Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 47 – Who Will You Entrust the Future to, My Friend? + Season Thoughts

Drive 47

Shinnosuke henshins and is prepared to go Overdrive to fight off Sigma. Heart joins in and it’s a free-for-all between the three. Sigma unleashes an attack and Shinnosuke asks Heart to lend him some power. He throws Shinnosuke at Sigma which stops the bombardment.

That allows Shinnosuke to initiate an ALL Tire Mix Finisher. And with Heart, they are finally able to defeat Sigma Circular.

Huge explosion. But the Global Freeze is over and everyone is back to normal.

“Well done, Shinnosuke,” Belt-san says.

Drive 47

But Shinnosuke just smiles and falls back and out of the building.

He lands in a Kamen Rider Ghost promo before waking up in reality.

It is still raining as Shinnosuke wakes up on the ground below the SSDC. It was Heart who saved him.

Heart says Banno’s ambition was so inelegant. The Roidmude were supposed to be become like humans and then surpass them. Shinnosuke says the Roidmude already have.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke extends his hand to Heart, but he swats it away and gets up himself. Now that he is the only one left, it’s time to settle the score. Heart punches Shinnosuke in the face.

Drive 47

Back in the SSDC basement, Otta and Rinna have found Gou and think he’s dead. But he tells them their shaking is going to kill him first.

Kiriko arrives at Promised Land and finds Belt-san by himself on the floor. He tells her about Shinnosuke falling out the building.

Heart throws Shinnosuke around, but Shinnosuke does not fight back. He asks Heart to stop, saying that after all that’s happened, he has learned the only true evil is amongst humans. And that is Banno.

The Roidmude were simply programmed with humanity’s worst emotions. They were victims too. “So what are you trying to say?!” Heart says as he shoves Shinnosuke to the ground.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke says now that they’ve learned that, he is sure humans and Roidmude can get along. Plus he doesn’t want to lose Heart like he did Chase.

“You are too naive!” Heart says as he prepares a finisher. Kiriko arrives and tosses Belt-san at Shinnosuke. But Shinnosuke does not henshin. Heart charges toward him, but can’t deliver the final blow.

Drive 47

Heart has a big wound on his chest and Shinnosuke says he knew Heart was fatally wounded from the spikes earlier. Belt-san realizes Heart’s Viral Core has been damaged.

“Why?!” Kiriko asks. Shinnosuke proclaims that Heart wanted to die fighting him as soon as he found out he was dying anyway.

“With this, we are extinct,” Heart says, “Tomari Shinnosuke… At least, will you remember… that a new lifeform called ‘Roidmude’ once existed on this planet?”

Drive 47

Shinnosuke falls to the ground. “Of course. No way I could forget.”

“Thank you. At the very end, I actually made a friend. The first… human…”

Heart disintegrates, including his Viral Core.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke proclaims the Roidmude have been exterminated. He and Kiriko salute.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke and Kiriko head over to the Temp SID where everyone is waiting, safe and sound.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke wonders where Belt-san is. Gou says Belt-san went to repair the broken Drivers. But Shinnosuke shifts into top gear.

They all head to The Pit where they find Belt-san and all the Shift Cars with Tridoron. Suddenly, a force field appears.

Drive 47

The others are shocked, but Shinnosuke calmly says it’s alright and that it’s time for them to part ways.

Belt-san had all this planned from the beginning. Chief Jun explains that Belt-san is putting himself and all the Drive equipment to sleep in the bowels of the Earth. Shinnosuke figured that Belt-san would do this once the battle was over. Belt-san once said humanity is not yet ready for the Core Drivia.

Belt-san says farewell to the SID and thanks them for their service. He tells Gou to hold his head up high and confidently move forward.

Drive 47

Belt-san projects his Krim self and thanks Shinnosuke for understanding his feelings now. He is happy that he and Shinnosuke have made for a formidable combi this whole time. Shinnosuke agrees they’re quite a pair. But Krim says not as much as Shinnosuke and Kiriko are.

Krim tells Kiriko to look after Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke hands Krim the Drive Driver.

“Until the day humanity is capable of using my inventions righteously!”

Belt-san and the Drive equipment descend into the bowels of the Earth, locked up until the next Movie Wars.

Drive 47

A few days later, Chief Jun, Rinna and Kyu are packing up their things at the SID. Otta is a little upset he never even had a desk at the SID for him to clean up now. They all tease each other.

They first wonder how Gou is doing.

Drive 47

Gou is walking down a rural road. He apologizes to Krim for not handing over Chase’s Signal Bike. But he hopes to find a way to revive the 000 Core someday.

Suddenly, Professor Harley pops up in his bike and side car. He says he’s here to pick Gou up. “Kiriko is not your only family, understand?” Professor Harley gets Gou to smile.

Drive 47

“People who care about me are all family,” Gou says. He tells Harley hakase that he’ll drive because Harley is too scary on the road.

Otta wonders where Shinnosuke is. Kyu says Shinnosuke doesn’t seem to want to clean out his desk, but Rinna says Kiriko has gone to get him. Chief Jun says Shinnosuke will come as his luck is superb today, according to his horoscope.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are driving along in his brand new, non-Tridoron car. She feeds him some candy, but he says he still can’t shift into gear today. He feels a hole in his heart, somehow. Kiriko says she too has thought about all that’s happened. But they must overcome it and keep moving forward.

Suddenly, they are being pulled over by a cop who says the car matches the description of a stolen vehicle. He asks for Shinnosuke’s license.

Shinnosuke shows them his license and hands over his badge. The cop understands he’s an officer, but he must still check everything over.

Drive 47

The cop takes his sunglasses off and reveals a familiar face.

Drive 47

Shinnosuke and Kiriko are surprised. But also amused. They definitely see where Chase got his personality from.

Drive 47

The cop returns and apologizes for the inconvenience since everything checks out. Shinnosuke asks his name.

Kano Kouichi of the Traffic Unit.

“You don’t have any friends, do you?” Shinnosuke asks.
“How did you know that?!”

Shinnosuke says he’ll be Kouichi’s friend and hopes they’ll meet again next time. Kouichi doesn’t understand and says he doesn’t need any friends.

Kouichi drives off.

Shinnosuke says it’s time to go to the SID and properly say goodbye to everyone.

“The future is waiting for us. Belt-san, Chase and Heart have entrusted the it to us. And we won’t reach it unless we run at full throttle!”

Shinnosuke turns to Kiriko.

Drive 47

“There’s one thing I’ve been meaning to tell you, Kiriko. Your smile is the best.”
“Thanks!”

Drive 47

And with that, Shinnosuke and Kiriko drive off to the future.

Drive 47

We learn what the SID is up to after the events of Drive. Chief Jun was promoted to Deputy Commissioner and takes care of difficult missions. Rinna won a Nobel Prize in physics. Otta was promoted to Captain and then Chief of the First Division. Kyu became bestselling author. Gou’s nature and wildlife photos from traveling the world earned him acclaim.

Shinnosuke and Kiriko get married and have a son. 😉

Episode Thoughts

So why in the hell did they squeeze in some Ghost promo when the next episode is all about Ghost anyway? Come on now! lol

Anyway, it’s the last episode of Drive and of course there’s more regrets to be had.

In addition to Heart inexplicably still wanting to fight Shinnosuke after everything they’d already been through, that final moment between them and becoming friends and all just didn’t have enough depth to it. It’s not like Shinnosuke and Heart were at odds and bitter rivals the entire season, save for maybe three episodes.

Sentai does those Red Ranger vs Rival storylines much better because usually the villain rival and the Red Ranger (or whichever color of the team that season) have some sort of connection or common past or are literally opposites of each other. Shinnosuke and Heart really didn’t have any of that. If they did, then that final scene with Heart would’ve been another amazing moment. But like the other idols, Drive didn’t want to focus on the Roidmude earning their human emotions or humanity. Heart was the most compassionate of the idols, wanting them all to be good friends and comrades. Heart slowly becoming Shinnosuke’s friend was basically told in passing instead of it being a major part of his character and the overall Roidmude plot.

Plus, they did it better with Chase and that wasn’t done as well as it could have been in the first place.

Banno was the most evil human evah, Shinnosuke says. But he didn’t even exist for half the series.

During the epilogue segment of the episode, I was shocked that I completely forgot Professor Harley even existed. Where was he when Banno returned and run amok across Japan? Wasn’t he Krim’s mentor or something? He couldn’t help when they needed him? But he gave Rinna formulas for the Trailer. The show could’ve easily worked him into the story as well to fill out Banno as a character.

Speaking of that epilogue, I knew it was going to be Taiko Katono as that final cop. I was actually really amused by it. But at the same time it’s like they only just remembered Chase’s human form was supposed to be copied from an actual person, so they just tacked this on at the end. They never even touched on the idea that Chase’s human even existed. Though I now realize they never thought to look for Heart, Brain or Medic’s humans either until they suddenly popped up when the show needed to give some weight to their eventual deaths the next episode.

Belt-san going into hibernation in the center of the Earth is just “What?”

Shinnosuke and Kiriko driving off in the end was alright.

The 2nd Global Freeze was such a non-event. I think they could’ve at least made it more exciting if people became data and stayed as data for an entire episode or two. Throw in Chief Jun, Kyu, Rinna and Otta and have Shinnosuke, Gou, Kiriko, Chase, etc. some of the only humans left fighting to the death to save their friends and the rest of the world. The humans just simply reappeared after Sigma gave up. So that ended up being very anticlimactic.

Season Thoughts

And I guess that’s all because of all the ball dropping all season long. So much wasted potential. I mean, I can’t say the season was outright bad. Because I did have fun and enjoyed random things as long as I ignored the lack of story development.

But knowing they dropped the ball on a whole number of things that could’ve been awesome just makes me feel sad.

Going back and looking at the other Kamen Rider finales I’ve watched so far (OOO to Gaim), this was the first finale where I didn’t cry one bit. There were plenty of MaGMCMs in the other finales: Kengo’s letter and the final confrontation with Gamou in Fourze, Mitchi hating himself in Gaim, the gang all in battle, dead Koyomi and Sora’s demise on Wizard, just to name a few.

But I didn’t feel any of the waterworks here, even though plenty of moments should have made me cry: Brain, Medic, Chase and Heart’s deaths for example. I think I felt more emotional watching the minisodes and commercials for Surprise Future than for the actual series.

Part of the lack of emotional connection I guess is the lack of development and push for the bonds the SID had. They were a fun, wacky group. But you compare it to the bonds between Haruto and the gang or the Kamen Rider Club or Eiji, Hina and Ankh and of course Kota, Mai and Mitchi, Drive was nowhere near. It didn’t help that the final battle was only between Shinnosuke, Heart and a flying thing while everyone else was frozen.

But I think part of it is also there not really being a huge threat here on Drive. That goes with the lack of endgame or focus from the villains, whether the idols or Banno. If they didn’t want to do some big apocalyptic ending, then developing the idols’ road to humanity and how Shinnosuke and Co. would help them could’ve been just as successful an ending as some epic battle.

There was really just no sense of direction during the season. They would go one way before going another and then turning and restarting and all over. A lot of different moving parts that just never came together.

So overall, while I like the characters and while there were lots of fun moments, I will most remember Drive for the wasted potential and the awesomeness that could have been. =(

5 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 47 – Who Will You Entrust the Future to, My Friend? + Season Thoughts

  1. You pretty much nailed my opinion about the series.

    But here is another plot point that I really found so half-hearted: Krim’s whole “I must leave now because human are not yet ready for my inventions/my tech is really dangerous” stick. The thing is, the series never even bothered to show us the danger of the Core Driviar tech. Heck, it never even bothered show us how beneficial it would become if used. Banno’s roimude tech was, narratively, far more dangerous, though the show also never even bothered to give the audience an idea of how the roimudes could have benefitted mankind.

    The thing is, if you want that twist to have more impact, then you need to give the audience something to weigh on. I can contrast this with how enetron was used as a plot point in Go-Busters. Enertron was shown to be beneficial (the heroes’ city practically runs on it), but it also proved dangerous enough in that it can be used to destroy that city. The same can also be said when it comes to Gaim’s Lockseeds and drivers (giving Takatora a valid reason for destroying them). But in Drive, the tech just wasn’t given that focus, giving Krim’s last twist a lot less impact than it should have.

    1. Exactly! There just wasn’t any sort of danger or threat from anything really other than Banno who was simply a maniac. I feel like Krim locking himself up was just to provide an emotional goodbye moment with that whole salute and stuff. Oh well. And isn’t he going to pop up against this week anyway? lol

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