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. 6 & 7

By David Rasmussen
22nd May 05

Previously…
How the heck did we get to this point anyway?!?
Reiji, who started playing this game with virtual dragons to boost his low self esteem, now finds himself (and his friends) on a strange world that is linked to our own (read last review for more on that), fighting it out with his dragon (who has a great potential) against real dragons.

Along the way they ended up fighting in some tournament over something called Dragonite, which is supposed to be the key to returning to Earth. However it turns out to be the key to awakening some major big bad darkness evil, and that doesn’t sit well with the gang.
They were close to winning it fair and square, but had to drop those plans when they are called away to save a friend in need. While they were gone, however, the tournament match they were to fight in is forfeited and the very person that they didn’t want to win the Dragonite wins it!
The winner, a jerk named Kouhei, is going to ride back to Earth in grand style with his new Dragonite, but not if the gang and whoever else can jump in on the battle has anything to say about that!

It seems they might have succeeded… not really since Kouhei makes it back to Earth. Worse yet it looks like (for all their efforts) they lose the very person they left the tournament to save!
Yeah, isn’t that a kick in the groin! Go through a whole lot of trouble to save this guy, and he goes and offs himself in a major battle against Kouhei and his cohorts to stop the events that shouldn’t have happened in the first place if not for them going to save the same guy mentioned in this review!

But as the story opens it looks like Kouhei’s actions has set bad bad things into motion, so with only a time to spare they need some sort of plan… maybe.

Volume 6 - Emerging Evil
Episode 19 - Rebirth
So here it is. The Dragonite Kouhei stole turned out to be a major key to unlock a powerful “ultimate” dragon, a thing called Shinryu. But he’s gone, right? Back to Earth, and he took the Dragonite with him. So isn’t the threat over and done with? Now that he’s gone he can’t possibly awaken this Shinryu from another world! But for Chibi things aren’t so good. He didn’t come out the battle against Kouhei in the best of shape, so it looks like Reiji is going to undertake a “Mission : Impossible” to retrieve something that’ll help Chibi out of his predictiment.

But it looks like maybe Kouhei made his retreat to Earth prematureally. He has the Dragonite, the key, but without the means to said key it is all but useless. Knowing that it looks like Kouhei is going to have ot make a return trip to finish the job. Don’t you just hate it when things like that happen!

To prepare for their next confrontation with the little parasite, Rockaku, Daisuke and Maiko depart on abit of a road trip, this trip being to scope out a strange strong fighter who may or may not be associated with the enemy that they face. Meanwhile it looks like Reiji is too busy on his rescue mission to climb a mountain to contriibute much to this story… yeah, Prince of Persia he’s not. Heck, he’s not even a very good Link. Oh, well, maybe next episode he‘ll do better.
Too bad the ending of the episode was a tad cliché. But, because you have to watch it nevertheless, get ready for some human/dragon bonding (and I don‘t just mean Reiji/Chibi)!

Episode 20 - Rites of Passage
In order to confront Kouhei and company (who are going to be blazin‘ their way back ASAP), Chibi (the little dragon in question) needs to pump up his own powers (now that he‘s all better after that apparently pointless quest to the mountain), and to do that the duo of Reiji and Chibi take a road trip of their own to acquire the power of a major dragon called SinnSaber. Yeah, while the last episode gave Chibi abit of a power boost it doesn’t seem to be enough of a boost… sheesh, give a dragon a break!

While out on the road they meet a young man named Kohryo, a self defense force trainee, who has his own problems with evil at the moment (don‘t they all these days). Seems he’s gotten the short end of the prophecy stick (like a certain someone else also known as “The Scrapped Princess“) as he must save his village from an evil dragon who seems to have a taste in money and sacrifices… to go.
Speaking of getting the short end, it looks like Reiji/Chibi got arrested while at the village, which turned out to be fortunate since they ran into the only member of RI-ON (of which Kouhei is a part of) left behind, Hikaru. So to prove their innocence it looks like they’ll have to dance with the evil dragon and it’s “keeper”, with or without the RI-ON guy they ran into in this village.
Oh, yeah, and you might even see this ending coming… too… ah, right. Moving on.

Episode 21 - To the Legendary Mountain
We tune in once again to monitor the progress of Reiji and Chibi as they continue their quest for power.
Sure, Chibi’s more powerful than at the start of the series, but why not go for some MORE power!
Along the way they battle against wild dragons, and become stronger for it with each and every battle.
Meanwhile Ichirou, seemingly a “former” associate of Kouhei, has changed sides and now wants to get in with another group… but for what purposes? I know why ANOTHER associate wants to join, the one from last episode, it seems it’s mostly for his own desire to fight the duo… or something like that.
As for Ichirou? Nothing good will come of this, as you’ll see his own past that made him is about to break him, and it’s going to lead to one helluva meltdown! Stand back, things are about to go critical!

Speaking of critical things it looks like RI-ON shouldn’t have invested in that old Stargate technology ‘cause their “ride” back to the other world seems… to be broken. Go figure.

Episode 22 - Runaway
Briefly before we roll into DVD Volume 7.
Once again we are back with Reiji and Chibi (again). And after a confrontation with a valley full of the walking undead we finally arrive at the strange “mountaint” where SinnSaber is supposed to be living (after getting some help from a strange old man).
Meanwhile Kouhei, who made it back to Earth, now is under orders to get his rear back to finish his mission… if they ever get that device of their’s working again. Yeah, he’s such a pawn.
Ok. Nuff said. Time for the next DVD.

Volume 7 - New Power
Episode 23 - SinnSaber
As we near the finale of the series… which may or may not be now… we find that the search for SinnSaber has finally come to an end. However it looks like Reiji has to deal with Hikaru over who’ll fight SinnSaber. Yeah, he’s been itching to go one on one against Reiji for a few episodes now, and finally he’s going to have his chance for his “main event” right here, and right now… that is unless SinnSaber decides to crash the fight. SinnSaber takes control of the situation suddenly by deciding to show up, dramatically at that, knocking both combatants and their dragons from their pedistals… and it’s a long way down.
That’s what you get for waking up an extremely powerful dragon, especially one that isn’t exactly known for being a “morning dragon”. Yup. The paperdragon doesn’t go up there for deliveries anymore, singing teledragons never stop by, and there’s no visits from those pesky Shinryu Witnesses either.

After falling from a great great height the two are saved by an old man (who happens to be the same old man who gave them directions last episode in DVD Volume 6) who begs them to rescue his “beautiful daughter” who was kidnapped by bandits.
Strange that they’d run into that kind of thing at this critical moment, don’t you think?
Oh, as for those bandit fellows? Those nutty guys think they’re so tough because they camped at the base of SinnSaber’s mountain and nobody would be crazy enough to fight so close, risking a rude awakening of SinnSaber… except of course if you happen to be a fella looking to knock SinnSaber down for power, then you’ll risk it. What a bunch of losers.
Oh, yeah, SinnSaber IS waken up once again and guess what! SinnSaber is not much of an afternoon dragon either it seems… anyway it’s round two so here we go.

Meanwhile it looks like the gang is experiencing the need for training themselves and their dragons to make themselves stronger… of course they probably should NOT be doing it over a major city since they are on huge dragons and all, but that’s just my opinion.

Episode 24 - The Price of Power
Oh-kay, guess what! The fight with SinnSaber wasn’t so hard after all… well, it was murder actually.
Anyway the winner of the fight was Chibi, who takes on the power of SinnSaber… and promptly comes down with a fever, oh, seems he‘s now CURSED… well, the curse isn‘t this DragonBall Z fire aura thing that might kill Chibi but… well, it‘s something but I‘ll leave you to find out about that.
Anyway here we go again with the dramatic moments! And yeah, it’s dramatic… yeesh. Talk about taking a major risk to save Chibi… you’ll see when you watch.
Anyway having these two out of the fight now is not a good thing. Yeah. Bad timing since Kouhei has returned to the land of Rikyu and kicked off his Rikyu Tour by attacking the Grand Temple of the South. Yeah. Things are just sliding downhill fast it seems.

Meanwhile, if that wasn’t bad enough, it looks like a strange mysterious man has taken a voyueristic attachment towards Rockaku for some reason… is it for good or evil, or is he just a passing by mysterious voyueristic guy who likes to show off. Stay tuned.

Episode 25 - The Mysterious Warrior
Well, it looks like Chibi might be on the mends… but if only Reiji would get his head out of the clouds he’d notice something else is happening to Chibi after gaining the power of SinnSaber… growth? He’s found an interest in girl dragons, or girls in general? What!
Meanwhile we have Meguru, Kyoji and Sayaka doing the Gandalf studying of the old documents thing to locate a place called “The Shine of Four Sacred Dragons”.
Of course they could just ask Meguru about it, but she’s suffering from fear induced selective memory blocking so she can’t remember where it is right now. Uh… yeah. Somebody give her a memory un-blocker or something, willya? Then again however do they find the time to do the research with this new guy flittering about itching for a fight or three anyway!

Episode 26 - Shadow of a Friend
Looks like if old documents and a good hard shaking for Meguru won’t reveal the location of the Shrine, then it’s time for a roadtrip! Of course it couldn’t be an easy trip since it looks like Reiji and Taiyou are about to be captured by Dragon Hunters, but for Taiyou it seems to be on purpose… why? Maybe it has to do with this maniac obsessive lady’s desire to turn dragons into pretty statues. Go figure. Go into model kit building, less hassle and doesn’t take up so much space to display either.

Oh, and it looks like somebody is about to go traitor on the team and side up with the enemy. Urgh. And if you think you know who it is then DON’T watch the Episode 25 coming attractions to see if you nailed it on the head or not. That’s that. Nuff said, because it looks like we have another DVD to look forward to.
Yup, like Wolf’s Rain this series is going into it’s 30th or so episode so stay tuned.

Well, that’s that. I’ll end here. Let’s break this down shall we?

Dragon Drive Breakdown the 6th to 7th
What’s Hot?
Well, nothing has changed in terms of my opinion of the series. It’s still good.
Actually now that I’ve gotten used to the series on this new world I’m getting the hang of the story here.
Reiji is developing nicely for the most part, except for some sort of realisitic relationship with something that isn’t a dragon that is… I.e. where is his girlfriend relationship development! Sigh.
Other than that one complaint I don’t have any problems with this series, as before short of nitpicking.

And as the series progresses along it still holds up to scrutiny as being a good view. Of course that means you should probably begin said viewing at the very beginning, with Dragon Drive V. 1, and move forward, but other than that I don’t really have any problem with this series.

What’s Not?
Maybe that a few episodes were a tad on the cliché side. Yeah, I saw a few of these endings a light yearr away but again that’s only minor nitpicking, nothing too major to be overtly concerned about.
For the most part I can’t think of anything to complain about. Nope, can’t think of a complaint here, at least in terms of a serious complaint in any case.
Yes, as usual this might not be for everyone, sure, I realize that. Still it’s fairly decent and it’s worth looking into. If you have doubts about the series? Rent it. Renting is a great way to find out how you think of the series before you commit to it. Still, the story is decent, the animation is good, and it’s something different (at least it didn’t stick to the (dot)hack virtual reality video game theme for long so that’s good).

Moments to Remember?
The battles top the list since there’s not much bonding, but what bonding there is is next on my list.
The twists and turns of the story (there are a few) is another plus.

What to Ignore?
Hmm… ahh… nothing. I can’t think of a thing, except… nah, I’m going to give him a break and not complain how his loser status with women is such a thing to ignore… ignore it.

Overall?
Still a good series, however (and I can’t emphasis this point enough it seems) it is also one that you need to watch from the beginning to fully understand. I missed a few volumes and because of that I’m a little (a lot) behind on the story, so don’t be like me! If you find that this will interest you then you should be in from the beginning! There are good points to this, and I can’t see much in the way of a downside here.
Personal taste of course will rule the day in the end, but still I think you should give this a fair shake and try it out, you might find it well worth your time and effort to add this to your collection.

-- David Rasmussen 22nd May 05

Dragon Drive Images