Recap / Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser

Written by Riku Sanjo

Directed by Hidenori Ishida

Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser is a V-Cinema movie of Kamen Rider Drive released following the conclusion of the series. In a similar vein to the previous Kamen Rider Double Returns and the Kamen Rider Gaim Gaiden, it gives focus to a secondary Kamen Rider, namely Chaser.

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• Accidental Misnaming: Shinnosuke keeps addressing Detective Terui as "Detective Fukui".
• Babies Ever After: Ryū's last scene in the special has him talking on the phone to Akiko and their daughter, Haruna.
• Become a Real Boy: Chase's desire for the emotional capacity of a human is a major plot point here.
• Blood from the Mouth: Chase gets this trope when he stabs himself in the chest with the Rhino Super Viral Core to remove Angel's feather that gives him emotions at the cost of making him incompatible with Signal Chaser.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Than the main series.
• The Bus Came Back: Also shows the fate of Roidmude 051, originally shown being temporarily taken out of commission by Mashin Chaser in episode 3 before also being revealed to have died off-screen before episode 43.
• Call-Back: In Surprise Future, Shinnosuke failed to use Signal Chaser because he lacked the mental condition compatible with it that Chase has. The emotional capacity imbued into Chase by Angel's feather gave his programming a similar incompatibility that renders transforming with Signal Chaser impossible until he removes the feather.
• Call-Forward: Upon seeing Chase smiling, Shinnosuke, Kiriko, and Mr. Belt have a Spit Take in Gō's face, with the same camera shots and setting as when Chase will ask Shinnosuke if he's in love with Kiriko and when Gō will react to Chase confessing his love for Kiriko in episode 43.
• The Cameo:
  • Nina Kisaragi and Satsuki Yamabuki, played by two members of the Kamen Rider Girls, have a cameo in this movie.
  • Professor Banno and Roidmude 004 also make an appearance near the end.
  • The Penultimate Episode, New Character, Koichi Kano, appears in Chase's flashback to when he found Koichi and chose him as the human template whose data would be copied by Chase.
• The Comically Serious:
  • Ryū's strictness and stoicism when negotiating with Shinnosuke and Gō unsettles them heavily.
  • Inverted with Chase, who usually qualifies for this trope in the main series. Here, his newfound emotions are (initially) Played for Laughs, and the fact that he usually doesn't understand or express emotions is Played for Drama.
• Conditional Powers: As implied by Shinnosuke's failed use of it in Surprise Future, Signal Chaser can only be used in a Mach Driver worn by someone with a particular but unspecified mental state that Chase has, or some psychological bond with him as demonstrated by Chaser Mach. The feather that Angel gives to Chase gives him human emotions, but interferes with his base programming in such a way that transforming into a Rider with Signal Chaser becomes impossible for him until he removes it.
• Continuity Nod:
  • A few are made to The Movie, Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future, which this special takes place shortly after.
    • Rinna mentions Chase having been attacked Roidmude 108, the Big Bad of Surprise Future.
    • Banno wonders out-loud why the Self-Destruct Mechanism he planted in the Drive Driver didn't activate, speculating that the driver had been replaced. In Surprise Future, it was destroyed and later replaced with Dark Drive's driver from the future, which absorbed the Tridoron Key that Krim backed himself up into.
  • Chase's driver's license also appears here, with a flashback to his original picture for it.
• Crossover: The subplot of the special has Shinnosuke and Gō meeting and eventually teaming up with Ryū Terui.
• Demoted to Extra: Medic only has three or four scenes in this special, all of which are largely comic relief. She does get one serious appearance in Heart's brief flashback, though, but that's also pretty minor.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The first scene of Chase expressing joy as one of his new human emotions takes place after the encounter in which he received that emotional capacity from Angel. Said encounter had her naked and taking his shirt off. Chase, Did You Just Have Sex?
• Dress Hits Floor: Angel does this before giving Chase emotions.
• Golden Super Mode:
  • Similar to the Super Evolution Roidmudes, Chase achieves a Golden Super Mode called "Super Mashin Chaser", which is accessed through the Rhino Super Viral Core that he receives from Angel.
    • Superpowered Evil Side: To a downplayed extent, Super Mashin Chaser is disturbingly excessive in his violent rampage against Roidmude 051, far more so than necessary.
  • Speaking of the Super Evolution Roidmudes, Angel herself has achieved this.
• Hotter and Sexier: Of Chase's two Shirtless Scenes, one of them has him and Angel alone in a room together, with her undressing and then removing his shirt.
• In the Back: One of Angel's halos steals Heart's Roidmude Core this way.
• Jump Scare: Roidmude 077 does this to all the cops around him after he wakes up.
• Monster of the Week: The Angel Roidmude, originally Roidmude 099, who was originally listed among the Roidmudes who had died off-screen in episode 43. However, she's more of a Big Bad in a special, while Roidmude 077 also serves as a more traditional Monster of the Week here, transforming into the Beast Dopant.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Krim and Rinna get way too excited over seeing a solar eclipse. Yes, they're scientists, but still.
• The Nth Doctor: At the beginning of the special, Roidmude Proto-Zero talks to Krim Steinbelt and has a distinctly different voice (provided by Daichi Endo) from the one he has through most of the series. This is presumably his "default" voice, as his more familiar one (provided by his civilian form actor, Taiko Katono) comes from having copied data from a human template, Officer Koichi Kano.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Chase, The Stoic, smiling and expressing emotions like joy shocks everyone.
  • More seriously, Chase as Super Mashin Chaser exhibits extreme violence and unnerving bloodlust.
• Posthumous Character: Angel's human template, a psychiatrist named Shōko Hazama, whose studies and conclusions about emotion are what inspired Angel's plans.
• Rule of Funny: The most likely reason for why Mr. Belt can drink milk out of a straw and Spit Take in Gō's face. Also why Shinnosuke and Kiriko decide to turn in Gō's direction when they spit out their drinks.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Medic shows up all dolled up for Heart around the end of the special.
• Shirtless Scene: Two scenes have Chase shirtless.
• Spit Take: Shinnosuke, Kiriko, and Mr. Belt all spit their drinks in Gō's face out of surprise of seeing Chase smiling.
• Super Mode: Chou^note Super Mashin Chaser is accessed by Chase exclusively in this special.
• Transformation Trinket: Features an exclusive appearance of the Rhino Super Viral Core, which is used by Chase to become Chou Mashin Chaser.
• Unexpected Character: Features the return of Ryu Terui/Kamen Rider Accel from Kamen Rider Double.
• The Unsmile: When looking over Chase's original driver's license photo, Nina and Satsuki advise him to smile more next time. This trope is the result.
• Villainous Breakdown: Angel's reaction to Chase rejecting her plan for an ideal utopia for Roidmudes as mere invalidation of individuality.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: A minor example. When Kiriko tells Krim that there's a jurisdiction conflict between the Special Investigations Unit and the Fūto Police Department, Krim complains that it sounds like something out of a cop drama.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Rhino Super Viral Core gives Chase the form of Super Mashin Chaser. As Super Mashin Chaser, Chase is disturbingly brutal and vicious in his attacks, while also commenting on the impressive power of the form.

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The Roidmude Count: 34