Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 38 – Why Does the Devil Still Seek Evolution?

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As Kiriko finds Belt-san in the forest, Heart finds Shinnosuke.

Heart tells Shinnosuke to relax since they’re both injured and Heart has no interest in fighting him unhenshined. Shinnosuke vows to stop Heart from hurting humans.

But Heart says his only goal is to face his human creators face to face and rule over them. If they destroy humans, they can’t show their strength to anyone. Plus there are interesting humans like Shinnosuke.

Shinnosuke asks if there’s any way to accomplish that goal without fighting. But Heart says no as they evolve through battle. Isn’t that the same for humans? Heart says he will surpass humans.

Shinnosuke says like Chase, Heart is strange. He can’t see them as simple villains. Heart says he never had any intention of wrongdoing.

Heart senses Medic nearby and bids Shinnosuke farewell until their next battle.

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When Medic approaches him, Heart just walks past.

Rinna updates Chief Jun on Shinnosuke’s condition and they go over the details of the case so far. They conclude that one of the three restaurant employees is the Roidmude culprit, but which one?

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Down in the Pit, Shinnosuke bandages himself up as Belt-san approaches. He says he felt the same way after being separated from Shinnosuke as that night with Proto Drive and is relieved Shinnosuke is okay.

Downtown, Medic sulks as she reaches a cafe and remembers a sweetly romantic moment with her Heart-sama. If only that damn reaper had evolved.

Shinnosuke brings Kiriko some food as she stakes out Supreme. Chase and Otta (in a tree) are also watching the restaurant.

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Sure enough, the Roidmude has made their move. Cook has just finished another bottle of secret sauce and runs. But Shinnosuke in Type Formula stops him from running off.

They fight before Shinnosuke goes Type Wild and manages to separate the Roidmude from… Okumura. Shinnosuke goes after the Roidmude, but Okumura begs him not to kill her. Turns out the Roidmude is sous chef Asukawa. Apprentice Itagaki arrives.

Okumura tells Shinnosuke not to hurt her since she helped him reach ultimate taste evolution. Itagaki tries to get Okumura to come to his senses, but he fuses with her again to bring back Cook.

Cook shoots at Itagaki, but Chase knocks him out of the way and chases after the Roidmude.

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Chase henshins, but Cook is now accompanied by Medic and two reapers. While Shinnosuke and Chase deal with the reapers, Cook hands Medic the secret sauce.

Medic gives Cook some extra power and joins in the fight.

Gou is with Banno as they watch. Gou wants to help, but Banno says it is too risky.

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Gou jumps in anyway and faces Medic. He henshins to Dead Heat and he and Medic fight.

The battle is transferred to the quarry where they take care of the two reapers and Shinnosuke’s big cannon destroys Cook aka 090. Shinnosuke places Okumura under arrest.

Medic is on the ground screaming. The bottle has broken and the secret sauce is everywhere, no of no use to her. She laments losing the secret sauce she had wanted for her Heart-sama.

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She flashes back to the cafe date where Heart says humans are lucky that they can find joy in anything.

Medic says she only wanted to give Heart his ultimate evolution, his happiness. And now she can never have Heart’s heart.

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While Medic wails in agony, Gou borrows Max Flare so he can deliver a Full Throttle finisher on her. But Shinnosuke blocks Gou.

Belt-san tells Shinnosuke that if they destroy Medic, then the Roidmude will have lost the ability to revive. Shinnosuke says “Even the Roidmude can love and care for each other. Knowing that, I want to at least make it a fair fight. Just like Heart did.”

Belt-san says he understands Shinnosuke’s feelings, but Heart and Medic are nothing like Chase.

Heart appears and says they are. They’re no different from humans either.

Heart blows everyone up to allow himself to come down from the cliff and approach Medic.

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Medic begs for forgiveness and hopes that she can die by his hands instead. She closes her eyes and gets ready to die, but Heart hugs her instead and everything turns into a fuzzy glow.

Heart says there are only 108 Roidmude. Even if they can control the humans and produce viral cores, they can never reproduce. He’s happy that she worked for his sake, but not at the expense of their friends and comrades.

Medic promises to never disobey him ever again.

Medic walks away and Heart turns his attention to Shinnosuke. He is grateful for Shinnosuke’s honor as a warrior. Shinnosuke says he only returned the favor. But if Heart continues to threaten humans, then he must fight and defeat him.

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Heart understands. In fact, this has reminded him that Shinnosuke is indeed his greatest foe. Finding that joy once again, Heart reaches his Ultimate Evolution.

Heart explodes over everyone, but they disappear.

Medic happily runs over to Heart.

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The Promised Number of Ultimate Evolutions is four. Two down, two to go.

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Shinnosuke, Gou, Chase and Okumura are safely away from ground zero. But how?

Banno, that’s how.

“I ended up saving you after all. What do you think, Krim?”

Meanwhile, up on a nearby cliff, a black clothed man watches and laughs.

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This black clothed man… is Krim?!

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An urgent message appears from one Tomari Eiji. Shinnosuke’s son! From the future!

It is 2035 and he is trying to send a warning. He runs from Roidmude and sees a public address from Krim Steinbelt announcing that Kamen Rider Drive is not justice, but a pawn for his own ambitions. Therefore, everyone must to bow to the Roidmude.

Episode Thoughts

Hmm… the plot of the movie sounds much more interesting than the overall plot of the series itself. They probably could’ve maneuvered the movie’s plot into a better 2nd half of the season.

But whatever.

Like most of this season, this whole Heart-Medic stuff feels so half-baked. Like, you can’t really feel much emotion for them when they’re so paper thin in the first place.

Shinnosuke really loves cockblocking Gou. When he stops Gou from killing Medic and says “Even the Roidmude can love,” I’m all “Who cares?! WTF are you talking about?”

I know it’s partly (completely?) because the show doesn’t want Rider-on-human violence. But still, from a pure story standpoint, it’s just so hollow. Just like Heart’s “I won’t fight you unhenshined” comes off as just mere convenience instead of being part of a well rounded, full character.

Heart wants to surpass humans. Umm… sure. Okay.

It was both great and sad to see Gou doing his roll call again. It was great because it’s been so long. Sad because it is a reminder of how the show completely ruined his character for, as we know now, no reason at all.

I read my weekly thoughts and see I’m almost hostile towards the show (lol), but I don’t really hate it. I still enjoy it at least and it can be fun overall. It’s not like Power Rangers Megaforce which was such a huge pile of crap that it actually angered me. lol

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Drive, Episode 38 – Why Does the Devil Still Seek Evolution?

  1. Tsk, we’re supposed to be in the final arc, but this one feels like we’re still in the middle part. This episode really feels like it should have been the proper followup to the Roimude 072 arc, instead of the long-winded Makage arc we got.

    The only real joy I got here was seeing Gou do the henshin roll call again.

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