Dragon Drive Volume 9: Fierce Battle (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras - Illustration Gallery - Lenticular Pencil Board
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Dragon Drive Volume 9: Fierce Battle (DVD)

Hideaki was a spy sent by RI-ON! It was a shocking truth, and now everyone realizes that the time is running out. They must find the shrine before it’s too late. However, they come across some scary-looking dragons guarding the shrine, and they won’t let them through. Well, they have no choice but to fight. Is everyone ready for this last battle in Rikyu?

Episode 31: The Four Sacred Dragons

The group has been assembled to try and protect the shrine from any RI-ON (Kouhei, Hideaki, and Mahiru) forces – it’s quite a number of talented individuals, but do they have the firepower to repel the attacking forces? As the allies move towards the shrine, the RI-ON team shadows them, so that they may learn the location of the dragonite – but both teams show signs of straining. Sayaka still seems more interested in avoiding fighting and has peeled off; Kyoji follows to convince her to remain with the rest of the group. For RI-ON, Mahiru seems more interested in finishing his thirst for vengeance against Rockaku then completing the mission.

The team slowly makes there way towards the shrine, and when they arrive, team dissent has started to become a significant problem. Daisuke has been chomping at the bit for some action and instead of waiting for the team to come to consensus, he dives headlong into the energy field that surrounds the shrine and tries to force his way in. The team now begins bickering, and this is the moment that RI-ON appears. Reiji intends to fight Mahiru so that Rockaku doesn’t – but he wants to resolve the problem on his own terms. They don’t get a chance to start however, Daisuke’s attack has released the Four Sacred Dragons and they are attacking indiscriminately.

Episode 32: Rival

With the powerful sacred dragons released, we have four different groups fighting them – Taiyou and Reiji against the 1^st, Daisuke, Maiko, Meguru, and Ichirou against the 2^nd and 3^rd, and Kouhei is fighting the 4^th. Rockaku has been drawing Mahiru away from the battle the entire time, so that he can eliminate that threat then try and help the others. He succeeds in dismounting Mahiru and leaving the man unconscious on the ground. He

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dismounts himself and waits for Mahiru to awaken, when he does he questions what level of involvement that he had with Kouhei. Mahiru states that it was merely an opportunity to try and get revenge on him for his brother. Rockaku takes this as a good sign, and knocks his opponent out again, and states that he will fight him again once this is all over. Kouhei draws his dragon towards Reiji and Taiyou, and it ends up fighting Reiji instead. As a result, Kouhei slinks off towards the shrine.

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Taiyou is able to defeat one of their dragons, and Reiji orders him to go help the others while he fights the remaining one. Reiji continues to struggle in this battle until he is suddenly saved by Hikaru who has decided to help out for the time being. Hikaru and Reiji double-team their dragon until they are able to defeat it. Upon clearing their space, Hikaru challenges Reiji right away, but Reiji must refuse until they defeat RI-ON – Hikaru understands and agrees to help them defeat the remaining dragons.

Episode 33: Labyrinth of Darkness

Chibi is exhausted from repeated uses of the SinnSaber, and must rest but the battle hasn’t been decided yet. Rockaku arrives once again and he and Hikaru will fight one of the remaining dragons while Chibi catches a breather. On the other dragon, Daisuke continues to press the fight aggressively despite the advice of everyone around him; he is becoming hypnotized with the thought of getting the dragonite. After defeating the dragon, Daisuke’s body is suddenly taken over by the spirit of one of the defeated dragons and it takes all of the group into another dimension. Each member in the other dimension is exposed to their inner thought and begins battling their own demons and drives for being there. Once each person is able to defeat their own inner demons, the dragon is defeated and Daisuke starts to regain control of his body. Daisuke yells to his friends to escape from him while his body surges with power.

Chibi has rested enough and is ready for action once again, so Reiji jumps on and they head back into the fray and they come across Kouhei. The two begin circling one another, but before they can really get started, the remaining dragon hits them with a blast and the two riders are now unconscious on top of their mounts in the middle of an ice cave. Mahiru has also finally regained consciousness and he has one thing on his mind, revenge against Rockaku.

Episode 34: The Truth

Reiji awakens inside the cave (which is actually an alternate dimension created by the attacking dragon) and cannot find a way out. Kouhei tries to attack Reiji, but all of his attacks are missing wildly, he’s was hurt during the attack and cannot see right now. He asks Reiji to kill him for failing his mission, but Reiji refuses. The two agree to a temporary truce and defend themselves against the walls of the cave which begin attacking them randomly. With no better option, Kouhei starts attacking the walls of the cave looking to draw out the dragon – when it appears, Reiji attacks with SinnSaber and the two are freed from the dimension. Back in normal space, Kouhei turns and fires just above Reiji’s head – his eyesight has returned and he just fired the killing blow into the dragon that trapped them. Reiji asks Kouhei to join his in saving his friends, but he refuses (the truce is over, I guess); he looks as though he wants to attack Kouhei now, but he still has to save his friends first so he leaves the villain alone while he goes to his friends.

The rest of the team is still being attacked by the dragon possessing Daisuke, but they do not want to hurt their friend by counterattacking and are subsequently trapped. They are freed by the appearance of Hikaru who intends to take the fight to the enemy but the rest of the team stops him. Meanwhile, Mahiru has caught up to Rockaku and the two are fighting for the 2^nd time – Rockaku doesn’t have time for this extravagance so he forces Mahiru and mount into the ground and knocks him out again (another concussion… geez, they are going to need a full time neurologist on staff soon). Reiji arrives, and with the power of Chibi they are able to exercise the dragon from Daisuke. The team now heads towards the shrine, but they are too late – Kouhei and Hideaki have already been inside and collected the power inside the dragonite (so it’s possible that Shinryu may now be resurrected). Rockaku meets up with the rest of the team which now surrounds the remaining two villains but no one is willing to attack, fearing the release of Shinryu. Mahiru arrives again, and so Kouhei offers to help him kill Rockaku but Sayaka and Kyoji with the revelation that Kouhei killed Mahiru’s brother earlier. The lines are drawn – it’s going to be everyone against Kouhei and Hideaki.

This volume of Dragon Drive has been pretty much one fight after another, with almost every combination of villain and good guy bashing heads. It’s been a tad on the busy side, but not too bad altogether.

- Tazman

(October 9, 2005)

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