At first this looked out to be a rather boring episode with the baseball and all, especially considering how Utena’s light hearted episodes were completely brilliant. Still, as the episode went on it became apparent how much characterization the creators ended up putting in this episode.
The interesting thing is that this show is no longer as flamboyant as it used to be and it’s gotten a lot more subtle now. Of course, Takuto still is the light-hearted and energetic character he always was and this episode was of course also chockful of screaming fangirls, but around him, all sorts of interesting things are starting to happen.
A lot of the flamboyance in this show is like a red herring: loud and obnoxious, but for once it has a lot to make up for it with its characterization. The “faceplant in boobs”-scene was definitely annoying, but unlike for example that 08th episode of Index, there was so much going on with so many different characters that I quickly forgot it.
Also, what’s the meaning of the songs of the priestesses? In this episode we get a new one (I still prefer the fish girl song, but that one too was quite good), but there have been enough battles that occurred without the presence of one such song. Do their songs strengthen something, or do they just do it for the heck of it?
Overall, this was the first episode in a long while that didn’t bring some sort of major twist. Instead, it convinced me that this series can manage its huge cast. A huge potential pitfall with series with a huge cast is that they try to give equal attention to all of them without making any of them stand out,but in star Driver there are a lot of them that stand out, each episode grabs all of the chances it can get in order to add some character to them, even when the episode in question doesn’t focus on them at all, and the ones on which the episodes in question do focus on still get the proper attention they deserve. Each episode grabs a different array of characters, and that’s probably the thing that makes this series so varied.
Also, a huge theme of this series turned out to be leaving the island: this show just keeps introducing stories about characters who can’t leave it, characters who leave it, and Takuto being the only one known so far who actually did the opposite and came to the island. The creators are going somewhere with that, and I’m interested to find out where that is.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
There is probably no reason for the songs other that when you hear them, a battle is about to start. It was pretty much the same way in Utena when a duel was about to start.
I enjoy this episode for its chockful of characterization too. The highlight for me is Sugata/Wako/Keito’s bit. Suddenly all of Keito’s action to hooked up Wako and Takuto, and the underline camera’s focus on Scarlet Kiss and Keito when the crux ever mentioned Sugata in episode 7 take a new meaning. Her goal might be more personal than she let it shown.
With regards to Keito, I think everything makes sense now based on that scene with her and Sugata. Like Marino, she probably has ulterior motives for being in the Crux, and why she’s been trying to bring Wako and Takuto together this whole time was confusing me (at first I thought it was some part of scheme).
It’s pretty obvious now; she likes Sugata, and wants Wako to be with Takuto so that she can have Sugata for herself. That’s why she hasn’t done anything against Takuto (and on the contrary, that dream episode was to help him), and got pissed at Undine when she went berserk and attacked Wako.
“Takuto being the only one known so far who actually did the opposite and came to the island.”
Wasn’t it clear that many many characters had came to the island by boat? It being a boarding school and all?
“Wasn’t it clear that many many characters had came to the island by boat? It being a boarding school and all?”
But I think a majority of the students were born and raised on the island and the boarding school is just where most of them go. That’s what I get, anyway. They’ve already shown a scene of the sisters when they were younger and their mother left, and another with Wako, Sugato, and Keito playing around with some totem pole as kids.
But, anywho, it’s probably not that big a deal. I’m still really enjoying this show! ^^