Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto

[Azathoth]

Didn't see a thread for it, but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtDpxbIr0-I

Wikipedia summary: "This story takes place on an island named Southern Cross Isle. One night, a boy named Takuto washed up on shore, after having swum from the mainland. He later, enrolls in Southern Cross High School as a senior and makes new friends. However, underneath the school, is a group of mysterious giants called Cybuddies. There are about 20 Cybuddies, and they are just some of the various secrets kept by everyone on the island: The secret movements of the mysterious organization known as "Kirahoshi Juujidan", the songs of the shrine maidens. Takuto himself will soon come to embrace a great secret."

First episode should be airing in about half an hour. I have pretty high hopes for this, actually; Bones' animation always impresses me but their storytelling rarely does - except here we have Youji Enokido as lead writer, the man who brought you Utena, FLCL, Diebuster, and Jet Alone (!) as well as a couple of other Eva episodes which I can't recall right now.

To sum up /a/'s thoughts: Code Geass + Gurren Lagann + still more FABULOUS + still more GAR = GINGABISHOUNEN!

[toe mash]

Watched the first ep of this..

Not really sure what to think, I'm not a big fan of mecha or anything and I'm not expecting this to amaze me with some kind of huge innovation to the genre.

Although I was surprised how...FABULOUS this show is. I mean, really? The episode title is "Galactic Pretty Boy", the mecha has birth-giving hips, it did a little dance-like move when he got into it, THE GOD DAMN THING IS WEARING HIGH HEELS

Felt a little out of place sometimes but whatever. Will keep on watching.

[Xard]

FABULOUS


Best show of the fucking year, calling it now.

Yutaka Nakamura animated the fight scene all by himself and oh boy does it show. Frickin' fantastic.

Oh, right...Ginga Bishounen!


This is so going to be Utena with mechas, calling it now.

Fantastic start. Shit doesn't make much sense yet but not like that matters.

[Azathoth]

Best show of the fucking year, calling it now...Shit doesn't make much sense yet but not like that matters.

I just about agree, although I wonder how you can string along this kind of frenetic pacing for twenty-six episodes. But they are giving themselves some rather interesting bits of backstory to work with. That entire scene in front of the painting (beautiful visuals there, by the way) is crammed with as-yet-unexplained motivations...the whole business with the Cybuddies (Cybodies, [gg] seem to think? Is there an official spelling?) has tremendous potential too.

Akira Ishida's character's single insomniac tear made me burst out laughing.

I feel like I'm going to have a hard time keeping track of names.

Which direction are we going to go with Takuto's development, the Naota direction or the Utena direction?

Wako seems like a bit of a twit, which I'm guessing is not quite how she's supposed to come off.

Takuto is funny. When was the last time when a mecha show had a "comical" male lead who was actually amusing?

Looking forward to more, in general.

[Xard]

I just about agree, although I wonder how you can string along this kind of frenetic pacing for twenty-six episodes.

Why would they do that? I didn't find pacing frenetic in this ep either: it's simply that we have many "unknowns" at work here. Overall this was very similar to Utena's first ep in structure.

SPOILER: Show

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best villains of the year

And yeah, visuals were glorious indeed

SPOILER: Show

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Which direction are we going to go with Takuto's development, the Naota direction or the Utena direction?

What, apart from gender there's not a single similarity between Naota (I take you mean FLCL's Naota) and Takuto

He's far more Utena than Naota anyway, but even here similarities are stretching...We don't know much about him yet.

Apart from the fact he is fabulous.

Takuto is funny. When was the last time when a mecha show had a "comical" male lead who was actually amusing?

KISAMA GINGA BISHOOOONEN KA

SPOILER: Show

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I should've posted this earlier but this show has most bizarre CM spot I've seen in ages

[The Bastard King]

This show is making the crotch of my pants sparkle. I'll probably have to investigate that at some point.

[Azathoth]

What, apart from gender there's not a single similarity between Naota (I take you mean FLCL's Naota) and Takuto

He's far more Utena than Naota anyway, but even here similarities are stretching...We don't know much about him yet.

Like Naota (from FLCL, yeah), he's an Enokido-written protagonist in a show explicitly stated to be about teenageness. Certainly more Utena-like at the moment, I would say, as is the show in general (sadly lacking the ROSES FUCKING EVERYWHERE that I so loved about RGU) - but there's a bit of Naota in him too, I would bet.

I guess Naota and Takuto are about as related as Noriko from Gunbuster is to Shinji...or maybe about as much as Shinji is to Simon from TTGL would be a more appropriate analogy.

[master_lloyd]

I just watched this, it was a bit mental. I'm not sure whether I loved it or hated it, but I'm definitely coming back for more next week.

I also agree there's a definite Gurren Lagann feel to it.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Fabulous Kamina saves the maiden.

Woohoo.

[Xard]

Haven't you guys seen Utena?

[InstrumentalityOne]

Yes, I have seen Revolutionary GIRL Utena.

[Xard]

Yes, I have seen Revolutionary GIRL Utena.

Just sayin' that apart from green mecha's design and "battle arena's" resemblance to climactic duel against Antispiral there's barely anything like TTGL here. Mr. Fabulous certainly isn't Kamina (being hot blooded is not enough to be Kamina) either

Parallels with Utena however are already numerous. Which still is more fabulous than this albeit I'm certain Star Driver will steal its title as teh fabulousness anime sooner or later

[toe mash]

My expectations for SD are quite low.

But it would be great if it turned out as good as you guys claim Utena is.

[Xard]

My expectations for SD are quite low.

How is that even possible? Written by Yoji Enokido, directed by Ouran guy and animated by BONES's excellent Studio C ("non-serious" studio, FMA, Ouran, Soul Eater, Darker than Black) with incredible Studio B (made out of ex-Sunrise ex-Ghibli animators specialized in mecha animation) doing lot of heavylifting with mecha combat... Really, that combination spells out "awesome" on its own!

But it would be great if it turned out as good as you guys claim Utena is.

Well, this isn't by mad genius Kunihiko Ikuhara so chances of reaching Utena's level (one of the few anime out there on NGE level of brilliance) are very, very low. Still has potential to be fantastic though. It's already great after all!

I'm just pissed off that OP song sucks since it was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and is gorgeously animated

[InstrumentalityOne]

Yes, because the staff is the only thing that counts.

If SD is going to be at least better than Eureka Seven, I would be pleased.

SO MUCH POTENTIAL,
SO MUCH LAZINESS

[Merridian]

^Considering that Star Driver already has a more interesting cast of characters than a shipload full of boring recycled tropes and cliches, as well as a setting that defies easy explanation at the moment, I'd say that it's already surpassed one of Bones' most underachieved efforts. And this is only its first episode.

SO MUCH POTENTIAL,
SO MUCH LAZINESS

what are you talking about?

[InstrumentalityOne]

I don´t know, I kind of get confused when I´m in the middle of writing a post and suddenly think of something different.

[toe mash]

How is that even possible?

Well, keep in mind I haven't seen the works of what the SD cast was involved with.

But I didn't go crazy over the first episode, anyway.

Maybe I should phrase it better - My expectations of SD are that it won't be bad, but won't impress me and turn out an average show with gorgeous animation.

But only the first episode is out so saying something definite is quite hasty.

Also I feel like P&S will easily overshadow it in terms of entertainment, so that also doesn't help what with all the arguments of which was better and all.

[Azathoth]

And here we have a blog dissecting and speculating on Star Driver. Some fun stuff there...the Phoenician letters was probably a little obvious but it certainly didn't catch for me.

[oOoOoOo]

Wow, I didn't know about this show. It looks so pretty. ^____^ I want to be dazzled. I'm glad I dropped by the forums today.