Stellvia - Foundation II (2003)
Animation Production: Xebec/Foundation
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

The first volume of Stellvia amazed us with its beautiful artwork and entertained us with a rather interesting story about a young group of kids who made their way into the space pilot academy hoping to take part in the Great Mission, Earth’s only hope to survive the second wave that resulted from the explosion of a nearby star.

It’s been a while since I saw the first set of episodes so I was really excited when this one made its way to my DVD player. To say I’ve been looking forward to seeing this show again would be a major understatement.

Story

"Feel it. Feel as though you are the center of the universe. The coordinates reported by the data are nothing more than a relative value. Place yourself in the absolute coordinate. (Kouta Otoyama) A project that took 189 years to prepare, to create a barrier in the outer space with a gigantic generator and surround the whole solar system. This was the strategy to protect human beings from the Second Wave. This was The Great Mission. Foundation Field day, a festival that comes around once a year has returned and Shima is a candidate to participate in the great Astro-ball Event! But has her piloting skills really improved enough to be able to play side by side with the Big Four? If so, then expect to see her go head to head against Ayaka in the Lightening Joust event."-- Stellvia Webpage

Review

Volume two of Stellvia contains episodes 5 though 7 in the series, which include:

Episode 5: Opportunity
It’s time for the new class to undergo special intense training! Foundation Field Day will soon be taking place and each one of the orbital stations will be doing its best to win the games, especially the main attraction, Astroball! To encourage the freshmen it is decided that whoever performs the best during a special trial event will get to participate in the Stellvia’s Astroball team and also be considered as a potential recruit to take part in the Great Mission. Will Shima pull an unexpected victory and join the ranks of the Big Four?

Episode 6: I Won't Lose
The day has arrived! It’s time for the Foundations to meet for a friendly competition known as Foundation Field Day, where the best members from each group represent their particular station in a large variety of events designed to hone their skills and test their development as students in training for the Great Mission. Having won the opportunity and honor of being in the Astroball team Shima plays side by side with the Stellvia’s Big Four senior students against similarly ranked students from other Foundations. Will she manage to barely hang in with everyone else or surpass her peers thanks to her new-found confidence?

Episode 7: Frustration
It’s been some time since the Foundation Field Day and Shima seems to be gaining more and more confidence in her skills as a pilot. In fact she’s starting to move up in the ranks of her class and is quickly becoming the top student. Her growth as a pilot and her abilities as an amazing programmer are also being noticed by more people across the Foundation and she is beginning to be thought of as one the Stellvia’s most promising up and coming members. When a test is setup that pits the new students versus the older classes will our heroine be able to defy the odds and beat one of the Big Four!? Or is this the end of her winning streak?

If the first disc was about a coming of age for Shima this one seemed more about her growing up and surpassing her own expectations by developing the confidence that she needs to realize that she can persevere if she believes in her own skills. One common thread that ran across the first four episodes of this show was Shima’s complete lack of confidence and her reluctance to take on new challenges. Everyone could see that she had that intangible "something", a special gift, but she constantly failed to see it that way and often failed because she lacked the confidence to believe in herself and what she knew she could do.

Here, she finally finds that self-assurance with a little help from one of her fellow students who seems to be quickly falling for her. Having seen episodes one through four this is one of the first pay-off’s of the character development that the series is slowly, but surely undertaking. Judging by how it changes the momentum of the story and the overall feel of the stories this was the right move at the right time from a plot perspective too as it helps propel the story from a less scholastic and teamwork oriented setup to one of a more competitive nature.

This could not be more evident than in episode seven, “I Won’t Lose.” Having gained the self-confidence to compete in the big leagues, Shima is propelled into a small universe that unlike the one we’ve seen in the previous episodes is fiercely competitive and proud of itself. This gives her the opportunity to move in a different direction as a character and for us an audience to see a different side of this story’s universe. In fact when this episode was in full swing I was wondering if the next three or four stories would be dedicated to this setup and further explore the competitive environment that they afford us with. Surprisingly and much to my shock (I can’t emphasize that enough) the storyline comes to an undefined conclusion when the episode ends after the Stellvia’s team wins their second match, so we don’t get to see what happens next! How cruel is that!?

While the story revolving around the Foundation Field Day comes to an unexpected end with one single episode dedicated to it, the themes it helped cement and flesh out are further explored and developed in the last episode included in this DVD, “Frustration.” Here our focus is widened to include Yayoi, who along with Shima is one of the top students in the new class. Like Shima in this story Yayoi develops a new-found fighting spirit that helps her overcome a challenge that caused her great difficulty in the past (or so much is hinted at).

All in all I really liked how the overarching feel of the story has changed gears with these episodes. There’s a real sense of the passage of time too, so we also begin feeling a little more urgency from everyone in regards to the Great Mission and the coming of the second wave. I can’t wait to see how things move as we get closer to humanity’s last stand and how Shima fits into that entire event. I mean, come on, if she’s the focus of the series, she must have a big part in the Great Mission. Guess we’ll have to wait and see on that.

As was the case with the first four episodes the art in this show is phenomenal and really something to be admired. The animation is extremely fluid and the color palette that's used is bright & varied. There is also a great deal of CGI animation and effects used throughout each story that seamlessly meshes with the traditional 2-D artwork. I can hardly believe how good this fusion of different media is getting.

The soundtrack continues to be a pleasure to listen to although no instrumental BGM piece has really come out and jumped at me. The opening and closing themes continue to motivate me to go out and buy the CD soundtrack for this series. Perhaps by the time I review Stellvia volume three I’ll be able to report back on the soundtrack based on that particular audio product. The voice acting once more is phenomenal.

This time out the DVD was shorter than last time due to it’s being one episode shorter, but the remaining content and overall product quality is very similar. As far as extras go we have a very similar package here that includes a small insert card inside the DVD box, a clean copy of the opening theme and previews for other releases from Geneon. The video and audio transfers are completely flawless.

Final Thoughts

Now that the story is gaining some momentum and the characters are visibly evolving this show has gotten better and even more worthy of further exploration. I really can’t wait to see volume three!!

If you enjoy sci-fi anime or shows with a scholastic feel and a little space exploration twist to them you can’t do better than Stellvia. This one’s really worthy of being checked out so next time you find yourself at your local anime shop try giving Stellvia a shot.

Jeffrey Couto