On the function of plot in Star Driver
November 3rd, 2010 § 5 Comments
So, initially I was trying to take the approach of just sitting back and enjoying Star Driver and ignoring all of the people-just-not-getting-it issues, because I like it and I get it so who cares if other people don’t. But I just can’t take it anymore, some people just really don’t get this show and while I really don’t want to take the presumptuous position of defending/explaining Star Driver (since, again I like it and I get it so, so what? and I’m no more of an authority than anyone else in the audience), I’ve just gotta get this out of my system. I’m sure only like 3 people are going to read this anyway.
I guess I should start with a definition of plot:
Plot is the sequence of events, as they happen (perhaps better, as they are presented to the audience), in a story. Contrast with the story itself (there’s probably a better word for this, but I can’t remember it), which is comprised of all of the events in the story-world as they occur within that chronology, regardless of how/when they are presented to the audience.
Using my own definition since there is some variation in how plot is defined depending on who you’re talking to (I’m not just pulling this out of my ass though, the general points are pretty standard and this is basically the definition most of my lit. professors used) and it works well for the purpose of this discussion.
If you could consider the plot the skeleton of a story and the “story itself” the meat, Star Driver’s an animal with an exoskeleton: the plot is “visible,” a foregone conclusion for the most part. We pretty much know that every episode is going to go something like this:
Takuto and co. are at school and they encounter ________. There’s [a conflict / a mysterious phenomenon / general hijinks] surrounding _______ that the Drama Club gets involved in and eventually solves. _______ schemes [with / with part of / against] the Crux and decides to use [his/her / a subordinate's] Cybody to defeat Tauburn.
Head can’t sleep. Fish girl tells him a story and sings Monochrome. [_______ / _______'s subordinate] apprivoises her/his Cybody, fights Tauburn and loses. [_______ / _______'s subordinate] loses her/his Star Driver privileges. Takuto and co. are back in the real world.
And beyond the general episode outline, there’s a pretty decent sense of the overall action following a general mook-mook-miniboss-mook-mook-boss/etc pattern with occasional breaks for off-pattern/comedic episodes. Fundamentally, this is the same basic pattern of a magical girl show.
To cut to the chase here: in Star Driver (and other shows like it) the plot isn’t the point. We already know the plot of pretty much every episode and the general arc of the show right now, so in contrast to something like Gundam 00 where, despite a feeling of a “fight quota” at times, you’re usually left wondering “what’s going to happen next?” at the end of an episode, in Star Driver we’re left with a different question: “who/how is it going to happen next?” And that’s the “point.”
The pattern takes the focus off the plot and puts it onto the characters and story itself. Of course, that’s not to say that the pattern is of absolutely no interest in it’s own right (I’d argue it’s more of a meta-thing though), but oddly, by foregrounding it and making it obvious, it becomes less important. We don’t know very much about the characters or the specifics of the world’s mechanics at this stage because the mystery around those things is what drives the story forward and where the tension is rather than in the plot. Again, we’re not interested in “what’s gonna happen next” so much as the characters and their motivations as things happen within an established pattern of “what happens.”
Not to continually compare Star Driver to Utena, but they’re so similar structurally that it’s the best thing I can think of as an example––in Utena, we know after the first few episodes that just about every episode is going to focus on a character, then Utena will duel them and pretty much always win. The duels themselves are pretty irrelevant (until we get into the overarching “why” of the plot) in the sense that we know the victor and the status quo of the “game” isn’t going to change, what is relevant is why the characters want the “power to revolutionize the world” and their backstories/issues (also, the thematic significance of those issues as they play into the overarching theme of the series/etc). The duels are just a mechanism to delve into that. Star Driver follows the same basic pattern.
Off-topic: btw Star Driver isn’t a comedy. It’s funny and playful, but fundamentally, it’s not a comedy. Just because people don’t die doesn’t mean it can’t be “serious.” I’m not talking grimdark or that you can’t laugh at the show for being ridiculous, because you should and it is, but you shouldn’t just write the whole thing off as a joke, there’s ~stuff~ going on. If you don’t believe me just take Miyano and the other VAs’ word for it.
Oh good, someone addressed this finally.
Also wanted to add, there’s probably going to be a delicious ironic twist, a “you thought Takashi’s a pushover getting manipulated by Kanako and Simone? Nah, he’s the one screwing with them instead” kind of thing that I think ends episodes really well.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up coming back as a midboss that maybe beats Takuto or something. I love how disparate Takashi’s two personas are, I was really convinced he was a gentle wimpy pushover from his profile!
I’d go out on a limb and say that people usually don’t “get” a LOT of anime either and take even the supposedly plot-centric shows far too seriously, at least when compared to how little the staff and cast actually do.
Yes, you can argue “Death of the Author” or something similar against that rationale, but the same could be said about Star Driver and anything/everything the creators have said about how to approach it.
Which, incidentally, also means Star Driver isn’t exactly in an unique position here, in spite of the structural differences you’ve mentioned.
I’m definitely enjoying the show though and am a self-proclaimed Utena fanboy (as opposed to expert) to boot.
Yeah, I think you’re probably right. I’m not trying to argue that Star Driver is a special case really, just that it seems worse than usual––the vast majority of the comments I’ve seen about the show are completely missing the point (I dunno if it’s just weird expectations that were built up pre-airing, just a lack of attention being paid or an unwillingness to read readily available supporting material or something else entirely). It just drives me crazy to see people complaining about how an apple doesn’t taste like steak even when it looks like an apple and it’s clearly labeled with a sign that says “apple.”
Even if we go down the Death-of-Author road, I feel like most of this stuff is pretty obvious even without the comments of Enokido and the staff/cast (to go with my stupid apple/steak metaphor, even if you remove the sign that says “apple,” it still looks like an apple, so I can’t understand why someone would bite into it expecting steak… unless they’d never seen an apple before). The structure isn’t unique at all even and that’s why I’m having such a hard time understanding why so few people seem to be able to see it.
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