I was going to talk about how Uchyuu no Stellvia pulls itself together for a great finale in the third volume. It's touching, full of good dialogue and drama, and best of all, the show actually pays attention here to the Giant Earth Destruction Wave that had been approaching the planet for a couple hundred years. I wanted to praise this ending, especially given my lack of kindness for Volume Two. Then I found out that it's not the ending.

Sigh.

I now sit back and wonder what the writers could possibly come up with to trump the dilemma that the series opens with. (I'm betting on an attack from an alien race. I have a nose for these things... though for the sake of [my] entertainment, I hope I'm wrong.) But there's no use speculating, so we can stick to why the third volume is better than the second for the time being.

Be afraid....	Nothin says lovin like a good choke hold.

The main event aside for a moment, the third volume introduces a new character: Rinna. Rinna is the result of a huge outcry from a small, but particularly vocal subset of the show's target audience, who claims that it's not good enough that the young girls in the show merely appear like they're 12 years old. They want the real thing (my theory). Anyway, the "official" reason for Rinna's appearance is to school Shima at every training activity, so she can realize she's not all that and channel her Love and Peace powers to save the universe.

Then the show does what it should have all along: get on with Apocalypse Number 2! Hearts open up, hands extend, and the spirit of coöperation for the sake of all humanity pervades the experience. The only thing missing is hefty amounts of booze and a guy wearing a hockey mask. It's beautiful, man. Joking aside, the series does well at bridging the gender gap here, because the material is such that anybody can relate.

There's two ways to look at Stellvia from this point. One is that what we've been led to believe is the whole premise of the series was actually just staging, in which case there's no telling what the story's about. If this is true, the outcome might not be bad. Another possiblity is that what we've seen to this point is the premise of the series, and the rest is there just to use up the budget. I'd like to think this isn't the case. Even with the second volume in the mix, the series has displayed a reasonable amount of good entertainment, so it's not crazy to hold out hope that the trend will continue.

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