Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 13 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 1999
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
Over a thousand years have passed and humanity has spread out into the galaxy. Not as one single unit mind you, there are large factions and disputes are still common which leads to war. Jinto Lynn is just an ordinary young boy who happens to be the son of Rock Lynn, leader of the planet nation Martine. A race of genetically modified humans called the Abh Empire, who live in space and frequently war with other empires in order to maintain and create new trading routes, invades Martine. Jinto’s father surrenders in exchange position as a nobleman in the Empire. The people are furious to find out they’ve been sold out, and the Lynn family and it’s servants have to go into hiding. Jinto is pretty much forced into learning the ways of the Abh nobility, and when he reaches the age of 18, he is drafted into the military for a minimum period of 10 years, as tradition dictates. Jinto is assigned to the Gothlauth, a patrol ship, to ferry him to a training base to commence his military training. There he meets another trainee, Lafiel, whom he embarrassingly is unaware that she is a viscountess. Unfortunately a number of enemy ships soon trail the Gothlauth. The captain, not willing to let non-combatants involved in the fight, orders Lafiel to take the patrol ship’s shuttle to the port of Sufuguoff, via a refuelling point in control of the Abh noble Baron Febdash, where they plan to rendezvous with the patrol ship. However things don’t go to plan. The pair are confined against their will at the refuelling point by the slightly deranged Febdash, and after they escape and head to the rendezvous point, but discover that it is now in enemy hands and the pair have to go undercover in order not to get caught.
I originally acquired the first two episodes of this show back in the dark ages of fansubs on VHS. At the time I thought it was an OK show, but never really got into it. To me it felt like a more crowd pleasing and less hard sci-fi version of “Legend of Galactic Heroes”. It wasn’t until 2009 or so that I decided that perhaps it might be a good idea to pick up the series before Bandai deleted. Because of the obvious similarities between this show and “Legend of Galactic Heroes” (on the surface at least), I really was expecting tons of space battles and some political drama. While there is a space battle or two, most of the series focuses on the struggles of Jinto and Lafiel as they try to make their way to the planet of Sufuguoff. There is a romantic thread running through the series, but it’s extremely subtle, along the lines of “does Lafiel have any feelings at all for him?”. In terms of as an ongoing series beyond this initial 13 episodes, this part of the series does serve as great introduction to the characters. As a standalone series, it’s a little bit on the weak side. Especially when the show’s promotional material pitches the show as a space opera with space battles aplenty and the reality has Jinto and Lafiel hiding out on planet for much of its length. While most of it is in the hard sci-fi vein, I felt the last quarter went into a sort of police drama/fugitives on the run type show. While most of this was fairly well handled and was used to strengthen the ties and relationship between Jinto and Lafiel, some of it was rather silly and the mehca, some of the characters and situations were a bit cartoonish. Still, overall it’s a pretty good show 7 out of 10.
“Banner of the Stars (Seikai no Senki)”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 13 Episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2000
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
Because of the events surrounding the patrol Gothlauth in the previous series, the Abh have gone to war with a triple alliance of nations. Three years later and the war is still going on. Jinto has completed his training and is now a supply officer. He is assigned to the Basrogrh, captained by Lafiel. She is at pains to explain to Jinto that she will not let their friendship get in the way of running the ship. The assault ship Basrogrh’s main mission is join the main fleet and protect the Aptic Gate, a wormhole that ships use to reach other parts of the galaxy. Complications arise when Atosuryua, the younger sister of Baron Febdash, becomes the commander of their battalion and surprisingly invites both Lafiel and Jinto to dinner. Worse is the fact the Bebaus brothers (twins in fact) are given the task of defending the region. The Bebaus family has a developed a reputation known as “Spectacular Insanity” in terms of their battle plans. Will Lafiel and Jinto survive the forthcoming battles?
The follow up lived up to my expectations as to what I envisioned the series to be about. While there seems to be a lot of downtime for the crew of the ship in the beginning, we are soon treated to a ton of really well animated space battles. Apart from focusing on Lafiel and Jinto’s completely chaste developing relationship and the problems of Lafiel not wanting to favour him while she is captain, there’s also a lot of new characters that are introduced that don’t necessarily have any connections to Lafiel and Jinto. The two Bebaus brothers as well as several other commanders in the Abh fleet have large parts of the story focused on them. My favourite would have to be Commander Spoor (originally introduced in the final episodes of the first series), a 20-something noblewoman who constantly vocalises the boredom of her job. She’d rather be a trader, which is her family’s business. But she can be quite cold and bloodthirsty at times as well as enjoying teasing the enemy as well as her subordinates. Naturally the series also focuses on the main crew of the Basrogrh as well. Most of the “pure” Abh give the impression the Abh race are rather cold and calculating, a little like Vulcans from “Star Trek”. The show is certainly hard sci-fi for the most part, but some parts of the show are a little daft. Still it’s a pretty exciting well told story coupled with some very nicely choreographed space battles. I don’t understand why Bandai has chosen “Banner of the Stars” as the title of the show. The more literal “Battle Flag of the Stars” sounds a lot cooler. 7.5 out of 10.
“Banner of the Stars II (Seikai no Senki II)”/”Lost Chapter of the Stars: Birth (Seikai no Dansho - Tanjo)”
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 10 Episodes x 25 minutes, 1 Episode x 27 minutes
Production Date: 2001, 2000
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
After the end of the war, Lafiel and Jinto are given respective roles as Territorial Ambassador and Territorial Deputy Ambassador of the newly conquered Lobnas system. They were given these roles as the Abh have expanded their territory so much, they have run out of people to govern these new territories. However when they arrive at the system, they confronted by four people claiming themselves to be leader of this world. It soon transpires that the world is a prison planet, and the three sections of the large island the prison is on, have a leader each. The fourth claimant, Geol Meideen, actually is in charge of running the prison and therefore is the planet’s true leader. Jinto is sent down to negotiate and Meideen tells him that he wants the staff to be evacuated. The women’s section of the prison also want to be evacuated, however the men’s section want them to stay so they can build the planet into a new society (as they technically aren’t prisoners anymore due to the Abh’s action) the staff and the women get their wishes granted, but the men cause a full on riot (though it’s more like a war) using weapons supplied by staff sympathetic to the cause. Jinto soon discovers something more is going on than what he has been told. Some of the staff and the male prisoners have a drug racket going on, and the evacuation is going to put a stop to this lucrative venture. Regardless the evacuation proceeds and Jinto decides to stay on the planet until the evacuation is complete. However while traveling, Jinto’s car is hijacked and he is taken hostage. With enemy forces within a short distance from the system, Lafiel is forced to abandon Jinto and retreat.
I’m really not too sure about this short series. There are some really good ideas here, but it doesn’t seem to work out all that well in the final product. I found the whole prison planet and many of the prisoners themselves a bit clichéd and silly. The prisoners are stereotypes really. Surely they could have spent a bit more time developing them since they do play a big part in the series. There’s also the bizarreness of starting the show with a scene which shows the ending! Not exactly sure what the point of doing that was. Jinto has a shit of time surviving, but we know he survives because they told us in the very first scene of the series. The look of the show and the animation itself are also problematic. The show is 16:9 widescreen, but the fact it’s a cel based show and the very tight framing of shots lead me to believe it was originally shot in 4:3 and then zoomed it to make it 16:9. It looks a little off to be honest. The animation is pretty shoddy too, especially in the mid-section of the show. The DVD set also comes with the 2000 OVA “Birth”. This OVA follows the story of Lafiel’s parents as they discover an abandoned space craft while out on a leisurely flight on their own spacecraft. While marketed as being about the birth of Lafiel, other than a scene at the end, it’s all about her two odd parents. It’s a strange kind of OVA which doesn’t really give much insight into Lafiel or her parents. Despite the story of the OVA, it doesn’t really give much info about the history of the Abh either. In the end, I think this is an OK series. The ending sort of saved it for me. As for the OVA itself, I was really lukewarm on that. I must make mention of the orchestral music through the entire series. It is magnificent, especially the opening theme which is used for all three series. It’s glorious. There is also a two part 2005 OVA series “Banner of the Stars III” which never made it into English unfortunately. I can only give “Banner of the Stars II” and the “Birth” OVA 6.5 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 27 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
No comments:
Post a Comment