New Details on Kamen Rider Drive

Early promotional details on Kamen Rider Drive covered the character who becomes the titular Rider: Tomari Shinnosuke, played by Takeuchi Ryouma, a car-obsessed police officer in a special unit, whose name plays on the Japanese word “tomaru” (to stop). The report followed earlier reveals of rival character Machine Chaser and the first images of Drive’s Speed Form.

The Drive Driver DX toy was detailed as shipping with a belt, a wrist brace, and two vehicle toys, Drive Type Speed and Shift Max Flare, with transformation possible either through Drive Cars in the brace or a “Tire Exchange” mechanic using Shift Cars; turning the driver’s key selects attacks and finishers and changes the face displayed on the belt, which Tomari refers to as “Belt-san.” Additional accessories noted included the DX Trideron, Drive’s signature vehicle, bundled with a Shift Midnight Shadow car, and a DX Shift Car Holder bundled with Shift Funky Spike. The Trideron was linked to a character named Kurim (transliteration uncertain) Steinbelt.

The article compared Drive’s Type/Shift Car system to the States and Modules used in the earlier series Kamen Rider Fourze. At the time of the report, only the Speed type had been shown, described as a fast form built around kicks and punches, with named finishers including a Rider Kick and the punch-based Turbo Smash. Three additional Shift Cars were detailed: Max Flare (fire attacks, finisher Flare Stream), Midnight Shadow (stealth abilities, finisher Shadow Shuriken), and Funky Spike (finisher Spike Tornado).

The show’s villain faction, the Roimyuudo, was described as a group of 108 monsters awakened by a phenomenon called “Jyuukasoku” (huge acceleration), who use Viral Cores to transform; three specific designs, based on a cobra, a spider, and a bat, along with an “Iron Roimyuudo” numbered 029, were shown in the promotional images.