Viewing Journal: Stellvia (complete)

Series Overview
DVD Info

   (Maybe, maybe not)

I really didn't like this show very much; but still, I can't say that it was all that bad either. (Huh?)

The series takes place in the year 2167, after a radiation wave from an exploding supernova has decimated most of the Earth's population. As it turns out, there is a "Second Wave" approaching which threatens to annihilate the rest of humanity. In order to prevent this disaster, candidates train aboard space stations to take part in the "Great Mission," which is meant to prepare a final defense for the Earth.

The show starts with the arrival of a new class aboard the Stellvia space academy. Shima Katase is one of these new recruits and the series mainly focuses on her struggle to master her skills to take part in the "Great Mission."

All this talk about disaster and destruction may sound exciting, but its mostly a lot of waiting and preparing. In fact, "waiting" seems to be the overall theme. In the first half of the series, the world is waiting and preparing for this "Second Wave". But after that, there is yet another disaster that the crew of the Stellvia has to wait for. I think the creators of the show want you to focus more on what is happening during those interim periods instead of on the disasters themselves. But that didn't really work for me. I just wanted them to get to the disasters and be done with it.

Not that the waiting periods were horribly boring. They mainly involved the budding friendships and romance among the classmates, and their personal struggles to master the skills they needed for the mission. There wasn't a lot of interpersonal strife; just a few misunderstood intentions between friends, and some students' angst over not being able to meeting their own expectations. The characters tried to give support by constantly telling each other to "just do your best!" Its actually kind of refreshing to see that in anime every so often; and taken in a different context, I might have enjoyed it. But I couldn't help but think that it was all just filler before the main event.

So like I said, I can't really call this a bad show, because I can see where you might enjoy it if you don't focus too much on the disaster aspect. It just didn't work for me personally.

Man! This may very well be my most useless review ever.