Stellvia 9/10

I wonder at times why most space shows are populated with high school students. What was the last show that featured a predominantly adult cast? Macross? I suppose Galaxy Railways but it's still the exception rather than the rule.

Stellvia consists of 26 episodes from 2003 with the whole CG spaceships, scanned and computer coloured animation and high quality production values. Other than the OBVIOUS Star Trek Generations ripoff near the end of the series it all looks great. I really like the character designs in this show which is always a plus. The music was OK and I found the opening theme particularly catchy. The voice actors were good, as usual, and I really liked the main character Shima's VA.

This show is ALOT like Battle Athletes Victory in my opinion. (This is a good thing.) Shima Katase is a 15 year old who's just entered a school in the orbiting space station Stellvia where young people are trained in various technical fields in order to contribute to The Great Mission. This mission is to support a system of planetary barriers generated by the various space stations throughout the solar system in order to protect them from an incoming blast from a distant supernova. Shima starts out shy and nervous and has alot of problems in school but she makes a bunch of friends and begins to show some genius. The shockwave arrives halfway through the series, after that some aliens show up and alert humanity to a new threat. There's a Star Trek Generations style space pink thing a comin' and once again everybody's got to work together to save the day.

This show has some really great characters. The girls consist of: Shima, the spazzy girl, the quiet angry girl and the smart regal girl. The guys consist of the loud guy, the vain guy, the quiet guy, and the ... other guy. Since they're so different they get into some pretty funny situations and allow the show to be really hilarious at times, while being serious at other times. There are also tons of supporting characters and some of them even have sub-plots that add some nice depth to the series.

I reckon Shima is a little too whiny considering she's so great at everything later in the series but she doesn't cry all the time like the main character in Battle Athletes Victory so I can overlook alot of that.

This show has an overall nice feel to it. The universe is in danger but there's not much doubt as to the outcome, the story is more about Shima as she grows up and her relationships with her friends. Highly recommended, especially if you likes Battle Athletes Victory.