Category: Star Driver

And that takes care of the second act of this series. And it really was an awesome way to do it! Mizuno had a great episode here and her character developed even more from what it did in the previous episode and we finally get to see Takuto’s past as well!

I’m really starting to suspect that Head somehow has the ability to stop time as his first phase. Or at least, that would fill in the plothole of why he said that his father was the painter R. In this episode, it becomes clear that the entire reason he swam over to the island was because he wanted to punch his father. And this is where Marino comes into play: on top of being a great character, her case also relates to that of Takuto.

Also, here is a question that has been bugging me for quite a while now: why are there only two seals broken at this point? I mean, it feels like the Crux Brigade has no intention of breaking Keito’s seal, even though this would have been quite convenient throughout… well… the entire series basically. The fact that they were only looking for the West Maiden shows that they knew about Keito and all, and yet they never even mentioned her as a maiden. What’s going on here?

In any case, the great thing here is that after this point, this show can pretty much go anywhere. We’re getting closer and closer to the point of this series that I’ve really been looking forward to. Furthermore, I HAVE SEEN Melody of Oblivion’s final four episodes. I know what a messed up sunovabitch Enokido can be when it comes to ending his series. My problem with Melody of Oblivion was that those final four episodes were just about the only thing about that series that caught my attention, but Star Driver has been much more solid and interesting at this point. It’s true that it could have been better during its first half, but it always was building up its characters, and fleshing them out. Now, if the creators really want to make this into a memorable series, the time has come to actually use this build-up. The past two episodes were a great start, but it’s definitely not there yet.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

The first episode in which no cybody appears whatsoever. And at the same time it’s also one of the best episodes so far. I mean, how many plot twists did this episode feature on one single character anyway?

This entire episode was dedicated to Mizuno, and only at the end do we get to see the part that the previous episode was building up to: the Crux Brigade making their move. The rest of this episode was all about character development when Mizuno finally realizes that Takuto is into someone else and also where her mother returns home, after abandoning her children years ago. By far the best part of this episode was when she tried to leave the island though: that’s where her character really came together.

And those weren’t even the only plot twists in this episode. First of all it’s finally revealed that Head is indeed the painter R. I mean, there was no way for him NOT to be, but after finally having this confirmed it does have some interesting implications: this episode again hinted at how this guy is supposed to have this huge history. On top of that, he’s actively trying to recruit Sugata again, but this time without using mind control. Sugata meanwhile finally decided to break off his engagement to Wako (if Takuto wins a duel from him, at least). This episode was really hinting at how something is going to happen to both him and Takuto. But yeah, this is Star Driver: whenever it’s trying to hint at something, it’s actually hinting at something completely different.

Oh. And who the hell were those sudden new members of Vanishing Age?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hmm, I’ve been noticing something here: this show really has the tendency to introduce plot twists as if they’re going to have a major impact on the story, only to use them as a means to flesh out the characters instead. The first example was Sugata’s slumber from which he just awakened the next episode. This episode again did this with Marino: the previous episodes built her up as some sort of guardian angel for her sister, and in this episode she pretty much gives her sister away due to a small detail she didn’t know.

This episode had this very well done scene in which Marino fails to bring her Cybuddy back to life, apart from that this episode was mostly romantic antics and a lot of hints that things are going to get pretty bad really soon. I hope that the next episode will immediately show the Crux brigade trying to capture Mizuno.

Oh, and finally the drama club is going to do something as well. Head has returned as well, so things are definitely about to change majorly in the near future.
Rating: * (Good)

Yeah, sorry for the lateness on this episode. I was away for most of the evening yesterday and there were too many other posts that I had planned.

This is a major episode for Star Driver though, along with the previous one. The halfway point is especially for original series a good turning point. Star Driver doesn’t show this with some midway climax, but rather by making the characters finally deliver and develop. And sure, this episode marked the first Cybuddy that got revived, but what made the past two episodes special was that they revisited characters who had already been the focused on previously.

This time it’s Benio’s turn, and I really liked her increase in character in this episode.This episode delved into her past and how she grew up, it shows her as a skilled practitioner of Kendo, while still in the shadow of Sugata. She got much more interesting than the girl who keeps running after guys thanks to her convenient first phase that we came to know her as in the previous episodes. Star Driver may pull all these fancy red herrings and flashy fights, but it really is a series about its characters, and this episode really showed that it started delivering in that are.

A big Issue I have at the moment is that the creators are still god-moding Takuto and Sugata a bit. It’s not just in the way that they keep winning fights, but this episode showed the umpth girl who fell in love with one of them. At this point I’m not really sure whether the harem elements are really working or are going to work.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Whoa, a major episode here. For the second time in a row, it focuses on Kanako, but in this episode she actually ends up fighting. The previous episode apparently created this backlash that somehow affected her first phase, causing all of her stocks to drop, creating this surprising sense of urgency for this series.

And okay, it is rather questionable for her to be an Olympic level boxer despite never having seen her train, but my guess is that this is all part of this series’ idea to make her as successful as possible (though granted, it would have been nice if we saw her actually box a bit before this episode). The interesting thing is also that she can’t become the leader of the Glittering Crux anymore. Does that mean that we’ve got a villain less? Is this the last time we see her in the spotlights, or are the creators going to pull a few more tricks?

Also, the revival of Cybuddies. It’s still a bit vague on what exactly needs to happen in order to revive broken Cybuddies, and in what way it’s going to drain energy from Takuto (do they need to beat him in order for it to work, or do they need to be near him?) In any case, I’m glad that they made it not as easy as it sounds here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

And finally, we’ve gotten to the second part of the Kanako arc, this time focusing on her female servant, Simone. And it’s this point at which you can really see that this series is getting better now that we’re moving into the interesting back-stories. This episode really did some justice Simone, and turned her into quite an interesting character, not to mention also giving Kanako some extra depth here.

The interesting thing with Star Driver is that at the beginning, I thought that all of the character arcs would have the same format as Kanako’s. Instead, everyone is different. Kanako’s arc is probably the most Utena-esque: developing her both through stories of her and the people close to her. Midori and Benio meanwhile are running are both running after guys, but the latter does so to control everyone while the former is interested in them for a whole different reason. Keito meanwhile only acts behind the scenes and doesn’t seem to have anyone close to her and the biggest mysteries are Head and his replacement, You.

All of them don’t just have completely different characters, they also have completely different roles in this series, are explored in completely different ways and influence the plot in completely different ways. Utena had the advantage that it had 39 episodes to really go in-depth with its cast. This was vital because this way, it could give all of the major supporting characters three big arcs. Since Star Driver doesn’t have that luxury, I like the solution it found for that. Whether it’s actually going to work though, we’ll have to wait for that until the second half. This episode in any case was a neat pointer to the right direction.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

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)

Yet again: an episode that gives a complete new spin to the story. And we’re only nine episodes in yet; normally you see these kinds of things ten episodes later or something. This episode again did something that went completely against my expectations, it brought in A TON of new stuff, characters and plot threads.

Mizuno, the west maiden really brings a huge new plot along with her. From out of nowhere, she introduces a new Crux Brigade member (replacing the head, who went on a holiday after what happened in the previous episode), who turns out to be Mizuno’s twin sister, entirely in it to protect her sister from being found out (even going to the point of setting up a flamboyant act for it), not knowing that her subordinates (four also totally new characters) have formed their own brigade and are pretty much just using her as a tool. This definitely brings some great new potential to the series. Also, this episode on top of that introduces painter R. We have no clue who it is apart from that it’s special to both good guys and bad guys.

I don’t really understand the whole point of the shrine maidens at this point, though: why is the West Maiden necessary to reach third phase? I mean, I can understand it if you’d need 1 maiden for phase 1, 2 for phase 2 etc (opening up the possibility for a phase 4 as well), but the fish girl just left and the brigade members still were able to enter phase 2.

This wasn’t the most enjoyable episode because it spent quite an amount of time introducing these new characters (plus, I’m missing the fish girl song). The fight scene in this episode also was a bit unremarkable (again, it was just used to build up and nothing more). The romantic hi-jinks were also not the most enjoyable, but the fanservice could have been much worse I guess. There were no stupid cliches nor was there too much of a focus on the fanservice, so I guess it’s all-right.
Rating: * (Good)

So I thought that the creators would make Sugata as an antagonist a long-running theme of this series. Apparently though, they just intended this arc as a part of his character-development and in terms of that, this arc really served its purpose: we definitely got to know more about Sugata during the past episodes, even though he was such a silent character before this arc.

Also beyond my expectations: the cage girl left. I mean, she finished her story, left her cage and at the end of the episode she’s on a boat away from the island. I seriously have no idea what to make of that because this series really likes to play with that: there have been plenty of times at which it hinted to put characters on a bus, only to immediately bring them back and characters who looked like they were important at first sight got put on a bus instead. And don’t get me wrong, I really like that unpredictable side of this series.

The battle of this episode was a typical manly fight, with lots of morals and one liners. Perhaps it was a bit cheesy, but it definitely worked as a good conclusion to Sugata’s arc. Samekh’s power is apparently too much for the Pink-haired girl to handle, which does mnake me worried whether or not the creators are god-moding Sugata a little too much here, but there still are plenty of ways for them to write themselves out of that corner. I’m especially interested in what happened to that Pink-haired girl: we did not see her exit her chamber and hand in her badge. So much for being formulaic, eh?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ah, so with this episode it becomes clear what the creators were going for: a plot twist that when used well can turn out great, yet is very, very, very easy to screw up. Many series have fallen because they simply could not control the cheese that comes with such a plot twist: the best friends turned enemies.

Overall, the show has a potential wall-banger, but this episode did well in introducing it: beyond being very well written and breaking some more of the formula it carefully set up, it used the strange powers of the Crux brigade well, as it had already been established that the pink haired girl’s kisses have some strange influence on her partners.

The only question I’m stuck with right now is about the history of this island: if it was this easy to wake someone who owns the King’s Cybuddy, then why was he the first one to get accidentally hit in Zero Time? What did the island look like in previous generations? Was the Crux Brigade always active? With this episode, the creators pretty much obligated themselves to really delve into the history of the island, otherwise we’re left with a pretty nasty plothole.

In any case though, this series did some pretty neat stuff with its characters over the past seven episodes. At this point, the cast is already setting itself apart, and it’s really getting more interesting with each episode and it’s also that every episode so far has been different in tone and setting, despite these formulas.
Rating: ** (Excellent)