Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim Taisen Full Trottle Part 2: Red, Green or Gold Jacket? (Spoilers)

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 Last time on Movie War Full Throttle; we had the Ed, Edd and Eddy Star destroying Zawame, Kouta getting killed and revived and Micchi got redemption/ trauma all in the span of 30 minutes. So now time to join with Drive and take care of a thief..... Yeah more then a bit of a downgrade eh? I'll get to this later but for now; Drives part. It starts off with Shinnosuke giving a brief recap of the Global Freeze and how the SCD are being called in to deal with the "Legendary Gentleman Thief; Ultimate Lupin"

And it turns out that Tuxedo Mask has turned to a life of crime to support himself and the meatball head. Can't really blame the guy.

 He not only manages to blow up cop cars with a wave of his wrist but the most important part is that he can generate the Heaviness which is what he uses to dodge the cops' bullets. He almost gets away but Shinnosuke and Kiriko are on the scene to stop him and sure enough Lupin turns out to be a Roidmude in a black coat. Shinnosuke transforms into Drive to stop him but Lupin manages to get away but not without Krim noticing something familiar about the Roidmude's body. We cut back to the SCD HQ at the driving school where Chief Jun says that the higher ups are threatening to shut them down if the unit doesn't make progress in capturing Lupin. But of course without these clowns nobody will be able to investigate the Roidmudes. TOTALLY SMRT!

#Noshit

 Gen gives the group a picture of the man that Shinnosuke and Kiriko saw the Roidmude impersonating.

His name is Zoruku Tojo, and judging by that photo he should be far older then he should be. Or frozen with Leo DiCaprio either way.

 Shinnosuke and Krim meanwhile are lost in thought. While the two were talking there was a surge of the Heaviness. Kiriko shows up and says that Lupin left a card.

Aw he even has his logo on it, that's just cute. Real Fucking Cute!

 Yep he's calling them out, but with Lupin's ego fueled call out and Rinna's new Heaviness negater Shinnosuke and the SCD are ready for him. Meanwhile Heart and Brain are discussing the appearance of Lupin when Chase (this movie takes place between episodes 9 & 10 so Chase is still under Brain and Hearts control) offers to take Lupin out. The next day the convoy carrying the statue is en route to its destination. Everything seems to be going well until the Heaviness kicks in. Shinnosuke stops Tridorn but the truck carrying the statue is still going.

 So yeah, the obvious happens and the truck driver is Tojo, using the Roidmude's camouflage powers to disguise himself as the truck driver. Now I'm not going to get pissed about this because the police literally couldn't suspect Roidmude involvement with Lupin since at this point in the series the police's knowledge of Roidmudes were suppressed by the powers of Roidmude 001, the Freeze Roidmude who was disguised as the secretary of the national defense forces. So in hindsight this actually makes sense since the police's memories of Roidmudes were suppressed, but when this came out oh boy would I have been calling BS on the police's perceived incompetence.

 Back to the plot Shinnosuke sees Tojo drive with the statue and transforms to give chase in Tridoron. During the chase Gen turned out to be hiding in the truck in case something like this happened and equipped with Rinna's device manages to get to the cab. But Tojo just shorts out the device making Gen susceptible to the Heaviness. Drive manages to save him but Tojo uses his powers to slam cars into each other creating an explosion/roadblock and manages to escape to his castle hideout. Krim however recognizes the castle and drives Drive to the castle.

 Once inside Krim's worst fears are realized as inside the castle they find a Stasis Pod. but instead of a Maximal protoform or Supergirl this one was used to store Cyberoid ZZZ (pronounced 3Z). Tojo shows up and goads Krim to tell Shinnosuke the whole story. ZZZ would have been the body that Krim would have moved his consciousness to after he was killed by the Roidmudes. But the body required strong mental fortitude to control it and on top of his many other problems Krim has confidence issues, so he couldn't use it and thus had to transfer himself to the Drive Driver instead.

Though considering choosing between this ugly thing and the belt. Nah Tojo still got the better option here.

Then the Global Freeze happened and the elderly Zoruku Tojo learned about the Roidmudes, Kamen Riders and and somehow figured out where Krim stored ZZZ and went to the castle and transferred his consciousness into ZZZ. Okay how? Who told him where ZZZ was? Why did they think that a retired thief could use the thing when the guy who created it couldn't? Say it with me kids, its never explained! But then again it could just be

Decade!

 No no if anything it was you now piss off and don't come back until you actually find a point for your existence! Back this brand of crazy, Tojo then declares that now that he's essentially immortal his next heist is to become a hero. But of course being nuttier then an almond joy he has a hate on for Krim and Shinnosuke since the two are shtick dreks in his eyes and unworthy of the title of Kamen Rider due to them being a weakling sentient belt and a greenhorn.

 However Chase has shown up and has heard enough, declaring that a human using the power of the Roidmudes is unforgivable and has come to kill Tojo with the help of Roidmudes 014, 020 and 061. Chase then transforms into Mashin Chaser as Tojo pulls out his own Break Gunner called the Lupin Gunner and transforms.

At least he's modest.

 To show his new power Lupin takes out the three Roidmudes in less then a second, and adding insult to injury steals the data from their three bodies and crushes their cores. This pisses Chaser off something fierce and the two fight, well not exactly fight so much as Chaser flailing angrily while Lupin kicks his ass and not even breaking a sweat. Lupin then takes Chaser out with one attack so that he can now fight Shinnosuke without any interruptions. Krim tells Shinnosuke to retreat but when Lupin starts laying down the trash talk it flips Shinnosuke's switch and transforms to fight him. It doesn't go well even with Type Wild Drive still gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

 Even when Shinnosuke is forced to power down, he still gets up saying he didn't hear no bell, he was only down for three. Lupin then fires a kill shot but Krim ejects from Shinnosuke's waist and takes the shot, frying him. In his dying words Krim tells Shinnosuke to stop Lupin at any cost. As Shinnosuke kneels over sobbing Lupin comes over to pour salty lemon juice in the wound by punching him in the jaw and declaring that the title of Kamen Rider is his now and just pimps off, like a boss.

 Shinnosuke wakes up at the Drive Pit looked over by Kiriko and Rinna who tell him that the Drive Driver is too badly damaged and that it might be impossible to fix.

Well at least she's showing concern, she usually doesn't smile like that, but I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

The two then leave Shinnosuke alone. After some reflection and clips of encouragement from the Shift Cars Shinnosuke has one of his patented revelations and rushes off. Then Kamen Rider Mach comes out of the shadows to basically give his premiere teaser. Meanwhile the SCD gets another challenge from Lupin.

Well at least he updated his business card.

But before everyone goes nuts (as opposed to how they normally are?) Shinnosuke calls and says that he's cornered Lupin and asks for everyone's help to take him down. They meet up at an abandoned Church (because reasons) once everyone is inside Shinnosuke locks the doors saying that he's cornered Lupin, how? Because one of the five is Lupin in disguise! They were swapped out since the first Lupin case since only once he was disguised as one of them could he sabotage Rinna's device and have a front row seat for the SCD's plans to stop him. But now he's trapped and only one of the five people with Shinnosuke is Lupin.

Boss, I'm being super duper mega cereal! Also good god that face!

Now that my nightmares for the next week are in place; I mean the suspects are in place Shinnosuke declares that Kiriko is Lupin. Tojo then drops the act and reveals himself to everyone.

The big tip off was back when "Kiriko" told Shinnosuke to cheer up, she was smiling, and they've established that she's not one to smile casually and only does so when Shinnosuke shows courage. Tojo then transforms into Kamen Rider Lupin and jumps out the Stain-glass windows behind him and gets on a balloon. He then reminds Shinnosuke that if he's there, where's the real Kiriko? Why being held hostage by a numberless Spider Roidmude of course. If Shinnosuke tries to follow him Lupin will have the Roidmude cut the tread and drop her to her death.

 As Lupin is about to attack a building Shinnosuke leaps out of Tridoron and on to the balloon saying that once he's done with Lupin he'll save Kiriko. Of course it's easier said then done as Lupin just kicks Shinnosuke off the balloon. As he's falling the thread holding Kiriko snaps and she starts to fall. But with his determination and help from the Shift Cars Shinnosuke manages to restore Krim and become Drive again with Tridoron saving Kiriko and destroying the Core-less Spider Roidmude. For his next trick Drive shoots at Lupin with his assistant Chaser knocking him off the balloon.

 Chaser wants payback and is even willing to work with Drive this one time to destroy Lupin. Lupin then calls in some backup using his Lupin Gunner to recreate the two Bat and Cobra Roidmudes he destroyed earlier. Chaser takes care of the Roidmudes while Drive faces off with Lupin. With some help form Kiriko Drive manages to defeat Lupin. Tojo gives back the title of Kamen Rider, more then happy to be a part of the fight.

 With that his core leaves the ZZZ body and retreats, Chaser and Mach take their leave as well. But we're not done yet kiddies.

Oh yeah, the Big Yeti Star.

 Megahex shows up and then absorbs ZZZ.

Becoming ZZZ Megahex, how creative.

So now he's uglier, stronger and gold, yeah that's not good. Megahex then retreats back to its main body with Shinnosuke in hot pursuit. Which we'll cover next time and see that even gods have their stupid days.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Producions.