Star Driver 5 – The “He was going to do her, of course” Edition

Though by now we should be expecting a different level of insanity from this series, Star Driver just took it up a notch. Craziness aside, this episode was able to tell a real interesting story that fit well within the context of the bigger issue.

To go any further in this post without talking about how awesome Midori Okamoto is would be a crime. She is epicness personified. Then again, a lot of the female characters in this series could possess that title. Anyway, I can’t really understand why the school’s headmaster lets her get away with having posters of bishounens in her office, but whatever. Despite the silly premise, you could really see how upset she was about not being able to get with anyone from the male student body, especially after seeing Kanako. While that was all really easy to see, I loved how the one student who had ignored her when she was under its effects, came right back to her office after Takuto defeated her. I guess it goes almost without saying that there really is someone for everyone, so you shouldn’t try to be someone that you’re not (the whole teacher X student thing aside). But to get back on track, that last scene was LOL.

I hate to use the word cougar as she isn't that old, but you get the point

Then there was that fight with Takuto. She could have easily defeated him. As an adult she clearly knew every trick in the younger generation’s proverbial bag of tricks, which the precognition machine showed, but that wasn’t enough (On an aside, did anyone else get Bismarck Waldstein vibes when she used the precognition machine). Instead of seeing Takuto defeated, we witnessed one the most satisfying, but yet unsatisfying conclusions to a battle this side of ever. While I guess it is plausible you could have guessed as to why Midori would eventually lose, there is no way you could have seen the inclusion of a bishie mode camera. As great as that was, the reaction of Takuto and Keito during the battle were just as hilarious. Then there was the way Keito didn’t really seem that upset with Midori after the battle, but seemed to agree with Midori that there was nothing wrong with the way she lost, even if was hilarious.

Seriously?

As for the rest of this episode, there were a lot of great moments. The conversation the drama club had about the letters from Midori’s alter ego, Hina, and the resulting reactions were interesting to say the least, but it also let us know that just as much focus is being put into the school/comedy scenes as is being put into the still great looking action scenes. Plus, the entire conversation utilized a level of frankness that I don’t really see too much in anime, and it’s nice to see people trying new things every once in a while (I’m still waiting for my moving walkways). This, again, almost goes without saying, but I loved that he was going to do her, of course line.

Looking ahead, it would seem like the volcano to the north is going to play some sort of role in the future as it would seem that some first phases may have the power to mess with the space-time continuum. Just uttering the words “space-time continuum” reminds me of the movie Dude, where’s my Car, but I guess that isn’t the worst thing in the world. Also of note was how liberal Keito was in her usage of the Kiraboshi hand signal when she wanted to identify Midori as a member of the Glittering Crux Brigade. I mean what if Midori wasn’t who she thought she was, how embarrassed would you be making that sign to a normal person? Apparently, this also means that Keito couldn’t completely identify Midori as a member, which seems a bit odd given that only her face is covered, but I’ll allow it.

One final thing is that it seems a lot of people have been comparing this series to Revolutionary Girl Utena. To be honest, I had never even though about watching it until this series came out, but I’ve been semi marathoning it recently, though at the expense of my midterms. Perhaps the biggest comparison I’ve seen is how everyone is complaining about all the reused battle footage Star Driver has used, and how that has reminded some people of Utena. I really don’t have a problem with this sort of trick in either series, as the point of the show isn’t to show us the battle, but it’s to show us why they fight. There are some other similarities between the two I guess, but I’ll hold off for now since I’m not quite done.

Really?

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