Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto – 05

Episode 05 – The Meaning of the Mandragora – マンドラゴラの花言葉 (Mandoragora no hanakotoba)

Well, this episode took the show in a rather different direction; I hadn’t expected that the nurse would use her Cybuddy’s powers to turn herself younger, and in turn, seduce the male population of the school o.o;  The situation is a little weird, but it did make the episode more interesting than expected. As usual, the animation quality is great, and smooth, but besides that, this episode seems to continue the formulaic trend that has been present since the beginning of this show.

This episode introduces the school nurse, who is also a member of the Glittering Crux Brigade, and therefore, an enemy of Takuto. The odd (and amusing) part about her is that, rather than being out to kill Takuto, we are instead introduced into a full blown Fujoshi, a girl otaku who swoons over pretty boys xD. I have to admit, seeing a different main villain this episode is quite refreshing, and although not all the gags this episode were funny, there were a few moments here and there that did keep me entertained. Seeing her try and seduce all the pretty boys, including Takuto himself, was entertaining, especially with Wako’s reactions to all this.

Besides that, though, the expected mech battle wasn’t anything particularly special. When I heard that the nurse could see into the future with her Cybody, I thought that the battle could get really epic and cool. Instead, we have the nurse, in a moment of fangirlism, swap on her x-ray vision and drool over Takuto as he wipes the floor with her Cybody. Talk about a pathetic battle =.=  The battle up until then was actually really well portrayed, with plenty of swift action scenes, but that x-ray vision thing killed the momentum of the scene. My reaction to the whole scene was somewhat along the lines of “…did that seriously just happen”, all while laughing my ass off at how funny it was. It was funny, yet at the same time totally ruined the moment; I’ve never quite seen such a scene in anime before.

The plot structure hasn’t really changed much, and while at first it may have been nice, I’m starting to get tired of seeing that ginga bishonen transformation sequence every episode. It wastes precious screentime, which is just lazy on the animators part, and gets old very quickly. The story hasn’t been much better, with the story pretty much right where we left off last week. I do like how the creators are trying to focus in more on side characters, but that also hurts the progression of the main story (which I consider much more interesting). The only side story which would be very interesting to see, in my opinion, would be Sakana-chan’s backstory. Seeing as she plays a crucial part in virtually every single episode, I’m curious as to how she exactly fits into the whole picture. Not much really happens, with this episode pretty much counting as a filler episode in terms of how it affected the main plot. I honestly hope Bones starts changing up things a lot, because this series is starting to show signs of repetitiveness. Bones has a ton of stuff going for it in this series, so I’m just hoping they bring out the potential to this show.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.6/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto – 04

Episode 04 – Wako’s Song – ワコの歌声 (Wako no utagoe)

Well, this episode broke the trend that this anime had been setting for the past few episodes, with pretty much no mech fights at all whatsoever. Instead, we get an episode that really focuses in on it’s characters, especially Wako and Takuto. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting any sort of character development between the two, but the episode did a great job of portraying their developing relationship, and was at times quite subtle. The atmosphere this episode is used quite well, with their time alone reflecting upon their pasts really helps showing how they’re slowing becoming closer to each other. In the end, though, this episode was probably meant to not only showcase Wako and Takuto’s relationship, but also finally give Takuto the resolve and motivation to help Wako, and try to give her a chance to leave the island.

The main conflict in this episode has to do with Wako and Takuto being cast into a illusionary world, where they are the only two people around. The idea that Cybuddies can also unleash illusions on it’s opponents is quite different from the standard mech vs mech fights, and really makes me wonder what other types of Cybuddies there are. The time spent alone between Takuto and Wako had quite a few quiet moments, but it gave us some great development and depth between our two main characters. What may not have been as noticeable is some of the development of the side characters in this episode.

The amount of background info about each characters’ past that we saw this episode really did help flesh out some of their motivations, as well as tell us a bit more on how the whole Cybuddy seal system works. What struck me as a bit odd was how animated and energetic Sakana-chan was this episode. Although she didn’t sing her trademark song this episode, she did get quite passionate about her story involving the squid kind and the young couple trying to kill the squid king.

Obviously the story runs some parallels with the plot of this show, but I’m still not completely connecting all the dots yet as to how Sakana-chan’s story meshes in with the overall plot. Her existence as a former maiden makes her quite unique, so seeing her every episode really does make each episode feel complete.

As usual, we did get another villain this episode, and surprisingly enough, she didn’t get fired at the end. I guess she technically didn’t “lose” her battle, which would explain why, but it’s still interesting to see how there’s a new antagonist each episode. At the same time though, since there’s a new antagonist each episode, they don’t get quite as much of a personality compared to the more well developed main characters. The only exception would be the guy who is always listening to Sakana-chan, who strikes me as an important, yet quirky and mysterious, antagonist.

Overall, this episode was great at developing the main characters, as well as throw in some more background information and details to work with. The main purpose of the Kiraboshi group still isn’t well known, per say, but we’re slowly getting more information about what they are up to. I’m really curious as to what exactly Bones is trying to build up to, with an episode like this one.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.2/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto – 03

Episode 03 -Adult Bank – おとな銀行 (Otona ginkō)

This episode was pretty intense towards the end, with the action sequence beautifully animated between Tauburn and the new mech in this episode. This show, to some extent, is getting slightly repetitive with story format, but we are at the beginning of the series, so it will probably change up later on. As of now though, I didn’t expect a sword mech fight in the second half, but after seeing the kendo match earlier on in the episode, it wasn’t really unexpected.

This episode does go into surprisingly more detail with the side characters, more specifically the teenage wife Kanako. Quite obviously the Kiraboshi group that are the antagonists here are trying to do something with the Cybuddies here, but there also seems to be some power struggles within the group, especially with Kanako mentioning how the one to defeat Takuto would become the leader of the group.

I was curious as to why Takuto was fidgeting so much early on in the episode during the Kendo fight, but that became pretty obvious when he pulled out his second star sword during the mech battle, thus making him a sword dual-wielder.

The fight itself was pretty awesome, with some amazing animation and a really neat art style to accompany it. It was pretty obvious that Takuto would somehow pull off a victory against the new enemy mech, but after he pulled out his second star sword, and the change of music that accompanied it, victory was pretty much assured.

What I find more interesting is that, after the battle ended, and the enemy pilot had to hand over his Star driver badge, his mask did not break. The red-haired guy that seems to be in charge of Sakana-chan does mention how he has “the mark”.

Also, there was no scene where the Cybuddy was destroyed after returning to the real world, unlike previous Cybuddies. This episode did throw in more info that was left unexplained, more specifically the fact that the mask that stayed intact, which I bet will be elaborated on later in the show. So far, Star driver is doing a relatively good job of both developing/exploring it’s characters, yet at the same time making the plot more interesting. There are still a lot of little details left unexplained, but that’s what makes this show intriguing to watch.

I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, where they will showcase Wako’s song. I wonder if Wako’s song will have any significance similar to Sakana-chan’s song (which plays during the battle scenes, etc).

Overall Enjoyment: 4.0/5

P.S. Kiraboshi! Fabulous! xP

Screenshots are later in the post.

Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto – 02

Episode 02 – Challenge from the Glittering Crux Brigade – 綺羅星十字団の挑戦 (Kiraboshi Jyuuji no Chousen)

After the over the top “fabulous” episode last week, it doesn’t take me with too much surprise that this week’s episode was much more dialogue heavy. There was a lot of exposition for to tell more details with regards to exactly what is going on in this show. Of course, there is still a Cybuddy giant robot brawl, but this episode was mostly intended to flesh out some characters a bit more, as well as add more details to the confusing plot.

Long story short, the Kiraboshi evil dudes want to be able to use Cybuddies in the real world, which is why they want to break the seal being protected by the maidens. The seal makes it so that Cybuddies can only manifest in the “Zero Time” dimension that was shown in the previous episode; when not in Zero time, Cybuddies are just giant oversized dolls. They accomplished part of their goal, but did not expect the involvement of the Ginga Bishonen (aka Galactic Pretty Boy lol).

Takuto and Wako are pretty much living out their everyday school lives, although there are more serious moments with them, such as when Takuto, newly introduced to a club, asks with a serious tone as to who and what exactly the “Kiraboshi” people are. Wako also worries, while she’s eating dinner with her two friends, about the whole situation (which killed her appetite for food, apparently).

The events that led up to the Cybuddy battle was actually quite intriguing; in the Kiraboshi group, there seems to be some manipulation of some sort to get somebody motivated enough to initiate Zero time and attack Takuto. We did also get some insight into the organization’s hierarchical structure, with the entire Kiraboshi group being run by a few top members. The organization seems rather complicated, but there really isn’t much else mentioned in this episode.

Instead, we get another Cybuddy battle, this time with Gouda from last episode. After getting a random kiss from Shinada earlier in the episode, he gets motivated enough to try and take Takuto on in his Cybuddy. Of course, Takuto announces his intention to protect Wako, which enforces the more idealistic relationship between the two. I personally really like their relationship, however cliched and over-idealistic it may be. The battle was short, but fun to watch. Seriously, I get kicks out of watching that FABULOUS transformation sequence every time lol. The battle between Takuto and Gouda wasn’t as one sided as the battle last week, but it was still painfully obvious that Takuto would win somehow. TAU GINGA BEAM, which Takuto used to finish him off, was epic hilarious lol.

This show does have a huge cast of characters, which is making me wonder as to if Bones will focus on just the few main characters (which are pretty easy to point out), or try and incorporate the rest of the side characters in some way or form. Although Takuto x Wako is the ideal relationship in this show, I’m also curious about the peculiar relationship between “Sakana-chan” and the red haired dude that is keeping her imprisoned. Endou Sarina, voiced by Sakamoto Maaya, could also be a potentially interesting character.

Overall, this episode served as a way to build up background info for the next few episodes. There was a ton of reused animation and scenes from last episode, which is definitely not a good sign. I’m also slightly worried that the action will start getting repetitive (and predictable) if it always ends up with one mech battle per episode, with Galactic Pretty boy being victorious each time. It’s probably too early on in the series to say that though; we are only on the second episode, after all.  However, the premise to this show is rather unique, and knowing Bones’ track record with original anime (Heroman being the exception), shouldn’t disappoint. There was a bit of Wako x Takuto Character relationship, with their developing relationship somewhat reminiscent of the relationships between the main couple of other Bones’ works (such as Xamd and Eureka Seven). In the end, though, the episode was rather fun to watch.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

First Impression – Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto 01

Episode 01 – Galactic Pretty-boy – 銀河美少年 (Ginga Bishōnen)

If there’s one word that describes this entire first episode, it’s FABULOUS. Seriously, though, this episode was pretty darn good, perhaps my top first episode this fall season so far. This episode is silly, and watching it is truly a unique experience. The characters themselves are really energetic and silly, which makes watching them pretty fun, and even the more serious parts of the episode (where kidnappings and forbidden research, etc) have a silly flair to them that makes watching this show really fun to watch.

The episode could pretty much summed up in one sentence: our main character is a legendary galactic pretty boy who’s out to save the damsel in distress.

The pretty boy turns out to be Tsunashi Takuto, while our damsel in distress would be Agemaki Wako. Seriously, when you watch a show where everybody emits sparkles and the hero has his own transformation sequence (magical girl style lol) all while standing in giant “Cybuddy” robot traveling in between dimensions, you know the show is pretty damn unique. Not to mention, although the fight scene between the Cybuddies was pretty awesome, I also couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer glamorous-ness of the entire thing.

The story itself is a little awkward at points, but for a show as flashy and silly as this one, the story isn’t too much of an issue. I could watch this show just for the laughs.

Not to mention, the animation during this episode was superb, in all likelyhood the best of all the first episodes so far. The artwork itself was pretty good as well; knowing Bones and how it handles it’s shows, though, I’m not surprised at the high level of production quality. I personally like how the characters are given much more cheery, charming personalities, which made this episode quite enjoyable. This episode was stylish, and charming, even with the sometimes odd story developments. A definite show to continue watching for me.

First Impressions: 9.0/10

Screenshots, OP, and ED theme are later in the post.