The second wave, a cataclysmic event that humanity has been planning for the nearly two centuries, has finally arrived in the third volume of Stellvia. The event that the series has been leading up to comes to pass, making viewers wonder what the next five volumes are going to be about.

In the your 2167, the Earth was hit by a very powerful electromagnetic wave created by a supernova 20 light years away. The wave had catastrophic effects, and life on Earth was almost extinguished. But the survivors rebuilt civilization, and now, 189 year later, there is another threat; the second wave. The same supernova produced a wave of particles traveling only 10% as fast as the electromagnetic radiation, but potentially much more dangerous and damaging.

To combat this threat, the Earth is developing a giant barrier of electromagnetic and gravity waves that should protect the planet when the wave hits, in a few short months. To act as a point defense and shore up any weak parts of the barrier will be a series spaceships, Biancas, flown by the best pilots the Earth has to offer.

To accomplish all of this, a series of schools on orbiting space stations were created. These competitive schools train the scientists and pilots who will erect and maintain the barrier. Shima, a young girl with some exceptional abilities, is a member of the newest class training on the space station Stellvia.

In this disc the Stellvia gets a new transfer student, Rina a young prodigy. She excels at all her class work and beats the other students in Bianca practice too. This causes the other students to become a little discouraged, until Rina makes a tragic mistake in space and

The last two episodes on this DVD deal with the second wave's approach and arrival. After all of the practice and training, will the Great Mission succeed?

This volume really feels like it should be the last in the series. At the end of the disc all of the plot lines have been pretty much wrapped up. The driving force for the series has been the arrival of the second wave, and since that has occurred, I'm not sure what is going to happen next.

While I enjoy this series, the actually impact of the second wave seemed a little anticlimactic. The series didn't really create a feeling of danger or imminent disaster that it should have. I was expecting a little more drama accompanying the possible destruction of humanity. Instead it felt like your generic episode. That's not to say that this volume is bad, it just isn't as gripping as I was hoping it would be.

The animation to this series is very good. There are a several eye-popping CGI scenes in every episode, most of which take place in space. The Biancas zooming through the hard vacuum of space trailing a plume of light are really cool looking. They also manage to merge the computer animation with the traditional animation very well. The regular animation is good too, with a nice amount of detail and a nice color palate.

This disc contains a scant three episodes, and comes in a clear case with reversible cover.

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 few previews for other Geneon series.

Final Thoughts:

This volume see the arrival of the second wave, the event that the series has been building up to. This wasn't as gripping or dramatic as I thought it would be, and at the end of the volume I was thinking "That was it?" Though this climax is a little bit of a let down, the series is still enjoyable. If you've seen the first two volumes, you should be sure to pick this one up also since it completes the first story arc. Recommended.