Recently, a fan of the Stage1st forum published some of his impressions of revisiting "Stellvia", believing that this is an excellent SF youth film, which has caused a lot of discussion, and most of the audience has also given praise. What are the outstanding features of this 2003 old fan? Let this article take you through it.
Main STAFF
Supervision, series composition: Ryuo Sato
SF setting: Sakai Sanbao
Person: Makoto Uno
Music: Nagaoka Seigō
Production: XEBEC
Major CV
Ranaka Noaka, Daizu Mizushima, Yuki Matsuoka, Tomiko Origami, riki Tanaka
<h1>Wonderful college life</h1>
The Earth King is destroyed again! The second impact of the supernova explosion of the β star Hydrus in the constellation Hydrus is about to reach Earth, and the students of Stellvia Academy are shouldering the important responsibility of performing the "vast mission" of intercepting debris and saving humanity, and what awaits them will be-
training!
Learn!
Games!
Legend of the Four Kings of the Campus!
And of course, there's love that stinks of sourness!
This work is a college group portrait drama mixed with aircraft combat elements in the cosmic background, which is easy for new audiences to think of the mediocre "Black Wreckage" of P.A.WORKS not long ago, which makes people can't help but worry about whether this work is also a "daily film cloaked in machine warfare skin".
And the salvation story with the student as the protagonist has long been the abuse of the acg world, but "Cosmic Star Road" can not fall into the trap, relying on the common plot routines to be full of whimsical transformation, whether the main plot or daily life even today seems to be very new and interesting.
"Black Wreckage" P.A.WORKS tried robot animation for the first time, and the reputation was average
In this work, students rely on to save the world, not superpowers, nor black technology super robots, but more realistic and more educational - learning. From course selection to class, examination, from theory to programming and driving, the animation describes the learning experience of the students represented by the protagonist in the first half of the animation, which reminds people of another science fiction masterpiece with a similar perspective, "Ender's Game".
The film version of Ender's Game, the original novel of the same name depicts in detail the learning career of "gifted child" Ender
However, the interface they programmed was like this:
Physical education class goes like this:
One of the most interesting lessons is "Lightning Strike". The subjects that sound fashionable and moderately twice are actually a modified version of the medieval horse-length gun competition: the horse is replaced by a flight training aircraft, and the long gun is changed from hand-held to mounted on the front of the fuselage. With higher speeds and more complex operations, the difficulty and excitement are also doubled.
When it comes to school, it is youth; and when it comes to youth, it must be a sports day. The Games in "Cosmic Star Road" are competitive events jointly organized by the five space station bases, whether it is fighting, racing, array performances or art painting performances, all of which are piloted by aircraft to compete.
Among them, the most concerned is the "space ball game". Spaceball is a 5v5 confrontation similar to football, of course, players still need to control the movement of the ball by driving a flying machine, pursuing the goal score, and there are a large number of obstacles in the field as interference, once hit will be sent off.
The reason for this strict rule is that the space ball game originated from a progress contest in the field of the universe with many obstacles - imagine chasing each other at maximum horsepower, along a precisely calculated orbit from the side of the planet' debris, this sense of speed and precision perfect combination of elegance and confidence, is the romance of inter-star flight.
Artificial obstacles are scattered throughout the site to simulate the real cosmic environment
<h1>Full of characters</h1>
Life in the academy is fun, and the main quest to save humanity cannot be forgotten. Behind the daily life of the light and fluttering students is the huge and exquisite background setting of "Cosmic Star Road" that does not lose other "orthodox science fiction works" in terms of scientific and technological sense and rigor, and a large number of details that are carefully examined.
Ryuo Sato, a well-known supervisor who has directed works such as "Mobile Battleship" and "Gakuen Battle Chronicles", single-handedly took charge of the supervision and series in "Cosmic Star Road", and the worldview he single-handedly created was orthodox but distinctive.
Together with "Girl Revolution", "EVA" and called the "Mobile Battleship" of the three major otaku gods in the 1990s
In 2176 AD, the radiation from the explosion of a supernova twenty light-years away completely destroyed the ecology of the earth, and the earth was surrounded by green poisonous gas, and humans began to seek to colonize other planets in the solar system.
180 years later, that is, in 2356 AD, human beings have established a number of bases on many planets such as Mars, Saturn and other planets and their orbits, and the fragments of the planet after the explosion are about to arrive in the solar system, the "second impact" is just around the corner, and the story of "Cosmic Starway" is slowly unfolding on a space station near the earth.
The design of human science and technology in this work, such as the space station and the space navigation energy weapon, is similar to other science fiction works at first glance, but a closer look will find that such as 7 space bases are arranged in an umbrella-shaped stationary arrangement on the side of the solar system, the design of the aircraft that is easy to modify, and the concepts of "country" and "war" have almost disappeared, all of which do not conform to the background of "all mankind united to prepare for the second impact".
Details that reflect the emphasis on the "authenticity" of the worldview in this work abound, such as the spit on the "humanoid robot" in the play:
Even the seemingly unremarkable passenger rocket at the beginning of the film, its overall structure, and the disc-shaped cabin come from a miscarriaged design of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): the Fuji spacecraft.
The animated scene is compared to the Fuji spacecraft concept map
Most of these interesting and rigorous details come from Sakai Sanho, who is in charge of the "SF setting". As an SF writer, translator, and scripter, his knowledge of aerospace technology is extremely rare in the Japanese animation industry.
And the key to the positive description of the salvation plan in this work, the script is also personally handled by him: whether it is the "vast task" of the 7 major bases jointly unfolding the shield to resist the fragments:
Or use the lens to concentrate the energy to neutralize the fault:
It's all very good sci-fi ideas.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the mechanical setting of this game is Naoto Ogumi, which is also his debut work, and he is also responsible for the mechanism of "Gundam 00", "Revolutionary Machine Valvrave" and the upcoming "Mobile Suit Gundam Orphan of Iron Blood" and other works.
It is with the joint efforts of the Staffs that "Cosmic Star Road" in the fierce competition, the frequent appearance of good works in 2003 still gained a good degree of topic and word of mouth, you know, even if the topic of similar themes that was still playing at that time, "Gundam Seed", did not hide the charm of this work "Benge" SF.
The best Gundam is ()!
<h1>Deep character development</h1>
The excellent setting sets up a gorgeous stage, but the soul of the drama lies in the actors. The character portrayal of Cosmic Star Road is equally outstanding, and the most controversial character in this game, One of the "Four Heavenly Kings", Machida Hatsuka, is an excellent example.
As a predecessor known as a "genius", she will take the initiative to care for the new students who encounter learning difficulties, and will also bully the younger generations with jealousy and loss of control when the status is threatened; in the face of friends, competitiveness allows her to do whatever it takes to compete in school, but when the other party is in crisis, she will not be able to rescue her for a long time; she is a "genius" with excellent results in the eyes of the public, and she is also a stubborn, hard-working, self-squeezing little girl in the eyes of her peers; she is a snake and scorpion beauty with firm goals and never submits to defeat, and she is also a wandering soul who has lost herself and is fragile and uneasy.
Machida Hatsuka is troubled by her own inner contradictions, and the audience loves and hates her in the contradictions, but no matter what kind of emotion, the character is branded with the name "real".
And the other characters in the play also have their own positive and negative sides: Kent, the popular king of the seemingly perfect four heavenly kings, will also have his own selfish intentions. The usually sluggish natural crane tail shows leadership at key moments. In the face of friends who have hurt themselves, they are confused.
Insisting on the multi-angle portrayal of each character, rather than generally dividing the "attributes", is the key to the success of this work in character shaping.
<h1>Unique perspective, deep theme</h1>
Male and female protagonists
This is a work about "genius".
Compared to hatsuka Machida, the "hard-working mortal" who took off her mask, the heroine, Shimase, is undoubtedly a true genius: she can write complex but completely bug-free programs; in a short period of time, she has evolved from the tail of the driving class crane to a goal hero in a space ball game; and can even participate directly as a newcomer in the core plan of the game: a "vast mission" aimed at protecting humans from the second impact.
Just when the audience thinks that this is a story of a genius heroine saving the world, the male protagonist, Hikari Yamayama, suddenly came out of nowhere in the middle of the story, leaving everyone far behind with superhuman physical and psychological qualities, becoming the only person who can control the giant robot "Infinity". The sudden change of the plot of the wind and clouds made the onlookers outside the play stunned.
Just when the audience thinks that this is actually a story of "Dragon Auror" defeating "genius", Guangtai, who shoulders the responsibility of saving all mankind, is also nearly collapsed in the face of pressure.
Machida Hatsuka, Katase Shima, and Otome Mitsuta all have the name of genius, but they are all blinded by the arrogance of genius, forgetting the fact that the so-called "genius" is just a more talented "mortal". Geniuses can easily overcome the barriers that prevent mortals, but they will eventually face their own limits.
As the "adults" in the film, the instructors, say, "No matter how good these students are, they are still children." "After all, human power is limited."
Starting from the special perspective of the position of the heroine "second place", this work takes the relationship between "genius and mortal" as the clue, comprehensively shows the respective states and troubles of students at different levels of college life, and finally returns to the core theme of all youth dramas: growth.
So, in "Cosmic Star Road", how these children should grow up, and what responsibilities should the "adults" shoulder in the growth process of students, please allow the author to sell a close here, interested audiences may wish to personally watch, understand and discuss it.
<h1>Moving music</h1>
Finally, it must be mentioned in terms of its music. Audiences who have seen "Cosmic Star Road", whether they like the story or not, and agree with the philosophy of supervision, have at least reached a consensus on one point: "The song is really good." ”
OP "Tomorrow", "Tomorrow", under the singer's passionate interpretation, vividly shows the heroism and self-confidence of human beings to open up the universe and fight against crises. This song also won the theme song award at the 8th Kobe Animation Awards.
The youth and tenderness in ED1's "The Night Sky" contrast sharply with the overflowing sadness in ED2's "The end of the world", and the two songs change with the progress of the plot also show the intentions of the production staff.
This is also the first time that most people in China have come into contact with the angela group, the lead singer Atsuko's excellent voice, unique singing voice has left a deep impression, and then they are responsible for the theme song performance of "The Firmament of the Firmament", "K", "Revolutionary Machine Valvrave" and other works are very wonderful and more well-known, but in the author's mind, it is still unable to surpass the performance in this work.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
For today's audiences, "Cosmic Star Road" undoubtedly looks a bit "old": the human settings of the last century, the 4:3 picture, the simple 3D special effects, the plot unfolded by the king... But underneath the dusty exterior, its fun-filled college routine, elaborate science fiction stage, vivid three-dimensional character image, old-school animation's unique refinement of details, and unique interpretation of the eternal theme of "growth" are worth savoring at any time, if you readers are tired of the current "fast food" and "dessert" works, you may wish to try this pot of old tea with a unique flavor.
The above is the main content of this push, welcome to leave a message to share your impressions ~ ~
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