REVIEW: Drive 32
Well. Shit. That was an episode. For most of the episode, the preview was kind of lying: most of the screen time was spent wrapping up the plot of the week with the client and his father. Again since it's Drive it was a perfectly good plot, apart from what 001 wanted but I'll address that later. But shit. That ending man.
Remember when I thought that the horrendous cliffhanger openings were gone? Yeah I was wrong, really wrong. We get another really bad opening this week where the epic fight from episode 31 kinda just fizzles out when Chase and Gou's fight spills over into Shinnosuke and Freeze's. I understand that it's like comparing apples to oranges, pun absolutely intended, but I feel that Gaim's overall arc structure would have been a bit more beneficial to pacing; however I do understand that the producers probably want a case of the week to fit in with the cop drama motif, which does work if the cliffhanger isn't too easily resolved and the case doesn't get in the way of any other stories they are trying to tell at the same time. Speaking of other stories, we cut to the Special Crimes unit's base where Belt-san and Shinnsouke fight over Shinnosuke's decision to fight Freeze. Thankfully the Chief jumps in at the right time and takes Mr. Belt away to chat with him. From that we get a really sincere and touching scene where Belt-san and the Chief chat it out. As I said it's a sincere scene and helps emphasise the Chief's mentor role and shows that he isn't just a comedy relief character. However the plot must continue and so we swiftly move back to the HQ where we learn more of the details of the case. It turns out that there are not only many simmialr disappearances over the past 12 years, similar to the client's father but that they all were involved in the virus testing that Makage/Freeze had created. On top of that we also learn that the removal of memories are triggered by certain keywords. So again, another instance where due to an overly complicated mystery, we need a whole scene of exposition. I reckon the only reason that it's so frustrating to me is the fact that it takes away from the main plot. Especially at this point in the show, where you'd think there would be more of a focus on the overarching plots. Hopefully the writers find the reasonable balance between plot of the week and overarching plots. But we do get more great moments with Chase and Gen-san in this scene!
With this new information Gen-san confronts Nira over this who, being Nira, kinda sorta ignores it but then goes to Makage/Freeze to confront him over it and is shunned. Meanwhile Shinnosuke demands the Drive pit crew to extract the needle Freeze implanted within his neck, and since he was untransformed while he got it he needs to remain as such and get the full brunt of Mad Doctor's powers. This leads to a wonderful moment later on where we, not only get a bit of foreshadowing of the ending of the episode/next week, but it also shows how strong and cool Shinnosuke is since he promises that he will always return because he knew he'd return to everyone's smiles. God Shinnosuke is cool. During all of this however Chase seeks out Heart and fights him to discover what triggers the ultimate evolution of Roiimudes. Despite being a rather short scene, it packs quite a lot of development for Heart since his key human emotion is the joy of fighting, yet he can't gain this from fighting Chase. Now this humble reviewer hopes that this leads to some interesting developments later on in the show: maybe Heart will gain his ultimate evolution from fighting Freeze and join the Drive crew? Maybe he instead wishes to fight Shinnosuke and may become the big bad, which I kinda hope doesn't happen. Who knows!
Back at the HQ, Rinna tests out the serum for Freeze's needles on Gen-san in a humorous moment where he finally is able to say Roiimude. Not overly important, but a cute moment nonetheless. As the Special Crimes Unit are gearing up to take on Freeze, Nira bursts in to offer his help. Now I know what you're thinking: "I thought Nira was a scumbag" and my response is: "Yes, yes he still is" because he's only helping the Special Crimes Unit to get back at Makage/Freeze for firing him. It's perfectly within his character and I love it. From his help the unit is able to discern where Freeze is hiding all the kidnapped persons and in a greatly amusing moment Nira steals the Chief's thunder and sends the unit out himself. Meanwhile at the Drive Pit, Belt-san is still very much concerned over losing Shinnosuke, but with a pep-talk from Chase about Kamen Riders protecting humans, he overcomes his fear and also heads out. At the same time, Shinnosuke again confronts the client over his father in yet another tender moment highlighting the father/son theme. The team then rush off to where Freeze is holding the people captive and there they run into Brain, Freeze and Gou. Turns out all the people who were kidnapped all are resistant to Freeze's memory manipulating needles and so he needed to get rid of them. Again the show demonstrates how intelligent and well thought out a villain Freeze is: he has a clear and unique goal with regards to his need for humiliation, he has a weakness that makes him fallible but still very, very intimidating and he deals with this weakness in a very well thought out manner. Kudos to the Drive writers for creating such a three dimensional and fascinating villain that works well with the restrictions given by the premise of the Roiimudes.
However, before all the shit goes down, the client has a super sweet moment with his father thus cementing the father/son bond theme that's clearly apparent throughout the past few episodes and hopefully be brought up again with the eventual introduction of Bando. With all the ancillary plot threads nicely tied, we swiftly move onto the final battle. Nothing too out of the ordinary,or spectacular except for Shinnosuke finally being smart enough to use Max Flare against Freeze. However the key moment in all this is that after being defeated by Shinnosuke in Type Formula, Freeze finally achieves his ultimate evolution and kills Shinnosuke (with a very classy soundtrack and endcard to boot!)
Well. That was cetainly an ending. Despite feeling very derivative of Fourze's own final form upgrade, Shinnosuke dying still packs quite a punch. This is emphasised even more so by it and the preview's sombre tone. As for the rest of the episode? Eh it was alright; the plot was bogged down with all that silly conspiracy shit, but not too much. The client's story was quite nice and would have maybe been a better fit for the last arc, but it was still well done. Overall yeah, it was a pretty great episode!
