Dragon Drive

Publisher
Bandai
Director
Toshifumi Kawase
Production
Bandai, Madhouse, NAS, Shueisha, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
38 episodes
Year
2003

Dragon Drive V. 5 - Friends in Need

By David Rasmussen
2nd Apr 05

What a difference three volumes makes!
We start off with a series that smacks of teen angst meets (dot)hack… only NOW, after three Volumes, we find ourselves on ANOTHER planet, with REAL DRAGONS and some plot which includes lots of murder, death and vengeance and the end of two worlds if such and such thing happens… where the hell did all THAT come from?!?

We started with Reiji, your atypical loser character looking to improve himself. What he found, with the help of a friend, was a little dragon in virtual reality named Chibi, and the lessons he needed to become a better person. Yeah. So how did his attempts to not be a loser anymore turn into a transdimensional field trip to another planet that is seemingly tied to the Earth in some way?!? Yeah, yeah, I know. It came from the previous volumes. So let’s plow ahead and see where we are now.

Episode 16 - The Catch
Wouldn’t you know it! Just as Reiji’s next fight… fight? Yeah, even when the gang is off on another world it looks like the whole dueling thing can’t be put aside. You’ll have to watch from the beginning to know why, though I have a feeling it might have something to do with returning to Earth.
All I know is this… the thing they’re fighting for, something called Dragonite? It’s not what some people, including the “bad guys” of this series, think it is. It is some sort of “locking tool” which keeps a powerful entity in check. If the “seal” this Dragonite gives off is somehow broken it’s going to mean the end of both this strange world the gang has found themselves on, as well as the Earth since the two worlds seem… well, “bound” together somehow.

Anyway as Reiji’s next battle is about to start it looks like they’ll have to abort to save a guy named Mukai (who dresses badly and has DragonBall Z hair), who has gone out to the palace of one Guan-Coo to avenge his mother’s death. However leaving to stop this Mukai means leaving one who needed them behind, Rockaku. Too bad he has his own issues with death (a dead best friend), which sadly might not reach resolution as he will be unable to participate in the fight to face his own enemy without the others, especially since the judges won’t allow the fight to go on.

Episode 17 - The End of Revenge
Is this really the end of revenge? Can you really bring revenge to an end after fostering such bitter feelings for so long? Not just Mukai’s feelings of vengeance for his mother’s death, but also Rockaku’s feelings of vengeance for his dead friend. Guess we’re about to find out.
Oh, and it looks like all those warnings about the Dragonite were just about for nothing since it looks like it has just fallen into the wrong hands. Nice going, guys, save one guy and throw away two worlds. Congrats.

However there is still someone left to be accounted for in this battle, mainly Meguru and Rockaku, but are they enough? Heck, even if the gang gets back quickly will any of them be enough considering the power now being held by their enemy? Apparently not since it looks like somebody is about to die this episode.
Just hope that whole breaking of the seal thing doesn’t happen also. What? It probably is about to happen? Got an army to spare? Somebody could use back-up right about now…

Episode 18 - The Journey
Ugh. I hate these episodes. It’s a recap episode that just explains everything that happened from the beginning to now, crammed into 25 or so minutes. Basically it’s Cliff Notes for Dragon Drive.
Why do I hate these episodes? Well they’re doing the recaps while over somebody’s grave!
Yeah, apparently somebody died last episode after all that hectic fighting, but we’re wildling our time away recapping the whole series. I’m sure the dead character feels that much more special now. Yeah.
Think we could have spared five minutes for a decent memorial episode for the dead character?

Next Time…
I’m going to take it that “seal” is as good as gone and as we near the end it’s looking bleak for both worlds.
Then again only next review will say for sure, so stay tuned…. Or not. We’ll see.
Breakdown time.

Dragon Drive Breakdown the 5th
What’s Hot? - Despite the fact the last episode on this DVD features a recap episode which goes over Episodes 1 to 17? I’d feel better if (if you were going to invest in this series) you’d just start from Volume 1 and watch it all the way to this point. Recap episodes don’t really do the series justice, and really how much can you squeeze into 25 or so minutes! The series is, to this point, about 6 hours from Volumes 1 to 4 so you’re jamming lots of info into such a tight space! You lose lots of the appeal of the series that way!
Of course sooner or later BANDAI will make your job that much simpler when they finally roll out the Complete version of this with all the episodes put together in one easy to purchase set.
Don’t know when that’ll happen though, but I’m sure it’s soon.

As for the series itself? Hmmm… I liked how it went. I thought it would be cliché but it worked out for the best once I watched it. Nicely done if I do say so myself, wish I was around for Volumes 2 to 4, but that’s OK… of course if you’re going to be into this series you’ll need to watch from Volumes 1 to now so you can’t skip like I did. Anyway watching from the start is advisable in any series review.

What’s Not? - Beside the fact that you’ll have your work cut out for you if you want to backtrack to get the full story on the entire series? (And get Volumes 1-4)? I have no complaints. None at all.

Moments to Remember? - The first two episodes are memorable since they really punch up the action from the episodes I saw in Volume 1. The fighting is more intense in these later episodes, and more interesting, especially the endgame battle in Episode 17.

What to Ignore? - As much as I could use a 4-1-1 on Episodes 6 to 15 I really do hate recap episodes.
So I’m just going to ignore that, sorry.

Overall? - Remember, if you find yourself into this series you’ll need to pick it up from the beginning.
Some series you can jump in at anytime and start enjoying, this isn’t one of those series.
With a plot that requires a steady attention from beginning to end, this is not exactly what I call a viewer friendly series which can be jumped into at any old point! Once again yes, we do have a recap episode on this volume, but I don’t like those nor should you trust in those. They’re nice to help you refresh your memory about what happened before, or mostly to fill time while the animators work on the next episode, but the only way to really experience this series is the old fashioned way. One DVD at a time.

-- David Rasmussen 2nd Apr 05

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