Shinnosuke Tomari

"I've got it together. My brain cells are in Top Gear!"

- Shinnosuke's main catchphrase when he starts becoming focused

"Let's go for a ride!"

- Shinnosuke's pre-battle catchphrase as Kamen Rider Drive

Shinnosuke Tomari (泊 進ノ介) is a former elite police officer and detective who lost all his motivation after he accidentally injured his partner during the catastrophic Global Freeze. Recent events, however, have slowly started to put his life back together again after his demotion into the Special Investigation Unit.

After finding his resolve, Shinnosuke alongside Mr. Belt, his partner/manager Kiriko Shijima, and the Shift Cars, he fights against the Roidmudes as the warrior Drive (ドライブ). Once he hears of his predecessor's legacy as a Kamen Rider, he embraces the name Kamen Rider Drive (仮面ライダードライブ).

In an alternate timeline where Shocker rules the world after the defeat of the Double Riders by Kamen Rider #3, Shinnosuke was among the Riders that were brainwashed and served them. He wielded the title Shocker Rider Drive (ショッカーライダードライブ) and dropped it after his defection as mentioned in the Rider Grand Prix.

Pre-series
Shinnosuke's 24th birthday is stated to be on Christmas Eve 2014; placing his date of birth as 24th December 1990. His father is a police officer and explained to Shinnosuke the hardships of working as a cop. His father would later lost his life in one mission during Shinnosuke's life as a Middle School student.

Global Freeze
Six months prior to the series, during the "Global Freeze" incident, Shinnosuke and his partner Hayase were tracking criminals known as Neo-Shade. Earlier, he had a dream of what would happened in the future but never get himself to understand it. During that day, the public had received a hostage message from Neo-Shade demanding a large amount of money. With careful deduction, Shinnosuke had found out about the true criminal, the Copycat Pirate. The two are able to find his location and they confront him. The man is revealed to a talk show host, Koya Nishinori. Shinnosuke was about to arrest him before a sudden appearance of Roidmude 005. Nishinori runs, and unbeknownst to Shinnosuke, was captured and horrified by the monster. Shinnosuke finds and arrests Nishimori.

After receiving reports of Neo-Shade stationing themselves in a building while taking hostages, the two rushed to that building. During the evacuation, he ran passed through a policewoman that he would met months later. During Global Freeze, Shinnosuke and Hayase were chasing down a couple of criminals, the Neo-Shade. Hayase was cornered in between a flammable generator and one of the two criminals. Panicking, Shinnosuke pulled out his gun and tried to aim at the criminal, but due to the Slowdown effect, he accidentally shot the generator, causing it to explode and in the process, causing some pipes to collapse. As he tried to save Hayase from the falling pipes, the Slowdown effect happened once again, causing him to be unable to save his partner from being crushed. Shinnosuke thus lost his motivation as a police officer, and was transferred to a special investigations unit.

Inheriting the Kamen Rider Name
A slack-off police officer, Shinnosuke is sent to investigate a "Heavy Acceleration" case involving Roidmude 029. Shinnosuke realizes he's fighting a monster, so the Drive Driver gives him the ability to transform into Drive. By utilizing his Tire Exchanges, he defeats Roidmude 029. With the sudden return of Roidmude 029, Shinnosuke theorizes that his powers are connected to the Roidmudes. Visiting his injured partner Hayase, Shinnosuke receives encouragement from the latter and realizes the truth of the victims left behind by Roidmude 029. As Drive, he destroyed Roidmude 029 permanently with the latter calling him a "Kamen Rider". In a heated discussion with Kiriko and Shinnosuke in the background, Mr. Belt approves of the naming scheme of Kamen Rider, thus dubbing Drive as "Kamen Rider Drive".

Shinnosuke as Drive would later face countless Roidmude threats along with the enforcer/bounty hunter, Mashin Chaser. As the Roidmude threats getting stronger, Drive would gain access to new forms, weapons and Shift Cars. He also led to multiple secrets that the Drive Driver knew of, starting from Rinna being the Drive Pit's assistance to Krim Steinbelt's past as well as the creation of Roidmudes. Eventually sometime later, Mashin Chaser would be revealed as Protodrive, Shinnosuke's predecessor that was brainwashed by the Roidmude Executives.

Joining Forces with Mach
In the second year of his employment in the Special Investigation Unit, he was introduced to Go Shijima, Kiriko's younger brother and the candidate of the new Rider System created by Krim's mentor, Harley Hendrickson (that made to surpass Drive) where he was forced to abandon his training from America all the way to stop a black market syndicate made by Gunman and his "younger brother". Nonetheless, Go warms up to him, even calling him the "big brother" as they joined forces and take down more cases involving Roidmudes. However, it is also seemed that most of them somehow greatly involved Special Investigation Unit members' past. Soon, he gained access to two new forms: Type Dead Heat, where he can share its powers with Mach along with the purpose to combat against Heart Roidmude's Dead Zone and Type Formula, which allows him to move at the speed of G-Force where he first used to put a stop on the crazed Mashin Chaser, at the same time seemingly killed him in his second usage of the form.

Humanity's Hero
Shinnosuke is forced to transform into Drive in front of civilians, revealing his identity as Kamen Rider Drive not only to just the rest of the Special Unit, but his former partner as well. When revealing Gen and Kyu the whole Drive Pit, Captain Jun appeared himself and revealing that he knew Krim from the beginning, since they had become colleagues before and decided to make Drive's secret identity in public. Eventually, this would had made into a massive turmoil in his life one by one, starting with several Roidmudes (especially Roidmude 001) infiltrate the police ranks and contemplated to destroy him (as well as other Riders) from inside.

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle
After Lupin sent a challenge letter to the police, Shinnosuke as Drive must defeat him quickly, after the thief was discovered to be Krim's abandoned Roidmude body, Cyberoid ZZZ. He teamed up with Gaim afterwards to defeat ZZZ Megahex.

Shinnosuke was alerted by the sudden appearance of a Heavy Acceleration. As he goes to said location in Tridoron as Drive, he witnessed the and mistook them for the cause of the Heavy Acceleration, having arrived late while the true creator,  had already fled. After fighting the Ninningers, tried to reason with Drive, only to be handcuffed as the others vanished. While AkaNinger was interrogated, he temporarily vanished before returning as his civilian form, Takaharu and tried his best to convince Shinnosuke the truth by bringing him into the battle of his teammates against the Youkai. When AkaNinger slashes him, Shinnosuke and Mr. Belt witness a Spider Viral Core, wondering what just happened until, a silver-haired man and two other Roidmudes appear as they fights Drive alongside his comrades. After the Ninningers destroy Buruburu, Roidmudes 057 and 016 grew into giant proportions, capturing Drive as their hostage until the Ninningers summon Shurikenjin to rescue him before eliminating them a with Shurikenjin UFO.

Suddenly, they realised that they inside another world and if something older exists in this world, it will quickly vanish. With Kyuemon takes her leave, the Ninningers are captured by police forces and labelled as public enemies. Shinnosuke remembered Roidmude 089 but none of the police forces including Mr. Belt prioritize the case, having entirely shifted to the dimensionally displaced Ninningers. After spying the Ninningers in their Ninjutsu dojo, Shinnosuke confront Takaharu and decided to help him, first by evading police forces. The leftover Hitokarage in Drive's world attacked until Kiriko rescues them in a minivan. Kiriko shows them the silver-haired man (Roidmude 089)'s photo, which Saijo found on the internet. The man himself is a late scientist named Doctor D that died 40 years ago.

Searching for clues in Doctor D's old lab, they were joined by Mach, whom saved them from Hiruchameleon. Go as well had made some research into the history and using the photos he found, Shinnosuke finally solved the case until the lab itself destroyed by Turtle Bazooka with Tridoron saved them. Regrouping with the other Ninningers, Shinnosuke and Mach revealed Shocker as the true mastermind. Once the Ninningers and Kamen Riders have transformed, they fight the Shocker armies and finally eliminated them, restoring, and  back into existence again. After several encouragements, they part ways as the Ninningers vanish via a green aura.

Due to a timeline alteration by Shocker in 1973, Shinnosuke, Special Unit Police Force, and most of the Riders who were heroes become brainwashed villains into doing Shocker's dirty work of capturing the Rider resistance, which only leaves Blade in being captured and Kotaro Minami still being Kamen Rider BLACK and resisting Shocker's reign. Yuto and Go are still the same prior to the timeline alteration, and the alteration results in the existence of Kamen Rider 3. Kotaro (as Black) fought against Drive when he protects children who resist Shocker. However, he is damaged by Drive when taking a stray attack from him that would have hurt the kids. Kotaro then finally manages to make Shinnosuke remember who he is and regain his original timeline memories back. Kotaro then rescues Kiriko from falling at a great height after some Shocker members attempted to kill her when they learn that Shinnosuke didn't follow orders. Back in the Drive Pit, they discuss about the existence of why Kamen Rider 3, known as the "Rider who should never have existed" existed after Shocker altered the timeline. During their conversation, they're surrounded by Shocker's agents to capture the Drive and BLACK, but they managed to escape from Shocker as they split up during their escape. After that, he joined up with Yuto Sakurai and Go Shijima to find Kamen Rider 3.

He first fights Kamen Rider 3, but then helped, as he realized that Kamen Rider 3 is now on the run from both Shocker and Rider resistances led by V3, so he decides to help Rider 3 clear his name as "Rider", with the help of Yuto and Go. He, Rider 3, and the other primary Riders later participate in the Rider Grand Prix, and after, accompanied by most of the good Riders, including Kotaro who returns as RX, fought Shocker, with the help of a Super Sentai Team,, as they combines the Otomo Nin into to defeat Rider Robo that was created by Shocker. Just as Drive witness the battle,, The Last Ninja and grandfather of Ninningers gives him an Otomo Nin Shuriken:Tridoron, which transforms Tridoron into Otomo Nin Tridoron. Shinnosuke joins Ninningers as they recombine their Otomo Nin into Shurikenji Tridoron. Together they fought against the Rider Robo once again and execute their finishing move to destroy it along the History Modifying Machine inside it. With the destruction of Rider Robo and The History Modifying Machine by the hands of Shurikenjin Tridoron, the history recreated by Shocker has been undone and Kamen Rider 3 won't be able to exist any more. Kyoichiro says goodbye to Shinnosuke and his comrades. After the original timeline is finally restored, both Shinnosuke and Kiriko are saddened over Go's death as they mourning him and they will never forget the sacrifice Go made for the Riders.

D-Video Special: Kamen Rider 4
The timeline is altered once again after the events of Super Hero Taisen GP, where time itself is stuck in a strange loop on April 4, 2015. Shinnosuke, after recalling previous events, attempts to fix the disruption in time along with Zerenos and Faiz though their attempts inevitably fail with Go's death followed by time resetting itself back to April 4th, 9:55AM over and over again, as Drive and the Riders fight increasing odds from Shocker. Desperate to save Go, Shinnosuke sacrifices himself in one of the time loops to ensure the safety of his friend's life at the cost of his own. Upon the fourth loop, Shinnosuke realizes the situation he was in.

Personality
Shinnosuke was once an elite officer within the force with his partner Hayase, known for his great detective skills. He inherited his sense of justice from his father, who said police officers have the heaviest burden of all: protecting the people. Ironically, during this time, he had a problem of being too passionate with his work, often getting dangerously close to pummeling criminals to a pulp unnecessarily.

However, after accidentally injuring his partner, he turned into the very opposite of his former self due to immense guilt. He became constantly lacking of motivation and lazy, contributing to his demotion to the special investigations unit. He is seen constantly running off to laze around, and more often seen eating milk balls than actually working. Even after becoming Kamen Rider Drive, he has yet to fully return permanently to what he refers to as "top gear", remaining aloof and takes situations and other matters lightly often, although this is seen to be improving and he takes his role as a Kamen Rider more seriously.

Under his aloof attitude and lazy facade is a man who holds a strong bearing of justice. Shinnosuke refuses to see people around him be hurt and would be more aggressive in his dealings when such time comes, eventually shifting into "high gear" mode when clues to cases connect and/or when he is about to confront a criminal or a Roidmude. His appearance while under this attitude is often shown with him straightening his tie. However, this attitude adjustment is temporary and he will revert to his normal lazy self when cases are solved. If he feels particularly demotivated, his tie will mysteriously loosen itself for him. Shinnosuke can also be albeit self-centred, hated his own date of birth, December 24 having received only one gift that represent both his birthday and Christmas presents, and dislikes riding shotgun on any automobile-themed vehicle, due to his affinity for driving.

He would often say "I'm done thinking about it!" whenever he has come to a conclusion. Whether these conclusions are helpful (throwing away his hesitation to help people) or not (forgetting his problems to continue lazing around) is a matter of luck.

As Drive, Shinnosuke has the archetype of a proud, snarky superhero, creating puns or bantering his opponent when he has the opportunity, apparently toying with his opponents. While he initially sees Chase as no more than an annoyance, he grew to respect the Roidmude due to Chase's unique sense of honor and comradeship. When he learns that Chase was Protodrive, he is more than willing to give the Roidmude the benefit of the doubt, and often seen trying his best to redeem Chase. As such, the decision eventually to having to finish Chase off due to the Roidmude being on the brink of having actually harming innocent humans, causes him great regret.

Similar to Faiz, he would often close his right hand and flick it open as a hand gesture.

When particularly spirited to fight a Roidmude, he will lean on one leg and say "Let's go for a ride!" (ひとっ走り付き合えよ！)

Types
Kamen Rider Drive's forms are called Types (タイプ). Some Shift Cars alter the suit based on a certain attribute, whereas other Shift Cars arm Drive with a certain element or weapon, by changing the tire on Drive's suit for a Tire Exchange (タイヤ交換). These two types of Shift Cars can be used in conjunction with each other, but some Tires can only work with certain body Types.

After turning the Advanced Ignition on the Drive Driver, Drive can perform one of two actions in each Type: Lifting the Shift Car placed within the Shift Brace between one and three times initiates either a special ability or an attack, while pressing the Igniter on the Shift Brace and lifting the Shift Car once unleashes the Type's Full Throttle (フルスロットル) finishing move.

Kamen Rider Drive's ending theme is entitled "Don't lose your mind".

Equipment

 * Core Driviar-N - Kamen Rider Drive's power source, finalised version of the Core Driviar

Devices

 * Drive Driver - Belt-based transformation device
 * Shift Brace - Bracelet-based transformation device
 * Shift Cars - Gives access to Drive's forms and powers, depending on which car is used. They also allow Shinnosuke/Drive to move normally during a Slowdown.
 * Shift Car Holder - Carrier strap for Drive's cars

Weapons

 * Handle-Ken - Drive's sword weapon
 * Door-Ju - Drive's gun weapon
 * Trailer-Hou - Drive Type Formula's personal weapon
 * Tire Specific Items - Weapons that come from certain Shift Cars:
 * Justice Cage - Drive's jail cell-based item via the Justice Hunter Tire and one of Type Tridoron Bibo Saver's items
 * Drum Shields - Drive's slot machine wheel-based items via the Dream Vegas Tire
 * Monster - Drive's car boot-based items via the Massive Monster Tire
 * Rumble Smasher - Drive's drill-based item via the Rumble Dump Tire and one of Type Tridoron Koujigenba's items
 * Cure Quicker - Drive's first aid kit-based item via the Mad Doctor Tire and one of Type Tridoron Bibo Saver's items
 * Capture Hook - Drive's winch-based item via the Hooking Wrecker Tire
 * Ladder Expander - Drive's ladder-based item via the Fire Braver Tire and one of Type Tridoron Bibo Saver's items
 * 10-ton Weight - Drive's weight-based item via the Rolling Gravity Tire and one of Type Tridoron Koujigenba's items
 * Frostreamer - Drive's disc-based item via the Road Winter Tire
 * Jacky Riser - Drive's floor jack-based item via the Jacky F02 Tire
 * Grasper Claw - Drive's wrench-based item via the Sparner F03 Tire
 * Musou Saber - One of Drive Type Fruits' personal weapons
 * Daidaimaru - One of Drive Type Fruits' personal weapons

Vehicles

 * Tridoron - Drive's Rider Machine
 * Ride Booster Set - Twin Rider Machines used as armaments for Tridoron

Others

 * Heavy Acceleration Particle Measuring Device - Used by Shinnosuke to detect presence of Heavy Acceleration particles in an area.

Portrayal
Shinnosuke Tomari is portrayed by Ryoma Takeuchi (竹内 涼真).

As Kamen Rider Drive, his suit actor is Seiji Takaiwa (高岩 成二) who has been the suit actor for the majority of leading Heisei Kamen Riders (except Kuuga and Hibiki).

Rider No.
As the leading Rider protagonist of Kamen Rider Drive, Drive is labeled Kamen Rider #31 (仮面ライダー31号) and Heisei Rider #16 (平成ライダー16号).

As noted by producer Shinichiro Shirakura in the run-up to the release of Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai, with the 15 Showa Riders and then 15 Heisei Riders facing off being "the point in which Heisei has finally aligned with Showa and in which both are equal", Drive, as the Rider following Gaim, marks the point where "Heisei Rider history will actually surpass Showa, making it a massive turning point for the whole franchise's history".