says it would be nice if Rinna were here to just tweak Dead Heat a little bit. But he’s also been trying to contact Professor Harley, though unsuccessfully.

Shinnosuke tells Kiriko they should focus on looking for the longhaired man. Gou and the Shift Cars, meanwhile, have found Rinna.

Rinna meets with the Voice Roidmude, but Gou henshins and tries to stop him from taking her. Instead, Chase arrives to stop Gou.

Rinna runs off with Voice. Gou summons Rumble Dump and tries a Full Throttle finisher, but Chase counters with a Full Break Bat. Gou dehenshins.

While everyone is asking about the longhaired man around town, a bearded man on a motor bike with a sidecar arrives at The Pit.

Everyone meets back up at the SID. Otta tells them the longhaired man is Sasamoto Kisaburou, a physicist. He and Rinna were classmates at an American university and were very close. As in, romantically.

But Sasamoto disappeared after graduation. So it is likely that Rinna is going along with the Roidmude of her own free will. Kyu is sad thinking Rinna has been looking for him all this time when the real Sasamoto is likely dead.

Kiriko adds that Sasamoto had been researching a way to use sound to control living things. But the Roidmude perverted that research for their own gain.

Shinnosuke thinks as he pulls out the picture taken by Gou of Amagi. He shifts into top gear as he gets a call from Rinna.

Sasamoto takes Rinna to some kind of laboratory where she meets… the real Sasamoto. It turns out Rinna had asked Voice to bring her to the real Sasamoto if he was still alive. And here he is.

Voice was surprised when Rinna first asked, but having Sasamoto’s memories inside him, he understood. Flashback to the moment at university when Sasamoto told Rinna that his research is more important than their relationship.

Rinna tells Sasamoto that he just threw her away and left. But she’s been looking for him and since then, hasn’t found another man who could measure up.

Sasamoto seems remorseful that Rinna thinks so highly of him. But Voice says they should make up quickly and have Rinna help them with their research. Rinna refuses to have this research used for evil. Much to Voice’s shock, she uses a Shift Car to get him under control.

Rinna says she came here to free Kii-kun. But her Kii-kun slaps her hand, forcing her to drop the Shift Car. He grabs her arm behind her back and Voice manages to shoot at the Shift Car, allowing him to transform into his Roidmude form.

But Shinnosuke, Kiriko and the Shift Cars arrive just in time.

Kiriko takes Sasamoto from behind and Shinnosuke explains how he figured it out. Gou’s photo had both Amagi and the real Sasamoto in it. But that means Sasamoto is indeed doing this out of his own free will, which means he is a criminal.

Voice laughs and explains that Amagi was Sasamoto’s sponsor, hoping to use the sound research to help his matchmaking business. While Amagi wasn’t so receptive of working with a Roidmude, Sasamoto was willing.

Sasamoto says combining Voice’s power with his research, they’d be able to control people. He just wanted to see the results of his research in action.

Belt-san says Sasamoto was tempted into this foolish decision in the name of science. “You’re the same as the monster,” Shinnosuke says. They’re ready to bring him down to the station, but Voice will not let them go easily.

Kiriko shoots at Voice as they all run.

Two Roidmudes meet them outside, but Tridoron and Gou also arrive.

Shinnosuke and Gou both henshin. Shinnosuke goes Type Wild.

Gou takes on the two Roidmudes while Shinnosuke goes after Voice. But suddenly, the controlled women appear to protect the Roidmude. They grab both Gou and Shinnosuke as well as Kiriko.

But Dead Heat arrives, thanks to the bearded man. The man says Shift Dead Heat is complete. Gou recognizes this voice. It is Professor Harley!

Professor Harley tosses Dead Heat to Gou and he uphenshins to Dead Heat Mach.

Gou easily fights off all three Roidmudes. He uses a Sudden Dead Heat Burst and finishes off the two Roidmudes.

While Shinnosuke tries to use Hooking Wrecker to tie up the women, Voice reveals they all have bombs strapped to them.

No problem though as Gou unleashes a Full Throttle Dead Heat Burst finisher to finish Voice for good.

Professor Harley cheers. The women are free of Voice’s control and Shinnosuke goes over to them to try and remove the bombs.

Suddenly, Gou gets too hot and he goes out of control as well. He starts running toward the bombed women, but Shinnosuke can’t unleash a finisher right next to them.

But it’s okay. Kiriko delivers a Kiriko Kick to her little brother. “Nick kick!” Professor Harley compliments.

Later, Otta takes Sasamoto into custody. But first, he turns to Rinna and tells her while it’s late, he now realizes how much she means to him. He needs her by his side.

But Rinna says his voice no longer holds a piece of her heart. He committed a grave sin not only as a scientist, but as a human being. She won’t ever meet him again.

Rinna sadly walks away.

Chase creeps around nearby.

Back at The Pit, Rinna cries, but Professor Harley cheers her up.

Professor Harley tells Shinnosuke and Kiriko to keep an eye on “dangerous boy” Gou.

He has to get going now, but he first gives Rinna a food souvenir from America for her and Krim Belt-san to enjoy together.

Professor Harley hops on his motorcycle and drives off to continue his world tour.

Episode Thoughts

What an amusing episode.

Story wise, we officially welcome Dead Heat to the arsenal. Dead Heat’s cool.

But we got a lot more character stuff I think. First, we got to see more of where Brain’s head is at regarding Heart and his crush position in the hierarchy, I guess. Can’t wait for that Brain-Medic catfight in the future. lol

We get a little backstory on Rinna, which was great. It definitely added more to her character. Also good to see she can go out on her own. And her still trusting and believing her once upon a time love fit in well with her character.

Professor Harley was fun. I wish we got to see more of him and Gou though. It would be fun to see a flashback episode of Gou’s time in the US with Professor Harley.

Just a fun episode all around.

A Roidmude named Judge has been taking the law into his own hands. Confirming the case indeed involves a Roidmude, the SID are trying to figure out why a Roidmude would be interested in justice for humans. Gou pops in and says the Roidmude is just playing his own game.

Gou notices the SID is missing a few people. That’s when Kiriko realizes Chief Jun has been gone for three weeks even though he was only supposed to be gone on a 7 day vacation. Rinna says Kyu is at a book signing for one of his that was published recently.

Gou uses Kyu’s computer to show them the Judge Time underground website where people can post requests for justice to be handed down on certain people or groups.

Otta seems personally invested in this case. It’s the first time Shinnosuke has seen him this serious.

Otta visits a former colleague, Detective Tachibana Shingo, to tell him Judge has made his return after 5 years. It’s as Tachibana originally thought, this Judge is not dead. Since he is no longer a detective, he hopes Otta will finally catch him.

Outside Tachibana’s home, Otta sees Shinnosuke who followed him here.

They head to the piers where Otta tells his story. Tachibana was the veteran who taught Otta everything he knows about being a detective. Shinnosuke has heard of the intimidating Tachibana who never came across a case he couldn’t solve.

But 5 years ago, Otta and Tachibana worked on a case of serial revenge cases in which the suspect hunted down people whose names were posted on a website. They eventually found a lead and were sure they had found the suspect. But the suspect ended up committing suicide.

Tachibana, however, suspected the true culprit was someone else and continued investigating. He was never able to solve the case though and was forced to retire 2 years ago.

Otta is determined to solve this case for Tachibana. If he can’t, he will quit being a detective.

Back at the SID, they look at the Judge Time website to see the most requested
targets at the moment are Tenkawa Angel Real Estate and a gang known as Black Candle.

While Shinnosuke and Otta check out the real estate company, unbeknownest to them Gou is already looking into Black Candle on his own and sees they are already harassing another person. Gou thinks this is great since the Roidmude should surely appear.

But Judge has chosen the reality company. As soon as he appears, Otta charges toward him, but gets electrocuted by the Roidmude along with the owner and his bodyguards.

Shinnosuke henshins and fights the Roidmude who has exceptional kendo skills. Judge manages to get away.

Meanwhile, Gou has taken care of the Black Candle delinquents. The guy he has saved asks Gou if he is Judge. He wanted to film him. Gou says he is not, but the guy wants to film him for his web series anyway. He is a true hero of justice.

Kiriko suddenly arrives and the siblings trade barbs. Annoyed by Kiriko’s ribbing, Gou decides to go with the guy to film. Suspicious, Kiriko asks Colorful Commercial to follow.

Back at the SID, a recovering Otta asks Rinna to make him a new contraption that can handle Heaviness and electric shocks.

Across town, Gou is being filmed and interviewed about justice.

Otta brings Shinnosuke to the bridge where the suspect from 5 years ago died. However, he didn’t commit suicide. The young man, Okajima Touma, was killed by Judge to be used as a scapegoat. How do they know? For one thing, Touma had ripped a button form the coat of the murderer, but they were never able to find it. And second…

Otta sees a young woman on the bridge. She bows in greeting.

This is Akie, Touma’s sister. She invites them to the apartment where she tells them that even after 5 years, she still is drawn to that bridge. Tachibana also visits to offer a stick on incense every month. She knows her brother would never be able to commit suicide, but it was only Otta and Tachibana who believed her.

Akie saw the news of the new attacks. Otta vows to clear her brother’s name.

The Roidmude idols are discussing Judge. Brain suggests resetting Judge like they did to Chase to stop him from doing strange foolish things like helping humans. Medic and Chase think they should watch for a while. Heart says one thing they should learn about humans is that they are not simply good or evil. It is much more complicated than that. Chase says Judge, for example has a twisted feeling stronger than just a sense of justice. Heart says it’s revenge.

Back at the SID, Rinna has finished the upgraded Piko Piko. Kiriko sees there’s been a spike in requests on the Judge Time site for the Black Candle group after they posted a YouTube video.

Gou heads to where Black Candle are waiting. The Heaviness arrives and Judge appears.

Gou henshins. Judge manages to block all of Gou’s attacks. He turns his attention to the one remaining Black Candle member, but Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta arrive.

Otta, armed with the Piko Piko 3, charges toward Judge. Shinnosuke yells after him, but Otta tries attacking Judge only to get hit with several kendo moves. The attacks trigger a memory for Otta of him sparring in kendo against someone.

Shinnosuke and Judge take their fight away from a slightly unconscious Otta.

Shinnosuke henshins. Gou joins him.

Belt-san says Judge’s abilities have a frightening determination. But Shinnosuke says Judge’s justice isn’t real.

“And you think your justice is the real thing?”

Shinnosuke says he at least knows he must put a stop to cowardly monsters like Judge.

Shinnosuke decides to go Dead Heat. Belt-san commends Shinnosuke for being able to get a handle on Dead Heat now.

But Chase suddenly appears and attacks Shinnosuke and then Gou who comes to help.

A recovered Otta chases after Judge who tries to hobble off. Judge stops and Otta says the technique Judge used earlier is the same technique he’s fought against before.

“Are you…!?”

And it indeed it is. Judge is Tachibana. He laughs before escaping.

Chase gets off his bike and suddenly his bike combines with Gou’s to form Ride Crosser on its own. Chase hops in and starts shooting at both Shinnosuke and Gou.

Shinnosuke down-henshins, but Gou completely de-henshins. Gou demands Chase return his bike and charges toward Road Crosser amid a barrage of fire.

Episode Thoughts

This was a solid episode. It’s great to have Otta’s turn in the supporting character spotlight and it’s been fun seeing him become more comfortable with the SID crew.

The case of the week though is pretty grimdark. Kind of a Death Note-type deal mixed with modern internet technology. But most dark, it would appear the original Judge murdered an innocent man for goodness sakes. It was very sad seeing the sister. Damn.

I will assume Tachibana has some kind of reason for becoming a Roidmude. They focused on a picture of his, I guess, wife or something. So that might play into it. But the most I took away from this episode was getting to see Otta pre-SID and being a serious detective.

I also enjoyed the Shijima sibling ribbing too. That was a fun little scene, seeing siblings actually doing what real life siblings would do with teasing and getting under each other’s skin.

But what is up with Chief Jun? (Who is apparently back next episode, but I doubt his absence is of any importance to the story lol) And was that Kyu under the hood with the computers?

Overall, a good solid episode.

Gou runs straight towards Chase who is inside Ride Crosser. But Tridoron arrives to shield Gou from the blasts. Shinnosuke hops in and they manage to get Chase out of Ride Crosser. Chase runs off.

Back at the apartment, Otta asks Tachibana why he would do this. Tachibana explains that he wanted to draw out the real Judge who should be worried now that people realize the suicide 5 years ago was a fake. If they play their cards right, they’ll be able to find and arrest the real culprit.

But Otta does not understand. Would Tachibana-san really give up his beliefs and ideals as a policeman to do this? Yes, Tachibana replies.

Otta says this cannot be. If Tachibana continues, he will have to stop him. Otta storms out.

Shinnosuke gets direct with Tachibana. For the Roidmude to copy him, there needed to be a lot of emotion coming from him to allow that to happen. Was it the need for revenge in the death of Okajima Toma?

Tachibana explains that after Akie’s parents died when she was young, her only blood relative left, her brother Toma, died being known as a criminal. That weighed on her everyday and even ruined her first chance at being happy when her fiancé cancelled their wedding.

Tachibana felt responsible for this since he wasn’t able to catch the real suspect. And the Roidmude 065 drew from that anger and hatred.

The Roidmude appears and zaps Shinnosuke allowing Tachibana to leave with.

Meanwhile, the hooded figure in front of the computers and likely real Judge turns out to be the guy who wanted to film Gou earlier.

Gou is walking along, annoyed by the whole situation when suddenly, a mob of people go up to him wanting a picture with “Judge.” Gou runs and hides and the mob runs off.

But the 065 Roidmude appears, thinking he’s found Judge. They have a back and forth pointing fingers at each other as to who’s the real Judge.

Gou henshins and they fight.

But he’s back at the Pit now. He’s still henshined because he can’t calm down otherwise. Kiriko shows them why “Judge” attacked Gou in the first place.

A video of Gou declaring himself to be Judge has been sent to TV stations and is now all over. Gou can’t believe he is being used as a scapegoat. He tells them it was shot by a guy named Utsugi, but he doesn’t have any way to contact him.

That’s okay, Kiriko says, since Colorful Commercial saw it all. They bring the screencaps from Colorful Commercial’s video showing Utsugi’s face to Otta.

They realize this is the real Judge so they must quickly find him.

Kyu suddenly pops in and says he thinks Utsugi isn’t his real name. And he couldn’t find anything using facial recognition either. Just as suddenly, Chief Jun appears as well.

Chief Jun apologizes for being away for so long and explains he lost his passport right before they were about to board the plane to Hawaii. So he and his family traveled around Japan instead. He hands each of them pasalubongs from his trip and says his relationship with his daughter is even worse now than it was before.

Anyway, Shinnosuke shifts into top gear and runs off to find the button. Both Kiriko and Otta are also in top gear and head out as well.

Kyu sees Utsugi has set up a new revenge site. Belt-san informs Shinnosuke that Utsugi will enact his revenge in 2 hours.

Shinnosuke searches around the bridge for the button and Belt-san sends the Shift Cars to help.

Just as he’s searching, Akie arrives and tells Shinnosuke that she’s quit her job and is moving away from the city. Shinnosuke asks her to wait a little bit more as he and his comrades are now chasing after the true culprit.

“Just once more, please have faith in the police.”

While Otta runs around, he runs into Colorful Commercial. He recognizes it as one of Shinnosuke’s minicars and wonders why it’s here. He picks it up and sees how old fashioned it is, like himself. But some things about police work never change. He learned that from a sempai of his, the same one who’s committed a crime to lure out a criminal. Otta cries and his tear falls on Colorful Commercial who lights up and starts playing enka music to help cheer him up.

Otta realizes now’s not the time to be moping. Colorful Commercial hops off and heads to the others. It tells Belt-san it feels hot blooded and is filled with police soul. Shinnosuke knows it’s from Otta.

Otta returns to the SID and Kyu tells him about the tons of new requests being sent to Utsugi’s revenge site. How can they possibly know which one Utsugi will choose?

Chief Jun says they can’t do anything but turn to their fortune for the day. He opens the book and finds his passport!

More importantly, Otta knows just the way they can catch Utsugi.

Utsugi has chosen his target. A woman. With a dog.

He goes to confront her. But it’s Kiriko! She delivers a high-heeled Kiriko Kick and Otta manages to cuff Utsugi.

Otta explains he’s studied this case for 5 years and realized there’s a pattern to whom he attacks. So he narrowed down the candidates and took a gamble using a detective’s intuition.

But why did Utsugi choose Okajima Toma? He did not fit the pattern. Utsugi maintains that there’s no proof he was involved in that.

But Shinnosuke appears with proof. He’s found the button, thanks to Colorful Commercial. And the button has the fingerprints of Okajima Toma and Utsugi.

Tachibana appears, accompanied by 065 and they demand to have Utsugi handed over for punishment. But Otta refuses. Utsugi will be judged with due process. That’s the justice police believe in.

065 says he’ll finish off Utsugi and continue to avenge. Tachibana says that wasn’t part of the plan. But 065 says he only used Tachibana’s anger to evolve.

065 charges toward them and knocks Otta out. Shinnosuke henshins.

They battle.

Shinnosuke goes Wild and calls on Rumble Dump for help.

Chase suddenly appears, but Gou does as well. Gou says this is official police business so he and Chase should settle things separately. Fine by Chase.

They both henshin.

Gou goes Dead Heat and Chase goes Spider. Chase tries initiating Ride Crosser, but it doesn’t work. Gou laughs. He didn’t bring his bike today.

Shinnosuke uses a Full Throttle Dump Finisher on 065. Chase is enraged they’ve killed another of his comrades. But Gou’s Sudden Dead Heat forces Chase to run away.

Gou happily tells his Shin-niisan that he can fully handle Dead Heat now.

Otta picks Utsugi up from the ground and demands to know why he used Okajima Toma as the scapegoat. Utsugi says it’s because he saved him. He was being attacked by a gang when Toma broke it up. Toma asking him if he was okay while smiling pissed him off. “Like he was more of a hero than me who was operating as the avenger!”

Otta wants to absolutely beat the crap out of this a-hole. But Gou stops him. He’s not worth it, Gou says.

Otta officially puts Utsugi under arrest and Kiriko takes him.

Tachibana holds his hands out to be cuffed as well. Otta hesitates, but Shinnosuke walks over and says the only crime was his twisted heart. And they’ve already taken care of that. He puts Tachibana’s hands down and asks him to tell Akie that her brother has been proved innocent.

Tachibana asks Shinnosuke his name and tells Otta that he’s got a good comrade. Yes! Otta says.

All smiles.

Episode Thoughts

All smiles indeed. Good resolution to the case. It was a great two-parter for Otta. He’s definitely opened up and is now definitely fully a part of the team. I think it developed very well from when we first met him.

It’s also very refreshing to see them doing actual police work and police things, like arresting people and all that in addition to getting rid of the monsters of the week.

I think it also says a lot about how engaging the episode was that I didn’t even notice the idol group didn’t make an appearance until writing this, minus Chase popping up for really no reason but to give Gou something to do. (Which was fine. lol)

So overall, another good episode.

Oh, and Colorful Commercial is fun. I hope Toei includes something as Japanese as that dekatora in Ninninger. Give Saban something else to stress over when adapting it for Power Rangers. lol

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Gou are on their way to surprise Kyu at his book signing. But on the way, the Heaviness strikes.

Gou henshins while Shinnosuke has to wait for Belt-san. He finds the Roidmude 072 on a rooftop holding some woman near the edge. Gou does his intro spiel and 072 goes wild!

He loves it! He is very excited. Even more when another Kamen Rider pops in too. But doesn’t Shinnosuke also have a flashy introduction? 072 demands one.

Shinnosuke comes up with something and 072 loves it. They don’t really understand what’s going, but something about 072’s way of speaking sounds very familiar to Shinnosuke.

Suddenly, Roidmude 044 and 094 arrive and immediately attack 072. 072 runs and the two Roidmude attack Shinnosuke and Gou. Belt-san says these two are in the middle of evolving.

Shinnosuke goes Wild, but Gou still needs to help him, eventually driving the two Roidmude away.

They rejoin Kiriko who has just found where 072 ran off to. Gou recognizes this as Kyu’s apartment. They suddenly hear arguing from inside and they barge in.

Much to their shock, they find TWO Kyus!

Meanwhile by the water, Medic introduces 044 and 094 to Heart as the new Reapers. She’s tasked them with the job of resetting defective Roidmudes since Chase can longer harm other Roidmudes.

Heart loves it. Medic appreciates the compliments. She points out how she’s nothing like and better than Brain.

Brain has been listening and he does not like it. He storms off, frustrated again by Medic.

Over at the SID, they’ve dressed the two Kyus in either a black or white shirt to help tell them apart easier as they try to figure out who is the real one. Black Saijou says they’re twins. But Kiriko suggests they question them separately.

Otta and Rinna are interrogating Black Saiijou. Kyu’s real name is Imai Kenta and he doesn’t have any siblings. Shinnosuke and Kiriko are with White Saijou who ends up confessing.

072 copied him on New Year’s in order to look for the Kamen Rider since he was close to the SID. But 072 didn’t kill him and has been living with Kyu ever since. Sometimes, 072 even comes in to work for Kyu instead, but hasn’t found anything info on the Kamen Rider.

Black Saijou has also told Otta the same story.

But Shinnosuke doesn’t understand one thing. The real Kyu would’ve immediately pointed fingers at the fake one, but he hasn’t. Anyway, why would the Roidmude attack the woman earlier? White Saijou says Shinnosuke wouldn’t understand since he doesn’t watch anime.

Later, Shinnosuke decides to binge watch Murmur Mansion, the anime on Kyu’s shirt. Afterwards, he is finally in top gear.

The two Kyus are released next morning. Exiting the station, the Kyus are confronted by Otta in sunglasses and with a shotgun. Chief Jun tries to get Otta to calm down, but it’s only a fake shotgun.

Shinnosuke says it’s okay. He pulls out a commemorative plate for the start of the new Murmur Mansion. The two Kyus go crazy for it since there are only 5 in existence.

But Shinnosuke knows how to use this to determine the real and fake Kyu. He tosses the plate into the air and the two Kys run. But Black Saijou trips over himself while White Saijou leaps into the air and safely catches the plate.

Oops. White Saijou runs, but Shinnosuke and Kiriko cut him off.

Shinnosuke admits the plate is just a replica, the Shift Cars made it themselves. White Saijou realizes Shinnosuke is Kamen Rider Drive and he understands this is the end for him.

White Saijou reverts to his Roidmude form. But Shinnosuke says not so fast. All mysteries have been solved. Kyu decided on his own to allow 072 to stay with him.

The real Kyu is stopping Otta from pursuing the Roidmude. Rinna tells them Shinnosuke’s hunch was right. Kyu was covering up for the Roidmude!

Kyu tells them the whole story. 072 was about to get rid of him, but Kyu asked for one dying wish: That he could at least watch that night’s episode of Murmur Mansion.

072 allows Kyu to watch it. After it is over, Kyu is very emotional from the story and is happy he’s at least gotten to see it before he dies. But to his surprise, 072 has been affected by all the MaGMCMs in the episode too. They both cry.

Shinnosuke continues his conclusion. Having been touched by the anime, Kyu and 072 decided they could switch with each other from time to time so they can both enjoy living with humans.

Turns out, the announcement meeting of Murmur Mansion‘s movie clashed with Kyu’s book signing schedule. So Kyu and 072 decided to split up to go to both events. 072 went to the movie meeting and was so upset at one of the announcements, he caused the Heaviness and everyone to panic.

072 attacked the woman because she was the voice actress. Kiriko is not sure she understands. Shinnosuke explains that Murmur Mansion is better subtitled. So if they get another idol actress to play the part, it’ll ruin everything!

Exactly! 072 says. Shinnosuke says he knows Kyu is a good person. That’s why since 072 copied Kyu, Shinnosuke does not want to assume that 072 is a bad guy. In other words, there may be Roidmude who are good.

Shinnosuke turns to Kiriko, “Even by accident.”

Kiriko remembers her knight Chase. Is Shinnosuke? “Are you comparing 072 to Chase?” Belt-san asks.

Shinnosuke tells 072 that he wanted to talk to him first before deciding whether to defeat him or not. 072 says if it is possible, he would like to continue living like this, with Kyu and among humans.

But suddenly, Medic’s damn tentacle pierces through 072 chest, causing him to drop the plate.

072 collapses and reverts to his Kyu form.

“An awful defect, just as reported,” Medic says. “To think, he wanted to be friends with humans!”
“You bitch!”

Shinnosuke is incensed. Gou arrives to help.

072 has one final favor to ask of Shinnosuke, Kamen Rider Drive. He wants Shinnosuke to tell Kyu that he rampaged and needed to be taken care of. Despite his outward happy appearance, Kyu can get very emotional. “I know that… because we share the same heart.”

072 pushes off Shinnosuke and Kiriko and reverts to his Roidmude form before exploding, including his Viral Core.

Belt-san can sense it. “Time to go.” An enraged Shinnosuke is ready for revenge. He henshins.

Gou fights the two Reaper Roidmudes. But he notes that they destroyed even the Viral Core. Medic explains that recently she realized that Roidmude remain defective no matter how many times they’re reset. That’s why, except for Heart-sama, herself and select Roidmude, it is more efficient to eliminate everyone. This is the new way of the Grim Reapers.

Shinnosuke arrives. “Don’t compare yourself to Chaser!”

Shinnosuke remembers Chase saying he does not destroy Viral Cores as he grants Roidmudes a chance to start over.

“We don’t call people like you Grim Reapers. We call them demons!”

Medic cannot believe what she has just been called. Shinnosuke decides to go Dead Heat.

Gou takes a seat as Shinnosuke fights the two Roidmude as well as charge toward Medic. Medic starts shooting a laser beam at Shinnosuke which Belt-san says could slice through Drive’s body. Shinnosuke says he is burning up much more than that right now. He uses Max Flare to send the laser power back to Medic.

He then engages a Max Flare Finisher to finish off Medic, but she uses her disgusting tentacles to grab the two Roidmudes to absorb the attack instead. This allows her to escape.

Shinnosuke lets out a scream of agony.

Later at the SID, Kyu apologizes to everyone for the trouble he caused. He’s also sad that 072 ended up going crazy in the end after all. Chief Jun says that Kyu has experienced something others have not and that he can learn from this experience.

While the SID gets back to their playful antics, Medic is still fuming over earlier. She has a cut on her arm.

“Unforgivable!”

Medic morphs into her evolved Roidmude form.

Episode Thoughts

I really liked this episode. It was okay for Kyu, but the star was definitely Roidmude 072.

I always hate when they make nice Monsters of the Week. Like either making them sympathetic or want to repent or giving them childlike voices. Things get really sad. And it definitely did here thanks to that biotch Medic.

What a horrible person thing. lol I’m definitely #TeamBrain when it comes to the idol group in-fighting. Plus, 072’s story and Shinnosuke coming around on the idea of reformed or “good” Roidmude is definitely setting up the next moves in Chase’s story, yes?

But was that bleeding Medic supposed to mean something? I have no idea.

Anyway, I’m always a sucker for the “nice” MOTWs who are basically killed because they get caught up with the wrong crowd. (That’s a lesson for the kids out there!) That’s why I love Gokaiger‘s hopeless romantic Jealousto who gets to survive after leaving the Zangyack.

I also loved Kyu’s line, “The gags are basic, but there are still many emotional scenes” or “It’s a comedy, but they still tell emotional stories.” Pretty much describes most toku, yes? I think that definitely describes many of Yasuko Kobayashi’s greatest works. And that’s pretty much why I love her work. Goofy and simple on the surface, but down deep, it’s emotional and affecting. That’s what I look for.

Many a Kamen Rider season also features plenty of comedy, but ends up being grimdark by the end (to varying degrees). I wonder where Drive will end up. We’re nearing the midpoint climax! Should be exciting.

Otta is telling the SID about five different murders happening almost simultaneously in different locations around the city. There doesn’t seem to be any monsters involved, but he’s been put on the case of one of the murders so he won’t be around for a while. Kyu excuses himself to go check on something at home.

Otta shows the rest of them a picture of a suspicious biker who was seen wandering near the scene. It’s Chase!

Shinnosuke and Kiriko show Gou and Belt-san the picture. Gou says his big bro and sis should wake up and realize Chase is nothing but a killing machine. He challenges Shin-niisan in a race to find Chase first. If Gou does, then he’ll crush him with mach speed.

Shinnosuke tells Gou to stop with the pointless bravado. None of this will make Kiriko feel any better. On the contrary, Gou says, he thinks this is what’s best for his big sister.

Gou leaves. Belt-san says he agrees with him. With Medic as the new Reaper, Belt-san fears Mashin Chaser’s programming has been corrupted even further to the point that it would be difficult to turn him back.

Shinnosuke can’t believe Belt-san would want the first Kamen Rider who fought with him during the Global Freeze be destroyed as easy as that.

Shinnosuke says he’s with Kiriko and wants to believe in Chase too. But if he really starts harming people, then Shinnosuke will have to take care of him. Kiriko says she understands.

The idols are by the water. Medic lies to Heart and says in addition to killing her reapers, the Kamen Riders were responsible for killing 072. Which is why it is time for Chase to finish them off for good. She’s given him some kind of upgrade and he is ready to finally defeat the Kamen Riders. Heart is excited.

But Brain wonders just what Medic is up to now.

Chase goes over to his bike where Otta and his partner are waiting to question him. But Chase does not want to cooperate and hurls both Otta and his partner into crates and barrels and cement.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko arrive and Chase henshins. The Heaviness strikes just as Gou jumps in.

Otta is excited to see the white Kamen Rider. But Shinnosuke also henshins and Otta sees there are indeed two.

Shinnosuke tries to help, but Gou tells him to take care of Otta and partner instead. Shinnosuke uses Dimension Cab to split himself in half and grab Otta and partner to take them to safety.

Gou goes Dead Heat, but Chase sends out a blast of Heaviness that affects Gou anyway. Chase uses Chaser Spider to knock Gou around. Kiriko comes running and aims her gun at Chase just as he approaches Gou for a final strike.

Kiriko is hesitating. She remembers Proto Drive saving her the night of the Global Freeze. She freezes right now as Chase gets ready to finish Gou off.

But Shinnosuke arrives already in Technic to stop Chase. Gou is reaching the danger level, so he downhenshins.

“Are you really hurting humans now?!” Shinnosuke asks Chase. He tries to get Chase to remember he was Proto Drive and how deep inside, he has the will to protect humans. Chase asserts that he only protects the Roidmude and will take any life necessary to do so.

“I knew it,” Belt-san says.

Suddenly, Medic appears and insults them. “Ill-bred. You people seriously lack breeding. Like a child taking food while it’s still cooking.”

She tells Chase to withdraw and he does. She jumps down and transforms into her evolved form to stop Shinnosuke and Gou from chasing after Chase. Three of her Reapers appear and fight them.

Medic uses her tentacle to modify one of her Reapers on the spot by giving him a gun for an arm.

Brain is watching from nearby. So Medic can modify and upgrade. Does that mean she’s done something to Chase’s body as well?

Medic leaves with two of her Reapers while the gun-armed one remains for Gou and Shinnosuke to easily take care of.

Back at the SID, Otta comes in with drawings of the FOUR Kamen Riders he believes exists. Anyway, Shinnosuke suddenly recognizes one of the murdered victims from the scene of the Bolt case. All these victims must be whom the Roidmude originally copied and are now being disposed of.

But how does that explain the simultaneous times of death? Gou asks.

Otta shows them a composite sketch of Chase and asks them to look for him in his place.

Gou takes the photo and approaches Shinnosuke saying he only thinks someone else killed these five because he doesn’t want to believe Chase did it.

Chief Jun says they have no evidence though. That is, until Kyu comes running in. He explains that he’s found a way to track Roidmudes. Their spirit, their core, is able to scour the internet to search for suitable humans to copy. That’s why he found the trail of 072 while analyzing his blog. And that’s how he found the same data trail leading to these five murder victims.

It proves that the Roidmude had been tracking them.

Shinnosuke is happy they’ve now found another way to track the Roidmude using something other than Gravity Shift particles.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko head to the Pit to tell Belt-san who proposes they split the Shift Cars into five teams to investigate each of the victims’ situations.

As the Shift Cars fan out into the city, they are suddenly attacked. By Medic. She blows her purple breath onto them.

Meanwhile, Brain watches as Chase polishes his gun. “So it’s time?” Brain asks. Chase says this is indeed the time he will finally crush the Kamen Riders.

Brain offers to give him a little something-something to help.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are in Tridoron and Belt-san says there’s an SOS from Justice Hunter. They hurry.

Meanwhile, Gou has found Chase. But Medic pops in and knocks Gou off his bike allowing Chase to drive off.

Heart appears as well and wants to have some fun. Gou decides to go Dead Heat. They fight.

Justice Hunter appears in front of Tridoron and they stop. But when Shinnosuke and Kiriko get out, Justice Hunter attacks them then leads them right into a trap.

The other Shift Cars appear and Belt-san sees they are being controlled. Chase appears and says this was all planned by Medic to allow them to settle things once and for all. Medic admits to Gou that those dead bodies were used as bait knowing that the Shift Cars would be split up to investigate.

Heart says cutting Shinnosuke off from the Shift Cars will allow Chase to deal the final blow.

Chase henshins and unleashes a Gravity Shift. He sets Burning Solar to finish them off, but Shift Wild and Shift Technic arrive to free Shinnosuke and Kiriko from the Heaviness.

Shinnosuke henshins directly to Wild and he and Chase fight.

Chase uses Funky Spike to counter Shinnosuke’s attacks and the other possessed Shift Cars come to help attack. Shinnosuke says the only Shift Car left is Dead Heat. But Belt-san says Gou is using it right now.

Suddenly, Chase uses his Break Gunner to initiate a new power. He slams the ground and a strange energy field envelops them. Gou sees the strange light.

Shinnosuke finds he can’t even move. Belt-san says this is a pressure even greater than a Gravity Shift.

“This eternal silence… is a world known only to the two of us. That is, until the moment I end your life!”

Chase kicks Shinnosuke around. Gou realizes the situation and downhenshins to send Dead Heat to help Shinnosuke.

Dead Heat manages to help Shinnosuke move a little more freely, though still heavy. Chase tosses and shoots at Shinnosuke. He then inserts Chaser Spider to deliver a final blow.

But Shinnosuke calls out. “Have you really become a murderous machine? You once saved Kiriko’s life! Don’t you care that she’ll die too?!”

Chase begins twitching with his head pains, but fights it, pointing his Break Gunner back at Shinnosuke.

Belt-san says this is do or die. It’s time for the new Shift Car that he’s kept hidden from Shinnosuke. There are no other options left, however using it without training is even more dangerous than Dead Heat!

Belt-san sees Shinnosuke is in top gear. Chase uses Chaser Bat and Chaser Cobra for a Triple Tune. He shoots at Shinnosuke with the Shift Cars adding extra punches.

But emerging from the huge fireball…

Type Formula!

Episode Thoughts

Pretty good episode. I enjoyed it. Though I think we’ve been promised the decisive battle between Drive and Chase almost every week. lol

At the same time, it’s a typical build up to another power-up which is fine. Whether or not we see any movement on the story front, we’ll see next week.

The most interesting thing for me this episode though was when Kiriko actually hesitated to shoot Chase (which wouldn’t have even left a scratch on him anyway) instead of saving her BROTHER? Wow! Right? Like, she can be head over heels in love with Chase or whatever, but we’ve seen that her relationship with Gou should trump that easily. Regardless of Chase being her rain-soaked Knight.

That scene really stood out to me. I don’t know if it was poor writing, disregarding the characters for a “dramatic” moment or are the really implying the usually awesome Kiriko would think twice about saving her little brother. (They’re all each other has, right?)

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter because after the first few weeks of Gou’s introduction, the show’s been very focused on planting the seeds for Chase’s “redemption” arc and it’s mainly been Kiriko doing the planting with Shinnosuke joining in after last week and 072. At the same time, making Gou out to be the cocky, heartless hothead who doesn’t want to give poor Chase a chance.

Hmm… Very interesting.

On the flipside, the idols always hanging out in dark places can get very amusing. Especially with scenes like Brain sending a thrill up Chase’s body in a romantic candlelit room. What’s the target audience again? lol

Kiriko helps a banged up Shinnosuke back to the Pit where Rinna is giving each of the Shift Cars a thorough cleaning to remove Medic’s yucky breath off of them. Until Rinna is finished, they won’t be able to use any of them. But it’s okay, Belt-san says, since it’s thanks to Shinnosuke that they were all saved.

Flashback to the moment Shinnosuke uphenshins to Type Formula. Chase is shocked to see this new power that is able to withstand his own new power. Kiriko and the Shift Cars are safely contained in an orb as Shinnosuke initiates a Full Throttle finisher.

Formula’s finisher put a very heavy burden on Shinnosuke, but it’s fine. As long as everyone is okay. Shinnosuke thanks Gou too for allowing Dead Heat to help as well. Gou pats Shinnosuke on the back and says the race to defeat Chase first is not over yet. He leaves. Kiriko follows.

Belt-san says they need a finisher that won’t be too strenuous on Shinnosuke’s body. Rinna says she has a new weapon that’s almost complete, but she just can’t get the last little bit done. She remembers the present from Professor Harley and thinks maybe there’s a clue in it. She opens the box, but it’s just a box of the Professor’s homemade Harley Pies.

Kiriko tells Gou not to make everyone worry. He tells his neechan not to make him worry.

“I’ve got to finish this quick. In the end, Chase is just the 109th of them.”

Suddenly, a group of men enter the SID. Chief Jun tells them this is not the license department and they should leave. But he sees Kyu starting to tremble. Chief Jun looks at the men then at their board.

It’s the day of the living dead!

The men attack. Gou and Kiriko try to fight them off, but they manage to knock Kiriko out and carry her out.

Chief Jun hurls whatever he can get a hold of from the desk at one of the men. And when he throws Shift Wild at it, it disintegrates. Chief Jun is amazed at Shinnosuke’s minicar.

Gou sees what he needs to do and follows the other man out and throws one of the Signal Bikes at him.

Having sensed the trouble, Belt-san sends Shinnosuke back upstairs. He checks on Chief Jun then looks at the pile of ashes. Belt-san, talking through Shift Wild, says Medic must have created copies of the long-dead bodies.

Kyu tells Shinnosuke that the men have taken Kiriko and he hurries out.

Down in the Pit, Rinna is frustrated she still hasn’t been able to find a way to link all the Shift Cars’ energy together. She decides to eat a Harley Pie.

Meanwhile, the corpses deliver a very unconscious Kiriko to a waiting Chase. He shoots them after taking Kiriko into his arms. But Gou quickly arrives as well.

Chase tells Gou to disappear, but Gou quickly henshins. Chase asserts that he was told to only destroy Drive. “And you kidnap my sister to do it? You coward! How can you play around with human lives?!”

Suddenly, Chase gets flashes. Protect Roidmude lives or human lives?

“Human… lives…”

Chase gently sets Kiriko down on the ground before backing away. Gou runs over to his sister.

“What have I been doing? Why did I resort to such a cowardly plan?”

Chase tells Gou to inform Drive that they will have a fair fight at midday.

“You think I’ll trust a murderer?”
“I have never killed a human!”
“Don’t lie! I have to defeat all the Roidmude as quickly as possible. The Roidmude are evil. Do you think I’ll ever believe you?”

Evolved form Medic flowers herself in, flanked by her Reapers. She’s made Chase unconscious and wonders why her programming of Chase has failed. Kiriko wakes up and Gou sets her down before going Dead Heat to take care of the two Reapers. Medic has whisked Chase away.

Gou dehenshins, but collapses. He comes to with Shinnosuke and Kiriko looking over him. Shinnosuke apologizes for being late.

“You’re so soft-hearted,” Gou says. “You should be happy our race is a bust.”
“Idiot! Why are you always like this?!”
“I’m different from you, Shin-niisan! Drive is the people-saving Rider. Mach is the enemy-destroying Rider. That’s how it should be.”
“You…”

Gou tells Shinnosuke about Chase wanting to fight fair and square. “Time to show what you can do, Shin-niisan. Right?”

Meanwhile, the atmosphere has shifted drastically from the last time Chase and Brain were in the candlelit room. This time, Chase pins Brain down on the couch.

He points his gun to Brain’s face.

This is under Medic’s orders who is sitting at the table. She knows it was Brain who weakened Chase’s programming. But she’s now done some emergency repairs and injected him with a serum that raises his destructive impulses to a new high for a short period.

“If I so order it, he will mercilessly kill whomever I wish,” Medic says with a huge smile.

Brain begs for his life. Medic prefers this submissive Brain. She calls Chase off and tells him to focus on the first target she told him about. “Kamen Rider Drive.” Chase leaves.

“Out of consideration to Heart-sama, I shall allow you to live. This time.”

Brain looks for his handkerchief, but it’s gone. Medic has it. And she cruelly lights it on fire and throws it into the fireplace.

Brain is beside himself.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko drive downtown where Chase is rampaging.

Kiriko again tries to talk to Chase, remembering how he saved her life. She begs him to stop.

“I believe in you! Deep within you, in your heart, you still have the will to protect people! You have the same heart of a Kamen Rider as Tomari-san!”

Chase shoots at them. Shinnosuke grabs Kiriko out of the way.

It’s no use. “I can’t hear it… the voice coming from his heart… I can’t heart it anymore.”

Shinnosuke understands. He tells a distraught Kiriko to help get the people to safety. “I’m done thinking about it.”

Shinnosuke faces Chase. “Forgive me. But I must defeat you… before you actually kill someone!”

“It is such a shame…” Belt-san says.

Shinnosuke henshins. They battle.

Kiriko returns just as Chase has initiated his force field again to freeze Shinnosuke. Dead Heat arrives to help Shinnosuke move, but Chase still has the upper hand.

Back at the Pit, a still frustrated Rinna has eaten all of the Harley Pies. But she notices different formulas inside the wrappers. That’s it!!!

Shinnosuke is still being overpowered and Belt-san warns that the Dead Heat tire is going to burst. But Shinnosuke says they have no choice other than to use Formula. Belt-san says Shinnosuke can’t handle another Full Throttle.

Chase prepares a Triple Tune and aims at Shinnosuke. But he is suddenly shot at. They all turn to look. Something is arriving. A huge trailer? Belt-san says this is the new weapon.

Formula emerges from the big-rig. Shinnosuke asks if they’ll be able to finish this fight with the new trailer. Belt-san says they must trust that it will.

Shinnosuke inserts the Shift Car and uphenshins to Type Formula.

Chase charges, but Shinnosuke is much too fast and absolutely knocks Chase around. The trailer slowly drives up.

“It must have massive power to even be able to move in this Hyper Gravity Shift.”

Belt-san tells Shinnosuke to slide the trailer’s cab. Shinnosuke calls it the Trailer Cannon. Belt-san tells him to insert Shift Formula to make it Formula Cannon. Shinnosuke shoots and Chase gets thrown.

Belt-san says loading Shift Speed and Wild will initiate the finisher. Shinnosuke complies and prepares a Full Throttle Full Full Formula Cannon Finisher which completely overpowers Chase’s Triple Tune.

Chase gets hurled into the sky and explodes, Viral Core included.

“Chaser… if only we had been allies… I would have been so happy.”

Back at the Pit, Gou sees they’ve brought Chase’s bike back. “The spoils of war? But I don’t really see myself riding it.” ‘

Kiriko is deep in thought.

At the SID, Rinna is helping Chief Jun clean up the ashes while Kyu tries to ward off the evil spirits.

Shinnosuke has the Trailer and Formula with him at the table. Chief Jun says Shinnosuke’s minicars are their guardian angels.

“Let’s keep up the good work. For Chase’s sake as well.”
“Of course,” Belt-san says.

It’s a wet, rainy night in the city. Kiriko is walking home alone when suddenly, she sees a man who looks to be struggling on the ground.

Chase!

Episode Thoughts

Interesting episode! I do like how the “decisive battle” between Shinnosuke and Chase and the introduction of new toy!! Formula worked well together. More fun toys though is perfectly fine with me. And I do enjoy how they’ve really milked the car theme this season for all its worth.

But more important for me is the actual story. First of all, I definitely enjoy seeing more of the Roidmudes’ interactions with each other. We’ve seen high-blood Brain several times already in the background, but it was great to see Medic finally confront him. And in a very dire way too. ToQger has made me crave more villain drama in all my toku shows, so I’m happy to see Drive dipping their toes into such story now as well. I definitely hope to see more in the future. Plus, I’m definitely #TeamBrain. lol

As for Chase, I am also really hoping this really does signify a new chapter in his story. They couldn’t possibly reprogram him again can they? It’s either he finally turns “good” or he gets killed off. I think they’ve been able to drag his story out well enough for 22 episodes, but this has to be the real turning point, yes?

I still feel like they’re shortchanging Gou though. We don’t really know if he actually has a deep motivation for being so adamant about getting rid of the Roidmude (maybe they’ve affected him physically back in the States or their parents died because of Roidmude or he is just very protective of his sister) or if he’s just an overzealous guy. I really hope it’s the former since he’s probably my favorite character this season and there’s so much potential for great story there if they can do it well.

Same with Chase.

So overall, an enjoyable and great episode that hopefully revs us up for the impending midseason climax. Right? =D

Heart and a crying Brain are mourning their good friend Chase. Brain says if only a more skilled person reprogrammed him, this wouldn’t have happened. Medic pops in. “And who would that be?!” she asks smugly.

She coldly tells Heart that it’s okay since Chase was not one of the Promised Numbers. He was bound to fall anyway, so it happened. Big deal.

Heart says it is a big deal because when you lose a friend, it is an indescribable heartbreaking feeling.

Brain pushes Medic out of the way to sit next to Heart. “It’s okay Heart, we’ll definitely get our revenge.”

Meanwhile, Kiriko is walking through an abandoned hospital. She has Mad Doctor with her and tells him they must keep this a secret.

She enters a room and inside is… Chase.

Kiriko inserts Mad Doctor into Chase’s Break Gunner and shoots it into Chase, hoping it will help.

Otta is briefing Shinnosuke and Kyu about a serial bomber that is attacking the city. Though the First Division is on the case, Otta believes the Koinyoubou Roidmude are involved since the explosions always happen after the locations had already been searched. So if they are able to crack this case, the SID’s credibility with skyrocket.

Otta asks where everyone is. Chief Jun is on a business trip while Rinna is focusing on her research. As for Kiriko…

Kiriko comes running in, apologizing for being late. Shinnosuke can’t believe she actually overslept. Yes, that’s it, Kiriko says to cover her tracks. But Shinnosuke isn’t so sure after she says it.

Otta gets a call about a fourth bomb threat.

Gou is vigorously working out at the gym, resolved to become stronger. Shin-niisan and neechan come looking for him, hoping he can help.

They head over to the amusement park location of the latest bomb threat. The bomb squad is called off again minutes before the scheduled time when they can’t find anything.

Gou and Shinnosuke are continuing to search, not really sure what they’re looking for anyway,

But Shinnosuke sees a young guy excitedly taking pictures of the Ferris wheel. Shinnosuke approaches him and asks what he’s doing in this off-limits area. The guy says he just wanted to see the explosion and then runs off.

Shinnosuke looks up at Gou on the Ferris wheel and henshins just as 3pm strikes. A bomb goes off right where Gou is, sending him down to the ground.

Shinnosuke hurries over to Gou when the Shoot Roidmude suddenly appears, upset the Ferris wheel did not suffer any damage. Shinnosuke charges toward Shoot, but he is mysteriously hit, numerous times. He and Belt-san have no idea what is going on. Shoot just laughs, but Gou gets up and uses the Stop Signal Bike to drive the Roidmude away.

Shinnosuke sees a dart drop nearby and picks it up as he and Gou head back to the Pit.

Kiriko bandages them both up and says Gou helped stop the explosion from causing worse damage. Belt-san says Mad Doctor could help ease some of their pain if here were here. He asks Kiriko if she knows where he is. She gets up and runs off to find him.

Belt-san asks Rinna who asks not to be bothered. She’s busy trying to develop Shift Cars to help ease the burden of using Type Formula. “For Drive again?” Gou asks, “Maybe Shin-niisan is the only one needed.”

Gou laughs, just kidding. He tells them to call if anything happens and he leaves. But he has a much less cheery expression when he’s outside the Pit.

Belt-san asks Shinnosuke what he’s thinking about. Shinnosuke wonders about the position of the explosion between Gou and the Ferris wheel. Belt-san notes that in the past, there was a Roidmude that could destroy buildings using a photo. Maybe this new Roidmude has a special ability to cause explosions.

Speaking of. Shinnosuke and Otta question the young guy from earlier, Mogi Takurou. He is a student at the High School that was the first bomb threat location. But they’ve also found that Takurou was also at the second and third bombing locations too. Takurou says that he was indeed because he wanted to see the locations for himself. He adds that it was a coincidence that he was at the Ferris wheel right as the explosion would happen.

A frustrated Otta demands Takurou show his Roidmude self and explain what special powers he’s using to blow things up. Takurou laughs, does the police believe in special powers these days?!

A detective comes into the interrogation room to hand Otta another bomb threat. But this time, four bombs will explode simultaneously at different locations. Takurou thinks four bombs at the same time is awesome.

Otta says he’ll stay here and watch Takurou. That’s fine, Takurou says, if it will prove his innocence. He jokes that maybe he can still see the explosions by using his special teleportation powers.

But that gets Shinnosuke into top gear.

Gou is again working out hard at the gym when Shin-niisan calls him.

With Kyu’s help, they find Shoot on the rooftop of a location from which there is a clear view of the four threatened locations. Shinnosuke also figured out, using the dart, that Shoot’s ability is to shoot projectiles at a speed faster than humans can see. So Shoot is able to shoot the bombs from a distance.

Shinnosuke goes Type Formula and Gou goes Dead Heat. But Shoot shoots the missiles. Shinnosuke uses Type Formula to catch one of them, toss it back at Shoot and then uses Formula’s high speed to chase after the other three.

Gou takes on Shoot himself and is able to counter the fast attacks.

Gou uses the different Signal Bikes, but he suddenly reaches the danger level and overheats. That leaves him open for Shoot to attack.

Meanwhile, Shinnosuke is chasing after the last missile, but he breaks down. That’s when three new Shift Cars, the Pit Crew, arrive: Mantarn, Jacky and Sparner. They perform emergency maintenance to help get him going again and after the final missile.

He first uses Mantarn for Formula Zero One to destroy the missile.

But Gou is in trouble. Shoot manages to hit his Driver and he dehenshins. The Driver is fried.

Shin-niisan arrives just in time. He first uses Jacky for Formula Zero Two then Sparner for Formula Zero Three. Trailer-Hou arrives and Shinnosuke uses Trailer Cannon for a Full Full Formula Throttle Finisher.

Gou struggles on the ground.

Across town, Brain finds Shoot aka 091’s core and collects him in his tablet.

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta watch as they are forced to release Takurou for lack of evidence.

Later that night, Kiriko visits Chase and brings some flowers. She asks Mad Doctor how the patient is, but Chase wakes up and grabs Kiriko’s arm, pulling her close to him.

“Were you the one who saved me?”

Episode Thoughts

Alright episode. But I still don’t know what they’re trying to do with Gou. He’s so pissed or annoyed that he lets out his frustrations at the gym? Okay, but why? It’s really been a sudden shift in his personality from the happy-go-lucky, “I’m awesome” introduction to a now “UghRoidmudes. GonnabeatyouShin-niisan.”

I mean, he definitely was focused on just ending the Roidmudes from the beginning, but it still feels like an abrupt shift in his mood with nothing really bringing it out. If it really is just Gou wanting to be needed, I think they could’ve eased into that story more smoothly than they did.

But maybe we should be happy there’s any kind of change in the character at this point. Otta probably has gotten the most character development so far while everyone else is pretty much where we first met them. I still enjoy the show of course and it’s definitely still fun, but I still want some good story to go along with the pretty toys.

I was happy to see Brain picking himself up though. I guess Heart actually feeling some emotion towards Chase’s demise is interesting, especially with Medic’s lack of emotion. More villain idol drama please.

The Ninningers hurry over as Youkai Buruburu terrorizes the city. They henge and fight the Youkai who tries shooting purple mucus at them. Kasumi blocks it.

Buruburu says he’ll make them buruburu in fear. Nagi laughs. Buruburu starts revving up and attacks him. The Sealing Shuriken has actually attached to a car.

Takaharu goes over to help, but Buruburu initiates a Gravity Shift! Buruburu attacks the Ninningers while they’re affected by the Heaviness. Takaharu and Nagi share a helmet-to-helmet kiss.

Buruburu leaves, but someone else shoots at Takaharu. Shinnosuke, already henshined, gets out of Tridoron and assumes the Ninningers are colorful Roidmudes.

They fight.

Shinnosuke uses Midnight Shadow to hurl shurikens at them, but the Ninningers use their Substitution Technique to get out of the way. Shinnosuke uphenshins to Type Technic.

But Takaharu tries to talk to Shinnosuke, asking why he is attacking them. Shinnosuke says they caused the Heaviness. Takaharu explains it was the Youkai, but Shinnosuke doesn’t believe Youkais exist. Belt-san insists they are Roidmude, but the Ninningers insist they are only ninjas.

As for tire man, who is he supposed to be?

Before Shinnosuke can answer, Kiriko arrives. The Ninningers realize tire man is with the police. Takaharu is ready to prove he has done nothing wrong, but Shinnosuke handcuffs him while the others have escaped.

Meanwhile, Gou is taking pictures of a strange disturbance in the sky.

The others are back home, telling Father about what happened. Fuuka says her big brother will be fine. He’s a ninja, after all. Kasumi suggests they continue pursuing the Youkai then.

Over at the station, Kiriko is taking Takaharu’s statement. He tries to explain they are the Shuriken Sentai Ninninger who fight the Kibaoni Army. Anyway, where’s his katsudon? Shinnosuke says that’s only in old police dramas.

Down in the Pit, Belt-san unsuccessfully tries to analyze Shinnosuke and his weapons, but finds they are not from this world. This proves these ninjas are dangerous.

While Shinnosuke and Kiriko are arguing over her notes, Shinnosuke decides to poof himself out of the interrogation room.

Across town, Kyuuemon is with Heart, Brain and Medic, happy she has collected so much fear. Heart is happy his new friend is happy, but Kyuuemon says she doesn’t remember making friends with a bunch of mechanical dolls. Brain takes offense to the words of this irrational, eerie, unpleasant thing.

Also with them now is Buruburu and a silver-haired man.

Back at the station, Shinnosuke tries to look for Takaharu who pops in from the window. Takaharu dehenshins and introduces himself. He tells Shinnosuke to watch him defeat the Youkai. Once he decides on something, he goes full speed to the finish line.

Shinnosuke is unnerved by Takaharu being hard to read. Suddenly, they hear arguing over Youkai.

It is Chief Jun and Grandpa.

But just as suddenly, the Heaviness strikes. The other Ninningers are facing off against Buruburu. Takaharu and Shinnosuke hurry out.

Gou is continuing to document the strange thing in the sky. But someone warns him against pursuing those disturbances. The person introduces himself as…

Kamen Rider Sangou.

Gou says he and Drive are more than enough Riders. He henshins.

Meanwhile, Takaharu has found the others, but they are not themselves. They seem to be afraid of him and they kick him away. Shinnosuke prepares to henshin, but Takaharu tells him not to interfere.

Takaharu will show Shinnosuke that he is definitely not a Roidmude. He charges toward the others and provokes them to fight him. Yakumo hits him in the face, but Takaharu sets his Ichibantou to use Flame Technique. That sets the goop on the floor on fire.

Turns out the goop on the floor was Buruburu the whole time and was just controlling the others using fear.

Takaharu remembered how Kasumi blocked the mucus earlier.

Takaharu henges and the Ninningers fight Buruburu. Shinnosuke realizes everything Takaharu has said is true.

But he and Belt-san see Buruburu has a Viral Core inside his body. That’s when Kyuuemon, the silver-haired man and two Roidmude appear.

The silver-haired man transforms into Roidmude 089. Shinnosuke henshins and fights the three Roidmude, but is overpowered.

The Ninningers use a Violent Ninja Slash to finish off Buruburu, but Kyuuemon grabs the Sealing Shuriken and tells 089 that they can still use it. He suggests using it on the two other Roidmude, so Kyuuemon shakes her mallet and they embiggen.

One of the Roidmude grabs Shinnosuke and the Ninningers quickly summon ShurikenJin. Medic is giving Heart a personal dance show when Brain sees Shinobimaru run past their condo window. He tells Heart and Medic who just laugh at him.

Belt-san is amazed by the big super robot. Takaharu uses a Tickle Attack Ninpou to get the Roidmude to let Shinnosuke go.

The Ninningers then summon UFOmaru to form ShurikenJin UFO and deliver a UFO Big Bang finisher to finish the two Roidmude for good.

Suddenly, UFOmaru disappears. Kyuuemon laughs and explains that its very existence is gone because this isn’t their world. A dimensional distortion has transported them to the Kamen Riders’ world. She created a new type of Youkai thanks to the Viral Core which has helped her gather a lot of fear.

Staying in this world destroys things in the order of their age. So she is getting herself out of here right now. She laughs and wishes them well in death.

The Ninningers realize UFOmaru was the oldest Otomonin. And after all the Otomonin disappear, they’re next!

Indeed, back at the dojo, Father has begun to disappear himself.

Otta arrives with a whole squad of cop cars who come to arrest the Ninningers.

Across town, Gou is still fighting Kamen Rider 3 who suddenly pulls back. “Running away?” Gou asks. Kamen Rider 3 says “I already see that you will die someday.”

He leaves.

Back at the SID, Shinnosuke tries to get Chief Jun to allow them to shift the investigation towards the silver-haired man. But the higher-ups believe the Ninningers are more dangerous than the Roidmude. Finding out who is behind them and where they came from is their main priority now.

Otta hurries into the SID to report that the Ninningers have escaped once again.

Chief Jun orders Shinnosuke to find the Ninningers and take them back into custody. They are their biggest threat.

Belt-san agrees. While he knows they are enemies of their enemy, they are still not from this world.

Rinna says the Ninningers disappearing is their world’s way of righting the balance. Belt-san adds that if they let the Ninningers wander about, it might negatively affect their world. While he feels sorry for them, they must confine them until they disappear.

Shinnosuke says they should just find a way to send them back then. And the silver-haired guy is the key. Belt-san wants to trust Shinnosuke, but can’t allow a Roidmude search before the Ninninger situation is contained.

“So we are to just let them die?”
“Please understand that the safety of our world comes first. That is what you must do as a policeman… and as a Kamen Rider.”

Shinnosuke leaves the station to take a walk and think. But he notices a house has popped up next to it. He doesn’t remember ever seeing it before. Could it be…

He quietly sneaks in and sees the Ninningers. He realizes maybe they were transported here with the house.

The cousins are trying to figure out what to do as Father continues to flash in and out, close to disappearing. Fuuka is crying.

Grandpa suddenly appears. “A pinch is a chance. That’s life!”

Grandpa is also disappearing quickly too. He tells them the silver-haired man is responsible for this and they must destroy him to return things to normal. Perhaps.

He tells his grandchildren that they should always take the opportunity to improve themselves, even in another world.

Once Grandpa leaves, Takaharu says they’ll trust him and just treat this as training. They’ll find the silver-haired man, defeat him and return to their world. The others agree and split up to find him.

But Takaharu sits by the riverfront, not really sure if everything will be as okay as he let on to the others. Shinnosuke and Kiriko find him. Belt-san tells Shinnosuke to arrest him.

“Takaharu, I’m a policeman. So I must arrest you.”
“You can go ahead and try. But is that really want you want?”

Shinnosuke sets Belt-san down on Tridoron. “What are you doing?!”

“I have my pride as a policeman and as a Kamen Rider. But if that means not helping people from disappearing right before my eyes, then what good is that power? Speaking as just a man, all I want is to help him.”

Shinnosuke tells Takaharu that he’s decided to go full throttle with him.

Just then, Otta and the cops arrive, so Shinnosuke grabs Takaharu and they run.

Nearby, Yakumo has found Buruburu. He quickly henges and the others join him.

Shinnosuke and Takaharu sit in an alley thinking about what to do next. But a group of Kurokages pop up to attack them. Takaharu henges and they try to fight them off.

Kiriko arrives in the van to help and tells them to hop in.

She says Shinnosuke made her realize she is Tomari Shinnosuke’s buddy first and Kamen Rider’s partner second. She agrees with his thinking.

“Your girlfriend seems real nice, Shinnosuke!”

The two doth protest too much. Kiriko tosses an envelops at Shinnosuke’s face containing info Kyu has found about the silver-haired man.

This Dr. D was in the middle of research when his facility exploded 40 years ago. His dying words: “I’ve found it! A method to reset history!”

Kiriko drives them to the boarded up lab where his ghost has reportedly been seen. They walk in and are immediately attacked by an invisible assailant. Gou jumps in to help and shoots at the attacker who reveals himself before running away.

Gou dehensins and explains that after his run-in with Kamen Rider Sangou, he did some research and came upon Doctor D. Turns out there were other heroes known as Kamen Rider who fought before them, but no record of a Sangou among them. Someone is distorting this world.

Shinnosuke looks at some of Gou’s pictures and sees the Shocker logo on it. He shifts into top gear.

“Oooo! Not that I understand any of that. But it sounds real hot!”

Shinnosuke says he can finally help Takaharu. Takaharu says he’s glad and thankful to have Shinnosuke as an ally.

“I can’t just ignore a reckless idiot like you. I’m hardheaded, so I envy your straightforwardness.”
“What are you talking about? When you make a decision, you also go full speed into it. If I’m a thoughtless, hotheaded idiot… then you’re an overthinking hotheaded idiot!”

Everyone smiles, but suddenly, a missile is fired into the warehouse. The kaijin from earlier is joined by a bazooka turtle.

Elsewhere, the Ninningers are getting overpowered by the silver-haired man who is backed up by a Roidmude and Kurokages. They are forced to dehenshin, but Shinnosuke, Takaharu, Gou and Kiriko arrive with Trailer-Hou to save them.

Belt-san and Tridoron saved them from the burning warehouse.

Belt-san apologizes for not trusting Shinnosuke. The Ninningers are happy to see Takaharu is fine. “Of course! The mission isn’t over until we return home.”

Gou demands Doctor D reveal his true form. He goes from Youkai to Roidmude to silver-haired Doctor D. Shinnosuke says someone else is pulling the strings, however, and set up an alliance between the Kibaoni Army and the Roidmude. Gou and Belt-san chime in. Their enemy has sought to rob mankind of their freedom for decades using fear, the root of all evil.

Their enemy… SHOCKER!

Silver-haired man opens his trench coat and there is Shocker’s Great Leader in the belt once again. He explains how they resurrected Doctor D in Roidmude 089 and finished the doctor’s original work to distort dimensions.

But the Ninningers, Shinnosuke and Gou know all they have to do is take him down. So they henshin and henge.

Hiruchameleon and Turtle Bazooka arrive to join their comrades and it’s a big battle.

Yakumo-tachi and Shinnosuke take care of the Kurokages and Shocker Combatmen. Takaharu manages to take care of Roidmude 076. Gou uses Spin Mixer to plug up the turtle’s bazooka who blows himself up. Hiruchameleon runs off.

Buruburu uses an enhanced fear-attacking Heaviness.

But Shinnosuke goes Formula and Gou goes Dead Heat. They charge toward Buruburu.

“That’s hot!”

Takaharu rallies his sister and cousins. They can’t let the Kamen Riders show them up. He suggests they combine their powers so they use a Tornado Flash Technique to overpower Buruburu and allow Shinnosuke and Gou to unleash Full Throttle finishers.

The Viral Core is destroyed and Takaharu catches the Sealing Shuriken.

UFOmaru reappears with Father and Grandpa onboard.

Takaharu and Shinnosuke thank each other and say how they’ll be inspired by each other from now on.

Shinnosuke and Takaharu fist bump.

UFOmaru and the Ninningers disappear into the dimensional portal.

Gou gets in one more promo for the movie.

Episode Thoughts

I enjoyed this, but maybe not as much as I did last year. I guess the ToQger-Gaim crossover, being the first of its kind, had a sort of special feel to it. But at the same time, it was fresh and made sense in both stories. Zawame was just another stop on the Rainbow Line.

Here on Ninninger vs Drive, they had to resort to the usual dimensional hops that Toei reverts to for every crossover and team-up. I guess that’s the easiest way to please all the continuityphiles. But even like ToQger-Gaim did, if their meeting isn’t ever mentioned again in-series, then it’s pretty much the same thing, but without using the “we flew through a portal” excuse again and again.

I think this year did slightly better job blending the two shows together more fluidly. Last year, there was a clear distinction between the ToQger half and the Gaim half. This year, we saw the casts spread out more over the hour so it made it seem more like one whole episode instead of two. It was also good to have both series villain groups involved with the movie villain group and the greater story instead of last year’s where there were no Shadow whatsoever.

I do think last year’s did a better job at landing their emotional punches and adding to each character’s personalities. I think the ToQger-Gaim crossover came at the right times for both shows for that to happen.

Nonetheless, I still had fun this year. I loved the live version of the stock roll call for the Ninningers. And always fun to throw in some romance teasing.

Overall, it was a solid special. But hopefully next year, they can get more creative.

Brain is dripping some of his juice on 091’s core. Medic offers to kill 091 for him, but Brain notes that this “useless” one that Medic speaks of destroyed a Kamen Rider’s belt. Brain is sure 091 will be of great use to Heart.

Meanwhile, Kiriko visits her secret patient who wakes up and grabs her arm. “You saved me…” Chase says to Kiriko has he struggles to move. She tells him not to overexert himself.

He says he tried to kill them all, but Kiriko says even so, she still believes in him. He saved her once, after all. She assures him that she hasn’t told anyone about him yet.

Over at the Pit, Rinna has repaired Gou’s Driver and it is as good as new. But Gou is disappointed. No power ups or new Signal Bikes? He tells Rinna he must get stronger. He kneels and bows to her for moar.

Takurou is surprised to see Shinnosuke waiting for him outside school. Shinnosuke notes the difference in Takurou’s now-bored face from the excited face he had while being interrogated. Takurou asks Shinnosuke to mind his own business.

Takurou walks away. At a bus stop, he gets a text alerting of a bomb at this very location that will explode… RIGHT NOW.

Shinnosuke hears the explosion and runs over to Takurou whom he immediately suspects.

Takurou insists it wasn’t him and he runs off into a nearby alley. A Gravity Shift occurs and 091 Shoot appears. 091 morphs into a copy of Takurou who is shocked to see he is still alive.

091 reminds Takurou that they came together to provide the thrills Takurou was looking for. And Takurou can’t back out now. Not until he dies.

Takurou keeps running and gets another text. Another bomb is about go off… right where he’s standing now. But Shinnosuke jumps in to knock him out of the way.

Meanwhile, Gou finds 091/Shoot. The Roidmude mocks Gou who quickly henshins to Dead Heat.

Gou gives it all he’s got, but 091 manages to shoot some kind of poison into him to allow him time to get away.

Kiriko arrives just in time with Mad Doctor to help get the poison out of him.

Shinnosuke has brought Takurou back to the SID where he and Otta listen to his explanation. Takurou just wanted to spice up his life by pulling a few pranks. He sent the first bomb threat to his school, but never wanted it to actually blow up. That’s when he met the Roidmude who copied him.

Kiriko hurries into the SID and tells Shinnosuke about 091 still being alive. He asks if Gou is okay since he’s been acting a little strange lately. Kiriko says not to worry, she’ll have a talk with him.

Belt-san approaches Gou and asks what’s wrong. Kiriko listens from the door.

Gou points out how the Roidmudes are getting stronger and how Drive has been able to improve to keep up as well. But him? He’s just gotten left behind. He needs to get stronger too, he says, especially since Mach is the newest, latest system, after all.

Belt-san says it is his impatience that is hindering his growth. The Drive System has a close relationship with the wearer’s feelings. Mach is the same, which is why Gou was chosen for it.

“Return to the basics. If you can see what you’ve missed, Mach can still grow.”

Back at the SID, Chief Jun arrives and handcuffs Takurou to him. He’s ready to bring him to headquarters himself. (He wants to score some points with the new First Division chief of course.)

Suddenly, Kyu sees there’s been another bomb threat. This time the bomb is… on Takurou!!!

They have 15 minutes. Shinnosuke runs out. Otta leaves to evacuate people. Kyu runs out as well. That leaves Chief Jun and Takurou alone with a bomb.

Kiriko finds Gou on the rooftop. She tells him that she believes in him. Ever since they were kids, he was always full of confidence, unlike her. She reminds him of when he first lost a karate match.

She tried comforting him and told him he had to get stronger. But Gou said he’d be fine since he was already strong. Next match, Gou won, no problem.

“It was partly due to your unsubstantiated confidence that we were able to go on after Mother died. I’m sorry for being such a useless older sister. But that’s why I believe in you. I worry, of course, but I believe in you more than anyone!”

Gou feels the sentiment. He thanks his neechan. Shinnosuke pops out of the shadows. They henshin to Formula and Dead Heat.

Chief Jun and Takurou are freaking out as the deadline nears. 091 Shoot initiates a Gravity Shift and Colorful Commercial gives Gou and Shinnosuke the location.

Gou speeds off first and is able to block 091 Shoot’s missile. They fight, but 091 again attacks with a poison. Shinnosuke arrives, but Belt-san tells him not to help Gou just yet.

Gou picks himself up and manages to toss 091 aside. He realizes he does not need to be in a rush to get stronger. Because he’s already strong!

Gou goes Burst and uses Sudden Dead Heat, which expels the poison from his body. He also seems find with the system at full capacity. Belt-san says what Gou wasn’t seeing was the feeling of believing in yourself. Confidence!

Gou goes all out against the Roidmude, no problem. Belt-san says Shinnosuke shouldn’t fall behind either. Shinnosuke goes Formula 03.

Shinnosuke and Gou trade barbs as they work together to finish off 091 at Full Throttle. This time, the viral core really is destroyed.

Brain watches from a nearby rooftop.

Medic, hanging on Heart’s arm, mocks him. But Heart says Brain actually did do something useful. He has just witnessed how someone was able to overcome the Dead Zone.

Back at the SID, Takurou bows before Otta accompanies him out. But Chief Jun has some words for him. Once Takurou has reflected on his crimes and repented, he should come visit Chief Jun. “I’ll take care of you.”

Kyu explains to Shinnosuke that the two of them formed a bond while they were facing death together.

Meanwhile, down in the Pit, Gou tells Rinna he won’t be needing any more power-ups because he’s already strong.

Kiriko apologizes for her little brother jerking her around. Indeed, Rinna already created another Driver for her to study with. Oh well.

Later that night, Chase has apparently neatly folded the sheets of his bed in the scary abandoned hospital before leaving.

He takes with him a few of the flowers Kiriko brought.

Episode Thoughts

So Gou’s doubting himself and demanding Rinna create more upgrades for him was all just so she could create another Driver? (One guess as to how that Driver will be used in the future. *wink*wink*)

It really was a pretty disappointing arc, if you could call it that, for Gou. They undid everything they introduced him with to give him story to get him to where they introduced him. Um… okay.

At the very (very) least, it was good to see that little scene of Kiriko and Gou being siblings. But after she says that she believes in him more than anyone, I wanted Gou to ask her “ORLY? Even more than Chase?” But that will hopefully be a plotpoint later when Chase fully recovers. lol

Because of the strange direction they took Gou these last couple of episodes, this episode was just meh. I will, however, say that this was a creative way of explaining while secondary riders never get power-ups. (lol) If only it wasn’t at the expense of jerking Gou around for no reason.

First Division Chief Nira Mitsuhide pops into the SID to ridicule them for being pointless as well as ask Chief Jun to give Otta back.

Shinnosuke speaks up and says without the SID, there would be many unsolved cases. Chief Nira knows who Shinnosuke is and says his father helped him a lot in the past. Nira suggests Shinnosuke kisses more butt to ensure his job security after the SID is no more.

Shinnosuke is pissed. But Kiriko doesn’t notice. She is only dreaming thinking of Chase who is currently strolling in the woods still holding Kiriko’s flowers which he eventually crushes in his hand because of his inner-conflict.

Shinnosuke is at his favorite spot in the park as he looks at a picture of him and his father. Gou arrives and says Father looks like a kind person.

Gou heard about the big boss pestering the SID. Shinnosuke says he wanted to tell Chief Nira that it’s thanks to the SID that he’s made it this far as a Kamen Rider. Belt-san reminds Shinnosuke that they must keep Drive’s identity a secret as they cannot trust the police with this just yet.

Shinnosuke suddenly gets a call about a Gravity Shift. A police transport vehicle has been attacked by Roidmude 007 so he could get his hands on Taga Hajime, a convicted criminal he decides to fuse with using a Neo Viral Core. Hajime is more than willing since he’s going to jail anyway.

007 synchronizes with Taga and they become one as Sword Roidmude. 007 remains in Taga’s chest plate as they use the new power to slice through anything, even a concrete monument.

Shinnosuke and Gou arrive to fight Sword/007/Taga. Kiriko makes sure the police and detectives are alright. Sword/007/Taga manages to run so he can take care of his first victim that he’s already decided on. The other cops and detective marvel at actually seeing a Kamen Rider and monster for the first time.

But Kiriko sees Chase watching from a nearby rooftop. Kiriko asks Justice Hunter to follow him.

Heart seems to be at the new selfie museum in the Philippines as he reflects on his diminishing number of friends. Medic interrupts to report on a brand new evolved Roidmude who used a never-before-seen Viral Core. Heart thinks this is an interesting development in their evolution. He wonders if Brain made it, but Medic says no way.

Then that means, “it’s… him?”

The gang regroups at the Pit, thinking about how to handle this new human-in-Roidmude evolved form. Gou suggests just killing it outright, but the others worry about the human, even if he is a criminal. Drive has been able to strike down Roidmude because they’re just machines. But as a police officer, fighting and passing judgment on a criminal is not Shinnosuke’s job. He just has to arrest them.

Gou decides to just track him with the Signal Bikes then.

Rinna says she can tune the Driver so they can destroy the Roidmude’s body and core, but not harm the human inside. That means she’ll have to tweak around inside Belt-san. But also they need a tissue sample from an enhanced Roidmude. Kiriko thinks. Chase!

Shinnosuke sees it’s time for their daily briefing. He pulls Kiriko with him, but she says she has somewhere to be.

Shinnosuke goes to the SID alone where the other detectives are watching Chief Jun and Kyu messing around with Kamen Rider masks. The detectives apologize for making fun of Otta for his claims about monsters. Otta says it’s alright.

Chief Nira walks in to collect his men back since there is no reason for them to be in the SID. Plus, if there really are Kamen Whatevers, that’s all the more proof that the SID is not needed.

Chief Nira senses Shinnosuke fuming inside so he tells him to find the perp themselves then.

Otta joins Shinnosuke and tells him that he’s got his back no matter what. Shinnosuke is happy, but he can’t henshin if Otta is literally with him all the time.

When Otta mentions the perp is a cop killer, Shinnosuke looks at the file and realizes this was the same guy Hayase arrested.

Shinnosuke calls Hayase at the hospital to warn him about Taga heading over there right now to enact revenge. He tells Hayase to get the entire hospital evacuated, but that’s not possible.

They hurry over.

Meanwhile, Justice Hunter has brought Kiriko to where Chase is still on his walkabout. Kiriko hopes Chase will be able to help her obtain a tissue sample from an enhanced Roidmude.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Kiriko says he is an ally of humanity, but Chase says he’s a Roidmude. He transforms to his Roidmude form. A cry from nearby. It’s Kyu!

Kyu explains that Shinnosuke asked him to follow her. Kiriko assures Kyu that this Roidmude is on their side. Kyu says he knows all about there sometimes being non-despicable Roidmude.

Kiriko again tries to ask Chase for help, but he knocks her away and henshins.

He aims his gun at them, but instead shoots himself in the chest to leave a sample for her to take. He too is an enhanced Roidmude, after all.

Chase leaves and Kyu is surprised when Kiriko calls Rinna-san about the sample.

007/Sword/Taga has arrived at the hospital, looking for Hayase. But Taga hasn’t initiated a Gravity Shift because he wants to hear Hayase’s screams in real time.

Hayase comes hobbling out of the hospital and pleads with the Roidmude not to harm anyone else.

Hayase does what he can to fight the Roidmude, but is just kicked around until Shinnosuke and Otta arrive in Tridoron.

Shinnosuke runs over to Hayase and Otta tries to protect them by shooting at Sword. It’s no use.

Gou arrives and is ready for a Finisher, but Shinnosuke reminds him that there’s a human inside of the Roidmude. That moment of hesitation allows Sword to attack Gou and overpower him.

Shinnosuke wants to henshin, but he doesn’t have the Driver.

Kiriko and Rinna arrive and Rinna has the modified Belt-san. But Belt-san tells her to stop. Otta and Kyu swear they just heard the belt talk and try to pry it out of Rinna’s hands.

Kiriko reminds Shinnosuke he can’t henshin here. He looks around to all the people watching the scene, including Hayase. But Gou is in trouble. Shinnosuke tells Rinna to hurry.

Rinna tosses Belt-san to Shinnosuke, but Belt-san forbids him to henshin in front of this audience. Shinnosuke asserts that protecting the citizens is his responsibility as a Kamen Rider. And he will not allow Hayase to fall in front of him a second time.

Belt-san understands.

Shinnosuke henshins. Everyone is shocked.

Shinnosuke fights Sword/007/Taga as Kiriko goes over to help Hayase up on his feet.

Shinnosuke decides to go Formula and then Formula 03. Belt-san confirms the modified finisher is ready thanks to Kiriko’s sample. Shinnosuke trusts Kiriko and downhenshins back to Wild to initiate a Full Throttle Finisher which safely separates Taga from the Roidmude.

Shinnosuke finishes off the Roidmude body, but 007’s Viral Core is still intact. Suddenly, Roidmude 001 appears to catch it.

Belt-san sees.

Shinnosuke walks over to the real Taga and places handcuffs on him. The people applaud and Shinnosuke de-henshins. Kirkiko finishes taking Taga into custody.

“This is who I am now,” Shinnosuke says to Hayase, “A detective… and a Kamen Rider.” Hayase fist bumps his partner.

Gou reveals himself to Otta and Kyu as well.

Back at the station, Chief Nira learns of the Kamen Rider’s identity.

Shinnosuke-tachi bring Otta and Kyu to The Pit. They are absolutely amazed.

Even more amazing is Chief Jun popping into the supposedly secret base. Everyone is shocked.

But Chief Jun says that there is no reason to hide it anymore, “right, Krim-chan?” Belt-san explains that Chief Jun is his biggest supporter. Chief Jun founded the SID in order to hide Drive’s activities from the police force.

Shinnosuke is actually happy he can fight as a Kamen Rider in front of them all. But Chief Jun says not just them, but the whole world. He shows everyone the viral news story of Kamen Rider Drive’s real identity. A story, Chief Jun himself leaked to the media.

Episode Thoughts

Pretty good episode! I definitely feel much better now after last week’s disappointing ep.

I definitely knew (hoped) Chief Jun actually knew what was going on the entire time. Still doesn’t explain his absences (lol), but maybe they’ll touch on it in the future. The reasoning behind Chief Jun knowing everything and creating the SID just to hide the entire Kamen Rider operation was probably one of the more solid sounding things this season (hehe).

I think they hit on some good emotional points this episode. Maybe could’ve set up Hayase’s involvement in the story (of this episode) a little better. Shinnosuke already mentioned that thing about his responsibility as a Kamen Rider and a cop. But I think they could’ve definitely done more in maybe a 2 episode arc focusing solely on Hayase and that convicted felon as well as touching a little more on the story of Shinnosuke’s dad. Maybe we’ll get to see more in future episodes, but I think it would’ve been nice here to set-up the “big reveal” that Shinnosuke is Drive.

I am definitely still hoping we get more from the villains. Especially with the question of whose human bodies our idol group have copied and used? That’s something I’ve always been confused about, especially with Chase as I thought Chase was an actual person/human whom Belt-san developed Proto Drive for. (As in, Proto Drive was just a Driver and system used like regular human(-ish) people to henshin. And not that Proto Drive was a robot from the beginning.)

Should be interesting. I hope they touch on it in the next episode with the debut of the new and improved maybegoodChase.

Overall, good episode and much better than last week.

Shinnosuke has to make his way through a gaggle of reporters waiting outside the station. And inside, he is met by Chief Nira who scoffs at him over the revelations. Shinnosuke says all he did was his job in arresting Taga, but Chief Nira warns him to watch his back.

“You’re a police star now, so don’t become like your father.”

Shinnosuke doesn’t know what the Chief is implying as he’s always been told that his father was an upstanding cop who protected the people and was honored for his service.

“Well, it’s best you keep thinking that then.”

Shinnosuke wonders if there’s something more to his father’s death.

Later at the SID, Chief Jun assembles everyone for their first meeting all together. Krim-chan, Shift Cars, Signal Bikes and all.

Rinna asks why Chief Jun spilled the beans. Belt-san says he trusts Chief Jun’s judgment. Especially now when they have a new threat lurking in the shadows.

How come even after a worldwide attack, the police still had no idea about the Roidmude? That must mean someone closely related to the police are in cahoots with the baddies. Shinnosuke wonders if the culprit has something to do with his father’s death as well.

Anyway, that’s it for today’s briefing. Rinna asks everyone to support the two Kamen Riders. But Kiriko says there’s THREE Kamen Riders. Belt-san admits Proto-Zero is alive and was saved by Kiriko.

Gou is not happy. But Rinna says it was thanks to Chase that all Drivers were updated to counter the fusion evolution, so it should be okay to consider him an ally.

So everyone’s on Chase’s side? Gou thinks this is bull and leaves. Rinna tells Kyu that Gou would be even more upset if he knew what Kiriko asked her to make.

Meanwhile, Shinnosuke and Kiriko have found Chase in the forest. Shinnosuke wants to thank him and says he’s happy that Chase is alive. Belt-san asks Proto-Zero to join them once more.

Chase starts to walk away, but Kiriko calls after him. “Where are you going?!”

“I don’t know! I wish someone would tell me!”

Kiriko puts her hand on his shoulder. He feels the sparks.

Suddenly, Heart pops up to bring Chase back with him. He has even reactivated the Proto Drive Shift Car for him. Heart tells Chase that “he” has made his move.

The “he” is 001 who has popped up behind Medic. He thanks Medic for fixing 007’s core. She compliments him on the fusion evolution. 001 says Brain insisted on his help in order to be of use to Heart who appears to have the makings of a great leader.

Anyway, 001 will continue to support them from behind the scenes.

Belt-san explains to Shinnosuke that there’s a 001 while Heart is 002 and Brain is 003. Heart says 001 likes to do things from the shadows and that he might even share a connection with Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke demands Heart elaborate, but he declines. Kiriko gets a call that 007 has begun rampaging once again, looking for Taga and that the Kamen Rider has been requested. But Shinnosuke is more concerned with Heart telling him everything he knows.

Heart is surprised they aren’t fighting over Chase first, but okay. They both transform and battle.

Heart and Shinnosuke are going at each other hard. Chase goes Mashin Chaser and gets in between the two, but fires at Shinnosuke causing him to dehenshin. Kiriko runs over to him as he screams in pain from his hand being busted open.

Chase and Heart also untransform. Heart says it’s time to go, but Chase pauses. Heart can see that Chase is actually struggling to choose. He places the Proto Drive Shift Car in his hand.

“I was going to bring you home, but I’ve changed my mind. There’s no point in trying to convince someone who can’t decide on his own path.”

Heart leaves.

“Who am I supposed to be fighting for?!?!”

Back at the SID, Chief Nira laughs at Shinnosuke. But Chief Jun focuses the discussion on where Taga is since he wasn’t in jail where he’s supposed to be. Nira says he has Taga in a secret location, so it’s thanks to him that he wasn’t found by the Roidmude anyway.

Chief Nira just laughs at what he thinks is the Kamen Rider’s ineptitude.

Gou, Kiriko and Otta all go out to do what they can in finding the Roidmude first.

Shinnosuke says Nira may be right, his father must be disappointed looking down from heaven. “Police officers carry great responsibility,” that’s what his father would always say. So on the day he died, Shinnosuke swore to become a police officer like his father.

So Shinnosuke knows that there’s still mysteries surrounding his father’s death, Belt-san asks. That’s why he and Chief Jun have been looking into the possibility of 001 being involved.

Chief Jun tells Shinnosuke there’s no one in the force who didn’t know Tomari Eisuke. But for now, Shinnosuke should just leave this to him and Krim-chan.

Kiriko follows Gou out, but Gou calls her out for believing in Chase too much. Now look what happened to Shinnosuke. Kiriko continues to defend him and says Chase is still just confused.

“Maybe you’re the one who’s confused. You don’t have to apologize to Shin-niisan, but I’ll never approve of a romance with a mechanical doll.”

Gou leaves just as Rinna gives Kiriko what she asked her to make.

Over in a warehouse, Chief Nira visits Taga and the four detectives watching him. Taga just laughs as 007 appears behind them.

007 attacks, frees Taga and fuses with him once again.

Chase is still struggling by the river when his bike suddenly drives up. He goes to it and finds the case Rinna just gave Kiriko tied to the side.

007/Taga/Sword attacks Chief Nira just as Shinnosuke arrives. But the pain is too unbearable for him to even attempt to henshin.

That’s when Gou, already henshined, appears. He and 007/Taga/Sword battle.

Kiriko checks on Shinnosuke as they watch Gou being thrown around and eventually tossed over the rafters down to the ground and de-henshin.

Kiriko runs over and prepares a Kiriko Kick, but the Roidmude just laughs at her, rips the Shift Cars off her belt and also knocks her over the railing. In the middle of a Gravity Shift, the Roidmude is able to jump down, ready to skewer the slowly falling Kiriko.

But Chase comes speeding in, knocks the Roidmude away and catches Kiriko in his big, strong arms to save her.

They share a rain-soaked moment, much like the first time he saved her life from a Roidmude.

“Saving humans might be my true nature, Kiriko.”

He sets her down and goes over to the case on his bike.

“I will start over… with this package you’ve sent to me.”

He opens the case and it is a Mach Driver. Kiriko explains that Rinna created a Signal Bike using the flesh he gave her so that he can become a Kamen Rider once again.

Chase henshins and Kiriko happily, proudly calls him Kamen Rider Chaser.

Shinnosuke cheers him on as 007/Taga/Sword reappears.

But Chase has no problem fighting back and taking any and all attacks. Kiriko tells him to use the new weapon inside his bike. He summons it and it is a Signal Axe. He manages to yank Taga out of the Roidmude body.

Chase then prepares a Finisher, but the Axe asks to please wait. Oh Rinna and her strange sense.

The Signal Axe turns green and Chase is able to finally deliver a Full Throttle Finisher. Nice Drive.

Chief Nira doesn’t seem too pleased. Neither does Gou.

Chase leaves as Shinnosuke and Kiriko cuff Taga. The detectives cheer.

Kiriko wants to go after Chase, but Shinnosuke says it’s okay, he’s just shy. He says she’s got the biggest smile he’s ever seen on her face. She denies it.

Heart is watching from a nearby rooftop. He reluctantly accepts that Chase has made his decision. “Goodbye, my friend.”

Chase crosses the Shibuya Scramble wondering how they’ve easily accepted him back as a Kamen Rider.

Meanwhile, Chief Nira is reporting to his boss in a dark room about the SID and Shinnosuke. When he leaves, Brain emerges from the shadows to complement the boss about the fusion evolution.

This boss is the Minister of Defense, Makage Souichi. Who also happens to be 001.

Episode Thoughts

Okay. Alright. We’ve reached a big climax in Kamen Rider Chase. Oh, wait, this is Kamen Rider Drive. Oops. lol

But really, Chase has been the biggest focus and has received the most story this first half of the season. Especially in the last couple of episodes. I wish I were a little more excited about “WOOHOO! He’s a good guy now!” since they’ve spent all this time on him and the back and forth, but I’m not.

Sure the suit looks fine and all and we can at least finally move past Chase wanting to fight them every chance he gets. (I think.) But I still feel a sort of emptiness. I mean, it is definitely a big accomplishment that they’ve been able to stretch his story out this long before giving him his hero driver. And we still don’t really know, or at least are not too clear about what Chase actually is. At least, I’m not. Belt-san asked him to fight alongside them again. Like Belt-san actually worked with him, Chase himself (human or robot or whatever) as Proto Drive. Yet that’s never really been made clear.

I guess that goes hand in hand with the explanation of where Belt-san’s work went wrong and what triggered them going all Cylon on him and the human race. Which is a revelation that’ll be saved for the late 30s, early 40s I suppose.

They’ve been totally jerking Gou around, but they at least had him make perfect sense when he confronted Kiriko. I mean, just look at that tingly feeling Kiriko sends through Chase or that Korean drama rain-soaked moment. Kamen Rider Chase, the epic love story of the robot and the female cop.

Speaking of cops, they finally give Shinnosuke some story to chew on, but it completely comes out of nowhere. Of course. Same with the conspiracy angle. I guess it’s because the focus has been on police cases of the week and Chase that there hasn’t been opportunity to ease into such twists. Or anything else really. But it’s okay.

I’m still enjoying the season and all. But I can’t help but think they’ve dropped the ball on lots of great potential.

Roidmude 050 is being sketchy in a residential neighborhood.

Over at the SID, Rinna shows Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Gou Tridoron’s Ride Boosters which attach to either side and help Tridoron fly. Rinna says it’s to be used when all three Kamen Riders fight together.

While the three are excited, Gou says Chaser is no Kamen Rider to him. Kiriko asks Gou why he hates his future brother-in-law Chase so much and he says it’s because he’s a Roidmude. Duh.

“Gou, you don’t understand…”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand anything, Neechan!”

Gou shoves his sister which provokes her to slap him.

Otta breaks the awkward silence to tell them they have been summoned by the First Division. Gou walks back to his bike.

As the others hop into the van to head over to headquarters, Gou is stopped by a young lady who needs the SID’s help as her brother has been taken by Roidmudes.

Chase, meanwhile, dreams about Kiriko.

At the First Division meeting, they are being briefed on the residents of a residential neighborhood being found writhing all over the ground.

Chief Nira wants to hear what the SID wants to say. Chief Jun gets up to speak, but Chief Nira, taunting Shinnosuke, wants the son of the great Tomari Eisuke to speak instead.

Shinnosuke does his best to control his temper and says they must know whether there were Gravity Shift particles at the scene to know definitively if Roidmudes were involved.

A man walks into the conference room. Kiriko and Shinnosuke are shocked.

Chief Nira introduces this man as an adviser to the “mechanical lifeform incidents” from the Special Sciences Division Lab, Noumi-san.

Turns out this Noumi-san is actually Brain-chan.

Gou is with the woman from earlier, Souma Yoriko. She shows him a picture of her brother, Haruto Ryo. He works for a real estate company and got a job as soon as he graduated because he believed the greatest happiness was seeing families smile.

“Families… smile? He’s very similar to me.” Gou thinks out loud.

Yoriko breaks down, angry with the horrible monsters who’ve taken her brother. Gou swears to save him.

Brain smugly walks out of the briefing. Shinnosuke follows him out and asks what he’s up to. “And why would I tell you? We’re enemies, after all.”

Brain goes Roidmude form and Shinnosuke henshins. They take their fight to the roof.

Brain says that he’s here because 001 has begun to make his move. He warns that 001 is a ruthless man and anyone who gets too close will get burned… “just like your father.”

Shinnosuke demands Brain explain what he means, but Brain acts coy. An enraged Shinnosuke goes Formula. Belt-san tries to get him to calm down.

Brain laughs hysterically before screaming for help. Chief Nira and his men arrive on the roof and restrain Shinnosuke as Brain pretends to cower in fear.

Chief Nira vows to report Shinnosuke to the big bossings.

Brain heads over to the National Bureau of Defense to report to 001…err, Minister Makage.

Superintendent Matsui from the National Police comes in to remind Minister Makage that he reports to him. But Makage, literally, twists Matsui’s mind and controls it to think whatever he wants him too.

Over at the SID, Chief Nira obnoxiously gleefully gloats over Shinnosuke’s being taken off all cases and barred from henshin-ing while the higher ups decide on his punishment.

Chief Nira rubs his face all over Shinnosuke’s back and warns that Shinnosuke will be forced to resign if he disobeys the order.

Chief Nira skips away as Rinna hurries in to tell them that even Tridoron has been taken away. Otta wants to persuade Nira to reconsider, but Shinnosuke says this is his problem, so he’ll take care of it.

“You’re not going to quit being a cop, are you?” Chief Jun asks.

Shinnosuke says the need to protect people goes beyond orders from up top. But Chief Jun says he can’t quit being a cop. That would mean his father’s death would have been in vain.

“It’s not only the Kamen Riders who protect the people. It’s the police’s mission as well. Your father loved the police force. He kept their dignity alive when he died in the line of duty.”

Across town, Gou and Yoriko head to Ryo’s real estate office where they look at some documents that show the three incidents of collapsed residents all happened in new residential areas Ryo was in charge of.

They hurry over.

Over at the SID, they are looking at similar information and they get ready with their own plan as well.

Rinna and her Genpachi act as newlyweds who are moving into a new home in the next neighborhood under Souma Ryo’s jurisdiction.

Roidmude 050 watches the new residents.

Back at the SID, Chief Nira comes to check on Shinnosuke to make sure he’s obeying the order. Belt-san is tied up. Chief Jun points to Shinnosuke lying on the couch, lifelessly eating his candy.

Chief Nira laughs and traipses off.

Kyu is excited that Colorful Commercial’s hologram worked to trick Chief Nira.

While Shinnosuke surveys the neighborhood, Gou arrives with Yoriko. Gou asks where Neechan is, but Shinnosuke says they’re working separately today.

Gou knows exactly where she is though.

Kiriko meets with Chase and asks a favor of him. But first, he also has a favor. He would like her to restore his memories inside the Proto Zero Shift Car.

Shinnosuke asks Gou why he hates the Roidmude so much. Gou replies that Roidmudes are evil. They take happiness away from families.

Suddenly, the residents of the neighborhood all start fighting with each other. Even Genpachi has become enraged with Rinna for making fun of him about mispronouncing the Boidrumes. Shinnosuke tries to calm him down, but he sees something stamped onto Otta’s hand.

Rinna knocks Otta out with some foam as husbands and wives fight in the streets.

Gou tries helping a little boy who is trying to get his parents to stop fighting, but the father just kicks them away. Remembering when his Neechan tried comforting him as a kid, Gou tells the little boy it’ll be alright.

Gou has a flash of some mad scientist-haired shadow laughing. It fires him up even more, but the fighting husband knocks him around.

“What’s happening Gou?! You’re not acting like yourself!” Shinnosuke yells over.
“Like myself? You don’t even know what I’m burdened with!!!”

050 walks out into the open and encourages everyone to continue fighting so they can evolve. 050 explains that is an experiment to see if people who aren’t completely rotten can still become suitable vessels for enhanced Roidmude, like Taga was.

050 used these happy people and amplified their feelings. He initiates the last part of his experiment. And like the previous occurrences, the people collapse and lose consciousness. That means none are suitable skinsuits.

“You damn Roidmude.” Gou is incensed. “Why are you all so goddam despicable?!”

Gou henshins.
They fight.

Low-level Roidmude arrive to help 050 and Gou gets knocked around. Shinnosuke runs over to help as 050 stabs Gou in the chest.

The two Ride Boosters arrive to help and drop off Belt-san and the Shift Brace. Belt-san asks if Shinnosuke will henshin and he says he will, orders be damned.

But Shinnosuke remembers Chief Jun saying Shinnosuke can’t give up being a police officer. Shinnosuke hesitates. The police arrive and he struggles with the decision even more.

Suddenly, Chase arrives. He says Kiriko filled him in on the deets and he’ll take care of it now.

Chase henshins and fights the three Roidmudes. But Gou is not happy.

Chase uses Signal Axe and the Ride Booster to deliver a Full Throttle Finisher on the two low-level Roidmudes.

Gou knocks 050 aside and hops on his Ride Booster to attack Chase. Shinnosuke yells for Gou to stop.

“You’re fighting the wrong guy!”
“No I’m not! He’s no Kamen Rider! He’s a Roidmude! I… I have to defeat him!!!”

050 happily watches his plan going the way he wanted.

Gou relentlessly attacks Chase until he dehenshins. Gou stops himself, but continues with his attack only to have Shinnosuke get in between them. Gou is able to pull back and he collapses on the ground.

“Why Shin-niisan?! Why did you get in my way?!”

Shinnosuke says Kiriko would’ve done the same thing. “I didn’t do it just to protect Chase. It was to protect you too, Gou.”

Gou dehenshins.

Paramedics are wheeling out the unconscious residents, including Genpachi.

Shinnosuke tells Gou that he understands why he hates the Roidmude. “But why are you so impatient…”

“My father… the one who created the Roidmude… was my father. Banno Tenjuro. It was because my father let them run wild that they caused the Global Freeze and have taken so many lives.”

Gou breaks down.

“I… don’t have much time.”

Episode Thoughts

Well, speaking of coming out of nowhere!

So, I definitely expected Gou would have some reason for (suddenly, without warning) acting the way he did, all bratty and anti-Roidmude. It was either the Roidmudes killed their parents or, well, what Gou just admitted I guess.

This revelation just adds more questions though! Instead of actually answering anything. Now we’re left to wonder if Gou and Kiriko are even related or if Gou is a Roidmude himself or some hybrid or if both are hybrids and dad created robot mom or… well, anything really.

I get that people absolutely hate Gou. (Yet love Chief Nira. WTF! lol) And I might have too, but the sometimes sloppy development has made me actually empathize with him more than at least Kiriko or Shinnosuke or even Chase. Especially when it appeared like the show was just using and twisting Gou into the antagonist just to prop up the Kiriko-Chase love story, which itself has felt either epic or forced depending on the week.

Maybe they needed to use Gou to help empathize with Roidmudes. But really, they did a much better job with Kyu’s story with 072 than anything Kiriko or Shinnosuke has reasoned with to get you to believe Roidmudes can be good.

The revelation of Gou’s father (“father?”) also feels odd since we still don’t really know how Roidmudes even work. Belt-san created the technology but someone else took it? There’s someone else who worked on the project other than Belt-san and Harley? I feel like so much of Drive could’ve been done a little differently since there’s obviously some great story here. But it just hasn’t come together or developed in the most effective way.

Anyway, we’ll see if things get a little more clear in the coming episodes.

Elsewhere, I definitely like serious Chief Jun much more even though I do enjoy random, squeaky, weird Chief Jun too. Chief Nira though is really so over the top, it takes away from whatever level of seriousness the other story threads are trying to convey. The guy wiped his face on Shinnosuke’s back for goodness sakes. That’s obsessed K-pop fangirl behavior right there and he’s supposed to be a big First Division bossing. lol

So, it’s still Episode 27. And I’m still enjoying and having fun with the show. But man, do I really hope they pull the story together and get everything a little tighter moving forward.

Shinnosuke tries to wrap his head around Gou’s bombshell. Yes, Gou says, the son of the man who created the Roidmude has become a Kamen Rider. Funny, right?

Shinnosuke says if Professor Banno worked with Belt-san on the project, that means he originally created the Roidmude with good intentions. Even so, Gou replies. His father has robbed happiness from a lot of people and because of that, he won’t let a single Roidmude live.

Kiriko… Gou warns Shinnosuke not to tell Neechan anything about this, or else.

Back at the Pit, Shinnosuke and Belt-san are talking about Gou. Shinnosuke says he understands now that Gou is trying to protect Kiriko from the truth of their father’s sin. And that includes Chase.

Kiriko arrives in the Pit, drawn in by the sound of that beautiful name. Actually, she’s just here to tell them the daily briefing’s about to start. Belt-san says he’ll stay here to oversee repairs of the ProtoDrive Shift Car Chase asked them to extract the memory from.

The SID is going over the info they have so far when Nira pops in.

Nira laughs in Shinnosuke’s face before dancing back out.

Shinnosuke has a plan to get Nira to lift the suspension.

He and Kiriko meet with Chase to tell him about the plan. But Chase also has some concerns. Namely, Gou. There’s something different about his hatred for the Roidmude. Shinnosuke remembers something the Roidmude said while they were fighting earlier. What the Roidmude is really after is…

Gou does not answer his Neechan’s call. He tells Yoriko that finding her brother is most important. He gets on his bike, but Yoriko drops her bag and runs over to give him a backhug.

She thanks him for all he’s doing. The hug reminds Gou about Kiriko comforting him as a child. “We are similar,” Gou says.

Suddenly, Yoriko gets a call. From her brother! They know where he is.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko hurry back to Chief Jun to tell them Gou is in danger. They think Brain is behind this, but Chief Jun says it might be someone bigger. 001 perhaps?

Speaking of, Brain is with 001 in his office. 001 asks Brain if he’s been comfortable here, especially being away from and being left out by Heart. Brain says of cou…

001 tells Brain it’s okay to be honest. In fact, what Brain is feeling right now is a human emotion that he has learned called jealousy.

001 says a negative heart has tremendous power.

If last time the SID revealed the Kamen Riders to the world as a first strike, it is time for 001 to strike using the most effective and cruel method.

Kiriko still has no luck contacting Gou. Kyu says none of the victims have relatives by the name of Souma Yoriko. They search the real estate company and find a Souma Ryou. Kiriko is upset that her not listening to Gou has put him in trouble.

Rinna hurries into the SID to tell them the upgraded Particle Detector is ready and can detect even the slightest amount from the sky. That means they can use it with the Ride Booster.

Now all they need is for the suspension to be lifted. They enact their plan that involves Chase posing as a Roidmude attacking the SID, specifically an invited Nira who has no choice but to allow Shinnosuke to henshin once again.

Once that’s taken care of, Shinnosuke and Chase meet outside, ready to go and save Gou. Kiriko runs over to Chase and asks him to take care of her brother. “He is my only… family.”

“Family?” Chase repeats.

Brain watches Shinnosuke and Chase fly off together and tosses some Viral Cores into a few Roidmudes to turn them into evolved flying things.

Meanwhile, Gou sees more families being targeted by the Roidmude. Gou henshins to save them and push his way through. That’s when he finally finds Ryou. He tries to get Ryou to come to, saying his sister is here with him. But Ryou’s first words when he regains conciousness… “I… don’t have… a sister.”

Yoriko tosses her hair and lets out an evil laugh. She laughs at Gou and says she’s been waiting to see his defeated and dumb face when he found out she’s been playing him.

Up in the air, Shinnosuke detects the Gravity Shift, but they are suddenly attacked by the flying Roidmudes. Chase detaches himself from Tridoron to take care of all three Roidmudes. He then hurries back to reattach his Ride Booster before Tridoron crashes into the ground.

Yoriko fuses with Roidmude 050. Gou can’t believe they used memories of his family to manipulate him. notYoriko says all families show their true, ugly nature when pushed. 050’s power is to amplify negative feelings through touch. That’s how notYoriko spread the virus. Including to Gou.

050 says other than searching for suitable fusion subjects, this experiment was also “to draw out the darkness inside you, Shijima Gou!”

Angry, Gou henshins and battles a giddy 050.

Gou goes Dead Heat, much to 050’s amusement. 050 tells Gou to kill him/her.

Before he can, Chase arrives to stop him. Is Gou going to kill the fused human too? Yes, Gou says. But he’ll kill Chase first if he gets in the way.

Chase says he doesn’t understand what family is and asks if it is really that important. Gou continues his attacks, forcing Chase to dehenshin.

“It is more important than your duty?”

Before Gou can deliver a final blow, Shinnosuke arrives and kicks him out of his henshin.

050 laments at Shinnosuke ruining everything. He goes Type Formula and says he will protect Gou.

050 screeches and tries fighting Shinnosuke. But he uses Formula 1 to unfuse the human before proceeding to finish off 050 with a Full Throttle Formula Cannon Finisher.

notYoriko crawls on the ground. Gou demands to know who she is.

She says she is the child of a monster who was defeated by the Kamen Riders. Shinnosuke says she is Nishinori Reiko, her father was Nishinori Kouya who was used by 005 as a model, but was defeated by Proto-Drive and was also arrested by Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke arrests Reiko and asks if she was seeking revenge. She says she wanted to surpass her father. If Gou had killed her, then it would’ve been the perfect crime. She laughs hysterically then cries.

“So… we are similar.”

Shinnosuke checks Gou’s hand. 050’s mark is gone. Shinnosuke says it’s okay now, but Gou pulls his hand away and stumbles off.

Chase continues pondering the meaning of family and humanity.

As Kiriko gets the call that Gou is safe, Rinna jumps into bed with a just awakened Otta in the hospital.

Later that evening, Heart talks with 001 Makage. Heart knows 001 lent his ability to quickly infect and spread a virus among groups to 050. Medic asks what he is planning. 001 says it is to make preparations for destroying the Kamen Riders and to gain the strongest warrior… Banno’s son, Shijima Gou.

Meanwhile, Gou is walking by the water when he starts hearing Shinnosuke, Kiriko and his father calling him.

“I will give you a place to belong.”

Brain smiles as he walks towards him.

Episode Thoughts

Yay. Nice to get back to this craziness after a month.

But maybe it’s because I was away for a month that I think I’m about half-lost with what’s going on.

So first of all, we get a little (a little) clarification about Gou and (yes) Kiriko’s father. But that still doesn’t really explain his violent split personality. That handshake infection doesn’t explain that away either.

(And I’m writing this commentary after already seeing 29 and 30, so I know Gou’s going to get thrown around even more coming up.)

I mean, the revelation that Gou and Kiriko’s father is (partially? fully?) responsible for the Roidmudes murdering people should be a huge bombshell, yet I can’t really feel all shock and awe over it. Especially not when the build-up was all over the place. Or worse, nonexistent.

It seems like the last couple of episodes, there’s been a lot of action, but it hasn’t really been tied together as well as it could have been. Add to that the lack of movement with the Roidmude idols (even with the introduction of 001), and there’s definitely a lot of questions and holes in what should be a very interesting story.

The case of the week and trying to tie it into Gou’s family drama didn’t work as well as it should have either. =(

And all that stuff was Nira was just meh, not even all that amusing, really.

I really hope they work things out soon even though there’s definitely still a lot of show left.

Brain approaches a frazzle-haired Gou, pointing out their similar situations in having a newbie take their place in the group. Brain asks Gou to come with him to 001, but Gou refuses. “I’m not in the best of moods right now.”

Gou henshins and Brain goes Roidmude. They fight.

Brain suddenly takes his tablet out and flashes something on the screen to Gou’s face. Gou is surprised.

Next day, the SID gang are talking about the serial robbery and murders that have hit the city in which three Eitou Bank branches were attacked with one person killed each time.

But across town at a Futabadai Bank branch, another robbery is already in progress. The masked man demands a woman take him to the vault. Several security guards manage to tackle the man, but he initiates a Gravity Shift and morphs into his Roidmude form.

The SID are called to the scene.

The robber/Roidmude 062 uses his own key to open the locked vault. He deactivates the Gravity Shift to allow the woman he pointed at earlier to fill his bag with the vault money. But as she stuffs the bag, 062 prepares to kill her.

Shinnosuke and the Shift Cars arrive just in time and they see this is an Fusion Evolved Roidmude. 062 uses his magic universal key to break free of Justice Hunter’s cell and to attack Shinnosuke with file cabinets. Shinnosuke goes Technic and tries to use Door-ju, but 062 uses his key to leave Door-ju’s door open.

Shinnosuke tells the people to run, but 062 takes their fight outside as well.

062 uses his key to open the doors of a car which send Shinnosuke flying up the stairs, right to where the people are trying to run off to. Shinnosuke goes Wild and their fight continues.

A little girl’s balloon pops and the sound triggers a horrifying memory for one of the young ladies. She faints and is about to fall down the stairs, but Shinnosuke catches her. This allows 062 to escape.

Over at the station, the SID is sitting in on First Division’s briefing on the case. They’ve found the masked robber is Negishi Itsurou.

Negishi was arrested 12 years ago for robbery and murder and was just released a week ago.

Shinnosuke seems to recognize who this is.

Chief Nira orders his men to go forth and crime fight. They all leave, including Brain.

Shinnosuke asks Nira what the SID will be doing. But Nira says they’re merely on Standby. But! Negishi is the man who killed Shinnosuke’s father!

Nira says he knows, but mocks Shinnosuke for letting his father’s murder go in the first place. In any case, Nira says he’ll let them know when they’ve caught Negishi and hopes Shinnosuke will be able to take care of the robot-half of the suspect, no problem.

Shinnosuke insists on working the case. Chief Jun gets Shinnosuke to calm down and reminds Nira that his reputation is riding on this case as well. The SID will help any way they can.

Nira appears to relent. But really, he just orders the SID to get them lunch and staple papers.

While Shinnosuke is out at the bento place, Chief Jun explains what happened to the elder Tomari.

12 years ago, Negishi and one of his friends attempted a robbery at the South Kuruma Eitou Bank branch. Tomari Eisuke just happened to be there as he had been waiting for an opportunity to catch these criminals.

Suddenly, a little girl began crying and Negishi was about to shoot her to shut up. But Eisuke ran to the girl to protect her, he getting the bullet in the back instead. The police arrived soon after to arrest the men, but Tomari Eisuke was already dead.

At least that’s what Chief Jun heard. He and Belt-san believe it all sounds suspicious and suspect 001 may be involved in manipulating this case as well.

Shinnosuke is heading back to the station with the crates of bento when runs into Secretary Makage. Makage stops him, knowing he is the Kamen Rider. He tells Shinnosuke to keep up the good work.

Later that evening, Heart catches up to Brain at a plaza and asks how it goes with 001. Brain says everything is going smoothly. Heart would like to hear about their work.

Brain seems excited to tell him all about it, but he remembers the very harot Medic and tells Heart that as long as she is by his side, he will not return.

Brain walks away. Heart wishes they could all get along, they’re all Roidmude, after all.

Next day at the SID, Shinnosuke has found a clue. The three people Negishi has killed so far all worked at the Eitou Bank branch from 12 years ago. They also find that another teller from that branch now works at the Futabadai Bank which was hit yesterday.

Shinnosuke concludes that Negishi is after all the bank employees from that day.

Brain gives Negishi/062 the identity of the next target. This time, there’s no need for a robbery. 062 just needs to get rid of everyone from 12 years ago.

Belt-san instructs the Shift Cars to go protect the people from the original incident.

Kiriko thinks it’s weird that no one in First Division noticed such an important connection. But Belt-san says it must be 001’s doing.

Shinnosuke feels he needs to do something, anything. He looks through the papers and sees Karasawa Yukari, the young lady who fainted yesterday, was also at the original incident.

He and Kiriko visit her at the hospital, but she is not very willing to talk.

Otta catches Shinnosuke and Kiriko at the hospital to tell them they’ve tracked down Negishi’s accomplice from 12 years ago, Maruya. Maruya was released six years ago and has since reformed.

Maruya tells Otta and partner that he doesn’t believe Negishi killed the policeman 12 years ago. He is not really sure how, but that’s what he believes. Even though 12 years ago, Maruya testified that Negishi did indeed shoot Inspector Tomari.

Otta chases after Shinnosuke who runs off. Kiriko, meanwhile, heads back to The Pit when Rinna calls her. Repairs to ProtoDrive Shift Car are done. And while the Shift Car functions are available, the memory data might not all be readable.

Across town, Shinnosuke has found Maruya and demands he tell him what happened 12 years ago. Maruya says he cannot remember, no matter how hard he tries.

Shinnosuke then notices a strange mark behind Maruya’s ear. He thinks about it. He’s seen it before. It was also behind his father’s ear!!!

While Shinnosuke is in Tridoron with Belt-san, Negishi walks toward Maruya and transforms into 062. That activates a Gravity Shift and Shinnosuke hurries over.

Shinnosuke henshins and they fight. 062 again uses his magic key to try and get the upper hand. Chase arrives as Belt-san warns Shinnosuke to calm down so as not to be being erratic. But Shinnosuke can’t calm down. He needs to know what happened to his father.

There goes that family talk again, Chase says.

That’s when Brain appears… with Gou right beside him. Kiriko pops up as well.

Gou henshins and attacks Shinnosuke. Chase henshins to help.

Kiriko can’t believe what’s happening. She cries over to get her brother and future boyfriend to stop fighting. The distraction gives Gou an opening to shoot Chase and return to fighting Shinnosuke with 062.

062 uses his magical universal key a couple more times to toss Shinnosuke and Chase around.

Shinnosuke goes Formula and Gou goes Dead Heat.

Kiriko is beside herself. Brain thinks this is wonderful.

Maruya screams as 062 is about to attack. But Chase bursts out of the barrels with the Signal Ax and reminds Shinnosuke that his responsibility as a Kamen Rider is to protect people.

Shinnosuke and Chase manage to whisk Kiriko and Maruya away.

–

Later that evening, Medic tells Heart about Brain drawing a Kamen Rider over to their side. She says she hopes Brain doesn’t regret what he’s done. Heart realizes what that is.

Brain is with Negishi and gives him an updated list of locations of the people from The Incident. He leaves to take care of business.

Brain compliments Gou on his attacks earlier and looks forward to the next time.

Next day, Shinnosuke is on the roof with Chase, explaining the situation with his father. Chase asks what is it about family that gets Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Gou all in a tizzy whenever they think about it. Shinnosuke explains that it’s because family is important to them, so when they’re in trouble, they just tend to panic.

“Just… panic?”

Kiriko unsuccessfully tries to contact Gou.

Meanwhile, they all head to the SID to talk to Maruya who believes he felt the Heaviness during The Incident. He only remembered after feeling it once again yesterday. As suspected, Chief Jun says, the Roidmude must have been involved in The Incident as well.

Chase recognizes the scar on Maruya’s neck and remembers hearing 001 has the ability to rewrite people’s memories using ice needles. It all comes together for everyone. Not only might Gou be suffering from the same memory wipe, but 001 is now trying to cover up The Incident because he was there!

Shinnosuke doesn’t remember seeing a scar on Yukari’s neck which means she might remember 001. Shinnosuke and Kiriko hurry back to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Gou has found Chase. Just as Chase expected. He wants to check behind Gou’s ear, but Gou only wants to kill him today. They both henshin.

At the hospital, Kiriko aggressively tries to get Yukari to talk, but she is too afraid. Shinnosuke tells Kiriko to stop. He remembered that as much as he wants answers, he must not harm others in doing so. As police officers, they should protect the people.

Kiriko apologizes for being so rough.

Gou and Chase continue their battle until they both unleash Full Throttle Finishers at each other. Chase’s is just a little bit stronger, forcing Gou to dehenshin. Chase dehenshins as he walks over and finds that indeed, Gou also has an ice scar behind his ear.

Chase walks away, but Gou calls after him.

“You sure you don’t want to finish me off?! I’ll come back to kill you, no matter how many times it takes.”
“Even I know, if I kill you, Kiriko will be upset.”
“I don’t want to hear that form you!”

Gou breaks down.

Back at the SID, Nira wants to know where they’re hiding Maruya. Chief Jun compliments him on his intelligence gathering capabilities.

Nira demands they hand him over and Chief Jun calls Maruya in.

Suddenly, a whole army of Maruyas walk in, much to Nira’s consternation. Chief Jun tells Nira to choose whichever one he likes. Off to the side, Rinna commends Colorful Commercial for another job well done.

While Makage gives a press conference about the robbery/murder spree, Yukari’s mother approaches Shinnosuke and Kiriko in the cafeteria. Hearing Shinnosuke’s name is Tomari, Mom asks if he is the son of Officer Tomari Eisuke. She knew it. Tomari Eisuke protected her daughter during The Incident 12 years ago and now the son has protected her as well.

Mom expresses her gratitude.

Shinnosuke thinks his father must be guiding him now. He reminds Kiriko that their first priority should be protecting people. And no matter what, even while investigating 001, they should not lose their heads.

Meanwhile, Negishi makes his way into Yukari’s hospital room. She screams and tries to run when Negishi shows her his mask. But he initiates a Gravity Shift to stop her. He morphs into 062 which sends a Gravity Shift through the entire hospital.

Shinnosuke hurries to the room and henshins. He takes Yukari outside, but 062 chases after them.

062 manages to knock Shinnosuke aside and is about to kill Yukari for good. But Shinnosuke runs over to cover Yukari and take the shot instead. Yukari flashes back to The Incident and being protected the exact same way.

Chase arrives to help, as does Kiriko who Shinnosuke tells to take Yukari to safety.

Shinnosuke uses Midnight Shadow, Massive Monster and Max Flare to knock 062 around. But one turn of his magical key and Shinnosuke goes flying. Chase jumps in to help out.

Belt-san tells Shinnosuke to go Formula. As Chase pulls Negishi out safely, Shinnosuke finishes off 062 for good.

Otta arrives with backup to arrest Negishi. Shinnosuke asks why he killed more people. Negishi says he already killed a cop. So if his life is already over, why not unleash the darkness inside him anyway. Shinnosuke sees Negishi also has an ice scar and concludes someone else must have shot his father.

Chase approaches Kiriko. He first thinks of what Shinnosuke said about family. Instead of telling her the truth, Chase says he found no scar behind Gou’s ear.

Kiriko reluctantly says Gou must have a reason for doing this then.

She hands him the Proto Drive Shift Car, saying it is ready. He inserts it into his gun.

Yukari thanks Shinnosuke for saving her life. But she is also now ready to talk about The Incident. She remembers seeing 001 at the bank that day.

Suddenly. Chase screams. His memories are being projected out of his eyes!

001, Brain and Heart are looking over Chase. Brain asks Heart if they are really going to make this guy their comrade. Heart says Why not? He might be able to reach the Super Evolution state.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko watch the scene play out, including seeing all three Roidmude demorph into their human forms. 001… is Makage!

Episodes Thoughtseses

Continuing my catch-up, I’m recapping these two episodes together.

I definitely think these were much better episodes than what we’ve got recently. While the whole plot point with Shinnosuke’s father appeared without any good build-up, they did a solid job unraveling, at least part of, the mystery using Yukari. Father and son both saving the girl the same exact way may be typical, but it worked here. Especially since we haven’t really gotten big character development moments from Shinnosuke.

The way 001’s identity was revealed to Shinnosuke and Kiriko was very convenient, but it was still surprising to have it happen so soon. I was expecting a few more episodes at least. It should be interesting to see what’s next there.

And with Gou, after yanking him around with questionable, sometimes nonsensical, character and story development, they’ve found a way to absolutely halt any kind of development at all using the always convenient mind control. It’s still disappointing to see what was a great character with lots of potential merely be used as a plot device now. I guess that was his purpose all along? I hope they surprise me though.

As for Chase harping on about family and such, it won’t be a surprise if he ends up being someone’s brother or father. Or even if the idols are related to Shinnosuke or Belt-san as actual humans. After all, who would’ve dreamed Kiriko and Gou’s father would come out of nowhere to be the creator of all Roidmude.

Shinnosuke meets with Brain to say the jig is up. He knows Makage is 001.

Brain sees Shinnosuke is not henshining which means Krim does not want him to go near 001. Brain gets ready to finish him off, but Belt-san arrives just in time.

Shinnosuke henshins and tosses Brain around, but Gou suddenly arrives and starts shooting. Brain confirms Gou’s working for them now. Gou henshins and shoots at Shinnosuke, sending him into the water.

Back at the SID, Shinnosuke and Belt-san argue. Shinnosuke says he’ll die facing 001 if it means saving the people. Belt-san storms off.

Otta arrives with a case for them. Fuziki Tooru tells them about his family’s small factory. He refuses to inherit the factory from his father. But lately after seeing his father easily tired from the work, Tooru decides he’ll take over. He is about to tell his father, but can’t bring himself to. He runs off to buy something, but when he returns his father is gone. Like, gone without a trace. For years. His mother reminds him that his good for nothing father left 10 years ago without saying a word. Even the employees and customers of the factory said the same thing.

Now Tooru is confused.

Rewriting memories. It must be 001.

They head to the factory where they detect Gravity Surge particles. Tooru says he felt the Heaviness on his way back with the dorayaki. Tooru explains that his father would always buy dorayaki for them to eat together after an argument and everything would be all better.

Tooru’s mother comes and is angry he’s even called the police here. She still doesn’t remember father Fuziki even when Tooru shows her a recent picture. She drags him away.

Meanwhile, Makage asks Medic if he can borrow her Grim Reapers. She laughs at him thinking he’s panicking after being found out. But Heart asks if this is still all part of the plan. What is he after, anyway?

Emotions, Makage says. Just a little bit more and “that moment” will arrive. They need human emotions to evolve, that’s why they study humans and acquire those different emotions.

Brain’s jealousy, Medic’s passion, Heart’s joy.

When that strong emotion intensifies to its limit, they will achieve the final evolution and start the second Global Freeze.

For Makage, Shinnosuke is the key to that evolution. He suggests Heart find what will bring him to his ultimate emotion as well. But Heart says he’s already found it.

Across town, Chase is rewatching his memories. He wonders if the Promised Number is…

At the Pit, Kiriko arrives to tell Belt-san that 001 has made his move. But she also wonders if there is a reason he is being extra cautious this time. Belt-san admits that he is scared. He has been having dreams of that night Proto Drive was defeated by 001. Belt-san feels that the same will happen to Shinnosuke, but for good this time.

It’s nighttime and Shinnosuke is in the SID alone when he gets an e-mail from a Mr. X. Next morning, he shows everyone the e-mail containing a list of people examined during the epidemic scare 10 years ago. With a 90% fatality rate of some new virus threat, a nationwide screening was conducted and these are the results. Turns out it was the Dept. of National Defense that released the news of the virus and launched the examinations. All signed by one Minister Makage. In the end, no one was found infected.

The whole thing must have been one big charade.

They wonder who this Mr. X might be. But right now, Shinnosuke and Kiriko meet with Otta at the factory. They are surprised to find Tooru has no memory of them or his asking them to find his father. He now also believes his father abandoned them years ago. He walks away and sees Tooru also has an ice scar.

Shinnosuke goes to Nira and asks for a meeting with Makage. He bluntly tells Nira that Makage is a Roidmude and is working to remove evidence from the police. Shinnosuke gives Nira the examination list, but Nira just tears it up and laughs at him.

Shinnosuke does not back down, however, and vows to expose Makage. He leaves.

Nira immediately calls Makage unbeknownst to him that Midnight Shadow is recording the conversation.

Kiriko runs to Belt-san to tell him that Shinnosuke has gone to see Makage.

Shinnosuke finds Makage at the Tokyo Central Forum and confronts him. Makage feigns ignorance until Shinnosuke tosses Shift Cars at him, forcing him to morph into 001. The transformation initiates a Gravity Shift.

Makage’s two bodyguards morph into Reapers and they throw a Belt-san-less Shinnosuke around until Chase arrives to help. He says he’ll take care of the Reapers.

Kiriko and Belt-san arrive as Shinnosuke demands Makage tell him what his plan is. But Makage says it doesn’t matter because Shinnosuke won’t remember anyway. He shoots his ice needles and one hits Shinnosuke’s neck and he goes down.

Kiriko and Belt-san run over to Shinnosuke as Makage deactivates the Gravity Shift. Everyone around them is back to normal as if nothing has happened. Makage tells Belt-san that he will always make him remember the fear of that night Proto Drive and himself were destroyed.

Outside, Chase finishes off the two Roidmudes, but Gou arrives and they start to fight.

Inside, Shinnosuke wakes up, seemingly not affected by Makage’s ice. Belt-san says they should retreat for now, but Shinnosuke says he will not let Makage go now that they’ve got him cornered.

Shinnosuke follows Makage outside. “So it doesn’t affect you either,” Makage says. Freezing memories is his power and anyone who finds out his identity will have their memories erased and rewritten. However, there was one man whom his power could not affect… Tomari Eisuke.

Makage remembers that moment 12 years ago when he was confronted by Eisuke. With Eisuke not affected by his ice needle and even more determined to end him, Makage felt a deep emotion surge within him. A feeling of humiliation. That’s when he decided to just kill him instead.

Shinnosuke asks Belt-san to fight with him and he says he has no other choice.

Shinnosuke henshins to Formula. Makage is pleased. This is just what he needs. He wants Shinnosuke’s anger to grow even more and eventually suffer the same fate as his father.

“My name is Freeze,” he declares as he sends a blizzard of ice towards Shinnosuke. The Shift Cars come to help, but Freeze completely overpowers them, even forcing Shinnosuke to dehenshin.

But Shinnosuke does not want to give up.

Chase and Gou’s fight interrupts the face off, but Makage says it’s okay since he’s not quite ready yet anyway. He manages to disappear, as does Gou.

–

Back at the SID, Shinnosuke and Belt-san argue over his recklessness. Chief Jun tries to calm them down and decides to take Belt-san for a little walk to cool his head.

Shinnosuke doesn’t understand why Belt-san is being overly cautious, but Kiriko flashes back to what Krim told her earlier. She assures Shinnosuke that everything will be fine and that he and Belt-san can work together next time they face 001.

Chief Jun has brought Belt-san up to his favorite spot on the roof. He comes up here to reenergize and motivate himself as he looks out over the city and sees all the people he must work hard for.

Chief Jun says he’s done everything he can to help Krim, for which he is grateful. But now they’ve come close to their ultimate goal to expose 001. Now’s the time for them to band together.

Back at the SID, the team is going over how to subdue 001’s abilities. Chase offers that when someone hit with an ice needle hears a certain keyword, 001 can override their thoughts with fake memories.

Shinnosuke says for Tooru and his family, the keyword was Fuziki Iwao, his father. Chase says 001 used the same method to control the memories of police force.

Otta says that means the keyword is… Loli sojou!

Chase says that Otta’s strange Roidmude pronunciations must be a side effect of having his memory erased.

Kyu adds that Fuziki Iwao isn’t the only one that has been abducted. Going through the list provided by Mr. X, there have been 20 people abducted in similar circumstances. And these disappearances started 12 years ago around the time Papa Tomari was killed.

Otta goes to Nira to tell him about Makage being a Roidmude and being involved in Papa Tomari’s death. Nira tries to pooh-pooh Otta’s accusations.

Later, Nira reports to Makage on the SID digging into the past. But Makage doesn’t seem to really care. In fact, Makage no longer has any use for Nira. Makage leaves.

“You’re just going to throw me away? Damn you, Makage!”

Meanwhile, Shinnosuke asks Belt-san to help remove the ice needle from his neck. If they analyze the needle, they might be able to find an antidote. But to do that they’ll need to use Mad Doctor and Shinnosuke must be in the same condition from when he was hit, which means he cannot henshin.

Belt-san says a normal human won’t be able to stand Mad Doctor. Shinnosuke insists. There’s no other way.

Shinnosuke is in immense pain. Belt-san tells Rinna and Kiriko to shut it down, but Shinnosuke tells them to keep going. He will never give up.

Across town, Chase finds Heart. He asks Heart to tell him about the Ultimate Evolution. Heart says if he wants to know, then they must fight. They transform and henshin.

As they fight, Heart talks. Ultimate Evolution is the final stage of their development and they can reach that point by pushing the emotions they’ve learned from the humans to the limit. For him, that emotion is one he can only feel in the heat of battle… joy.

Heart forces Chase to dehenshin. He says it appears he won’t be able to reach that ultimate moment with Chase as an opponent. Just as he thought, the only one who can push him to the point of no return is… “him.”

Chase wonders who it is.

Shinnosuke regains consciousness and Rinna says the extraction was a success. She can definitely make an antidote now.

Kiriko says he is worrying them too much. Shinnosuke apologizes, but says he just had to come back because he knows they’ll all be waiting for him with a smile.

Otta comes into The Pit with confirmation that all the abducted people from 12 years ago were Makage’s doing as none of their family members remember them either. But why did Tooru’s father also get abducted now?

Rinna comes in with the new antidote and tests it on Otta.

Rinna quizzes him and he answers correctly. Otta finally says “Roidmude.”

Shinnosuke gets into top gear when he realizes Makage is waiting on the results of an experiment, likely with the abducted people. But where is he holding them?

“I think I know!”

Nira bursts into the SID with a location. Kyu sees the address is an abandoned building with a suspiciously high amount of electricity usage with reports of the Heaviness in the area.

But why is Nira helping them now after being such an ass to them all this time. “I’ve finally come to my senses,” Nira says. “I… no, the entire police force have been used by Makage.”

This seems like a very sudden change of heart, but Nira apologizes for everything and asks them to believe him. “I’m a police officer, after all.”

Shinnosuke says he understands.

Chief Jun is about to deploy the SID, but Nira knocks him aside to do it himself.

Chase is in The Pit. He asks Belt-san why he hasn’t gone with Shinnosuke who’s already left. “Aren’t you afraid of them?” Belt-san asks. Chase says he does not understand that emotion. All he knows is that protecting people is the duty of a Kamen Rider. That’s what Krim taught him.

Belt-san tells Chase to bring him to Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke is at the factory, again talking to Tooru. He gives him the antidote to use to remember his father. But Tooru just throws it into the trash and says he doesn’t have a father.

Shinnosuke says Tooru might not remember, but he promised that he would bring back his father. He takes out a dorayaki which he hopes Tooru can greet his father with.

Chief Jun checks Shinnosuke’s horoscope and it is an incredibly unlucky day for him.

“The same as that day…”

He takes a photo of him and Papa Tomari and asks him to take care of his son today.

Later, Tooru takes a bite out of the dorayaki. He starts to remember his father.

Across town, Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta are at the strange building. They enter and find people being held inside strange chambers. They are the abducted peoples.

And also there to meet them are Makage, Brain and Gou.

Makage explains that 12 years ago, in order to investigate the cause of his humiliation, he carefully searched for the unique people who could withstand his abilities like Papa Tomari did.

Papa Tomari was special, Makage says, “You could even say he was… superhuman.”

However, he found that even among people who exhibited similar qualities, none of them were as remarkable. Makage didn’t understand why his power did not work on these worthless humans.

Brain brings a frozen Fuziki-san out and tosses him to the floor. That’s when Tooru arrives and tells Makage not to speak of his father in that way.

Chase and Belt-san have brought Tooru here. Tooru says while his father may not be a big shot, he had big dreams. He wanted to build parts for the fastest cars in the world.

But how, Makage asks, didn’t he erase Tooru’s memories?

“He may be small to you, but to me, he is the best father anyone could ask for!”
“Shut up, you worm!”

Makage goes 001 and shoots at them, but Shinnosuke pushes him out of the way. Chase shoots at Brain to step back.

Tooru goes to his father and begs him to wake up. Which he does. He’s heard everything Tooru said and even feels a little embarrassed now. They both laugh.

Shinnosuke, meanwhile, is fired up. Belt-san thinks about what Chief Jun, Chase and Shinnosuke himself said earlier. He flies on over to Shinnosuke’s waist and says he won’t hesitate or be afraid any longer. He tells Shinnosuke to start his engine and they can fight 001, together.

Shinnosuke henshins and takes on 001. Brain tries to go help, but Chase says he will be his opponent. But Gou wants Chase to be his opponent.

Chase and Gou henshin.

Outside, Makage 001 Freeze tosses Shinnosuke around and again tries to freeze him. But Shinnosuke uses Max Flare to counter the coldness while Gou, Brain and Chase battle nearby.

Shinnosuke goes Formula and uses Formula 01 to overwhelm Freeze before using a Full Full Formula Cannon Full Throttle Finisher.

Only, it doesn’t finish 001 at all. Instead, 001 emerges from the fire and begins to glow to brightly, Emperor Zett would’ve orgasmed by now.

This is 001’s Ultimate Evolution! 001 declares he is invincible and will now be able to stop all of humanity’s memories. He unleashes a huge attack that pierces right through Shinnosuke’s stomach.

Shinnosuke dehenshins and falls to the ground.

Kiriko and Otta run over and try to get him to wake up. Otta listens to his chest, but his heart… Belt-san is offline. It’s not looking good.

It is then confirmed on screen. Metropolitan Police Department, Special Investigations Division Officer, Tomari Shinnosuke – Killed in action.

Episode Thoughts

How dramatic! Dead silence in the preview for Episode 33. (Even for 32 at the end of 31 lol) It’s funny, I don’t seem to remember such silence when Gentarou or Kota died. (And now I see dying main Riders is a common go-to plot point lol)

But these two were still good episodes I think. Mainly because we finally got a little tidbit on the Roidmudes and what their purpose to exist in this story even might be.

The show actually did more to explain 001’s motivations in a few episodes and in a good way than they have with the Roidmude idols in 30+ episodes. Yikes.

The whole idea of 001 manipulating the police to allow his Roidmude friends to work in the shadows to reach an ultimate goal is believable. And Ultimate Evolution is a reasonable endgame for the villains. But it only feels like that applies to 001. Heart, Brain, Medic and previously Chase went along with really no reason to be causing trouble. And even now, we’re not really sure if they even know what they’re doing.

Collecting human emotions to evolve and become the superior beings to rule the world? Sure. That’s fine. But all that came in just the last few episodes. They haven’t even really suggested a motivation (that could always evolve or just be a misdirection). So this big reveal actually comes off a little too typical.

And if anything, it seems that this big reveal is only to lead into whatever new thing we’ll get in Episode 33. I think we all know Shinnosuke is not dead, yes? At least, he’ll be resurrected. Unless, this really is Kamen Rider Chaser and not Drive? lol

At least these episodes did a better job of using the case of the week and the idea of fathers and protecting memories as a way to move the main stories of the series as well as Shinnosuke’s development. Much better than that crazy lady and Gou. And I accept 001’s master plan. That’s actually one of the few stories that has had a successful build up.

On the flipside, I really don’t see Nira’s purpose other than be yet another comic relief character. And they squeeze in the idea of Otta also being hit with an ice needle, but don’t even show him with a scar. That doesn’t explain why he’s been able to work with the SID all this time and actually be aware of the Roidmude, unlike everyone else in the city. His wrong pronunciations don’t seem to have anything to do with 001’s abilities other than “Oh, that’s just something we can explain away by saying it’s just a side effect.” Um, okay.

Plus, it doesn’t appear Tooru needed an antidote to remember his father, just a bite into some delicious bread. So really, the point of that Mad Doctor scene was to show Shinnosuke is somehow special and maybe “superhuman.” The Promised One Number perhaps? Who knows, since we don’t even know what a Promised Number even is.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever been so critical or negative or regularly disappointed about a toku show I actually still enjoy and have fun with. Usually, if I’m critical, it’s because the show actually sucks. (Hello Power Rangers Samurai and Megaforce. But while Drive has dropped a lot of balls and potential so far, I’m still pretty excited to watch the show every week. Hmm… very interesting. Maybe I too have been hit with an ice needle. lol

Kiriko and Otta kneel by a lifeless Shinnosuke. Chase fires at Freeze, but Freeze sends a huge explosion his way, forcing him to dehenshin. Freeze and Brain laugh before they disappear with Gou.

The news of the death of 24 year old Tomari Shinnosuke spreads across the city. Chief Jun, Rinna and Kyu are at the morgue, seeing their dead friend for the first time. Otta asks where Kiriko is. Kyu says she’s shut herself in her home, unable to see Shinnosuke like this. Otta is angry and frustrated. He vows to avenge his death.

The coroner shows them an interesting thing. He has been unable to remove the belt or bracelet from Shinnosuke’s body.

Kiriko sits in her dark apartment telling Shinnosuke he is a liar since he promised to return to their smiles. “That’s what you told your buddy… me…”

Over at the Pit, Rinna gives Chase the antidote to use on Gou. He tells her how he lied about seeing the scar on Gou’s neck so as not to worry Kiriko. Now that Shinnosuke will not return, he at least has to bring Gou back for her.

Before Chase leaves, Rinna has a question for him.

Next day, Nira walks into the SID to tell Chief Jun that he’s been summoned to headquarters. But he finds an empty room with Chief Jun packing his things. With Rinna and Kyu having originally only been brought in as consultants, Kiriko being a shut in and Otta returning to First Division, Chief Jun says there’s nothing else he can do here.

Stop joking! Nira says. Makage is still out there and Chief Jun must join the emergency committee to find a new Kamen Rider.

That sets Chief Jun off. Kamen Rider isn’t just someone with superior strength or intelligence. The only one he and Krim Steinbelt found worthy was Tomari Shinnosuke. There is no replacement!

While Kiriko continues to cry at the table having not moved an inch since yesterday, Freeze shows himself to Heart and Medic. His new Ultimate Evolution form. “So this is our goal?” Heart asks.

Makage says their goal is to gather the Promised Number. He promises to show Heart the way, but Heart laughs since Makage himself killed the man who would’ve allowed him to reach the Ultimate Evolution. Indeed, Makage laughs. They’ll just have to find another way.

Gou stands to leave, but Chase suddenly appears and grabs him. He is about to spray him with the antidote, but Makage shoots it out of his hand.

How reckless, Heart says. The idols and their manager get ready, but Makage steps forward and says to leave Chase to him. Both he and Chase transform.

Freeze sends Chase flying out of the building and they continue the fight outside. Freeze manages to avoid some of Chase’s attacks until he is able to shoot his cold ice at him. Chase says it’s no use since he’s a Roidmude and unlike Drive, Freeze can’t freeze his heart.

That’s true, Freeze says. Brain offers Gou’s help and Gou henshins.

Gou attacks Chase who again tries to get him to snap out of his needle-induced stupor. Gou and Freeze attack Chase and force him to dehenshin. Brain cackles at the damn traitor. He takes his tablet out and offers to remodel Chase’s body once more.

Suddenly, Gou grabs Brain’s tablet and takes him by the neck. “I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Gou says.

But, Makage filled his memory with feelings of resentment to other Riders? Gou says it appears he and his Shin-niisan share the same quirk.

“I’ve got what I’ve come for,” Gou says and he whisks Chase away.

Gou relates to Chase what happened when Brain first approached him.

Brain said the tablet has something Gou wants. So, Brain offered to make a deal to allow Gou to get it. Gou accepted the offer, but proceeded to put on an act just so he could get the tablet himself. In it is the ultimate brain, everything about the Roidmude.

Chase understands now. But for the chance to wipe out the Roidmude in one swoop, a distraught Gou says he abandoned his Shin-niisan when he needed him most. If only he acted sooner, he wouldn’t be seeing his neechan the saddest she’s ever been. He was supposed to be fighting for his sister’s smile and now he’s thrown it away for this damn tablet.

Chase stops Gou from tossing the tablet into the river. He punches Gou to get him to snap out of his anger.

“You are also a Kamen Rider who risks his life to save people. Follow what you believe in, Gou!”

Chase gets off Gou and says if the tablet does hold ultimate knowledge, then he should use it to help Kiriko now. Chase also tells him about the belt not being able to be removed from Shinnosuke’s body. He believes Krim wouldn’t die so easily.

Gou turns the tablet on and a face asks if he has a question.

“I want to ask something. Professor Banno.”

While Otta and Kyu sit in the SID reminiscing, Kiriko is still sitting at her dining table. She gets up to shut the door to the terrace when an emergency vehicle passes by, but when she turns, she sees her little brother standing in front of her.

“Neechan…” Gou drops to his knees. “I’m so sorry for everything! But I wasn’t being manipulated by anyone. I know it was selfish. You don’t have to forgive me. But for one more time, please believe in me.”

“I will always believe in you.”
“Thank you,” Gou says.

But Gou has more unbelievable news. He takes out his notebook to show her something that will make her smile again.

Otta and Kyu head to The Pit and are surprised to find everyone here. Including Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke’s dead body is sitting inside Tridoron.

Otta asks what the hell is going on here and why the hell is Nira here too. Nira says he heard Chief Jun had dragged Shinnosuke’s dead corpse away.

But on the contrary, Chief Jun says, Shinnosuke is not a corpse just yet. His body has not deteriorated at all. Rinna sees that Krim has fused with Shinnosuke’s heart and is working as a life support system.

Chase adds that if they can reboot Krim, Shinnosuke may revive.

Rinna has completed Shift Tridoron. Drive has reached its limit of power ups. But as a last resort, Rinna developed Shift Tridoron to pump all of Tridoron and the Shift Cars’ energy into Trailer Cannon which could help revive them.

But that won’t be enough, Kiriko says as she runs in. She hands Rinna Gou’s notebook full of calculations and formulas and explains to everyone that Gou has been their ally all this time. Kyu realizes Gou is Mr. X!

Kiriko goes to Shinnosuke and says while she had been crying, she is fine now.

Rinna says the calculations are perfect, but it won’t work unless they put Shinnosuke in ignition while Tridoron reaches 200kph.

Chase offers to drive, but Kiriko says she will. She is Tomari Shinnosuke’s buddy, after all.

They head out to a race track while Chief Jun and Kyu monitor things at The Pit. Kiriko floors it and all the Shift Cars assemble inside Shift Tridoron.

But just as Kiriko is about to reach the speed, Freeze appears and sends a blast toward them. Kiriko continues driving as Chase henshins to get Freeze out of the way.

Rinna tells Kiriko she needs to stop. But Kiriko tells Shinnosuke that they will go full throttle to the end.

As Tridoron reaches 200kph, the Shift Cars’ powers start to surge through.

Freeze tells Chase if he can’t freeze his heart, he will just rip Chase apart then. He forces Chase to dehenshin and then attacks Tridoron once more. Tridoron bursts into flames.

But the car is unharmed as the flames suddenly disappear. The door opens and out steps a perfectly living Shinnosuke.

“Nice smile. I’m glad I came back to it.”

A flash of Shinnosuke’s eyes and suddenly Belt-san’s voice comes out his mouth. He tells Kiriko to leaves this to them.

But how?! Freeze asks. Shinnosuke says he was able to henshin just before the explosion which allowed him to save Kiriko as well.

Shinnosuke uses Shift Tridoron to henshin directly to Type Tridoron.

Shinnosuke proceeds to fight Freeze. Freeze floats into the air to unleash the same attack he used to kill Shinnosuke once. Chase yells over for Shinnosuke to get out of the way.

“Yeah, I don’t really want to take that hit.”
“Okay,” Belt-san says and they change drivers!

It is now Belt-san in control and he easily deflects Freeze’s attack. He explains to Freeze that he fused his data into Shinnosuke’s heart to keep him from dying. Reviving in that form has given birth to this unexpected Drive!

“I can’t believe it,” Freeze says.
“Neither can I. But it’s quite an amazing experience.”

Shinnosuke tells Belt-san he thinks he’s gotten the hang of these new powers. They switch drivers. Shinnosuke fights Freeze and says he and Belt-san are one heart and mind now. His body is Tridoron. He can take on all Shift Car powers at once.

He mixes Max Flare, Funky Spike and Midnight Shadow to create an Attack 1-2-3 tire.

Shinnosuke uses the new Attack 1-2-3 to knock Freeze down and allow them to use Shift Tridoron for a Full Full Speed Big Cannon Finisher.

001’s core falls into the water.

Shinnosuke dehenshins and everyone runs over to give him a hug. He thanks them all for helping him to come back and to avenge his father.

“It was just dumb luck,” Belt-san says, “Not bad, every once in a while.”

Suddenly, 001’s core comes flying out of the water. He laughs.

v
“Your joy in believing you have avenged your father is truly amusing. I hope you writhe in agony when you find out the truth hidden in the shadows!”

001’s core finally blows up.

Episode Thoughts

Okay, okay. I liked this a lot. The road getting here was rough. Very rough. But most of the things that needed to fall into place did and together they made for a pretty satisfying episode.

I’ve been disappointed in Gou’s strange trajectory and there’s definitely still plenty of holes in his story. But while him pretending to be under Freeze control to get the tablet is fine, they in turn basically just said in mere passing that Gou and Shinnosuke are both possibly of that “superhuman” class of being. It came off as some deus ex machina-type of development instead of a shocking twist and turning point in the story and especially for Gou’s character. And that’s definitely in line with how they’ve been using Gou so far.

It’s the same with the Roidmude idols. Heart basically asking Makage, “Oh! So that’s our purpose?” in relation to the Ultimate Evolution but Makage replying that it’s about the “Promised Number,” another detail mentioned maybe no more than 3 times in passing over 30 episodes too.

I think Drive started revving up a little too late. There will always be a period of introduction on these toku shows where we need to relate to and care about the characters before they start getting into the heavy stuff. But I think Drive had been dragging its feet a little too much, especially with the repetitive nature of Chase’s story. Even more obvious when thinking about how Chase is now being used as a normal secondary Rider instead of having his story continue to be tied into the mystery of whatever the hell Roidmude really are or what really happened between Krim or Banno or whoever else will pop up.

So again, I think the biggest problem is poor set-up and development.

Anyway, what I did enjoy was seeing the SID sticking together and that great moment between Gou and Kiriko. Banno in the tablet is a good twist, but would’ve been even better if we had even heard of the name earlier on so we could be shocked and care that Kiriko and Gou’s father is inside a tablet.

Attack 1-2-3 is pretty cool and from a toy standpoint, Type Tridoron and the tire mixing is a great extra gimmick.

Type Tridoron is fine too. And how Shinnosuke was resurrected also turned out fine, even if a little more convenient than it needed to be.

Makage’s arc wrapped up well and is probably one of the few stories that developed well in the series.

So the secrets surrounding Papa Tomari continue. Again, another thing that they could’ve planted seeds of earlier.

But overall, a pretty good episode that I thoroughly enjoyed. I wish I could absolutely love it, but we’ll see what they have in store next.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are on their way to measure particles for a possible Roidmude incident. But Shinnosuke can’t stop thinking about Freeze’s last words about not knowing the truth about his father.

They arrive at the Metropolitan Police Department and head to the Forensics Lab where the Gravity Shift occurred. They talk to Minowa Mariko, one of the forensics team, who first encountered the Heaviness. She’s a big Kamen Rider fan.

She brings them to the evidence room and says some things were missing after the Gravity Shift. But she’s not really sure what.

Belt-san tells Shinnosuke that there’s a Roidmude outside, an evolved fusion one too. Roidmude 106.

Shinnosuke henshins and says he will arrest 106 for robbery, at the police station no less. But 106 takes the Handle-Ken and uses it against him. Shinnosuke uses Door-ju to take the sword back and slash at 106 which causes a forensics document to fly out. Must be what 106 stole. He sends a blast at a nearby walkway, putting people in danger.

Belt-san says to go Type Tridoron and Shinnosuke uses a Justice Hunter, Mad Doctor and Fire Braver tire mix to unleash a finisher, save the people and heal a man’s wounds.

Brain arrives and helps 106 get away.

106 thanks Brain, but Brain says he didn’t do it for him. Now that his tablet is gone and 001 is dead, he must now take this opportunity to also get golden via the ultimate evolution. Maybe then, he can also become one of the Promised Numbers.

Otta tells them about Shigeta Shizuo, chief of the forensics department who has been missing since the day before the robbery. They assume he is behind the evolved fusion form, but Mariko says the chief would never do such a thing. In fact, just recently, he said something was bothering him about an old case and he pulled out some evidence from it to look over.

AHA! That’s what was taken! A box full of evidence from that case.

Shinnosuke looks at the paper that fell out of the Roidmude earlier. It’s a ballistics report… from his father’s death!

They talk about the situation at the SID. They believe Shigeta’s memories which were erased by 001 were coming back which is why he started looking into the case again. But then he was taken by the Roidmude.

Shinnosuke believes the clue they need is hidden in the gun taken into evidence. He gets ready to run out, but Chief Jun tells him to be careful and not to rush into things after just getting his life back.

Nira hands Shinnosuke a list of Makage’s properties. If the culprit to the robbery is connected, then he might be hiding at one of these places. Nira apologizes and says this is the least he can do to make for what’s he’s done and for Shinnosuke’s father who had done so much for him.

He tells Kiriko to come with and they will start at the top of the list.

They arrive at the first location and find… Heart!

Heart has been waiting here and is very excited to see Shinnosuke is alive and available for a little tussle. They both henshin and transform and they fight.

Heart uses the Super Gravity Shift to paralyze Shinnosuke, but Formula arrives to help counter it.

Shinnosuke tells Kiriko head to the roof as he resumes fighting Heart.

Nearby, Medic tells Brain that after the successful experiment with Chase, she gave Heart the Super Gravity Shift power. Brain says he will make up for his mistakes and decides to attack Kiriko, looking for her brother.

Instead, Chase arrives and knocks him over the railing onto the top of the Super Gravity Shift dome. Chase yells to Shinnosuke to forget Heart and return to their original purpose of coming here in the first place.

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Chase hurry away. Medic thinks Brain is so pathetic.

Chase asks them where Gou is, but they haven’t seen him for days. Chase tells Kiriko not to worry. Gou has his own goals right now.

Gou plays with the Banno tablet, hoping to find a way to use it to help them.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko wonder how Heart knew they’d be here. It can’t be…

Back at the SID, Chief Jun shows Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Nira a new antidote Rinna has made for Makage’s victims. Should work even better now.

Meanwhile, 106 has Shigeta dig through the evidence box and remember what happened the day of The Incident. Turns out the bullet used to kill Papa Tomari was from a different gun than the one entered into evidence.

Both Brain and 106 remand Shigeta remember where he hid the real gun as Makage ordered. The memory of Makage frightens Shigeta.

Suddenly, Chief Jun appears and tells 106 that his fingerprints are on that real gun, aren’t they?

Chief Jun declares that the one fused with the Roidmude right now is the true killer of Tomari Eisuke! Chief Jun tells the culprit he probably realized Makage’s disappearance would cause old memories to come back and the crime would be exposed. So he fused with the Roidmude to destroy the evidence.

106 tries to shoot at Chief Jun, but Shinnosuke arrives to block it.

Shinnosuke swipes at 106 and separates the human from the Roidmude. The human is…

Nira Mitsuhide! The true murderer of Tomari Eisuke!

Shinnosuke explains that Heart attacking them earlier meant that the leak must have been Nira. And they found this place thanks to the tracking device on the bottle of antidote Nira took with him which they knew he would give to Shigeta.

Brain leaves, but stops as he listens…

Shinnosuke demands to know why Nira killed his father.

Nira says Shinnosuke is just like his father, oblivious to other people’s jealousy towards them. Nira was always jealous of the star Tomari. He tried to overtake him, but Papa Tomari only felt pity towards him, advised him to stop and that he believed in Nira’s policeman spirit.

That only made Nira hate Papa Tomari more.

The Incident 12 years ago was not a coincidence. Makage tipped the police off and sent Papa Tomari to the scene who then called his partner, Nira, to help him infiltrate the bank as patrons.

As Papa Tomari protected the girl, Nira tackled Maruya only to grab his gun and use it to shoot Papa Tomari himself. That’s when 001 appears and offers to cover up Nira’s involvement in exchange for his allegiance to him.

Shigeta remembers that Makage ordered him to hide the gun in the ceiling above the desk.

Shinnosuke again demands to know why Nira would do this, but Nira says he would never understand. But really, this is humanity’s true nature. Always waiting for the opportunity to become monsters!

Brain is excited. He directs 106 to re-join with Nira.

Shinnosuke asserts that not everyone in the world is like that. He henshins straight to Type Tridoron.

Brain jumps down to help against Shinnosuke and they take the fight outside.

Shinnosuke uses Rumble Dump, Spin Mixer and Rolling Gravity tire mix to get Brain out of the way. He then uses Trailer-hou for a Full Throttle Technic Big Cannon Finish which separates Nira from the Roidmude.

Brain tosses a Viral Core into the 106 to turn it into the flying version while he takes Nira away with him.

Shinnosuke easily takes care of the Roidmude with Tridoron.

They head back to the forensics lab and find that the gun is gone for the ceiling and likely taken by the Roidmude already.

Later that night, Brain is with Nira on a rooftop.

Brain points a gun at Nira, but then drops it and hugs him. Jealousy! Such strong jealousy. Brain now understands why he helped Nira. He says they will fuse to create a new Roidmude.

But Brain spits Nira out. And instead begins to glow. This is it!

Brain has done it!

Episode Thoughts

Pretty good episode I guess.

I will say that ultimately, Nira being the one who killed Papa Tomari was unexpected, though not really a surprise. Or is that the other way around? lol Mostly because the story itself about Papa Tomari has been all over the place after getting pulled out of nowhere, so you don’t really know what the purpose of the whole thing was. Still, it does make sense.

I was suspicious when Nira said Papa Tomari had done a lot for him, which is why he’s helping Shinnosuke now. But just a few episodes ago, he was basically saying the elder Tomari deserved what he got for being a cocky hotshot or something. (After which, he proceeded to cackle at Shinnosuke like he normally does.)

But this does explain why Nira was originally by 001/Makage’s side in the first place. And his utter contempt for Shinnosuke.

Speaking of fathers, here we go with Gou talking to Papa Banno in a tablet.

As for the idols, I must say I think Brain is the most developed. Unlike Heart and Medic, Brain has had a clear goal and has acted to fulfill that goal. (Mainly, to reclaim and maintain his spot in Heart’s lap by Heart’s side by getting rid of that pesky Medic.) Only now does he get the shining shimmering goldness which I really hope doesn’t mean he’s going to get offed soon.