Title: Star Driver
Genre: Action
Summary: On a cross-shaped island in the South, a mysterious and gigantic humanoid robot known as the "Cybuddy" is discovered sealed in the underground ruins for untold ages. A group known as the "Order of the Glittering Star Cross" attempts to remove the seal by abducting a girl named Wako Agemaki, who they dubbed the "shrine maiden" and is the key to activating the robot. A boy named Takuto Tsunashi arrives with his own Cybuddy named Tauburn to rescue Wako. Thus begins a struggle to unlock the secrets of the advanced technology and prevent disaster.
First Look: Damn and I was looking forward to mech anime after such a long time. Oh well, better luck next season right? Star Driver is one of the biggest disappointments I have this season. When I saw the trailer and screenshots I was so excited to see some well done action scenes. Although Star Driver did deliver my request for amazing action, it decided to blast me in the face with mediocrity in terms of story, character, and overall “coolness” of mechs. Probably something everyone will notice is the repetitive fashion the anime took. A few examples are:
- Evil women switching their leg crossing
- Melancholy singing before a battle (though not bad)
- Galactic Pretty Boy entrance and fashion scene (he’s so PRETTY!)
- Freeze time, lit up chest
- Battle power up by saying “Time for that, Grandfather?”
Now I do understand that these scenes will happen every episode in the anime world, but they don’t have to show their entirety every time. These scenes take up quite a bit of airing per episode, so it makes me feel like there is very little new content. Considering that the anime literally threw you into the middle of a storyline, having very little new content just brings more confusion because the story isn’t stopping for you to catch up. I feel as though I shouldn’t bother learning any new characters because they will probably be gone the next episode or have very little screen time. The anime also tries too hard to be cool (to the point where it is actually comedic).
On top of that, I don’t that I can ever take the main guy seriously when he wears a mid-drift shirt, transforms into a guy with blonde highlights, and drives a mech with a skirt.
Really the only thing someone should look forward to are the fight scenes (after all the DREAMY poses of course). The art style is magnificent during the fights, probably some of the best I have seen. It isn’t too complicated where you have no idea what is going on, but not simple enough to get boring. Unfortunately that is the only thing
Star Driver has going for it.
Final statements: I’m might keep this on watch for the lols. But I’m still on the fence about it. I see no hope for this anime’s future.
