Reiji, the main character, is unmotivated for most things in his life and routinely gives up on everything that is introduced to him because he has no passion or drive for it. He is also pretty lazy. To put it in the show's own words, he is the king of tardiness and is always late to school.

In the show, he is introduced to the game Dragon Drive by his childhood friend Maiko Yukino. Since he never has any passion for anything, this ends up becoming the one thing that finally interests him. The game itself is a full dive game set in an underground facility located in some random lady’s house.

Through some anime magic and main character syndrome, Reiji gets a dragon that initially appears weak and very lazy. However, after some fights it turns out that Chibi is actually insanely overpowered and is a super rare type of dragon. Because of this, Reiji finally finds a new passion in Dragon Drive and it becomes a long term activity for him and his friend.

Basically everyone in the story already knows about the game Dragon Drive. There is no big reveal moment where characters are shocked by it. Everyone already knows about it except for Reiji, who only learns about it after his friend introduces him to it.

Overall, this is an okay show. The CGI is very 2002 and looks exactly like what you would expect from that time period. The budget clearly is not the highest, but the story itself is easy to follow.

The show is basically an isekai, and almost all the characters are some sort of overdone stereotype, which is pretty common for these kinds of kids shows. Honestly, the only real reason to watch this show is Chibi.

This series never got a season 2, so do not expect any continuation. It was not as popular as shows like Pokemon or Digimon. The music is not complicated or anything too special, and overall the show really has not held up very well over the years. The animation quality also is not great.

You have the typical setup. The main character who gets a special dragon from the random dragon selector in the Dragon Drive full dive game. The love interest who is basically the main focus of the show since she is the main character’s childhood friend. The stereotypical bully. The stereotypical rich blonde guy. The milf you will know if you watch it.

It is very obvious the show leans heavily on easy to follow characters because of how stereotypical they are for this type of show. Even their personalities reflect their stereotypes, which can become kind of annoying. The bully character in particular is obsessed with the childhood friend of the main character.

Later in the story, things start to take a turn for the worse for Reiji and his friends when they get sucked into another world and have to solve its conflicts. They end up going on a large quest in order to save both worlds from being destroyed. They use Chibi’s powers along with the dragons of his friends, which become real in this other world. At this point it is no longer a virtual full dive game.

Reiji eventually learns that he and his rare dragon are the only ones capable of saving both worlds from destruction. His actions and movements are completely in sync with Chibi.

After traveling to this new world through teleportation, Reiji and Chibi begin training with his friends so they can eventually save both worlds from total destruction.

When they are transported into this other world, it is almost as if their entire presence is deleted from the real world. Everyone either pretends not to notice or simply does not realize they are gone. Only people Reiji was close to seem to vaguely remember him.

Even the entire game facility where they trained ends up being completely removed by the organizers of the game because of the special circumstances surrounding the main characters being isekai’d into this other world. They basically attempt to erase all traces of them from the real world and from the game itself.

Conclusion

Overall Dragon Drive is not a terrible show but it clearly feels like a product of its time. The animation and CGI have aged and the characters rely heavily on stereotypes, which makes parts of the story feel predictable. The plot is simple and easy to follow, but it never really does anything groundbreaking compared to other shows that came out around the same era. The one thing that still stands out is Chibi, since the dragon is easily the most interesting part of the series and the main reason the show is memorable at all. If you enjoy older early 2000s anime and do not mind dated CGI or simple storytelling you might still find it entertaining, but it is not something that has aged as well as other series from the same time period.