REVIEW: Drive 39
Y’know, for an arc-starting episode, this week’s Drive isn’t half bad. It’s quite likely that due to not having such an overcomplicated story, the main plot of the show isn’t held down by it. Additionally this week’s story weaves its way into the main plot much better than it has for the past few weeks. O hand we get a new executive Roiimude, so that’s fun.
The episode opens on a couple driving to the beach, when suddenly 008 appears up out of nowhere and kidnaps the woman whilst saying that the man is “too much of a slob” for her. Of course Gou just happens to be around the corner and calls in Shinnosuke and the SCU. What I like about this opening is that it’s straight to the point and isn’t overly complicated, on top of that the investigation of similar crimes is already underway, so we don’t need to have the needless exposition scenes. Thus, of course, since its women are being abducted, we have the “let’s pretend to be a couple” episode of Drive.
That’s nice and all, but the real great part of this week’s plot is the sub-plot of Chase getting his driver’s license. Not only does this fit well with his character, wanting to fit in better with human society and all, but it humanise him better for that exact reason. Plus it gives Gou a cute and innocent reason to be annoyed at Chase that has nothing to do with his prejudices. Plus we get a great usage of the noises from the belts and the actors’ comedic timing.
Back to the more serious business of the episode, the Roiimude executives have a meeting where they decide to give Brain his body back and we also find out that 008 is abducting women to gain his evolved form. While all this is happening, we go to a nice little moment where Chase begins his driving test, while Krim confronts Gou over Banno. Krim naturally gets angry over having to work with Banno, however this all comes to a halt since Gen and Rinna, who are perfectly put together to act as a couple, are attacked by 008; on top of that Gou and Chase are attacked by 006 at the driving school.
What I really like about this is that Sanjo is able to weave the comedic sub-plot very well into the more dramatic main plot. He doesn’t make the comedy over stay its welcome and leaves it to when it’s appropriate. On top of that he is able to juggle all of the plot strands without making them feel unnatural or forced. So Shinnosuke finally confronts 008, who reveals himself to be Tornado, and in a nice show of his character, Shinnosuke gets angry at Tornado and continues doing so all the way through the fight because Tornado said that Shinnosuke wouldn’t be able to get a date. I like this since it shows that Shinnosuke isn’t a one-note ‘cool guy’ rider and it also injects a little more character into his fighting. We also get the now weekly cameo from evil Krim.
Meanwhile back at the Driving School, Chase and Gou continue to fight 006’s lackeys. To my surprise, Chase uses his Proto-Drive shift car to Tire Change to Fast. Using his speed he takes out all of the Roiimudes with his Axe, much to Gou’s chagrin. It’s firstly nice to see the gimmick of the show being used in new ways, plus it’s so great seeing Gou and Chase interacting with each other so much. Plus the fight is really well done with the use of the Proto-Speed shift car.
Back at the SCU we get a cute moment where Rinna gets angry over Tornado passing over her and saying she was a “miss”. But all of the comedy is put on the backburner when the crew goes to the Drive pit to find Banno accessing all of the data there. However here, Kiriko finally learns that Banno is her father. So again Sanjo is able to blend comedy into the main plot without dragging it down and easily gets rid of it for the more dramatic and significant plot points. It’s a real shame that he hasn’t been doing this for that past few episodes; maybe it was due to the other plot-of-the-weeks being overly complicated and so not allowing enough screen time for the main plot to flourish. IT’s cases like this week when the two are seamlessly combined that Drive really shines.
Speaking of the plots seamlessly flowing through each other, Banno reveals that he’s found where Tornado is hiding and on the way there Krim, Kiriko and Shinnosuke discuss her parentage and what to do with Banno. So we get to the final fight of the week where Shinnosuke and Gou fight head to head with Heart, who as you may remember is stronger now due to his ultimate evolution, and Tornado. But that is cut short by Banno who rides in on one of the ride boosters, in his tablet for still, mind you, and shoots Shinnosuke off of a cliff. There his belt is stolen by Roiimude 004 and we end with Kiriko being kidnapped by Tornado. This week’s SURPRISE FUTUTRE minisode just has Eiji and Dark Drive preparing to go to the past, but reflecting on this week’s plot, thus further proving that the movie is heavily tied into the canon of the show.
So yeah this week was a great episode. It’s was a really nice mix of comedy and drama as wel las the plot-of-the-week and the main plot of the show. Furthermore it just fits really well into the overall canon of the show and if the show maintains this quality, I can see Drive having a great ending.
