Quite good. Same author as
Bakemonogatari, but adapted with a very different style. Still, while there are some awesome fights (the finale reminds me very much of the ending of
Cowboy Bebop, personally) the meat of the series is in the conversations and character development. A solid recommendation.
I've been meaning to getting around to re-watching this one sometime. A very good show, IMO, and one of the last very good shows that's been in the noitaminA slot. (I think the last noitaminA show I really thought lived up to noitaminA quality was
Usagi Drop.) The narrator talks a bit fast, though.
Pretty good. Fairly typical as far as Shaft adaptations go. Quirky, weird, humorous, and whatnot. If you like typical Shaft anime, you'll like it. If not, you won't. I enjoyed it, but it's not really the kind of show I felt compelled to marathon if you know what I mean.
The World God Only Knows (anyone know how faithful it is to the manga?)
Overall, I enjoyed the anime. I have no idea how faithful it is to the manga. I
think it's pretty faithful, since it hasn't seemed to have gotten very far through (what I'm aware of) the manga. There were
definitely episodes that were more interesting than others. Some were kinda dull, really. Some were, well, kamisama-tier.
Pretty good on the character front. Pretty annoying with repetitive elements. Wait for kuwisdelu to give you his opinion.
IMO, there have been only three very
(very) good anime series to have come out this decade so far. Those are
Puella Magi Madoka Magica,
Mawaru Penguindrum, and
Star Driver. All three of them have very numerous flaws (which I won't go into), but to me that doesn't undermine their status as the being the best of recent anime, and the only shows for which "great" come to mind (for me).
Both
Mawaru Penguindrum and
Star Driver come from the minds that brought us
Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Mawaru Penguindrum is directed by
Utena creator and director Kunihiko Ikuhara.
Star Driver is written by
Utena script writer Yoji Enokido. You can see the influence of
Utena on both shows. I'll focus on
Star Driver, obviously.
As Dawnstorm mentioned,
Star Driver follows in
Utena's footsteps of being very repetitious when it comes to its battles. To me, this isn't really a weakness. Both
Eva and
Utena, two of my favorite anime of all time (though I only saw the latter relatively recently) rely very heavily on repetition. There is a certain routine of things that must happen every episode. An angel must attack Tokyo-III. An student council member must duel Utena. A member of Glittering Crux must battle Takuto in Zero-Time.
I can certainly see how that would get tedious, if battles and duels were the crux of the drama of these shows. But all of these shows are about character arcs and development. The fights and battles are just the foundation and structure on which the series build the emotional arcs and outlets of their actors. Just like being defeated by Utena was something of a ceremony or rite-of-passage that characters in
Utena had to go through, so is being defeated by Takuto in
Star Driver. As these shows progress, and as the situation grows more dire and serious, this structure begins to break down, and the shows break away from the repetition. Oftentimes (true for
Utena,
Penguindrum, and
Star Driver), the very realm in which the repetitive elements took place falls apart or is destroyed in the process. Maybe I'm alone in my appreciation for it, but I find it a nice metaphor. As the world that the characters in the show have relied on for so long begins to crumble, so does the very structure of the show that the audience has come to rely on break apart. But such things appeal to me. None of this really tells you what the show is about, so I'm sorry, but it's mostly in defense of its somewhat repetitive nature.
Anyway, apart from
Penguindrum and
Madoka,
Star Driver is easily the only other recent anime I continue to have as much enthusiasm for. (Okay, there are plenty of other "guilty pleasure" shows I'll continue to enjoy, but I'm talking about the stuff I really consider
good.) I definitely recommend it. The first half is pretty good, and the second half is even better. It's finally episode is ridiculously awesome and well set-up, I think.
May your galaxy shine!
キラボシ！！☆☆
*This is actually kind of a post I've been wanting to make for a while. One of these days I'll expand on it and make a blog post "In defense of repetitive anime" or something. It's a "weakness" that I've come to really appreciate. It also showcases some of the inherent strengths of the anime industry, which tends to operate on *much* tighter budgets than American animation companies. Often in anime (more commonly before computers), elaborate tricks were used to create the illusion of as much motion as possible from as few illustrations. What's even cheaper than that? Re-using animation! Having set sequences that could be re-used each episode certainly saved on the budget. And I think it's incredibly interesting and speaks a lot to the talent of certain studios, directors, and writers how these limitations were used and incorporated into the story arcs. We've come a long way since then, as Haruhi S2's Endless Eight certainly shows, but I think the creative ways these limitations were turned into strengths (IMO) by directors like Ikuhara and Hideaki Anno certainly speaks a lot about the strengths of their talent and of anime as a medium as a whole.
**That footnote was originally supposed to be just one sentence...
