Archive for the Stellvia Category


Yuri Manga: Uchyuu no Stellvia, Volume 2

April 30th, 2005

I spent *alot* of time and money buying new and used Dengeki Comics in Tokyo. I had a few older series to catch up on, and some new ones to pick up. I’d been looking for this one used for a while, and was able to finally get it in Nakano. Yay me.

The first volume of the manga is pretty much a straightfoward repeat of the anime. The art is even cuter-faced than the anime, but the story was pretty much exactly the same as the first two DVDs or so of the anime. Which means not so much Ayaka and Yayoi. Hence the lack of review.

Volume 2 starts with a very nice picture of our two Yuri poster girls, which I have scanned for your viewing pleasure:

You are welcome. ;-)

As Volume 2 is about as far as the manga seems to have gone, the story ends with the Great Mission, and the last few chapters speed through a lot of the plot complications. Sadly that means Jojo, Akira and the two teachers all get shafted of their lovely little love affairs. However, nearly a whole chapter is turned over to Yayoi and Ayaka, while Shima and Kouta get about three pages total…so I think it’s a good read all around. :-) And let’s face it – the Great Mission wasn’t that exciting anyway. Did we *really* think that the world was going to be destroyed when we have cherub-faced and pink cheeked heroes and heroines to save it? Nah.

We learn early on in the manga that Ayaka flies her Katie with a picture of Yayoi from before her accident…we are allowed to see that the picture was originally of the two of them arm embracing happily. Ayaka has cut herself out of the picture and taped Yayoi onto her dashboard.

In the manga while Yayoi’s accident (which was caused by Ayaka in both anime and manga) did stem from jealousy, it wasn’t the same level of homicidal pathology that characterized the anime Ayaka. And she didn’t repeat the murder attempt with Shima. In this case, as in the anime, Shima and Rina take stupid risks on the joust and happen to simulate a situation similar to Yayoi’s and Ayaka’s.

In an attempt to absolve herself of her sin, Ayaka had developed a program that she uploads to Shima, which allows her to save Rina. The event forces Ayaka and Yayoi to confront their past and their feelings for one another. While it wasn’t *quite* a cool as coming out in front of the whole world, their moment is very emotional, full of tears, and embraces and promises to never leave one another’s side.

But, at the end, when Ayaka unbends and joins the rest of the Big 4 for their ritual meal around a bubbling nabe, she looks *awfully* perky and happy all of a sudden. We have a name for that look around my house…”the freshly fucked look” is what we call it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Character – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

The biggest problem with the manga? It ends too soon.





Yuri Anime: Stellvia of the Universe, DVD Vol. 3 (English)

March 15th, 2005

Volume 3 of Stellvia of the Universe marks the end of the first arc – and was suprisingly more interesting than I remembered the first time around.

One of my complaints has always been that Shima, our heroine, follows that weird “idiot savant” pattern so common in female-lead shounen anime. You know, she’s a failure at a thing the first time she tries it, but after a “Gamabare!” or two from whomever is her emotional prop, she masters it immediately.

Well, upon rewatch, I find that I was mistaken. In fact, Shima spends an enormous amount of time in Vol. 3 practicing her skills, which result in her improving. Perfectly sensible, and how on earth did I miss that the first time around? Not only that, but the lesson is pounded home when Rinna points out that the only reason she herself is so good is that she had no friends, so practiced pretty much all day every day since she was a child.

Leila-sensei even comments that Shima’s seemingly irrational emotional ups and downs make sense – after all, she’s very young, and it stands to reason that she’ll vaccillate between being hyper-energetic and completely self-conscious and unsure of herself. Heck, I do that now, and I’m hardly young any more… lol

So, okay, okay, I was wrong! Sheesh…

So, where does that leave me? Rewatching this series has forced to me turn my dislike on Kouta, Shima’s soon-to-be love interest. I will never like him, on principle. ^_^ But I will grudgingly admit that, at the end of this volume, he becomes an interesting red herring/plot complication.

On the yuri side, we get only a little of the dynamic between Yayoi and Ayaka in this series, as we’re all focused on the resolution of the Second Wave. 20/20 hindsight leads me to believe that Yayoi was attempting to find some closure before Ayaka leaves on the mission, but chickens out at the last second. (Which makes for a nice place to write a fanfic, I think.) I have completely moved over to the Arisa is in love with Shima camp, but even Arisa can see that it’s hopeless, so it stays at low-level crushiness, for which I think Arisa deserves snaps.

Again, the absolute *best* thing about this series is that all the characters act their ages, and the dialogue *sounds* their ages, too. I really feel like these characters are exactly what they appear – something I rarely get from an anime. (Can anyone say Haruka and Michiru? I mean, really – they were suppose to be *16* when we first meet them. LOL)

I won’t whine about the bare packaging and scant episode count again…you’ve heard it before. I’m just getting into the DVD when it’s over. But other than that, I honestly think I’m enjoying this series *more* this time around than I did the first time.

Once again, if you like space opera, good characterization, a catchy, yet unsingable opening theme and a lovely Yuri relationship, Stellvia is still a good watch.





Yuri Anime: Stellvia of the Universe, Volume 2

January 10th, 2005


Remarkably, Stellvia, Volume 2 really *is* the good, the bad and the ugly all at once.

What with the utter dearth of anything interesting at all this new anime season, it’s a good thing that so many of last year’s best series are now available on DVD for decent viewing for the western yuri fan.

Before move into today’s review, let me just plug two things:

To purchase this DVD and other fine yuri anime series, please visit the Yuricon Shop where the new Yuri Anime page has opened! We’ve included some of the best yuri-related series available and more will be coming in the near future, including Stellvia. (In fact, I’ll make sure to add Stellvia tonight, in case this review makes you want to run out and buy the DVD! LOL)

Secondly, if you’ll notice in below this article, there is a single Google advertisment. Yuricon and ALC take a tremendous amount of time and money to run, and so, I am doing every possible thing I can to make a few cents to help get Yuri manga, events and community out there to you. If each one on you clicks the link in the ad, and futzes around at that site for a second or two, I’ll get a few cents that I can put into new Yuri manga or events. It will only take a second or two and trust me – I *really* appreciate it! So, if you enjoy this blog, click the Google Ad and help me out. To those who do, I give my heartfelt thanks.

All that having been said, let me get back to the good, the bad and the ugly of the second volume of Stellvia.

Let’s start with the good.

I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed this series the first time around. As cynical as I am, I found myself getting into it all over again. Yes, I know the story, yes, I know all the (few) twists coming in the plot, but you know – the characters are really quite interesting and I found myself getting really into what was going on, despite myself. :-)

I realized that, at least here back at the beginning of the story, the lead character, Shima, is really more interesting than I remembered. Even though Shima is another idiot savant-type character who fails utterly every first time she tries a thing, but then, inexplicably, excels beyong everyone else, she’s still someone you can care about.

The Yayoi/Ayaka story is more compelling than I remembered, as well. I’m a sucker for a rich backstory – and of all the cast members, really, only these two have a life prior to Shima’s arrival. The fact that they are a Yuri couple notch them up in interest level for me. The fact that they are voiced by Orikasa Fumiko (Meia in Vandread, Ruki in Digimon Tamers) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Layla Ashley in Avenger, Satou Sei/Rosa Gigantea in Marimite, Meg in Bakuretsu Tenshi,) puts them right there up on the top ten for me.. The fact that their backstory isn’t a happy one makes it that much more interesting to me.

However, the absolute best thing was *exactly* as I remembered – the dialogue. For all that the characters do not look their ages – they definitely, definitely *sound* their ages. It was really refreshing…even though this was a re-watch.

Now for the bad – this DVD has three episodes, no extras and boring packaging. It looks like we’re getting the same exact nothing they got in Japan…and given the full price of the DVD, it hurts a little.

And the ugly – The CG art is way better than I remembered, but oh my god, is the regular animation…inconsistent. No, wait, it’s just plain terrible. I mean, the characters start out looking five years younger than they are, which I find annoying, but…but in episode 6, the art simply collapses into appallingly shoddy, unforgivably awful work. This was particularly distressing as the plot is really thickening just about then too. Shima’s neck was disturbingly long, the faces were frequently askew, Arisa almost never had a whole face at all and Yayoi looked like she spent the episode wearing a wig that kept sliding. Awful, awful, awful. The bad art was genuinely distracting, which is not a good thing.

Yuri-wise, this series is definitely still worth a look. In this volume, we are getting serious tension building between Yayoi and Ayaka, and I even have to admit that Arisa’s reactions to Shima and Kouta’s growing closenesss look awfully like resigned jealousy, something I missed completely the first time around.

Like I said way back when I reviewed it the first time, Stellvia is still a space opera, but still a really, genuinely enjoyable one.






Stellvia Anime, Foundation 1 (English)

September 28th, 2004

I reviewed Stellvia almost a year ago. Well, now it has been released by Geneon, and so, I thought it deserved another look.

Geneon had a big-ass booth at Otakon this past year, and even sponsored a mini-concert by Angela, the singer for the opening and Ending themes for this anime. I hadn’t watched Stellvia since the very first time I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the music. It’s a strange OP, sort of yodel-y and it was appealing in an unusual way. When I watched the DVD, I found myself turning the volume way up on the opening credits.

So, Stellvia of the Universe, or Uchyuu no Stellvia, is, as I mentioned in my previous review, a space opera. Katase Shima has always wanted to see space “head on,” so she applies to “Foundation Stellvia,” a space station academy, to learn to become a pilot. The plot hasn’t changed much since my last review, so I’ll focus only on the actual DVD release.

Right off, I decided to purchase the plain DVD in a case version, eschewing the DVD in series box. I cannot imagine that whatever extras you get with the box is worth the $15 more in price. That’s practically a whole ‘nother DVD, for pity’s sake! And pencil boards go for around $3…, so…. You get 4 eps for your $20, which isn’t jump for joy great, but it’s not like I feel like I’m being taken to the cleaners, either.

The no-frills DVD is definitely that. You get nada with it. No liner notes, no anything. Just a notice of future release dates and a market research card. (Dear Geneon, Please license Maria-sama ga Miteru, I have lots of money to spend. Thanks so much. Love, Erica.). The cover of the DVD is the same as the Japanese version – a sort of lurid green with Shima-chan floating uncomfortably alone. The DVD itself is really lovely…the green sky theme repeated as a green DVD with cut-outs where the prismatic DVD is visible, like stars glowing in a green sky. Cle-ver…

The soundtrack was fubared on my DVD and I’m not really sure why. It would only play in monotrack on my TV, but worked fine on my computer. Other DVDs worked fine on the TV, so it had to be the disc. No clue what was going on there…and I didn’t lose much, just a few background noises.

The translation was, for the first episode, stunning. Absolutely fan-tastic. Shima-chan was appropriately translated as Shima-chan, the twice it was used. Honorifics in place, all’s well. And then the episode ended and aliens took over the translation for the next three episodes. Can we say, “wtf”?

Episodes 2-4 were dreadful. Translation was bland & colorless, and the honorifics were disappeared and carted off, never to be seen again – I cried when I realized that they were never coming back. I don’t know WHAT on earth happened to the translation, but clearly they need to find the folks who did the first episode and apologize for offending them and get them back on the job!

One last note – I had originally commented that the characters looked too young for my taste. I guess I had never noticed before, but the art looked about the same level as Digimon. The same faces and bodies on the characters, the same high-end CGI, but low-end character design…all very weird when put together.

I had also forgotten how GOOD the script was. For all my bitchin’, the story is still solid, the voice actors are still decent and Machida Ayaka, the hyper-competent, bitchy (and ultimately psycho lesbian, so you KNOW I like her) in the big 4 is voiced by Toyoguchi Megumi, who also voices Satou Sei in Maria-sama ga Miteru! (For the record, Kuzuhara Yayoi is voiced by Orikasa Fumiko.)

The DVD release is only a 6, but the story still gets an 8, for an overall 7.

This series is definitely worth a rent and, if you’re willing to wait for the payoff, a buy. I know I’ll look forward to the next volume, just because the story is really damn decent.





Yuri Anime: Stellvia of the Universe

November 4th, 2003

If you haven’t yet seen Stellvia of the Universe…you should. It’s a space opera, plain and simple, with some of the typical cliches of the genre: threat from outer space, humans bonding together to confront the universal foe, young boy and girl become heroes, etc., etc. However, this hardly describes the complexity, not only of the characters in Stellvia, but also the plot.

The initial plot is resolved by episode 10, leaving the viewer with the feeling that either something big is going to happen, or that the writers were even lazier than usual. Luckily, the former is true. A second plot structure develops which is completely *unlike* the first, and focuses on how humanity is as likely to be divisive as it is to unite at the advent of a threat.

Despite the decent plot of Stellvia, the show’s strength lies in its characters, most of whom are fleshed out enough to be genuinely satisfying. While the lead character is a bit weepy, she’s delightfully free of whining. Her friends are in many ways more realistic and three-dimensional than she is, and almost all of the characters are better than the lead male who is dopey and unrealistically gifted by turns. The *real* strength of the story is in the byplay between the secondary characters and the relationships that form between them. All of the dialogue is amazingly age-appropriate. The teenaged characters actually *sound* like teenagers…even their disagreements are rendered realistically.

At the heart of Stellvia is not one love story, but four. There’s little doubt that the lead male and female will get together, but an unlikely relationship between two of their friends is rendered exceptionally well. There’s a romance between an “older” (i.e., adult) couple, which I found goofy, but charming, and lastly, a lesbian romance which is painful and fascinating. From my perspective, it was obvious, but at the end, Stellvia offers us one of the most delightful “coming out” scenes ever, as it’s done on an open radio channel in front of the whole world – quite literally. It’ll have you grinning like a moron, trust me.

One last added benefit, Stellvia actually *ends*! With a resolution that makes sense and everything… and an epilogue that ties together all the threads. So on that note alone, this series stands out above others.

Ratings:

Art, Stellvia scores only a 6 – I found the main characters drawn to look much too young for their ages

Story, though, scores a 9.

Yuri- this is not a hot lesbo sex story, but the relationship between the two women is as present and accounted for as any other. I’ll give it an 8.

Overall – 8 out of 10 , mostly because of the great ending.