

Season 1 • Episode 38
LatestOozora Reiji isn't a lazy boy, he's just terribly unmotivated; all the clubs and activities he's joined don't interest him for long. That is, of course, until his best friend Yukino takes him to a underground arcade where an unbelievable virtual reality game is played - Dragon Drive - in which players fight each other with virtual dragons. Reiji ends up throwing all he's got into training a dragon so rare that the Dragon Drive staff are baffled. But soon Reiji learns that Dragon Drive isn't all it seems, and he might be the only one who can save an entire world from evil.
Practical Effects
Chibisuke's absurd evolution from potato to god
Sound
Early 2000s J-pop OP that lives rent-free
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dragon Drive rode the Yu-Gi-Oh/Pokémon wave but predated the modern isekai boom by a decade—its 'game becomes real' twist was actually fresh in 2002.
Romi Park (Reiji) would later voice Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist—imagine Ed screaming about dragons instead of equivalent exchange.