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「マンドラゴラの花言葉」 (Mandoragora no Hanakotoba)
“The Meaning of Mandrake”
And just when I thought we had broken the formula. Before I get to that complaint though, it’s probably appropriate to mention how crazy this episode was. Not only did one of the supposed heads of Kiraboshi, Professor Green, get one shotted and taken out this episode, but we got some crazy sequences of reverse harems and FABULOUS nude bishounens. For one of the heads of Kiraboshi, Okamoto Midori (Kuwashima Houko), certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, especially since she looked completely serious in the few cameos we saw of her in episodes 2 and 3, although after getting some first hand experience with Watanabe in the last two episodes I suppose I should have been prepared to be surprised. That said, I can’t say I was disappointed by this turn of events, as I was highly amused by her constant fantasies of bishounens, going as far as having several posters of them on the wall of the school clinic. It doesn’t help that her First Phase ability as a Star Driver apparently allows her to role back time and become the age of a teenager again, allowing her to seduce nearly all the male populace of the academy and even perform the now infamous “glass kiss”. Speaking of seducing, I love how Takuto actually smirked when he found the letter from Okamoto in his desk, as if he was actually going to do something; now that I think about it, the subject of whether Takuto is a virgin or not hasn’t been brought up yet, any bets?
Comedy aside, I wasn’t as impressed with this week’s fighting scene as I was with previous ones, probably because this one felt like the most rehashed so far. Takuto didn’t show any new abilities at all and we didn’t have an epic change art style like was the case with episode 3, the one-shot that resulted from Okamoto being distracted by her “Otanoshimi Mode” didn’t help either. The one interesting thing about this week’s battle was the new “Precognition System”, which we didn’t end up seeing a lot of and probably won’t play much of a role until later on, as it did seem to give Okamoto an advantage over Takuto that wouldn’t have been overcome if not for her ero tendencies. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Precognition system when it’s put into the hands of a more competent Star Driver, preferably Keito who has been playing a consistently bigger role in the past few episodes and appears to be the most cunning of the Star Driver heads shown thus far. At the very least, she’s shaping up to be my personal favorite Kiraboshi head thanks to her calm and calculating personality; it helps that she appears to be the only girl that’s not a slut as well.
Now onto my complaints about the return to the formula, which seems like it’s going to be a weekly rant. As I said in a previous write up, while the formula itself is not a bad one, it’s extremely irritating to see it over and over again for the past five weeks. It makes the plot extremely predictable and causes the initial excitement of seeing Takuto enter Zero Time and battle against the robots to corrode. Every time I see a repeat of the same thing from last episode I think “why aren’t they using this time to actually explain what’s going on”? The only reason I know what “First Phase”, Cybodies, Kiraboshi, and Zero Time are is because of an interview with the director that circulated the internet a couple weeks before the anime aired. It’s simply not good storytelling to assume that your viewers read extra information on the series before it aired and thus leaves you at liberty to skip over vital information concerning the plot of the series. Frankly, it’s lazy. That said, I’m still looking forward to the rest of the series, and after having one of the heads of Kiraboshi defeated in the first 5 episodes it’ll be interesting to see how the story develops from here. From what I can tell so far, it seems that the current Kiraboshi crop won’t be the antagonists for the entire series and may only be red herrings for the true villains. Also, it seems that we’ll finally get to see Sugata in action next episode, which has me pumped to see whether he’s indeed more powerful than Takuto.
Preview
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I really don’t hold it against Star Driver for having a MOTW format. It’s pretty much everything outside of Zero Time that makes it entertaining. Reusing the animation for Tauburn feels a bit lazy though.
Anyway, this way my favorite show out of the Sunday (my) lineup this week (Oreimo-Bakuman-SD). It’s usually OreImo but I felt they went through extremes all over the place.
I wonder why she’s called Professor Green D:
I watched the first two episodes of the anime, and I had no idea what was happening. Random turn of events just kept happening, the only thing I know is there are cybodies in some kind of zero time place and a pretty boy lead. If they actually explained everything, then I might get back into it. Shame, since I thought this would actually be a good anime.
Uhh what? By the 2nd episode they did start to explain things.
Yeah, I was hoping for something more cohesive than the standard “monster of the week” format from Star Driver, since it seems like it has the potential to go deeper and really be an amazing story, but at least they seem to be doing the formula pretty well.
Also, Suzuku with the lightning fast post this week! Rockin’.
Yeah, Divine was on my ass to get it out. :p
I lol’ed at the fact the school nurse girl got one shotted due to her being a pervert and not paying attention in the heat of battle, then at takuto for going “wtf what happened?” after that. although in the end the nurse still got a happy ending lol
The nurse is the only one who don’t automatically look like her “nurse” self when wearing a mask. Everybody else, because of hair color and hair style, fail in the “hiding your identity” department.
your right, I first thought she was this one(forgot the name):
https://randomc.net/image/STAR%20DRIVER/STAR%20DRIVER%20Kagayaki%20no%20Takuto%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
I actually thought that at first too which would actually be pretty interesting because she’s in that group that opposes the bad guys.
“otanoshimi mode” lolz 🙂
Distraction Mode.
Stupid function, guess bad guys(?) can’t win early.
Wait wait wait wait. So Midori’s Cybody can see into the future…. in Zero Time? X_X
*Waves hands*
These are not the plot holes you’re looking for. Move along.
@Click
Wow!Now that you mention it,it does make us ponder 😮
Good thing we won’t see the Precognition system ever again. It was the Cybody that could manipulate time that made that gimmick work.
Also, the end of the fight made me laugh 😀 Though it should’ve been more instanteneous. Getting distracted midstroke, or something.
When I saw the Precognition System, I couldn’t help think of Bismarck: I was so sure that Takuto would pull a Suzaku on us.
Started Good but getting boring fast and wako sucks as the main heroine.
I was like w0w Tauburn losing then Huh?
Im curious is the MOTW what most people are annoyed about, since Glittering Crux only have 1 machine to control the cybody, or is it Tauburn’s over power? The story does seem to be slow at the moment but I am enjoying the get to know the antagonist character. Watanabe being jealous of Okamoto was fabulous 😉
well now I got what I asked for next week, a date ep for wako and takuto, I hope its good enough that I will tolerate they’re romance, if not then I dont want takuto and wako to end up in the end
im also looking forward for sugata(or anyone really) to be finally in action aside from takuto
Getting lamer.
…seriously?
Screw the robots. Takuto could have knocked her out by doing a strip dance.
Agreed lol.
Wako is a boring forgetable failure of a heroine. Takuto should just ditch her and join the dark side with all the fabulously dressed sexy ladies.
Could you post a link to the aforementioned interview plz?
“Also, it seems that we’ll finally get to see Sugata in action next episode, which has me pumped to see whether he’s indeed more powerful than Takuto”
dude, this show’name “Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto” is it mean something ?
takuto is just a jerk he is damn carefree thats it. so u should not do a power comparison in early stages.
When did the name of the show start to dictate whether the main character is the most powerful protagonist? I mentioned Sugata’s power because it was stated he had the most powerful cybody IIRC.
@Suzuku
well thats technically true but in standard shounen series, takuto will gain more power(probbably from wako) to become the strongest later
lol at nurse being one-shot KOed…
for some reason I keep thinking Setsuna from gundam 00 when I see Takuto using star sword… no wonder Takuto has good sword fighting abilities… it is learned from a close range gundam pilot! 😀
as far as the virgin question… I would bet he still is, given that he is overexcited about going on shopping “date” with Wako…
can’t wait for Sugata get in action, it looks like he might get his seal or something? by the way, doesn’t that shot looks like Rikuo from Nurarihyon no Mago? https://randomc.net/image/STAR%20DRIVER/STAR%20DRIVER%20Kagayaki%20no%20Takuto%20-%2005%20-%20Preview%2003.jpg
OMG SUGATA!!!!! SUGATA!!! Finally more screen time for him!!! :3
The maiden in the cage seems to have a lot of fun with her story. She seems a lot more happier than in episode 1.
probably stockhome syndrome
also that was the most epic screw up during a mech fight ive ever seen. They lost because they were checking out the enemy pilots body because they have a fetish
Holy crap…. Sugata next week…. *droools*
I was just laughing at how the nurse ended up getting laid at the end of the episode.
And this is why you buy DVDs and Blurays.
nice catch… never thought about that… 🙂
Stupidest. Fight. EVER!!!!!!
love this show
Well, about the “hate” towards the “monster of the week” like formula and Suzuku rants about them .. i just have to strongly disagree with them.
It is similar as many have noticed with Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series … it has episodic fights duels and they has similar themes/introductions with each d every battle/duel .. it is sort of ritual to set the mood … it isn’t bad writing .. it is INTENTIONAL .. want to know why .. because the script writer is the same guy who did Utena .. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-07/star-driver-kagayaki-no-takuto-robot-anime-announced
That said .. the battles are never the focus, they only take up less than 1/4 the time of the episode with the 3/4 used to flesh out the characters and advancing the plot revealing new info every episode … compare that with a true “monster of the week” show like Mazinger Z and you will the the great difference between the two .. the plot never advances .. it is just one battle after the next with the entire episode composed of meaningless chases-random fights/side-story/pointless slice of life .. that’s “monster of the week” .. it isn’t the same with Utena or Star Driver.
Also another show that used a similar formula successfuly is Bokurano .. it fools you into thinking it is “monster of the week” format only to reveal it is also meant as a mood setting ritual not a true “monster of the week” style .. the plot progressed with each eposide and no matter how much you are sure a battle will happen at the end of the episode or that the main character/s will win you can never guess what happens before/after it and even sometimes during the battle itself unexpected things happened.
So could we give it a rest and focus on enjoying this DAZZLING show …. /plays fish girl song on his computer XD
I am aware of this, and have mentioned everything you said regarding Utena in my previous post, but it doesn’t change the fact that it has gotten irritating now 5 episodes into the show.
Personally, I find the battles as a parody for a lot of mecha show nuances. Such as in Super Robot shows, suddenly finding a new power. The fact that in the last two episodes, the main characters wins, no matter how powerful something seems to be through something absolutely ridiculous is fresh and funny. It’s like for the second Evangelion movie, You Can (Not) Advance. They parodied a Mary Sue… and still had a strong meaning behind it that made the overall message or theme of the show even better. I’m not sure if this is the case for this particular show, but let’s see how it goes as we progress.
hahaha, thanks to the producers for giving us girls some attention, after so many years of male fanservice!
Wow I wish school nurses were like these in my school. https://randomc.net/image/STAR%20DRIVER/STAR%20DRIVER%20Kagayaki%20no%20Takuto%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
I hate explanations during fight scenes, because they stop the fight, to do 2-3 minutes (or in most cases longer) of explaining, next thing you know the episode is over. Star Driver doesn’t do this, but I think you know what anime’s I’m talking about. It’s like, I’m in the moment of watching the action, and the next thing you know, they stop and talk, back to action, stop and talk, rinse and repeat. It’s fucking retarded. During the talking, the gives an opening to attack. But, I can understand how it fills suspense. It works, but man. Switch it up, please. And Star Driver is a perfect example so far. Short explanations, more action. Is the way is should be.
A comedic episode.