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So, let's talk some Kamen Rider Drive, since its last major episode aired today. I'll try to keep this as spoiler-free as I can, but fair warning I may mention something spoiler-y. So overall, I think the quality of the story is about on the same level as Double's; while this may seem awesome for Drive, I don't think it'll be remembered quite as fondly as Double. Double came in as a breath of fresh air after Decade, while Drive plays out more as a return to form after Gaim, for all its faults, at least attempted to shake things up. So I overall enjoyed Drive; it's not my favorite of the post-Decade Riders, (that is still OOO) but I think the show accomplished most of what it set out to do.
On a similar note: I've been thinking about why Kiriko couldn't stay transformed as Drive the one time we saw her try, but obviously Shinousuke can; bear with me, this is a little fanwank-y. Basically, we know that Kiriko was really troubled by her experiences with the soon-to-be Paint Roidmude during the Global Freeze; that was an experience that we were shown haunted her over a year after that incident. Since Drive's transformations are connected to the user's emotional states, it's quite possible that Kiriko, deep in her mind, didn't want to be digitized again. So, the Drive Driver (still a stupid name) picked up on that and cancelled the transformation. However, this still doesn't totally explain Shinousuke, who was haunted by seeing his partner seriously injured. Well, we at least know through the show that Shinousuke never wanted to be in a position where he couldn't help people again, so his mental state would be attuned to accepting the various Drive transformations. However that just puts Shinousuke and Kiriko where they are at the start of Drive. After the Paint episodes, I am convinced that Kiriko could have become Drive, but she decided not to because she saw how much Shinousuke changed after becoming Drive. She was able to move on; Shinousuke was still in the past, and needed that same chance to move on.
On a similar note: I've been thinking about why Kiriko couldn't stay transformed as Drive the one time we saw her try, but obviously Shinousuke can; bear with me, this is a little fanwank-y. Basically, we know that Kiriko was really troubled by her experiences with the soon-to-be Paint Roidmude during the Global Freeze; that was an experience that we were shown haunted her over a year after that incident. Since Drive's transformations are connected to the user's emotional states, it's quite possible that Kiriko, deep in her mind, didn't want to be digitized again. So, the Drive Driver (still a stupid name) picked up on that and cancelled the transformation. However, this still doesn't totally explain Shinousuke, who was haunted by seeing his partner seriously injured. Well, we at least know through the show that Shinousuke never wanted to be in a position where he couldn't help people again, so his mental state would be attuned to accepting the various Drive transformations. However that just puts Shinousuke and Kiriko where they are at the start of Drive. After the Paint episodes, I am convinced that Kiriko could have become Drive, but she decided not to because she saw how much Shinousuke changed after becoming Drive. She was able to move on; Shinousuke was still in the past, and needed that same chance to move on.
