The Genre: 26 episodes across 8 DVDs from Geneon.

The Format: sci-fi

The plot: The year is 2356 A.D. - 189 years after a distant supernova caused a global catastrophe that wiped out 99% of the world population. To keep track on all space activities, mankind has built colossal space stations called "foundations" all over the Solar System. After passing the Space Academy entrance exams, Shima Katase embarks to the Earth-based foundation Stellvia to fulfill her dream of seeing the galaxy and to prevent another interstellar catastrophe from destroying Earth.

Normally when I do the header stuff at the top there I end up with a bunch of slashes – Sci-Fi/Comedy/Action/Adventure/Monkeys-with-guns, etc – and it’s actually one of the things I like about anime. Although they do have definable genres, they have no qualms about sticking lots of other stuff in there too.

But for Stellvia I can quite categorically say it’s Sci-Fi. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it made me laugh, for example, but then that’s because Sci-Fi – proper Sci-Fi; good Sci-Fi – is about people. Yes, there might be cool gadgets and space ships and robots and all that other stuff, but fundamentally what Sci-Fi is all about is people.

The people might be larger than life, they may be caricatures, exaggerations or stereo-types, but they’re there to provide commentary on life. They’re there to explore things about people and their relationships, the many ways in which they live their lives and the conflicts, trials and tribulations they face.

That’s’ what good Sci-Fi is about, and that’s what Stellvia is basically about. It’s proper Sci-Fi, which perhaps represents Stellvia’s biggest asset, but also its biggest failing.

I’ve a quite clear opinion when it comes to doing this sort of thing. You can either be rigorously scientific or you can be totally fantastical. Mixing the two just leaves me frustrated.

Let me explain – it’s Star Wars versus 2001 AD: A Space Odyssey. In Star Wars, they take the fantastical approach. Cool stuff that happens is never properly explained, we’ve got the mystical force, we’ve got impractical and impossible robots, we’ve got space battles were there is sound. There’re no explanations for these – no reasons, no logic, they can travel at light speed, but it conveniently forgets that this is actually impossible and even then it takes years for light to travel between even the star closest stars, so vast is the distance.

But this doesn’t matter – we’re in the realms of the entirely fantastical and quite how things actually work is not the sort of question that should be asked or indeed needs answering.

In 2001, however, we have the opposite approach. Ignoring for a moment the weird stuff that happens towards the end (though even this isn’t portrayed in an exactly unrealistic fashion, it’s just very odd) we have accurate portrayals of weightlessness and how you would have to cope with that, such as Velcro shoes and spinning space stations; food is realistically portrayed; the need to use rockets and other impulse jets in order to move in space is also shown correctly; there’s no sound in space – it’s all totally accurate.

And I love both of these – in Star Wars you abandon the concept of reality, in 2001AD you embrace it.

Stellvia however tries to do both, and it rankled me. There’s an odd mix of attempting to be realistic and complete fantasy, and all it really did was leave me slightly puzzled and with a handful of questions.

I mean, for example, why does the radiation wave that hits the Earth have such a physical impact on the planet? We’ve got the realistic idea that the radiation travelling at the speed of light hits first, but it’s still radiation. Alright, it might cause the seas to boil and scorch the land, but it wouldn’t look like something physically hitting the Earth as is shown.

Also, the radiation coming in would probably last for at least a day, rising to a peak then dropping, meaning the Earth would rotate and sterilise everything on the planet. Even if it didn’t last that long, some of the radiation would pass through the Earth no problem and kill everything on the opposite side anyway (okay, I can understand them fudging that – not much of a story if everyone’s dead :)). And why does the radiation turn the solar system green?

In the last part of the story when they’re using the Stations in the way they do, how come they all managed to get there so quickly? Unless we’ve mastered some amazing faster than light travel (which is never mentioned) it would take years to get them all there.

Trouble is, in many ways I’m quibbling here. The core part, the important part is the characters and these are well done, but its the little niggles that stop this from becoming a really great show.

Oh, and it didn’t help that it was spread across 8 bloody disks by Geneon. Come on guys, that sort of thing really isn’t on anymore – especially when the only thing approaching a decent extra is the fact that the covers are all shinny. Wow, shinny covers.

The Summary: Good, but never quite great.

The Score: 4/5

The Pictures:

(click for larger versions)