Shima, the young math whiz at a high school that is located in orbit around the Earth starts doing better in the second volume of Stellvia. Though she struggled through the first volume's shows, she seems to have found her groove in these episodes and is doing quite well. The second wave, a large mass of particulate matter moving at 10% the speed of light, is still heading towards Earth, but it seems to be forgotten for the most part in this volume of only three episodes.

As the first episode on this disc starts the new students learn that the athletic festival nearing. This is a competition between the five different orbital schools, and the winner gets major bragging rights. Stellvia used to be the best at one event, Astroball, but in the recent past they've had a hard time with it. The captain wants to return Stellvia to its former glory in this field, and gives the team carte blanche to do what it takes to win. The first thing they have to do is find a fifth player, so the four team members hold trials among the newest recruits, the winner will be allowed on the team and also be considered for the Great Mission.

The festival is underway as the second show starts. Shima plays her first real game of Astroball, with disastrous results. She gets ejected from the game within the first 30 seconds, a new record. She is disappointed, but her friends manage to cheer her up. Of course, there is also the second round to go. Will Shima do any better?

The last episode on the disc has the students getting more training and going to school more. The rookies start jousting training, where two ships make a pass against each other trying to push their opponent out of bounds. Shima's ability to innately calculate trajectories and velocities make her a good player, but the star of the Big Four isn't about to let a new student win against her.

This was a fun, if short, volume. The series reminds me of Battle Athletes a lot. It's obvious from the beginning that young Shima is something special, and that we are watching her grow from an unsure shy child into a confident and resourceful woman. I am surprised at the fast pace her development in taking though. Shima was pretty inept at most things in the first set of shows, and by the end of this volume the best and brightest are keeping an eye on her and consider her stiff competition. Usually things progress at a much slower pace.

There is definitely the feeling that time passes between episodes. The first show ends with the training for the athletic games just starting, and then the second show starts with the games well under way. They really abbreviate what is being shown to give the illusion of the passage of time. Heck the end of the second astroball game wasn't even shown. With the second wave less than 7 months away, I wonder where in the series it is going to hit. I was assuming in the last couple of shows, but the way this program is speeding along, it might be sooner.

Speaking of the second wave, an event that may spell the doom for humanity, it was hardly touched upon in these three shows. I found that a little odd, as well as the fact that they devoted so much energy to the athletic games with death breathing down their necks. Surely there are more important things to do than see which academy has the best astroball players. While the show was very enjoyable, if you stop to think about it there are some rather odd elements to it. I hope these are things that will be worked into future shows rather than just being the result of sloppy writing.

Audio:

The DVD includes stereo soundtracks in both English and Japanese. Both tracks sounded very good, with a good amount of range and crisp sound. I enjoyed the English dub just as well as the original soundtrack. The English voice actors did a good job and didn't give the young girls high pitched voices. Well, not all of them. The soundstage was used effectively in both tracks, with some nice panning of the sound effects. A nice solid sounding disc.

Video:

The full frame video looked very nice. There is a lot of color in the show and they were reproduced very well. The atmosphere of the Earth as seen from space looked great with no blocking in the clouds or haze, and no significant banding. A very nice looking show.

Extras:

This disc was pretty bare. The only extras on this disc were a non-credit opening and previews for Paranioa Agent, Gad Guard and Last Exile.

Final Thoughts:

This is a fun show, though I was a little disappointed that there were only three episodes on the DVD. I would much rather that they put it on 6 discs at a higher price rather than stretch it out to 8, like they are with this series, at a lower retail price. Still, Shima's character is developing nicely and much faster than I was expecting. An enjoyable show that is Recommended.