Man have I missed Heart. He was always fantastic and it's a shame that he only got as much screentime as he did in the series proper. Go, on the other hand, is at best an
acquired taste.
Heart: Although Heart coming back was convoluted - and I'm not sure there's any way to avoid that - it's good to have him back. And I'm glad that they brought back Brain and Medic as well, even if it's just as disembodied voices. Along with Shinnouske, it's those two that give him a meaningful connection to the rest of the world.
I don't think the writers quite nailed what business required Heart's return, but I do like the overall plot. He was always the villain (or at best an anti-hero), so it's nice to see him get to be the actual hero for once and do some good for humanity. And he did legitimately grow a bit in the process.
The weak point of this segment is of course Gen. I agree that Heart needed a human foil, but Gen's character is especially grating. The writers made it work, but I would have gladly taken someone else; someone a little more down to earth. The irony is that Gen makes a much better pairing with Rinna, which is why it was painful to see them fighting, even if it was always going to have a happy ending.
Random observations: Heart and Gen's actors ended up having to do a lot of fighting in the mud. I can only imagine how much that sucked, so kudos to them. And Medic's actress, unless I'm mistaken, they were in fact carrying her during that entire fight scene.
Mach: It wasn't until this movie that I really internalized just how much the series crapped all over Go for either humor or emotional turmoil. His father was a monster (and for all practical purposes the Big Bad), he never got a good upgrade of his own, his sister seriously tried dating a killer robot for a while, his powers got copied like they were nothing, his best friend died, and then he died. A lot. (Seriously, how many times has Go died or may as well have died between the series and all of the movies?)
Despite his suffering, I've never liked Go. The writers never did a good job humanizing him in the series. Though to be fair I'm not 100% sure if they were trying. Either way his over-the-top bravado and bull-headed nature made it hard to like him.
Yaiba wrote:I'm glad they chose "family" as the main focus on Mach's story, because that's what has been bothering Go, Kiriko and Chase for a good part of the series.
That's actually a really good observation. I checked the Wiki, and the 2-parter Reiko was in was the episode where we found out that Go's father was Banno. So it's very appropriate that his story ends on a similar note to where it began.
This is one area where I do think there was an opportunity for closure, and as such an opportunity for this movie. Go got closure on the Roidmudes and made peace with what his father did (by making pieces of him!
), but the larger subject of family was never fully addressed at the end of the series. Putting Reiko in this one does seem a bit forced, but I like how it's used as an avenue for humanizing Go (and blatantly calling out how he almost always hides his true self), which is something he needed badly.
Whether he deserves such a convenient happy ending is up for debate, I suppose. But I enjoyed that he got his closure.
Random observations: You know it's serious when Go slugs Shinnouske.
And the stunt team did a good job with the wire-fu on Mach's half
takenoko wrote:Why is Mach's story a weird horror sub plot? Sadly, I don't remember Reiko at all. She seems like a nice enough character, given the information I'm given in the flashbacks, which are appreciated. But why was she in jail again?
She was one of the humans that fused with a Roidmude. A BSOD of sorts for what her father did. Her fall was used to contrast with Go's situation; she became obsessed and couldn't move past what her father did, while that deterred Go from following the same fate. (As an aside, that two-parter was also written by the same writer as the Mach half of the movie)
How does this help him win his daughter? Or is he trying to punish her? It's pretty unclear, since it doesn't seem like he's trying to frame her, she's just doing that to herself.
It doesn't seem like he's trying to frame her, but he's definitely trying to punish her. As we've seen before, her father is an outright psychopath and enjoys hurting people.
Lunagel wrote:holy crap breastfeeding in KR that's a first
That caught me off-guard as well. Which isn't a complaint, I'm just not sure what to make of it. When western writers do it, it's because they're trying to make a point of normalizing what's traditionally seen as an intimate act. But I'm not sure that's the case for Japan?
Actually, I'm not quite sure who these Saga movies are for. Between Chase getting seduced, the breast feeding, and Medic having
entirely too much fun with Heart's body (complete with a penis joke, no less!), it's obviously not aimed at the primary KR toy-buying audience. I guess it's aimed at older, long-term fans? But even then some of this stuff is different enough that I'm not sure that theory fits.
Lunagel wrote:minus one point for coming wayyyyy too after the series to give a crap
Agreed in full. Even without the lag time for translation, the Wiki says this came out after Ex-Aid started; which is to say it came out after the series that followed Drive was already done. I had to go look up half of the stuff involving Go because I've forgotten it in the last year.
I know Toei has a very busy and particular film schedule they want, but these Saga movies should be out before the end of the following series. Ideally we should be seeing the second Saga movie in the second or third quarter of the next series' run. They're just hurting themselves here by waiting for so long.
So long, Drive. It's been a good run.