Stellvia of the Universe

sothis Nov 16, 2006

9

StoryOn the foundation Stellvia, young people train for the most important mission of mankind: protect the solar system from a devastating shockwave. Close to two hundred years ago, a supernova sent an initial shockwave that destroyed the Earth, prompting the survivors to design the Great Mission that will save humanity from being utterly annihilated. The story of Stellvia follows a bright-eyed and talented cadet who is lovingly known as Shipon, as she makes new friends, experiences life on the foundation, and most importantly, discovers her place in history. You can think of Stellvia sort of like Harry Potter in space. Like many slice of life series before it, Stellvia focuses on both plot elements (which are very serious and dark at times), and the daily life of the students. Relationships, hardships, tests, and rivalry all come into play. The series has a balanced mix of lighthearted moods and serious tones, so you don’t get overwhelmed by one or the other. It’s common, for example, to watch a dark story arc which is followed by a few episodes dedicated to watching the students prepare for tests. There are two main story arcs, both of which are engaging and interesting. A similar series in that aspect would be Gunparade March. A great ending is also included, which can be a rarity for anime. The crux of Stellvia is not the sci fi plot; rather, it’s the character development. Yes, there’s a giant shockwave coming that can destroy the solar system, but that isn’t why you’d watch Stellvia. Rather than get into that here, I’ll continue down in the characters section. I really enjoyed Stellvia. I’m a big fan of sci fi, especially when it involves something that could really happen. For all we know, a star COULD go supernova in our lifetime, and we’d be totally unprepared to protect ourselves. Thus, the story was very interesting for me. I also like slice of life series, so I enjoyed the downtime episodes as well. AnimationStellvia’s visuals are gorgeous and colorful. The futuristic sci fi environment was portrayed incredibly well, with lavish ships, sleek outfits, impressive cutting edge technology, and more. The series mixes regular animation with various 3D elements, including the space scenes and the occasional others. Though it’s no Final Fantasy Advent Children, for its time the 3D was very well done. That being said, if you are spoiled with watching anything from the last few years, the 3D scenes will probably look cheesy. Character designs aren’t super realistic but are still the kind I love. Brightly colored clothing, solid shading, interesting hair styles and large eyes. SoundStellvia has an intro song that I adore. In fact, I always make it a point to watch the intro with each episode, just to hear the song! It’s catchy and somehow different from a normal intro song. This same song is repeated throughout the series in a variety of speeds and tones to match what’s going on at the time. Other songs are very appropriate for any scene they are paired with. Voice acting is superb. No complaints here!CharactersStellvia has a compelling and lighthearted story, but where the series truly shines is the characters. A group of friends is formed on the foundation, and we experience their growth over the course of many events. Shipon arrives at the foundation alone, but soon gains a good friend. She falls in love, doubts herself, and achieves success all in the course of 26 episodes. We see the same growth in each of her friends as well. Now, I do have to make one note in this section: a lot of people didn’t like Stellvia for one reason alone: the "whiny" factor. Specifically, there’s a period of a few episodes where all of the girls go through a PMS phase and are all fighting, which culminates into a huge crying fest where they are all crying at once. Though I can understand why all of the girls might have gone off the deep end in a state of emotional weakness, I still don’t see any cause for a crying session. In addition, Shipon sometimes is a bit whiny throughout the series, but in general I can understand why she feels the way she does as far as pressure on herself to succeed, not living up to her own expectations, etc. So, though the whiny factor IS a part of Stellvia, in my opinion the story and character development should dwarf it. OverallStellvia is definitely one of my favorite series of all time. Like Gunparade March, Gunbuster or a variety of other series, Stellvia combines, almost flawlessly, an amazing sci fi plot with just enough "kids in space" moments to make a great final product. The animation is gorgeous, the music is (in my opinion) damn good, and you’ll leave the series having watched a satisfying ending that won’t fail to please. Do I think you should watch Stellvia? Absolutely!

ThatAnimeSnob Jul 23, 2012

4.5

Animated by Xebec, aka the studio which never made an above average show in their whole lives. It is directed by Satou Tatsuo, who has made lots of mecha shows, most of which are unorthodox but otherwise slow and usually anti-climactic (Martian Successor Nadesico, Gekiganger 3, Shingu, Lagrange). So you kinda know right away this is not going to be a masterpiece. Stellvia is a show that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Although to its core it is the coming of age tale of a teenager girl, it throws that premise amongst a rather complicating and confusing sci-fi setting that expands to philosophy, humanitarianism, and the end of the world. It eventually loses itself amongst the weight of it themes and gets crushed by a lot of themes that were never developed as they could have. The story is about Earth recovering from a devastating space phenomenon that caused tremendous damage on its surface. Since a second wave is expected to appear after a few years, mankind comes together to prepare for it and manage to survive. Thus the beginning of the show finds all people in peace for centuries, as they build shields in space and train their young to pilot robots that will take out any debris the space event will leave behind. One of those youngsters is Shima, who gets a big vase of rock candy and goes to space to train as well. A big part of the plot is about her interacting with her fellow pilots and crying… a lot. The whole thing about saving humanity ends up being nothing but an excuse to have a plot somewhere in there and fancy robots doing stuff. Despite the serious premise both slice of life and sci-fi end up being too light for their own good, as the first is unremarkable in its presentation and the later is just a vague objective. Eventually the most memorable scenes of the show end up being her crying, eating rock candy and OWNING EVERYONE WITH HER MAD SKILLZ! You see she seems frail but eventually becomes a top pilot who blows meteorites with her eyes shut and her hands tied behind her back. How the hell she does that; I don’t know; it is supposed to be an inborn talent. She even gets herself a boyfriend, believe it or not! All that happen in the middle of the story by the way and the rest appears to be what follows after the destruction is prevented. At this point the expectations are really high as the story left open several interesting windows for continuation and further analysis. Despite the average slice of life, we got to see how she slowly matured to a more secured person, she is now famous worldwide, she has a boyfriend, she has a jealous best friend, mankind no longer needs to be friendly and cooperative with each other and then hostile aliens appear… WOW there is something really good cooking here! The series can very easily turn to an amazing space opera full of betrayal, death, civil war, and pondering about the folly of mankind!… And none of that happen. The rest of the show is almost like a rehash of the first part, where she again needs to train, her relationship is hardly looked into, the world has forgotten her, the jealousy part never occurs, the aliens never make sense or do anything major, humanity never tries to get violent again, and I wonder WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF ALL THAT??? Surely, all the good ideas in the show were not only presented light but also never developed further, ending up to a soup of a plot. The cast is also nothing remarkable past the main three teenagers, who are again nothing worth remembering because of the simplistic things they do.The production values are nothing worth remembering either; the soundtrack has a good opening but dialogues and BGM are forgettable. The robots flying around in space (and not fighting because there is no fighting in this show) is cool all things considered. The characters are drawn too simple, with huge eyes that makes those crying scenes to feel ten times more overblown. They obviously went for semi-moe here but because they don’t blush or eat cake every ten seconds the result is plain passable.In all, it is an average to boring series. It had potential to be great but gave up and just went for beers and more rock candy. And now for some excused scorings. ART SECTION: 6/10 General Artwork 1/2 (generic) Character Figures 1/2 (generic) Backgrounds 2/2 (basic but fitting with the feeling of the series) Animation 1/2 (basic) Visual Effects 1/2 (basic) SOUND SECTION: 7/10 Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series) Music Themes 3/4 (not great but fitting with the feeling of the series) Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess) STORY SECTION: 4/10 Premise 2/2 (interesting) Pacing 0/2 (loose) Complexity 2/2 (rich context) Plausibility 0/2 (none) Conclusion 0/2 (lame) CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10 Presence 1/2 (generic) Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded) Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there) Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there) Catharsis 1/2 (overblown but it’s there) VALUE SECTION: 2/10 Historical Value 0/3 (none) Rewatchability 0/3 (too disappointing to bother watching again) Memorability 2/4 (the themes are interesting but everything else simply lacks) ENJOYMENT SECTION: 2/10 Art 0/1 (looks typical) Sound 0/2 (sounds meh) Story 1/3 (interesting themes but lame presentation) Characters 1/4 (they could be great if the story didn’t forget their development) VERDICT: 4.5/10

Ymarsakar Oct 15, 2011

10

I didn't know quite what to think of Stellvia until the ending plot arc. This story is more or less a two part tale. The first part deals with schoolgirls on a space station. That concept by itself would have gotten boring by episode 12, except for the fact that the series transitioned to part 2: which was something much more interesting and used the material from part one quite well.   So thematically, this is a slice of life show about a teenage girl who wants to go to space and learn how to be a pilot of spaceships. Plot wise and character development wise, this is about a teenage love story in space juxtaposed against a... well, spoilers aside, it's an interesting problem they face up in space. I don't group the love story in the theme group because it isn't really used as a theme: it is more like a plot device to heighten people's tension as the characters deal with the problem: Heroic Age's Princess Yunos and Age, now there's an entire song and ED devoted to those two. People's performance tends to decrease if they have relationship problems: unlike in certain Hollywood movies, a romantic problem doesn't result in a job loss or loss of some insignificant social status. A disruption in a person's mental focus and concentration is lethal in space. In Stellvia, romance eventually becomes part of the plot development when it comes to operations in space.   Here is some explanation for why I promote things from 4/5 to higher ranks. I did not particularly like the main character nor the character designs. There was no beauty in them, compared to some other artwork I have seen in anime. Yet my standard for rating a series depends upon whether it had something innovative or demonstrated an ability to take on high risk challenges, without falling down too often. Stellvia, based upon the romance, the slice of life comedy, and the space station setting, was worthy of a 3.5/5 or 4/5. Above average or worth watching, respectively: both of these have flaws as well as points in their favor. But something has to do more than interest me or make me dislike it, for it to get a higher score than 4/5. Whether I liked the character or the artwork, didn't really matter in the objective sense. What mattered was whether the series could pull off their plot line without me detecting any inconsistencies or flaws once the last episode ended. If it had music, art, story line, epic plot, or great enough characters to overcome its weaknesses, it's almost guaranteed a promotion to 4.5/5 or 5/5. If my emotions were smooth and consistent with what the show tried to get across, it will get a promotion above 4/5, assuming no erroneous mistakes show up. This is independent of whether I like the ending or not, or some of the characters. So this is why irregardless of the artwork creating no draw in me, I gave this series 5/5. The story progression was that good and interesting: while there were some shaky parts where I wondered whether they could pull it off or whether they were being just a tad too melodramatic by intermingling someone's private life with their professional job, it was not enough to make me detect a critical error. This suspense ended up bolstering the great ending. I greatly liked the ending and rewatched it a few times. The beginning and middle portions I avoided rewatching simply because the atmosphere is too much like high school. Immaturity and growing pains is only tolerable for so long for the sake of the plot and story development. There's no need to go over it when unneeded.   5/5 Excellent ending, interesting plot development, rich world building, and a novel coming of age story.