Ranked #684

Uchuu no Stellvia

They say “Never judge a book by its cover”, a quote that I’ve never paid much attention to, and most likely never will. In the case of Stellvia, it’s no exception. Upon reading the synopsis, and looking at the genres that this anime covers, one would usually visualize a generic Save-The-World Mecha anime. Stellvia is just that, except with the generic part, because it’s definitely a refresher from most clichéd anime. In fact, it’s more of a Science Fiction anime than Mecha. The plot itself is pretty unoriginal, what with a group of people trying to protect the world from a second impact of a supernova explosion. However, what makes it so great is the way it’s executed.

One would expect an anime that’s focused on trying to find a way to stop the Second Wave, but not Stellvia. Instead, Stellvia tries its best to inform the viewer as little as possible to what’s going to happen, but enough to make you want to keep watching. Stellvia isn’t an anime that’s concerned with wasting time telling you exactly what happens, but rather tells you that it happened. The anime is very fast paced, and often times you’ll find that the episode ends abruptly because it only highlights the main objective of that episode and leaves everything else out. One example of this is the Astroball event; you’re shown the beginning of it, but not the entire event. Depending on your tastes, you might like the fact that it didn’t waste any time, but for me, I felt that so much more could’ve been shown, even if it would’ve been a complete waste of time.

So what is Stellvia really about? Simply put, Stellvia is a high-school drama that takes place in space with Mecha elements in it. In fact, the school life has so much control over the show, the impending doom is like an annoying whisper in the background, constantly reminding that something big is going to happen soon while you’re trying to focus on the characters’ love life or something. However, I do find it funny that everyone is so relaxed when they have such a heavy burden on their mind. I mean, I don’t see myself thinking everything is fun and games when the fate of the world is in my hands. But then again, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Stellvia as much if everyone was being all emo. Stellvia has an excellent blending of Comedy, School-Life, and Drama.

Since Stellvia is a high-school drama, you can’t go without some character development. Oh yes, even a Mecha anime can have some great characters. Unlike traditional Main Characters, Shima isn’t some genetically altered human, or an alien of some sort. She’s only a normal human being, or specifically, a genius. What anime can go without a main character that is exceptional in everything? Shima is without a doubt a genius, and one of the most talented character in the anime, however she isn’t the most talented. In fact, she’s often overshadowed by many characters in the anime. In the beginning, Shima is absolutely terrible in piloting a ship, so terrible that she earns the nickname “Shipon” because Shima pilots a ship like she’s bouncing a Ping-Pong ball. Get it? “Shima – Ping-Pong” However, with some vague advice from Shima’s boyfriend, she gradually gets better at it, but never to point where she’s the best, but nonetheless, still better than most people.

The characters of Stellvia are all very loveable. Each one of them exhibits a different personality and character backgrounds. Some of them are a bit wacky and might feel a bit out of place, such as the Ninja or the Shakespeare Lady, but they definitely add to the diversity of characters. Throughout the anime, most of them undergo a major change, either in character or their life because they joined the space station Stellvia. These changes range from dealing with a traumatizing past, establishing new friendships, or deciding what path they want to take in their future. Of all of the characters, the only one that stands out the most is Kouta Otoyama, Shima’s boyfriend. The thing about Kouta is that he’s a main character, but at the same time he doesn’t feel like one. He’s a very mysterious character, very little is known about him except for the fact that he’s an exceptional pilot, far better than every other character in the anime. However, as far as I’m concerned, Kouta is nothing but a cardboard cutout that’s put into the anime to save the world.

The feeling of Inferiority is one of the main themes in the anime. Everyone is constantly striving to be the best, with the exception of Kouta because he’s just too good that he has to hide his skills. Shima is constantly trying to improve her piloting skills. Eventually, it gets to the point where she breaks down, and starts crying because she just can’t go any further. Fortunately for her, she has some god-like programming skills to back that up. This sets the stage for some rivalry between some characters, but underneath that rivalry, you’ll notice some heartwarming friendship.

Did I mention that Shima is the biggest crybaby in the history of anime? Okay, maybe not the biggest, but she does come close. Out of the twenty-six episodes, I can honestly say that she’s cried at least once in every one of them, or at least it came close. The entire anime is a tear-fest. When Shima fails at something, she cries. When she’s reminded of her family, she cries. When she’s on a mission, she cries; yes she cried on a mission once, for a grand total of six hours according to some gossiping. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for her, or yell at her for crying some much. However, there are certain points where those tears felt really real. There’s this one scene, where all of Shima’s friends start crying, and it was really touching.

Most anime nowadays are primarily focused on the action scenes, and exploding things. It’s great to finally see an anime (A Mecha one too) that’s worthwhile to watch. To be honest, there were times that I actually wanted them to show more scenes of the pilots in their spaceships, whether they’re doing training missions, or having some friendly competition. It’s the mixture of those two elements that makes this anime such an interesting show to watch. You’re never shown too many Mecha scenes or too much leisure talk.

In traditional Mecha, you usually see numerous control panels/screens, the flashing lights on them, and nothing else. In the case of Stellvia, you do see many screens and flashing lights, but it goes beyond that. They’re showing you what the pilot sees, sometimes in the form of a flight simulation game, or some visualization effects that you see on Windows Media Player or something. Sometimes, when they’re not piloting a ship, you’d see Shima programming something that looks like some 3D Tetris game. Even though nothing really makes sense, it just looks cool to see random shapes flying together into an orb, instead of looking at the programmer while she’s talking or explaining something.

Stellvia has an amazing soundtrack. All of the opening and ending themes are performed by Angela. I found myself listening to the opening of Stellvia ‘Asu e no Brilliant Road’ again and again because it’s just so awesome. The ending themes also mix quite well with the situation in Stellvia. ‘The end of the world’ is set as the ending theme towards the end of the anime, when the impending doom draws close. Sometimes, the song would give me the chills after watching a really suspenseful episode. To finish it off, they ended the anime with ‘Dear my best friend’, which is very heartwarming as Shima made many friends in the space station Stellvia.

There’s not much to say about the animation, except that it’s definitely better than your average anime. Hairstyles change according to the character’s surroundings. For example, when Shima is in a cockpit, her hair would be tied up instead of dangling next to her feet. The only thing that looked a bit strange to me was the fact that everyone looks so skinny! Shima definitely looks skinnier than she should be, considering the fact that she eats so much candy. I guess the animators wanted to make Shima a loli.

The director of Stellvia, Tatsuo Sato has stated that a sequel was not possible due to some ‘inner difficulties’. It’s a shame, because I would definitely watch it. Stellvia has a solid ending, and works great as a standalone anime, but I would love to see a sequel regardless. I honestly don’t know what kind of crisis they would face in the sequel, but I trust that in the event they do resume the Stellvia 2 project, that they would make it just as awesome. Stellvia is definitely an obscure anime. To be honest, when I looked at the synopsis for this anime, I was hesitant to watch it because it falls under the Mecha genre. Hopefully, more people learn of this anime – and maybe, just maybe, the creators might resume the Stellvia 2 project. It’s a long stretch, but hey, anything’s possible. read more

After reading the synopsis for Stellvia of the Universe (Uchuu no Stellvia in Japanese) I immediately had to find and watch it. I love storylines about mankind being brought to near extinction by something that could realistically happen, which in the case of Stellvia is a gamma ray burst from a nearby star going supernova. Surprisingly however, the plot premise was the last thing that drew me into Stellvia while I watched it. At first glance Stellvia doesn't look anything like the post apocalyptic anime it advertises itself as, in fact the Earth and the people on it all look pretty damn good considering 99% of the population was wiped out less than two hundred years ago. So, I instinctively thought that I became a victim of false advertisement once again--or rather a victim of my own assumptions--but as Stellvia progressed and characters became more developed I realized that there was a lot more to enjoy about this anime than its primary story arc.

Stellvia of the Universe reminds me of several different animes. The school life portion of the series gave me some serious Azumanga Daioh vibes. There is actually a lot of charm and humor that comes with watching Shima Katase and Arisa Glennorth bounce comments back and forth, and when you throw in a bunch of other interesting students and instructors it only adds to the fun. The serious portion of the series, which involves space training and combat, reminds me quite a lot of series' like Vandread. While the outer space scenes don't pack nearly as much action as fans of the genre would expect, they aren't boring to watch either. Stellvia is more of a psychological anime than it is an all-out sci-fi action one. Even though there are a few tense and exciting moments of high speed space action, the majority of the series takes place inside of the cockpit where we get to see the emotions of the individual pilots. This was an interesting route to take, and it works greatly to Stellvia's advantage. As the series goes on emotions begin to flare, so unlike Azumanga Daioh, Stellvia of the Universe does get serious, and tears are shed on more than one occasion.

Speaking of tears, Shima Katase wins my vote for 'Biggest Drama Queen in the History of Anime.' Shipon (the nickname Shima respectively earns early on in the series) manages to cry more times in the course of Stellvia than I care to count. To be completely honest, I can't remember a single episode where she didn't have tears running down her face at least once, including the very first episode. At first I was able to sympathize with her, but after seeing her pouty face a dozen or more times I felt the urge to leap into my television and repeatedly punch her in the face. While the entire human race is facing the biggest threat they've ever encountered this girl bitches and moans over the littlest of things, which includes not being as good of a pilot as her boyfriend (boo-friggin-hoo). While this sort of angst-ridden lead character is what helped ruin Neon Genesis Evangelion for me, Stellvia of the Universe provides the audience with plenty of characters to fall in love with and enough plot developments to keep the focus off the annoying drama queen. Although it is worth mentioning that the Shipon character does redeem herself towards the very end of the series, thankfully.

Stellvia of the Universe is a very character driven series, with well over a dozen different characters all with distinct personalities and agendas. If you don't like one character, there is a good chance you'll like somebody else. This is what made Stellvia so enjoyable to me, that I was able to attach myself onto several different characters in very different ways. Stellvia also doesn't have any true villains, a void that is filled mostly by fierce rivalries between some of the students. I guess it can be said that the real villain of the story is the cosmic disaster mankind is pitted up against; a faceless, mindless, merciless monster that will eradicate the entire solar system without a second's thought unless the genius preparatory students (Shima Katase and her boyfriend Kouta Otoyama) do something about it.

Stellvia of the Universe does get a little carried away later on in the series, and goes in a direction I least expected--aliens. Yes, during the latter half of the series aliens are introduced into the storyline. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your outlook) these aliens remain mostly hidden in the background of things, although there is one major character revealed to have connections with the aliens later on. As some of you may know, I'm a big fan of aliens and alien/human conflict, but the introduction of aliens in the story of Stellvia felt rather unnecessary to me. I guess if we're ever going to see aliens in real life it would be during a time of galactic crisis like the one presented in Stellvia, but going so far as having an alien masquerade as a high ranking human official is stretching things a bit too much for my comfort. In an anime that is otherwise pretty grounded, the aliens of Stellvia might manage to make a few eyes roll.

If you're a real die hard science geek you may also find it hard to swallow the plot that Stellvia of the Universe revolves around. The idea that mankind can survive a gamma ray burst from a nearby star is certainly a romantic one, but not very likely. With the ozone layer destroyed it would take many years before people could just walk around the planet as if it were a normal day, and the radiation levels would be so high that even people hiding in shelters would be swiftly killed. Also, a gamma ray isn't going to act like a nuclear bomb and blow buildings down as if they were made of straw. And don't even get me started on the 'cosmic fracture' introduced later in the series. But, they don't call it science FICTION for nothing.

I simply loved the audio in Stellvia of the Universe. The OP song, Asu e no Brilliant Road (Brilliant Road to Tomorrow), is one of the best OP songs I've heard in quite some time, and I had trouble bringing myself to skip the opening scene during the start of each episode because of it. The various ED songs, Kirei na Yozora (Beautiful Night Sky), The End of the World, and Dear my best friend are all pretty good as well, with my favorite being Kirei na Yozora; it has that really catchy J-Pop factor, which resulted in me struggling to stop myself from humming it while in the shower. All of the theme music is done by Angela, so I'll be sure to check out her work from now on. The voiceovers in Stellvia are quite good as well, but I can't comment too much on the Japanese audio since I didn't listen to much of it. The English audio is nice though, with all of the voice actors playing their roles respectively. If I decide to ever watch this series again I'll consider watching it in the Japanese audio, since I hear the Japanese voice actors did a truly superb job.

The animation in Stellvia is a nice blend of traditional drawings and computer graphics, and it's pleasant to see that an anime like Stellvia can pull off CG without looking too dated or generally awkward. Character and scenery designs are all great, with each character animated to perfection with their corresponding personality traits, and with each location looking distinct from each other. I actually felt like I was aboard the Stellvia myself while watching, as the anime takes you everywhere from the dorms to the air ducts. The only way to see more of the fantasy space station would be to obtain the blueprints. There is a few recycled sequences here and there, but not really enough to take your attention away from the good stuff.

Stellvia of the Universe is what I would consider a hidden gem. It's not the kind of anime I would expect my friends to bring up during a conversation, and when asking people online for their opinions on it I constantly got the same reply: 'I've never heard of Stellvia.' This is a real shame, because Stellvia is exactly the kind of anime there isn't enough of. Where are all the sci-fi animes that take themselves seriously without being dull, or having a dull cast of characters? Or for that matter, how many animes have you seen where literally dozens of characters are properly developed, and who are each likable or unlikable for their own reasons? In my experience an anime with such qualities is rare. Stellvia of the Universe isn't perfect by any means, but if I said it wasn't one of the best anime experiences I've had in a while I'd be lying. Overall, Stellvia of the Universe is a well crafted piece of entertainment, one that you shouldn't avoid.

My Score: 9.5

Version Watched: English Dub read more