REVIEW: Drive 43
Remember last week when I said Drive was a pretty forward thinking and progressive show which was treating its female characters better than usual? Yeah I’m wrong. Completely wrong. This week just proved to me that despite some innovative ways in how women are presented, the show still falls into some trope-y traps and ignores some potentially interesting and fascinating stories because of it.
So for a nice change of pace we start with the SCU finally getting recognised for all their work by being offered ,by the new defence secretary, a new headquarters and being praised for their tech being able to take down unevolved Roiimudes. Again I love how Drive is taking its premise and running with it to its logical extent by having the world and characters react realistically to the events of the show. It’s in all honesty a welcome change in the plotting of Kamen Rider which usually just restricts the plot to its core events without any world building or reaction from the world. But this deliberate plotting is all thrown out the window for a love triangle plot point! Yay! So following from last week, Chase discusses with Shinnosuke their feelings for Kirkio. With Shinnosuke being Shinnosuke, he of course over reacts in a hilariously over the top manner. But from this interaction he realises that he does indeed have feelings for Kiriko. Now I have nothing against romances in shows, sometimes they really push a plot; but here it feels really forced and contrived. Shinnosuke really never seemed to have any feelings for Kiriko throughout the show and introducing it this late in the show feels really forced and contrived. The two don’t really need to be in a relationship of any kind, I’m happy with them just being friends. On top of that Chase is thrown into the mix, thus making it an ugly mess of a triangle. Personally I’d be happy with Chase and Kiriko because those they seem to have the best chemistry and seem to fit better.
But back to the serious stuff again, we cut to the Roiimude executives where we see that Heart is unwillingly working with Banno because a) they have the same goal in the end and more importantly b) he wants to protect and free Medic from Banno. There is a great moment where Heart flashes back to when Banno tortured him, but he ignores it so as to protect Medic. Now this is great, having our initial antagonists becoming more sympathetic, but still going towards their goals and so preventing an unnatural face turn. But at the same time, to do this we got a really one dimensional villain in Banno. Like I understand how we have to have a greater evil in the show and everything, but he seems almost too evil and single minded. But hey it’s a kid’s show, what should I expect?
And so Medic, still brainwashed, finds Brain and starts attacking him so as she can bring him back and start the second Global Freeze. This leads to a quick fight between the two Roiimudes and the Kamen Riders, where they learn of what is happening with Brain. Armed with that knowledge and that Banno needs four ultimate evolved Roiimudes, the SCU resolve to protect Brain; but they can’t right away since Rinna is coating the transformation Shift Cars and Signal Bikes along with the Trailer Cannon so as Banno cannot steal them in a fight.
So while our heroes wait around for their devices to be ready, Chase talks to Gou about being in love with his sister, which Gou again being Gou, very rudely rejects and chews out Chase over. Now Chase takes this to heart and believes that because he is a Roiimude Kiriko will not accept his love, which could really lead to some interesting developments later on since Chase is feeling more and more distant due to being a Roiimude. Now I don’t think he’s gonna become evil, but it could end with him sacrificing himself as he finds that nobody will accept him, thus leading to some really interesting drama.
Shinnosuke on the other hand has been spending his down time chatting with Mr. Belt about his feelings for Kirkio. It’s actually a really sweet scene since from it Mr. Belt really feels like he has a family and is happy to see Shinnosuke talk to him so earnestly. I do like their friendship, but there is definitely not enough of it; hopefully it will lead somewhere later on down the line, but with the deluge of characters I don’t think it will. Meanwhile-r Brain tries to find a location with powerful enough computers to analyse Medic’s code so he can free her and the only place he can find is the Central Intelligence Agency’s office, where it turns out the person Brain copied worked at during the Global Freeze. Here we get a bit of Brain’s backstory and also learn that it was he who coined the name Kamen Rider in Drive’s universe, which is a nice little touch.
However he’s attacked by Banno and evil Krim which leads to Shinnosuke being sent to save him. There he, and the audience, learn that surprise surpise, evil Krim is in fact Roiimude 004 and is a corrupted copy of Krim Steinbelt, thus throwing the canon of Surprise Future into god knows where. We get a short fight between Shinnosuke and Banno which is stopped by Heart jumping in the way of Shinnosuke’s attack to protect Banno so as Medic can also be protected. And so we end with the building all this was happening blowing up and Kirkio needing to be saved… again.
Now going into this week I really thought that we were gonna get more of a Brain focused arc, but we really didn’t. His turn in the spotlight was instead taken over by a silly romance sub plot that really doesn’t do anything for anyone. Yet again the inconsequential plot of the week gets in the way of the more interesting main plot; But I do admit that it does lead to one or two interesting scenes/ideas. However Surprise Future’s placement is now really confusing and god knows what is gonna happen to Kiriko. I just hope she gets treated better from now on.
