Real Drive - Episode 16

Real Drive continues on its merry way with episodes that have no inter-relation with one another, with episode sixteen taking in the importance of androids having breasts, to all intents and purposes.


In essence, this instalment is all about Sota's hang-ups when it comes to sparring with Holon - Does he go easy on her and never deliver the finishing blow because she looks like a woman, or because he's actually somehow in love with her (with I suppose returns to the first point anyway)? The question never really gets answered to any real degree, but the plot as a whole does move into a wider story about androids being used as sex toys, with Sota sent to investigate. The whole subject of falling in love with androids is an interesting one, and the kind of thing you can sit around and discuss for hours, but to be honest Real Drive almost seems to shy away from getting too deep into the concept with this episode, preferring to simply scratch the surface... a bit of a disappointing decision, if I'm honest.

This rather light treatment of the subject matter makes for another 'okay but not spectacular' episode of this series, where even the animation quality seemed to drop off a little. When you consider the way shows such as Ghost in the Shell have tackled the issue central to this episode of the series, it really does come off as rather below-par and almost rushed in its writing and execution, which isn't particularly what I was expecting from this series when I first embarked upon watching it. It does continue to have a certain something about it both visually and in broader terms that makes the series bearable, but it could... no, should... be capable of so much more.