My Thoughts on Kamen Rider Drive So Far...

I was hesitant to watch Kamen Rider Drive because of Gen Urobuchi's masterpiece for Tokusatsu, Kamen Rider Gaim. Meanwhile, I'll admit that Riku Sanjo for me had miserably failed with Kyoryuger (which is a Sentai season I dislike) but Kamen Rider Drive itself presents a light-hearted police drama. While Kamen Rider W's main hero Shotaro was a protagonist, the hero Shinnosuke in this show is a police officer. I feel a bit of shades of Jiban except unlike Jiban, he is not a police officer revived as a cyborg.

The whole start is Shinnosuke seems incompetent but he does have intuitive abilities while he is accompanied by his possible love interest Kiriko. The Drive belt was once formerly human called Krein Steinbelt but through some quack Toku science, the mind of the Drive belt is inside a machine. The Special Investigation Unit does not know of Shinnosuke's secret identity (shades of Jiban) nor Kiriko's involvement, or that of Rinna Sawagani being more than just your average scientist, she is a super genius. Later in the series, Goh, Kiriko's younger brother enters the scene.

The main antagonists are called the Roidmudes who were responsible of the Density Shifts prior to Shinnosuke's transformation into a Kamen Rider. Along the way, Chase becomes the Grim Reaper, an evil Kamen Rider under the influence of the Roidmudes. There is something about Kiriko's past with Chase that was soon revealed. Much of the past keeps unfolding even in what might be a pretty lighthearted Kamen Rider.

As of late, there is also the one hour crossover (if you count the time of TV commercials that were included during the airing) featuring Kamen Rider Drive and Ninninger. Unlike Kamen Rider Decade's version, here the Ninningers end up entering into the world of Kamen Rider Drive, get mistaken to be working for the enemies and basically, the Ninningers are an "anomaly" thus verifying the reality that Super Sentai and Kamen Rider are non-canon to each other. I found the one hour special to be rather decent compared to Gaim and ToQGer's crossover. So far, I am confident that Drive would be a good series to watch.