I thought the last 10-ish episodes were really good, but it seriously lacked anything up until around episode 30. At least. And trust me, I remember Wizard, and how terrible some of it was.

Thats my main problem with the show right now. The show introduces alot of ideas that look like they will go some place but then dont. Everytime I get the feeling that Sanjo and Hasegawa want to tell a story but have to keep the show more episodic and cant really pay off their ideas.

Yup the actual story only comes into play around the last fifteen episodes or so when Fueki shows up. Wizard had this great idea for a unique story with how the Hero relates to the villains etc. but it lacked all the build up.

Sanjo himself feels like he plays out his events quite slowly like with how double takes a while to establish how some of the characters eg Phillip's behavior in early episodes like the heaven's tornado episode.

Not that I am trying to defend the weaker parts of the writing just pointing it out.

That seems to apply to quite a few series with the final actually kicking into gear near the end but yeah wizard's biggest problem was that it was full of potential but squandered all of it by playing it safe.

I'm starting to feel like Drive pretty much has all the same problems that Wizard did, I'm just less patient than I was two years ago.

I hate to compare Drive to other series because I feel like every series should be able to stand on its own.


But I can't help but think of other series that were already getting the ball rolling at this point. Even if you want to blame that on the 2-parter format, W and OOO, and (from what I've seen of) Fourze, they had some legitimate character development or at the very least we learned about what makes the characters tick.


What more have we learned about Shinnosuke that we didn't know from the first episode? What more have we learned about Kiriko? Since Gou's introduction, we know Gou hates the Roidmudes but we can't even speculate on why because the show gives us nothing to go off of. We had Chase for a while, but the show quickly squashed that almost as soon as it came. And of course, we have the other support characters who, minus Rinna, we don't know a single thing about except the fact that they like to make funny faces at cameras and that one of them has an obsession with dolls. Whoop-de-doo.

As much as some people don't like Akiko (and I beg to differ), she was at least an actual character and not just convenient comedic relief they could pull out of their ass whenever they wanted the show to stop being serious.

Some comparison is always needed. You still need the bar of what you think of as "good" to figure out if a show falls into that category for you or not.

This is also why I´m starting to be more and more disappointed with this show the more I think about it. Sanjo and Hasegawa where the writing team on Double and thats my absolute favorite show. Drive just doesnt feel like its written by them. As you mentioned the plot had much more going on in Double and all characters felt like real characters.

And the individual cases in Double were alot more interesting too.

In the comparisons to Wizard it has in terms of it's weakness as mentioned but then some of those problems seem to come down as issues how the post decade era of Heisei has been for a while.

the one thing i liked about gaim and i dont like about drive is how they were writing the toys in the show. in gaim, they were spreading out the lockseeds throughout the episodes,

in drive, they were throwing out every 2 shift cars in one episode instead of them spreading them out in different episodes to keep it interesting. that's the fault of the riders and bandai as well, they got too carried away with the gimmick and now we are stuck with filler until formula debuts.

it's just not the way to write the episodes.

Absolutely this. I think it's because the Dopants were human and the Greeed, while not human, fed off of human emotion and desire, which made you actually feel the individual stories. Same thing goes with the Zodiarts. Here, it seems like the show is just trying way too hard to be a cartoon and doesn't pull it off nearly as well as it thinks it does.

I wouldn't say that. W and OOO were both fantastic all-around, and I had a blast (no pun intended) with the first 9 episodes of Fourze I saw. And of course, I don't think I even have to explain Gaim.

You always had an investment in the characters be it the dopants or the people being targeted by them. The human element was always in the foreground but with Drive its alot simpler at thats hurting the show.

No show is perfect but those shows positives far outweighed the problems they had. Double also did alot more with its villains than Drive has so far.