Those who can subsist on yuri scraps, seek here.

Ok, so, admittedly that picture is a little misleading… and I may or may not have used it solely to get the yuri fanboys (and girls?) to view the post. But, hey, you’re here, so might as well read away, right?

Uchuu no Stellvia, or as the American release was known, Stellvia of the Universe, is a show that by now is a few years old. It tells the story of an Earth that was devastated by the shockwaves of a distant cosmic event, rebuilt itself, and is now gearing up for the secondary shock waves. Into all this steps the young Shima Katase, who has enrolled in the school located on the space station, Stellvia. Shima struggles initially at piloting, despite it being her dream, but continues to pursue her goal. Shima lives and learns against the backdrop of pending potential catastrophe, meeting new friends and growing under the watchful eye of her teachers. But can disaster be averted?

On its face, Stellvia isn’t covering any new ground – after all, we have a genki lead who is determined to be the best, something pretty common to, oh, I don’t know, all shounen anime and a good chunk of the non-shounen market, too. The primary difference here, though, is in the focus on human relationships as opposed to the plot and end-goals, along with the fact that Shima actually works toward her goal, as opposed to the normal kind of miracle moments generally depicted in shows such as Dragonball or the somewhat similar Battle Athletes Victory. In addition to that fact, there is a degree of realism not normally present in space opera-type shows – yes, grave danger may be lurking, but the kids here act like kids – the little sister character, Rinna, for instance, counters another character’s accusations of immaturity by pointing out that she is, in fact, still a child.

I also enjoyed the actual inclusion of the adults in the shows, as adults usually have their existence ignored in such shows or are reduced to mere stage-dressing. However, here the adults have their own relationships and storylines going on. These may take a backseat to the kids, but they never seem to be overstaged like some adults do in other anime of this kind – things happen naturally, and do not seem to have been tacked on at the last second. Its all careful plotting here from go.

And, oh, in case you thought I’d forgotten, the yuri.

Stellvia’s yuri is… well, pretty understated. Yes, you can look at some of the characters, such as Shima’s best friend Arisa, and with yuri goggles read them as yuri characters. However, the only real yuri here is very, very subtle, far from the crass panderings of Strawberry Panic and it’s ilk. There are hints that two of the characters, Ayaka and Yayoi, feel a bit differently than friends do toward each other, but the clinch moment doesn’t come until the very end of the series, and even then it can be read simply as a very close friendship. However, I myself saw it as yuri, and although inside art for manga isn’t necessarily exactly canon, especially since manga and anime can diverge…

Yeah, I’m pretty sure all of you’ll be pretty convinced.

Anyway, for the technical aspects, Stellvia has pretty solid animation, which jumps to pretty awesome in the final few episodes for the space-shots. Otherwise, it isn’t anything to write home about, but it hasn’t aged poorly – this might seem a bit odd to say, as the show is only about four years old, but there are other shows from the same year which already look a bit dated. Also, eyecatches are pleasingly varied; I usually skip past the eyecatch by the third episode of a show or so, but here I actually would look at it.

Music is ok – I love the OP, but both ED’s are a bit ‘meh’, and the background music is largely forgettable. The OP is largely recycled animation from the first episode, which is a bit disappointing, while the ED shows clips of animation from the episode in question itself. Oh well.

In all of this, I would say the only real drawback is the male lead, Kouta Otoyama, who is honestly pretty boring – Shima and the others totally steal the show, although Shima as the heroine rightly should. It’s too bad that her love interest is so bland, but it isn’t a deal-breaker, so you should be able to deal.

The final few episodes really ratchet up the energy and interest-levels – I blitzed through the final six episodes earlier this evening because I just couldn’t walk away.

Anyway, Stellvia is a pretty good series; not my favorite ever, but definitely one I enjoyed. When you consider that the R1 DVD’s are dirt cheap, given the age of the releases, Stellvia is a good choice for a cheap pick-up. And for those of you who’ll gladly take any yuri you can get (it’s ok – I’m like that with BL), here’s a show that delivers and has a good story to boot, somewhat of a rarity (Venus x Virus, I’m looking at you… and you don’t even have any yuri!).

And for those of you that do end up watching this, and are confused when the characters don’t look like they do in the picture/are wondering where the pig-tailed girl is… uh… sorry, that may or not be a post-epilogue picture.

EDIT: This is for Author, who, amusingly enough, misses my own point whilst accusing me of missing a point, namely in the case of Kouta – look, calling Kouta the male lead is just speaking the truth – Shima is obviously the overall lead, but if you had to pick out a male lead, Kouta’s your guy. And the issue with Kouta is he’s boring; somehow, all the other minor characters manage to avoid this fact, yet a character we spend about the second-most amount of time with is the dullest in the cast.

Also, I would’ve said this on Author’s own blog, as he may be interested to know it, but his blog doesn’t permit comments – in the manga version, Ayaka is a lotttt less crazy, thank god. The second incident of her going nuts in the anime in the manga has her coming to the rescue of Rinna and Shima, as it was those two who were sparring dangerously, not her trying to kill/injure Shima. It really is too bad they made her batshit twice-over in the anime, as I like her character in the second half of the series.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Anime, Reviews.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.