he year is 2356. It's been 189 years since the Earth was devastated by the expanding ring of electromagnetic energy thrown off by a star going supernova a mere 20 light-years away. In that time, mankind has recovered, rallied and placed half a dozen "Foundations," or space stations, around the Earth to defend against the "Second Wave," a barrage of matter thrown off by the star's explosion. The Second Wave is due in only a few months, and the "Great Mission" to deflect the debris and save the planet from even more extensive damage is well under way.
But the Foundations aren't just border guards and defensive outposts: They're top-level piloting schools, where teenagers train in a wide variety of disciplines—especially space flight. The newest crop of prep-school freshmen is just arriving on Foundation 2, otherwise known as "Stellvia," and one of the most nervous and determined of the bunch is 15-year-old Shima Katase. Shima appears to have an odd family life; when her family sees her off on her trip to Stellvia, her mother is hostile, cruel and competitive, while her brother and father beam supportively and don't even seem to acknowledge the tension between the combative, hurtful mother/daughter pair. Shima boards her transport capsule in tears but soon appears to entirely forget her home life, apart from the jar of familiar, symbolic candy her brother gives her. That candy pops up over and over again throughout Shima's series Stellvia, as a reminder of her home, her hopes and her humanity.
On the transport over, Shima meets the girl who's destined to become her roommate and her new best friend: flighty, energetic, redheaded underachiever Arisa Glennorth. Arisa promptly makes some new friends as well, including serious, bespectacled Yayoi and her severe and grumpy roommate Akira, and a pack of boys who remain mostly undifferentiated, apart from quiet Kouta Otoyama. Together, the kids try out new classes and new concepts, start flying spacecraft, come to respect Shima's unpredictable but significant skills and start dreaming of getting the chance to participate in the Great Mission.
A future far too familiar
Stellvia is weirdly like the Harry Potter series set in space: Shima is a troubled prodigy with unmatchable skills, and her best friends are a clumsy-but-loyal redhead and the class brain. Not all the teachers like her, and she keeps getting into serious trouble for doing things her own way instead of the approved way. Expulsion is constantly hanging over her head, but she forms a special relationship with the wise, warm old headmaster, and she earns schoolwide respect when she accidentally learns that she's an unstoppable whiz at a popular future-sport that's kind of like lacrosse played in mini-spaceships. As a result, she's chosen over older and more experienced kids to represent her Foundation at an inter-school competition. And, most significantly, she goes to a special school that seems like the coolest thing in the universe, but the storyline never really gives her (or the audience) time to explore it properly.
Then again, Stellvia is also like a million familiar anime series—probably most significantly Battle Athletes: Victory, whose bunny-haired hero Akari Kanzaki bears a fairly close resemblance to Shima in looks, personality and plot arc. (Akari even has her own crazy red-haired pal, and a series of competitive upperclassmen who resemble Stellvia's elite "Big Four" students.) But unlike both Battle Athletes and the Harry Potter books, Stellvia is noticeably short on tension. It's one of those "do your best!" series where the main conflict comes from the question of whether the hero will learn to believe in herself and discover her skills, or quail under pressure. The conclusion is, of course, forgone.
And the stories aren't really written around cliffhangers or plot twists. Shima has had setbacks, but they've been minor and mostly internal. She faces some competition, but so far it's generally friendly. For the most part, time and the school and the students and the faculty are all on her side. All of which leaves Stellvia as a pleasant, cheerful, encouraging series—but also a somewhat forgettable one so far. It's good to see a series that believes the human race, individually and on the whole, is progressing unstoppably forward, but such unflagging optimism doesn't always make for great drama.
From the plot description, I was kind of expecting this series to be a little more story-heavy and aimed at slightly older viewers, but the bright, simple animation and the particularly high-pitched, squealy voices type it as more of an upbeat series for kids than anything else.
— Tasha
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