I've actually been rewatching W recently and it's really changed my opinion on Akiko. I absolutely hated her the first time through, but the second time around I'm finding her far more entertaining (and not just because Shunpei has set a permanent low bar for comedic relief in Kamen Rider). There are two things that make Akiko work for me that separates her from the comic relief in Drive:

First of all, Akiko is a comic relief character, yes, but she's a comic relief character. She actually has a personality, she contributes to the plot in meaningful ways, and the way she acts actually changes based around the situation she's in. Her default mode is "goofball," but that doesn't mean that she's incapable of being serious when she has to be. The comic relief on Drive doesn't have that - there's a reason why we're twelve episodes in and I still don't know the captain or doll guy's names: they aren't characters. All they are is joke fodder: guy who makes funny faces and guy who plays with dolls. Compare them to Watcherman or Santa-chan, two of the minor comic characters from W; they didn't do a ton either, but they were far more memorable and better realized.

Second: Hikaru Yamamoto had really good comedic chops. Everything she did felt really natural where Drive's humor is incredibly forced. There are some really funny scenes in W where Akiko is still acting silly, even though she's in the background. It's just an aspect of the character and Yamamoto pulled it off really well.

Huh, I never knew that. That makes her character work even better, I think.

i liked how he was using the mach driver accurately to the toy like taking out the signal car and putting a new one in comparing to the drive driver.

Dont really understand what you mean.

ok, like when in drive's debut, everytime he changes forms, he doesnt take out car from the brace, it's already out but from the toy you have to take out the car to change tires, it's not done in the show.

unlike the mach driver, you see mach taking the bike out of the driver to change forms/signals and putting a new bike in and it's done accurately to the toy.

Do you guys think that the new theme that debuted along with Gou will be a new theme in general or that it is just a theme for Gou becuase I hope we get more insert themes outside of just playing surprise drive?

Among tumblr, I heard many people kept saying it's Mach's own theme, but hey who knows.

Just something that bugs me: When Gunman Roidmude causes Density Shift, both Shinnosuke & Gou can freely moving. It's okay with Shinnosuke since he's got Shift Cars. But how about Gou? It clearly show that the Signal Bikes didn't come to him until he transforms.
Maybe that thing will be explained next episode where he can cause Density Shift too, but let's give it some theories!

You can expect that to change in future episodes. They usually show it once or twice, after that they skip it to save time/shots. Remember Gaim? After the first bunch of episodes nobody "Locked Off" anymore, the lockseed was just gone when they inserted the new one.

And Drive did take out Shift Cars, remember the scene where he first switched from Max Flare to Funky Spike?

Well seeing 7 pages of discussion for a Drive episode kinda shocked me - the average was like 3 pages? But upon clicking the thread, I didn't really expect these reactions, especially the poll.

So I finally watched the episode today and I find Gou's voice to be pretty cool and that debut henshin was so over-the-top that I liked it. And Gou really embodies the "feeling high" part of the opening lyrics.

Oh and the Gunman Roidmude design is really nice too!