Star Driver 13-22

So, I think I'm going to change my official description of Star Driver to the following.

"Star Driver is Revolutionary Girl Utena WITH GIANT ROBOTS."

Need to put that on the Recycled IN SPACE tropes pages.

Feel free to skip the next couple paragraphs if you haven't seen Revolutionary Girl Utena.  Also, you may want to consider going and watching it.  It's a classic.

So I'm nearing the end of the series, and I'm liking it.  It lacks Utena's visceral brutality, but possesses much of its hidden symbolism, conspiracy plotline and quiet discussion of "how does a hero" that Utena was about.  That being said, it lacks the degree of symbolism that Utena had, and the symbolic misdirection of the former (Utena was between 10 and 70% nonsense, depending on who you ask) and, and this is crucial, Star Driver is a much more idealistic series as a whole.

It has the same undercurrent of "growing up" as it's pink-haired sister, along making metaphors for growing up out of leaving, dying, the loss of virginity/innocence and a number of other things.  And like Utena, the true measure of a hero or a villain is shown, not told.

Episode 22 set the stage for the finale, but it hasn't all aired in Japan yet, so I'm going to wait until the series is finished and then watch the remainder in one go.

Current Rating:  B+ (Ending could push it back up to A or down to B, but I don't think it'll go down as far as C.  It's gorgeous to watch and to listen to, and the story and characters are strong enough to hold it at at least B.)