Star Driver

While Star Driver is not a great anime, it is still very entertaining. The story takes place on a remote island and revolves around a secret society (Glittering Crux) that is trying to bring a number of alien mecha, which are trapped in an another dimension called Zero Time, into our reality. That's the entire plot in one sentence. ^_^

The main character, Tsunashi Takuto, is fighting to prevent this from happening, ostensibly to protect his friend, Agemaki Wako, who is one of four "shrine maidens". They carry marks that seal the other dimension. Naturally, Glittering Crux needs to capture the shrine maidens and remove their marks in order to unseal Zero Time. When the series begins, they have already broken one seal. As they break additional seals, the mecha in Zero Time become stonger, and Takuto's battles get tougher.

The action is enjoyable and very well done, but Takuto's battles against Glittering Crux are too formulaic and repetitive. It was the weakest part of the series as there were very few times that there was any doubt that he was going to win.

Other characters, including Takuto and all the members of Glittering Crux, have marks as well. The mark is what enables them to control a mecha in Zero Time and also connects them to the aliens that created the mecha, although the how and the why is never explained. The aliens are left as a mystery but we are told that they are observing the current events, but will not interfere.

My plot-in-one-sentence is not completely correct, as the last episode throws it out the window when we find out what was really going on. While this could be annoying, it makes sense. The story focused on Takuto and not on who was behind the cult, so there was not way to reveal these details until the real bad guy was revealed. Until that point, he was just another member of the secret society.

Anyway, the sudden change set up a great surprise ending, which made the whole series worthwhile.