Real Drive - Episode 11

With the last couple of episode of this series finally offering subject matter that I would consider 'on topic', I once again started to let my hopes grow that Real Drive was headed in the right direction. But what happens then? An episode dedicated to the violin. Err... okay.

To be fair, there's more to it than that, with the wider point of discussion being the nature of human talent, but to be honest this really quite fundamental question is handled in an overly saccharine way that isn't really what I'd expect of a series like this. Sure, emotion is a big part of becoming talented at anything, but the way this episode handled the issue had you expecting all of the main characters to burst into an impromptu rendition of The Beatles' All You Need is Love at any moment.


Indeed, the only part of this episode that made my ears prick up was the discussion of the Golden Ratio in music (although is application in both maths and art stretch well beyond simply music) due to my interest in Boards of Canada and, as a result, the concept of music and mathematics intertwining - This is the kind of well researched thing you expect from a Shirow series, not some kind of tug o' war over an old instrument.

While this particular episode was hardly unbearable, and to be quite honest I'm really warming to Minamo the series' protagonist despite my better judgement, this once again felt like a wasted episode given the available potential of Real Drive. Having created a world within this series with so many possibilities and the opportunity to debate the possible future of humanity in so many different ways, why is the show relegating itself to such 'mundane' subjects on such a regular basis? Quite frankly, Haru and company deserve more than this.