Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto – 15

Episode 15 – Maidens of the Seals – 封印の巫女 (Fuuin no Miko)

Once again in this show there is no Zero Time of any sort (which rarely happens), yet this episode had to be one of the most interesting out of the entire series so far. We get a ton of plot twists and new revelations this episode, and if you think about everything in context with previously aired episodes, a lot more questions and intriguing possibilities arise. Besides that, Mizuno gets a ton of screentime this episode, and it actually reveals a lot about both her character, as well as gives her some more development. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how everything pieces together in the larger, overall picture, but the amount of questions left unanswered really makes it rather difficult to get a clear idea of what’s going on overall. If you’ve checked out speculation on other blogs (such as this one, warning there are some spoilers), it’s easy to tell that this show has gotten rather complex quite quickly.

One of the major events this episode is definitely Mizuno’s realization that her mother has returned to the island. Of course, Marino is quite concerned about Mizuno because of this, but I bet she didn’t expect such a frantic, almost hysterical reaction from Mizuno when Marino suggested they talk to her mother. The fact that Marino has seemed to have disappeared makes me think that Marino herself was actually Mizuno’s first phase, which would explain why Marino noticed that Mizuno was actually alone in the past. Perhaps Mizuno’s first phase is what enabled Marino to actually exist, even though she hadn’t been with Mizuno in the past. Knowing this, it seems like Mizuno’s mother’s reappearance definitely helped push the main plot forward.

What was surprising here was that Mizuno actually attempted to leave the island, and like I mentioned in my episode 14 post, it is well known that the maidens cannot normally leave the island. The island’s way of preventing the maidens from leaving is to induce a little time loop, where whenever the maiden goes too far away from the island, time is reset to the time at which the maiden in question woke up that day (on the island, of course). The fact that Keito is taking advantage of this to coerce Mizuno means that, more likely than not, third phase will be achieved by the Crux Brigade next week.

The short, yet probably the most important event in this episode, was almost definitely the meeting between Sugata and Head. For one, we now know that Head too can move around in Zero Time. It still hasn’t been revealed as to if Head has a fake or a real “mark”, but considering he can move around in Zero time means he definitely has one of them. Considering how, after Zero time ended and he didn’t return back to where he was originally, I’m guessing that he has a real “mark”, just like Takuto. The interesting thing here is that Takuto and Wako are the only known instances where they reappeared from Zero time outside of their original locations (think back to episode 1), so what does this exactly imply for Head? Also, the fact that Head is openly trying to recruit Sugata as the “emperor” does make me curious about the structure of the Crux brigade.

What caught more of my attention was how Head declared that the Galactic Pretty boy would fall, as well as how he is the unrivaled “warrior” Star Driver around. If you include this with the revelation that Head is indeed the painter “R” (who is apparently Takuto’s father), there are even more questions this show brings up. If Head really is Takuto’s father, why does Head look so young? Head definitely seems to plotting something extremely important behind the scenes, and knowing his mysterious way of doing things, I just can’t figure out what he’s trying to do. I guess there’s a lack of information to say for sure.

Either ways, this episode did an awesome job of throwing in little tidbits of information here and there that keeps you wondering, as well as hinting at some major changes in the upcoming episodes. I suspect that Head has some sort of grand plan of sorts in motion, which really makes me wonder what in the world he is plotting. And how is Takuto, Wako, and Sugata exactly involved in all these events? Either ways, this episode had some excellent buildup to what will probably be a major turning point in this series next week.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.3/5

P.S. Dang, I just noticed I wrote a pretty long post. Perhaps I should cut down on my rambling next time ^.^;;

Screenshots are later in the post.

Next Episode Preview: Takuto’s Mark – タクトのシルシ (Takuto no shirushi)