SWAT teams and police are surrounding the Department of Motor Vehicles. Live news is reporting there is a hostage situation inside the Special Investigations Division.

We go inside the SID to see Nira laughing as he is pointing a gun at Shinnosuke.

Rewind 20 hours.

The SID are at a loss in trying to find Nira.

Meanwhile, Chase joins Shinnosuke who is waiting outside the hospital fully expecting Nira to attack a just released Yukari once again. Kiriko has also asked Chase here to take care of Brain in the event he shows up as well.

And sure enough, just as Yukari waves over to them, Nira appears. Belt-san is surprised to see Nira back in Roidmude form when 106’s core had been destroyed. Shinnosuke does not care. He’ll defeat him regardless. He henshins straight to Type Tridoron.

Chase henshins and joins in the fight. But Nira unleashes a familiar green mist. Aha! Nira must have fused with Brain!

Shinnosuke uses a Max Flare, Funky Spike and Midnight Shadow tire mix. But Nira shoots out vines to wrap both Shinnosuke and Chase. He then shoots a vine at Yukari’s wrist.

That’s when Gou arrives to help. He shoots at Nira who decides to retreat. But before he leaves, Brain appears and promises to get his tablet back one day.

The guys de-henshin.

Chase approaches Gou and asks about the tablet holding Banno… Gou grabs Chase’s collar and reminds him not to tell his neechan about any of this. Okay, Chase says, as long as he uses it to help them if anything happens. Just like how he helped revive Shinnosuke.

Gou tells Chase to stop acting so friendly. They’re not buddies. Gou leaves.

“Buddies?”

Chase says he’ll bring Yukari safely home and Shinnosuke should focus on finding Nira and Brain.

Meanwhile, Medic approaches Brain to mock him for joining forces with that idiot Nira. But Brain merely turns to her and says she needs to call him “Brain-sama” from now on.

Brain shows her his golden form and repeats that she must now call him “Brain-sama.” You must be joking, she says as she transforms as well.

Medic tries to attack him, but Brain merely waves his hand and she goes flying into bushes before getting slammed onto the beach. Brain then sends explosions all around her before blowing her up her butt, forcing her to untransform.

Heart arrives and says, as a friend, he is very happy Brain has reached this evolution. Brain untransforms and tells Heart that this is all for achieving his dream.

Brain literally leaps on over to Medic and laughs at her face.

Later that evening, Yukari thanks Chase for accompanying her. But as she walks away, he sees something glowing on her wrist. He tells his Shift Car to watch over her.

Chief Jun sees Shinnosuke up on the roof. He sees that Shinnosuke must come up here when he’s stuck and says that it is the same for him. And for Papa Tomari as well.

Chief Jun tells Shinnosuke that he and Papa Tomari were on the same team when he was assigned to First Division. He shows Shinnosuke the photo and says he has been blaming himself for The Incident. On the day of the robbery, Chief Jun didn’t warn Papa Tomari that his fortune for that day was “extreme bad luck.”

Chief Jun then met Krim and after learning the conspiracy behind The Incident, he swore to uncover the truth. But the mystery only got deeper and deeper. That is, until now that Tomari’s son has become a police officer and Kamen Rider and is closing in on the real culprit.

Shinnosuke swears he will end this. Chief Jun tells him to be careful as his opponent plays dirty. And he should remember that even in a pinch, his friends will still be here to support him.

Kiriko comes running and tells them Nira is holding a press conference.

With Brain as Noumi-san by his side, Nira explains that Makage was behind the robbery at Eitou Bank. NoumiBrain points out that Makage was actually 001, the leader of the Roidmudes. And the one who defeated him was the Kamen Rider Tomari Shinnosuke.

However, they add, it turns out the Kamen Rider is merely working to become the new leader of the Roidmude and is being supported by the SID. They point out the connections between the SID and the Roidmude: Rinna’s ex-boyfriend, Otta’s mentor, Kyu’s friend.

And the biggest proof, the newest Kamen Rider was a Roidmude that attacked the citizens. And Officer Shijima Kiriko was fully aware, but kept it a secret.

NoumiBrain asserts that the SID is dangerous and contemptible. Nira announces the SID is dissolved and will be taken into custody.

Officials come into the SID ready to arrest them. Chief Jun says they have no choice.

But he points at a fish on the floor to distract the men and allow Shinnosuke to run out.

Nira receives word about Shinnosuke’s escape. Brain says it is time for the next part of their plan.

Shinnosuke is on the run all night long as everyone gets thrown in jail.

Next morning, Shinnosuke hides under a bridge where he meets Belt-san…

…in an interesting new form.

Anyway, Shinnosuke is still hopeful. Especially after Chief Jun saying his friends will always be there for him. Belt-san agrees Shinnosuke has been able to overcome several pinches thanks to believing in his friends.

Nira suddenly pops in and tells Shinnosuke to kiss his ass before running off. Shinnosuke henshins and chases after him.

Shinnosuke tries to uphensin to Tridoron, but Nira knocks the Shift Car out of his hand. Chase arrives.

Brain taps in and says he can see Chase is angry. Chase says even if Kamen Riders and Roidmude are destined to fight, these actions are far beneath Brain and pathetic.

“I’m sorry, but are you saying you don’t like me?”
“Yes, that’s right.”

Chase henshins and he and Shinnosuke take on NiraBrain. They manage to separate Nira from the Roidmude body. But Brain appears and they see his golden bod for the first time.

Brain unleashes a lightning blast towards them, allowing Nira to run off. Chase tells Shinnosuke to go and he will stay to take care of Brain.

Shinnosuke chases Nira all the way to the SID. Nira is sitting in Chief Jun’s chair, his back to Shinnosuke who gets the handcuffs ready.

But Nira turns around and he has a gun and is pointing it right at Shinnosuke.

Brain and Chase are still fighting. Chase asks if the Promised Number is related to reaching the Ultimate Evolution. Brain says yes.

And one more thing… “I don’t like you either!”

Brain says he can end Chase once and for all, but he won’t because Chase still has a role to play which he will find out soon enough. Brain sends Chase flying.

Back at the SID, Nira admits that this is the gun he used to kill Papa Tomari.

The city stops to watch the breaking news of a hostage situation at the Department of Motor Vehicles involving an armed police officer. Yukari knows Shinnosuke must be involved, but she suddenly feels a pain on her arm and collapses. Proto Zero Shift Car sees this and quickly goes to report to Chase.

Gou watches the news on his phone. Banno asks if Shinnosuke is the Kamen Rider whom Krim is working with. Gou asks if he can help once more.

But Heart suddenly appears demanding Gou hand the tablet back. Gou refuses. Heart says he’ll take it by force. They henshin and transform.

Chase, now de-henshined, lies unconscious on the street where Brain left him.

Kiriko worries about her boys.

Shinnosuke tells Nira to give himself up. Nira just laughs. He tells Shinnosuke that he tipped off the police before they came here.

He turns on the news which is reporting that Shinnosuke is the hostage taker. This was all a trap!

“In one hour… you will be dead!”

Nira cackles.

The siege of the SID has begun.

Episode Thoughts

Wow. Very interesting.

I hope the next episode has a little more back and forth between Shinnosuke and Nira, if not a whole episode’s worth. A great climax for this arc should help redeem the haphazard way we got to this point, including having to sit through Nira’s hysterics all this time. lol

A hostage situation with guns on a children’s show though. I love Japanese TV!

I think Drive has not done the best job meshing the comedy and the drama together. As evidenced by how much more interesting Nira is when he’s more serious. I think they could’ve easily made him contemptible and annoying without all the slapstick. And of course how much more awesome Chief Jun is when serious as well.

There’s always a way to keep and maintain a lighthearted, even crazy tone while still making sure your overall dramatic ambitions are in check. Even with at least 10-12 more episodes left, I think Drive could’ve done that a little better with the balance than they did.

Anyway, with the SID, I hope we’ll get to see all of them in action together close to the finale. You know it will happen. They’re all buddies, after all.

Brain-sama is awesome. The idols still have no (even vaguely) clear purpose, but at least Brain has been deliciously wicked and nefarious. I mean, look at this:

What the hell is that?!

I have no idea. Bu I do I know it’s awesome though. He’s been colorful, amusing and in terms of actually doing stuff, he’s been doing stuff. A lot of stuff.

I’m assuming after this Nira/Papa Tomari arc, we’ll be moving on to the Banno arc before then moving into the finale arc. So I’m hoping they can continue stepping it up like they’ve been kinda doing recently.

Nira and Brain admit that this was all a trap. They’ve set it up so Nira will have shot Shinnosuke dead in self-defense. That way, they will be able to destroy Shinnosuke’s reputation as a hero of justice.

Shinnosuke says he will not try to shoot Nira, but will let the law deal with him. Brain and Nira fuse together one more time and Shinnosuke henshins directly to Formula.

Brain stops Shinnosuke and shows him live video of Yukari writing on the ground. Brain explains that he infected her with a deadly poison when he grabbed her arm earlier and she will die in 45 minutes.

Heart and Gou are still fighting. Heart knocks the tablet out of Gou’s hands and decides Gou is not the person who will bring him to his Ultimate Evolution. He sends a blast at Gou, forcing him to dehenshin.

When Heart goes to pick-up the tablet, it opens and Banno zaps his, causing him to pass out.

Meanwhile, the Proto Drive Shift Car has led Chase to Yukari. He shoves the paramedics out of the way and tries to use Mad Doctor to save her, but it doesn’t work. He decides to take her on his bike and they drive off.

Brain tells Shinnosuke this was part of his plan too. Now Chase will be a kidnapper and a murderer. And the best part, Brain can kill Yukari anytime he wants, even before the time is up. So Shinnosuke can do nothing but follow orders.

Belt-san calls Brain the devil. Brain decides to grab him and take all the Shift Cars into a sack, causing Shinnosuke to dehenshin.

Brain separates from Nira and happily skips off with 30 minutes left to death.

Medic gets Heart to wake up. Gou and the tablet are gone. But even worse, Heart has realized Banno’s true power.

Gou thanks his father, but Banno asks what to do about Krim. “I feel he does not like me very much.”

Gou watches the news coverage of Brain as Noumi running out of the Department of Motor Vehicles and relaying Shinnosuke’s supposed demand of releasing the SID or he’ll kill Nira. Plus, Yukari was kidnapped by an accomplice.

That’s when Chase arrives with Yukari.

“We’re not buddies, but… help me.”

Brain heads into the tent and sets up his live feeds.

Gou holds Banno up to Yukari and the tablet floats above her. Strings of data or something come out of the tablet and wrap around her arm.

Chase and Gou argue, but Banno tells them to believe in his power.

Back at the SID, Shinnosuke asks Nira if he has any honor as a policeman. He says Shinnosuke is the same as his useless, naive and stupid father. Nira mocks him and taps him in the face with his fan.

Shinnosuke remembers his father telling him about the great responsibility of police officers to protect the people to the very end.

Nira continues laughing at Shinnosuke until he snaps at him and tells him not to insult his father. Nira is happy that Shinnosuke is finally angry and tells him to pull his gun out. Either way, Yukari will die.

“You lost to me… same as your father.”

Nira says he chose Yukari because if she dies, then Papa Tomari’s sacrifice will have been for nothing.

“In short, your father died like a dog.”

Nira starts barking at him.

Shinnosuke reaches for his gun. Brain is *thisclose* to climaxing, but the computer goes out.

Shinnosuke starts laughing. He says even as a Kamen Rider, he must laugh at how helpless he is in this situation.

“If I were able to pass through dimensions now… I’d be able to save my friends.”

Nira asks if these are Shinnosuke’s last words. Yes they are. Shinnosuke takes his gun and aims at Nira.

Brain has his live feeds back and watches. There are 10 seconds left until everyone dies.

Nira tells Shinnosuke to shoot him. He laughs as time has expired and Yukari is dead by now. The girl Papa Tomari died to save.

Nira laughs at the Tomari men. Shinnosuke yells at him to shut up. A gunshot.

Shinnosuke shoots, but misses Nira’s face. But this is also part of the plan since he wore a bulletproof vest. Now it’s time for Nira to shoot Shinnosuke. And he does.

Shinnosuke is thrown back to the wall and falls to the floor.

Later, Nira and Brain are holding a press conference to detail what has happened. They continue to paint Shinnosuke and the SID as murderers.

But Kiriko suddenly walks into the conference room and declares everything Nira has said is a lie. And the proof walks into the room: Yukari is alive and well. She says she wasn’t kidnapped, she was saved by the Kamen Riders.

Brain stands up and says that’s impossible because his poison should have killed her!

Shinnosuke, Chase and Gou also walk in. Brain and Nira are shocked Shinnosuke is still alive.

Shinnosuke explains that he saw a message from Yukari, Gou and Chase saying she was safe.

That’s why Shinnosuke laughed.

Brain says that’s impossible with the poison created in his evolved form. But Gou flashes the tablet. Brain understands.

Banno had sucked Yukari into the tablet and spit her back out, good as new.

As for the gunshot, Shinnosuke talking about dimensions earlier signaled Belt-san to send Dimension Cab to pop out of the sack and into Shinnosuke’s hand. He held Dimension Cab in front of him and allowed the bullet to pass through.

And it’s a good thing too, because the bullet used today is from the same gun used to kill Papa Tomari in The Incident.

Brain laughs. There’s only one thing left to do now. They fuse together.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase all henshin together.

Gou and Chase take care of the low-level Roidmude while Shinnosuke focuses on NiraBrain. He uses a Rumble Dump, Spin Mixer and Rolling Gravity tire mix.

Shinnosuke separates Nira from Brain. Nira crawls to Brain and asks him to help since they’re friends.

But Brain says he has no more use for Nira after already reaching Ultimate Evolution.

Brain is confident in taking on all three Riders together. But Belt-san asks Shinnosuke to switch drivers and he speeds toward Brain, knocking him around. Gou and Chase land some hits as Shinnosuke takes over.

The three of them unleash a finisher one after the other and Brain is ravaged.

Brain’s body explodes, only leaving his viral core which flies away.

Shinnosuke places Nira under arrest. The detectives take Nira away, but Nira lets out one more laugh.

“It’s not over yet!” he says. He is looking forward to seeing who between the Kamen Riders and the Roidmude will win in the end.

Brain moves along the road, crying, when Medic picks him up. She says she’ll fix him up real good.

Heart, meanwhile, is resolved to stop Banno.

Episode Thoughts

And finally, Nira comes to an end.

What I liked most this episode was Nira just being a complete asshole and mocking Shinnosuke and his father. And that is mainly because we’ve rarely ever seen any strong emotion from Shinnosuke. It was refreshing and if Nira’s whole arc was just for that and to bring about a situation to reveal Banno’s so-called “power,” then it at least wasn’t a total waste.

But they definitely could’ve done a lot more with Nira and Papa Tomari. Another missed opportunity for Drive I guess.

I did enjoy Gou and Chase being the bickering couple though. The non-buddies. I think I would’ve preferred their “rivalry” be some fun love-hate relationship and “Don’t date my sister” kind of thing instead of what we got so far. But oh well.

I’m happy Brain is still alive. And definitely happy to see that preview at the end signaling the beginning of the final arc. I hope we finally get some big stuff so the season can end strong.

Shinnosuke has been able to put everything relating to his father’s murder aside so he can focus on defeating the Roidmude. Meanwhile, Chief Jun announces to the SID that they are officially being acknowledged and are now classified as a detective department.

Rinna shows them a board of all the Roidmude they’ve identified, destroyed and yet to be found. Kiriko notices there’s been a lot of Roidmude bursting into flames lately.

Thanks to a piece of burnt paper Shinnosuke picked up from the latest fired up Roidmude scene, Kyu has managed to lead them to a secret, hidden French restaurant called Supreme. Once only the subject of urban legend blogs, Kyu has managed to use the paper to find the place.

Supreme has a reputation of having food so delicious it shuts people’s mouths shut so they can’t ever find it again.

They head inside to question the head chef Okumura about the most recent man/burned Roidmude. The chef offers to get them the reservation list.

Meanwhile, Kyu tries to explain to Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta that just being here in this restaurant is an experience worthy to savor.

Okumura is touched by Kyu’s words and tells his sous chef Masukawa to prepare some food for them. Apprentice cook Itagaki Yuu is fumbling around with glass jars nearby.

Across town, Heart has summoned Roidmudes 008 and 006 from abroad to talk about three things: Defeating the Kamen Riders and their police associates, Recovering or destroying Banno Tenjurou and Achieving ultimate evolution and gather the Promised Number as soon as possible.

First though, 006 warns Heart to be wary of those close to him as he shows an article about the latest burnt comrade.

Back at Supreme, Okumura tops off the special dishes with some glowing sauce. As soon as the four take a bite, they are in heaven. AMAZING FOODSTUFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kyu knows the secret is the legendary En Fleurs Sunset, the secret sauce.

Belt-san is upset he can’t eat.

Medic is watching the restaurant from outside. Number-only Brain asks if Heart knows what she’s up to because this is some risky stuff. But more importantly, when is she gonna fix him?

In a warehouse, Gou is with his tablet father when Chase pops up behind him. Chase wants to thank Gou and Banno for saving Yukari. Also, isn’t it time Banno reunited with Krim?

Banno reminds Chase that Gou does not want Kiriko to know he is her father. Gou explains that he found out while he was in the States and has been doing everything he can to hide the truth.

Banno says it is only natural he hide the truth of his despicable work from his children. At least, that’s how Krim definitely feels.

Chase says Banno can atone for his sins, but Banno says there’s another side of Krim that definitely won’t believe him.

They are suddenly attacked by 006 and his goons. Chase tells Gou to take Banno and run, but they both henshin.

006 tries grabbing the tablet, but Gou keeps his father safe. Banno tells Gou they must run. And when they go, so do 006 and Co.

Back at the Pit, Belt-san tells Rinna about the food and his analysis. He stills feels bitter about not being able to eat. But also, there’s something strange about the restaurant.

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta are not listening though as they are still in a food high.

Rinna snaps them all out of it and they concentrate back on the case.

They realize this restaurant attracts more of a Roidmude clientele. But why? And what’s making them spontaneously combust?

Back at Supreme, the apprentice chef Itagaki has just taken a bottle of secret sunset sauce. He quietly leaves the restaurant, but runs into Shinnosuke and Kiriko.

Itagaki runs and they follow.

Roidmude 090 appears and fuses with Itagaki.

Shinnosuke henshins straight to Type Tridoron.

Belt-san asks to take the wheel so he can let out his frustrations about not being able to eat. While fighting, Medic appears with a reaper and tells the Roidmude Cook to hand over the bottle.

She decides to forcibly take it from his person and splashes the golden sauce at the reaper.

The reaper burns up and seems to be powered up or something. Shinnosuke takes the wheel and they realize all the other Roidmudes burning up is because of the golden sauce.

Medic admits all those Roidmude were live test subjects in her experiment on ultimate evolution. She took the lives of her comrades just show humanity can be destroyed as soon as possible.

Medic tells Cook to kill both Shinnosuke and the reaper.

But Heart appears and blocks Cook. He removes the golden sauce from the reaper and demands Medic explain herself.

But he actually doesn’t want to hear it. He believes there’s honor in one reaching ultimate evolution on their own.

Heart goes Roidmude and challenges Shinnosuke. They battle. Heart is able to push back against even Type Tridoron. He demands Shinnosuke take out his cannon.

But Shinnosuke instead uses a Max Flare, Funky Spike and Midnight Shadow tire mix. They both attack.

Big explosion. Their women, Kiriko and Medic, run to them.

Shinnosuke gets thrown into the forest, dehenshined. And without Belt-san. Heart walks toward him.

Episode Thoughts

So the episode started out a little odd. Especially with Shinnosuke saying he’s gotten over his dad’s murder faster than the story arc appeared out of nowhere. And then the spazzing over food when we’re supposed to be in the final arc.

But, the last third of the episode was alright. Medic has finally done something. And it has not made Heart-sama very happy. I assume we’re leading into Heart’s ultimate evolution very soon. But then after that, who knows where they’re going. They keep mentioning Promised Number but that still means nothing at all after 35 episodes.

I’m at least more interested in that whole thing with Kiriko eventually finding out her father is a tablet created the Roidmude. Yes, her father created the guy she’d been fawning over (though not anymore after he joined the team? lol).

As Kiriko finds Belt-san in the forest, Heart finds Shinnosuke.

Heart tells Shinnosuke to relax since they’re both injured and Heart has no interest in fighting him unhenshined. Shinnosuke vows to stop Heart from hurting humans.

But Heart says his only goal is to face his human creators face to face and rule over them. If they destroy humans, they can’t show their strength to anyone. Plus there are interesting humans like Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke asks if there’s any way to accomplish that goal without fighting. But Heart says no as they evolve through battle. Isn’t that the same for humans? Heart says he will surpass humans.

Shinnosuke says like Chase, Heart is strange. He can’t see them as simple villains. Heart says he never had any intention of wrongdoing.

Heart senses Medic nearby and bids Shinnosuke farewell until their next battle.

When Medic approaches him, Heart just walks past.

Rinna updates Chief Jun on Shinnosuke’s condition and they go over the details of the case so far. They conclude that one of the three restaurant employees is the Roidmude culprit, but which one?

Down in the Pit, Shinnosuke bandages himself up as Belt-san approaches. He says he felt the same way after being separated from Shinnosuke as that night with Proto Drive and is relieved Shinnosuke is okay.

Downtown, Medic sulks as she reaches a cafe and remembers a sweetly romantic moment with her Heart-sama. If only that damn reaper had evolved.

Shinnosuke brings Kiriko some food as she stakes out Supreme. Chase and Otta (in a tree) are also watching the restaurant.

Sure enough, the Roidmude has made their move. Cook has just finished another bottle of secret sauce and runs. But Shinnosuke in Type Formula stops him from running off.

They fight before Shinnosuke goes Type Wild and manages to separate the Roidmude from… Okumura. Shinnosuke goes after the Roidmude, but Okumura begs him not to kill her. Turns out the Roidmude is sous chef Asukawa. Apprentice Itagaki arrives.

Okumura tells Shinnosuke not to hurt her since she helped him reach ultimate taste evolution. Itagaki tries to get Okumura to come to his senses, but he fuses with her again to bring back Cook.

Cook shoots at Itagaki, but Chase knocks him out of the way and chases after the Roidmude.

Chase henshins, but Cook is now accompanied by Medic and two reapers. While Shinnosuke and Chase deal with the reapers, Cook hands Medic the secret sauce.

Medic gives Cook some extra power and joins in the fight.

Gou is with Banno as they watch. Gou wants to help, but Banno says it is too risky.

Gou jumps in anyway and faces Medic. He henshins to Dead Heat and he and Medic fight.

The battle is transferred to the quarry where they take care of the two reapers and Shinnosuke’s big cannon destroys Cook aka 090. Shinnosuke places Okumura under arrest.

Medic is on the ground screaming. The bottle has broken and the secret sauce is everywhere, no of no use to her. She laments losing the secret sauce she had wanted for her Heart-sama.

She flashes back to the cafe date where Heart says humans are lucky that they can find joy in anything.

Medic says she only wanted to give Heart his ultimate evolution, his happiness. And now she can never have Heart’s heart.

While Medic wails in agony, Gou borrows Max Flare so he can deliver a Full Throttle finisher on her. But Shinnosuke blocks Gou.

Belt-san tells Shinnosuke that if they destroy Medic, then the Roidmude will have lost the ability to revive. Shinnosuke says “Even the Roidmude can love and care for each other. Knowing that, I want to at least make it a fair fight. Just like Heart did.”

Belt-san says he understands Shinnosuke’s feelings, but Heart and Medic are nothing like Chase.

Heart appears and says they are. They’re no different from humans either.

Heart blows everyone up to allow himself to come down from the cliff and approach Medic.

Medic begs for forgiveness and hopes that she can die by his hands instead. She closes her eyes and gets ready to die, but Heart hugs her instead and everything turns into a fuzzy glow.

Heart says there are only 108 Roidmude. Even if they can control the humans and produce viral cores, they can never reproduce. He’s happy that she worked for his sake, but not at the expense of their friends and comrades.

Medic promises to never disobey him ever again.

Medic walks away and Heart turns his attention to Shinnosuke. He is grateful for Shinnosuke’s honor as a warrior. Shinnosuke says he only returned the favor. But if Heart continues to threaten humans, then he must fight and defeat him.

Heart understands. In fact, this has reminded him that Shinnosuke is indeed his greatest foe. Finding that joy once again, Heart reaches his Ultimate Evolution.

Heart explodes over everyone, but they disappear.

Medic happily runs over to Heart.

The Promised Number of Ultimate Evolutions is four. Two down, two to go.

Shinnosuke, Gou, Chase and Okumura are safely away from ground zero. But how?

Banno, that’s how.

“I ended up saving you after all. What do you think, Krim?”

Meanwhile, up on a nearby cliff, a black clothed man watches and laughs.

This black clothed man… is Krim?!

An urgent message appears from one Tomari Eiji. Shinnosuke’s son! From the future!

It is 2035 and he is trying to send a warning. He runs from Roidmude and sees a public address from Krim Steinbelt announcing that Kamen Rider Drive is not justice, but a pawn for his own ambitions. Therefore, everyone must to bow to the Roidmude.

Episode Thoughts

Hmm… the plot of the movie sounds much more interesting than the overall plot of the series itself. They probably could’ve maneuvered the movie’s plot into a better 2nd half of the season.

But whatever.

Like most of this season, this whole Heart-Medic stuff feels so half-baked. Like, you can’t really feel much emotion for them when they’re so paper thin in the first place.

Shinnosuke really loves cockblocking Gou. When he stops Gou from killing Medic and says “Even the Roidmude can love,” I’m all “Who cares?! WTF are you talking about?”

I know it’s partly (completely?) because the show doesn’t want Rider-on-human violence. But still, from a pure story standpoint, it’s just so hollow. Just like Heart’s “I won’t fight you unhenshined” comes off as just mere convenience instead of being part of a well rounded, full character.

Heart wants to surpass humans. Umm… sure. Okay.

It was both great and sad to see Gou doing his roll call again. It was great because it’s been so long. Sad because it is a reminder of how the show completely ruined his character for, as we know now, no reason at all.

I read my weekly thoughts and see I’m almost hostile towards the show (lol), but I don’t really hate it. I still enjoy it at least and it can be fun overall. It’s not like Power Rangers Megaforce which was such a huge pile of crap that it actually angered me. lol

Roidmude 008 is abducting women who are with their boyfriends driving around in cars. Gou is too late to the site of the latest one. Shinnosuke and the police are even later.

Shinnosuke wonders about 008’s reasons for the kidnappings, but Gou says who cares. All they need to do is destroy the Roidmude and be done with it. Shinnosuke seems a little more sympathetic as some Roidmude act on human impulse.

They head back to the SID and decide to go undercover. Rinna and Otta will pretend to be a couple while Shinnosuke and Kiriko do the same.

Gou wants to help too, but Chase says he can’t because his driver’s license is only for motorcycles.

Gou says Chase doesn’t have a vehicle driver’s license either. But that’s why Chase is going to take a driver’s license test. Chief Jun says they’ve worked out an exception to have Chase do both the written and practical exam at the same time. They can work that out for Gou too if he wants.

Over in a dark museum, Heart tells Medic to quickly revive Brain so they can gather the Promised Number.

008 aka Tornado reports to Heart.

Gou watches as Chase starts his behind the wheel exam. He wonders why Chase is so excited about it. Belt-san says it should be a good thing Chase is wanting to do more human things.

Anyway, Belt-san asks Gou about a certain scientist he might be holding onto. Gou comes clean. He takes his tablet father out and shows Belt-san.

Gou proposes they work together, but Belt-san will have none of that. If Banno exists in this form, it must mean he stole Belt-san’s belt system. Banno tries to apologize so they can move forward, but Belt-san refuses.

Suddenly, Otta and Rinna are attacked by Tornado. Before Gou can hurry over, 006 appears.

Gou puts his tablet father back into his backpack and henshins.

As Gou fights, Banno says this is good timing.

Chase sees Gou fighting and spins the car back and into a parking spot. He excuses himself from the test for a moment and henshins right in the car.

Tornado grabs Rinna. Otta tries to help, but just gets thrown into the bushes. Tornado looks Rinna over and determines she is “no good.” Rinna takes offense.

Shinnosuke arrives and Tornado goes evolved form. He asks Tornado why he only targets women. Tornado says a plain, average guy like Shinnosuke wouldn’t understand.

Shinnosuke takes offense and gets ready to henshin. Belt-san suggests Formula.

Tornado is able to overcome Formula’s power so they decide to go Tridoron. Belt-san takes the reins and uses a tire mix. When that manages to counter Tornado, he decides to retreat and focus on his ultimate evolution instead.

Dark Krim watches the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Chase hogs the spotlight from Gou as he finishes off the three low-level Roidmude on his own.

Gou hurries back to his bag and finds his tablet father is gone. Chase returns to his driving test.

At the SID, Rinna is still fuming about being called “no good.” Kyu has found the human 008 is based on; George Shirogane, a fashion designer who wanders around the world. Belt-san suggests they go to The Pit to research some more.

They find someone is using their equipment. It’s Banno!

Banno says it’s nice to finally meet Shinnosuke. Just then, Gou comes running in calling for his father.

Oops! Banno says it’s time everyone knew.

Banno introduces himself as the creator of the Roidmude… and Kiriko and Gou’s father.

Across town, Heart visits Tornado who has three unconscious women on the floor. Heart offers to act as his bodyguard for now since they need two more for the Promised Number. 008 and 006 are the best candidates since 004 has gone missing.

Gou apologizes to Kiriko for keeping this a secret so long and explains why.

Chief Jun asks Banno why the Roidmude didn’t just erase him if he’s only a mass of data. Banno says they probably need him after they’ve taken over the world.

Banno offers to help with this case, but Belt-san says Hell no! “He’s the devil!”

Banno speaks to Shinnosuke directly, then, and tells him he’s found 008’s hideout by scouring the internet and doing his own analysis.

Shinnosuke says they’ll go investigate the location for now.

On the way, Shinnosuke asks Kiriko how she’s doing. She says she’s just confused about everything. Belt-san apologizes for being too emotional and not considering Kiriko and Gou’s feelings earlier.

Shinnosuke says he doesn’t necessarily trust Banno since all mad scientists are pretty shady. (Hello Belt-san!) But he does trust Belt-san’s feelings toward Banno. So they’ll just have to wait and see.

Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Gou arrive at the hideout and find the women. As well as Heart and Tornado.

Tornado says none of these women will bring about his Ultimate Evolution.

Heart and Tornado go Roidmude form and Shinnosuke and Gou henshin to Tridoron and Dead Heat.

They take their fight to the cliffs.

Gou leaves Tornado to help Shin-niisan against Heart. They give Heart everything they’ve got, but they don’t even leave a scratch.

Suddenly, Tornado has Kiriko whom he’s taken a liking to and can use. They spin away when the Ride Booster just as suddenly appears and attacks… Shinnosuke and Gou!

In the driver’s seat is… Banno!

Banno fires at them again and Shinnosuke falls over the cliff. Heart takes on Gou.

Shinnosuke regains consciousness somewhere in the forest when a Roidmude approaches and grabs Belt-san. This is Roidmude 004!

Meanwhile in 2035, Tomari Eiji recounts how Krim Steinbelt has revealed his true intentions and sided with the Roidmude to take over the world. Eiji is the only human left fighting and the only thing he can do to stop this is to go back in time.

Over in a darkened Pit, a dark Belt-san seems to be giving a dark Drive orders to go back in time to July 2015 to when Krim was taken by the Roidmude. But this dark Drive must kill Eiji to keep the past from being changed.

Episode Thoughts

These one minute Surprise Drive minisodes have been much more interesting than whatever’s happened on the actual show these last few months.

Anyway, that was a completely anticlimactic reveal. The only hope for the whole Banno in a Tablet story was some big fallout from Kiriko finding out and Gou keeping a secret. But the reveal ended up being some throwaway line which is really not a big surprise after everything else this season.

Though the preview for next episode apparently reveals Banno is the big bad (or something), I really can’t see any possible revelation that can be worthy of being a big twist. At least, nothing that can redeem the haphazard story development this season.

Plus, they’re pretty much throwing Gou under the bus again for believing in his tablet father who is apparently not the reformed hard drive he thought he was.

It’s just really frustrating that even though there’s plenty of potential in the overall story of Drive, they’ve chosen to ignore all of it. It’s like they had great ideas for story arcs and character twists, but instead of crafting a good timeline, decided to throw everything into the air, let them drop into place and didn’t care if things were out of order or in random places.

Sigh.

Gou ditches Heart and hurries to look for his Shin-niisan. He helps him up just as Heart walks up to tell them they’ve been fooled by Banno merely to obtain Krim for his own twisted research.

Heart says Banno is the most evil being he’s ever known. Gou is outraged, but Heart explains.

It was 15 years ago when the Roidmude were already at a level of intelligence close to humans.

But Banno wanted to enact revenge against a young entrepreneur who refused to fund his research. To do that, he had 002 copy that human form just so he could torture a being with the same face in the name of research.

Krim was absolutely against this and decided to end his relationship with Banno right then and there. Banno then programmed the evil heart of humans into the Roidmude which ironically caused them to evolve above humans.

Because of all this, Heart was resolved to keep this form to enact his own revenge on not only Banno, but all of humanity.

Gou can’t believe it, but Shin-niisan says Kiriko recounted the same thing. Earlier in Tridoron, she remembered how her mother always had a sad expression whenever asked about Banno. That is why she was willing to trust Krim.

Gou tries coming to terms with the fact that he was just being used by his father. Heart says he won’t call them “foolish” as he also understands the feeling of being disappointed in one’s parent/creator.

Shin-niisan tells Gou to get up off the ground. They must go save Belt-san and Kiriko. “I believe in you. You will stand again… because you are a Kamen Rider.”

Meanwhile, Tornado has whisked Kiriko away and 004 has brought Krim to Banno who is ready to use the data he’s stolen from The Pit to build his own Drive Driver.

Just as Krim wakes up while Banno works on him, Shinnosuke arrives. 004 tries to fight off Shinnosuke, but he manages to knock him off to give him enough time to grab Belt-san.

Shinnosuke runs over to the tablet, but Banno is no longer there. Banno is now inside his own Drive Driver. 004 takes him and they run off.

Too bad.

Anyway, Belt-san says Banno is just another addition to the list of their enemies they need to stop. No worries. Shinnosuke says that’s what’s up. He trusts Belt-san’s sense of responsibility to atone for his sins, even after death. That is the complete opposite of dumb Banno.

They head back to The Pit. Kyu has just found an old magazine that ultimately reveals Tornado/George Shirogane’s ultimate ambition, to have the most beautiful necklace he’s designed on the most beautiful woman’s neck in a most beautiful church beside the ocean.

Shinnosuke hurries over to the church where Tornado is ready to force Kiriko to marry him by having her wear a necklace.

Shinnosuke uses a Shift Car to knock and destroy the necklace out of Tornado’s hand. Tornado admits the real George, a cocky narcissist, is dead. Even if his ambition was lame, he could relate.

Shinnosuke henshins and they take their fight out to the seashore. Belt-san says to go Tridoron, but Tornado stops them.

Gou arrives to help and expresses his resolve to crush all evil, even if that evil is his own damn father.

“That is my duty as Kamen Rider Mach!”

While Gou and his Shin-niisan tag-team against Tornado, Kiriko’s knight in shining armor Chase arrives to save her once again. He says he will back the guys up with Tridoron.

He’s got his license now.

Shinnosuke and Gou hop onto Ride Booster’s flaps and the three of them together defeat Tornado.

Gou thanks his Shin-niisan as Heart watches.

Later, Gou has gotten his license too. Belt-san asks how he’s doing after what happened with Banno and Gou says he’ll just have to push forward. He’ll follow through on this like Shinnosuke followed through on Papa Tomari’s case.

Kiriko hugs Gou and says she knew he’s always been strong. Shinnosuke says Gou is definitely the little brother he’s proud of. He walks over to hug him as well and welcomes him back.

Chase comments on how family isn’t just something that brings one pain. When asked to clarify, Chase says Shinnosuke and Gou just look like real brothers. That’s all.

Shinnosuke is surprised Chase has dropped the “Tomari” when addressing him.

Chase leaves and tells himself that he’s learned a lot since meeting them. Humans, families… he will risk his life if needed to protect them.

Meanwhile, Brain is excited to have his body back. But why was Medic so willing all of a sudden? 006 appears and says it’s because Tornado/008 was killed. It’s time to finally gather the Promised Number and 006 wants to be the next one to reach Ultimate Evolution. Brain thinks 006 can evolve if he destroys Banno. That would leave only one more spot.

Medic wants that final spot to be hers.

Tomari Eiji is fighting off Roidmude as he makes his way to the Time Road. He is running out of time when Dark Drive suddenly appears. But Time Road is closing fast. He has to go… “to the era where my father is still alive!”

Eiji runs and jumps into the Time Road. Dark Drive pursues.

Episode Thoughts

Half-baked, half-cooked, missing ingredients. Use any cooking metaphor you want. That’s really what Drive is. And this episode was another example.

I mean, all of this stuff feels like it should’ve happened much earlier. Maybe even at the midseason climax.

So Kiriko suddenly remembers her father was a jerk? Um… okay. But they had no idea what his line of work was? I find that hard to believe. Otherwise, how would Mom have decided to leave him (as Belt-san presented in exposition). And why would Kiriko be so inclined to join up with Krim? So she knew Krim or not? It feels like a huge retcon.

We finally learn how the idols got their human bodies in the first place. But really, we should have had whole episodes dedicated to each of Heart, Brain, Medic and even Chase exploring their “births” and the humans they copied. That’s four easy plot episodes right there that also add to the villains’ story and character background which has been sorely lacking. They wouldn’t have ended up being so paper-thin.

This Tornado 2-parter was pretty pointless other than to reveal Banno’s true intentions.

Which brings us to talking about how Gou’s story and struggle is much more suited to be the main Rider/character’s story than Shinnosuke’s story has been. Either switch Gou/Mach and Shinnosuke/Drive as the central figure and work from there or give Shinnosuke this whole “daddy created the Roidmude” story instead of Papa Tomari being some random police officer caught in the crossfire. Oh wait, Papa Tomari wasn’t just some random cop, he was “special” for some reason or other.

Chase learning to be human would be great too if 2/3 of his story wasn’t about Kiriko crushing on him.

Anyway, this episode is also another example of how much they’ve dropped the ball. So much wasted potential, it’s crazy!

The SID head to a hospital where 18 women have lost consciousness after hearing a strange sound. A sound that they all suddenly hear right this minute! Rinna, like the other women, calls out for a Shou before collapsing.

They decide to go talk to the woman who the nurses first saw in the waiting room in the middle of the night. And that woman is… Medic?!

Chase says they have the same face, but it isn’t Medic.

The real Medic is watching with her telescopic eyes, happy that soon the world will know of whatever she wants the world to know. Brain asks what she’s planning, but more importantly, what’s with the filthy dog! Medic says he doesn’t need to know.

Back at the SID, they watch security cam footage of Brain and Medic unloading the woman at the hospital last night. Gou says that witch is probably just conducting another evil experiment.

Kyu says all the women experienced brain activity in a certain region, probably reacting to the strange sound from the mysterious woman.

Kiriko says Rinna’s final words earlier suggest maybe it is referring to a loved one. “Loved one, like family?” Chase asks. No, maybe like a sweetheart, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Chase asks what’s a sweetheart. Otta gives an enthusiastic explanation and vows to avenge his Sensei.

Chase still doesn’t understand.

Kyu finds another CCTV angle and they see Banno hovering about in the shadows. Gou storms out and Chase follows. Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta go investigate some more.

Meanwhile, Medic is growing impatient that “he” hasn’t shown up yet. Brain tries feeding the dog while asking Medic just what’s going on. Medic refuses to explain anything to him.

Brain will not have any of this dog feeding or being kept in the dark. But Medic just snaps her fingers and Brain loses his body again is back to being just a number core.

Brain calls her a black-hearted she-devil. “That’s the problem,” Medic says.

Belt Banno appears and offers to help her. But Gou also arrives and Banno immediately attaches himself to Medic. She goes Roidmude and Banno takes control of her body.

Gou tries fighting back, but Banno forces him to dehenshin. Heart arrives and rips Banno off of Medic causing her to revert to her human form. Seeing the dog is flustered, she gives Brain his body back and tells him to take the dog and run.

Heart tosses Banno aside as Medic runs away. Chase also arrives, but Banno just leaves.

Chase tells Heart that they should join forces against their common enemy Banno. But Heart says he will stand by his convictions. He explains that on the night of the Global Freeze, Krim and Proto Drive moved to wipe the Roidmude out. But a white goddess appeared.

And that goddess performed a miracle that allowed them to fight once more. Now, Heart is resolved to surpass all humanity and will destroy anyone who gets in their way.

Gou and Chase tell Shinnosuke and Belt-san what happened. Shinnosuke is not sure if she really is a devil or goddess, but he believes that she is not as she was before.

Gou is not buying what Shinnosuke’s selling and decides to go look for Banno.

A man runs into the hospital looking for Hatori Misuzu, the Medic-looking woman. He says Misuzu was his sweetheart until she went missing a year ago.

They assume this guy is Shou, but actually his name is Igarashi Kazuya. They are both members of a ballet company. Misuzu was a rising star. No wonder Medic was always dancing about, Belt-san points out.

They ask Kazuya about Shou, but he doesn’t anything.

Meanwhile, 006 tells Heart that he will take care of Banno so he can achieve Ultimate Evolution.

Across town, Medic is happy the dog is fine. She suddenly hears the high pitched noise.

Kazuya has Misuzu in a wheelchair outside the hospital, taking in the fresh air. Chase pulls Shinnosuke aside to ask about what romantic, sweetheart love is like.

Shinnosuke tries to explain that it is that little tightening of your chest whenever you think about that person.

Otta arrives with no more info on Misuzu who they realize has disappeared with Kazuya.

They hurry over to where they last were, but Kiriko trips on the stairs. Chase hurries to catch her. He tingles.

“It can’t be. Could this be…?”

Medic has Kazuya by the neck and demands to know why Misuzu isn’t waking up yet if he really is her boyfriend. Shinnosuke henshins to Tridoron and stops Medic.

Otta and Kiriko take Kazuya and Misuzu to safety. Chase again protects Kiriko before joining Shinnosuke in fighting Medic.

Shinnosuke tries to get Medic to explain what she is plotting. She herself doesn’t understand why she hasn’t Ultimate Evolved yet since her love for Heart is so strong. The answer must be in Misuzu and unconditional love in her heart.

Brain is annoyed by the dog and the weather, but he stumbles upon 006 cornering Banno. He watches from behind a carabao.

Banno easily takes care of three Roidmude goons before 006 decides to fight himself. Before he can Ultimate Evolve, Banno reaches into 006 and destroys the viral core.

Instead of using Medic’s body, Banno will use this one instead. He henshins into Gold Drive.

Banno says this power rivals Ultimate Evolution.

Gou arrives and demands to know what “Banno” is plotting. Banno is amused Gou no longer calls him “Father.”

Gou vows to defeat him as that is his responsibility as Banno’s son. Banno asks what he means.

Gou explains that Banno is a traitor who betrayed their family and their love. But Banno says he never felt any such thing. To him, a family was just something else to rule over. There was never any love.

“Then what the hell am I to you?!”

Banno says Gou is just a lab rat and definitely more useful than neechan Kiriko, more than he ever expected.

Gou is enraged. He henshins and tries fighting Banno, but Banno easily overpowers him by taking his Signal Bike and using it against Gou. That forces Gou to dehenshin.

Banno laughs. “I take back what I said. Your use as a lab rat is over.”

The dog pees on Brain’s shoe and runs off. He screams. That attracts Banno over to him.

Banno has a favor to ask of Brain.

Meanwhile, Medic says she will obtain the love needed for Ultimate Evolution.

The dog runs up to Misuzu who suddenly says something inaudible. Medic seems to hear whatever it is.

With Medic distracted, Chase sees this as an opening, but Shinnosuke blocks the attack once again.

Shinnosuke dehenshins to ask Medic a question. He wants to know the truth.

In more interesting developments…

Tomari Eiji has just arrived through the Time Road on August 5, 2015. He is determined to change the future. When Krim shows his true self, Drive destroys the whole city and his father Shinnosuke will be blamed.

As Eiji runs, Dark Drive appears. Eiji hols his father’s burned tie in his hand. He runs for his life, determined to meet his father and change history.

Episode Thoughts

“I want to know the truth about this case!” Yeah, that’s not much of a cliffhanger. I, myself, am not really that interested in finding out the truth about this case.

So we finally get into Medic’s origin story. Again, this should’ve been touched on a long time ago, not in the 40s when the season is wrapping up. Shinnosuke says Medic has been changing, but really she hasn’t. She’s in love with Heart. She likes to one-up Brain. Big whoop. What’s changed?

Something else that hasn’t changed either is Shinnosuke’s cockblocking. Like seriously, what is up with that? It’s become almost laughable. Just kill ’em and get it over with. It’s not like letting them live will make them more interesting anyway.

With Banno, it almost feels like he was a last minute addition to be the Big Bad to make up for the idol group and overall Roidmude being completely hollow and uninteresting. I think a more interesting and cohesive story would’ve been just simply having a bunch of crazy Roidmude robots that they needed to wipe out. They’ve just really and completely messed up the development of Heart, Brain and Medic which has prevented them from being deep characters.

Banno should’ve been at least a half-season build up. Again, seeing Gou so upset here just reminds one how horrible this part of the story developed and how much Gou’s character was completely wasted.

Plus all this Ultimate Evolution and Promised Number stuff just feels tacked on even now at Episode 41.

And speaking of haphazard, this love triangle could’ve easily been incorporated into a fuller story about the relationship between humans and Roidmude (if Chase really is just a machine or actually a human, who even knows really). Gou opposing his sister’s romance with a robot. Shinnosuke defending the Roidmude who eventually will take his girl. Chase learning how to become/remembering how to be human. Kiriko enjoying her long hair. They teased Shinnosuke-Kiriko, then dropped it. They had Kiriko salivating over Chase, then dropped it. And now Chase is feeling tingly.

This is all stuff that should’ve been done in the late 20s, early 30s. Not as we reach the finale. Oh well.

Really one of the few things I actually enjoy about the season is Shota Matsushima and his faces. Plus, he plays the hell out of Brain and at least makes him amusing, fun and interesting.

Shinnosuke deduces that Medic had no intention of hurting anyone by bringing Misuzu to the hospital. Instead, Medic hoped she would wake up.

Medic explains that as she was looking for a body to copy after the Global Freeze, she was drawn to a strong emotion. And as she copied her, Medic also learned what was in her heart. Misuzu had an intense drive to help those she loved over helping herself. Medic was intrigued so she healed her wounds and saved her life using the power of pure, unconditional love.

She then proceeded to heal other Roidmudes, but as she did, she also absorbed the dark feelings those Roidmude had learned from the humans.

Medic says she fears that pure love that granted her this power is gone. But Shinnosuke knows Medic hopes Misuzu can awaken and allow her to regain that heart. The key to that is Shou.

Shinnosuke promises to find Shou for her. Belt-san and Chase don’t understand Shinnosuke’s craziness. But he says it’s not just for Medic, but for all the women who lost consciousness.

Banno appears and reveals himself as Gold Drive. Shinnosuke and Chase henshin.

But Banno easily grabs all their weapons and uses them against them, forcing them to dehenshin.

Medic refuses to go with Banno, but Brain says he is their ally. Banno offers to restore her base emotion and help her Ultimate Evolve. Shinnosuke tries to get Medic to turn the offer down, but Banno whisks them away.

Back at the Pit, Gou is livid that Banno so casually disregards their family.

“That man is not our father… or even human.”
“Then we have no choice but to defeat him.”

Shinnosuke goes to the ballet company where he learns Igarashi actually wasn’t Misuzu’s boyfriend. Sure enough, Kyu digs up info that Igarashi actually embezzled money from the ballet company.

Across town, Igarashi is about to kill Misuzu by rolling her wheelchair down the stairs. But Shinnosuke, Otta and Kiriko arrive just in time.

Igarashi laughs hysterically and admits that he ran her over with his car to keep her from turning him in to the cops. When Misuzu disappeared, he thought he was so lucky. But not anymore. Otta takes him away.

Meanwhile, Heart asks Brain where Medic is.

Brain gets on his knees and apologizes. Medic is with Banno who tells her he has removed all the impurities from her heart which should allow her to feel that pure love for Heart and Ultimate Evolve.

Brain says he is a foolish, cowardly man for allowing this to happen and will accept any punishment Heart sees fit.

Heart says he will make him disappear then.

Kiriko, flanked by her bodyguards, rolls Misuzu back to the hospital. But an all-white Medic stops them.

Medic says she no longer has any use for Misuzu after Banno guided her to her Ultimate Evolution.

“You look white, but your heart is still pitch-black!”

Gou and Chase henshin. Medic just laughs and goes Roidmude form. They fight.

Medic wonders why she is not evolving. Heart appears and Medic can’t bear to have him see her looking so pathetic.

Just then, Medic’s dog comes running toward Misuzu. Turns out this dog is Shou. Misuzu comes out of her stupor and hugs him.

Brain realizes why Medic had been taking care of the dog (that only popped up 2 episodes ago) all this time. Turns out, Misuzu had been walking her dog when Igarashi ran them over.

\

Medic saw the dog and decided to heal him too. The strong sense of unconditional pure love that Shou felt for his owner Misuzu is the emotion that she fused with and the same emotion she feels for Heart-sama.

Remembering that moment allows Medic to finally Ultimate Evolve. She fires at Gou and Chase, causing them to dehenshin.

Heart is happy Medic has finally evolved as well, but she suddenly starts to short circuit. Banno explains that he made it so as soon as she reached Ultimate Evolution, she would have her mind and heart erased to become his puppet.

“I did it all for Heart-sama,” she repeats.

Heart will not stand for this and runs to attack Banno who orders Medic to stop him.

Shinnosuke tries butting in, but Medic handles him easily.

Banno orders Medic to kill all Kamen Riders, but Hearts absorbs the attack instead, protecting the guys. He walks over to Medic and says this is not the way he wanted to fight.

Banno whisks Medic and Heart away. Brain also leaves.

Shinnosuke screams.

Anyway, Misuzu thanks Shinnosuke for returning Shou to her. Kiriko asks how Tomari-san was able to figure it out.

Shinnosuke says he remembered all the victims loved dogs. Like Rinna.

Chase sees all the loving around him and confirms to himself that yes….

On the rooftop, Banno says that this Gold Drive form is his Ultimate Evolution. So now they have the four that gives them the Promised Nmber. Banno offers to be their leader to initiate another Global Freeze.

But Heart says they have not gathered as there are only three of them.

Brain is downtown, disguised. He remembers Heart telling him that he would disappear as to hinder Banno’s plans.

As Brain walks away, he remembers all the times Medic was a huge witch to him. And yet after all that, why does he still feel pity for her.

Next day, Shinnosuke watches from the roof as Chase is about to admit his feelings to Kiriko.

Episode Thoughts

Another okay episode that’s really months too late. Again, they’ve really dropped the ball with a great concept. The overall theme appears to be human emotions and how these robots have learned to feel them. But for a season that’s all about emotions, a lot of the plot is pretty emotionless.

They could’ve easily spent two (earlier) episodes just learning about Misuzu and expanding on Medic’s character just like they could’ve done with Heart and his human and Brain and his human, etc.

That “emotion” angle could’ve also made the Banno/Gou/Kiriko plot feel more powerful and strong. Building that family theme up more before demolishing it with Banno’s betrayal would’ve been some great story.

As for Chase, they could’ve easily developed him to encompass all the various emotions that the other Roidmude apparently only individually absorbed. Have Chase be the Roidmude that becomes a “real boy.” Instead, it seems he’ll just be Kiriko’s new boyfriend. And this was after the entire middle section made the season appear to be Kamen Rider Chase instead of Drive.

Oh well, at least there’s still pretty action scenes to watch. Like this awesomeness:

Chief Jun and Rinna are meeting with National Bureau of Defense aide Togama Akio. The Special Defense Center is finally in full operation and will soon be home of the SID.

Togama has two requests for them. First, he hopes they could put the Pikopiko Gravity Shift Particle Detector into mass production. Rinna says they’ve already begun prep for that.

The second request is to investigate a specific case. Otta, Kiriko and Kyu look over evidence showing the Roidmude possibly planning a large-scale terrorist attack at a certain area of the city. Maybe another Global Freeze?

With only 22 Roidmude left, it’s time to get serious.

Meanwhile, Shinnosuke and Chase are in the cafeteria drinking beverages with awkward silence.

Chase asks Shinnosuke if he loves Kiriko. Shinnosuke tries to deny it, but Chase saw him creeping on them on the rooftop and his tense reaction. The same chest tightening he has when he looks at Kiriko too.

Shinnosuke continues to deny such a thing and says Kiriko as a woman is absurd, she’s just his buddy. Very unappealing as a girlfriend.

Nope, nope, nope.

Kiriko pops up and tells them they’re starting the investigation. Shinnosuke starts seeing Kiriko glow and hurries on ahead. Chase has no doubt Shinnosuke feels the same toward Kiriko as he does.

Alone, Shinnosuke begins thinking back to all the times. Maybe he really has been in love with Kiriko this whole time.

Across town, Heart, Banno and still-under control Medic are at the site of another Roidmude defeat. Banno says this is more proof they must set off another Global Freeze to keep more Roidmude from being destroyed. They must work together.

With no one else to reach Ultimate Evolution, Banno says he is their only choice. All they must do now is gather the Promised Number and they can grab the Promised Land.

Seeing Medic’s condition, Heart seems to have no other choice.

One of the reaper things reports to Banno that they’ve found Brain. But Banno says that info is already late and proceeds to beat the Roidmude. Heart, remembering his own abuse, goes to protect his comrade. He hopes Brain has been able to run away.

Brain, still with glasses and handkerchief, thinks his delivery truck driver disguise will keep him out of Banno’s sights. But Medic and three Roidmude attack his truck and they crash.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase head to the scene where they find Medic and Brain fighting. They don’t know what’s going on, but Gou says they’ll just have to finish them all off.

Brain poofs himself away and the guys return to the Pit.

Belt-san recaps: Banno is now the leader. The Promised Number consists of four. And the plan is to initiate another Global Freeze.

The last time, the Gravity Shift only froze a quarter of the world. Now with four Ultimate Evolved Core Drivia, that Gravity Shift can increase in power by four or five.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko remember their experiences from that horrible night. But Shinnosuke assures Kiriko they will not let any of that happen again. Chase and Gou nod in agreement.

Belt-san adds that the four will gather at the Promised Land, which is the location Otta and Kyu are looking into right now.

They guys are ready to head out, but Rinna says they cannot henshin right now because she’s working on data-coating the Henshin Shift Cars and Trailer-hou so they cannot be taken by Banno.

Back with the Roidmude, 004 appears with what Banno calls a control unit. Heart is surprised because 004 had been missing. But he has been working for Banno all this time.

004 morphs into his human form…

In the meantime, Chase decides to talk to his future brother-in-law Gou. They’re also enjoying beverages in the cafeteria when Chase drops the bomb on Gou.

Chase asks who Gou thinks Kiriko loves. Gou thinks this is some big joke. Chase says he asks him because he may be the only one who knows. Gou says why would he since they’re not buddies.

Chase says he interprets buds to mean teammates who are able to establish an emotional bond. “Can’t we have that kind of relationship, Gou?”

“No,” Gou says. That’s impossible because he’s a Roimude.

Chase remembers all their moments together. He wonders if that means Kiriko cannot accept love from things that are not human.

Gou thinks Chase has really lost it.

Meanwhile, Brain borrows a woman’s tablet to find some data center he can use to analyze Medic’s code he copied earlier. He finds a place that looks very familiar.

The Central Intelligence Agency. He pops on over and remembers this is the place he came to on the night of the Global Freeze.

He came across a man, Kineta Mitsuharu, who turns out to be a 24 year old deputy director of the CIA. A genius programmer and a brilliant assistant to his bosses who is never seen without his handkerchief and glasses. Aha!

Suddenly, Dark Krim appears with Banno.

Across town, Shinnosuke asks Belt-san for some advice. Belt-san is shocked. How would he know? He’s been single all his life too. But he gives it a shot.

Belt-san believes Kiriko only has sympathy for Chase. All Shinnosuke has to do is be himself. If he tries to act like a cool guy, he’ll most certainly lose her. Anyway, their focus right now is to stop the Global Freeze.

Belt-san says he’s happy Shinnosuke was able to confide in him. He didn’t have a family, but this must be what it feels like.

Bano and Dark Krim/004 drive Brain to the rooftop where Shinnosuke and Kiriko arrive.

They are shocked to see Dark Krim. Banno explains 004 copied Krim the night he died and suppressed Krim’s memories.

He has since been reprogrammed by Banno to be his servant. Banno says he’s lucky they never destroyed 004. Now he even has Krim’s mind as well. That’s how he was able to create Gold Drive.

Banno and Dark Krim charge toward Brain, but Shinnosuke stops them and tells Brain to run.

The newly coated Shift Cars arrive and withstand Banno’s attempt to take them. Shinnosuke henshins directly to Tridoron and takes on Banno and 004 who manage to take Handle-ken and Door-ju.

Shinnosuke decides to use Trailer-hou and the Wild Shift Car, but Banno summons Heart who absorbs the Wild attack.

Heart says he was ordered to be Banno’s shield as this is the only way to save Medic. He warns Shinnosuke that unnecessary sympathy will only doom him. The Global Freeze will happen and Shinnosuke and Heart are destined to battle.

Heart unleashes a blast that buries Kiriko.

Episode Thoughts

See, this would be a perfect episode if it was a late-20s, early 30s episode. (I should just copy and paste my comments every week lol)

The abrupt tonal shifts between slapstick insanity to dark and serious in this episode would fit perfectly well in the middle of the season. I am easily amused and I definitely had fun with the random bits of insanity throughout the season. But the plot points in this episode, again, would’ve been great to have earlier in the season and then watch everything unfold from there.

There’s lots of potential in the “Chase loves Kiriko” thread. From Chase learning about human emotions to competing with Shinnosuke to Gou’s disapproval of his neechan dating a robot. That’s all great material for a couple of episodes in the middle of the season as way to develop the characters and further the story, but not for the final arc. =(

I guess I’ll talk more about it in my final review of the season, but I’d say, truncate the season that we did/will get and then tack on whatever the movie’s story is. That would’ve made for a great season with a fuller, fleshed out story.

All this Promised Number and Promised Land stuff still feels so thin and really hollow. Did Krim/God promise them some nice land by the Mediterranean?

Anyway, it seems we’ll finally get some more character stuff from the idols next week, Brain especially. I at least hope they can deliver with that.

Overall, an alright episode I wish I was more excited about.

Brain has managed to get away and logs into Medic’s programming only to find something very curious.

And speaking of, Medic appears behind him. Brain starts to run, but stops and instead surrenders.

Gou and Chase are on their way to see Kiriko in the hospital. But they spot Shinnosuke first, creeping around with flowers and cake. Trying to play it off, he gives all the presents to Chase, grabs Gou and they leave.

Over at the Special Situations Defense Center aka SSDC, Chief Jun, Otta and Rinna are updating Togama on the impending global Global Freeze. They also preview the mass produced PikoPiko by having Chief Jun henshin into Kamen Rider… Jun!

But there’s still some kinks to work out as Chief Jun can’t move in the suit at all.

Meanwhile, Kiriko thanks Chase for bringing flowers like she did for him in that old, dark, abandoned hospital before. She starts eating the cake just as Chase has a very important question for her: Do you love Shinnosuke?

The question takes Kiriko by surprise and she instantly becomes flustered. Chase notices it is the same reaction Shinnosuke had when he posed the question to him. He now understands.

“I know that sometimes people tell lies without evil intent.”

Chase leaves, crying. “So this is unrequited love…”

But Chase is actually proud to be feeling such emotions as this means he’s closer to being human. Looking up at the sky, he understands that the bonds people forge with each other is also love. And he vows to fight and protect his love for Kiriko.

The city has been put under a State of Emergency as the SSDC and SID try to search for the Promised Land. Back at the Pit, Rinna and Kyu are frantically making more PikoPikos.

Across town, Heart cannot believe Brain gave himself up to Banno. Banno makes a point to remind Heart of his place in the group.

004 shows them all the Sigma Circular, the device that will reduce the risk when they draw out their Ultimate Evolution power while initiating the Global Freeze.

Heart is heartbroken since he never thought Brain would betray him like this. Brain laughs that he is smart, unlike Heart.

As they all head to the Promised Land, Brain takes his handkerchief out and tosses it saying Roidmude do not sweat. It is time for him to act like a ruthless machine once again.

Over in Tridoron, Belt-san tells Shinnosuke how he’s been shipping him with Kiriko this entire time. That makes Shinnosuke very happy. But Belt-san is not sure he’ll be able to see the day they are together.

Chief Jun calls to tell them the Promised Land has been found.

The Roidmude gather in Israel by some lake. Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase join Otta and a bunch of SSDC forces hidden around the area.

Otta says they found the place thanks to a tip from Mr. X.

“Don’t look at me!” Gou says. “I wouldn’t use that name again!”

The Promised Number gather at the front and Banno floats the Sigma Circular over the water. Heart knows nothing good will come out of this, but he has no choice but to go along with it.

Heart, Brain and Medic all go Ultimate and with Banno, power up the Sigma Circular.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase henshin and they try to stop them. The low-level Roidmude protect the Promised Number as they continue their power transfer.

004 faces off against Shinnosuke and Belt-san asks to take the wheel against his doppelganger.

The Promised Gang grow weak as they finish their power transfer. But suddenly, the Sigma Circular emits a large, powerful wave. They think this is the beginning of the Global Freeze, but suddenly, the Sigma Circular zaps and surges at Medic.

Banno laughs and tells Heart that it’s okay. Medic is just going to die. He explains that the Sigma Circular is not a controller, but actually a device to absorb and amplify the Ultimate Evolution power. With all the power stored in it, Banno would have complete control over all of it and can initiate the Global Freeze by himself.

But to deal with the surplus energy, he programmed Medic with a brainwashing operation that would allow her to absorb the excess and act as a countercurrent.

Heart is livid. But Banno continues cackling at the beauty of his plan. Without Medic, they won’t be able to revive. And if they fight him, he can easily put them down. And this is all thanks to 004 taking on Krim’s intelligence.

Brain watches as Heart calls out to Medic. “I knew it. You treasure her above all others, don’t you Heart?”

Brain takes the programming from Medic and implants it into himself. That diverts the Sigma Circular current from Medic to him.

“Did you forget, Banno? My name is Brain. As in brains! I have the intelligence to thwart your plans!”

The defiant Brain absorbs the last bit of energy from the Sigma Circular, causing a large explosion.

All back in their human forms, Heart and Medic crawl towards Brain. He laughs, relieved. He knew if he transferred the burden of the programming to him, Medic would return to her normal self, free of control.

“Why?!” Medic asks, “After all the horrible things I did to you! Why would you help me?!”
“I’m curious about that myself. I was so envious of you. I think maybe I empathized with your earnestness.”

“Besides, you are the comrade Heart loves the most. So I wanted to return his smile.”

Heart now understands this was Brain’s plan the whole time.
“Indeed, it was good assistance right? I am truly capable… and loyal. Superior… faithful…”

Brain breathes his last mechanical breath and disintegrates as Heart touches his face.

Heart and Medic are beside themselves in despair.

Banno starts cackling some more. Shinnosuke takes over from Belt-san. He charges at Banno, but 004 fights him off. Gou and Chase get up and fight off the other Roidmude who have come to help. Gou hates the Roidmude, but he is pissed at what he has just witnessed.

Shinnosuke shoves 004 into the water and delivers a Tire Mix attack while Gou and Chase take care of the others.

Banno continues his heaving cackles.

Heart tells Shinnosuke that he will not allow him to kill Banno. He wants to do it himself. Medic too.

They surround the asthmatic hysterical Banno. But 004 emerges from the water. He explains that this is not Israel the Promised Land. It was just to lure everyone here. A trap!

Banno takes the Sigma Circular and admits that he was Mr. X. He traps them all in some kind of electromagnetic field. 004, also in the field as per the plan, acts as a suicide bomber and happily blows himself up to kill them all.

Otta screams over to them as Banno prepares for the true Global Freeze.

Episode Thoughts

My repetitive regrets aside, I thought this was a pretty good episode. Of course, it would’ve been amazing if things worked out differently, but I definitely liked this anyway.

I actually really cared about Brain dying because he really was the most developed, relatively speaking, of the idols. So seeing him sacrifice himself for the guy he loved (which is really one of the few season-long threads they actually stuck with) was effective and it played out well these last few weeks.

But again, that just brings attention to the idea that they should have really played up and made this Roidmude-to-human angle a much bigger part of the overall story. The Roidmude slowly going from machine to human, but of course all of them falling just as they’ve achieved their own bit of humanity. Wouldn’t that have been an awesome journey to watch? Very exciting and possibly emotional. Just more ball dropping I guess.

They also should have slowly planted the seeds for Banno earlier in the season. Have Gou and Kiriko maybe remember him from time to time or their family life. Or even make it a little more overt that Gou was hiding something, but earlier and then shift the “Banno is evil” reveal a little earlier as well. Banno’s cackling was awesomely chilling, but even more so if there were more build up to him being a big bad. It would also make the betrayal and stuff like Medic getting attacked be very powerful.

They could’ve easily shifted all the “work” the idols were doing toward their nonexistent endgame to Banno instead. And that would’ve then allowed them to do longer focus on the humans the idols copied and relating that to Heart, Brain, Medic and even Chase’s inadvertent quest to become human themselves.

Ugh… more wasted potential!

Anyway… with those mass produced Sengoku Drivers PikoPikos, an epic finale would be having everyone in the SID henshin into Kamen Riders to fight off an army of Roidmude. It’s always great to have the entire gang of friends from each particular season involved in some big final battle. I doubt that will happen, but I’ll still hope for it. =/

And in other things to nitpick, it was pretty obvious Brain had something up his sleeve in surrendering to Banno. Just as it was very obvious that Mr. X was Banno in an effort to set up a trap for the SID/SSDC/cops. Like really, they didn’t question how in the world someone, other than an actual Roidmude, would know where the Promised Land was? Come on!

Banno has set up shop at the Promised Land, the Special Defense Center building. Otta tells Chief Jun, Rinna and Kyu that First Division had suspected the location all along.

About the guys, Otta says he couldn’t find anyone at the faux Promised Land, it was so devastated.

Suddenly, a huge explosion. Now The Pit is being devastated. Rinna and Kyu hurry to grab the Drivers they worked all night on and rush to escape the collapsing building.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase arrive to save Otta and Rinna. Shinnosuke says Gou’s quick thinking in using a Full Throttle Burst to punch all of them, including Heart and Medic, out of the electromagnetic field saved them.

They fight off the Roidmude, but Gou seems to be having some trouble. Chase helps him up, but Gou refuses.

The three of them finish off the Roidmude and the SID regroup in the now-destroyed Pit.

Chief Jun says he’s lost contact with the SSDC. Kyu runs in to show them the breaking news broadcasts of the situation. Suddenly, strange fang-like spikes pop out around the SSDC. Belt-san says they’re probably due to the Sigma Circular growing and when it’s fully grown, baaaad things will happen.

Belt-san adds that the top floor is protected by a secret barrier and that they need to upgrade Tridoron if they want to break through.

But how? Chief Jun gets some good news.

He brnigs them to an emergency Pit. Chief Jun explains that some volunteers approached him and insisted on helping the SID, so he asked them to prepare this location.

The head of that group of volunteers? Hayase!

Hayase says he couldn’t just sit around without helping his former partner, the Kamen Rider. Shinnosuke thanks him with a hug.

Gou marvels at Hayase’s determination and spirit, even while still injured. Chase wonders if this is what real buds are like.

Later that night, Rinna shows the others video of Banno and the six remaining Roidmude with him. This is it. The final battle. Which they will commence tomorrow morning.

Kiriko watches the news reports at the hospital and gets up to get dressed. But Shinnosuke calls her, wanting to see how she’s doing. He tells her to rest and let them take care of this.

Kiriko insists on helping, but Shinnosuke says she shouldn’t “You’re my most important… my most important… buddy.”

Kiriko understands and they hang up. Gou teases by commending his Shin-niisan on the smooth call.

Shinnosuke playfully punches Gou’s arm, but he notices Gou wincing. Gou says he’s fine.

One of the mechanics calls Shinnosuke and Gou is able to let his real pain out. He was badly injured when he saved everyone from the electromagnetic field. He hopes Shin-niisan will be able to protect Kiriko because he believes fighting Banno as he is now will surely result in his death.

Chase approaches him, knowing the damage he incurred from the effort earlier. He thanks Gou and tells him to leave the fighting to him so Gou can retire from the frontline.

“If you were in my place, would you listen if I said that to you?” Gou asks. Of course not. Which is why Gou won’t either.

It’s morning. And that means it’s time. The plan is to use Tridoron and the bikes to break through and work their way to the top. Otta and Rinna will standby to cut power to the building which should weaken the barrier. Chief Jun and Kyu will work on discharging the barrier completely.

This is it. Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase henshin and hop into their vehicles.

The SID salute their comrades as they set off on the mission.

As the three drive toward the SSDC, the fangs begin to pop out of the ground. Shinnosuke uses Midnight Shadow and Funky Spike to give Gou and Chase some protection as they push their way through the fangs and eventually into the building.

But they are immediately met by Banno and the Roidmude.

Just then, one of the Roidmude chases three SSDC members and converts them into data. Aha!!! So Banno is planning to convert all humans into data which he’ll be able to do during the Global Freeze. Once the building fuses with Sigma, it will become the control device of all the data.

Shinnosuke and Belt-san proclaim that Banno’s ultimate goal is to rule humanity as numbers, just like the Roidmude. It will be a world where no one can have a body without Banno’s permission.

Gou just laughs. “I’ve underestimated you,” he says. “I thought you were just a mad scientist. I was so naive. You’re actually a monster that will destroy humanity!”

Banno tells him to shut up and puts the guys in another force field. “Of all my creations, you are my biggest failure.”

Banno fashions some kind of electric spear out of thin air and sends it flying toward his son. But Heart and Medic catch and diffuse it.

Heart says they are here to thank Gou for saving them. But they are also here to deal Banno. That is, to destroy the top floor Sigma Circular. That would surely be a fate worse than death for Banno.

Heart and Medic say they will fight with Shinnosuke against Banno.

They all henshin and take on Banno and the three Roidmude.

Gou takes on his father. He tells Heart if he’s really thankful, he’ll let him take care of Banno. Chase tells Shinnosuke, Heart and Medic to go upstairs to the Sigma Circular while he fights with Gou.

The three reach the barrier, but the other three Roidmude are there as well.

As Chase takes care of the three first floor Roidmude, Gou and Banno battle.

Gou prepares a Full Throttle finisher, but his injuries act up which allows Banno to drill him down to the basement. Gou is forced to dehenshin.

Banno calls his son pathetic just as Chase jumps down to fight him. Banno focuses on Chase the traitor first and sends him flying right into the wall after destroying his Driver. That causes Chase to dehenshin.

Gou calls over to Chase. Banno picks up the Signal Axe and approaches his son, continuing his insults. “You are nothing but a disgrace to me. Allow me to put you out of your misery!”

Banno raises the axe. Gou apologizes to his neechan, but Chase morphs into his Grim Reaper form and takes the attack instead.

Banno slices into Chase. Chase manages to shoot at Banno, pushing him back. But Chase collapses into his human form and right into Gou’s arms.

“What the hell are you doing?!”
“It’s fine, Gou. As long as I can protect the ones Kiriko loves… I have no regrets.”

As Kiriko gets dressed to leave the hospital, she hears the thunder and sees the lightning from an impending storm. Just like the day of the Global Freeze.

Chase places the gifts from his human friends that have meant so much to him, his Signal Bike and driver’s license, in Gou’s hand. “We are not buds, but I want you to have them. It’d be a waste if they burned up with me.”

Chase suddenly jumps up and runs towards Banno. He grabs his waist, holding on to Banno as he explodes.

As does the 000 viral core.

Episode Thoughts

Another week, another Drive episode showing us glimpses of what could have been.

So this was supposed to be the beginning of the big final battle. But it definitely didn’t feel as epic as it should’ve been. All season, the Roidmude were pretty much without purpose. The realization of Banno’s endgame should’ve been preceded by a bunch of red herrings and faux-goals, but we really didn’t get any until Heart explicitly explained wanting to rule over humanity a few episodes ago. So Banno wanting to turn people into data feels more like a monster of the week plot rather than a dire world-ending disaster.

Other things that could’ve been more awesome with proper development…

The utter contempt Banno seems to have for Gou would’ve been so good if they actually had developed their family more than two random episodes. Banno continually telling Gou how he’s basically some failed piece of sh-t would be an amazingly vile, disgusting line if the foundation of a happy family and Gou looking up to his father was there to crush. It also would’ve given Kiriko something to do other than chasing after Chase before suddenly remembering she had feelings for Shinnosuke.

And speaking of Chase. Better development of the love triangle and focusing more on the idols unwittingly learning to become human would’ve helped pack a bigger emotional punch at the end. Chase’s sincerity in the last few episodes has been nice and all. And him handing Gou the Signal Bike and the license he’s loved so much (for a few episodes) is sweet. Though Chase had one of the more fully realized stories of the season, it would’ve felt much more meaningful with a deeper foundation in both Chase and Gou’s respective journeys.

Same goes for Heart and Medic who team up with the Riders. Even after Banno is finally revealed as the Big Bad, they’re still making it seem like Heart and Medic merely want to take care of Banno first before returning to their nonexistent plans from before he existed. Like last week with Brain, watching them get killed just as they’ve attained some major aspect of humanity or emotion would’ve been great to watch and given them all truly climactic finales.

Chase sacrifices his life to save Gou. The 000 viral core is gone.

Chief Jun and Kyu see Shinnosuke has reached the barrier so they activate Rinna’s program to interrupt the electricity in the building. Otta and Rinna do their part at the SSDC and the barrier shuts off.

Back in the basement, Gou is beside himself at Chase’s decision. But Banno emerges from the fire, laughing that Chase’s death was in vain.

“The effort of fools is always pointless.”
“In that case, your existence is pointless. Even though he wasn’t human, he was the kindest person I ever met! Your corrupted heart is the most foolish of all!”

Gou henshins and channels his anger into fighting his worthless father. Banno tries breaking Gou down with words, but he won’t have any of it.

Kiriko tries to hurry to the SSDC when it suddenly starts raining. She realizes this must be the day of the second Global Freeze.

Banno gets the upper hand on an injured and weak Gou and gives him one swift kick before walking away.

As he falls to the ground, Gou realizes he was an idiot. Chase wanted to be his bud. “I was too stubborn. I didn’t realize it until I lost him…”

That reenergizes Gou and drives him to stand. Banno cannot believe it. Gou should have no power left. But Gou is ready to continue fighting.

“You have committed countless unforgivable sins. You played with my emotions… insulted Neechan… and used Krim’s inventions for evil! But the most unforgivable is… You killed my bud!!!”

Gou clutches Chase’s Signal Bike. “Let’s go, Chase! Fight with me.”

Gou uses the Signal Bike and uphenshins to Mach Chaser.

Banno is shocked. This form is impossible!

But Gou uses Chase’s power and gives Banno everything he’s got. Banno just absolutely cannot believe any of this is happening. Mach should not be able to surpass Gold Drive’s power.

Banno takes Chase’s Signal Ax and gun as he zaps Gou. But the Shift Cars arrive and give Gou an extra bit of power to break free of the hold. That allows Gou to take the weapons back.

Using both weapons to create an opening, Gou unleashes a Full Throttle Finisher on Banno whose own finisher is just not on par. Gold Drive and the Roidmude body both explode. The Gold Driver falls to the ground.

Gou dehenshins and falls to his knees as his Neechan arrives.

She sees Gold Drive has been defeated, but Gou cries in her arms. “I was a complete idiot,” he says.

“If I had known it would end up like this… I would have told him then! That he was already… my bud!”

Kiriko understands that Chase has died. She sees his formerly tight pants now just scraps on the ground. She breaks down in tears.

Meanwhile, Shinnosuke, Heart and Medic are finishing off the three Roidmude. But Medic cannot heal the cores. It seems she has lost her power to do so since Banno reprogrammed her.

Heart realizes he and Medic are the only Roidmude left. He tells Shinnosuke that after this battle, it’ll be their turn to settle things.

Kiriko calls Shinnosuke to tell him what has happened. She asks Shinnosuke to do his best. For Chase too.

As Shinnosuke, Heart and Medic mourn Chase, a Gravity Shift! The Global Freeze has officially begun!

The Heaviness has begins to spread across the world. Kiriko finds she cannot move even while wearing Shift Cars.

Banno suddenly starts cackling again. He’s still alive and excited for Sigma Circular to finish his plan.

Shinnosuke henshins while Heart and Medic return to Roidmude form. But Medic finds it hard for her to move and overcome the Gravity Shift. She tells the guys to go on ahead while she fights through the Heaviness to follow.

Banno says he can still reconstruct his data before he disappears. But Gou takes the Signal Ax and approaches his father.

Banno pleads with Gou. The Signal Ax is ready. Gou lifts the Ax. Kiriko watches.

With a smile, Gou swings and kills his evil, worthless father. For good.

“Goodbye Father. And whatever love I had for you.”

Gou walks to his sister and gives her his Signal Bike. He’s at his limit, so she can take this and go to Shin-niisan. Kiriko hurries.

Shinnosuke and Heart reach the Sigma Circular which is now at full power. It speaks.

Sigma Circular begins the conversion of humanity to numbers and data. Shinnosuke and Heart try to stop it, but Sigma simply flies through the air and attacks.

Chief Jun and Kyu see the numbers on their arms. Humans around the world are already being turned into data.

Kiriko as well.

Sigma completely overpowers Shinnosuke and Heart. Belt-san says they are completely overmatched. But Shinnosuke suggests he and Heart double their power and attack at the same time.

That does absolutely nothing. Shinnosuke is forced to dehenshin.

Medic arrives and sees the situation. Sigma prepares to destroy them for good.

Heart and Medic call to Shinnosuke who struggles to even move. Sigma revs up.

Medic stands and decides to sacrifice herself. She uses every last ounce of power she has to heal Shinnosuke as much as she can.

Heart sees Medic in her white goddess form as she collapses in Shinnosuke’s arms.

“I understand now… how Brain must have felt. I believe in your and Heart-sama’s victory. Farewell.”

Medic dissolves, including her viral core. Heart screams. As does Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke henshins.

It’s time to shift into Operation Overdrive!

Episode Thoughts

So, we’re almost there! The End is near.

But first, this week in Recounting Regrets: Kamen Rider Drive Edition, they really should have built up the bromance between Chase and Gou more. Chase dying in his arms and Gou regretting he didn’t express his feelings for Chase sooner would have had such a bigger and better impact than it did. It was alright as we got it. It played out well. But I really feel so much panghihinayang or regret with what could have been. =(

Same with Kiriko who merely fawned over Chase in a shallow way instead of playing up her gratitude and fear from the first Global Freeze and him saving her. We had that one episode with Chase and Kiriko in a romantic, rain-soaked moment. But otherwise, nothing.

And again, Medic sacrificing herself would’ve been a great climax for her journey to “humanity.” Really so much potential just dropped with regards to the Roidmude, their goals and ultimate development. It would’ve also helped provide a big contrast to Banno’s eventual story too.

Which brings us to Heart. I mean, really Heart? Still going to fight Shinnosuke for control of humanity? Come on now. As if it didn’t feel awkwardly out of thin air before. lol

Anyway, just looking at the action, Gou vs Banno was nice. I definitely liked that final swing by Gou which I hope really was the final swing and Banno doesn’t pop up later as randomly as he did originally. The Sigma Circular just flying about was amusing enough. And it would’ve been nice if the scenes they used for the Global Freeze weren’t recycled from two episodes ago when it apparently was being broadcast through a crystal ball.

And Mach Chaser looked kinda awkward as well. Should’ve found a little more seamless way to combine the two suits.

And one little thing, one detail I’ve always liked is the grunt Shinnosuke gives whenever the tire snaps to his body after henshin. It’s a nice little detail I’ve always noticed and enjoyed.

Now if only they had focused on other details as well. *sigh*

Shinnosuke henshins and is prepared to go Overdrive to fight off Sigma. Heart joins in and it’s a free-for-all between the three. Sigma unleashes an attack and Shinnosuke asks Heart to lend him some power. He throws Shinnosuke at Sigma which stops the bombardment.

That allows Shinnosuke to initiate an ALL Tire Mix Finisher. And with Heart, they are finally able to defeat Sigma Circular.

Huge explosion. But the Global Freeze is over and everyone is back to normal.

“Well done, Shinnosuke,” Belt-san says.

But Shinnosuke just smiles and falls back and out of the building.

He lands in a Kamen Rider Ghost promo before waking up in reality.

It is still raining as Shinnosuke wakes up on the ground below the SSDC. It was Heart who saved him.

Heart says Banno’s ambition was so inelegant. The Roidmude were supposed to be become like humans and then surpass them. Shinnosuke says the Roidmude already have.

Shinnosuke extends his hand to Heart, but he swats it away and gets up himself. Now that he is the only one left, it’s time to settle the score. Heart punches Shinnosuke in the face.

Back in the SSDC basement, Otta and Rinna have found Gou and think he’s dead. But he tells them their shaking is going to kill him first.

Kiriko arrives at Promised Land and finds Belt-san by himself on the floor. He tells her about Shinnosuke falling out the building.

Heart throws Shinnosuke around, but Shinnosuke does not fight back. He asks Heart to stop, saying that after all that’s happened, he has learned the only true evil is amongst humans. And that is Banno.

The Roidmude were simply programmed with humanity’s worst emotions. They were victims too. “So what are you trying to say?!” Heart says as he shoves Shinnosuke to the ground.

Shinnosuke says now that they’ve learned that, he is sure humans and Roidmude can get along. Plus he doesn’t want to lose Heart like he did Chase.

“You are too naive!” Heart says as he prepares a finisher. Kiriko arrives and tosses Belt-san at Shinnosuke. But Shinnosuke does not henshin. Heart charges toward him, but can’t deliver the final blow.

Heart has a big wound on his chest and Shinnosuke says he knew Heart was fatally wounded from the spikes earlier. Belt-san realizes Heart’s Viral Core has been damaged.

“Why?!” Kiriko asks. Shinnosuke proclaims that Heart wanted to die fighting him as soon as he found out he was dying anyway.

“With this, we are extinct,” Heart says, “Tomari Shinnosuke… At least, will you remember… that a new lifeform called ‘Roidmude’ once existed on this planet?”

Shinnosuke falls to the ground. “Of course. No way I could forget.”

“Thank you. At the very end, I actually made a friend. The first… human…”

Heart disintegrates, including his Viral Core.

Shinnosuke proclaims the Roidmude have been exterminated. He and Kiriko salute.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko head over to the Temp SID where everyone is waiting, safe and sound.

Shinnosuke wonders where Belt-san is. Gou says Belt-san went to repair the broken Drivers. But Shinnosuke shifts into top gear.

They all head to The Pit where they find Belt-san and all the Shift Cars with Tridoron. Suddenly, a force field appears.

The others are shocked, but Shinnosuke calmly says it’s alright and that it’s time for them to part ways.

Belt-san had all this planned from the beginning. Chief Jun explains that Belt-san is putting himself and all the Drive equipment to sleep in the bowels of the Earth. Shinnosuke figured that Belt-san would do this once the battle was over. Belt-san once said humanity is not yet ready for the Core Drivia.

Belt-san says farewell to the SID and thanks them for their service. He tells Gou to hold his head up high and confidently move forward.

Belt-san projects his Krim self and thanks Shinnosuke for understanding his feelings now. He is happy that he and Shinnosuke have made for a formidable combi this whole time. Shinnosuke agrees they’re quite a pair. But Krim says not as much as Shinnosuke and Kiriko are.

Krim tells Kiriko to look after Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke hands Krim the Drive Driver.

“Until the day humanity is capable of using my inventions righteously!”

Belt-san and the Drive equipment descend into the bowels of the Earth, locked up until the next Movie Wars.

A few days later, Chief Jun, Rinna and Kyu are packing up their things at the SID. Otta is a little upset he never even had a desk at the SID for him to clean up now. They all tease each other.

They first wonder how Gou is doing.

Gou is walking down a rural road. He apologizes to Krim for not handing over Chase’s Signal Bike. But he hopes to find a way to revive the 000 Core someday.

Suddenly, Professor Harley pops up in his bike and side car. He says he’s here to pick Gou up. “Kiriko is not your only family, understand?” Professor Harley gets Gou to smile.

“People who care about me are all family,” Gou says. He tells Harley hakase that he’ll drive because Harley is too scary on the road.

Otta wonders where Shinnosuke is. Kyu says Shinnosuke doesn’t seem to want to clean out his desk, but Rinna says Kiriko has gone to get him. Chief Jun says Shinnosuke will come as his luck is superb today, according to his horoscope.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are driving along in his brand new, non-Tridoron car. She feeds him some candy, but he says he still can’t shift into gear today. He feels a hole in his heart, somehow. Kiriko says she too has thought about all that’s happened. But they must overcome it and keep moving forward.

Suddenly, they are being pulled over by a cop who says the car matches the description of a stolen vehicle. He asks for Shinnosuke’s license.

Shinnosuke shows them his license and hands over his badge. The cop understands he’s an officer, but he must still check everything over.

The cop takes his sunglasses off and reveals a familiar face.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are surprised. But also amused. They definitely see where Chase got his personality from.

The cop returns and apologizes for the inconvenience since everything checks out. Shinnosuke asks his name.

Kano Kouichi of the Traffic Unit.

“You don’t have any friends, do you?” Shinnosuke asks.
“How did you know that?!”

Shinnosuke says he’ll be Kouichi’s friend and hopes they’ll meet again next time. Kouichi doesn’t understand and says he doesn’t need any friends.

Kouichi drives off.

Shinnosuke says it’s time to go to the SID and properly say goodbye to everyone.

“The future is waiting for us. Belt-san, Chase and Heart have entrusted the it to us. And we won’t reach it unless we run at full throttle!”

Shinnosuke turns to Kiriko.

“There’s one thing I’ve been meaning to tell you, Kiriko. Your smile is the best.”
“Thanks!”

And with that, Shinnosuke and Kiriko drive off to the future.

We learn what the SID is up to after the events of Drive. Chief Jun was promoted to Deputy Commissioner and takes care of difficult missions. Rinna won a Nobel Prize in physics. Otta was promoted to Captain and then Chief of the First Division. Kyu became bestselling author. Gou’s nature and wildlife photos from traveling the world earned him acclaim.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko get married and have a son. ;)

Episode Thoughts

So why in the hell did they squeeze in some Ghost promo when the next episode is all about Ghost anyway? Come on now! lol

Anyway, it’s the last episode of Drive and of course there’s more regrets to be had.

In addition to Heart inexplicably still wanting to fight Shinnosuke after everything they’d already been through, that final moment between them and becoming friends and all just didn’t have enough depth to it. It’s not like Shinnosuke and Heart were at odds and bitter rivals the entire season, save for maybe three episodes.

Sentai does those Red Ranger vs Rival storylines much better because usually the villain rival and the Red Ranger (or whichever color of the team that season) have some sort of connection or common past or are literally opposites of each other. Shinnosuke and Heart really didn’t have any of that. If they did, then that final scene with Heart would’ve been another amazing moment. But like the other idols, Drive didn’t want to focus on the Roidmude earning their human emotions or humanity. Heart was the most compassionate of the idols, wanting them all to be good friends and comrades. Heart slowly becoming Shinnosuke’s friend was basically told in passing instead of it being a major part of his character and the overall Roidmude plot.

Plus, they did it better with Chase and that wasn’t done as well as it could have been in the first place.

Banno was the most evil human evah, Shinnosuke says. But he didn’t even exist for half the series.

During the epilogue segment of the episode, I was shocked that I completely forgot Professor Harley even existed. Where was he when Banno returned and run amok across Japan? Wasn’t he Krim’s mentor or something? He couldn’t help when they needed him? But he gave Rinna formulas for the Trailer. The show could’ve easily worked him into the story as well to fill out Banno as a character.

Speaking of that epilogue, I knew it was going to be Taiko Katono as that final cop. I was actually really amused by it. But at the same time it’s like they only just remembered Chase’s human form was supposed to be copied from an actual person, so they just tacked this on at the end. They never even touched on the idea that Chase’s human even existed. Though I now realize they never thought to look for Heart, Brain or Medic’s humans either until they suddenly popped up when the show needed to give some weight to their eventual deaths the next episode.

Belt-san going into hibernation in the center of the Earth is just “What?”

Shinnosuke and Kiriko driving off in the end was alright.

The 2nd Global Freeze was such a non-event. I think they could’ve at least made it more exciting if people became data and stayed as data for an entire episode or two. Throw in Chief Jun, Kyu, Rinna and Otta and have Shinnosuke, Gou, Kiriko, Chase, etc. some of the only humans left fighting to the death to save their friends and the rest of the world. The humans just simply reappeared after Sigma gave up. So that ended up being very anticlimactic.

Season Thoughts

And I guess that’s all because of all the ball dropping all season long. So much wasted potential. I mean, I can’t say the season was outright bad. Because I did have fun and enjoyed random things as long as I ignored the lack of story development.

But knowing they dropped the ball on a whole number of things that could’ve been awesome just makes me feel sad.

Going back and looking at the other Kamen Rider finales I’ve watched so far (OOO to Gaim), this was the first finale where I didn’t cry one bit. There were plenty of MaGMCMs in the other finales: Kengo’s letter and the final confrontation with Gamou in Fourze, Mitchi hating himself in Gaim, the gang all in battle, dead Koyomi and Sora’s demise on Wizard, just to name a few.

But I didn’t feel any of the waterworks here, even though plenty of moments should have made me cry: Brain, Medic, Chase and Heart’s deaths for example. I think I felt more emotional watching the minisodes and commercials for Surprise Future than for the actual series.

Part of the lack of emotional connection I guess is the lack of development and push for the bonds the SID had. They were a fun, wacky group. But you compare it to the bonds between Haruto and the gang or the Kamen Rider Club or Eiji, Hina and Ankh and of course Kota, Mai and Mitchi, Drive was nowhere near. It didn’t help that the final battle was only between Shinnosuke, Heart and a flying thing while everyone else was frozen.

But I think part of it is also there not really being a huge threat here on Drive. That goes with the lack of endgame or focus from the villains, whether the idols or Banno. If they didn’t want to do some big apocalyptic ending, then developing the idols’ road to humanity and how Shinnosuke and Co. would help them could’ve been just as successful an ending as some epic battle.

There was really just no sense of direction during the season. They would go one way before going another and then turning and restarting and all over. A lot of different moving parts that just never came together.

So overall, while I like the characters and while there were lots of fun moments, I will most remember Drive for the wasted potential and the awesomeness that could have been. =(

It’s been a couple of days since the climax, but Shinnosuke is busy back at work.

Kiriko is worried he might be moving too fast after such a battle, but Shinnosuke is determined to close the case of Neo Shade. This was the case he and Hayase were working on the night of the first Global Freeze.

Shinnosuke says he can’t continue to drive forward if he can’t close this case.

About a month ago, they found a link between Neo Shade and the Roidmude and were on the heels of the Neo Shade leader who was able to get away.

Unbeknownst to Kiriko, Shinnosuke has been seeing visions of Belt-san as he remembers the words of his partner.

Anyway, he shows her a picture of an Eyecon, a piece of evidence they found with the leader of Neo Shade at the hideout last month. He, Gou and Chase had stormed the location.

While Gou and Chase took care of the Roidmude, Shinnosuke pursued the leader only to be attacked by a mysterious, invisible thing who was also after the Eyecon.

But another mysterious, orange-colored person arrives to drive the first one away.

Anyway, Shinnosuke took the Eyecon and submitted it as evidence. But it was just recently stolen and Chief Jun tells Shinnosuke this will be his last case for the SID.

No problem though as Rinna had put a tracker on it and Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Otta are on their way to the leader’s current hideout. Rinna and Kyu, meanwhile, have identified the suspect as Okamura Keisuke.

Kyu says it would be great if Belt-san were here to help. Shinnosuke has another Belt-san vision, remembering Krim saying they shouldn’t rely too much on technology and that he wouldn’t work anyway without Shinnosuke.

They arrive at the location. Kiriko stays outside just in case the perp tries to run.
Shinnosuke and Otta head inside. And while looking through, Otta wants to reassure Shinnosuke that he is not alone even if Belt-san is gone. They’re all here for him, so he should believe in himself like he always has. No need to hesitate or feel uneasy.

Shinnosuke thanks him and they continue through the abandoned building. They finally find Okamura and pursue.

They corner him and Okamura says he is just following orders.

Shinnosuke jumps on Okamura and demands he spill the beans about everything. Otta gets him to calm down and cuffs Okamura while Shinnosuke goes over to get the Eyecon.

Suddenly, the invisible thing appears once again. But this time, it shows its true, physical form and proceeds to moan while throwing Shinnosuke around.

Okamura is amazed by the power he is seeing. It is even stronger than the Roidmude.

Before Otta can get hold of him, Okamura takes his gun and runs off.

The monster forces Shinnosuke to drop the Eyecon. But suddenly, the orange-colored person appears once again to fight the monster off.

Shinnosuke grabs the Eyecon as this new hero easily takes care of the enemy.

Shinnosuke recognizes this guy from somewhere? The guy introduces himself as Kamen Rider Ghost.

A little white ghost appears and tells Shinnosuke to return the Eyecon as it is the owner.

But before that, Otta calls to say Kiriko has been taken hostage by Okamura who is demanding the Eyecon or else.

Ghost, listening to the conversation, allows Shinnosuke to take the Eyecon as it could be of great use to him later.

Shinnosuke meets with Okamura who has Kiriko at gunpoint. The little ghost tries to get Shinnosuke to hurry up and henshin to take care of this dilemma and return the Eyecon.

Shinnosuke is in top gear and has figured out that Okamura actually is the leader of the Neo Shade. In order rebuild the fractured organization, Okamura needed a power greater than the Roidmude. And that is the Eyecon.

Laughing hysterically, Okamura admits that he wants to destroy the world. He tightens his grip on Kiriko and pulls her closer to the gun.

“I am not the same as I was a year ago,” Shinnosuke says. He holds the Eyecon tight and Belt-san appears on his waist.

“I became a Kamen Rider. I learned this by fighting the Roidmude, Belt-san. Even if the Roidmude are gone, the world will not become peaceful. Because the true evil lives in the hearts of mankind. And evil monsters like him will never disappear. But I will not give up. I’ve decided to drive. I will keep driving!”

Shinnosuke vows to continue to serve and protect the people, protect people’s happiness. “Even if I can’t henshin… even if Belt-san is gone… I am still a cop. And a Kamen Rider!”

Shinnosuke tosses the Eyecon to the little ghost and takes his gun out as the vision of Belt-san disappears.

Shinnosuke points his gun and tells Kiriko to trust him.

“Of course,” Kiriko says, “We’re buddies, after all.”

Okamura gets ready to shoot Kiriko as Shinnosuke aims at him. But Okamura turns his gun to Shinnosuke instead. That split second allows Shinnosuke to shoot at Okamura’s wrist.

He walks over and officially arrests Okamura.

Ghost watches and says he has a feeling that they’ll meet again soon.

Back at his fancy new office, Chief Jun commends Shinnosuke for his excellent work. It appears he was right to have chosen him before.

Chief Jun relates the conversation he had with Krim on the rooftop in which they agree Shinnosuke was the one and only choice. Krim wanted Chief Jun to give Shinnosuke a message once he is promoted, the battle was over and in the event something happened to Belt-san.

But before that, Chief Jun hands Shinnosuke the letter saying he has been reassigned to First Division. Shinnosuke proudly accepts the promotion.

Rinna, Otta, Kyu and Kiriko burst through the door as they had been eavesdropping.

Shinnosuke shows Kiriko the letter and she congratulates him.

We learn that Kiriko transferred to First Division as well to become an investigator. But more importantly, she married Shinnosuke and they had a son named Eiji.

The others tease them and also congratulate Shinnosuke.

Chief Jun just smiles and remembers Krim’s words: “If he is reassigned, please tell him this: ‘Even if you are stalled for a little while, you can always get yourself back on the road and driving again.'”

“This is your real starting line. Now go on and drive, Shinnosuke!”

“Start your engine!”

Shinnosuke is in top gear.

We learn Shinnosuke was eventually promoted to lead investigator and had a long, fulfilling career as the department’s ace like his father Papa Tomari.

Episode Thoughts

So I was a little premature last week in adding Shinnosuke and Kirko’s epilogue since they actually saved theirs for this final, final episode.

And I was absolutely shocked that I found myself welling up with tears the moment Kiriko’s epilogue popped up on the screen. They got married and had a son named Eiji. Damn.

The closest thing to a MaGMCM for me this season was Kyu and 072. But I just realized that this season didn’t really have any MaGMCMs for me. Until this final final episode. I really don’t know why, but just seeing that epilogue for Kiriko pop up on the screen was actually really nice. They lived happily ever after. Sweet. And I haven’t even seen anything about the movie other than those minisodes to promote it with Eiji as the character. And yet, I really felt that little “confirmation” as the show teased before its commercial break.

This episode probably did more to establish Shinnosuke and Kiriko’s relationship and bond than most of the season. They trust each other before they fell in love with each other. They’re buddies, after all. So I liked that little call back.

It was a happy ending for everyone. One thing this episode showed was how the team (even if just a few days removed from the events of episode 47) would always remain one even as they moved on to other things. You get the sense that they were all one phone call away from each other. That’s something I wish they emphasized much more during the season. But I must say it worked a lot here. It really did feel though like this episode took place much longer than just a few days from the final “battle.”

I really liked how Shinnosuke actually did not henshin this episode. The flashback with Gou and Chase took care of that. But even while Belt-san popped up as a vision and not literally pop up from the ground just to get Shinnosuke to henshin was awesome. This really was an epilogue to the series.

The episode, in addition to being a Ghost promo/primer episode of course, was really more about Shinnosuke moving on without Belt-san and reminding him of his police spirit. It reinforced Shinnosuke’s drive as someone who wants to serve and protect people. Someone who definitely wants to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Just ignoring everything that’s come before and looking mainly on the idea that Shinnosuke is feeling some sort of separation anxiety but gets over it, this was actually a pretty good episode.

Dare I say there was more story here than in the entire series? =O lol I liked the “the first day of the rest of your life” theme.

It was also interesting how another idea was reinforced in this episode as well. The Roidmude were not evil by nature, they were just made that way thanks to Banno, a human, programming them or whatever with human emotions. That’s a pretty big theme that many a TV show or movie have touched on in the past.

“Are monsters born or raised?” That’s a question tackled in one of my most favorite Korean dramas, White Christmas.

That would have been an epic story if tackled here in depth coupled with the Roidmude being used as a way to explore what it means to be human.

But nah. I don’t want to add to the list of regrets. This episode, for some reason, made me feel good and less negative about the series as I was last week. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the happy, uplifting ending.

Anyway, can I say kudos to Ryoma Takeuchi for that fight scene with the invisible thing? Just hurling himself around and stuff. He was great.

And Takeru, Kamen Rider Ghost, seems like a fun guy. As is the flying little ghost thing. So hopefully the series will be good as well.

Overall, Drive really has come to an end as a series. And again, it was a crazy and many times enjoyable ride. But it still could’ve been so much bigger than it was. Congrats to the team though. And while there are many regrets about the story itself, I definitely don’t regret completing another season of Kamen Rider =)

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
WARNING! Major spoilers for both movie and series!

Since seeing the trailers and that little end of episode miniseries featuring Tomari Eiji, I’ve been very excited about seeing Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future. Mainly, I was looking forward to seeing a story that could’ve potentially helped the series be fuller and more complete.

But just like the series, the movie dropped the ball. Kamen Rider Drive has been all about wasted potential. And that’s quite a shame.

I enjoyed and liked Kamen Rider Drive. But I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, the memory of wasted potential and missteps during the season will always come back and sadden me.

Still, I went into this movie hopeful that we’d at least get something epic and fun. The basic plot of the movie is pretty good and could’ve easily filled at least a third of the series itself. Belt-san being corrupted and used for evil by his own creations. They could’ve blended that together with Banno’s story too to actually give him purpose instead of just being an easy out as the big bad of the series.

The movie played on Krim being sketchy and secretive all the time and the plot of this movie would’ve worked to help develop and deepen his character in series.

Strangely enough, the movie had a much better balance of actual police work and the more emotional character-driven stories than the series. Those are some of the positives for me.

But the movie was very rushed. Again, the plot could’ve filled out a big chunk of the series. So cramming it all into a one-hour movie really shortchanged a lot of the potential.

Every big Kamen Rider and Super Sentai movie has the requisite decisive clusterfrak of a CGI battle. But I feel like this movie had more than usual CGI and henshined fight scenes. And in turn, we only got a small cameo form Heart, Brain and Medic while the rest of the SID (Chief Jun, Rinna, Otta and Kyu) were mere bit players who didn’t even get time to react to Shinnosuke’s “death” or being a wanted man.

One of the biggest bits of wasted potential is Tomari Eiji, played excellently by Mackenyu. Mackenyu seems to be a talented young actor (from the US!) and he definitely ran with the little material he was given here.

The movie started out with some excellent and surprisingly effective scenes between Eiji and daddy Shinnosuke. I think it had a lot to do with Mackenyu being very charismatic and having a nice little chemistry with Takeuchi Ryoma. You immediately believed they really were father and son (from the future).

Scenes of Shinnosuke and Kiriko later on were also great and were examples of scenes we should have had more of in series.

Overall, the plot resolved itself fine. And the new forms and toys were nice and pretty.

I really don’t understand why, but even while I have many criticisms and disappointments with Kamen Rider Drive (I continue to use it as a point of comparison in reviews of Ghost and even Ninninger), I still had fun watching it. And not in a “hate watch” kind of way. I legitimately enjoyed it. And that goes for this movie as well. Plenty of wasted potential, but still somehow enjoyable to watch.

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
LOTS of spoilers.

This year’s Kamen Rider Movie War was mostly a fun endeavor with some brutal and bloody battles. But it ends in one of the worst possible ways it could ever end. More on that later.

The annual Movie War crossovers can always be mixed bags, but usually enjoyable in their most basic ways. The more recent films have favored a singular story involving the two Rider seasons over the earlier three act format. And I generally like that one story format more. It helps to make the film a true “event” and a crossover where the characters of both series actually interact with each other.

Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Riders is a unique entry into the annual crossover as it’s part-45th anniversary celebration and a special crossover with the iconic Pac-Man character, also owned by Bandai. In that sense, this film is sort of split into two halves though not in a jarring, abrupt way.

It is a pleasant surprise to see how well Kamen Rider and Pac-Man were woven together for what is essentially the first half of the film. Though seemingly random at first, the combination fits with Ex-Aid‘s video game theme and it provided for some spectacular action extravaganzas. Certainly not as much of a clusterfrak of explosions and CGI as previous films, the Pac-Man scenes, including the decisive battle in a 3-D Pac-Man environment, were very well done. And the fact that “ghosts” are Pac-Man’s ultimate opponents worked with Takeru and Ghost as the other main Rider season of the film.

The second half of the film focuses more on the Next Genome Institute, the main antagonist Michihiko Zaizen, their involvement in Emu’s operation six years ago and the race to cure Takeru and Akari of their advanced Game Disease before they die.

Michihiko Zaizen used Pac-Man merely to find a host (young game developer Togo) of a specific Bugster virus necessary to his plan to revive and continue his research into evolving to a new, powerful lifeform. This was after he and his team was sucked into the game world when Parado emerged from Emu during the operation.

Emu, Takeru and the rest of the gang race to stop the mad doctor and eventually receive help from familiar faces Shinnosuke, Haruto and godKota.

Of the non-headlining Riders, Shinnosuke was integrated the best into the overall plot. Having that relationship with Takeru helped. But this was also more police work for him than most Drive episodes. The call to pregnant wifey Kiriko also drove home a nice point about the risks of working in law enforcement. Any of the films involving Shinnosuke and Drive have really done a better job at highlighting and depicting those aspects of his character (police work, relationship with Kiriko) than the series, to be quite honest.

Haruto’s introduction wasn’t the most seamless, but being the “oldest” veteran Rider helped make his return welcome and fun. While we saw some epilogue-ish bites for Shinnosuke, we didn’t get any of that with Haruto, which is a shame. He was almost just here to provide that extra help. But at the same time, his appearance served as a reminder that maybe Wizard is the most well-rounded one of the non-apocalyptic recent Rider seasons. Drive and Ghost suffered from plenty of missed potential and dropped balls. Wizard did as well, but I felt very satisfied with its finale which is a lot more than I could say with the two most recent seasons.

And speaking of the apocalyptic recent season, it’s a shame they apparently couldn’t get Gaku Sano to come back for even a cameo at the end or just doing the voice acting instead of recycling old lines. Though it would have been interesting to see what they would have done with Kota had they been able to get Gaku Sano since Haruto barely had much to do anyway. What more if Kota actually got more time than he did.

For the Ghost portions of the film, it did feel very repetitive. The entire cast showed up, but barely had anything to do. They were all there to basically stand by Akari’s bedside. Even Makoto-niichan and Alain, literally, got tossed aside.

And of course, as I mentioned right at the start of this review. The final scene was just bad. Takeru dying for the 100th time?! It almost felt like a running joke or gag: Kill Takeru and bring him back to life. That final scene should’ve had some emotional weight to it, especially using it to give Emu some doctoring to do. But it fell completely flat.

Everything was going perfectly fine for most of the film. Takeru and Akari on the verge of death would’ve been enough without that contrived ending. It was so bad, it almost tainted my pretty positive response to the movie up until that point. They should’ve just left well enough alone and went straight to the epilogue scenes.

The film though basically introduces backstory for Ex-Aid which was hinted at in-series and merely glossed over. The film does help provide a bit more context and reference points for Emu’s backstory as well as Kuroto and Parado’s shadowy actions in the early part of the season. This is in spite of more than a few continuity errors between the contemporary events in the film and the series.

At the same time, the rest of the Ex-Aid cast, other than Poppysuna, also had little to do. Parado didn’t even show up until the end.

Still, the film was enjoyable. I think my favorite aspect is just how brutal and bloody it was. Sentai and (especially) Kamen Rider theatrical releases and V-Cinemas are usually a little more violent and gory. (Hello Kamen Rider Chaser!) But everyone had it rough this movie. The Riders were all bloodied and bruised. Akari had giant blocks fall on her. And of course that opening massacre was just insane.

The big battle scenes were also all very well done. Some nice, fresh choreography and special effects. Most of the film was fight and battle sequences. And interestingly, I had no problem with that. It was all cool to watch, though of course more solid writing would’ve been great too.

Overall, Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Riders was a fun, mostly enjoyable outing. Maybe a little above average in terms of entertainment compared to recent Movie wars, for me. And seeing Haruto and Shinnosuke, in person, again was a nice, simple treat.

It’s that time of year again! Time to update my personal Kamen Rider season rankings with the conclusion of Geats. So this comes about two weeks late only because during the early days of COVID, I made a promise to myself to post everyday. So I waited until Voltes V was over in order to have something to post on this Tuesday, September 12th. Lolol

Anyway! Where does Geats land on my list? And has there been some shuffling?! Find out here!

Definitely no change in the top 2/3 of the list though!

1. Kamen Rider Build / Kamen Rider Zero-One

It’s hard for me to pick between these two amazing seasons. Both share similar traits and qualities that not many other Kamen Rider seasons do. And one of those qualities is that both of these seasons made me cry. Multiple times at that. If you haven’t heard of the acronym “MaCMCM,” you can learn more about it here: http://dryedmangoez.com/magmcm/.

But both Build and Zero-One made this grown man cry numerous times. And it was thanks to incredible writing, engaging characters, and edge of your seat action. Both seasons left me the most satisfied and fulfilled too.

After Gaim, I felt a bit disconnected with the three seasons that came after. Then Build came and subverted a lot of the problems that had plagued those three seasons, including apparent lack of endgame from the beginning, pulling things out of nowhere, lack of character development or connection with each other and the audience and underwhelming and hollow climaxes, especially finales.

Build was able to put all the pieces together for a truly refreshing, surprisingly relevant in the real world, very exciting and emotionally resonant season and story that I didn’t know was still possible with Kamen Rider.

Before Zero-One, Build was my undisputed favorite season. But Zero-One rose to the top of my list for many of the same reasons as the former. It was the complete package. Zero-One ticked all the boxes for me: well-developed characters, excellent cast, dynamic and exciting action. And maybe even more importantly, timely and well-developed stories.

It will be hard to top these two seasons for me.

3. Kamen Rider Gaim

Gen Urobuchi’s Kamen Rider masterpiece will be right up there with the best. Gaim was an ambitious, dramatic series. And very much unexpected in its intricate and broad story. Up to this point, I had only seen three seasons of Kamen Rider. And all three of those seasons were a bit more lighthearted, even when they had darker underlying themes. Gaim seemed to follow suit at first. I mean, it had a fruit motif, for starters. And it seemed to center around dancing gangs lol But soon enough, things really kicked into high gear. It was very surprising for me, but I think that’s part of what made this season so appealing and exciting.

Gaim told stories I had no idea were possible in a show like Kamen Rider. Especially when at this time, I was only just starting to become familiar with both Kamen Rider and Sentai.

4. Kamen Rider Fourze

Your “first” will always hold a special place in your heart. And Fourze is the season that brought me into the world of Kamen Riders. After having gotten completely sucked into the world of Super Sentai in 2010, I decided to take the leap into Kamen Rider the following year. It was the week OOO ended and Fourze was about to begin that I made the decision. With OOO completed, I originally wanted to start with it so I could binge all the episodes. But somehow, I ended up watching Fourze first instead and followed along every week for the next year.

And Fourze ended up being the perfect season to introduce the franchise to me. A mix of fun, over-the-top fluff, exciting mystery and surprisingly sincere emotion and depth. Not every Kamen Rider season may be the same, but Fourze gave me a first impression that immediately got me hooked. Especially at a time when I was losing interest in my local tokusatsu production (*cough*Power Rangers*cough), Fourze helped to fill that void for me. And I’ve watched every Kamen Rider season since.

5. Kamen Rider OOO

My almost first, OOO would end up being my second Rider season and it helped to give me a fuller picture of what to expect from this storied franchise. Odd, quirky and random. But also a distinct and engaging premise and great, endearing characters. After almost 15 years of enjoying the franchise, I would realize this is what most Rider seasons would look like. But OOO had just the right amount of everything to make it thoroughly enjoyable. And again, helped solidify me getting hooked on the franchise.

6. Kamen Rider Wizard

At the time, I felt Wizard maybe suffered from a lack of focus toward the endgame even though I loved the characters. Little did I know, the seasons that would come after proved they could do much, much worse. Because of that and the years distance from the season, I look back at Wizard much more fondly now. Honestly, Wizard might even tie both OOO and even Fourze on this list with the latter two only getting the edge because they were my first seasons.

But Wizard, for whatever flaws it had in the build-up, stuck the landing. The last third of the season really delivered. Especially when that elusive endgame finally took shape. And more importantly, the bonds that the show nurtured between the Omokagedo gang were put to good use to give the final episodes a bit of emotional depth. The finale was satisfying and emotional thanks to great characters.

Though not perfect by any means, Wizard delivered where it counts. Especially when compared to a couple other seasons that would come after.

7. Kamen Rider Zi-O

Zi-O benefits from being an anniversary season. In a similar way to Gokaiger, Zi-O was able to do the tribute episodes well without sacrificing our main characters. While the endgame ended up a little predictable, Zi-O nonetheless had a solid story that came together in the end. Though some arcs were better than others, they were all able to provide something for fans of the original seasons, fans who have not a single clue about the original seasons and everyone in between.

I decided early on to not focus on the details of every little time travel or timeline change or deleted Rider. I accepted that Zi-O would just be a fun ride paying tribute to the last 20 years of Kamen Rider and wrapping up the Heisei Era. Those lowered expectations, perhaps, helped give me a more positive feeling about the season during that year. And ultimately, it was a fun, celebratory season.

8. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

Ex-Aid is an interesting season. Coming after Drive and Ghost definitely helped it in my eyes. The level of plot cohesion is definitely one of the season’s strongest points. The story developed at a steady pace, even if it lost a bit of steam a few episodes too early before the finale. But the fact that things weren’t pulled out of thin air was kept to a minimum, if at all. Especially compared to the last two seasons.

The overall concept of Ex-Aid was interesting and engaging for most of the season. There’s certainly things I wished they had done differently or stories (and characters) that should have been expanded on and developed more. But I definitely don’t feel the same level of disappointment and regret about what could have been like I did at the end of Drive and Ghost.

9. Kamen Rider Drive

An even more interesting season for me is Drive. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed something I was disappointed in as much as I do Drive. Wait, what?

Yes, Drive was a disappointment for me. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Weird, I know. But basically, I feel like of all the Kamen Rider seasons I’ve watched, Drive has the most wasted potential out of any of them. I felt sad at the end of the season enumerating all the times Drive dropped the ball. Instead of being something truly epic and amazing, they left a lot on the table. And that’s a shame, especially when it has probably one of the strongest ensemble casts as well.

There was a lack of character development and establishing the bonds between everyone at the SID. Not to mention the too-little, too-late development of our Roidmude friends who should’ve gotten a much bigger focus through the season. The lack of endgame and the lack of development on the part of the villains held Drive back. The season had a lot of moving parts that sadly never came together even if they were all there.

Nevertheless, I still liked the characters and there were a lot of fun moments. But I most remember Drive for what could have been.

10. Kamen Rider Decade (+1)

Decade moves up one spot on my list this year compared to last year.

The way Tsukasa and Decade have remained so relevant to almost every season since it first aired is really quite amazing. And I think Decade has become much more interesting post-season than it might have been during its run.

I’ve found the fandom is divided on Decade (the season). If not totally negative on it. But I guess it might have a lot to do with most of those fans actually having experience with the seasons Decade was paying tribute to. For me, the season was a fun adventure-type of story. Literally traveling through different worlds, it was an interesting crash course for me to previous seasons of the franchise I’ve yet to watch.

From a shallow perspective and watching it via bingeing and not weekly, I actually like Decade for what it was. I might not understand everything. (And I don’t even think I’ve watched every actual piece of content from the season’s story yet.) But I still like it (the season) and don’t necessarily have strong feelings about it either way. Again, its legacy and impact on the franchise and even stories of subsequent seasons are probably the most interesting aspect of Decade.

And I do love Tsukasa and Daiki and Natsumi and Yusuke and Eijiro and of course the absurd hilarity that Narutaki will always bring.

11. Kamen Rider Geats

Geats has been an interesting season for me. I was definitely disappointed in how things turned out. I felt like poor pacing, undeveloped stories and disjointed narrative held the season back. Good characters on paper and at the start of the season were instead twisted around to fit whatever the show seemed to want to do and be at any given moment. And in the end, that uncertainty and lack of cohesion made for a big disconnect with what was happening on screen. Even though on their own, some, if not many of the things they decided to do could’ve been great had everything else come together in a better way.

And yet, I’m not that upset at the season like I may be at others. And I think it’s because halfway through, I essentially just gave up on hoping for something more. And instead just decided to hop along for the ride. A crazy and rough ride, sure. But because I accepted early that the season probably wasn’t going to be my cup of tea, I ended up not so much apathetic, but just accepting of the season as a whole. I don’t hate it. I definitely love it. Maybe not even like it. But it’s just okay.

And certainly much more tolerable than certain other seasons that will appear below. Though I could very well swap Geats with…

12. Kamen Rider Revice (-2)

I originally placed Revice here immediately after it ended. And a year out from the season, instead of feeling less negative about it, I think I might even feel more negative about it. lol Maybe not really. But I think with Geats being able to exist without upsetting me, it just makes Revice feel all the more disappointing lol

Anyway, it was kind of hard for me to decide where to slot it because when Revice was good, it was VERY good. When it was bad… yikes! So if I were to rank just Revice‘s high points, I’d probably rank it above Wizard. Though Wizard might get the edge just for nostalgia’s sake. Still, Revice‘s first 15 episodes and all the non-TV series extras were really great to excellent. They alone would rank very high on my list.

But then the season’s lows come to drag it down lower. Revice had all the pieces it needed to be a truly outstanding season. But it somehow lost its way, maybe actively so. And that’s ultimately what keeps it from meeting its full potential. Too bad.

13. Kamen Rider Ghost (-1)

And here we go with the two seasons I actually do have strong, negative feelings about.

Right up front, even before Saber came along, my negative feelings toward Ghost eased ever so slightly thanks to its actually good arc in Zi-O.

But that doesn’t erase how Ghost was my least favorite season up until Saber. The season started off so well. An intriguing premise with a charming and likeable Shun Nishime as the title character. I held out hope for a long time, maybe because of my (previous) disappointment with Drive. But instead of revving up and getting to the meat of the season’s stories, Ghost seemed to wander off even more than it had been.

“Hollow” is a word I used to describe Ghost a lot. And that’s really what it was. Nice designs, cool action and potentially interesting characters had zero depth. The season remained unfocused to the end. There was no clear objective for any of the characters. And for Takeru, our title character, his only goal was achieved a couple of episodes into the season. What else was he to do for the rest of it then?

Though I might not have enjoyed Ghost as much as I enjoyed Drive, even if I was similarly disappointed in the wasted potential, it is the season’s only post-season movie that really drags it down for me.

Kamen Rider Ghost RE:BIRTH: Kamen Rider Specter is an absolute travesty. A mess. A crime. I don’t know what the hell that was. But I do know what it did. It absolutely retconned and dismantled a season that was already on shaky ground. Maybe if the basic premise of the film had been fleshed out in the series itself, it could’ve worked. But it takes a lot of effort to feel more hollow and unfocused than the series was.

And being the last Ghost content, it left a horrible taste in my mouth for a very long time. That is, until…

14. Kamen Rider Saber (-1)

Saber was essentially Ghost 2.0 for me. Suffering from the same problems Ghost had, Saber took it to the next level and made me feel something I have yet to feel for any Kamen Rider (or even Sentai) season I’ve watched so far: Apathy.

My main criticism of Saber essentially boils down to me not caring enough about the characters or the story. And a reason that I didn’t care being the show just didn’t execute whatever it was trying to do properly.

An easy criticism is to say the season had no vision. But actually, Saber did have a vision. Several visions, to be exact. And I think that’s the problem. Too much going on with too many characters. And with too much going on, it doesn’t allow for any of what’s happening to have a chance to land and marinate.

You can read my complete thoughts on Saber here.

But, no focus. Zero depth. Unfinished ideas. Wasted potential. Baffling decisions. Still in 2023, I do not hesitate to say Saber is my least favorite Kamen Rider season that I’ve seen.

The post Looking Back at (and Ranking!) the 14 Seasons of “Kamen Rider” I’ve Watched So Far! (2023 Update!) appeared first on DryedMangoez.com.