A week-late first impressions post for the fall 2010 anime seaon. I haven't watched mecha in a while, so I decided to check out Star Driver for the season. I watched the first episode of Star Driver last week but didn't get around to writing a post for it, so here is combined post for the first two episodes.
Basic Premise:
On a certain tropical island, pretty boys and girls of the local high school do battle using mechas in a special dimension.
Here are the bad guys.
Here's the main character, Mr. Galactic Pretty Boy...
Episode 1 Summary:
On the shoreline of Southern Cross Isle, Wako and Sugata save a boy who name Takuto who has been washed ashore. Takuto soon joins Wako and Sugata at their high school and the three become fast friends. Wako is a shrine maiden on the island with some sort of supernatural power, and she is kidnapped by an underground group in the school called Holy Order of Glittering Stars. The Order has some plans with Wako relating to giant mecha called Cybodies in a strange dimension that stops time in the real world when activated. Takuto suddenly shows up in the dimension and reveals himself to be the legendary Galatic Pretty Boy, and he uses his Cybody Tauburn to rescue Wako from the Order.
...and his mecha. You can see they are a matching pair.
You won't be the Galactic Pretty Boy after that thing is done with your face.
Episode 2 Summary:
Classes start at the high school and Takuto meets some colorful characters in his class (who turn out to be commanders in the Order). Later in the day, Takuto is introduced to the Midnight Flight drama club, a group of students including Wako and Sugata who know about the Cybodies and the Order. At night, the Order sends out another pilot and Cybody to challenge Takuto. The battle is closer this time, but Takuto and his Tauburn ultimately triumphs by blasting the enemy with a beam attack.
Nice impression of the Tron Light Cycle.
Too bad it ran head first into a beam attack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After watching two episodes of Star Driver, I still haven't really figured out what's going on. While I was watching the first episode, I was like "what the heck is going on?" especially during the second half of the episode. The show just threw us right into the combat. The second episode helped a bit and it seems that the Order want to get the Cybodies working in the real word and obviously Takuto and friends are here to stop them. It's only two episodes in, so hopefully they'll explain things eventually.
My impressions of Star Driver thus far is that it's a strange show. It definitely has its quirks especially when it came to costume and mecha design. Looking at the costumers of Takuto and the Order, Takuto's transformation sequence, his title as "Galactic Pretty Boy", the design of the Tauburn... there are some not-so-subtle hints being tossed out there, although I'll refrain from using the "F" word to describe the show (since every other blog has used that term already). On the other hand, the show doesn't seem to take itself seriously, which is probably the right direction to go, although it'd be hard for the audience to take it seriously anyways given the design decisions. Supposedly there were various homages to other mecha shows in the first episode (according to other blogs), but I'm not well-studied enough or too blind to recognize them.
Onto the positives, production quality is excellent (as one would expect from a BONES series) especially during the mecha combat. The action is fluid and colorful, and the alternate dimension where the combat takes place in looks very nice. The show also has some pretty notable names in the voice cast as well. Star Driver looks like it has the potential to be a fun show to watch with its flamboyant designs and eye-candy mecha combat. As long as the show provides enough action (and maybe a bit comedy), the show should be watchable even if the writing goes off to lala-land. If the writing is good then Star Driver could be a very good show; if the writing goes south then it'll at least be easy to laugh at. Either way, I'll probably follow this show week to week, although episodic blogging is probably out of the question.
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