I take a two week holiday break from anime watching and Star Driver hasn’t changed a damn bit.
Hell, it’s still the same damn show as it was when it started airing. Someone wake me when something actually happens — no, seriously. Power Ranger had more plot development than this show. You know that infamous Street Fighter III Youtube clip featuring Daigo? That had more drama in it than every battle in Star Driver thus far combined. I’ve never seen so much ado about nothing.
We’ve seen thirteen episodes already and what is there to relate to? Who are we supposed to empathize with? People can debate all the various stages of the cybodies, the maidens and whatever, but why does anyone care? Why should anyone care? Without any emotional underpinning to the narrative, all the technical jargon is just noise.
So maybe it’s just a “shut off your brain and enjoy the ride” experience but it even fails at that because the characters are literally inert. They are trapped on an island. They are trapped in one fighting arena. They are trapped with the same fighting tools (the cybodies just regenerate). Takuto is forced to relive the same metamorphosis every single episode. It has become routine; it has become predictable. As a result, Star Driver is no longer silly. It’s just a chore.
Right now, Star Driver is about as compelling as a backyard wrestling match. But instead of some toothless hicks, our high schoolers get all dressed up like they’re going to an Eyes Wide Shut orgy on acid but they don’t end up doing anything even half as interesting.
So far the only character who feels somewhat different since the beginning of the show is Sugata and he isn’t that interesting, to me. I mean sometimes it really is nice to have so many characters to look at but it’s about the same effect as having 8 layers of clothing on. You might be warm, but you can’t move. It’s like there are so many characters that they’ve completely filled up whatever chess board they’re placed on and no one can move anywhere. That’s how static the characters feel to me.
Yeah, Star Driver is strangely dull and now there’s little else to watch. I’m waffling between blogging the rest of the Fall season or just waiting for the following season to really get started. After Zakuro, I’m just not really curious ’bout what happens in the rest of the season. Seriously, I mean, is anyone really curious how Togainu no Chi turned out? Do I really want to watch Sora fuck his sister? All in all, a pretty disheartening finish.
The answer is, yes, you DO want to watch Sora fuck his sister. Obviously.
Did you watch Shiki?
I’ll just ignore your first sentence!
I tried to get into Shiki but after six or seven episodes, it bored me.
I really recommend giving Shiki another go. Its definitely a slow build-up (although I refuse to say ‘it gets better’ since I was never bored in the first place), but it is the best show I’ve seen in literally years. At the very least watch it through episode fourteen.