Star Driver 13 – R.A. Overdose
Though still pretty interesting, this episode seemed like kind of a let down after the last arc. It’s not that I don’t like Benio or any of her antics, but as the title suggests, I felt that the episode featured too many of them. With that in mind, this episode provided a few new pieces of insight on the story, even if it felt like we had seen it all before.
For the yearbook.
Seriously, I sometimes wonder if Star Driver is really about Takuto, which is probably a good thing and probably done on purpose. Still, since every episode features an opponent of the week, and more recently Sugata’s interactions with Head, I don’t feel as though we have gotten any plot development on Takuto since episode 8 or so, and the show seems to have completely forgotten about Wako. This reliance on weekly supporting characters is kind of the show’s Achilles’ heel, in that if you don’t really like that week’s character, you aren’t going to like that episode. That’s not really a problem when the story centers around Kanako or Mizuno, but I have found characters like Benio and Keito not as fun to watch.
Though I loved Benio’s collection of awesome faces, more specifically her eyes, there were just too many things about her character that I didn’t like this time around. Her constant flirting with Takuto, for whatever reason, just wore thin with me, and it seemed like her character didn’t have enough to do, considering the scene with that kid confessing to her added nothing. Still, the revelation that her first phase power has lost its effect, though this has been hinted at earlier in the series, was fairly interesting, especially when you consider this week’s conversation between Head and Sugata. In that conversation, Head mentioned that the things people think they’ve lost were never really lost at all , which was in reference to his painting. I tend to get the feeling that Benio hasn’t necessarily lost her first phase ability, but that she may be focusing on other things instead. What this means for Sugata, I couldn’t say, but it looks like he is losing some of his childhood harem of Wako, Keito, and Benio to Takuto, which probably doesn’t make him too happy. Or is he?
The other big plot line in this episode was that the Glittering Crux Brigade finally succeeded in regenerating a Cybuddy. Seeing as how Benio, and Filament in general, seem to be having a tough time in the Glittering Crux, it does seem like Benio took a big risk in being the test subject for regeneration test, and it also may be the reason she couldn’t use her first phase. Regardless, Filament does really look to be nothing more than a bunch of test subjects for the Crux, so that they don’t take any unnecessary chances with the pilots and Cybuddys that matter. Though it is interesting to see that this is the third episode since his defeat in episode one that has shown George, so I still wouldn’t be too surprised to see him come back eventually.
That is really all that stood out to me in this episode, though I will say it was pretty funny when Benio realized that she would have won if she hadn’t challenged Takuto in the real world before fighting him in Zero Time. You would have to think that sooner or later the Galactic Pretty Boy’s luck is going to run out, if for no other reason than for a change of pace.
