Kamen Rider Drive Ep. 13

[~Lucifer~]

This episode make me like Gou a little bit more. He's not as annoying as last episode.

He got his own style to do his job and I honestly find his to more interesting. Nice, that they are bringing up the fact that they are using the same kind of power the enemy use to fight them. Shinnosuke wondered why Drive and the enemy power's was similar during the second episode if I remember right.

We get to know a little bit about who created the Mach Driver aka the Next System. It is meant to surpass Drive System but I doubt that. It seems to also have some drawback that is not yet clear. Mach and Mashin Chaser henshin sequence are so similar, I wonder if they are related somehow. Not to mention the bike combining and all.

The Danger Signal Bike is just strange and awkward.

Mach have to shoot down the Roidmudo's core instead of them blowing up on their own.

There seems to more about Gou than we see.

Just my gues but maybe the Next system's drawback has already took effect on him. Maybe he is actually sick and counting days that's why he's rushing all. The fact that he don't want to live with Kiriko make me suspicious of him.

 

[Artisan]

This whole two-parter is a tragedy.

There are ways to bring in an outsider character who is insanely good at the whole crime-solving business without actively going your way to make the police look as inept and batshit as they are. Take the start of the previous episode with the whole room laughing at Otta. He's proposing that a monster was behind this crime and he's mercilessly laughed at for it. Why? Your city has just witnessed several monster attacks as seen by a myriad of witnesses. Why is it that ludicrous for someone to raise the possibility that there could be something inhuman about the crime? Why, when the internet and smartphones exist, has no one managed to catch and distribute a single picture of a Roidmude or Kamen Rider until Gou comes along? If you really want to emphasise that Gou has far more flexibility and no visible boundaries to be held back by, unlike the members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, then have the latter glued to their seats by bureaucracy or something, I dunno.

The "mystery" naturally suffers. I've air quotes around that word, because there is no genuine mystery in this two-parter. There's no opportunity to be invested in this case, because we instantly know that Gou is going to solve it all, and we're simply following it through the perspective of Shin, who sadly only has a band of gormless idiots as support. As Shin is a wee bit slow on the case for most of it, so is the viewer. All the exposition comes in bulk towards the second half of the episode, and answers questions that the viewer never even yet had the chance to ask. I mean, I know that's the point of this two-parter. I know Gou is already supposed to be two steps before the finishing line while the rest of us are ambling along a mile behind, but it makes the villains absolutely superfluous, and absolutely uninteresting. In addition, why was he putting his life on the line like that? If all you do to reveal the special ability of that Roidmude is to shoot at it enough times, why not transform? At least it would minimalise risk to himself AND to his sister.

How to ruin a Rider 101. Now, I like Gou here more than I did previously. Last episode he was just an insufferable, smug bastard. This episode, I can at least see where he's coming from, and I do like his snarky response to Shin pertaining to the fact that Rider powers are generally based off of the villains'. I'm sure he'll be a fine character down the line, so surprisingly, he's not my main issue with Mach. No, Mach's problem is that its merchandise and powers are terrible. That belt looks terrible. The voice is terrible. The Signal Bikes look terrible. The Danger Signal Bike power is stupid (NO ONE watches Toku for this anime/video game-looking ****). Changing Signal Bikes just so you can do a curve shot to take down a number core before Medic arrives seems needlessly clunky. What a shame. Aside from the silly signal wheel on his right shoulder, Mach is one of the best suit designs I have seen in a while.

Sorry, Clint Eastwood Roidmude. You could have been cool in a much better two-parter story.

Addendum: Oh, Kiriko. What are they doing to you. You're becoming increasingly the butt of jokes. >.>

 

[Hangyakuno]

Pit become more lively after Gou arrival. Even as a joke, atleast Kiriko still better than Rinna.
What's with her? Are she really like Tomari or just feel lonely?
Gou is completely overshadowing Tomari, at Pit, SCU office, cafetaria, everywhere and even in battle. That Signal Bike Danger really remind me to Beast's summoning monster, but more dangerous.

 

[Skiks]

Pit become more lively after Gou arrival. Even as a joke, atleast Kiriko still better than Rinna.
What's with her? Are she really like Tomari or just feel lonely?

It's a cultural thing that's played as a joke. The older female coworker feels jealousy over the younger one potentially hooking up with someone while she's still single iirc. She doesn't particularly have feelings for Tomari but is jealous Kiriko might find love in the workplace.

 

[Artisan]

Just to nitpick, I find it funny that the American professor who built the Mach system seems to be voiced by a Japanese male who lacks fluency in English. Assuming they don't plan on having this guy physically appear, they could have simply had Chris Peppler play his part as well, and digitally edit the voice to mask it. Like I said, it's a nitpick, but the guy is meant to be American, so it was just jarring and an odd decision.

 

[kuroihikari]

The "mystery" naturally suffers. I've air quotes around that word, because there is no genuine mystery in this two-parter.

Actually there is. Admittedly, I thought at first reveal of the second Roidmude that it was a huge cop-out, that it came out of nowhere, but then afterwards, it made it all better. I didn't see the solution Gou devised coming. I've seen so many detective shows in my life that in a lot of cases, who done it was not the biggest mystery. Often, it was how it was done and how it was solved.

I really liked this episode, in that it fleshes out Gou a lot more than I would expect from a single episode. From an uncontrollable prankster in the previous one, we find out quite a few things about him:
1. He's a little brother who's trying to get out of his big sister's shadow, but still feels like he has to do something for her.
2. He is sacrificing something big to be able to use the Mach Driver. The "more and more" line, combined with the idea that he used the Driver prematurely, sounds like he's running out of time.
3. His liveliness is a response to both these issues. We've seen him in this episode act calm and rational, so clearly he's not all ADHD.

I love the "brakes" analogy, and how Shinnosuke comes into the idea really quickly and on his own. This is standard buddy cop fare, except they're not cops. The gungho one, and the laid back one.

The Kiriko-Shinnosuke moments in this episode were standard Sanjo romcom tease. The preview shots for this and for the previous episodes make me feel like there's a love triangle incoming, but maybe that's just me watching too much k-dramas.

Oh, and 18.51% Roidmudes down in the 25% mark of the series.

 

[Actar]

Well, the exaggerated acting, camera work and effects are par for the course now, so there's really no need to comment on it any more. But Go's random acrobatics and the romance teasing was quite unnecessary, in my opinion.

So... Shinnosuke doesn't like it when Mach used the Slow Down on other humans because it "makes them no better than Roymudes". Disregarding the fact that the harmless effects of the Slow Down would make their jobs easier and has the potential to reduce the harm that is done to humans. (Heck, it was thanks to the Slow Down that the lieutenant guy was saved from a fall a few episodes back...)

Also, did they really run out of budget for their Slow Down effect? Go and Kiriko's attempt at slow-motion acting was really painful to watch, not to mention confusing as hell.

 

[Dark Kabuto]

Finally caught up with the show. Right now, I'm kind of luke warm on this new Rider.

Mach doesn't really do anything to impress me all that much, though it is cool that the Signal Bikes change the powers of his weapon, that seems a little more practical than Drive's powers. As for Gou himself? He's obnoxious as hell. While he's contrasts Shinnosuke well, he's just another goofball in a cast where goofballs are overabundant...and Drive doesn't really need any more silliness.

 

[Toku Prime]

I thought Mach was a lot more likeable this time around. They've got over that 'purposefully dickish' attitude he had last episode and that so many other secondary Riders have had. Yeah, he's going to be goofy, but the show is already goofy (sentient toy cars!). Now that I've gotten over how we're not getting something 'new', I've already taken to him more than I ever did to Meteor or Beast.

So... Shinnosuke doesn't like it when Mach used the Slow Down on other humans because it "makes them no better than Roymudes". Disregarding the fact that the harmless effects of the Slow Down would make their jobs easier and has the potential to reduce the harm that is done to humans. (Heck, it was thanks to the Slow Down that the lieutenant guy was saved from a fall a few episodes back...)

Shinnosuke is the guy who accidentally put his friend in a wheelchair while experiencing Slowdown. Of course he's going to be against people being subjected to it.

Also, did they really run out of budget for their Slow Down effect? Go and Kiriko's attempt at slow-motion acting was really painful to watch, not to mention confusing as hell.

Yeah that was confusing. I thought he was faking or something given that we didn't see the effect. It just seemed so unlikely that he wouldn't have any signal bikes on him to stop the slowdown affecting him.

 

[Wing Saber]

The idea that Gou uses the Heaviness against humans could wind up giving both Drive & Mach a bad reputation, especially since Shinnosuke's friend is stuck in the hospital because of the Global Freeze.