Drive Head and Earth Granner were not flops in Japan
Let me start with a small disclaimer. I’m not writing this because I’m a big Tomica fan and I don’t like seeing their anime slandered. I’m also a big Spider Riders fan and have no problem telling you that it was a flop of epic proportions. I’m also not writing this to slander Shinkalion. I think it’s a great show.
This seems to be an ongoing misconception, mainly outside of Japan though I’ve seen some Japanese fans too that assume this (and usually get shot down right away because this is just not true).
I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is Shinkalion, as it’s often the context for this discussion coming up in the first place. Shinkalion was a smash success in Japan. It was the perfect storm. Trains are huge, so a series devoted to them, packed with accurate train facts and detail, was going to be big. The work was targeted at young children, but attracted an audience of older railfans as well. The series had a ton of popular seiyuu, so it attracted older otaku who watch for seiyuu. The series had Google as a sponsor, so it had big money behind it from the getgo. It had collabs with hugely popular properties, including Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla. So yes, it attracted fans of Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla who weren’t going to watch it for any of the other reasons listed above. So yeah, there’s no denying Shinkalion was a big success in Japan. But there’s no denying Frozen was a big success in the west (and Japan, and all over the place.) An argument that Drive Head and Earth Granner weren’t successful because they never reached Shinkalion’s level of popularity is like saying Tangled or Big Hero 6 were flops because they weren’t as big as Frozen. (And to be honest, I’m not in Disney fandom. Maybe there are people that argue that? But if there are, they’re idiots.)
Let’s start by talking about the origin of Drive Head a bit, because it’s rather important for explaining what happened. Drive Head was the first TV anime made to promote the Tomica brand of die-cast cars. It was neither the first Tomica anime, nor their first TV series. But it still was something of an experiment, given the brand has existed since 1970. Drive Head was billed as a co-production between OLM (a.k.a. the Pokemon studio) and XEBEC. But as anyone who takes the time to look through the credits can tell you, OLM had very little actual involvement in it. And XEBEC was on its last days. Drive Head had a dismally low budget, with constant off-model animation and two recap episodes, which is another reason that western anime fans were not impressed. Ignoring the fact that the series was aimed at children in Japan as a vehicle to sell toys, not sakuga fanatics.
And the reason that the creators just didn’t care? Well, besides the fact that it was experimental in ways, and that it was just made to sell toys to pre-schoolers? Because Drive Head was merely designed as a placeholder for Shinkalion while it was in production. Takara Tomy wanted Shinkalion to be big. Drive Head was a throwaway. Even the toys themselves were just retools from the Hyper Series line in the first wave.
But Drive Head was a big surprise to the Takara Tomy execs. Because it was big with its target audience. Now, the target audience of Drive Head is not on social media. They’re not the type pouring out fanart on Pixiv. Probably, they can’t even draw (some of the fan-submitted art on Drive Head News Channel, the live-action variety show it spawned proves this.) They’re pre-schoolers! That being said, Drive Head does have aspects that can appeal to adults (as long as they care about more than sakuga). Yeah, I did write that essay and a million fanfics about the villain/heroine romance straight out of Megamind that probably wasn’t written with the target audience in mind. Drive Head did somehow manage to trend on Twitter whenever new episodes aired. Heck, the series character designer posts fanart on Twitter that often treads NSFW territory and has an audience for it. But, Takara Tomy also doesn’t care about that audience, nor should they. They care about selling toys to kids.
Now, the first wave of Drive Head toys went out of print pretty quickly, when the robots were replaced in-universe by their mid-season upgrades. And the price of Sonic Interceptor, the main character’s first mech spiked up right away. There was still a demand for it. This probably should’ve been the first sign the toyline was doing well. Takara did take notice, and this placeholder show that was originally only planned for 37 episodes (an unusual amount when most kids shows run for 4+ cour) was expanded to have a sequel web series and movie. It has been officially stated from the staff that the series was planned to end at episode 37, and changes did have to be made to expand the plot. It must have been early enough in its run for this to be decided. However, given that the web series was primarily recap episodes (and even the entirely new ones were short episodes) and the movie was about an hour long and didn’t have significantly higher production values than the TV series, they clearly still rushed to get these made. The success of Drive Head was said to be unexpected. Even with the movie, they were still surprised. They had planned for two interactive Drive Gear linked screenings (the Drive Gear being a toy that made certain sounds in response to the show itself). Drive Gears were available for loan at these showings. Not only were these showings sold out so quickly that they set up a few more, but many kids brought their own Drive Gear from home, not needing to borrow one. The movie itself was also shown only in limited theaters, which led to enough complaints that they were forced to expand locations (and it still wasn’t enough). Though the movie wasn’t a box-office topping success and it’s actual revenue remains unknown barring in Korea where it seemed to indeed be a flop, it still proved popular with (once again) its target audience. Two theatres even kept playing it for a couple months after all the rest stopped.
Drive Head has continued to be rebroadcast on satellite networks and various streaming services. It is -still- popular with its target audience. You get posts on Twitter like, ‘my kid loves Drive Head and is asking for the toys, but they’re $200 on Amazon. Help!’ There’s still that much demand for these toys.
Unfortunately for these kids and parents, Drive Head hasn’t seen a single re-issue on the toys since its end, and has barely been acknowledged by Takara Tomy at all. There are a number of reasons for this. One is Shinkalion itself. The show that Drive Head was designed as a placeholder for and that Takara Tomy expected to be successful was so successful that it ended up running for longer than planned as well. It held onto the timeslot on TBS where Drive Head once aired until it was prematurely cancelled itself thanks to TBS wanting that timeslot to promote the ill-fated 2020 Olympics. So while there was talk from reliable sources about a Drive Head season 2 happening, it never got its chance to happen. The next reason is TBS itself. They screwed over all their anime programming, barring late-night fare, and it wasn’t until Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury came out in 2022 that they would even consider daytime anime again. So all of Takara Tomy’s properties jumped ship to TV Tokyo. And Drive Head, unlike Shinkalion, is so intrinsically tied to TBS that the likeness of their headquarters and even some of their staff members are featured in the anime. Though, given that real-Sasagawa no longer works for TBS, and has expressed interest in reprising her role one day, it could be feasible to get her on board if a TV Tokyo sequel ever happened. But for a time, there would definitely be some messy legal hoops involved, and there still could be for all I know. Thirdly, XEBEC. While Drive Head could be given to another studio easily enough (perhaps Studio Mother?), XEBEC is no longer of this world. A sequel under a new studio could lead to a radical staff change which might help or harm it. That and well… time’s passed. The time Shinkalion had the timeslot, Covid screwing with anime production after that… Despite new kids discovering the show through streaming platforms, the original target audience is older now and has moved on. It’s the kind of show that could get a nostalgia sequel 10 years from now but for a direct sequel at this point, that ship has sailed, for better or for worse. Even when Shinkalion got its long-awaited sequel, it was mainly focused on new characters and mecha, with the old cast reduced to cameos. And Takara has been releasing toylines with similar gimmicks and aesthetic, such as the currently-running Jobraver. So for that reason, the coveted re-issue of the Drive Head toys is basically doomed.
But now, Earth Granner. The special anime released to commemorate Tomica’s 50th anniversary. I mentioned above that the Tomica brand was born in 1970, so you do the math. You should see right away why that was an unfortunate year for a big 50th anniversary celebration.
When Earth Granner’s toys first hit the shelves, late April 2020, the biggest of the lockdowns were happening worldwide. While Japan’s lockdowns were not as long lasting or extreme as some countries (barring its extreme embargo on foreign tourism), they did happen, and toy stores were certainly deemed nonessential and were shut down for a brief period. So while yes, you could order the toys online on Amazon or the like, right from the get-go Takara Tomy lost their chance to have kids see the big cool $50 robot toy in the store and beg their parents for one. When it was revealed in a first-quarter sales report that the Earth Granner toys sold less than expected, there was almost gloating from a certain section of Shinkalion fans (-not- the target audience of either show) who were not happy that a new Tomica anime debuted before Shinkalion’s season 2 did. Despite the fact that new Shinkalion toys were still being produced and the brand was still very much alive even without a currently airing anime. This clearly ignoring the global crisis which was quite likely to blame for this new line to not have stellar sales from day one. And note that these low sales were quite temporary. Come December, Earth Granner was -the- hottest toyline for young boys. According to lists of the top Christmas toys, it was outselling both Rider and Sentai. That does not seem like a flop to me.
Earth Granner actually appeared to be a quite ambitious project from Takara. They’d learned from the success Drive Head had and planned all sorts of things for it. This included having tokusatsu-style costumes designed in real life of the two main heroes, who would allegedly appear at events and perform stage shows. But again, this was 2020. There was never one stage show. The costumes were only used for a few special events late into the anime’s run where they had drive-in advance showings of new episodes and Raiga and Kuga would be around to greet the kids though their car windows, assumedly. It’s unknown if there were ever plans to make suits for the remaining three Granners, or exactly what would’ve become of the franchise if it had the chance to be what Takara Tomy clearly wanted from it. But Earth Granner simply ended after its year run without even getting a movie like Drive Head and Shinkalion did, and it’s gimmicky extra-packed Blu-Ray box was canceled, having done poorly on the crowdfunding. Clearly, the show was again not a huge hit with adult fans, perhaps even less-so than Drive Head in Japan which did get a BD release. But the toys were still a top seller that year, despite the circumstances they had to deal with.
Again, Takara Tomy barely acknowledges the franchise anymore, and the toys are out of print. However, it also seems that Takara Tomy is going in a direction of less new anime, given their toys themselves prove to be more successful than the probable cost of the shows that promote them. With Tomica’s current Jobraver line, it’s clearly doing well enough that it’s survived for over a year. Its anime is merely sporadically-released all-CG-animated episodes on Youtube. The other currently airing Takara Tomy works include Go! Go! Vehicle Zoo (2-minute long episodes that air sporadically, and cross-promoting three toylines at once, including Tomica), Bouken Tairiku Ania Kingdom (10-minute episodes, and entirely done in stop-motion), a rebroadcast of Punirines (an all-CG 10-minute-episode anime from last year), Duel Masters (which has been running near-endlessly since 2002), and Beyblade (another long-running franchise which only recently made its return to TV after being relegated to streaming only for a while). Shinkalion may be a special exception due to its massive crossover appeal, but even that has no anime currently, rumors of an upcoming new series aside.
Tldr; Drive Head and Earth Granner did great with their target audience despite being screwed over by outside circumstances. You just don’t hear about them because you don’t chat with too many 4-year-olds in Japan.
Just a reminder that I run the Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute Discord Server™ for discussion of Shinkalion and other related topics (That includes Drive Head)!
It’s a great place to meet up and chat with fans of this terribly undiscovered series. (Though who knows if that will change with Miku...) Feel free to come and join us!
"I suppose I can continue tomorrow," Karigari said. "Mantid must be suspicious as to why I holed myself up in here all day. It's a shame I couldn't guess what Buguese's actual hobbies are."
"Besides pining over Aqune?" Sasagawa asked, teasingly.
Fact of the matter stands, the man has literally no other hobbies. It’s both sad and hilarious.
A small disclaimer: This essay is entirely an expression of my personal opinion and interpretation, and is not meant to be a be-all-end-all fact sheet and start drama. Also, it is entirely about two fictitious anime characters, and in no way, shape or form is this in reference to the former TBS announcer Yuri Sasagawa, whom the character was named for (nor the title character from the 1920′s horror silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, whom the other character was named for- with a modified spelling because his namesake was German but he’s part Japanese). Yes, this is sounding like the ultimate crack relationship already, but fortunately none of that is relevant. Just a sort of hilarious side thing to acknowledge.
Drive Head is an anime I’ve been invested in for quite a while now. It’s an obscure kids anime which premiered April, 2017 and ran for only 37 episodes (though it was followed up with 8 short ONA episodes and an hour-long movie.) While popular in Japan, it never caught on in the west due to numerous factors, the biggest being that it had no legal stream or even fansubs for most of its run. That and the fact that the show suffers from some really poor pacing, with a heavy amount of filler rescue-of-the-week episodes and even two recap episodes before getting into the meat of the plot, which is actually quite intriguing. It’s just unfortunate that they took as long as they did to get there. Actually, a lot of the filler episodes are pretty enjoyable. The show has a very likeable cast of characters. Depending on one’s tolerance for slice-of-life and shows that are more character-driven than plot-driven, the pacing may not even be an issue. It still was for me when watching one episode a week, but felt much more palatable when binge-watching. Well, YMMV.
The show is centered on an organization called the Mobile Rescue Police, which controls three (eventually four) robotic frames called the Drive Heads. They can switch between vehicle form and robot form, ala Transformers (Takara Tomy is behind the show, after all), though the robots aren’t sentient in this case. Each is driven by an elementary school student who was chosen due to their pure heart. The Drive Heads are launched during various disasters, in order to rescue people. And, Bayfront City seems to be hit with some pretty nasty disasters, though as it turns out, a lot of them weren’t just freak occurrences.
That being said, this essay isn’t about the members of the Mobile Rescue Police. It’s about their biggest enemy and their biggest fan.
The Number One Genius Scientist in the World Dr. Karigari
Karigari (real name- Fritz von Gustav Karigari- who is prone to referring to himself in lengthy titles to brag about his great intelligence) is a character who is quite popular with the fanbase for good reason. Initially appearing in the 11th episode, he finally serves as a real villain, and is a very competent and dangerous one on top of that. Despite all the boasting he does, when it comes down to it, he really is as intelligent as he believes he is. And he hates the Mobile Rescue Police (particularly holding a grudge against the Chief Engineer Jou Kurumada), because in the past, he used to be involved with them. He was also developing a robot for disaster relief. But Karigari’s system, which was powerful and cutting-edge, was also deemed too dangerous. Therefore, the Drive Heads were chosen instead. Taking this as a blow to his pride, Karigari severed ties with them, and swore to make them pay.
Despite being a villain, despite being petty, despite being a complete egomaniac, there’s a lot more to Karigari. Right from his introductory episode, there are hints that despite his hatred for Kurumada, he holds this grudging respect for him. (Telling his subordinates “Don't underestimate Saionji and Kurumada.) Karigari’s various attacks on the Mobile Rescue Police (which he actually refers to as “games”) often feel like tests, so he can see their newest equipment and force them to keep improving. Karigari also makes it clear he isn’t actually interested in hurting or killing anyone either. Yes, he traps Chief Gozu up on the Akashic Tower, which he claims is covered with explosives. But the explosives were all fake. It was just a bluff to incite the Mobile Rescue Police into action and ultimately make them aware of their shortcomings. That’s basically how he operates. He’ll do what it takes to win, but he’s noble in his own sense. The contrast becomes more obvious when the true enemy of the series emerges.
Yuri Sasagawa, on the scene
Whenever an incident strikes, Akasaka TV will be there to cover it. Announcer Sasagawa appears in each episode, together with an unnamed cameraman, to bring all the details to the people of Bayfront City. Sasagawa is almost always cheerful and excited. While she tries her best to keep up a professional appearance, it’s clear as day that she’s passionate about Drive Head (particularly the blue frames, Sonic and Cyclone Interceptor) and just wants to gush about them. It’s to the point that most fans interpret her as lusting over the robots themselves. Well, with some of her comments, it’s not hard to see things that way. (The relationship chart on the official website, which shows her with a heart pointing to Interceptor, does not help matters either). The point is that she adores Drive Head more than anyone, even though she’s rather disappointed that she doesn’t know who the drivers are.
While Sasagawa could easily have been used as a one-note gimmick (lots of shows do have a token ‘announcer’ character who appears every episode for the purpose of announcing, and nothing more), she’s actually incorporated into the plot quite nicely. She’s given a few episodes in the spotlight. For instance, one where she becomes the one in need of rescue by the Drive Heads, while test-riding a new Ferris Wheel that gets knocked off its rails. One where she’s on vacation from work. While she isn’t a hero per-se, and tends to get into trouble, she’s brave and reckless and helps whenever she can. She evolved into a character in her own right, and a very fun one at that.
Karigari and Sasagawa
I probably could say this about a lot of my ships, but initially, I wouldn’t have imagined these two interacting, much less getting ship tease with each other. When it actually happened, it was like being slammed with a hammer, realizing how amazingly compatible they actually are. Well, I’ll get to that later. First, the canon evidence, and my analysis of these moments.
In episode 11, the very first scene which Karigari appears in is pretty interesting. Because while I have my doubts it was meant as an intentional KariSasa scene, it does involve Sasagawa. The problem is that it’s unclear if Karigari knew at this point who Sasagawa was in the first place, given that for some unidentified period of time, he wasn’t even living in Japan (allegedly.) But anyway, the scene involves Karigari appearing near the Akashic Tower. Which becomes a centerpiece of his plan later in that episode. So obviously, the basic interpretation is that he was going there to scope it out. But it’s worth noting that Sasagawa was there being filmed. If anything, I feel like it could have been intentional foreshadowing. The episode was written by the main writer, Kenichi Araki, who has worked on all the episodes containing explicitly KariSasa moments.
The first real hint is in episode 18. Yusuke and Akira, Karigari’s two subordinates, become concerned that the Mobile Rescue Police will find their location. When they try to confront Karigari about it, he’s paying no attention to them, as he’s been watching the news coverage of the strange weather affecting Bayfront City. Which was his doing, so there was really no need for him to watch it. Except, he pauses on an image of Sasagawa, commenting that she’s beautiful. So his objective was just to watch the girl he has a crush on. I mean, obviously alarm bells should be ringing off at this. He’s a bad guy, crushing on this sweet girl who may not be one of the heroes, but is certainly their biggest supporter. There’s no way that could possibly end well. Except, the writers take it in a much less cliché and more appealing direction.
Episode 19 follows up with this new plot thread right away. Karigari is again watching Sasagawa on TV, but this time she’s reading fortunes. Such as, “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're a Sagittarius. It's looking especially good for your love life. Now's your chance to finally confess to that person on your mind!” Hearing this, Karigari is very excited. Even though, as his subordinates point out, his sign is Ophiuchus. But because the TV stations don’t give fortunes for the less-acknowledged 13th zodiac sign, Karigari chooses to go with whichever fortune is the luckiest. For the day, he’ll become a Sagittarius.
Karigari won’t put this very lucky fortune to waste, so he heads to the Akasaka TV building. There, he’ll unleash his newest revenge plan, and confess to Sasagawa while he’s at it. Or at least, that’s what he hopes to accomplish. His plan begins with using the parabolic antenna on the building to cause blackouts in certain areas of the city. Sasagawa is busy reporting on an unmanned replenishment craft, which is returning from a space station to earth, when she’s informed about this more pressing news story.
Of course, Sasagawa and her cameraman rush to deal with this crisis. Sasagawa is told by one of her higher-ups, “This is the situation. Karigari has chosen you to have exclusive coverage of the story.” The man warns, “He's a very dangerous character.” Despite this, Sasagawa doesn’t look worried at all. She replies, “Let me handle it. I have no reason to refuse exclusive coverage on the man who opposes the Mobile Rescue Police!” So she heads into the trailer that Karigari had managed to drag into the building. Of course, she’s interested in taking this one because of her personal investment in the Mobile Rescue Police. I like how, despite warnings, she doesn’t seem to be afraid at all. Not that it’s out of character for her either, but considering the apparent threats Karigari has made in the past, and is making currently, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to refuse entering a small enclosed place with him and leaving it for the authorities to deal with. But she decides then to confront him anyway.
So, once inside, Karigari greets her while posing dramatically (he has a flair for theatrics, after all.) “Welcome Miss”.
Except, he freezes up immediately after. Actually being face-to-face with the object of his affection, he’s so nervous he’s not sure what to do. Which is actually pretty amazing, given how confident he always is. Sasagawa’s first impression of him is bafflement. At first, she can’t really believe that this person is the infamous Dr. Karigari. But, Karigari confirms that he is, indeed, Karigari. And he starts explaining to Sasagawa all the details of his current plan, while the cameraman is filming, so it’s broadcasted live on TV. Remaining as calm as she can, Sasagawa listens to all of this and tries to understand it.
Soon, the Mobile Rescue Police contact Karigari, and he threatens that if Kurumada and Saionji don’t come to the TV station and surrender, he’ll cast a blackout on the entire city. After this, Yusuke cuts off the transmission. Karigari is glad, because now he and Sasagawa can get back to where they left off. Sasagawa, however, has no desire to continue the interview. She’s done sitting quietly and listening. Instead, she rips Karigari apart.
“Please stop! If you take down the entire capital's electricity, it won't just paralyze the city's functions. There will be countless casualties! Hospital patients depend on the power! Stop involving people who have done no wrong in satisfying your selfish vendetta!”
Karigari doesn’t seem to be angry over her criticism, though. He replies, “But I have to win this game. I absolutely refuse to lose!” Sasagawa is further upset, but Karigari continues, “I'm not seriously going to leave casualties. You needn't worry. I never planned for a capital-wide blackout to begin with.” All it is was a bluff, he makes clear to her. “I just want to beat Saionji and Kurumada. Once they admit defeat, I'll be satisfied. And after that...”
“After that?” Sasagawa replies, confused.
“The police will arrest me. I'll go to hell. Well, whatever the consequences may be.”
Hearing this, Sasagawa is completely dumbfounded. It was quite the opposite of what she was expecting. Not only was she wrong about Karigari’s intentions being something horrible, Karigari also admitted to her that yes, he acknowledges that he’s not a good person and realizes the hole he’s been digging for himself all along. He’s just that desperate to win and repair his wounded ego. So just like her first impression when she stepped into the trailer, Sasagawa again has to change her perspective on this dreaded enemy of her Drive Heads.
Already becoming more curious about Karigari’s true intentions, she asks him, “Why did you choose me?” Karigari replies, “Because of what you said this morning. It's my chance to confess.” But Sasagawa never gets to find out exactly what he meant by that. Nor should she really have reason to believe that he would confess to her, as he’d only just met her.
At this point, a mysterious eye symbol appears on Karigari’s computer, and the antenna starts to move on its own as a result. That space craft from earlier was its target. The ship loses power, and starts to plunge down towards the city. Naturally, neither Karigari nor Sasagawa have any idea how this happened, and are both panicking. And this brings us to the third unexpected side of Karigari Sasagawa got to see. His vulnerability, and legitimate worry for the lives of the people in the city.
Fortunately, the Drive Heads are able to prevent a disaster from happening. But as a result of what occurred, Karigari tells Sasagawa, “Your fortune was wrong, Miss. Or rather, it might be that Sagittarius isn't my sign.” Thus, he never does confess, and he has Sasagawa and the cameraman leave the trailer. Because the police are surrounding the trailer outside, ready to capture Karigari, he and his subordinates escape through the roof in his flying car. Sasagawa watches from outside, looking worried for him.
Okay, so I wrote an essay on this episode. But it was what made me ship them. It was the important foundation for everything that comes after. It brought Sasagawa from the point of, ‘I hate this bad person who dares oppose my Drive Heads and hurt people’ to ‘he’s this weird, awkward guy so obsessed with winning that he’ll go to hell for it, and he actually doesn’t want to hurt people? And something about a confession…?’ It’s an impressive turnaround, solidified with that longing look towards Karigari at the end. At the very least, she pities him after this, but she also seems legitimately curious about him, given that she asked him why he chose her, something that wasn’t relevant to the rest.
I should mention, from Karigari’s side, the relationship seems a lot more shallow. Sasagawa is interested in him because of her interactions with him, but Karigari is interested in her because she’s beautiful? Well, you can see as things go on that it’s more than that. From things that Karigari has said and done, I feel that he’s more attracted to her vibrancy. The way she’s always smiling and upbeat. With his bitterness over the past and negativity, of course he’s drawn to her positivity. She’s the light he needs in his life, a new focal point besides revenge.
But, moving on to episode 24, which is my personal favorite. Karigari and his subordinates stay at a hotel in the mountains, and he uses this opportunity to research the eye symbol which has been responsible for a large number of disasters. Karigari promptly stops his research when he realizes it’s time for Sasagawa’s morning fortune corner, and switches over to a live stream. The problem being, Sasagawa isn’t on. She’s off on a summer vacation, and a different announcer is filling in for her. Karigari is in shock. He turns it off, depressed. “My luck is terrible today. Because every morning, I look forward to seeing her smile.” Karigari plans to head back to his room, but his subordinates notice something.
“Over there... isn't that the fortune person?”
Lo and behold, Sasagawa was vacationing in the same hotel. Karigari is overjoyed, in a dramatic enough fashion that he manages to generate shoujo sparkles around him. Thing is, Karigari is also a nervous wreck. This man with an ego from hell is still too shy to actually go up and talk to her. Which leaves him to hide his face under a newspaper and watch her from a distance, looking like a complete stalker. And cringe whenever someone else approaches her, which happens quite a lot when she’s a popular celebrity.
“If you're that concerned, why not just call out to her?” “Want me to call her?” His subordinates, foolish as they are, get that he’s totally crazy about her and want to help. “Stop that! Don't do anything that's unnecessary!” is Karigari’s reply. “But this is a rare coincidence,” they argue. “She's spending her summer vacation in the same hotel we're in.” Karigari still isn’t convinced, and says, “As if she'd believe it's a coincidence. She might mistake me for a pervert who's following her around.” Which is ironic, because in trying to avoid that, he was basically stalking her.
Anyway, Karigari finally decides he has to do something when she gets up to leave. Otherwise, he’ll never get the chance. But then, per the disaster-of-the-week nature of the show, a meteor suddenly crashes right near the hotel. Despite being off from work, Sasagawa decides to go out and investigate anyway. Karigari, needless to say, is disappointed by this turn of events.
So Sasagawa is off in the mountains alone, calls up the TV station, and starts covering the story. Watching her from the hotel’s TV, Karigari is panicking over how reckless she’s being. And he was right to panic, because Sasagawa gets too close to the edge of a cliff and falls off to her imminent doom. Or not, because Karigari went out after her, and catches her with his flying car. When Sasagawa opens her eyes, she’s certainly surprised to see him there (though Karigari is kinda hiding himself in the back seat, so nervous he can’t even watch. His subordinates were the ones driving. Still, it’s Karigari she notices right away.)
After landing the car on the ground, the two are left to talk for a little. Sasagawa asks, “Why did you come to save me?” Still a blushing adorable wreck, though he’s trying to stay composed, Karigari answers, “Really? My reason is simple. I enjoy watching your fortune corner every morning.” Because apparently, he still can’t pull off answering honestly and saying that he loves her. “That will be all, Miss,” he says, as he heads back to his car. Though she’s puzzled by his answer, Sasagawa hopes he’ll stay around. “Please wait, Dr. Karigari!” He holds out his finger and corrects her, “That's the Genius Scientist of Dreams and Romance, Dr. Karigari.” Sasagawa watches him go, looking confused.
It’s really pretty adorable I think, the awkwardness between them. With Karigari’s inability to confess, and Sasagawa just having no clue what’s going on, but still remaining oddly fascinated by him. The dynamic between them is something really sweet already.
Episode 31 involves Karigari working intensely to complete a virus, having finally learned the identity of the eye symbol (the AI of a long-forgotten super computer he dubbed “the Evil AI”) and hoping to destroy it. In the process of doing this, he looks to be quite paranoid, checking around to make sure it’s not already on to him. Unfortunately, it was, and the Evil AI is very, very smart. Karigari’s system was infected by it. It brings on screen an image of Sasagawa and starts to taunt him with her voice. “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're an Ophiuchus! I predict something fantastic will happen today. Both you and the results of your research will be erased from this world before long, Dr. Karigari.” Then it proceeds to delete his virus, blow up his hideout, and attempt to kill him using his own Walker Vehicle. Karigari is rescued by Kuroeda, one of the Drive Head’s drivers, but is badly injured and taken in by the Mobile Rescue Police to receive medical attention.
Enter Sasagawa, who is blissfully unaware of all of this, but has been busy covering stories on this popular new Ark symbol, which happens to look identical to the mark of the Evil AI. After that, she reports on a new city complex being constructed, with the ominous name of “the Tower of Babel”, when she’s nearly hit by a car. It turns out to be Karigari’s car, driven by his subordinates, Akira and Yusuke. Though the camera crew working with Sasagawa is quite concerned by this, Sasagawa looks absolutely delighted to see them. She exclaims, “They’re the criminals who saved me!” and runs up to them, asking about Karigari right away. There’s really no other way to interpret this besides, ‘Sasagawa has become really fond of Karigari.’ And it’s really, really cute.
Of course, Akira and Yusuke decide it’s best not to tell her what happened with Karigari. After all, Karigari wouldn’t want her to worry. Instead, they hand her an envelope, containing a flash drive of some sort, telling her that it’s vital for saving the world. They say that Karigari wanted her to have it. The reason being, “It's because you're the person he trusts the most.” The two fly off and leave her with it. And as it turns out, when she brings it to Kurumada since the contents are impossible to access without some advanced technology, the chip contains a virus of some sort. (Ultimately, it’s a copy of the virus Karigari was creating to take down the Evil AI, though Sasagawa herself doesn’t get to learn of its true purpose.) Nonetheless, she entrusts it to Kurumada. Sasagawa doesn’t seem to have any doubt in Karigari’s intentions either, despite the fact that he created a virus and handed it over to his enemies. So she trusts him, he trusts her, and the virus helps save the world from a major crisis thanks to that. Neither of them know the other particularly well (it’s possible they’ve met offscreen sometime, but who knows?) so it’s rather telling, I think, that they can place trust in each other for something so vital.
Sticking with the trust thing, episode 36. Sasagawa has been looking into the strange phenomenon where people are turning into metal. She’s also noticed that the Ark symbol has something to do with the disasters that have been happening lately. Her co-worker and friend Unai notices the images she’s looking at, and comments, “Don't you think there's a chance it could be the work of Dr. Karigari?” Without hesitation, Sasagawa replies, “No. I don’t think so.” However, that gives her an idea. She’s sure that Karigari knows something, given his virus. Therefore, she decides to visit Karigari to find out what. I love how she’s quick to defend him, and sees him as someone whom she can approach to find out more.
The next day, Karigari is watching Akasaka TV while binging on ice cream, and is quite disappointed. “I was hoping to see Miss on the news,” he says, but Unai is on instead. Yusuke and Akira, meanwhile, are pissed that Karigari ate their supply of ice cream, and insist that he buy them some more. Karigari says that he can’t. He doesn’t want their last remaining hideout (which is located underground beneath his former destroyed hideout) to be found, and they have to prioritize work on the Drive Head he’s remodeling. Well, Karigari quickly learns why Sasagawa wasn’t on the news. His security cameras show that she’s right on top of his hideout. Which she somehow ended up at, despite having no clue how close she was to the real deal. “I guess he wouldn't be here,” she thinks to herself, just seeing nothing but rubble. “But somehow, it was my first instinct.” Naturally, Karigari is freaking out over this. But he decides to be practical. Like he said, he can’t leave the hideout for any reason. He’s made up his mind. For a moment, anyway. “You came here to see me after all. Miss… Of course I have to go!” Suddenly becoming sparkly-eyed, Karigari plans to rush out and meet her. But Akira and Yusuke forcibly stop him. He’d convinced them it was a bad idea to expose the hideout, after all. Sasagawa has to leave anyway, as she’s called back to work. But she looks back one last time, suspiciously.
And Karigari, meanwhile, is left crying. Yes, he’s actually crying, and it’s as pathetic as it sounds, but sort of endearing at the same time.
Now, this scene is obviously just for comic relief, but on the other hand, the ship tease is just blatant. Between Sasagawa’s amazing sixth sense putting her in just the right spot (though she’ll never know for sure) and Karigari’s over-the-top reactions, seriously. While it probably was for the best that they didn’t meet (that Drive Head Karigari was working on becomes quite important in the next episode, so he needed to finish it), I can’t help but wish they did. They both just end up disappointed that they couldn’t see each other.
(Look, this is basically princess carry)
37 is the last episode in the TV series, and arguably the biggest KariSasa episode. When the episode begins, the Drive Heads are rushing to get to Ark’s location, but are attacked by an army of fake Drive Heads that the Evil AI produced. Sasagawa is covering the battle from up in the news helicopter, which gets hit in the crossfire and starts to crash down. But Sasagawa is rescued by a colorful Drive Head. “Don’t make me so nervous, Miss.” Karigari was of course the driver, and he puts the helicopter down onto a roof. “You’re…” Sasagawa realizes right away that he was inside, and smiles. Whether she heard the following conversation between Karigari and his subordinates, implying that they were all ready to die in this battle, or she simply just had a bad feeling about this, Sasagawa looks terribly worried when she gets out of the helicopter, and calls out Karigari’s name. But since she’s stranded up on the rooftop, all she can do is watch him fight.
When it seems like the situation has finally been resolved, things take a turn for the worse again, and the entire world is in danger of imminent destruction thanks to the Evil AI. However, Karigari has a plan to stop it. That is, to fly into the Tower of Babel and contain the Evil AI somehow. He turns his cameras to where Sasagawa is standing and says, “Farewell, Miss,” before taking off.
Sasagawa can immediately tell that he’s going to do something dangerous, and tries to run closer. She watches as a huge explosion erupts in the Tower, crying out, “Dr. Karigari!”
After the incident, Sasagawa is clearly not in a good state. She’s seen wearing her casual clothes, meaning she took some time off from work, the same job she loves enough to do while she’s on vacation, and she comes to the remains of the Tower of Babel, where she leaves flowers. Given that her glasses are fogged over, she must have been crying.
Some time later, Sasagawa returns to work, getting back to normal life. Right before she goes on air, she receives a strange email. It isn’t signed, but it reads, “Miss, what’s today’s fortune?” Immediately, Sasagawa’s eyes light up, knowing that Karigari sent it, and he’s alive somewhere. As this and other epilogue scenes play, the ED theme is running in the background. The song’s lyrics could not be more appropriate. “No matter when, I’m going to protect your smile.” This is just the essence of KariSasa. Karigari did what he had to do to save the world. He and his subordinates survived, but not without severe, crippling injury. But he knew Sasagawa was worried, and wanted to make sure she knew that he was alive. He wasn’t able to see her yet, but as long as she could be happy again, that’s what was important to him. And that’s what motivates him too. Her vibrancy and happiness. And thanks to that, a villain comes to save the world.
Karigari himself does not appear in the 2018 web series, though to be fair, the series itself had very little substance to it, being half recap episodes, and it was mostly to introduce a couple new Drive Head frames and support vehicles which would appear in the movie.
In the movie itself, well, Karigari and Sasagawa do not interact on screen (the pains of getting a 57-minute movie) but I’m bringing it up because it’s not without some meaningful shiptease. Basically, the Evil AI comes back, the Drive Gears get corrupted, and because of that, the four drivers are unable to launch in their Drive Heads until they’re fixed. Instead, they’re controlled by substitute drivers from the Mobile Assault Police. Although Sasagawa knows nothing of this, she comments to Unai that Cyclone Interceptor has somehow lost its appeal to her. Still, she continues reporting on the Drive Head’s actions per her job, and is absolutely devastated seeing the Drive Heads get trashed in a fight. Karigari is watching this on the news and comments, “Such depressing news doesn't suit you, Miss. Well then… I guess it's time I make a move.” So in order to make Sasagawa happy, Karigari goes and hijacks Cyclone Interceptor’s frame and remodels it a bit. He gives it a new form called the “Force Field Mode”, and returns it to its proper driver. When Sasagawa watches it activate this mode for the first time and save the world, she’s in awe. She’s clearly fallen in love with Cyclone Interceptor all over again. It’s painful in a sense that she has no idea that it was Karigari’s doing. But at the same time, the irony is just plain beautiful. Karigari gets no credit, despite being an egomaniac who loves recognition, but he’ll always protect her smile. And Karigari, being a massive tsundere, calls up Kurumada after this to insist that he not get the wrong idea because everything he did was all for his revenge… well, a “revenge” that he hasn’t seemed to bother with for months, since he fell in love with Sasagawa. And his actual motive, which was wanting to help save the world, in order to make her happy, is known to the viewers.
Why KariSasa
Even considering all the ship tease, the pairing is not canon. We don’t even know if the two have ever interacted post TV series, though it’s certainly not out of the question, given that an unspecified amount of months past and Sasagawa herself didn’t have much of a role during the web-series either. But regardless, I love this pairing and still root for it.
The two are just so much alike, for one. On the surface, they really don’t seem to be. One loves the Drive Heads obsessively while the other swore revenge on them, obsessively. Notice the ‘obsessively’ part, and there’s your first parallel. They’re both linked by a strong obsession with the same thing. Also, the both of them are absolute nerds. Karigari being a scientist, and a dork who will create deadly weapons based on history, like his “Archimedes Beam”. And Sasagawa does try her best to act professional when on air, but it’s obvious that she loves cool robots, heroes and justice and just wants to squee over them. I feel like, since Karigari is a scientist of course who loves to go on about his achievements and Sasagawa is into that stuff, they would be such great outlets for each other. And Karigari does even get his own Drive Head in the end, which Sasagawa would probably love getting to ride inside. (She often talks about wanting to ride in a Drive Head or Viper with a boyfriend on the Drive Head Line bits, which aren’t canon but they still exist.) They seem to think alike as well. I mean, they both vacationed at the same hotel at the same time. And there’s the fact that Sasagawa was able to guess the location of Karigari’s hideout that one time.
As well as being outlets for each other, I think they both help each other a lot. Well, I explained a bit before how Sasagawa’s vibrancy helps Karigari. He also wants to impress her, and he starts to do more heroic things. Karigari had a background in disaster control, but turned down a dark path. She helps bring him back to the side of the light, and make him a better person. Of course, Karigari helps Sasagawa in a straightforward sense by saving her life twice. And surely, he would always come to protect her if she were in danger. But aside from that, I feel like he broadens her narrow-mindedness. Sasagawa went from seeing him as obviously a villain to someone she started to care about, as she learned more about him. She sees things in black-and-white, but the world isn’t a black-and-white place. As well, she can come off as rather shallow, gushing about how the Drive Heads must be driven by handsome young men (which is false), being disturbed by the thought of the driver being someone who looks like Izawa (an older fat man) and pining over guys she thinks are traditionally attractive. Karigari is older than her (going by appearance, though neither has a canon age) and would be really hard to call “attractive”. Yet, later on she’ll squee over the thought of seeing him, and he’s someone who has such an effect on her that she’ll take off from the job she clearly loves because she’s so distraught over his apparent death. This is what I mean about the both of them having a truly strong impact on each other, despite only meeting a few times.
I also think that they both have this sense of admiration for each other. As I mentioned before, Sasagawa loves cool heroes. While to an extent, she wants to be like the protagonist of a romance novel, being the heroine who is protected by the hero, and loves that kind of moment, I also think there’s indication that she too wants to be the hero sometimes, and do something important. Like her going to confront Karigari without fear, and when she wanted to investigate the truth behind Ark personally. She loves the heroic side of Karigari the most (as long as he’s not putting his life in danger). As for Karigari, he probably sees in her more of the person he was in the past. Someone who believes in justice and protecting the people in the world. I think that he would want her to not become jaded like him.
In Japan, TV announcers have this sort of idol status. It’s actually a plotline I’ve seen in Japanese media, both before and after Drive Head, to have a character crushing on a TV announcer. Even the older Tomica Tokusatsu series, Tomica Hero Rescue Force had an episode like this (albeit with a weather-caster, but not a big difference). It’s usually played as a joke, a delusion on the fan’s part. Having a celebrity crush on someone you’ll never meet and is never going to reciprocate even if you do meet. But yet, Drive Head decided to play it a little differently. They did meet, and Sasagawa actually reciprocated. I love that they took a cliche and played with it differently this time around. And I mean, KariSasa is also basically “the villain gets the girl” which obviously isn’t used much, but in this case the “hero” was a 10-year-old who was never interested anyway. KariSasa is fun because it subverts expectations.
In a more silly but totally valid point, what I mentioned way above about Sasagawa being robo-sexual. After the series, due to his injuries, Karigari makes himself into a cyborg in order to survive. That’s the closest to a robot a human can be. If Sasagawa is robo-sexual, then he’s absolutely her “type” in a post-canon setting.
Even if they don’t end up together romantically (if the series ever continues, that is), I still just love the odd friendship between them, and the great effect they have on each other. So, that’s why I ship KariSasa. And of course, I would love a romantic resolution.
Fandom
What fandom? Really, Drive Head has a non-existent fandom in the English speaking world. About the only discussion you can find about it from when it was airing was on old 4chan threads. Therefore, there aren’t any fics either, except for the ones I’ve written.
I have a ton of KariSasa fics, many of which will never see the light of the internet for various reasons, but several of which had. Most of what I write is light-hearted, silly fluff, because that’s my cup-of-tea and works so well with these two, but I’ve written a few which were more serious.
You can see the fandom tag here: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/%E3%83%88%E3%83%9F%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%20%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96%E3%83%98%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%20%E6%A9%9F%E5%8B%95%E6%95%91%E6%80%A5%E8%AD%A6%E5%AF%9F%20%7C%20Tomica%20Hyper%20Rescue%20Drive%20Head%20Kidou%20Kyuukyuu%20Keisatsu%20(Anime)/works
There are, of course, Japanese fics on Pixiv, as the canon was more well-received there, but not one is KariSasa. Given that the most popular ship seems to be Kuroeda/Saionji, who are considered the two most handsome characters, even though they barely interact, I can imagine why a het ship with a male who isn’t traditionally attractive doesn’t get much fanwork. Especially factoring in that KariSasa seems to be generally well-liked and accepted by most fans and even some of the cast, going by how much I’ve dug through Japanese twitter posts. Which is sad, but inevitable.
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Have a bonus shot of the lovely couple bonding over a stockpile of Coke.
Ah, it’s true! Drive Head is getting a fanbook in August. I heard people talking about it on Twitter, but couldn’t find the source.
Don’t know if it will be any good, since it seems to be aimed at the target audience (kindergarteners) rather than the adult fans, but I’ll probably order it anyway as long as I can find a site shipping it overseas.
(The Pikaia fanbook was actually pretty good, although that was probably aimed more at the adult fans)
On the latest episode of Stupid Things I Shouldn’t be Thinking About, Fake White Hope is actually based off Mikoto’s White Hope pre-beheading, so that would theoretically make it a girl, right?
