Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 24 – What Drives Mach?

Drive 24

Brain is dripping some of his juice on 091’s core. Medic offers to kill 091 for him, but Brain notes that this “useless” one that Medic speaks of destroyed a Kamen Rider’s belt. Brain is sure 091 will be of great use to Heart.

Meanwhile, Kiriko visits her secret patient who wakes up and grabs her arm. “You saved me…” Chase says to Kiriko has he struggles to move. She tells him not to overexert himself.

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He says he tried to kill them all, but Kiriko says even so, she still believes in him. He saved her once, after all. She assures him that she hasn’t told anyone about him yet.

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Over at the Pit, Rinna has repaired Gou’s Driver and it is as good as new. But Gou is disappointed. No power ups or new Signal Bikes? He tells Rinna he must get stronger. He kneels and bows to her for moar.

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Takurou is surprised to see Shinnosuke waiting for him outside school. Shinnosuke notes the difference in Takurou’s now-bored face from the excited face he had while being interrogated. Takurou asks Shinnosuke to mind his own business.

Takurou walks away. At a bus stop, he gets a text alerting of a bomb at this very location that will explode… RIGHT NOW.

Shinnosuke hears the explosion and runs over to Takurou whom he immediately suspects.

Takurou insists it wasn’t him and he runs off into a nearby alley. A Gravity Shift occurs and 091 Shoot appears. 091 morphs into a copy of Takurou who is shocked to see he is still alive.

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091 reminds Takurou that they came together to provide the thrills Takurou was looking for. And Takurou can’t back out now. Not until he dies.

Takurou keeps running and gets another text. Another bomb is about go off… right where he’s standing now. But Shinnosuke jumps in to knock him out of the way.

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Meanwhile, Gou finds 091/Shoot. The Roidmude mocks Gou who quickly henshins to Dead Heat.

Gou gives it all he’s got, but 091 manages to shoot some kind of poison into him to allow him time to get away.

Kiriko arrives just in time with Mad Doctor to help get the poison out of him.

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Shinnosuke has brought Takurou back to the SID where he and Otta listen to his explanation. Takurou just wanted to spice up his life by pulling a few pranks. He sent the first bomb threat to his school, but never wanted it to actually blow up. That’s when he met the Roidmude who copied him.

Kiriko hurries into the SID and tells Shinnosuke about 091 still being alive. He asks if Gou is okay since he’s been acting a little strange lately. Kiriko says not to worry, she’ll have a talk with him.

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Belt-san approaches Gou and asks what’s wrong. Kiriko listens from the door.

Gou points out how the Roidmudes are getting stronger and how Drive has been able to improve to keep up as well. But him? He’s just gotten left behind. He needs to get stronger too, he says, especially since Mach is the newest, latest system, after all.

Belt-san says it is his impatience that is hindering his growth. The Drive System has a close relationship with the wearer’s feelings. Mach is the same, which is why Gou was chosen for it.

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“Return to the basics. If you can see what you’ve missed, Mach can still grow.”

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Back at the SID, Chief Jun arrives and handcuffs Takurou to him. He’s ready to bring him to headquarters himself. (He wants to score some points with the new First Division chief of course.)

Suddenly, Kyu sees there’s been another bomb threat. This time the bomb is… on Takurou!!!

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They have 15 minutes. Shinnosuke runs out. Otta leaves to evacuate people. Kyu runs out as well. That leaves Chief Jun and Takurou alone with a bomb.

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Kiriko finds Gou on the rooftop. She tells him that she believes in him. Ever since they were kids, he was always full of confidence, unlike her. She reminds him of when he first lost a karate match.

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She tried comforting him and told him he had to get stronger. But Gou said he’d be fine since he was already strong. Next match, Gou won, no problem.

“It was partly due to your unsubstantiated confidence that we were able to go on after Mother died. I’m sorry for being such a useless older sister. But that’s why I believe in you. I worry, of course, but I believe in you more than anyone!”

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Gou feels the sentiment. He thanks his neechan. Shinnosuke pops out of the shadows. They henshin to Formula and Dead Heat.

Chief Jun and Takurou are freaking out as the deadline nears. 091 Shoot initiates a Gravity Shift and Colorful Commercial gives Gou and Shinnosuke the location.

Gou speeds off first and is able to block 091 Shoot’s missile. They fight, but 091 again attacks with a poison. Shinnosuke arrives, but Belt-san tells him not to help Gou just yet.

Gou picks himself up and manages to toss 091 aside. He realizes he does not need to be in a rush to get stronger. Because he’s already strong!

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Gou goes Burst and uses Sudden Dead Heat, which expels the poison from his body. He also seems find with the system at full capacity. Belt-san says what Gou wasn’t seeing was the feeling of believing in yourself. Confidence!

Gou goes all out against the Roidmude, no problem. Belt-san says Shinnosuke shouldn’t fall behind either. Shinnosuke goes Formula 03.

Shinnosuke and Gou trade barbs as they work together to finish off 091 at Full Throttle. This time, the viral core really is destroyed.

Brain watches from a nearby rooftop.

Medic, hanging on Heart’s arm, mocks him. But Heart says Brain actually did do something useful. He has just witnessed how someone was able to overcome the Dead Zone.

Back at the SID, Takurou bows before Otta accompanies him out. But Chief Jun has some words for him. Once Takurou has reflected on his crimes and repented, he should come visit Chief Jun. “I’ll take care of you.”

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Kyu explains to Shinnosuke that the two of them formed a bond while they were facing death together.

Meanwhile, down in the Pit, Gou tells Rinna he won’t be needing any more power-ups because he’s already strong.

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Kiriko apologizes for her little brother jerking her around. Indeed, Rinna already created another Driver for her to study with. Oh well.

Later that night, Chase has apparently neatly folded the sheets of his bed in the scary abandoned hospital before leaving.

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He takes with him a few of the flowers Kiriko brought.

Episode Thoughts

So Gou’s doubting himself and demanding Rinna create more upgrades for him was all just so she could create another Driver? (One guess as to how that Driver will be used in the future. *wink*wink*)

It really was a pretty disappointing arc, if you could call it that, for Gou. They undid everything they introduced him with to give him story to get him to where they introduced him. Um… okay.

At the very (very) least, it was good to see that little scene of Kiriko and Gou being siblings. But after she says that she believes in him more than anyone, I wanted Gou to ask her “ORLY? Even more than Chase?” But that will hopefully be a plotpoint later when Chase fully recovers. lol

Because of the strange direction they took Gou these last couple of episodes, this episode was just meh. I will, however, say that this was a creative way of explaining while secondary riders never get power-ups. (lol) If only it wasn’t at the expense of jerking Gou around for no reason.

5 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 24 – What Drives Mach?

  1. I really like little backstory of Gou’s and Kiriko’s relationship. But, yeah, if this is where Gou’s character arc closes, it’s pretty disappointing after all that build up.

    Another thing that is really starting to frustrate me is the “case of the week” part. They are starting to disappoint on their earlier promise. I’ve already mentioned how they have become less interesting, but another big disappointment here is that these cases don’t seem to build into something bigger for the plot. We’re halfway in and I still have no idea of what the roimudes are supposed to gain with each interaction with humans. Only the arc with roimude 072 really delivered on thatpart. The others are simply MOTW episodes that serve to trim down the number of roimudes (in that regard, the series really doesn’t give a clue as to what the roimude idol group is to gain for the deaths of their comrades).

      1. They did mention earlier in the series about the roimudes supposedly gaining emotion, but again, only 072 really has that story. I really wish they have gotten a lot deeper here.

  2. I fangirled over this episode because well confession time I’m a huge shipper of Chase and Kiriko and I also like the sibling relationship and now you brought up Gou asking Kiriko that she believes in him more then Chase I’m now wanting that to happen and I cant wait for episode 26. Kamen Rider Chaser!! My wish came true!!

    1. I’m excited about Kamen Rider Chaser. And I definitely hope they explore the triangle of Shinnosuke-Kiriko-Chase. That would be a nice, refreshing change to the usually dropped romance angles, right?

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