Star Driver [END]
Based Bones.
My main take out of this, is that anything that has to do with the mechas was pretty good. The designs, which as I previously said was the reason I even watched this, but also the action. As far as I remember, while there are some lazy episodes, the action was good more often than not and most importantly, the most crucial moments in the series were handled really well. The finale itself was full of magnificent sakuga. Moreover, there were some very stylish scenes on Zero Time, I rather liked that dueling ground even if the CGI didn't do it justice some times. I enjoyed the Utena-esque format the the series tried to employ, even though the recycled animation kind of stopped eventually. lol The entrance through the Cyber Casket was very good, while the songs that went with them were very nice. Especially the first one, I wish the blue haired girl had a bigger role. Second miko was a huge downgrade, though the plot twist was pretty cool.
Still, as I feared, the characters ended up the weakest part of this. A lot of melodrama and pointless banter, along with how underdeveloped a lot of the side characters were, kind of ruined it for me. I never fully grasped why Sugata acted like a dick sometimes, or what the Class Rep girl wanted or expected other than Sugata acknowledging her. The storyline with Takashi seemed to get scrapped middle way, and several other characters never got a proper role or a proper closure, something to explain their motives. Even with the main trio, I feel that the show just stalled their developments. During the Mizuno arc, they basically took a backseat, which kind of ruined the momentum that existed.
Overall, very enjoyable series though. With 2D Mecha being more or less dead, that was a neat surprise considering it's not even 10 years old.
Kiraboshi.