Uchuu no Stellvia 26 (Final)

Kabitzin on August 9, 2004 · in Uchuu no Stellvia

Shima and her Halcyon survive the gravity irregularity, but now half of the Halcyon’s generators are busted. Fortunately, the cavalry finally arrives, and everything is prepped for one final shot at stopping the Cosmic Fracture. Dai, Jojo, and Akira use Stellvia to beam out information about the Genesis Mission to all the people of the Universe, and Foundation II is finally sent forth to be swallowed by the Cosmic Fracture. Meanwhile, the Biggu Four team up with Pierre, Rinna, and Yayoi to form a decoy that works brilliantly. The downside of this is that Pierre is forced to listen to Yayoi and Ayaka have bubbly lovu lovu talk while Rinna taunts him and asks if he’s jealous. Shima compiles the final version of her program that includes a streamlined version of the DLS interface, and Kouta is able to pound the final shot home and save the universe. That’ll show those Cosmic Fractures to mess with Programmers/Mathematicians! After that, all that’s left to do is flash forward to the future as Shima welcomes the new students to the rebuilt Stellvia Foundation. They sure have gotten far in 2 years, and the younger siblings of both Shima and Arisa are in the entering class. A little bit of Arisa’s backstory is finally revealed, as her sister Mia tells of how after their parents died, Arisa scraped and scrounged enough money to send her to Stellvia. Apparently Mia has a weakened body, and possesses a personality like Shima, which explains how Arisa was able to keep her wits about her during the middle of the series when Shima was plunging everyone into a deep pit of depression. Good stuff!

For those who want to know, there is actually somewhat of a story behind the naming of the Halcyon. According to legend, the Halcyon is “a fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea during the winter solstice.” So it seems natural for Shima to pilot the Halcyon, while Kouta is in the Infinity (perhaps a reference to his limitless potential). I found the naming of the Halcyon very appropriate (Kent and several others compare the Cosmic Fracture to a stormy sea), and was glad that it had nothing to do with Peter Pan or Tinkerbell. Towards the end, I have to admit that I was bothered by Arisa’s penchant for coming up with goofy names for everything.

I’ve put together a collage of the various character redesigns. I always enjoy endings that incorporate a look at the characters several years after the end of the main story, and as usual, there was the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of the guys looked the same, and we finally get to see Shoujin without his ninja mask. Rinna, Ayaka, and Yayoi are mildly tweaked, and look very nice. However, someone took an ugly stick and beat Shima and the instructors with it repeatedly. What happened?!