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

Introduction

Over the past two volumes of Geneon’s release of Stellvia I’ve grown quite fond of the series and its characters. The storyline’s pace is one of the most well balanced of any show currently being released and is surprisingly free of stand alone filler-episodes, which these types of shows are notorious for sometimes.

With volume three the story takes a very unexpected turn that adds a bit of a surprise element to the proceedings and makes you wonder what the real story of the show is and where its cast is headed. This is what it’s all about, clever scripts, evolving characters, a universe worth exploring and keen visual design.

Story

"The Second Wave approaches! Now is the time for the Great Mission to set in motion! As communication is lost with Ultima, everyone evacuates to the shelters with their prayers on the Foundations and pilots risking their lives to save the Human Race. A new student arrives and proclaims herself to the Shima's rival. Shima, who had been excelling in her studies is no match for her. Tensions rise even more as the Second Wave approaches increasing the responsibility placed on Shima's shoulders. Will she be able to withstand the pressure or will she."-- Stellvia Webpage

Review

Volume three of Stellvia contains episodes 8 through 10 in the series, which include:

Episode 8: Me?
Shima’s a rising star within the Stellvia and many of the new students look up to her as she keeps proving to be a leader in various areas of their training. When a new transfer student arrives and demonstrates that not only is she Shima’s equal, but in some areas she is her superior will it shake everyone’s perception of our heroine? What about Shima? Will this hurt her self-confidence?

Episode 9: I'm Going
The second wave is quickly approaching and everyone is beginning to take their places. As final preparations are made two of the preparatory students are selected to take part in it, and Shima is one of them! Is she mentally ready for such a tremendous responsibility? If she’s not, many people, including her friends, could lose their lives during the great mission. This is a time for our heroine to consider her path and either accept or ignore her destined role. What will she choose to do?

Episode 10: Welcome Back
Over a hundred years of planning, strategizing, coordinating and preparing have gone into the great mission. Civilization and our world’s very existence rely on the mission’s success. As the second wave is minutes from reaching Earth everyone wonders if the plan will work, but there is little time for second guessing, this is it, the moment that we’ve all waited for…

So far this show has been a well paced endeavor that centered mainly on one directional compass for the plot, the great mission, the plan that is being put into action to protect the Earth and the moon from the second wave that resulted from a nearby star going super nova (the first wave nearly destroyed the Earth and its population). With everything wrapped up around it what we ended up with since the first episode of Stellvia was a story of preparations and training to carry out this grand scale operation, the largest mankind has ever attempted. Naturally I expected this event and the mission itself to be the culmination of the series. Apparently the writers wanted to surprise us however, as in this set of episodes we get to see first hand how the great mission unfolds.

This is by far one of the most unexpected plot advancements I’ve encountered in quite a bit and it proved to be a good surprise as we are taken straight into what could be humanity’s finest hour without any advanced notice. This accomplishes two things, one it brings us to a new climax in the story that pays off elegantly for fans who’ve followed the entire story so far, two, it sets up the stage for entirely new plot possibilities that we could have never anticipated and that may well take Stellvia and it’s entire cast in a new direction filled with exciting possibilities as a result of the great mission being a success. The question now becomes, what's next!?

One answer to this possibly lies in the revelation by one of the trainers in regards to the giant robot onboard the Stellvia, Infinity, and what its true purpose is. It seems this amazing machine was developed as a deterrent to possible wars and conflicts between the different planets in the Sol system that may break out after the great mission is successful and humanity no longer needs to stand together to save life as it knows it. Perhaps this foretells what the focus of the show will be from this point on. Personally I think further exploring how the different factions across space act once their full cooperation for survival is no longer needed is a rather unique twist on what I had expected this show to be. We’ll have to wait until the next couple of releases in the series become available to tell whether this is the case or not.

In addition to these developments we also get a new addition to the cast, a young student from the remote Ultima space station, Rinna. Typically I worry when these types of characters are introduced into a mix that works well, but her addition complements the cast nicely and balances Shima out by offering not just a rival, but also someone who can help our heroine get over her lack of self-confidence. It’ll be interesting to see how her role evolves with the story after the events that take place in episode ten.

Finally, these episodes at long last bring Shima’s family back into the fold. After their sad goodbye at the spaceport in episode one we never saw her family or even heard any references to them so to see them finally pop up is good and opens up the possibilities to new conflicts and subplots. In fact, in episode nine we begin seeing the first hints of this as Shima calls home and is indirectly looking to talk to her mom, but ultimately can’t bring herself to it thinking that she doesn’t care about her. It’s not until she finds a secret note hidden in her hometown snacks that she realizes her mom’s true feelings. If they play this angle more in future episodes it will definitely become a more intricate addition to the overall flow of the story and add yet another layer to a story already rich in story elements.

Production wise we have another extremely beautiful set of episodes here. The production values are similar to what we’ve seen before, but are taken up a notch in episode ten as the screen is filled with quite literally dozens of different figures and vehicles, all moving impossibly smooth when you consider the complexity of some of the scenes. The computer rendered animation continues to mesh perfectly with the more traditional hand drawn components to form some of the most beautiful sci-fi anime visuals in recent memory.

The music for me was a bit more of stand out thanks to my purchase of the Stellvia soundtrack CD (available in stores nationwide). I can now truly appreciate many of the instrumental and environmental pieces that were harder to notice before. There are definitely a number of good compositions thrown in here that really hit home with some original direction that give Stellvia its unique aural flavor. The voice acting in both tracks was excellent, no complains in that area at all.

The DVD itself follows the pattern established with volumes one and two. The front cover art features Arisa and Rinna on a foil covers that flashes slightly when light hits certain points of it. Within the case you can see a different piece of artwork on the inside cover that features an orbiting Stellvia space station. In addition there is a small insert with the release schedule for the rest of the series. The DVD itself is a basic package with the only extras to speak of being previews for other Geneon releases. The video and audio encoding as before are absolutely perfect.

Final Thoughts

This show just keeps getting better and better. If you’re into science fiction to any degree this is one of the must own series currently being released in the U.S. anime market. Good storylines, interesting characters and an unpredictable central plot all add up to a tremendous amount of fun.

Go pick this DVD up right away! This is one of the best anime series currently being released so don’t miss out.

Jeffrey Couto