Before I review my findings for the second volume of Stellvia, I have a confession to make. You see, well, I'm not female. It's true. Please keep that in mind while you read this review, and feel free to contemplate how a grown man might arrive in the position to seriously evaluate an animation made for young ladies, for free. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's because: 1) I didn't know any better, and 2) I have a high threshold for both pain and confusion. If anything good has come out of this experience, it's that despite what I have been told by my female friends over the years, I am certifiably not one of the girls. Except maybe on Thursdays. Don't ask.

Gender confusion notwithstanding, Stellvia's writing has some priority issues in this volume. We get treated to a sort of Olympic games with spaceships, while the matter of the impending apocalypse is all but ignored. Maybe it's the male "get down to business" trait talking, but it just seems to me that preparing for a wave of giant rocks and energy that's on a collision course with your planet should not appear to be all fun and games!

There is way too much orange in this scene.	ph34r the VR troopahr!

There is at least a sufficient amount of characterization going on in this round, so I can't swear it off completely. Our favorite friendly protagonist continues to catch flack from her classmates over her amazingly bad piloting. That is, until something incredible happens: The recording industry stops suing people.

Actually, it's not quite that incredible. Shima's assigned love interest unlocks her potential to single-handedly save the galaxy while armed with nothing but Care Bears. Also of interest is a little background on Ayaka and Yayoi (yep, there's a second "y" in there) to chew on. Seems they knew each other rather well in the previous school year.

I mentioned earlier that Stellvia had an interesting premise going, and that hasn't changed in this volume. The change is the premise moving into the background while the characters have their girly slumber parties and campfire songs (figuratively speaking). Not that there's anything wrong with that entirely. This volume was a fun romp, but the series is now a little less interesting than it was before.

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A
Presentation: A-
Content: B
Overall: B+