Categories
Manga Review

Stellvia Vol. 1 – Manga Review

stellvia-volume-1.jpg

I think I watched one episode of the Stellvia anime before calling it quits, but the cover of the manga was just way too cute to ignore. Apparently, this manga came after the anime. That doesn’t mean it can’t be better, though.

stellvia-volume-1.jpg

I think I watched one episode of the Stellvia anime before calling it quits, but the cover of the manga was just way too cute to ignore. Apparently, this manga came after the anime. That doesn’t mean it can’t be better, though.

stellvia-1-1.gif

Story:
Stellvia is a space academy and one of the Space Foundations dedicated to saving Earth from a second wave of supernova explosions that is scheduled to hit the planet in 70 days. Shima Katase is a newly-enrolled student at Stellvia with exceptional skill as a programmer and lackluster talent as a pilot. Her dream – to be chosen as one of the elite pilots needed to help save the Earth. This is Shima’s exciting and whimsical story of struggle and perseverance – a touching story of friendship amongst unbeatable odds.

Analysis:
As a Computer Scientist, I always have strange mixed emotions whenever programming is depicted in sci-fi or popular culture. It’s like a mix between extreme amusement and anger. In the case of Stellvia, programming has to do with pushing buttons really fast and “reprogramming” the computer systems of a spaceship. For some reason, Shima is a totally 1337 haxor, but she can’t pilot a ship very well. I really can’t take the whole “programming” in the story to be serious, and it really does make me amused/angry.

But enough about that, I guess I should write about the actual story. Basically, it’s about Shima making new friends on the space station and life as a space cadet (and she is quite the space cadet). Along the way, she meets a lot of interesting characters, like the one who’s obsessed with Bruce Lee (even go as far as wearing the yellow jumpsuit from Game of Death!), and the busty meganekko!

Inbetween the wacky schoolkids moments, there are a few serious parts, but they don’t really weight down the story much. Towards the end of the volume, the story gets stuck in some astroball tournament thing. Isn’t it kind of early to get stuck in manga tournament limbo? Plus there’s only two volume of Stellvia manga anyway…

stellvia-1-2.gif

Character Designs and Art:
The character designs and the art style used in Stellvia is awesome. I really like how the characters are almost always in chibi form, and when they aren’t they still look really cute. I think the art was definitely a factor in keeping my interest levels high in the manga. Shima is way too cute, as well as the meganekko and Rinna, the random loli who appears toward the end of the volume.

The Actual Book:
The art is great, but the quality of the print on this book is terrible. It looks like they literally photocopied the pages (multiple times)! The quality of the printing really does an injustice to the art in the manga. I’m really disappointed with the quality of the book.

I noticed that at parts of the book, a lot of Japanese text was left in, with translations written next to the test. This didn’t really bother me too much, but on some pages, there was a sense of extreme clutter.

Conclusion:
Despite the crappy quality of the printing, I really liked the actual contents of Stellvia. Since it’s only two volumes, it’s not much of a financial commitment either. I might have to watch more of the anime to see if it’s anything like the manga.

Many thanks to DrMaster Publications for sending me a review copy of Stellvia Volume 1!

12 replies on “Stellvia Vol. 1 – Manga Review”

I warmed up to anime considerably over time. IMHO its ending mostly redeemed the whole sorry affair (esp. Kent’s fauty judgement). And most characters were quite likeable. So these days I rewatch just the ep.26 and feel happy about the thing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *