Honestly, it feels to me, especially after this episode, like somebody watched Wizard, saw Shunpei, and decided that he was the highest form of humor ever developed in the history of mankind and that Drive must be full of his kinds of jokes.

That person should never be allowed to reproduce.

I can see what you're saying, though. Drive does seem to be trying to go for a lot of big laughs after how dark Gaim got by the end. It's just that nobody seems to be putting any effort in trying to actually be funny.

Thats the point though since I dont think Sanjo normally writes this way. And I admit up front that I´m a giant Sanjo fanboy so take it for what its worth :lol

To me it just feels like alot of the humor stems from some of the executives wanting to put silly humor in it as opposed to the writers. Like with Shunpei in Wizard who was unbereable and then they put Beast in and he was just Shunpei 2.0 and the show got even less funny. With that show we kinda know that the writer did not care for Beast so thats why he wasnt the greatest character and Shunpei is probably a result of Tsuyoshi Kida mostly having written Den-O stage shows.

With Riku Sanjo though I dont think he would go for so many cheap laughs unless something is up behind the scenes that forces him ( and hasegawa for that matter) to include them in the show.

I must say a lot of the jokes do feel forced and tacked on. Didn't Gaim have good ratings compared to other Kamen riders or did the viewership take a dive as the series progressed? Things like Gao's acrobatics seem unnecessary to the character. Okay venting done... I like Mach as a rider even if the character isn't the best. The fact that he seems to have a implied time limit on his transformation is interesting and makes his highspeed nature more understandable (he can't wait for Drive to get into gear) and him opening the visor does seem to be a cooling system of some sort. I like the idea that while Drive has the power to cause slow down he's never used it (or at leat hasn't been told how) where as Mach (if the perview is to be believed) uses it openly. Medic is interesting for what we've seen of her. There's a very obvious connection between her and Heart that the others don't share and makes me think that Proto-Drive damaged her during the global freeze which put Heart over the edge causing him to evolve allowing him to beat Proto-Drive.

Likes:
The idea of a Kamen Rider Japan and a Kamen Rider America. Let's expand on this concept, G-Gundam style.

KR Mach has a distinct style, wierd weapons (bending lasers)

Kiriko in her civilian outfits and hair down

Gou has a personality, even if it's over the top

seeing the fit of the special investigations division (and how its in a driving school) within the police

The idea of a enemy Medic

Dislikes:
Mach ripping off Wizard, a mediocre show

Mach's overuse of acrobatics and overall movements. Excessive

Humor. Overdone and poorly done at that

As other have said there's a real case that there's executive pressure on the writers and director... just thought of something what if the police upper brass is a reflection of how the creative staff feels about their bosses at Toei?

Definitely feeling like Drive is trying to compensate for Gaim's bleakness tbh. Just wish they would tone it down. I loved W because despite being genuinely funny at moments, it still knew when to dial it back.

I think many people have suppressed the memory on who provided the "jokes" in W. And I don't really blame you:

http://fs1.directupload.net/images/141230/yj3q4cm4.jpg

I'll take the entire Special Crimes Unit + Shunpei over that girl.

Sure, W had some really funny moments, but I don't see how the comedy itself was any better. It still came from characters who obviously only where in it to provide cheap jokes.

Akiko had some place in the story, but they simply forgot about it or outsourced it into the movies. I mean in the first ten episodes we had the suspense that Shotaro knew about the fate of her father and struggled to tell her, then no one talks about it again until the one dude from prison comes to the agency much later and somehow Akiko already knows her dad is “dead” and that's it.

And we had the same silly moments in Gaim, facial expressions and stuff, difference was they where provided by characters people actually like and they toned down drastically in the later parts of the show.

I can see how people don't like the comedy parts at all, but I can't understand how they cherry pick the stuff over other shows who had the exact same thing, only that people don't remember it as clearly anymore. I don't blame anyone, I for example completely forgot many things about shows I watched some time ago.

For my reasons of why I think people don't seem to be bring older hyper comedy characters in prior series is that most people have gotten somewhat used to them by this point while Gou is a new character that people have only seen one episode of so the thoughts of him are still fresh in their mind while some of the antics of prior characters are toned down.

I actually think Gou is a step up for the humor in this show.


My main problem with Drive's humor, unlike W's, is that the characters rely too heavily on visuals, editing and sound effects to push the humor, while what made W funny, or at least tolerable, was that the comedy came entirely from the characters themselves. Even for as annoying as Akiko was, I could find situations involving her funny because of how she made the others react. Where you would normally have brooding Terui, whenever he interacted with Akiko, his seriousness as a character was completely undermined. Same thing with Shotaro, who normally tried to put up a cool and collected front, but was taken completely out of his element whenever Akiko pestered him. Akiko herself wasn't funny; the characters' reactions were what was funny. This is partially why I think OOO has the best humor in the franchise; Ankh is like Terui's seriousness and no-nonsense amped up to the eleventh power and his reactions to all of the B.S. going on around him were genuinely great moments.

The same thing isn't happening with Drive for me. The more serious, or at the very least "not-comedy-relief" characters don't really give much of a reaction, so the humor is relying entirely on the visuals, the sound and the editing. The reason I say Gou is a step up is because he's just way too wacky for the other characters to NOT react, as seen in this episode. And I like that. I really hope we get more of that type of humor, as opposed to the barrage of funny faces and weird edits.

And that isnt a coincidence. Setting aside if someone actually enjoy Akikos comedy or not her bits are an actual form of japanese comedy opposed to what we mostly get in Wizard or Drive.

In Double alot of the comedy stems from a certain type of japanese stand-up called "Manzai". This particular type of comedy revolves around a duo of which one is the straight man and the other one is the funny one. This form of stand-up is associated heavily with the japanese city of Osaka and thats where Akiko comes from. All of her jokes are in some form of another just Manzai comedy with her acting like a typical Osaka person (being loud,kinda annoying and overall not that smart) and the Straight Man (Terui/Shotaro) reacting to this.

In Wizard/Drive we have this annoying habit of modern toku shows just having their character be loud and obnoxious for the sake of being loud and pbnoxious thinking this alone is enough to make the audience laugh.