Uchuu no Stellvia

One of my all time favourite series.

This show is brilliant for so many reasons: story, character development, plot twists, music and the quality of animation. The music is downright great, the OP as well as the special "Second Genesis" version of "Asu he no Brilliant Road" are wonderful with exceptional violin play. It's one of the few soundtracks that I listen trough completely.

The animation style is crisp, bright and ranging from very good to excellent. Some of the space scenes are amazing. There are also a few stills with great detail.

This is a real winner, however if you have no empathy in your soul or are all about action, violence and gore move on, this show is not for you.

The background story is very well worked out and refreshing. In general lines: Around the year 2300 earth is hit by a massive electromagnetic wave causing major damage. The wave was caused by the destruction of Hydros Beta, a nearby star.(Well relatively nearby when viewed from the cosmic scale of things.)
However this "First Wave" was only a prelude to an even more dangerous but luckily slower moving "Second Wave." This one contains chunks of rocks etc. (As all the geeks out there already know: Energy moves faster than matter.)
Humanity has spent the last 190 years preparing for the arrival of this threat and working from a master plan to save the solar system.
This plan involved building off a space station near several planets in Sol(common name for our solar system.) called foundations.



Our main character is Kadase Shima, a 16 year old girl that dreams of seeing space up close. In order to make this dream become a reality she has applied to earth's Space Academy to become an astronaut. She's wonderfully annoying and slightly neurotic if you ask me. A nice change from all those airhead love interests.
We spend the rest of the show seeing how she, her friends and teachers progress. As well as what will be the fate of humanity and it's home.



I hate spoilers, besides you really should just go and watch this fantastic bit of work rather than me telling you what will happen and ruining it for you. It's the twists and turns that make it such fun. This is one of the few stories, be it a book, film, game or series where I could not piece together some general idea of the ending by the end of the first chapter. (A predictable story isn't much fun.)
It has a nice view of the future, it doesn't feature the classic x kids jumping into fighters/robots piloting them like aces without any training. You see all the character grow and come into their own. The characters are more realistic because of their quirks. We are reminded that everyone is unique with individual talents and shortcomings. Making the most of this diversity by working together is what gives us the strength and ability to overcome obstacles and grow.

Note: I'll add the pictures and such when my net starts behaving again.