Star Driver Impressions, by Usa-Kun

Hi, I’m Usa-Kun!

(Actually I’m just a character being written by J Sensei but never mind that! I’m cute!!)

Usa-kun: Hi!! Nice to meet everyone! You can call me Usa-kun. That’s as in, うさぎ (usagi), the Japanese word for rabbit. The -kun part means well, I’m a guy. No, don’t check under the fur…

Usa-kun: So I wanted to talk to you about an anime I was watching while munching on my veggies called Star Driver. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s this weird show by this studio called Bones that seems to make some really far-out animated stuff like Eureka Seven and Heroman. Oh, I liked Heroman a lot. Eureka Seven had me confused… *_*

Usa-kun: So anyway, about this show.

Usa-kun: J Sensei made a little boo-boo when he was watching. He thought that when they talked about a Galaxy Bishounen, that it had to be the main character, Takuto. Silly sensei! That was referring to Tauburn, the “Cybody” (read: giant robot) that Takuto-kun pilots. (Yes, he’s a guy too. What a coincidence!!) I guess J Sensei just couldn’t believe that we’d be calling a machine a bishounen (pretty boy). Besides, when he’s in his battle outfit Takuto looks pretty… pretty boy to me! But I’m just a rabbit, what do I know…

Usa-kun: So anyway!! This is what they call a super robot anime, where the machines aren’t realistic at all. Okay, even in things like Gundam, they’re not real, they just feel like they’re more real. That’s why we use the word realistic, but the Japanese shorten it to “real” because they don’t want to bother to put the istic at the end. Lazy like rabbits.

Usa-kun: So something I wanted to talk to you about was this song that they used for the first three episodes when things were getting heavy. It’s called Monochrome. That’s the name of the song. I’d show you but Sony Music will have my pelt. (Shudder!) So I’ll tell you about it. This song starts out as just soft, beautiful singing, really gentle stuff that sounds oh I don’t know… like native songs coming from an isolated tropical island kind of like they have in the show. Or like the place in Macross Zero. And just like that one, they start adding music mid-way and it becomes this really powerful theme, this really beautiful song that just carries you away and makes you want to stand up and clap your paws together. It’s just incredible!

Usa-kun: By the way, they used it in Macross Frontier too, which was made after Macross Zero and used some things from that “past” in it too, like the native-sounding music… in places. When they weren’t putting on some half-naked idol singer singing rock. Put some fur on, will you!! …I’m kidding.

Usa-kun: So this show has some crazy things, but it has some really sweet people and some really quiet looking places. The last episode got too quiet though, Takuto and the sweet girl who he can’t have because she’s engaged to someone else (hello? Plot here!) end up being the only people on the entire island. Ooh, mystery!! Cell phones don’t work and they’re the only people. Total ghost town and ghost island. Well, you’ll have to see how it ends for yourself but, it was kind of interesting, seeing the girl (who’s named Wako, by the way) walk along the beach barefoot, holding her shoes in her left hand. Sometimes it’s the little things…

Usa-kun: So that’s all the time I have. Goodbye minna-san!! Goodbye everyone!! Sweet carrots to all of you!!

J Sensei

About J Sensei

Blogger, writer, linguist, former Japanese> English translator, rusty in French, experienced in Japanese, fluent English native. Writing for Technorati.com and various blogs. Skype: jeremiah.bourque (messages always welcome). E-mail: [email protected]
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