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)