Shima Katase

Shima Katase (片瀬 志麻 Katase Shima?), or Shipon (しーぽん) as she is dubbed by Arisa Glennorth, is the heroine of the story. She joins the Stellvia foundation's space program so that she could "see the stars while looking forward, rather than having to look up".

Personality
In the beginning, Shima fluctuates between complete confidence in her abilities and believing she couldn't do anything. The series depicts her as extremely diligent, although she is also a natural genius.

As the series progresses, she learns to understand her mistakes and not think that she has to be perfect or else fail. For instance, after a rocky start to her training, during which she was dead last in her class at piloting, she takes the advice of Kōta Otoyama and realizes she was trying to keep track of far too much information on her ship displays. Her piloting improves dramatically as a result. However, she still will lose her confidence often. Once she is like that she will get into a deep depression like a little kid thinking that it is because she does not have talent.

Background
Shima is called Shipon because the first time she piloted one of the Biancas she flew around like a ping-pong ball.

Plot
During the genesis mission, Shima was piloting Halcyon (also called Lucyon by Arisa Glennorth and Rinna Kazamatsuri). Some irregularities were interrupting the Infinity, so Halcyon released its barrier and absorbed the irregularities. She almost died at that risk. It is shown that she loves Kōta Otoyama very much by almost sacrificing her life by saving him from the irregularities.She also participated in the school games.

After the Great Mission and the second wave, she was already considered a massive popular figure and idolized along with Kouta. Therefore after the Genesis Mission, it is also extremely likely that has boomed even further and is considered an extremely famous and important person.

Powers and Abilities
Actually, Shima has a rare talent where she is offered to be the 5th member of the Big 4 after passing the test. Despite her early setbacks as a pilot, her programming abilities are top notch from the very start, and she eventually combines the two in order to become even more formidable in the cockpit.

Kōta Otoyama
Shima and Kouta develop a romantic relationship (they share their first kiss on episode 12). She likes Kouta very much but somehow gets irritated when he can't understand her.

Etymology

 * The name Shima means "will, purpose" (志) (shi) and "hemp, flax" (麻) (ma).
 * Shima's surname Katase means "single, piece" (片) (kata) and "swift current, rapids" (瀬) (se).