Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-bu 06 – 13 [END]
In which Yura makes some ridonkulous choices, but actually learns from them in the end~
Lately I’ve been having the bad habit of neglecting shows and forgetting to finish blogging them whenever school takes over, or when I simply just don’t find the show interesting anymore, which is pretty irresponsible of me. This time, however, I promised myself I’d finish blogging, even if I have to compile almost the entire series onto a single post. So here I am with Stella, which I admit wasn’t capturing my interest around the middle of the series. However, after actually finishing the show, I have to say it turned into quite a satisfying series.~
The Ups and Downs of Yura
It was definitely a very bumpy ride for Yura, who went through a number of changes and inner difficulties throughout the series, even after her few episodes of bliss with the C3 club. The main changer was definitely Sonohara’s incident, which brought out the much more intense, and general-like Yura for several episodes. Her unnecessary need to fill this responsibility for Sonohara and need to prove herself to Rin had her pushing for these formal tactics and strategies that were just too off for the happy-go-lucky C3 club. It disrupted the whole flow of the team, and the girls were clearly not enjoying themselves, at least to the fullest. Though her strategies helped the team kick ass in the 24-hour tournament, the mood during their breaks would quickly sour when Yura would make her criticisms. She became more intense as she lied about getting hit before shooting Rin to win against her and soon after attempting to make her mistake right, quit the C3 club to join Rin’s team at Meisei. Even then however, her excessive training, obsession for winning, and overall lack of concern lead Rin to kick her off the team.
When she failed to fit in with the C3 club, she strayed to Meisei, but there, her attempts to impress Rin with her improved airsoft skills also failed. Yura’s original goal to change herself ended up getting buried under her insecurity that she didn’t really belong with the C3 club, or with any club. Because she was so easily affected by what others said, Yura tried so hard to change herself to please those around her and she unfortunately pushed those people away when she took her actions too far. She lost the people she actually enjoyed being around in her attempts to not only fit in, but in trying to find her own path by following others. And of course, that’s the wrong way to go about finding yourself…
I couldn’t help but feel annoyed at Yura because of all the changes she went through; however I felt bad for being annoyed at her. I guess it’s because she lost her way so easily for other people, but I know that happens to a number of people, including myself in the past. Sometimes you just lose your way, especially when trying to find friends to connect with, and in the end, you are the only one who can put yourself back on your own track. Of course it’s not easy for some people to find their own way again, as we saw through Yura. And because of that, I think that’s what makes her a good, realistic character (aside from the Choujirou shenanigans) with a realistic inner conflict with herself. And it was nice to see that at the end of the series, she had realized what she had done wrong, and showed that she was on the right path to change herself into who she wants to be.
Overall, I was pretty surprised with Stella. I mean, it’s not my favorite show of the summer season, but it ended nicely and was quite satisfying, even with some of that exaggerated ~dorama~ and weird Choujirou thing. I didn’t understand though why they needed to add episode 13 (which I decided to skip because it was mostly just a typical fanservice episode) after the lovely and sentimental episode 12. It was such a gorgeous, fun episode with everyone joining in for this final battle with Sonohara. Not to mention we got to see them truly enjoy airsoft together after all the drama. It was such a good way to end the show; why couldn’t they just leave it like that? Anyway, I’m happy to finally finish the series, and of course to finish blogging it after I regretfully pushed it away. Onto the next show then (or rather onto Genshiken Nidaime, heh)~
About Hoshi
A tired, over-dramatic 20 year old college student who likes manga and cheesy Korean boy bands. Prone to succumb to laziness and refuse to work for hours on end.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Certainly not the best of the season but it does some merit for the character developments and unique interests. Personally, I’d never think girls would find any interest in a sport like airsoft. Not to mention most of the girls here look so prim and propper that the idea would never cross the mind.
Yura got a bit annoying sulking after the tournament and worse when she left Stella but I’m glad to see her learn from mistakes and realize it’s a team sport meant for fun.
The pageant had me rolling. You’d think with Sonora being their friend, there would be some leniency in her judgments but she totally tore them apart on stage. With friends like that, who needs enemies. And Rin pulled an upset going into tsundere mode after I’ve known her to be a hard-ass, no nonsense soldier type. Didn’t see that coming.
Overall, it was likeable series that could be viewed as another Girls und Panzer. Another season is welcomed should it ever be green lit.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 175 comments
well give finish watch since mid eps showing yura’s falling to dark side of air soft shooting.
then yura’s crash burn mode to lead later redemption in the rain to come back home c3-bu team all happy end.
give last ep was sorta bonus fun ep that all.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Ah, C3 bu. You could have been so awesome. You had all the parts. Six great, interesting, fun characters. But you just had to make it the angsty journey of one of them, didn’t you?
At first, this show go some lite derision for being K-On with Guns (to which I remarked…So…C3-bu is a band as well?). But, part of what make K-ON so successful, is that even thou Yui is first amongst equals, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi, and Azunyan all had equal chances to shine. Love Live did this to excellence as well.
By making it all about Yura, they broke all the other characters and put them in so much troperific spaces.
You had me at girls having fun playing airsoft. Why did you make it something other than that?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The first episode of this show was great, and the show was a ton of fun for a while. But the change in Yura was a little hard to take, even though it felt plenty authentic. And compounding that problem was the end of the show. I thought it was fine that Yura had a crisis of confidence, lost her way, and eventually quit. But the problem was the resolution: She just showed up and was back to having fun. No consequences, no asking for forgiveness, not even any self-reflection that we saw. That just didn’t seem right.
I also wish they’d done more with the other characters. It was pretty much all Yura all the time. I loved Rento in the first episode and the brief appearances she had throughout. But she just wasn’t important, nor was anyone else. Just Yura and Sonora.
And just one more disappointment: in the OST, there doesn’t seem to be a piece of music that’s the complete BGM for that first battle in the woods. Oh well.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…Like I said somewhere before, my patience with Yura lasted about as long as her long hair did. I don’t know what it is, but her short hair annoyed me more than her actual actions did (those those were annoying too at times).
I’m glad things worked out in the end though.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Overall, a good series. Yes, Yura’s journey got a bit hard to take, but it showed how she went from one extreme to another before finding a balance so she emerged from it a better person. The bad thing about that is that the other girls did get shorted when they had the potential to be pretty interesting themselves. Since this was about a team sport it would have been better for the other girls to have had more prominent roles.
I still found it one of the more enjoyable series of summer. And it did have one subtle message–girls can enjoy “boy” sports and still be girls who enjoy doing girl things like sitting around and chatting with their friends. The moments in the club room where some of the best in the show, up until Yura’s obsession with winning took over.