According to Isaac Newton's laws, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Apparently, the staff at Emotion seem to have taken this philosophy when creating Dragon Drive. Playing like a testosterone-fueled Angelic Layer, Dragon Drive provides an entertaining entry into the world of virtual dragons.

Reiji Ozora is the typical junior high loser: lazy, whiny, and a total failure in class. Further proving his "superior" motivation, Reiji has yet to last in a single after-school activity. However, everything begins to change when his childhood friend, Maiko Yukino, drags the boy to the Sea Palace. On the outside, the building is just a run-down candy shop. Inside, the two take a secret elevator to an underground arcade where the super-hot virtual reality game Dragon Drive is played. However, when he receives his dragon, Reiji finds that his dragon is possibly the weakest the game has ever seen. Despite its stats, the little dragon holds a great power... the potential to take down even the mightiest of opponents. Will Reiji be able to make use of this endowment to succeed in the virtual battleground of Dragon Drive, or will he be doomed to failure once again?

At first glance, Dragon Drive looks to be a highly marketable Angelic Layer clone. All of the elements are present and obvious: the cute mascot characters, collectable card items, and the potential for further merchandicing are all prominent. However, despite the bleeding obvious, the series manages to show some growth and advancement in the characters. Sadly, at this point, the series has been little more than a battle of the week, with tiny hints of what is to come. The episodes so far are entertaining, but the real meat of the show appears to be approaching with the seemingly underlying story that is trying to burst out.

With a face like that, you know this lad's going to spout a mouthful of Engrish.	Reiji has learned the consequences of accepting collect calls the hard way.

Being a recent series, Dragon Drive suffers little in its transition to DVD. The disc's vibrant colors and total lack of cross-coloration or artifacting are a pleasing asset to this release. Furthermore, the disc lacks aliasing and other visual defects that can plague other releases. On a qualitative level, Dragon Drive's animation is what one would expect from a marketable boys' show. The animation is clean, with few dropped frames and a clever use of CG effects.

In terms of audio, Dragon Drive does not disappoint. Utilizing the standard stereo setup, both audio streams are clear, with no dropouts of distortions on either track. The series' music, while fitting for the situations the pieces are placed in, is mostly forgettable. However, the opening and closing themes, both performed by Mikuni Shimokawa and Air Master, are phenomenal. Both songs are catchy, and capture the spirit of the series well. In terms of acting, both tracks are enjoyable, but neither language can compare with the other. The Japanese, as usual, is superior to the English track, with a chemistry that the English version seems to lack. The English track, while decently acted, has the odd flaw of every character sounding older than he or she should. As a result, several situations come off as awkward in execution. However, on that same note, Kyoji's unnaturally deep voice in the Japanese version is quite unsettling in its own way.

Sadly, it seems that Dragon Drive has gotten the short end of the stick in terms of presentation. The case features an image of Reiji and Chibisuke in front of a wall of swirling orange flames. The back of the disc offers a short description of the disc's contents, a brief summary, and four screens from the show. The insert features a cast and crew list, as well as a series of short descriptions for the four episodes in this volume. The menus is a consist of static images with music looping in the background. The extra on this disc is an "Illustration Gallery" that contains artwork for Reiji, Maiko, and their respective Dragons (Chibisuke and Gholaoh). Also included in this release was a lenticular insert for Kanper: another of the dragons in the series.

At this point, Dragon Drive looks to be shaping up to be little more than a male oriented Angelic Layer. While the snippets of secondary story give hope for a change to this pace, the series needs to take drastic turns to keep from becoming just another faceless clone on the market.

Distributor: Bandai Entertainment
Creator: TV Tokyo
Released: 2003

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A-
Presentation: B
Content: B-
Overall: B+