Dragon Drive

If there's one word to describe Reiji Ozora, it would be "quitter." He can never find the motivation to finish anything, and loses interest at the drop of a hat. This all changes when his best friend Maiko introduces him to the new game "Dragon Drive."

In this virtual reality game, each player is assigned a dragon tailored to match their personality and strength. Reiji hopes for a big, strong, scary beast, but instead, he is stuck with Chibi, a cute, friendly-looking dragon smaller than he is. How disappointing—except it turns out that Chibi is the rarest dragon of them all!

Reiji finally discovers something he can remain interested in, and works hard to train both himself and his newfound friend. Soon this training will be put to use to save the world, for there are people who have dark aspirations for Dragon Drive!

Chibisuke Main

Nishimura, Chinami Japanese

Oozora, Reiji Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Hagiwara, Daisuke Main

Shitanda, Michael Japanese

Yukino, Maiko Main

Sasamoto, Yuuko Japanese

Himuro, Hikaru Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Toki, Kouhei Supporting

Kiyasu, Kouhei Japanese

Mukai Supporting

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Sally Supporting

Okamura, Akemi Japanese

Sue Supporting

Matsuki, Miyu Japanese

Lin Supporting

Nishimura, Chinami Japanese

Yamazaki, Tatsuji Producer

Kawase, Toshifumi Director, Storyboard

Yamamoto, Sayo Episode Director, Storyboard

Yamaguchi, Yuuji Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 23, 2014

DATS24

Recommended

Many ppl rated this anime very low. I decided to watch this anime how this can be rated so low. After completed watching the anime, for me, i can't say that it's very bad. Why was it? Let's go into it..

Story: 7/10
The story is about Oozora Reiji, a lazy schoolboy, who is being invited by his chidhood friend Maiko Yukino to join Dragon Drive because Reiji is good at nothing. Reiji became attracted by the virtual game called Dragon Drive where you scan dragon cards and then battling each other. Despite having a little dragon with no power, but actually it's special. Things got more ... complex in the story when Reiji and his other friends was trapped in other side of earth "Rikyuu", and then the real truth of Dragon Drive was told. There may be interesting plot twist about the show, despite not a heavy level plot twist. What's unique in this story is there's some moments where we can see the worse anticlimax where the villain wins and the protagonist lose as if there's no hope anymore. It got escalated after it, but the nearly end of episodes are kinda disappointing for me. I was expecting a good anticlimax, but it went bad and meh. Despite that, it's unique and not that bad.

Characters: 7/10
Most of them are okay, but I see some characters are good and unique.
Oozora Reiji is maybe your typical generic shounen main character. However some things are completely different comparing to other generic shounen main character. He's an agile one and have a good sense. He's not the one that "You want to battle? I won't lose that easily" when in a worse situation. Saying words like "I have no reason to fight you" are usually rare for shounen main character to say, but Reiji could think of that. He's definitely not just depending on his dragon, even he COULD help his dragon with his own power when his dragon is in curse or nearing death, not just saying "Are you okay? wake up please!" without any struggle to help. Reiji is the type of person who inclined to do action more than talking, that's what I really like about him. We also can see his flaws through episodes, his character development progress isn't that flawless, we can see some degradation of him.
Maiko Yukino is likely a minor in this series. Her character development isn't that well but she did some good job in the series. Her characterization is kinda shallow after all.
Hagiwara Daisuke is also likely a minor in this series, he's the annoying type in this show if I can say. I was first hating him, but through episodes, he did some good job and character development went quite good for him.
Rockaku is an interesting character if I can say. He had a burden of seeing his best friend sacrificed himself for Rockaku to keep living. His characterization are good, not much development for him in the end, but he did well job in the series, especially when facing his best friend's brother.
Megumi is likely just a plot device character, not much about her actually.
Sumishiba Ichiro looks like a jerk in the first, with his arrogant behavior. But going through episodes, he become a somewhat adorable character for me. His story told us why he's like that, it's all reasonable and even though he's a minor one, he's not the type of annoying one.
Other minor characters are rather useless or annoying if I can say. We have a bitchy woman, a cold serious looking guy only seeking for fighting, and so on. Some have good characterization, but not much.
The villain in this series are rather cliche, world dominating motivation with not making sense much. The other one is just seeing world as a gaming world. Killing anyone in sight, seeking for a more power, just that. It's a degradation of the character section of this series for me.
This series would be better not to including a lot amount of characters, 38 episodes aren't enough to go inside all the characters.


Music: 7/10
It's not that good and not that bad anyway. Some soundtrack are catchy, though. Opening and ending songs are okay-ish.

Art: 8/10
Being a 2002 anime, they did very well 3D CG, better than any digimon series before 2001. The design of human characters are so so, but the dragons are cool and awesome enough.

Enjoyment: 7/10
I was thinking that this series was promising. Indeed it's yes, but not that much. The ending was TOO anticlimactic, the last fighting is rather boring than before.

Overall: 7/10
It's a so so anime after all. It's not good but definitely not bad. Even though that, it's exactly way better than your everyday typical harem ecchi anime, even if it's harem ecchi action one with 12-13 episodes with multi-season of the same story. This series definitely need more love. It's not as bad as other ppl say. I hope this review helps, thanks for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 3, 2014

Saronin_Jayhart

Recommended

Of all the animes I've seen to list a few Pokemon, Digimon, Bleach, SonicX, AstroBoy, Scryed, Lilo&Stitch, Bakugan, Seven Samurai, FairyTail, Naruto,/Shippudden, DragonBall,/Z,/GT, Dragonaught, and Death Note. Just to list a few of my favorites. Dragon drive is the only one I've watched 22 times in seven years. It is by far the best.

Story:

The story Heavily driven by comedy takes place in a small town in Japan slacker and failure Oozora Reiji(English: Reiji Oozora) you seem to be able to keep at anything for very long is tricked by his childhood friend into trying a virtual reality game called Dragon Drive. Dragon Drive is a ... game where players ride dragons and fight for points and experience. New players have a dragon selected for them that Dragon then becomes their partner for as long as they play.

With amazing plot twists, intricate characters, hilarious moments, and beautiful scenery what's not to like.

SPOILER ALLERT.




A lot happens and at this point in the story and intricate web is formed between all of the characters will some things slowly get unveiled.










Oozora Reiji is paired up with a small white dragon who he names Chibi. Chibi is weak at first but when he gets cornered that's a whole different story. Drawn out by Reiji a power hidden inside this small white Dragon is revealed within the first 5 episodes. The Dragon Drive system or D-Zone is actually based on an alternate universe called Rikyuu(Other Earth) which Oozora Reiji and his two friends Yukino Maiko(English: Maiko Yukino) & Hagiwara Daisuke(English: Daisuke Hagiwara) are drawn into. It is there that they learn about an organization(Ri-On) using Dragon Drive as a front to train warriors to enter Rikyuu for the sole purpose of resurrecting the dark Dragon Shinriu(Incorrect Spelling). A mission is then thrust upon them they must win Draconic Heaven tournament in order to protect the stone containing Shinriu's essence.

SPOILERER ALERT






At this point everyone's training for the upcoming battle and they're searching for allies. By far this is the most interesting part of the story.








Because of their good-guy nature they lose the tournament. But the battle isn't over yet they find out that the stone alone isn't enough to revive Shinriu they must find the shrine of the four sacred dragons and protect it at all costs. Reiji and Chibi gain a new power by assimilating the legendary Dragon Synsaber.

SPOILERERER ALERT.





This is it the whole show's been leading up to this moment slowly building to a climax the battle between dark and light is to be resolved here and now.










Sadly they do not have enough power to stop Ri-On's forces and the power to resurrect Shinriu ends up in Ri-On's hands. But the battle isn't over yet the troop and their newfound friends from Rikyuu return to Earth for a final showdown against Shinriu. Sadly durring the battle Chibi uses up all his energy and afterword falls back into a deep sleep.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 23, 2009

XtremeFlash

Mixed Feelings

I can understand with this serie still hasn't a review yet, but I'll just give you one 'cuz it will be my first one, and why is that? 'Cuz I've got lot of critics to Dragon Drive.
First thing first, if you liked Digimon, then I can say you won't like Dragon Drive very much because it all goes to that, in my opinion...

Story: (4)
It all starts with a lazy boy, Reiji Ozhora, who's nothing but a King of Tardiness. One day, his friend Yukino Maiko tells him about this game, where you ride a Dragon in a virtual world, called D-Zone, and fight other ... players. But first, he needs to know which dragon sleeps inside him, and then he meets his partner, Chibi. They started by getting beaten up in a 10 lose streak, but then, they start to know how the game works and get to a Training Secret room, but due to some force beyond that world, they're sent to another world, where Dragons live freely among humans.
Chibi isn't just a cute dragon... He is a guardian who protected this Other World long time ago, and has awaken inside Reiji.
And now, they must once again protect it!
There ain't much to point here, I watched it 'cuz It sounded my fine, but then, after a couple of time, I was bored to death and I just wanted to drop it right after episode 24 or 25...

Art: (5)
I really hated the Dragons design. That style just doesn't give much of a fight. The effects were ok, but that CG style made no justice for the poor dragons.
The character's design was ok too. Some had pretty much style, others were just ok.

Sound: (6)
I can say this was the best part of the series. I really loved all the themes from here. They are either very powerfull, comical or just nostalgic.

Character: (4)
Ok, most the series I watch, I always find lots of characters I like. In here, I can only go for Toki and Rokkaku just because of their styles. Toki is cool with that pirate bandana and 'm kinda fond of his voice actor. As for Rokkaku, he kinda reminds of Kamina from Gurren Lagann, except Rokakku doesn't appear very much. He has a very strong will to fight, and he's always funny and I like his style too with all that big hair, yeah... Some kind of Kakashi there.
Some are just to damn annoying, like those two twins they fight. I mean, the first I saw them bullying at Chibi... I just wanted to blow their heads to #$%&...
And as for Himaro, well... His desire to fight Reiji, and following everywhere he goes its just wrong... He has style, and he could have been a damn awesome character, yet they ruined him and turned him into a emo which only wants to fight a guy everytime... Even if the world is about to explode....

Enjoyment: (3)
I tried to watch a couple of episodes until I get into the serie, but, the more I get into it, the more I hate it. The battles were just too damn quick and not very "epic" as they should be. I don't wanna spoil anything if you're reading this, but for those who've seen, just that battle against the Four Sacred Dragons... I mean, Reiji launches SinnSaber and its done, *puff*... Into thin air... And Himuro does the same thing with a lowly attack and the enemy disappears... Not tasteful... Needs more action...

Overall: (5)
I'll just give this a 5 for the sake of Chibi's cuteness!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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