Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 36 – Where Will the Bullet Guide Justice?

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Nira and Brain admit that this was all a trap. They’ve set it up so Nira will have shot Shinnosuke dead in self-defense. That way, they will be able to destroy Shinnosuke’s reputation as a hero of justice.

Shinnosuke says he will not try to shoot Nira, but will let the law deal with him. Brain and Nira fuse together one more time and Shinnosuke henshins directly to Formula.

Brain stops Shinnosuke and shows him live video of Yukari writing on the ground. Brain explains that he infected her with a deadly poison when he grabbed her arm earlier and she will die in 45 minutes.

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Heart and Gou are still fighting. Heart knocks the tablet out of Gou’s hands and decides Gou is not the person who will bring him to his Ultimate Evolution. He sends a blast at Gou, forcing him to dehenshin.

When Heart goes to pick-up the tablet, it opens and Banno zaps his, causing him to pass out.

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Meanwhile, the Proto Drive Shift Car has led Chase to Yukari. He shoves the paramedics out of the way and tries to use Mad Doctor to save her, but it doesn’t work. He decides to take her on his bike and they drive off.

Brain tells Shinnosuke this was part of his plan too. Now Chase will be a kidnapper and a murderer. And the best part, Brain can kill Yukari anytime he wants, even before the time is up. So Shinnosuke can do nothing but follow orders.

Belt-san calls Brain the devil. Brain decides to grab him and take all the Shift Cars into a sack, causing Shinnosuke to dehenshin.

Brain separates from Nira and happily skips off with 30 minutes left to death.

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Medic gets Heart to wake up. Gou and the tablet are gone. But even worse, Heart has realized Banno’s true power.

Gou thanks his father, but Banno asks what to do about Krim. “I feel he does not like me very much.”

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Gou watches the news coverage of Brain as Noumi running out of the Department of Motor Vehicles and relaying Shinnosuke’s supposed demand of releasing the SID or he’ll kill Nira. Plus, Yukari was kidnapped by an accomplice.

That’s when Chase arrives with Yukari.

“We’re not buddies, but… help me.”

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Brain heads into the tent and sets up his live feeds.

Gou holds Banno up to Yukari and the tablet floats above her. Strings of data or something come out of the tablet and wrap around her arm.

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Chase and Gou argue, but Banno tells them to believe in his power.

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Back at the SID, Shinnosuke asks Nira if he has any honor as a policeman. He says Shinnosuke is the same as his useless, naive and stupid father. Nira mocks him and taps him in the face with his fan.

Shinnosuke remembers his father telling him about the great responsibility of police officers to protect the people to the very end.

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Nira continues laughing at Shinnosuke until he snaps at him and tells him not to insult his father. Nira is happy that Shinnosuke is finally angry and tells him to pull his gun out. Either way, Yukari will die.

“You lost to me… same as your father.”

Nira says he chose Yukari because if she dies, then Papa Tomari’s sacrifice will have been for nothing.

“In short, your father died like a dog.”

Nira starts barking at him.

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Shinnosuke reaches for his gun. Brain is *thisclose* to climaxing, but the computer goes out.

Shinnosuke starts laughing. He says even as a Kamen Rider, he must laugh at how helpless he is in this situation.

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“If I were able to pass through dimensions now… I’d be able to save my friends.”

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Nira asks if these are Shinnosuke’s last words. Yes they are. Shinnosuke takes his gun and aims at Nira.

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Brain has his live feeds back and watches. There are 10 seconds left until everyone dies.

Nira tells Shinnosuke to shoot him. He laughs as time has expired and Yukari is dead by now. The girl Papa Tomari died to save.

Nira laughs at the Tomari men. Shinnosuke yells at him to shut up. A gunshot.

Shinnosuke shoots, but misses Nira’s face. But this is also part of the plan since he wore a bulletproof vest. Now it’s time for Nira to shoot Shinnosuke. And he does.

Shinnosuke is thrown back to the wall and falls to the floor.

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Later, Nira and Brain are holding a press conference to detail what has happened. They continue to paint Shinnosuke and the SID as murderers.

But Kiriko suddenly walks into the conference room and declares everything Nira has said is a lie. And the proof walks into the room: Yukari is alive and well. She says she wasn’t kidnapped, she was saved by the Kamen Riders.

Brain stands up and says that’s impossible because his poison should have killed her!

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Shinnosuke, Chase and Gou also walk in. Brain and Nira are shocked Shinnosuke is still alive.

Shinnosuke explains that he saw a message from Yukari, Gou and Chase saying she was safe.

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That’s why Shinnosuke laughed.

Brain says that’s impossible with the poison created in his evolved form. But Gou flashes the tablet. Brain understands.

Banno had sucked Yukari into the tablet and spit her back out, good as new.

As for the gunshot, Shinnosuke talking about dimensions earlier signaled Belt-san to send Dimension Cab to pop out of the sack and into Shinnosuke’s hand. He held Dimension Cab in front of him and allowed the bullet to pass through.

And it’s a good thing too, because the bullet used today is from the same gun used to kill Papa Tomari in The Incident.

Brain laughs. There’s only one thing left to do now. They fuse together.

Shinnosuke, Gou and Chase all henshin together.

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Gou and Chase take care of the low-level Roidmude while Shinnosuke focuses on NiraBrain. He uses a Rumble Dump, Spin Mixer and Rolling Gravity tire mix.

Shinnosuke separates Nira from Brain. Nira crawls to Brain and asks him to help since they’re friends.

But Brain says he has no more use for Nira after already reaching Ultimate Evolution.

Brain is confident in taking on all three Riders together. But Belt-san asks Shinnosuke to switch drivers and he speeds toward Brain, knocking him around. Gou and Chase land some hits as Shinnosuke takes over.

The three of them unleash a finisher one after the other and Brain is ravaged.

Brain’s body explodes, only leaving his viral core which flies away.

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Shinnosuke places Nira under arrest. The detectives take Nira away, but Nira lets out one more laugh.

“It’s not over yet!” he says. He is looking forward to seeing who between the Kamen Riders and the Roidmude will win in the end.

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Brain moves along the road, crying, when Medic picks him up. She says she’ll fix him up real good.

Heart, meanwhile, is resolved to stop Banno.

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Episode Thoughts

And finally, Nira comes to an end.

What I liked most this episode was Nira just being a complete asshole and mocking Shinnosuke and his father. And that is mainly because we’ve rarely ever seen any strong emotion from Shinnosuke. It was refreshing and if Nira’s whole arc was just for that and to bring about a situation to reveal Banno’s so-called “power,” then it at least wasn’t a total waste.

But they definitely could’ve done a lot more with Nira and Papa Tomari. Another missed opportunity for Drive I guess.

I did enjoy Gou and Chase being the bickering couple though. The non-buddies. I think I would’ve preferred their “rivalry” be some fun love-hate relationship and “Don’t date my sister” kind of thing instead of what we got so far. But oh well.

I’m happy Brain is still alive. And definitely happy to see that preview at the end signaling the beginning of the final arc. I hope we finally get some big stuff so the season can end strong.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 36 – Where Will the Bullet Guide Justice?

  1. I did enjoy Gou and Chase being the bickering couple though. The non-buddies. I think I would’ve preferred their “rivalry” be some fun love-hate relationship and “Don’t date my sister” kind of thing instead of what we got so far. But oh well.

    They seem to have dropped the Chase x Kiriko ship the moment Chase got his Mach Driver. And from the looks of the summer movie previews, they will shift to (or shoehorn) a Shinosuke x Kiriko. This really disappoints me, as the Chase x Kiriko/Chase-Gou rivalry was one of the more interesting bits. No offense to Shinosuke fans, but I still find his character lacking, he really would have worked more, if we have seen more of his relationship with his dad. And now that that’s ended, I am not sure where they would take his character from here.

    1. True. There’s definitely a lot more between Gou/Kiriko/Chase. With Shinnosuke and Kiriko, they teased it a few times early on but dropped it as soon as she started fawning over Chase. As always, the romance angle is always shoehorned in, especially at the end for some reason.

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