Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 25 – Why Has a New Battle Begun?

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First Division Chief Nira Mitsuhide pops into the SID to ridicule them for being pointless as well as ask Chief Jun to give Otta back.

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Shinnosuke speaks up and says without the SID, there would be many unsolved cases. Chief Nira knows who Shinnosuke is and says his father helped him a lot in the past. Nira suggests Shinnosuke kisses more butt to ensure his job security after the SID is no more.

Shinnosuke is pissed. But Kiriko doesn’t notice. She is only dreaming thinking of Chase who is currently strolling in the woods still holding Kiriko’s flowers which he eventually crushes in his hand because of his inner-conflict.

Shinnosuke is at his favorite spot in the park as he looks at a picture of him and his father. Gou arrives and says Father looks like a kind person.

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Gou heard about the big boss pestering the SID. Shinnosuke says he wanted to tell Chief Nira that it’s thanks to the SID that he’s made it this far as a Kamen Rider. Belt-san reminds Shinnosuke that they must keep Drive’s identity a secret as they cannot trust the police with this just yet.

Shinnosuke suddenly gets a call about a Gravity Shift. A police transport vehicle has been attacked by Roidmude 007 so he could get his hands on Taga Hajime, a convicted criminal he decides to fuse with using a Neo Viral Core. Hajime is more than willing since he’s going to jail anyway.

007 synchronizes with Taga and they become one as Sword Roidmude. 007 remains in Taga’s chest plate as they use the new power to slice through anything, even a concrete monument.

Shinnosuke and Gou arrive to fight Sword/007/Taga. Kiriko makes sure the police and detectives are alright. Sword/007/Taga manages to run so he can take care of his first victim that he’s already decided on. The other cops and detective marvel at actually seeing a Kamen Rider and monster for the first time.

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But Kiriko sees Chase watching from a nearby rooftop. Kiriko asks Justice Hunter to follow him.

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Heart seems to be at the new selfie museum in the Philippines as he reflects on his diminishing number of friends. Medic interrupts to report on a brand new evolved Roidmude who used a never-before-seen Viral Core. Heart thinks this is an interesting development in their evolution. He wonders if Brain made it, but Medic says no way.

Then that means, “it’s… him?”

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The gang regroups at the Pit, thinking about how to handle this new human-in-Roidmude evolved form. Gou suggests just killing it outright, but the others worry about the human, even if he is a criminal. Drive has been able to strike down Roidmude because they’re just machines. But as a police officer, fighting and passing judgment on a criminal is not Shinnosuke’s job. He just has to arrest them.

Gou decides to just track him with the Signal Bikes then.

Rinna says she can tune the Driver so they can destroy the Roidmude’s body and core, but not harm the human inside. That means she’ll have to tweak around inside Belt-san. But also they need a tissue sample from an enhanced Roidmude. Kiriko thinks. Chase!

Shinnosuke sees it’s time for their daily briefing. He pulls Kiriko with him, but she says she has somewhere to be.

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Shinnosuke goes to the SID alone where the other detectives are watching Chief Jun and Kyu messing around with Kamen Rider masks. The detectives apologize for making fun of Otta for his claims about monsters. Otta says it’s alright.

Chief Nira walks in to collect his men back since there is no reason for them to be in the SID. Plus, if there really are Kamen Whatevers, that’s all the more proof that the SID is not needed.

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Chief Nira senses Shinnosuke fuming inside so he tells him to find the perp themselves then.

Otta joins Shinnosuke and tells him that he’s got his back no matter what. Shinnosuke is happy, but he can’t henshin if Otta is literally with him all the time.

When Otta mentions the perp is a cop killer, Shinnosuke looks at the file and realizes this was the same guy Hayase arrested.

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Shinnosuke calls Hayase at the hospital to warn him about Taga heading over there right now to enact revenge. He tells Hayase to get the entire hospital evacuated, but that’s not possible.

They hurry over.

Meanwhile, Justice Hunter has brought Kiriko to where Chase is still on his walkabout. Kiriko hopes Chase will be able to help her obtain a tissue sample from an enhanced Roidmude.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Kiriko says he is an ally of humanity, but Chase says he’s a Roidmude. He transforms to his Roidmude form. A cry from nearby. It’s Kyu!

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Kyu explains that Shinnosuke asked him to follow her. Kiriko assures Kyu that this Roidmude is on their side. Kyu says he knows all about there sometimes being non-despicable Roidmude.

Kiriko again tries to ask Chase for help, but he knocks her away and henshins.

He aims his gun at them, but instead shoots himself in the chest to leave a sample for her to take. He too is an enhanced Roidmude, after all.

Chase leaves and Kyu is surprised when Kiriko calls Rinna-san about the sample.

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007/Sword/Taga has arrived at the hospital, looking for Hayase. But Taga hasn’t initiated a Gravity Shift because he wants to hear Hayase’s screams in real time.

Hayase comes hobbling out of the hospital and pleads with the Roidmude not to harm anyone else.

Hayase does what he can to fight the Roidmude, but is just kicked around until Shinnosuke and Otta arrive in Tridoron.

Shinnosuke runs over to Hayase and Otta tries to protect them by shooting at Sword. It’s no use.

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Gou arrives and is ready for a Finisher, but Shinnosuke reminds him that there’s a human inside of the Roidmude. That moment of hesitation allows Sword to attack Gou and overpower him.

Shinnosuke wants to henshin, but he doesn’t have the Driver.

Kiriko and Rinna arrive and Rinna has the modified Belt-san. But Belt-san tells her to stop. Otta and Kyu swear they just heard the belt talk and try to pry it out of Rinna’s hands.

Kiriko reminds Shinnosuke he can’t henshin here. He looks around to all the people watching the scene, including Hayase. But Gou is in trouble. Shinnosuke tells Rinna to hurry.

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Rinna tosses Belt-san to Shinnosuke, but Belt-san forbids him to henshin in front of this audience. Shinnosuke asserts that protecting the citizens is his responsibility as a Kamen Rider. And he will not allow Hayase to fall in front of him a second time.

Belt-san understands.

Shinnosuke henshins. Everyone is shocked.

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Shinnosuke fights Sword/007/Taga as Kiriko goes over to help Hayase up on his feet.

Shinnosuke decides to go Formula and then Formula 03. Belt-san confirms the modified finisher is ready thanks to Kiriko’s sample. Shinnosuke trusts Kiriko and downhenshins back to Wild to initiate a Full Throttle Finisher which safely separates Taga from the Roidmude.

Shinnosuke finishes off the Roidmude body, but 007’s Viral Core is still intact. Suddenly, Roidmude 001 appears to catch it.

Belt-san sees.

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Shinnosuke walks over to the real Taga and places handcuffs on him. The people applaud and Shinnosuke de-henshins. Kirkiko finishes taking Taga into custody.

“This is who I am now,” Shinnosuke says to Hayase, “A detective… and a Kamen Rider.” Hayase fist bumps his partner.

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Gou reveals himself to Otta and Kyu as well.

Back at the station, Chief Nira learns of the Kamen Rider’s identity.

Shinnosuke-tachi bring Otta and Kyu to The Pit. They are absolutely amazed.

Even more amazing is Chief Jun popping into the supposedly secret base. Everyone is shocked.

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But Chief Jun says that there is no reason to hide it anymore, “right, Krim-chan?” Belt-san explains that Chief Jun is his biggest supporter. Chief Jun founded the SID in order to hide Drive’s activities from the police force.

Shinnosuke is actually happy he can fight as a Kamen Rider in front of them all. But Chief Jun says not just them, but the whole world. He shows everyone the viral news story of Kamen Rider Drive’s real identity. A story, Chief Jun himself leaked to the media.

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Episode Thoughts

Pretty good episode! I definitely feel much better now after last week’s disappointing ep.

I definitely knew (hoped) Chief Jun actually knew what was going on the entire time. Still doesn’t explain his absences (lol), but maybe they’ll touch on it in the future. The reasoning behind Chief Jun knowing everything and creating the SID just to hide the entire Kamen Rider operation was probably one of the more solid sounding things this season (hehe).

I think they hit on some good emotional points this episode. Maybe could’ve set up Hayase’s involvement in the story (of this episode) a little better. Shinnosuke already mentioned that thing about his responsibility as a Kamen Rider and a cop. But I think they could’ve definitely done more in maybe a 2 episode arc focusing solely on Hayase and that convicted felon as well as touching a little more on the story of Shinnosuke’s dad. Maybe we’ll get to see more in future episodes, but I think it would’ve been nice here to set-up the “big reveal” that Shinnosuke is Drive.

I am definitely still hoping we get more from the villains. Especially with the question of whose human bodies our idol group have copied and used? That’s something I’ve always been confused about, especially with Chase as I thought Chase was an actual person/human whom Belt-san developed Proto Drive for. (As in, Proto Drive was just a Driver and system used like regular human(-ish) people to henshin. And not that Proto Drive was a robot from the beginning.)

Should be interesting. I hope they touch on it in the next episode with the debut of the new and improved maybegoodChase.

Overall, good episode and much better than last week.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 25 – Why Has a New Battle Begun?

  1. Captain Jun secretly knowing about Drive does make a lot of sense. After all, they need some high ranking officer to maintain the cover. I guess that’s why he is constantly hamming it up with the higher ups to maintain the department. And this one actually makes him a competent bastard to set up everything. Now, if we can only get a bit more seriousness out of the guy.

    I really don’t like how they introduced the “neo viral core” plot though. It just sort of happened out of nowhere in this episode without any real foreshadowing from the previous eps. Hayase’s participation in this part was interesting, though, again marred by the way they handled the episode.

    And with Shinosuke’s backstory, I guess that shoots down the “shinosuke is aa roimude” theory, since we get to see a picture of him in his younger days. Unless, of course, if this one suddenly veers off to “the real Shinosuke is dead all along, and this Shinosuke is a roimude using his memories” type of twist.

    1. Now that you mention it, that possibly story with Shinnosuke could be similar to the storyline of the Red Ranger in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive! Spoiler alert! He finds out he’s an android created by his father complete with artificial memories and photoshopped pictures around the house! What if Belt-san is Shinnosuke’s real dad?! lol That would be crazy!

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