Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Not quite to infinity and beyond. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 10, 2012

There’s probably a Doctoral Thesis waiting to be written (if indeed one hasn’t been written already) on the many stylistic and content differences between Western animated fare (read: cartoons) and anime. Some of those differences bubble immediately to the surface during any given episode of Star Driver, a fairly recent Bones production which aired toward the end of 2010 and into 2011. Neither a traditional shōnen nor a traditional mecha (two terms which in and of themselves help to point out some of the salient differences between anime and other animated idioms), Star Driver is about as polar opposite as you can get from the typical hyperkinetic offerings you’ll see on Nicktoons, Disney or any other cable channel devoted to (sorry to have to put it this way) cartoons. Seconds if not minutes can tick by without much if anything happening, especially in the shōnen segments, which make up a large amount of this anime’s content. Characters sit and stare, occasionally making soft noises, but without any scintillating conversation (such as there ever is in either cartoons or anime), and certainly without any huge conflagrations of action. Whole episodes (indeed even whole multi-episode arcs) can play out on a relatively simple premise of if two characters will actually end up kissing (as this second volume of Star Driver does indeed explore in its opening episodes). Even those with a solid grounding in various anime outings may find Star Driver a really odd combo platter of shōnen high school shenanigans (and frankly shenanigans may be too much of an “action” verb to really adequately describe what goes on in the series) and occasional bursts of mecha-esque battle scenes. What is interesting about the series is its slow and deliberate weaving of its own mythology, a rather convoluted tale of people on an isolated island, many of whom have secret lives and back stories. (Did J.J. Abrams create this thing?) The first volume of Star Driver was primarily the story of Takuto, a kind of castaway who washes up on the shores of Southern Cross Isle and soon finds himself part of both school life and a sort of secret society that includes most of his classmates (for both good and evil, of course). This second volume tends to spend as much time with many of the supporting characters as it does with Takuto, and that gives this second half of the series’ episodes both a broader reach but also a somewhat more diffused feeling as various individual storylines get worked out fairly discretely, without an overabundance of interwoven connections.

As with so many animes, Star Driver exists in its own arcane world with a bunch of its own somewhat obtuse “rules,” and as with many Bones productions, it can take a while to figure out what those rules are, as the studio likes to just let its stories play out without a bunch of “needless” explanation (something I mentioned in my review of Star Driver Part 1). The way that the characters activate their “Cybodies” (mecha-like apparatuses) is just a case in point. Some characters have special identifying marks which allow for quick and relatively easy activation. Other characters need to go through various machinations (no pun intended) to “suit up” for battle. Viewers almost need a degree in linguistics to keep track of various way to activate these Cybodies, and then to keep track of the various characters as well, as the French term “Apprivoise” is bandied about to begin a battle, and then, intriguingly (if never adequately explained), the Cybodies all feature names based on an ancient form of the alphabet (Aleph-Bet) which was a precursor to the Semitic languages like Hebrew.

Part of the main storyline of this second half of the series’ episodes deals with the main villains of the piece, the Glittering Star, are attempting to divine the secret identities of several of the heroes (and more appropriately, heroines) of the show. Southern Cross Isle is a mysterious, mystical place (how could it be otherwise?) and there are several shrine maidens who possess special powers which protect the island. It might be redolent once again of Lost, but it’s easy to think of Glittering Star as The Others, and the shrine maidens as this particular island’s “protector class,” a group whose destruction might have a ripple effect out into the “real world” beyond the island’s shores.

The problem with Star Driver is that as intriguing as that aspect of the series is, the show tends to spend way too much time on the shōnen aspect, where huge swaths of time go by on intentionally picayune subject matters like upcoming drama club events or frankly with various characters just sitting around a communal table staring at each other. Star Driver has one of the most oddly schizoid approaches in recent memory (something else I mentioned with regard to Part 1 of this release), but this second half seems to tip the balance even more than the first half in terms of the really laid back, and often kind of silly, shōnen elements. Star Driver probably would have been at least a slightly more visceral experience if there had been a more conscious effort to blend the shōnen sequences in more artfully with the mecha, Lost-esque back story of Southern Cross Isle and its inhabitants. As it stands, the series is kind of like those old ads that promised “two, two, two” elements rolled into one. Unfortunately, in the case of Star Driver, as weird as it sounds, that ends up creating a series that often feels only half of what it could be.

Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As with Star Driver Part 1, Star Driver Part 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Bandai Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Again similarly to the first half of the series, this is for the most part a spectacular looking transfer that offers really stunning color and exceptionally sharp line detail, along with some extremely impressive CGI elements that continually surprise with their cartwheeling, mandala like entrances. While character designs aren't especially innovative, they're unfailingly well animated, though as with the second half of the Part 1, it seems like perhaps key animators had changed somewhere along the way, as there are some subtle yet noticeable differences in some of the character designs in Part 2, differences which are quite noticeable when compared to the first half of Part 1, and even somewhat noticeable to the changes that came about in the second half of Part 1's episodes. The overall image quality here is extremely sharp and well detailed but as with other Bones offerings, some of the backgrounds are rendered in an intentionally soft, almost abstract manner.

Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My comments about Star Driver Part 1 are equally a propos to this release. Star Driver Part 2 like many Bandai offerings offers the listener only the original Japanese track, in this case via a very well rendered uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix. (While no English dub is included, the English subtitles are optional, which is useful for those who speak Japanese or even for those who want to see the nice looking animation with the intrusion of added print). Voicework here is very good throughout, and the track sports effortless fidelity, albeit across a narrow soundstage. Probably the best element with regard to showing off the track is the nice music, which includes not just the typical opening and ending themes and underscore, but a couple of songs that work their way into various episodes courtesy of one of the Shrine Maidens. There's a bit more low end on this 2.0 track than might initially be expected, and dynamic range is very good throughout the series.

Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Textless Opening (HD; 1:33)
• Textless Ending (Mizuno Version) (HD; 1:33)
• Textless Ending (Kate Version) (HD; 1:33)
• Trailer (HD; 1:28)

Star Driver: Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have really mixed feelings about Star Driver, and my hunch is most viewers probably will as well. The show is visually stunning almost all of the time, as is typical of Bones productions. But this outing is so slow during its shōnen sequences that it really detracts from the more exciting (and unfortunately less explored) stories of the Cybodies and the mysterious island's many secrets. A lot of animes like to posit two different worlds or ideas against each other, but Star Driver errs by spending too much literal "down" time with the high school lives of its characters, when most viewers are going to be aching for, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story." Still, some more patient types might want to check this out if only for its quite considerable visual flair.