Reiji's drift from apathy to obsession happens because Dragon Drive doesn't ask him to care about the world; it asks him to care about something he built with his own hands, a dragon nobody thought would amount to anything. The game stops being a game the moment you realize it's real, and the show makes you feel that shift the same way Reiji does. A kid who couldn't commit to anything discovers that training a worthless dragon matters more than sleeping, more than giving up, more than the person he thought he was supposed to be.
Reiji has never stuck with anything, losing interest in every club and activity he tries, until his best friend takes him to an underground arcade. There he discovers Dragon Drive, a virtual reality game where each player is given a dragon suited to their personality and strength, and battles other players with it. Reiji hopes for a huge, fearsome beast but ends up with Chibi, a cute dragon smaller than he is, which turns out to be so rare that the game's staff are baffled. For once Reiji finds something that holds his interest, and he throws himself into training both himself and Chibi. Soon he learns that Dragon Drive is not what it seems: some people have dark plans for the game, and Reiji may be the only one who can save a whole world from evil. The story mixes action, adventure, comedy and fantasy.
