Kamen Rider Drive Ep. 12: Where did the white Kamen Rider come from?

Considering how powerful Medic is, she might be the first one to be killed off before **** goes down for real. Taking out to the support first is a basic strategy.

Especially when she can recover Roimudes before they're killed completely by Shinnosuke & Gou. Which gives them an advantage, until the Riders can come up with one of their own.
 
If you rewatch the scene, you can see the blank stage when Gou is driving up to it and then "Amazing Circus" starts ..."throwing up" all the spotlights, banners, fireworks, etc...
Dammit amazing circus, I don't like you either.

Look if the shift cars can create roads out of thin air I think we can accept them doing practically anything.

Hey, like in TQG tracks are tracks. So here I thought roads were roads. Evidently not. I must have blinked or something, not sure how I missed it.
 
I guess I'm weird because I really like this episode, I enjoyed how Mach was used to play with the shows pre existing formula and while I'm not that into his suit design I thought that the fight was fine, but then again i'm not really worried about most of the concerns that people have brought up. And Mach's wire fu will never be as silly as PR's so whatevs.
 
Well, I thought this episode was a bit of a step down from the quality of the last few episodes and the Volt trilogy in general. That said, I didn't find it that bad or unenjoyable, and certainly not enough to get me to drop the show. Granted, I've been enjoying Drive from the beginning and have a higher tolerance for the things most people would usually dislike a Rider show for, so it's not like I was on the edge of dropping it :sweat:.

Though I think we've had stronger second Rider debuts, I can't say I dislike Mach at the moment and overall I say Gou's debut both as a character and a Rider was relatively decent. I'm usually not a fan of arrogant and aloof Second Riders, especially when they act like jerks because of it and steal the thunder from the main Rider, but I tolerate it as one of the common archetypes of Second Riders (at least in the Heisei era). Now, if Gou doesn't get any character development or become a more proper hero and continues acting like this then I'll probably have an issue :redface2:.

But as for Gou in general, he's definitely a showman and from his interactions with Shinnosuke appears quite competitive. Which aren't necessarily bad traits, it's just how he goes about it that makes him come off as more of a jerk than a real hero. But it does make for a fun entrance and fight for this episode at least. There's also a lot of story potential in the fact that he's Kiriko's brother and seems to value her opinion or wants to impress her, and the possible conflict that may occur as she takes issue with his personality and sides more with Shinnosuke. And at the very least, Gou's english isn't half bad :laugh:.

And it looks like poor Shinnosuke lost one of his own Shift Cars to Gou's side! Though going off of Gunman's comment about "Japan's Kamen Rider," maybe he previously fought Mach in America who was assisted by Midnight Circus?

In general, I really like Mach's design and think his belt looks alright. I also quite like that he can pop off his helmet or mask, and the steam that comes on afterwards, which was pretty cool. I thought his fight with Gunman was decent, and it was interesting to see that his Signal Bikes each give a different type of shot to his gun. And that bike :buttrock:!

Admittedly, there were some weird things in the episode that took me out of it. Like Gou swiping away Shinnosuke's thought pictures and the random zipline that popped up for Mach during his fight with Gunman. The former in particular, because exaggerated as Drive's comedy is, it doesn't usually break the fourth wall so blatantly :shakefist.

It was nice to see Otta get a somewhat central focus, even if it did mostly come at his expense. He's one of the few members of the police force outside the SCU to not only experience Slowdown but to have actually legitimately seen a Roidmude in the flesh. So of course he's more willing to believe that Roidmudes are behind things than his colleagues who're still relatively ignorant to the threat at large. At least Otta was right, to a certain extent, about the case and got to finish his wildly inaccurate sketch of Kamen Rider. And somehow survive a fall during Slowdown instead of Drive just saving him :eyebrow:.

So Medic is not only healing Heart from his injuries caused during his last fight with Drive, but is also capable of reviving destroyed Roidmudes. Obviously, anyone who dislikes the two-episode format and how monsters constantly find ways to survive into the second part will be annoyed at her role, but I'm honestly very intrigued to see how the Riders will deal with the fact that she can just nullify all their efforts by absorbing fallen Roidmudes. Medic also seems to know Mr. Belt's human identity, which further implies that she's one of the original three Roidmudes who rebelled. And now she's got Brain agitated for some reason, possibly because of how close she is to Heart and how much the latter values her...in no small part because she can revive his brothers, which is something Heart would obviously value :169:.

Huh. So Gunman has a brother...who looks and acts nothing like him from that one glimpse of him :P.
 
So SCU is not really official unit to take care Slowdown Case but more like voluntarily unit.
No wonder they have many weirdos in their unit. And actually they already make it clear when Justice Hunter debut episode. I should pay more attention at that time.

Gou in this episode is better than Shinnosuke in his 12 episodes. Minus his wire-fu though.
 
I honestly don't know how to feel... I'm flabbergasted by this episode... just...what the heck happened?!

I mean I like the design of Mach. The helmet, the showa styling (and sound effects!), and the whole Evel Knievel theme going on with his showman styling... but it's just... did we really need another goofy character? Did we really need him to randomly antagonise Shinnosuke? Did we really need to keep the 'swiping thoughts' away gag going for SO LONG?!

I just... I don't know. Maybe after we've seen more of him next ep I'll like him more but so far...

So far this sucks. It just completely destroyed the positive momentum Drive had in the Volt Trilogy. Even with the cool Gunman Roidmude. And Medic is already annoying.
 
I guess I'm weird because I really like this episode, I enjoyed how Mach was used to play with the shows pre existing formula and while I'm not that into his suit design I thought that the fight was fine, but then again i'm not really worried about most of the concerns that people have brought up. And Mach's wire fu will never be as silly as PR's so whatevs.
It's the secondary Rider's job to shake things up a bit. If they turned up and nothing changed then there would be no point to having them. I think it's just that the way he's "shaking things up" appears to be more or less the same way that a lot of previous secondary Riders have before. As a lot of us on here have seen a lot of previous Rider shows and so seen a lot of his predecessors, we'd have preferred that they did something different. It's our endless quest for novelty in a genre largely based on repetition. :sweat:
It took me a while to figure out what Mach's belt was even supposed to be and I still don't really get what they were going for.
I think they're almost going for a Zector-ish kinda vibe, what with the opening and closing and the button on top. I think the whole tipping open to load a bike idea better suits a gun changer myself. And while the flipping feature of the shift cars is very much a token gimmick, it was odd that the shift bikes don't seem to feature anything at all. They're just little bikes with a plastic rectangle on the side for the Driver to 'read'.
Considering how powerful Medic is, she might be the first one to be killed off before **** goes down for real. Taking out to the support first is a basic strategy.
Lots of people seem to dislike Medic. I get that the ballet thing is a somewhat forced attempt to make her seem somehow detached from the world around her. But I'm guessing that Medic has to be there at the moment of a Roidmude's death in order to snatch them back from the jaws of oblivion. She can't just rock up ten minutes later and resurrect it. That means every MotW battle is now a race. Drive has to kill it before Medic arrives at the scene, with Chase and Mach both running interference for their respective sides.
 
I guess I'm weird because I really like this episode, I enjoyed how Mach was used to play with the shows pre existing formula and while I'm not that into his suit design I thought that the fight was fine, but then again i'm not really worried about most of the concerns that people have brought up. And Mach's wire fu will never be as silly as PR's so whatevs.

You're not alone.

So SCU is not really official unit to take care Slowdown Case but more like voluntarily unit.
No wonder they have many weirdos in their unit. And actually they already make it clear when Justice Hunter debut episode. I should pay more attention at that time.

Gou in this episode is better than Shinnosuke in his 12 episodes. Minus his wire-fu though.

Yeah, they're pariahs. Probably kicked out from elsewhere in the police.
 
........I find it hilarious Amazing Circus just shows up and literally only Mr. Belt cares, and only for a few seconds.

Also, I'm guessing Caitsith's brother is yet another type of Roidmude that Brain hates - the rowdy yet evolved ones.










Anyway

I think they're almost going for a Zector-ish kinda vibe, what with the opening and closing and the button on top.

The thing in my mind when I see the belt in action, is Sengoku Driver. The way Gou pushes the button on the top using his fist, is exactly the same with how some characters in Gaim "Lock On" their Lockseed, and the way the bike slot enter the Driver, is similar to the knife cutting a Lockseed.

I honestly don't know how to feel... I'm flabbergasted by this episode... just...what the heck happened?!

I mean I like the design of Mach. The helmet, the showa styling (and sound effects!), and the whole Evel Knievel theme going on with his showman styling... but it's just... did we really need another goofy character? Did we really need him to randomly antagonize Shinnosuke? Did we really need to keep the 'swiping thoughts' away gag going for SO LONG?!

I just... I don't know. Maybe after we've seen more of him next ep I'll like him more but so far...

So far this sucks. It just completely destroyed the positive momentum Drive had in the Volt Trilogy. Even with the cool Gunman Roidmude.

This.

I'm with anyone who says this episode's main point (Gou's debut) is just one massive disappointment.

Seriously, Drive is great for 11 episodes.....then Gou shows up with a debut that is more annoying than Nitou in all of his episodes.

Especially the "breaking the fourth wall" part. As much as I like seeing Tomari running around literally picking up his thoughts, the way Gou did it is just way too annoying and isn't funny at all, if it's even supposed to be funny.

Mach's suit is great.....too bad the human wearing the Driver is a complete opposite.

I hope they tone down the way too overly over the top act later on.






And oh, the opening of the episode with Otta being laughed at, is also annoying.

I really want to see the look on those police's faces when they are actually being attacked by Roidmudes using Slowdown.
 
You're not alone.



Yeah, they're pariahs. Probably kicked out from elsewhere in the police.

nah, they said SCU is originally a driving school and this fact actually once spoken by chief in Justice Hunter debut episode.
At first I thought they are bunch of failure who gathered to make new unit but actually they are who make it themselves.
They are too weird and it turn out it is never their profesional field at all. I wonder why they are voluntarily doing that.
Well, someone like Rinna, Tomari and Kiriko is probably get assigned because Belt is pulling out some string.
Maybe Chief and dollguy is part of Belt team too after all.
 

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