A mysterious boy washes ashore with nothing but charisma, and by episode three you're watching him pilot a mecha that exists in a pocket dimension while his school's entire social structure hides a cosmic war underneath. Star Driver plays a completely straight face about the absurdity of its premise, never winking at the camera, which somehow makes the transformation sequences and the genuine emotional stakes between students feel earned instead of ridiculous. The show trusts you to accept that a cheerful transfer student, a tragic girl with supernatural obligations, and a stoic cipher can become people you actually care about while giant robots fight in secret. Expect gorgeous early-2010s animation in service of something genuinely strange that refuses to apologize for what it is.

Takuto Tsunashi washes up on the shore of Southern Cross Isle one night after swimming from the mainland alone, carrying nothing with him. He enrolls at the island's high school, and his bright, positive nature quickly earns him friends, including Sugata Shindou and Sugata's fiancée Wako Agemaki. But the school hides a secret: stone giants called Cybodies sleep beneath it. They can become huge fighting machines, but only in a realm called Zero Time. A secret group, the Glittering Crux Brigade, many of whose members are Takuto's classmates, wants to break the seals held by the island's four seal maidens so it can use the Cybodies anywhere. Wako is one of those maidens. Takuto has a secret of his own: in Zero Time he can pilot a Cybody called the Tauburn, and he may be the key to protecting Wako's seal. The show pairs high school friendships with mecha action.