Star Driver: Takuto of the Radiance: "Takuto man, Takuto man, doing the things a Takuto can. What's he like? It's not important. Takuto man, will he win? Or it be a loss? Will he be challenged at all by the boss? And why should we at all give a toss? Nobody knows. Takuto man."
Studio BONES and I have a hate-love relationship. Every other year or so, they put out a new anime-original show. This show will inevitably have incredibly good visuals and animation and an excellent voice cast with good musical direction, but a story completely lacking in ‘whys’ and context and filled with vapid but pretty elements that get little explanation or connection. Also, it will shamelessly rip off a Studio Gainax show: For RahXephon, it was Evangelion (there, I said it). For Eureka Seven, it was (most likely) FLCL. For Darker Than Black, the ending ripped off Evangelion. For Xamd: Lost memories, the ending ripped off Evangelion. For Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, it was Evangelion’s ending yet again (this is really getting into a rut). Yet, for all these lacks, I will feel strangely compelled to watch the whole thing through from start to ending, despite how crap it will inevitably turn out to be, all the while complaining about its lacks from dawn to dusk. So far, only Eureka Seven has conspired to keep me from watching it, and so far I dare not approach.
By this point, I think it is clear that I need a freaking intervention (and BONES, in my opinion, need a better writing staff). More to the point, though, I need to get my issues about their latest endeavour, the fall 2010-spring 2011 super-robot show Star Driver, off my chest. The show is a very obvious Tengen Toppa homage, whose main problem is that that manages to fail horribly at the very thing it was supposed to be imitating. Like RahXephon failed to grasp the subtext of Evangelion’s psychological drama and just got confusing and dramatic for no reason, Star Driver fails at grasping the strong driving story elements of Tengen Toppa and its gleeful machismo, leaving a contextual-less blend of fanservice and light drama entertainment supported by some nicely-looking but ultimately hollow, boring and predictable robot fight sequences…
Bored with my ranting yet? I'm just getting warmed up. You may want to consider a potty break and a coffee. Go ahead, I'll be right here while you do it. This is going to take a while.
Visuals: 8/10 –- It’s FABULOUS!
Star Driver, as expected from a BONES show, looks lovely. The character models are fresh and vibrant, and are variable enough that you notice that not all of the characters are based on the same template. The hair and skin colours differ, a lot, and you’d basically have to be half-blind not to be able to tell the characters apart. The backgrounds are a little above average, containing a wide range of locales inside the island, and there is extremely little recycling of the locales the characters find themselves in.
This, by the way, is good stuff from the slice-of-life part of the show, which is the less impressive part of the show visually. Once the mech battles start off, the show really gets to show off the eye-candy: A stable of over twenty different mechs are all present, fighting each other in quite lovely and decently choreographed fight scenes in the psychedelic backgrounds of Zero Time. The animation is top-notch, and the visual effects are dazzling.
So, what’s there to complain about? Well… Water effects are a bit off. The sky in the real world looks unnatural, some of the characters (Wako) have really dull faces and default expressions, and the backgrounds, especially as the series goes on, becomes static with people frozen stuck as backgrounds becoming especially noticeable. Nobody ever seems to change clothing, and Glittering Crux should fire their fashion designer. Out of a cannon. Into the sun. I’ve seen less overall flamboyance levels at the parades in Rio. It’s all very small nitpicky things, but it’s still there. I still think Xamd: Lost Memories looked better.
Sound: 6/10 -- Decent music and voices. Nothing really grand, but it does the show credit.
Star Driver doesn't skimp much on the audio budget either. From the overly cheerful (yet oddly catchy) J-rock OP, to the song numbers that herald most of the mecha fights in the first half of the show, to a vibrant display of ambient sound effects and mecha battle SFX, the show has a well-done audio direction, hampered mainly by the lack of memorable background music beyond, well, those two tracks. The music underscoring the day-to-day slice-of-life parts is lacking, and the show does not have anything near the musical score of Tengen Toppa when it comes to underscoring and supporting moments of particular drama or blood-pumping impressive action: To put it simply, there's no equivalent to "Libera Me From Hell" in this soundtrack and it shows. It could possibly have helped.
As for the voice acting, it's neither here nor there. It's easy to recognize some of the more famous voices behind it, like Jun Fuyukama (Lelouch from Code Geass, here playing Sugata) or Akira Ishida (Kaworu from Evangelion, here as the head of the evil organization of evil), and along with the somewhat more muddled side-characters they deliver an overall fair showing. Nothing I would really call bad, with both voices and fitness of character being just fine, but nothing I would really go jumping for joy for. While the overall image works, there are no particular high points, and the main character in particular... I dunno. He has lots more passion in his voice than your average Harem Lead, but I still think he's too... Wishy-washy for a supposedly hot-blooded Super Robot Driver. Maybe Domon and Kamina have simply set my bar too high.
Story: 2/10 –- "Kiraboshi man, Kiraboshi man, Kiraboshi man hates Takuto man. They have a fight, Takuto wins. Takuto man..."
Then, of course, there's the story. Ah, my eternal bane nemesis of BONES shows, and verily does it return in full force in this show. Putting it simply:
Taketo Tsunashi transfers to a new school on a remote island outside the coast of Japan, having come there in search of his missing father. This island is quickly revealed to be the home of a up-to-no-good and extremely flamboyant cult/organization called "Kiraboshi" ("Glittering Crux" in English), consisting of several of the teenaged islanders in painfully transparent disguises and extremely tarted-up uniforms, who are planning to use a large deposit of magical robots called "Cybodies" found underneath the island to do... Something-or-other. Probably take over the world (OF COURSE!). In order to gain full control of these robots, however, the Glittering Crux needs to defeat four traditional Shinto maidens who maintain a seal over the island. This seal restricts these cybodies to being used only inside a magical alternate dimension called Zero Time, that only the Crux can access. At the verge of defeating the second maiden, Wako, Takuto steps in and reveals himself to be the legendary Galactic Pretty Boy, someone who has a Super Special Fabulous mark of "I am a freaking Chosen One" that allows him access to a Super Special Fabulous mech called Tauburn, and will defend Wako to the last.
Feeling lost yet? It seems simple enough, really. The main problem with this show isn't really the premise, it's how that premise is treated, and what becomes of it. Let me just try to put it simply and combine the two main issues in one: The whole thing gets treated as a game. Yes, that sounds about right. Almost the entire rest of the show is treated essentially as a sort of game between Taketo and the Glittering Crux: Once Per Episode, they dig another new super-mech out of the closet, invoke Zero Time, and try to fight Takuto. They have a fight, Takuto's Super Special Fabulous mech wins. The Glittering Crux doesn't care, despite losing dozens of seemingly extremely valuable mechs to this joker, and never does anything despite knowing who Takuto is and where he lives. Takuto just spends time in-between fights acting all carefree and doing kendo as a way to 'grow stronger', and also doesn't care at all about this evil organization or their goals, or who else they mess over in their 'evil' plans: Apparently, he's only in it to defend Wako. Even the whole 'find my father' angle seems to be dismissed as unimportant the moment after it's been brought up.
Basically, it's another problem of subtext and motivations. Once you start asking yourself *why* these events happen at all, you come to the realization that Star Driver isn't trying to justify what's going on on-screen at all. Why doesn't the Glittering Crux, say, gang up on Takuto and beat him senseless, or just kill him outside of Zero Time? Are they really that careless about reaching their lifelong goals? Why are they trying to destroy the seals anyway? What do they have to gain? Or to lose? Why does Glittering Crux exist? Did a bunch of islanders once get it into their head to dress like the San Fransisco S&M Gay Pride Parade and go hang out in a cave when they discovered a bunch of robots there? Why does the plot devote so much of time to trivialities like kisses and theatre; are they that bad at just making a decent Super Robot Story? Why are those magical robots even there in the first place? And most importantly, why doesn't *anyone* in the whole bloody mess seem to take any part of it seriously at all? There's a dozen more of those questions that arise, practically from every episode, and they never ever get a satisfactory explanation, or not even an indication that the show is trying to address it as a mystery or indeed anything. It's all just excuses for giant robot fights.
And speaking of the robot fights: There is basically no suspense to this story. This is because if Takuto ever lost once, it would be all over. Thus, it's 25 episodes of pre-determined robot battles, where the only way we get some drama is by having a new and powerful villain *seemingly* dominate Takuto at first until some arbitrary Deus Ex Machina steps in and saves him. Ultimately, it's like watching a bunch of big kindergardeners playing a silly game, but without any playfulness to the narrative at all, and expecting us to take it seriously when they suddenly dump a bunch of drama and pathos in it.
Characters: 3/10 –- Hello, and welcome to Mary Sue Island Resort. I hope you like painfully ‘spechul’ individuals with no depth and driving pathos, because this place sure as hell isn’t lacking in them.
Well, in spite of the bad, context-less story, there's still the possibility of some real characters in it, people who can successfully make you forget the vapid story and give you some involvement, right? Well, yes, there is possibility. But like with the story, there is none in reality.
Much of the problem lies with Takuto himself. Takuto, in his freaky red hair, being good at everything and beloved by everyone and having a Super Special Fabulous power mecha, is a classical Mary Sue: Perfect, flawless... And also completely lacking in any actual character. Without anything he's good or bad at, anything particularly he's interested in, and no real goals or drive beyond "protect Wako", Takuto is a practical non-entity when it comes to having any relevance to the story progression: He's an entirely reactive character, and a very shallow and dull one at that. In other words, he has very little for the viewer to relate to.
Meanwhile, all the villains that throw themselves at him like lemmings in a row get their own time in the limelight as part of the episode, and we soon learn just how colourful, special and unique beings they all are -- nobody in the show is not somebody, to put it simply. Basically, almost all of them are Mary Sues of some differing degrees, although not as badly as Takuto. The irony is perhaps in that the villains, due to their brief 15 minutes of fame, actually get more fleshing out and more humanizing moments than Takuto (however little that is, and it's fairly little), and consequently end up looking more human than him. We basically get a story full of too-unique snowflakes, where the only one who doesn't get the time and effort to get some attempts at character depth is the main character. I guess in the end, the problem boils down to this: When everyone's 'super'... No-one is.
And the main character's still a boring, featureless tosser.
Value: 2/10 –- This, too, shall pass.
Star Driver may be remembered, but it certainly won't be by me. This show is a rip-off of Gurren Lagann's mech battles coupled with a meaningless slice-of-life in a plastic world filled with Shiny Happy People whose struggles come off as meaningless and whose entire world seems based on a fractured set of plot holes. I have no doubt it will be licensed, but don't ask me to buy it: In fact, I would ask you not to. It has practically no re-watch value, because none of the plot will seem better in retrospect and character development is null, and practically no watch value in the first place. As just another BONES show, it's not historical and worthy of our memory slots either.
Enjoyment: 3/10 –- "Come on, come on, no-one can see me cry..."
Mmmmm... No. I just got mostly bored and skipped through half the show. When the everyday love story between Takuto and Wako is so predictable (even with the awkward love triangle with Sugata thrown in), and the mecha battles are pre-determined from the get-go, there is practically no suspense or drama on either side. The characters are dull and unengaging, especially the main characters, and the plot holes and lack of context means I can't help but analyze how much the whole thing falls apart at the seams. Ultimately, this was not an enjoyable experience, although I will say the mech battles looked good and, well, it had the potential to be better.
Final Score: 4/10 -– Just who the hell do you think you are?!
So, how do we sum this up? With Star Driver Studio BONES do exactly the same things wrong, and for almost exactly the same reasons, as they’ve done with almost every anime first show they’ve made. Their writers don’t know what ‘context’ – the events going on beneath the actions shown on screen – means, or how to use it effectively as a storytelling medium, and they seem to feel compelled to rip off better shows by GAINAX for parts of their aesthetics and story elements. So, why do I particularly single out this show?
Part of this is, I think, because Star Driver is the first show since RahXephon where the lack of a ‘why’ starts to become too dominant, given that we have a clearly plot-driven show that is supposed to tell an overhanging story. Darker than Black was a mystery show, and managed to get around the lack of explanations on the episode-based plot, sheer coolness factor of setting and protagonist, and the sense of mystery: The people in the show didn’t seem to know any more than we as viewers did, and where they did, they kept it secret. Xamd: Lost Memories spent a lot of time making sure Akuyuki flew around on that post ship and giving us emotional investment in the principal characters, keeping the episode-based slice-of-life separated from the overhanging story by multiple story threads or by keeping the episodes separate.
Star Driver has no such excuse. There is no reason why they can’t explain what this so-called ‘evil’ organization is all about and give us some context for the whole battle from the get-go: They’re just ‘evil’. There is no reason why they can’t try to give the main character some emotional or intellectual stake in this whole conflict apart from him being the Special Chosen One who Must Definitively Protect his Shallow Love Interest. Heck, there’s no reason why they can’t give the main character some personality traits that make us give two tucks of a dead dog’s **** about him, period. There’s no reason why they can’t make the villains act like, well, villains, instead of wasting one-shot characters on playfully challenging the overpowered main character in meaningless one-on-one battles where the show would be over if he were to lose once, so obviously he never will. There was potential, but all the potential is squandered on a meaningless trio of main characters, idiotic villains, and a story that goes nowhere fast.
In the end, Star Driver may *look* pretty, but the plot holes and lack of investment in the story and characters just drags it down into a mire of mediocre badness from where it truly never recovers. I see no reason to sugar-coat it: This anime is overall subpar, meaningless and trite. Not entirely unworthy as an entity of media, especially with the cool fights, but not particularly worthy either in any sense of the word.
