Kamen Rider Drive Ep 6 - "For Whom Does The Warrior Fight?"

Shinnosuke struggles to use Type Wild as he tries to understand his role as a cop, while the SCU stumbles upon an unexpected speed bump.

 

Ok, so from what I can understand from the raw, Rinna was never with the police guy to begin with, but was instead trying to expose something that he had done (can't tell what).

Type wild was cool, but tyres on the shoulder look dafter than as a sash.
Trideron's type wild was cool too, but I long for the day when kamen rider can afford cgi that doesn't look ridiculously fake.

 

CastleDoran in Kiva looked fairly good.

 

Mad Doctor is the first genuinely useful tyre - I hope we don't see it just the once like we did with Fourze's medical switch. On the other hand I'm not sure I want more of Rumble Dump, which is just a poor man's drill switch. Mr Belt's pointless secretiveness is trying to be a running gag but pointing out that it's a stupid thing to do doesn't negate that it's a stupid thing to do and they should just be on the level with Shinnosuke.

Chaser remains the coolest thing about the show and was pretty neat again this episode. Hurricane Yellow's cameo continues and was a nice minor role.

OverTime sub is out. Turns out that [HIDE]police guy was the brother of the company president making the explosives and was trying to cover for him.[/HIDE] I'm still not sure I "get" Rinna. She seems more awkward than the nerdy guy does, even though this episode tried to make her out as a lot more capable. I don't think it's the actress, as she wasn't this awkward in Garo s4. Hopefully it's just one of those "early installment weirdness" things and they sort her out. On the up side, Otta seems to be getting beyond his "deny the existence of things standing right in front of me" shtick.

 

Rinna's story went as I expected, and now I think we'll indeed be seeing the "Gather the allies" plot in Kyoryuger and Fourze. Of the other remaining SCU members, only the Lieutenant could possibly be in on it.

Shinnosuke also made the decision I expected him to make (for me, the right one), though the writer didn't actually put emphasis on protecting the bad guy. Also turns out the problem is just a corrupt cop, so there goes that angle.

Rider has been dropping the ball on action styles lately with a proliferation of nondescript fighting styles. The last time there was a distinct fighting style with different Rider forms was in OOOs. Type Wild has a lot of shoulder rams, but it really doesn't look impressive. They could've at least used a style as visually impressive as Akira Yuki's in Virtua Fighter.

 

The Rinna and dickish cop subplot went exactly how I should have expected it to. Key word there being "should", because I deluded myself into hoping that they're slowly showing themselves as a potentially sinister third party, and dickish cop guy made way too much of a mundane entrance to be a significant character anyway. Ah well. There's plenty more of the show to go.

Well, it's not a bad episode by any means. If you know what to expect, you'll find enjoyment here. I'm just disappointed at how this show feels so run-of-the-mill. It's darted back into comfortable neo-Heisei territory, yet to do anything that really positions itself and stand out. The obligatory moments at the end of a two-parter showing our new villain for the next couple of episodes serve no real purpose when we the show pretty much already airs a preview after the adverts. It's a transparent two-parter format through and through, except with the clause that every first episode has to have at least one generic Cobra/Bat/Spider Roidmuud kick the bucket, while the second episode has to solidly have a resolution for the upgraded Roidmuud of the fortnight. Fortunately for Drive, the format works well enough for the type of show it is. For now.

I'm not "feeling" Machine Chaser. It's a nice idea to have a not-Rider as a recurring villain, but the guy is simply setting himself up to be a distraction time and time again. Even Shin has to make sarcastic quips like Peter Parker whenever he bumps into the guy. Somehow, the show will have to dial back on the number of fights with Drive he participates with, because the two-parter format and the Toei-Bandai law of having the first quarter of a show be flooded with a very generous stream of new toys and power-ups dictate that Chaser will have to lose most of the fights. And unless the plot kicks into another gear (bad pun may have been intended) and either do something substantial with Chase, or reveal the inevitable that he is undoubtedly connected to Proto-Drive in some manner, I'm quickly losing interest in this short-spoken, youthful, Eiji-Hino-gone-bad grim reaper.

 

Shinnosuke: Chief, permission to leave the station.

Jun: For what purpose, Tomari-san?

Shinnosuke: To give the Roidmude back their bomb.

On topic: Drive so far has been enjoyable. While I couldn't help compare to Gaim at the moment since the latter is still fresh in my mind, I still manage to find Drive engaging. Never expected it though since I never a cop drama before.

Type Wild is pretty awesome!!

 

How many Roidmude still left?
even with 1 Roidmude per week, will it be enough time to kill them all in +/- 45 episodes
Talk about not get the feeling, I almost feel it in everyway in Drive.
I mean every idea is awesome but lack of alive feeling.
I love how Tomari throw random joke but just when he is in Drive suit.
Without the mask, it seem he and most cast will burst out laughter any moment before finishing the joke.
For now, only Heart and Chaser is fit in my eyes
If only they make Chaser fighting Style more awesome

 

I don't know how many are left, but those Roidmudes are running out really quickly by my count. I think 5 died this episode, if I understood it correctly.

Which makes me wonder why they made 108 of them in the first place.

On that note, it does seem there'll be a reason why Chase could chase after rogue Roidmudes, as they cannibalize their own. Or just basically kill themselves.

 

The CGI battle in this episode is pretty bad IMO, Chase was also pretty pointless this time. It's that Teppei from Mebius at the end?

 

While Wild was pretty cool, one thing occurs to me. Within the context of the show and not just toys, why does it exist? Yeah, rumble dump works with it and not type speed, and by mentioning that rumble dump is lighter he implies it's a physically stronger form, but we see no evidence of that and there's nothing in the fight that he couldn't have done in Type Speed or using Trideron's normal mode.

So that they didn't need to have a generic footsoldier type I guess. I think it'll slow down as it goes along, as the main MotW have had more time to evolve before encountering Drive and so are stronger.

 

I'm tentatively going with the Speed is the low gear ratio type, while Wild is the high gear ratio type. Speed vs. Torque. Of course, even if it were correct, the show is probably not going to make it important anyway.

 

Wild seemed physically stronger to me. It blocked all of Chaser's attacks with one shoulder and then pinned him against a wall. It's clearly meant to be the power form. I do wish it had used another finisher than just the steering sword though.

 

While I don't think it's as good as 1, 4, and 5 (to a lesser extent), I think 6 was an enjoyable episode I think my main problem was the fact that no one is telling Shinnouske or anyone else anything important that can actually save their lives. I liked the fact that the supporting characters (that isn't Kiriko) were actually relevant, and there was a Drive finisher I actually liked.

 

it was a gooooooooooooood episode, one thing i will say is the finishers aren't that flashy in this episode. but all the supporting cast that isn't or wasn't Kiriko was great and now that we are getting some exposition out the story and some of the pieces are being put into place then drive should be revving up

 

I prefer it if a rider series doesn't go over the top with their specials..... Well, more than they already are. IMO, Drive gave me the worst rider punch I've ever seen.

 

Basically going off from Timeline15, Wild seems to have much more overall power/strength than Type Speed and is much more durable. Shinnosuke was able to take most of Chaser and Crush's attacks when in the last episode they gave Drive a lot more of a hassle in Type Speed. Rumble Dump probably required more raw power to use compared to Type Speed. I think it would be smart to show in future episodes that Wild is a lot slower compared to Speed. Not to mention, I don't think Type Speed could have knocked Crush into a building :sweat:.

Overall, I thought this was another enjoyable episode of Drive and a good conclusion to the arc .

Type Wild's debut was pretty good, managing to defeat Chaser and destroy Crush all in one episode. As far as the suit is concerned, I think it's decent as well as a nice contrast to Type Speed's design, and I like how it makes better use of the tire compared to Type Speed (Though I'm one of the few people whose not bothered by the tire placement on Type Speed). I hope it gets some decent use along with Type Speed before Type Technique shows up, and looking forward to seeing more of it :thumbs:.

I also really want to see what Wild's Finisher is, especially since Drive has so far had some pretty spectacular finishers in my opinion. I'm betting it's another Rider Punch.

I was wondering what was up with the superintendent closing down the SCU until the revelation came that he was corrupt and working with the president. It did put a new perspective on his actions in the last episode that I never took into account :169:.

Some nice Kiriko moments in this episode, from her getting Vegas to Drive in time to save him as well as using the tip from Rinna to pretty much blow the whole case wide open with the help from the rest of the SCU. That plus the last episode showed some nice detective work on her part, I think :coolshades:.

And Otta finally admits that the Roidmudes and Kamen Rider exist. I'm surprised he's come around this early. I wonder if they'll make it a running gag how he never gets to see Drive's full-body ?

The Chief was also pretty cool in this episode, helping get Shinnosuke out of his funk and realize what he fights for as a Kamen Rider all the while still maintaining his affable demeanor. It definitely wouldn't surprise me if he's also aware of Mr. Belt and Drive and is just keeping quiet about it.

Rinna turning out to be Drive's mechanic seemed pretty likely to me by episode 4, and I found her way of putting the SCU on the right track to busting the Superintendent, while also in some ways testing Shinnosuke, to be good character moments for her. Still not quite sure about her character in some ways, and if that constant cheerfulness and nonchalant attitude to most anything is all there is to her character, but hopefully now that she's going to be more a part of the team dynamic that we can see more of that explored. Though she made a very good point about how Shinnosuke is now working with two beauties, the lucky sonovagun :shakefist.

I thought the comedy highlights of the episode were Mad Doctor's use and the subsequent downside of it, the reveal of Rinna as Drive's mechanic, and Shinnosuke's no-reaction to Kiriko deliberately smiling :laugh:.

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneHundredAndEight

 

Ahhh. You learn something new everyday. Thanks.

 

So yeah, not much to add to what's already been said, but I had hoped that the bad cop plot was there to introduce a plot similar to some of the early Heisei shows, with him generally being there to get in the way with what the good guys are trying to do and maybe eventually learning about Kamen Rider and helping them out more. Oh well. Hopefully Rinna and the rest of the team will get a bit more to do now at least.

I still really like Machine Chaser, but he felt completely redundant in this episode, like he was just showing up to fill the quota. We won't forget about him if he's not in every episode, you don't need to use him if there's nothing to do with him. His appearances should be more sporadic, so that we know something's gonna go down when he does show up.