Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2014

It’s probably unfair to judge such a slight trifle as Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 through the prisms of tragedies such as Sandy Hook and the like, but when you have a gaggle of young school kids tooling about with various guns and ammunition, the connection is perhaps made subliminally even if it is unfair. Playing out as a fairly traditional shōnen affair, Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3’s claim to “innovative fame” is that the after school club in this instance is one dedicated to so-called survival games, with a gaggle of girls hoisting around air guns and the like to try to take each other out. There’s nothing even slightly threatening about any of it, and yet the mere depiction of kids carrying guns in schools may throw some elders (like yours truly), especially those with kids they worry about (like yours truly), for a loop. However, that said, much of Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 tends to be rather charming, focusing at least as much on the central female characters as on any gaming activities. The main character is first year student Yura Yamato, a sweet if almost clinically shy young lass who feels like her every dream has come true with her admittance into the very luxe establishment of the Stella Women’s Academy. This is no mere ordinary school, and is in fact tailor made for more well to do students. When Yura arrives, she’s too shy to even answer the inquiries of another first year student, who soon takes off with an older girl who does respond, but there’s no lasting trauma for Yura, who finds her way to the school and is escorted to her room, which she learns she’s going to share with a third year student named Sonora Kashima. Sonora is currently visiting family, and so Yura is able to lounge about the large and luxurious room by herself, which is when she discovers a pistol hidden under Sonora’s pillow. Further investigation (meaning snooping) reveals Sonora’s chest of drawers is full of ammo and other weapons, and her closet is filled with camouflage outfits and other paraphenalia of war mongering. Yura is appropriately distraught, though it’s important to note the scene is played entirely for laughs.

There’s really no suspense as to what’s actually going on, since Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 immediately intercuts the scenes of Yura discovering Sonora’s rather peculiar “collection” with scenes of the C3 after school club trying to come up with ways to increase their membership (a recurring motif in oh, so many of these club-centric anime). It’s therefore revealed right off the bat that the C3 (which stands for Command, Control and Communications) Club is devoted to survival games and that the girls who belong to it are intrigued by the idea of being able to carry around supposedly “masculine” weaponry.

The series does a good job of detailing the kind of nervous proclivities of Yura, a girl who does not have any natural social skills, and who in fact can struggle to even make simple conversation at times. One of the interesting things here is that there’s no real “mean girl” in the C3 Club, though Sono, who does return and who turns out to be the C3 Club’s President, has a quasi-tsundere side to her at times that is at least a little brusque, if not overly problematic. What that means is that it’s almost more touching that Yura has such problems fitting in, since she’s being welcomed more or less enthusiastically by everyone in the C3 Club.

But it’s here that Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 actually does something at least a bit unexpected, morphing Yura into a slightly obsessive type who becomes not just an intense competitor in the survival games, but kind of an annoying girl to be around. The series has taken such pains to depict the character as a wilting wallflower that her transformation is a bit of a surprise, and the series then takes the character in a number of relatively unexpected directions, allowing a cascading series of events to play out in ways that pit Yura against various characters.

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 takes its time developing its themes of balance and true friendship, but it does so in a decently organic way, without a lot of filler and without much needless trauma and tragedy along the way. This is a rather quiet series, despite the bombast of the survival games, one that is probably more concerned with detailing the slow maturation of Yura than in providing any adrenaline rushes courtesy of action scenes or even over amped interaction between the characters. It’s just different enough to provide interest for those who have grown accustomed to these club centered shōnen outings, but it’s also familiar enough for most anime fans to cozy up to it without much effort.

Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is another in a glut of relatively recent anime that exploits an intentionally brightened look a lot of the time, with a kind of milky white overlay on many scenes (see screenshots 1 and 2). That said, the bulk of the series offers good, consistent contrast and an appealing palette that tends to hover in the pink territory quite a bit of the time. The series is not overly sharp looking, and in fact some scenes have a rather painterly and somewhat soft ambience to them (see screenshot 14). Line detail is generally strong. The overall look of this Gainax production is decidedly minimal, with a lot of sequences looking kind of like a storybook, with little detail in either backgrounds or even characters. There are occasional issues with banding, perhaps exacerbated by the often overly bright presentation. Whites comes awfully close to blooming a few times, but never quite tip over totally into that territory.

Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix (in the original Japanese only, with optional English subtitles) suffices perfectly well for this overall unambitiously sound designed series. The bulk of the show is simple dialogue scenes, or even monologues delivered via voiceover by Yura, and the stereo mix does just fine throughout. Some of the survival games may have benefitted from a stronger low end, but there are no issues with distortion, dropouts or other anomalies, and my hunch is most fans will be pleased if not stunned by the results here.

Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animations (1080p; 1:32 and 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080p; 1:32 and 1:32)

Stella Women's Academy High School Division Class C3: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 is best when it focuses on the slow transformation of Yura from stuttering newcomer to overbearing competitor to something a bit more balanced. Some of the supporting characters are rather generic, but the show has a sweet, if admittedly slight, charm that goes down easily enough, even if ultimately the series never amounts to any great shakes. There are a few minor issues with the video, but for anime fans looking for some relatively undemanding entertainment, Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 comes Recommended.