That was a great ending to the show, I was worried the Heart/Drive fight would take away from the episode but it turned out to be one of it's highlights.

For a show that started out so lighthearted they did lose a lot by the time the end arrived, and this episode paid respect to that while remaining optimistic. Simply a great ending to such a fun show.

Well, I was surprised the final battle was so short, Gou & Chase VS Banno was better in my opinion. This episode and the 46th should really be watched back to back indeed.

Wow! This episode was perfect. Shinnosuke combining all the tires was really cool. Seeing everyone go their own way was nice to see. Shinnosuke and Kiriko together at the end was good also. I can't believe all the Roidmudes are gone. I thought only Chase, Heart, and Medic would be the only survivors but they had to kill them all off. Then finally seeing the human Chase copied made it perfect. We can all agree there is going to be a lot of tears next episode.

I like that they gave everyone from the SCU a happy ending. And that Tony Stark was in the finale. And that Eye Guy got to show off his wushu skills.

This will definitely be on a repeat watch list for myself in the future. I just enjoyed it. It was a pretty straight line road with very few turns, save for Banno's appearance and intent. For a show that had all the feels of Knight Rider, it did it's job to entertain.

So without spoilers, was the finale worth starting the show back up at 23?

The whole show is worth watching and the second half is much better than the first. So go for it.

Well, I'm going to miss this show. It may have started out slowly, but it got really good in the second half, and this ending episode felt like a fitting end to the story. Heart's death was memorable and emotional, and Belt-san locking himself away makes sense, and should be undone around the time of the next movie war. Everyone got a fitting ending, especially with the Animal House epilogue, and even Gou and Chase have their stories continued... but no-one tell Ankh and Eiji. They might be annoyed about the stealing of the plot :p

I don't think so. Drive shows some signs of life in the late 20s-early 30s, but the finale arc is pretty by-the-numbers. I may be in the minority, but I feel like -- though it had some strong ideas, episodes, and characters (especially Gou, Nira, and Banno) -- the show is overall pretty generic. It slots in at the very bottom of my KR ranking list (Fourze > Gaim > Ryuki > Kiva > OOO > Den-O > Drive).

Eiji: "Hey...in the white hoodie! What are you doing here?"
Gou: "Trying to find a way to bring my best friend back to life. You?"
Eiji: "Whoa this is weird..."

What a powerful, intense, emotional ending. I'm hopeful that there is a future for more Drive stories, like Gaim, there is enough left open to explore. I'm going to go back to crying now.