KR Drive 44 released

[takenoko]

Wiki: http://wiki.tvnihon.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Drive_44

Oh man, I'm sad to see Brain go. He's genuinely one of my favorite characters in this series.

Poor Chase. Maybe you should have asked Kiriko if she liked you instead of whether she liked Tomari.

So this is unrequited love. T_T

[Go-On Macaroni]

Y'know, for a guy who made a whole ordeal (back in the Kitchen arc) about how Medic and maybe other Roidmude dudes like Heart and co. should survive and whatnot, Tomari sure sat there like a bum while she and Brain were being tortured.

[Yaiba]

Banno is such a 2-dimension villain that I find it hard to invest emotion in him, not even hatred. I just can't feel anything about him.

Other than that, everything else is good
- Brain's sacrifice is sad and heart breaking. Them making use of Brain always saying 3 adjectives, and not being able to finish this time, really drives it home
- Shinnosuke freaks out trying to visit Kiriko, and Chase's little chat with Kiriko is funny
- The cosplay Kamen Rider Mach suit just makes me rofl

[JujinSan]

Banno is completely insane. He is a 1 dimensional villain that had no arc. Brain's sacrifice on the other hand was heart breaking (pun not intended) but ended up being cheapened by Banno's insanity. Also, apparently the "Promised Number" was nothing but a giant red herring that meant nothing.

[VerusMaya II]

Noooooooo Chaaaase nooooooo nooooo my baby I'll love youuuu Chaaaaseeeee

Oh... Brain though... Come back...

[Lunagel]

We're never going to find out what the Dead Zone is, are we?

Banno is such a boring villain, I can't get invested in his evil plan because he's so bland and I bet he eats puppies.

I like how the Promised Number is only 4 out of 108. So the other 96% are essentially, totally useless.

[takenoko]

Is it anything? I think it's just what they call their berserker condition. It's not a literal place.

[Lunagel]

Well we'll never know now, will we?!

[takenoko]

/me sends luna to the phantom zone

[Kamen Rider Raven]

Sometimes, all you need in a villian is someone who's just absolutely batshit insane. Banno fits that quite nicely. One dimensional he may be, I still want the heroes to wipe the floor with him.

Though am I the only one who was sitting there going "Medic! Can't you freaking heal Brain???"

And Chase.....oh Chase..you heartbroken badass.

[TsubasaGaro]

Hey, we never got to see what the inside of the Dark Nebula or how it worked, really, it doesn't matter. Many things aren't explained in Toku sometimes and we just live with that.

While Banno has nothing much in the department of character development, he does what a final villain should do, make everyone hate him. With Heart at least we could relate or feel sympathy but Banno is just that one guy everyone hates together and I think that alone is pretty good. Not in terms of character though.

[ViRGE]

Today on Days of our Drives:

Shinnouske loves Kiriko
Kiriko loves Shinnouske
Chase loves everyone (he's a lover, not a fighter)

Brain loves Heart
Heart loves Medic
And Banno just loves himself!

I am hopeful that spending time showing the development of the PikoPiko means that when the second Global Freeze happens (and it will) that we'll get to see the police and Special Cases department running around like badasses. However at the rate Banno is killing Roidmude, there won't be any Roidmude left to do his bidding, and it's going to be hard to actually control the world as one person. What's our Roidmude count down to now, 11 or so?

Meanwhile the whole lakefront scene was real hit and miss. They spent entirely too much time with characters standing around yelling in pain, or lying on the ground yelling in pain, or crawling towards someone (while yelling in pain). I get they were going for drama, but it also meant that not a whole heck of a lot happened. In fact between this and the limited utility of the comedy bits, there was a surprising lack of stuff happening in an episode where a main enemy died.

In any case, now Banno has 3 Riders and 2 Ultimate Roidmude all wanting him dead. I almost wish this episode just cut there rather than at the trap that will obviously fail.

Sometimes, all you need in a villian is someone who's just absolutely batshit insane. Banno fits that quite nicely. One dimensional he may be, I still want the heroes to wipe the floor with him.

True, but I also agree that perhaps it's possible to go too far, and with Banno they've done just that. He has no interesting backstory, he's just a constant evil presence. The villains continue to be the weak point of this show, though the Roidmude have admittedly been getting better since Banno showed up.

Though am I the only one who was sitting there going "Medic! Can't you freaking heal Brain???"

If his core wasn't given ten-thousand volts straight across the digits, sure. But this was a true sacrifice.

Though now I am left to wonder why Banno really needed to rid himself of Medic. it seems like he can destroy their cores at will. It's not as if Medic can do anything about that. So a Roidmude revolt was never in the cards.

Is it anything? I think it's just what they call their berserker condition. It's not a literal place.

Agreed. Though the whole concept was still poorly explained and may have very well been a dropped plot point.

[darkmage02]

Am I the only one who cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, seem to appreciate the sense of comedy in Drive? The series as a whole has a lot of potential to be really good but now at episode 44, just a few more from the finale, I must say I'm really really disappointed with how the writers handle Drive.

Take this episode for example. Brain's sacrifice. The rage of the Riders against Banno. The man's pure insanity rather than just evil. These gave me goosebumps. But then I have to be reminded of the Special Case Department's antics who episode after episode never fails to disgust me. I'm not at all against comedy; I love how Den-O/W/Fourze handled theirs but the one in Drive is just blatantly bad. Ridiculous and unfunny at every turn. Ironically, they're funny when they're not trying that hard.

Then there's Shinnosuke. I thought after Wizard they did learn their lesson on boring, uninteresting lead Rider. But nope. Here's Shinnosuke, who, throughout the course of the series, only grows from being laid back to being focus all the time. THAT'S. ALL. He suffered from really bad character development; he was already an ace officer to begin with, being Drive just sets him back to that. The only redeeming point is his relationship with Belt-san, and even that isn't as well played as it should be. Chase, on the other hand, is developed way better than Shinnosuke and is actually a lot more interesting. As for Go... I don't even want to go there (pun unintended). He's just annoying and bad. Nuff said.

I have to give credit though, that the Roimudes are getting much more interesting of late, especially Heart who's now sort of the tragic villain figure of the series. I feel for him, and will hate for him to suffer the same fate as Kiba Yuji from Faiz. But from the way the story goes, it's kind of inevitable for him...

What could've been a terrific series ended up being often misdirected and lost in all the unnecessary noises of bad jokes.

Alas, feel free to disagree with me but I just feel that I have to pen this out tonight. Brain's sacrifice really teared me up and I wish every episode was as good as that half of episode 44.

[Weather]

Banno may be simple villain, but he is simple villain to the extreme, he embraces his 1 character trait, and goes to full with it, and that is realyy entertaining to watch. Especially when everyone is bout to literally murder him in this ep >D.

Farewell Brain, i am so glad you didn't ended up like Itsuro Takuma/Centipede Orphnoch, you had moments when you were getting close to it, but you didn't fall to this pit of lameness, you instead climbed to the height of a funny, lovable character, thank you Brain, you will be remembered as one of the best KR villains.

Sooo yeaaah the love triangle, while i realyy enjoyed Chase speech here's the thing....I don't buy Shinnosuke love for Kiriko....He just talked himself into it becos Chase asked him bout that, cos realyy.....You see Shin and Kiriko reactions, way too similiar but she does feel for Chase.... SHin-niisan you goof.

As for comedy, i don't realyy mind it. Yeah, joeks were pretty voer the top considerign what was happening in the ep but....It was way before serious stuff, so i gone throu jokes, and then we got serious stuff, so it didn't bothered me.

Overall: Banno is fun cliche baddie, love triangle is bs, and as long as we won't break to jokes in the middle of serious, and keep it seperated, i'm fine.

[Alessar]

I thought the Brain might actually utter a confession for Heart there at the end but I guess the title of the episode pretty much said it all.

Poor Chase, I'm almost surprised he didn't just tell Kiriko that she and Tomari feel the same way about each other. It's too bad he didn't realize what was going on a little earlier and at least make an attempt to be sweet with her. Still, Rider Tight Pants will live in all of our hearts forever.

I'm disappointed that number four got destroyed, I was hoping that Krim would jump into that body and sort of resurrect. Then again if he wanted an android body I guess he could build one still.

I'm not surprised though that four bit it, or that there needed to be four evolved ones, because the number four is symbolic of death to the Japanese. It's actually a trope (and I won't link it on TV tropes to be kind) "Four equals death."