Seikai no Senki

Title:Seikai no Senki
Banner of the Stars
星界の戦旗 (Japanese)
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: R1 License - Bandai (Defunct)
In the distant future, humankind has left earth and spread over vast areas of the galactic universe, with hundreds of planets and many different empires and alliances. One of the most powerful factions is the "Humankind Abh Empire", an alliance between the normal humans and the genetically modified 'Abh', who have adapted to a continuous life in space. The sudden surprise attack of the interstellar forces of the "United Mankind", who resent the success of the Abh, has thrown two friends: Abriel, an Abh princess of the royal family and Jinto, a human noble (Earl) of an isolated world, together on a patrol ship destined to be sent in to combat. While on the bridge, they are very formal in their roles as captain and supply-officer, but away from the bridge, their relationship is very different.

[TV series, 2000, 13 episodes, 25 min; Produced by Bandai Visual and Sunrise; USA-R1 by Bandai Entertainment (dubbed in English)]

2:51min Series Opening - YouTube Video
1:15min Promo Vid (high res) - ANN Video
[edit] The ↗Seikai franchise:
Episode Details 
1
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 8 9 8 8 9 Ggultra2764 [series:1131#1552]
Continuing off from Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars continues its focus on the war between the Abh and the United Mankind. This time around, there's greater focus on the personalities of the Abh nobility in charge of the military fleets. These personalities are usually entertaining to watch, especially in battles, as their higher positions get to the heads of some of the Abh characters. There was one point where I even chuckled when one of the leaders was so full of himself, he chose to take a bath in the middle of a battle. Otherwise, knowing more about the Abh provided more depth into just what kind of people they were as many were concerned over their status amongst the Abh and family history. They were especially cautious of what actions to take in order to avoid tarnishing their family name and status.

Even with more focus on the Abh, the series still devotes time to focus on Lafiel and Jinto's bond. Being amongst the same crew, both have their own pressures and doubts as they go off in battle with the United Mankind and the positions that both face in their lives. Both still find time to support one another, even with the new captain-cadet relationship set up on their ship, the Basroil. Even the crew members of the Basroil discuss their bond.

While the color quality of Banner of the Stars hasn't changed from the first series, I did notice some more polish and detail with the artwork. Character and scenery designs didn't look as rough and spaceship battles were decently animated. It appeared computer animation was even used at some points with the radar being used by Abh fleets to track ally and enemy units.

There were a couple glaring issues that I had with Banner of the Stars though. The new ending music felt out of place with the mood of the series using an upbeat J-pop song. Also, there was little focus put on United Mankind forces and supporters. Crest of the Stars provided some depth into the thoughts of United Mankind troops towards the Abh and the propaganda being used to make them seem pure evil. Here in this series, there is barely any focus given to the United Mankind side as whatever we know of them is limited by whatever the Abh know.

Despite these problems, Banner of the Stars continued to entertain me with its spectacular space opera drama, focus on the hardships of being out on the battlefield, and the growing bond between Jinto and Lafiel.

Last updated Monday, August 11 2008. Created Monday, August 11 2008.
Watch 8 8 7 7 7 7 Big Fire [series:1131#2441]
I am a sci-fi fan, but everygood sci-fi movie has some cool bad guys... I dunno if i missed something, but i never saw any bad guys...Yes I saw their ships and mines, but i never saw them...So although i enjoyed the good guys and character development, i really could not get into this...Yes I finished this series and am going to go back and watch crest of the stars...and maybe i will feel alittle different, but so far, if you like sci-fi...i would still watch it, i like the art and the battles, but not getting to know the bad guys is a dissapointment for me...

Last updated Monday, January 29 2007. Created Monday, January 29 2007.
Buy 8 8 10 8 9 10 Devil Doll [series:1131#752]
[Score: 90% = Buy+, my favorite action anime. Other recommended War animes: Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu, Ima Soko ni Iru Boku]
  • Drama: Med/High (character interaction drama on board of a battle ship in space)
  • Comedy: Low (occasional funny scenes in a war setting that mostly gloomy)
  • Action: Med/High (the space battles are dominating the second half of this series)
  • SciFi: High (lots of tech talk on board of the space ships)
  • Ecchi: None (unless you count showing the princess in a dress...)
You should have watched the prequel Seikai no Monshou before of course, but that's just more of the same goodness - and I like this one even better than the first season.

The situation in war is more serious now but there's comical relief in every episode (most notably when Admiral Sporh, the "Beautiful Insanity", or the emperor's son and his tactical officer have their air time), and occasionally about the life on a space ship in war (with a crew full of interesting characters) plus the special relation between Jinto and Lafiel.
There's no silliness but a quite a bit of character interaction, dealing with many awkward yet interesting characters most of which are Abh nobles. Being so sensitive about any inconsistencies in the Series Story I love how flawless this series is in this respect. Episode Story is my expression of how breathlessly I'm watching the episodes but the Character development may actually be the strongest aspect of this anime. The Music is very good overall once again, although I dislike the ED song somehow; I noticed some deficits in Animation but maybe that's just my copy of the series.

Last updated Friday, June 06 2008. Created Saturday, November 18 2006.
Buy Jan-Chan [series:1131#967]
This is a very hardcore science fiction galactic battle story. Engaging the enemy in small isolated stars ships encapsulated by time-bubbles that permit faster-than-light travel, the style of the battles remind me of how u-boats operated during the 2nd World War. Exclusively dependent on sensors to detect other ships in their vicinity and to escape from enemy mines, the crew looks to Abriel, their captain, with her intelligence and intuition to guide their lightly armored patrol ship into engagements and her luck to allow them to survive and escape from the counter attack.

Taking advantage of Abriel’s family background of royalty, the story twists and turns to introduce a number of other Abh nobility, most of whom prove to be a collection of eccentric and colorful leaders, who enjoy plotting and planning the fleet actions through the various stages of the counter offence. The quirkiness of their personalities and strange sense of humor prove to be the splash of fun color against an otherwise somber and harsh backdrop.

The Abh are almost feudalistic in their social and leadership structure, where their command structure and interactions are influenced by ones blood line, family history, and rank within the leadership elite, with considerations as to any past blood feuds and grievances.

I enjoy this type of story with its hard-core sci-fi storyline, mixed with interesting characters and complex social interactions.

1 - Reunion
2 - War of Renibu
3 - The Assault Ship Barsroil
4 - First Battle
5 - The Beautiful Insanity
6 - The Dinner of Lament
7 - Escaping in the Dark
8 - Eve of The Battle
9 - Barsroil`s Battle
10 - A Shooting Star
11 - Scorching Battlefield
12 - The Battle At Aputikku Gate Begins
13 - The Shape of a Bond


Last updated Sunday, November 19 2006. Created Monday, August 01 2005.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/datacard/card0181.htm
Dragonweyr's collection of translation errata http://www.dragonweyr.com/crest/small/errata.html
The Bandai translation of this series to English contains a number of significant errors, described here in great detail
English language Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banner_of_the_Stars

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