Merry Days of Anime: Uchuu no Stellvia [DROPPED]

Pay little mind to the “DROPPED” label up top. For convenience’s sake, I labeled it as such because I won’t be returning to it this month, but have decided to only place it “on-hold” for now. It’s not that I find it bad, just that it isn’t holding my attention enough for me to desire continuous bingeing. I’ll return to it once this is all over.

Uchuu no Stellvia has that vintage appeal to it. Eyes on characters are usually humongous, their personalities are generally within the “eccentric,” “serious,” “meek,” and “mysterious” categories, and it involves cute girls doing cute-ish things. For 2003, it has that sort of in-between vibe that has one foot in the past and one in the present. It reminds me simultaneously of Tenchi Muyo! and Kanata no Astra.

I was under the impression this would be more the space-exploration type. What it really is is a high school(?) in space where students try to learn how to fly spaceships in order to fulfill some “grand mission” to save Earth, I think? Easier to pay attention to the human drama than whatever grand scheme the plot has going, since it’s both more relatable and less undercooked. Like a buffet with only one particular food you like, the series’s strength is more on characters… and it doesn’t always highlight them without the story/writing obliterating the pace.

What also doesn’t help is just how shallow a lot of these characters are (through five episodes). The main character is a genius, but struggles with putting her pilot lessons into practice, because reasons. Carefree girl is carefree. Serious girl is serious. Not many people present have depth to them, at least through this point, and it makes me less eager to pay attention. Almost each episode past the first boils down to the female lead having a problem and trying to deal with it, whether on her own or through the assistance of others. Story elements pour in occasionally, though without a lot of context, rendering them as meaningless drivel (under the guise of something more later on). At least there’s something building in the background.

Chances are if I continued it now, I’d be faced with a bunch of intermediary episodes with little bits of development on top of a blanket of banality. Not the sort of thing I want to face during this Merry block and something I’ve grown to disdain in recent years. As said in the beginning, I’ll get back to this, as I recognized the potential underneath and wasn’t dying to drop it. As of now, it’s something that maybe didn’t need two cours to tell its story, but that’ll be a decision to make once finished. It’s a fine series, and I certainly don’t feel any contempt towards it. The decision to drop it from the block was based on a focus on more “invigorating” titles in the backdrop.

Thank you for your time. Have a great day.