REVIEW: Drive 33
Naturally one can easily draw comparisons and even say that this week's episode of Drive is ripping off Kamen Rider Fourze's own final upgrade episodes; the main hero dies and is resurrected by the power of said final upgrade. But I can say it easily differs from it, for better or worse. It does offer a more dramatic telling of similar events, however because of the many plot threads within Drive, there is much less of a focus upon Shinnosuke’s resurrection. But apart from that, it is a pretty good episode and a good introduction of Drive Type Trideron.
The episode, naturally, opens immediately after the events of last week’s episode with Freeze gloating over his victory. Now again it is a case of a poor opening due to a cliff-hanger, however I can easily let this one slide due to the fact that last week’s ending was so good. We then continue on to see the actual fallout of Shinnosuke’s death, both in the public eye and in private. Despite being a brief moment, I appreciate the public’s reaction to Shinnosuke’s death: he is indeed a public figure who is meant to protect the citizens; of course they would be concerned by his death. But what’s far more interesting, and of better quality, are the private reactions of the Special Crimes unit.
Firstly we have Gen-san’s breakdown at the sight of Shinnosuke’s body, which I have to say is some of the best acting I’ve seen in the show; maybe it’s that Gen-san is usually comic relief and seeing him like this is a shock, but damn Imata Taira can act. Kiriko on the other hand shuts herself away in her home. The chief also deserves a special mention as, when confronted by Nira over replacing Shinnosuke for the role of Kamen Rider, he displays a great anger that we’ve never seen before. Again, much like last week, the chief is being shown to be a far deeper character than how he was initially portrayed, which is a very welcome character development. Finally Chase’s reaction is a bit mixed, for me at least. He seems to only care how Kiriko is feeling towards Shinnosuke’s death, buuuut later on he does volunteer to help bring him back to life so I suppose he’s not being entirely selfish.
Cut to the base of the Roiimudes where they are discussing the death of Shinnosuke and we get a really interesting interaction between Freeze and Heart. Freeze tells Heart that he will try to guide him to his ultimate evolution; however Heart retorts that Freeze killed the only person who could possibly help him reach his ultimate evolution. This sows the seeds of dissent within Heart that I hope will be realised; he has been portrayed as being a rather noble villain and I hope they maintain this characterisation until the very end of the show. Plus it does set up an interesting dynamic considering the events of the rest of the episode. Suddenly Chase appears up and tries to un-brainwash Gou but that fails spectacularly, since Freeze destroys the antidote and so we lose that macguffin/ plot point.
This swiftly leads to a pretty average in terms of quality fight between Freeze and Chase outside the building. However since Chase cannot be affected by Freeze’s mind altering powers, Brain sends Gou in to finish the fight. Surprisingly, Gou eventually grabs Brain and holds him hostage and takes his I-pad. Turns out that Gou was not in fact brainwashed as he is also immune to Freeze’s powers; He grabs the injured Chase and then escapes. Turns out Gou had been pretending the whole time to be brainwashed so he could get close enough to Brain to steal his I-Pad which has the consciousness of Professor Bannou within it. Yet Gou breaks down as he feels like he betrayed Shinnosuke since he could not prevent his death. But in an extremely sweet and heart-warming moment, Chase tells Gou that he is a Kamen Rider, that he can save people and that it was right of him to do what he did to be able to protect more people. I absolutely love this as it shows comradery between two very similar characters and is very refreshing not seeing these two fight and get along.
In another sweet moment Gen-san and Q-chan chat within the old Special Crimes unit where again they mourn over Shinnosuke. It may be a short scene, but it fleshes the two out more and allows space and time for Shinnosuke’s death to be really felt. Gou then finally visits Kiriko to not only apologise for what he has done, but to also help in resurrecting Shinnosuke as it turns out that Mr. Belt had fused himself with Shinnosuke to keep him alive. Apart from the plot moving parts of this scene, I really appreciate how loving and forgiving Kiriko is towards Gou. It really feels like Kiriko has been extremely selfish in regards to her treatment of Gou, as she has been more focused upon Chase in the few episodes where the two were around together, but this shows that she still very much cares about her kid brother.
Cut to the Drive pit where we find pretty much all of the main crew with Shinnsouke’s body within the Trideron: turns out that if they restart Belt-san, they can also revive Shinnosuke. Rinna reckons that if they use Type Trideron and the power of all of the Shift Cars they can do this, but only if they drive the Trideron with Shinnosuke in it at 200 km/h. Chase initially volunteers, thus showing he kind cares, but Kiriko bursts in and, I think at least, rightfully volunteers. Now I like that the final upgrade is preceded by a great tragedy, therefore making Shinnosuke ‘earn it’ per say. However I feel like it was a bit of a deus ex machina considering we had never heard of it within story before. Comparing it to Fourze again, at least in that show the Cosmic switch was introduced as a concept beforehand and was not just randomly introduced to solve Gentaro’s death; However Fourze was a much simpler show with quite lower stakes, so had time to breathe. I suppose the reason why this deus ex machina-y introduction of Shift Trideron happened because of the complexity of Drive’s plot.
So the crew heads out to a conveniently closed off road to try and revive Shinnosuke, but as they are hitting 88 miles per –whoops I mean 200 Kph, Freeze attacks them. Chase tries his best to stop Freeze, but Freeze is still able to attack and set the Trideron on fire. But in I swear to god one of the coolest and most triumphant moments in the show, maybe even Kamen Rider full stop, Shinnosuke is able to save the Trideron and cooly gets out of the car and transforms into Type Trideron. So now we get to the part where I talk about Type Trideron and oh my god I love it. It’s perfect colour scheme, has a GREAT helmet, great chest piece that finally solves the problem of the terribly boring back of the Drive suits, has wheels on the heels which are used to great effect and has a great power. Rather than simply re-hashing Kiwami Arms’ power, Type Trideron is able to combine the powers of the Shift Cars together into groups of three, for example in the episode it fuses Max Flare, Midnight Shadow and Funky Spike together. I love it and I think it’s a great final form for Drive. And to just add a cherry on top, Shinnosuke and Belt-san can switch who controls the body while in Type Trideron, which not only re-affirms their bond but allows for Takaiwa Seiji (Drive’s suit actor) to show off his acting skills more. Thus the two defeat Freeze, by literally shooting the Trideron at him, who then leaves them a cryptic message to be prepared for the future and so bringing the episode to an end.
So all in all I have to say it’s a pretty good episode and was a good way to introduce Type Trideron. Apart from the gripes I have over the plot that I outlined earlier, it had a pretty good plot, reasonable action but again wonderful characterisation and acting. I just hope the complicated plot does not continue to sour the experience in episodes to come.
