Subs are up? Time to start begging for YouTube links while I fail to find playlists myself. :lol

Purposefully did not watch the stream this week as I want to understand my first experience with Drive, so I'm looking forward to seeing this episode.

That's the best description of gain I've heard yet! :lol

Just watched the subs and I don't think this is going to be a series for me. It wasn't horrible, by any means. I liked the story. I love Drive's design, I love Trideron. The belt just doesn't shut up. And I know it talks, but I mean "Fl Fl Flare!" and all that. I see it becoming like Shadoobie touch to shut up and ruining any sense of drama the show might have. And the unit he works for is just a little to goofy for my taste. I think this'll be one of those series' like Toqger. Where I like the toys but the show doesn't do anything for me.

I thought it was a fun episode and I can't wait to see where the show plans on going. I didn't like the humor that much since most of it fell flat to me.

I'd just like to call it now that Shinnosuke's old partner will be a villain at some point.

Well then, that was...something...yeah I'm going to be honest, I'm not digging it so far. I like the suits, the action is pretty cool, but everything else isn't really working for me. I'll watch episode 2 since it is the followup/ending of this case. But if it doesn't really do it for me either then I may not watch Drive.

After what we got to see in the opening scene he can be the Pancake Roimudo :lol

Not sure that anyone else noticed this yet but, Shinnosuke specifically says as his partner's dying that "While the rest of the world was frozen, there was one person fighting to save us."

Clearly Shinnosuke is not the first Drive. When you look closer at the silhouetted Drive from the beginning of the episode you should notice 4 things.

1. No spoiler on the helmet. Just two antennae.
2. No tire bandolier across the chest. This Drive used the shift cars to fight, but may not have had Tire Koukan abilities.
3. He rides a motorcycle
4. The suit is actually black. It's not a shadow or silhouette, the initial Drive is actually a black rider. Now the color could be subject to change depending on what or if we find out about this guy. But as is that suit is definitely black in place of Shinnosuke's red.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...537/JB8wYr.png

I think we're about to get some crazy Kamen Rider Skull type action going on here. Possibly a character that used to be Kiriko's partner. Maybe even something wild like her father, hence why only she knows about Drive and the Pit. Or equally as likely, Chase was the original Drive. Hence the motorcycle.

During the raw I thought it was just some subtle forshadowing but thanks to the subs this is clearly the one that used Drive before Shinnosuke did. He even uses a Bike instead of Tridoron during the Global Freeze.

It will especially be interesting to see how this man is since not much time has passed between the Global Freeze and Shinnosuke becoming the new Kamen Rider Drive.

Definitely makes sense considering that the shift cars were fighting during the whole slowdown event. So a Drive before Shinnosuke makes a lot of sense.

This episode was pretty good. I wasn't all the way into it, but it's a good start. Hopefully the second episode will bring more to the plate, as I've seen past rider series that didn't wow me with their first episode that I ended up liking later. Hope I end up liking it better than Double, which I barely got a feel for at all, despite liking the characters.

But yeah, overall, I thought the episode was alright. Interesting set up, with the monsters, causing time slowdowns. Shinnosuke seems liek a cool protagonist so far and I hope to get a better view on the rest of the police force as the show gets underway.

I thought the fight at the end was pretty awesome. Am I the only one...who finds that The Drive Driver isn't even remotely as annoying as Wizard's?

At any rate, that rider kick at the end was amazing.

That Rider Kick is one of the bossiest things ever.

The way the tires shoot the monster towards Drive reminds me show much of a hot wheels track :lol

If Hot Wheels doesn't do anything with Drive I'll be shocked :lol

thats not gonna happen. Hot Wheels is pretty much the rival toyline for Drive right now :lol

Oh the return of speaking drivers, we can rejoice, you are the best Mister Belt.

That was fun, the start was surprisingly brutal, you get a good sense of all the characters, action is solid and the concepts are pretty cool, slowdown feels like an opposite of Clock Up, and I dig that.
Really fun start.

Yes, so much yes. :lol

Belt-san is great. Having grown up on Knight Rider I just love the way he is incorporated into the show :lol

Yes, the voice is great, and I love how he's incorporated into more devices than the car alone.

Btw, in a series of events that can only happen to me, whenever Belt summoned cars or the like there was a powering off sound effect.
Eventully I learned that it wasn't part of the show, but rather that my old phone's battery was running low. :lolol

Thats what I call a great coincidence :lol

And I love that Sanjo takes the talking Belt we had in Heisei Rider pretty much since Faiz and literally makes it a talking Belt. We had Kivat sure but Kivat was a living being that had the added benefit of being a Rider Belt.

Yeah, he's machine, yet a character, I simply love the concept, it also makes it easier to introduce the mechanics.

And his voice just gives me chills. I melted away everytime he said Tire Koukan :lol

On the other hand I do find the expression that the screen makes after saying "Nice driving" to be odd.

The happy face of Belt-san can look a bit odd thats true but I dont mind it so much. Another thing I find quite funny is that except for Gaim we had the trope of a sidekick character that turns out to be some kind of object thing since Double....and now we actually got a sidekick that is just an object :lol

Because he has a deep voice and serious demeanor and then the screen tries to be as cute as it can. :lol

No, no, you've got it wrong, Belt is the star, cop dude is the sidekick. :p

You can blame Bandai for that :lol

Poor Shinnosuke.

Now all Trideron needs is a turbo boost that it can only use once per episode then we'll be set. :lol

Not a bad start, some good worldbuilding while leaving the villains a mystery to figure out. Theme song is ok, not great. The fights were fun though, hope they can keep that up.

This was a good episode and I think drive is off to a start. I'm freaked out a little by the sentient belt but I digress

So yeah, episode 1 of Drive certainly throws you in at the deep end doesn't it?

Honestly, enjoyed it well enough but not the strongest of openings. While it's very plot focused, it's a mystery set up so right now we're not getting that much plot. And I'd say the characters in ep 1 were defintiely sacrificed for the plot. Two parter so we'll see how things go, but felt they're a wee bit bare bones. To use a pertinent example, W sets up the mystery, some of the dealer plot, a strong base line for Shotaro and Akiko, and begins the intro to Phillip, lots of character, lots of plot. Drive sets up the mystery, but the character traits we learn are all plot focused. And we learn little to nothing about the other primaries. KRITT is kinda cool though...although i wonder how long he's been sitting in the car without being fiddled with :D

Fights were fine. Very flashy and cg heavy but grand. Standard entertaining. Although I suggest we ready ourselves for the vanishing of the rider kick in a few episodes.

So ok start, little muddled but decent enough. Bring on Ep 2.

Neat. I thought the belt actually talking to him was pretty nice.
That aside, nope. I did not enjoy this beginning one bit.
Like, shit. The show expects you to do your homework on who's who going in :lol

But really, the action was mediocre, the shift cars driving around and fighting was a bit too silly for me to swallow, and it should have saved off on the tire changes until next episode.
Though his Maximum Spider/Ragnarok finisher was neat.

I will continue watching, however. Pilots tend to be one of the worst episodes of a series, so it's nothing new, really.
FULL THROTTLE

I just Kamen Rider Drive Episode 1 on Dailymotion (Sub Only)

I find the opening a brutal way to begin the Kid-friendly Show.

Riku Sanjo have improve on his writing on Drive.

I thought Talking Belt is a great idea. I was worried that they might hired over-the-top actor like That Doctor from Kyoryuger but they hired a calm actor to play Belt to pay homage of K.I.T.T.

But during the opening scene, There was another Drive before Shinnosuke. That got me a question, Who is that Drive?

Overall I think Drive has some potential. The fact that he is a detective makes me think the 2-ep story lines will work. Kind of like if Columbo was also a super hero. :)

I like the main characters so far but we will have to see where they go. The villains look interesting and I dig the car. I'm not thrilled with the opening song though. It just doesn't work for me right now. It's much to campy.

Something else I like is the question of "who was the first Drive" and where's his motorcycle. :) Another interesting thing is that people are AWARE of the slowdowns. Meaning that it's effecting them save for their brains. I really hope we get some hardcore sci-fi science answer for that.

There is one major issue I have with the ep and it's something real dumb. When the propane tank blew up, there is no way it would have exploded given where it was shot. Not a freaking chance. Also, why the hell was Shinnosuke carrying a 6-shooter? Yes, police are allowed to carry guns in Japan but most of them are either much, much smaller weapon (like the NANBU M60 (a.38 special)) or the more modern SIG P220. I don't get how he would end up with a freaking Colt 45.

Well its a show about a guy that uses small sentient hot wheel cars to fight flying number monsters :lol

What kind of weapons did japanese cops usually carry during the 80s? Just asking since Riku Sanjo said that Seibu Keisatsu a longrunning cop drama from the 80s was a big influence on him and that might explain something about that.

Also, she fired, like, 8 shots from her six shooter.

The ones I listed above are the sidearms that most Japanese officers use today. But with the show being influinced by Seibu Keisatsu it makes more sense. The original opening is below and at the 20 second mark you can sort of see that same gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O7Uke3Dj_A

Yeah I saw that opening a few days ago when I read the Interview where Sanjo talked about it. If he wants to make Drive more of a throwback to those oldschool cop dramas it makes sense why they use more old fashioned side arms.

Another influence he mentioned was Robocop so I´m really eager to find out how that will manifest in the show :D

THAT. WAS. AWESOME. That was a downright fantastic start to a series, and I can't wait for more. Drive has most certainly lived up to my expectations.

Alright Drive...you’ve won me over. Outside of toy news, I avoided news for Drive like the plague so I had zero expectations for this show going in. That said...the first episode was VERY good, better when you compare it to Gaim’s first episode.

I like the show’s atmosphere and tone, it reminds me of Double mixed with Go Onger but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to handle itself super seriously. I’m interested in seeing where they go from here. I LOVE the Rider kick and how brutal it seemed.

Two things to note: 

Surprise Drive is probably the most catchy opening theme song for Kamen Rider I’ve heard in a long time.

Is it just me, or does the belt sound like it’s saying F****king Spike?

I heard FUNKY loud and clear on my end, but the english was very good for Mr. Belt-San. With that said, I think when Drive Tire Changes or was it the finisher in Japanese? it sounded like he said "YOU SUCK!" then again that might just be me :lol

Ichijou from Kuuga carried a revolver, too. It's just how cops in Kamen Rider work.

Gave it a 5. Great start. Hoping the momentum carries. Don't want to have it become the ToQGer of Kamen Rider.