Okay so I was looking into what I can blog about for today as I had decided to atleast put up one blog post a day. And then this topic came into mind: Kamen Rider Drive. Kamen Rider Drive's one of my favorite Kamen Rider TV series. In fact, my second-favorite. Why? Because of the middle portion of the series.
Let me be clear: I do not hate Kamen Rider Drive. It's got a cool motif, great character progression, great story. But the middle portion, atleast in my own opinion, sucked. But let's just go through what exactly sucked about it, shall we?
The image above. On the right is Kamen Rider Drive Type Formula and on the left is Mashin Chaser a.k.a Chase's second suit. Make no mistake, it's relevant here. Well to be specific, it's about the existence of Type Formula and Chase's character progression.
First up, Type Formula, and let me be blunt about it: It was a total waste of time. They had a bullshit story about the need for Type Formula as it's the only usable Type under Super Heavy Acceleration, but I don't buy it and I shall explain why.
See this? On the right is Kamen Rider Drive Type Dead Heat and Kamen Rider Drive Type Tridoron. Both these forms are power-ups but have unique circumstances that play into character progression. Dead Heat makes him more powerful. But there's a catch: Using the form for too long and the user loses control of himself and the form physically wears the user down. So it's like a double-edged sword: Be careful when using it and use it only when needed.
As for Type Tridoron, there's a backstory. There was an episode where Shinnosuke (Kamen Rider Drive) was thought to have been killed when the A.I. of his belt, Belt-san, synchronized his mind with Shinnosuke, putting him in suspended animation. Because of this, the one way to revive the both of them was with Shift Tridoron and their car Tridoron, essentially creating Type Tridoron, where Tridoron becomes the suit and Shinnosuke and Belt-san have the ability to take control of Shinnosuke's body while in this form. Oh and did I mention that Type Tridoron can operate under Super Heavy Acceleration? Yeah he can.
So see my point here? Type Formula was a waste of time and a cheap cash-in to sell toys at the expense of the plot.
Anyway, next issue: Chase's mid-series character progression. So the character was the prototype for the Roidmudes (read: Monsters), Proto-Zero, and was originally a good guy as Kamen Rider Proto-Drive too before getting reprogrammed by the Roidmudes and becoming Mashin Chaser. The early to mid-early parts of the story depicted Chase progressively recovering his memories and slowly discovering his true identity. From how he was written, he was meant to later become a good guy again, which he does and becomes Kamen Rider Chaser.
But then, it happened: Just when he was about to regain all of his memories, he get reprogrammed yet again, like it was all too easy. And he stays this way for the middle portion of the story. Oh and how did he regain all of his memories and become a good guy again? By getting defeated by Kamen Rider Drive Type Formula. It wasn't any kind of flaw in his reprogramming that allowed him to regain his memories at the last moment. No, somebody had to defeat him and the impact of the finisher reverted his programming to how it originally was (kind of).
So you see how bad the middle portion of the series was? But overall, it wasn't all that bad. If you wanna watch it, I recommend it, but only if you can survive the middle portion of the story.
So anyway, I'll see you guys in the next blog post.
- Shu
Credits: Kamen Rider Wiki for images (http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Wiki)
So see my point here? Type Formula was a waste of time and a cheap cash-in to sell toys at the expense of the plot.
Anyway, next issue: Chase's mid-series character progression. So the character was the prototype for the Roidmudes (read: Monsters), Proto-Zero, and was originally a good guy as Kamen Rider Proto-Drive too before getting reprogrammed by the Roidmudes and becoming Mashin Chaser. The early to mid-early parts of the story depicted Chase progressively recovering his memories and slowly discovering his true identity. From how he was written, he was meant to later become a good guy again, which he does and becomes Kamen Rider Chaser.
But then, it happened: Just when he was about to regain all of his memories, he get reprogrammed yet again, like it was all too easy. And he stays this way for the middle portion of the story. Oh and how did he regain all of his memories and become a good guy again? By getting defeated by Kamen Rider Drive Type Formula. It wasn't any kind of flaw in his reprogramming that allowed him to regain his memories at the last moment. No, somebody had to defeat him and the impact of the finisher reverted his programming to how it originally was (kind of).
So you see how bad the middle portion of the series was? But overall, it wasn't all that bad. If you wanna watch it, I recommend it, but only if you can survive the middle portion of the story.
So anyway, I'll see you guys in the next blog post.
- Shu
Credits: Kamen Rider Wiki for images (http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Wiki)
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