REVIEW: Drive 37
Despite coming off of the heels of a significant arc, Drive does not slow down this week. With a plot that does meander a bit in the start, we do get some interesting things set up that hopefully will pay off well in the coming weeks. Also tasty food.
Of course since we had such a climax with Nira’s arc, we naturally start this episode/arc with the stakes low and with a rather simple mystery. The episode begins with a Roiimude exploding on to the scene, quite literally, which Shinnosuke swiftly handles. Again a bit of an anti-climactic start, however I’m not expecting any better considering we just had the conclusion to the Nira arc. On top of that it’s a pretty mediocre fight, with People Saver again being used, with some help from Road Winter; Just a very mediocre start to an episode.
However we do get a cute moment where the SCU finally gets recognised for all their efforts after all this time by becoming an official task force. It’s nice finally having them be fully integrated and supported by the police. On top of that it’s something original and new to have a Kamen Rider acting so publically. Now I do understand that Kamen Riders are meant to hide and save the people without thank, but that is a more Showa era attitude. I personally find it more interesting and original, in such a day and age of sharing everything we do via social media, to have a Rider who is so public.
However the celebrations are short-lived as Kyu-chan contacts the SCU over what a scrap of paper Shinnosuke found at the Roiimude attack says. Turns out the Roiimude had been carrying directions to a super duper secret Restaurant that a bunch of urban myth geeks, including Kyu-chan, have been obsessing about. Thus Shinnosuke, Kiriko, Gen-san and Kyu-chan all go to the local park, aka somewhere mysterious in the city, to find the said restaurant. They do indeed find it and also that the Roiimude had also dined there. Kyu-chan being Kyu-chan tries to ‘dine’ on the atmosphere of the restaurant, which rather than getting them all kicked out, gets the crew a free meal there.
Meanwhile, at the docks, two high ranking Roiimude return from abroad and meet up with Heart. There he briefs them on the situation, namely that they need to defeat the Riders and get Bannou back. Cut back to the restaurant and the crew get there gorgeous meal served to them and pretty much melt at the taste of it all, which Krim gets jealous of. Maybe this is why he becomes evil in the summer movie. We also learn that the restaurant uses a special golden sauce to make its taste so transcendental.
Yet again meanwhile in a random abandoned warehouse, Chase finds Gou mulling over his role in the efforts against the Roiimude. There the two, and Bannou, discuss how Gou can’t re-join the SCU since he cannot reveal to Kiriko what happened to their father. Furthermore Bannou warns the two that Krim is not all that he seems. This is all cut short however as 006, one of the overseas Roiimudes from earlier, attacks the two with two mook Roiimudes. Out of this we do get a very athletic and kinetic action scene with plenty of interesting moves thrown about; however the action scene is marred by the usual suspect of action scene being ruined in this series: hasty editing. I’ve always noticed that action scenes in this series have been so rapidly cut and edited that none of the action can be processed and appreciated; it’s all rushed past and not properly seen, thus lowering its overall quality.
Putting that aside, we get a humorous moment back at the Drive Pit where the crew finally snap out of their trance from the delicious food, which was still annoying Krim. Kiriko and Shinnosuke then rush off back to the restaurant to find one of the sous chefs stealing the golden sauce. He of course runs to hide his suspiciousness and the two follow suit. They eventually catch up to him but he, maybe, turns into the Roiimude of the week, Chef. Medic also joins the party and uses the golden sauce to make one of her Reaper units become volatile.
From this it is revealed that the golden sauce is in fact part of a plan created by Medic to force ultimate evolutions to get closer to the promised number. As Shinnosuke fights the reaper unit, Heart arrives and stops the Reaper unit from exploding. He also berates Medic for sacrificing and using Roiimudes to further her own goals, which to an extent are for Heart’s benefit, however he is angrier over how she is sacrificing his friends left and right. Here we also learn Heart’s true ability is to take any power and surpass it. Thus he uses this ability to defeat Shinnosuke and so we end the episode on him about to attack a de-henshined Shinnosuke.
So again we get a lame-ish episode following a great arc and climactic episode. It really does seem that Drive is getting into a bit of a pattern where we have a string of good episodes, followed by a mediocre episode which leads into a greater episode. I suppose it is what I should expect considering it’s due to the 2 episode arc ‘rule’ Kamen Rider seems to have, however it really should just be abandoned to have a more fluid episode structure. Hell the Nira arc just proved that! Anyway it’s an okay episode that is gonna lead to some interesting stuff with Heart and Medic.
