The Show:
The eighth volume of Stellvia brings the series to a close as
the cosmic rift races towards the Earth. The fate of humanity hangs
in the ability of Shima and Kota to pilot their spacecraft. Though
Kota is ready, Shima is doubting her abilities once again. In this
final volume there's a lot of action and suspense, making it one of the
better volumes in the second half of the series.
Series Synopsis:
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, a second wave of particles
traveling only 10% as fast as the electromagnetic radiation, but potentially
much more dangerous and damaging, has reached Earth. All of Earth's
technology and manpower has gone toward erecting a shield to protect it
from the second wave. The system is successful, and humanity is saved.
Now however, there are mysterious objects that have attacked outermost
space station. Not only are there hostile aliens to worry about,
but a cosmic fracture has appeared in space, and it's heading towards the
solar system. Yet another mission, dubbed Genesis, is planned to
seal the rift but there is very little chance for its success. Will
these young pilots be able to save humanity for a second time in the span
of a year?
This volume:
The Genesis mission is mankind's only hope for sealing the cosmic rift,
but there isn't much chance for it working. The key to the project
are the ships Halcion and Infinity. They are going to be piloted
by Shima and Kota, but it isn't going to be easy. Both ships are
difficult to fly since the pilot has to coordinate an immense amount of
information. Kota is doing fine, but Shima is having a lot of trouble
with her part. Kota wants to take over some of her duties, but Shima
won't let him. She's determined to pull her own weight.
As the fracture nears the solar system the Stellvia, along with other
space stations move to Pluto's orbit. There they set up a series
of gravity lenses that will be used to seal the rift. Though all
nonessential personal have been evacuated off of the space stations, several
of Shima and Kota's friends have stowed away. They figure if their
school is going save the world, they want to be there to see it.
At the outskirts of the solar system, things start well but soon go
awry. The lenses get set up, but the cosmic fracture changes course
slightly which causes the mission time table to be significantly accelerated.
The Infinity and Halcion have to launch before they are really ready, which
seriously affects their ability to complete the mission.
The ending of this series was pretty good. They started to accent
the action elements of the show instead of focusing on the teenage angst
like the last volume did. There were enough spanners thrown into
the works to create a good amount of suspense and tension. The cliffhanger
ending to the penultimate episode was really good too. It's just
too bad that the earlier episodes couldn't have had a bit more action like
these shows.
The DVD:
This disc contains the final four episodes in the series, and comes
in a clear keepcase 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 bare. The only extras on this disc were a few previews
for other Geneon series.
Final Thoughts:
The final episodes of this series harken back to the earlier volumes
when there was more action and suspense. The later half of the series
was a little on the slow side, with too many episodes taken up with teens
moping around worrying about if someone likes them or not. This final
volume makes up for a lot of that with some good action scenes and a climax
that was worth waiting for. Though this series had some weak moments,
when all was said and done, it was well worth watching. Recommended.
Buy: