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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Banner of the Stars, January 6, 2009
Banner of the Stars continues with the development of the main characters from Crest of the Stars - Anime Legends Complete Collection. There's Jinto, a human boy, who became a noble by way of his Father's decisions. And Lafiel, a young female Kin of the Stars, born of Abh nobility. They first met when Jinto was sent to be educated in the ways of the Abh. Several years have since passed, and their respective preparations and training are complete. Here, as young adults, they're no longer witnesses to war, but an active part of it.
Lafiel has succeeded in assuming her first command, and true to her word, she's arranged for Jinto's assignment to her Assault ship, The Basroil. He gladly serves as the Supply Officer, and her personal secretary. Their conversations and time together, is in my opinion, the strength of this show. If you didn't enjoy this aspect of Crest, then you may want to skip this altogether. Banner's not a hard edged, brutal type story by any stretch. You're just not gonna wanna see anything like these two get dismembered, undergo some radical shift in character, or anything like that. They are just more of what they were in Crest, two, very likable characters.
Unlike Crest, Banner does focus on the battles between the Humankind Empire of the Abh and the Triple Alliance (the humans who dare defy them). The Abh, a genetically engineered race, with a lifespan of some 200 years, are well adapted to space travel. Another distinct trait, and tactical advantage, is their innate ability to sense what's going on around them in outer space.
***
Banner, the animated, Japanese TV series, is a sci fi story adaptation. It's derived in part, from 4 novels written by Hiroyuki Morioka. An alien language was developed for the story, and it's also here. On the original audio track, when it can be heard, it doesn't always get subtitled. So don't think your dvds are messed up, or that something's amiss, it's not. At times, this dialog does get a hard subtitle treatment (in Kanji, for the Japanese audience) and then the english subtitles appear over these.
Most anime titles, not all, have a 90 second intro, and bam, you're into the show. Usually, it sets the tone of the series, and provides some kind of musical "image" that pertains to the content. This prologue & opening, with its sweeping orchestra, reminds me of a Star Wars type pic. And that's not a bad thing, but this is for over 4 minutes. Well, almost 5. For each episode. If someone had told me this is to indicate it's overly long and... uh, spaced out, I'd see their point.
Visually, there are only so many cartoon explosions that I'm gonna ooh and ah for. When it's done too much, well, then it becomes somethin' more akin to watchin' paint dry. If only they'd fire more for effect, instead of what appears at times to be a way of attaining the requisite episode length. Same goes for the little green, minimal detail, gridlike diagrams representing entire space fleets in action. I understand the difficulty of depicting something of this scale, and here it really shows. It's a visual weak point of this show.
If you're already a sci fi fan, and you like older Star Trek type stuff, then you won't be put off by all the space techno jargon, and pointy ears on the bridge of a ship scenes. Now, even with my picking at and fault finding, I still feel it's a solid effort, and a fairly good time. Say What? A good time? For Who? Just other fans of Crest, the ones willing to pay to see more of Jinto and Lafiel. Everyone else, if you're still reading, Crest is worth a rental, and it's the place to start. Or stop.
3 1/2 stars.
*There's a free preview at the animenewsnetwork site. It says more, in about one minute, than any million word review ever could.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as captivating as "Crest of the Stars" but nevertheless, still great to watch the adventures of Lafiel and Jinto, September 16, 2008
I was truly in love with "Crest of the Stars", a storyline that featured a storyline about war, those who are human or landers who have been occupied by the Ahb Empire now fighting for their independence but in the middle of this war is an Ahb Princess (Lafiel) and a Count (Jinto Lin), who threw thick and thin fight for survival but trying to succeed together.
At the end of the series, the final episode flashed back four years later as Lafiel has now finished training and is a Captain of her own ship and crew. Jinto finished his training to become a supply officer on Lafiel's ship.
The second television series "Banner of the Stars" continues where the first series left off. Where the first series is character driven and pretty much focused on Lafiel and Jinto's adventures, the adventure does continue in "Banner of the Stars" but now that war has commenced, we are introduced to many more characters. Especially those who command various starships for the Abh Empire and those who lead the battle against the United Mankind.
There are no adventures in planets or cat and mouse type of storylines. In fact, "Banner of the Stars" is more like a Star Trek episode as you meet Lafiel's crew and together, under Lafiel's command, go into battle.
In a way there is an irony about this series as "Crest of the Stars", you wonder if your allegiance would be towards the humans because the Abh Empire pretty much takes over other planets and the inhabitants are forced to become part of the Abh. But with Jinto's situation of being the son of a traitor (his father gave up his planet to the Abh without a fight to become a leader of the planet), he questions where he belongs. What he calls home.
But in the end, you stick to it, because you enjoyed both Lafiel and Jinto together and hope there is a budding romance between the two. Obviously, the two are good for each other but how it works out and how they get even closer is not really focused on in the second series which may bum some viewers out. Especially, those who enjoyed the character development that was in place for "Crest of the Stars".
But this series is full of space battles but what people who want some kind of sign that there is hope for romance for the two main characters will have to wait because the focus in this series is between the Abh Empire and how they will go against the forces of the United Mankind.
AUDIO:
I listened to both the English and Japanese audio. I actually enjoy both the Japanese and English voice work in the series and found myself really enjoying the English dub (this is coming from a guy who prefers his anime in Japanese). One thing I noticed on various online stores are reading people who were upset of the Abh language not being subtitled in the opening sequences. Same as "Crest of the Stars", there are no translations but it should ruin it for you because it's just the opening sequences and that is it.
VIDEO:
"Banner of the Stars" aired in April-June 2000 and considering that this series is eight years old, the animation still looks very good and doesn't look dated. Whereas "Crest of the Stars" takes place in various settings, "Banner of the Stars" pretty much features the crew in their ship, their quarters and the same goes for the other commanding officers of the Empire. So, there are a lot of blues, blacks and grays. Not as many vibrant colors compared to "Crest of the Stars" but nevertheless, the animation continues to hold up quite fine.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD features trailers, summaries but my favorite part was the creator of the manga series, Morioka Hiroyuki, chiming in on his feeling of each volume titled "Newsletters of the Stars". Mainly text on screen, no video but Interesting comments by Morioka wanting to see the characters in a hot springs episode. That was quite amusing. Another was his comments made of a fellow voice actor in the series who passed away which was good to read.
I was hooked by the storyline of "Crest of the Stars" and fell in love with the series but "Banner of the Stars" is totally different with the fact that despite Lafiel and Jinto, the two main characters still are the main key characters in this series, the dialogue and banter, character development is held at a minimum since the focus is on the action and battle sequences. The war between the Abh Empire and United Mankind.
For those hoping to see more of the two get closer in terms of their friendship, you do get something and it's held late in the final episode after the credits roll. So, make you sure you don't miss that.
But all in all, this series is building up to something. What that something is, I don't know. But I did enjoy the series overall for its space wars storyline. Miss the "Crest of the Stars" style of storyline but I'm staying in for the long run and preparing for the next series "Banner of the Stars II" and looking forward to the progression of the war storyline and of course, whatever happens between Lafiel and Jinto.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Battle Begins at Last, July 16, 2008
There was a time when I thoght that the best chapter in the Stars series was Crest of the Stars. Then it was the third chapter in the series, Banner of the Stars II. And now, after having seen Banner of the Stars III, and having reflected innumerable times on the entire series, reading every manga, and every novel available in English... this is my favorite chapter in the series. For now.
At first glance Banner of the Stars might seem a little cheap compared with the other chapters of the series. It's only 13 episodes like Crest of the Stars, but there's a recap of the situation at the start of almost every episode (to the point of becoming annoying). And the first episode is filled with flashbacks. It could have been done just to save money. On the other hand, with a story of this scope it feels good to review the story and keep looking at it from different perspectives. And while the animation is doubtless much higher budget in the first installment, and there's plenty of reused music and animation in Banner of the Stars, the new music is actually better than the old in my opinion and feels less repetitive. The animation likewise feels more fleshed out and warm to me, and the characters more relaxed. I also enjoy the overall feeling of tension and stress combined with close-quarers that the space battles entail.
In the first part of the Stars series Lafiel and Jinto were teenagers, little more than kids as far as maturity goes. In Banner of the Stars II they are young adults with more confidence and control gaining respect in teh Universe. But on this voyage they are just on teh verge of becoming adults, taking on responsibilities that scare them and going through the trials and tribulations of finding their place even as they face te terrible fear of instant death on the battlefield of space.
The conversations between Lafiel and Jinto are wonderful, but teh conversations between everyone are great. Hearing Lafiel and Jinto chat about where their life is going, hearing Admiral Spoor grow impatient dealing with a planetary government, and seeing the various crew members play off of Jinto and avoid confronting Lafiel never fails to entertain. But the most memorable characters are probably the Bebaus brothers, whoose incredibly dry and mild sarcasm back and forth entertains me every time (gotta love a guy who takes a bath right in the middle of a brutal battle for control of the Universe).
Perhaps strangely, the part of the show that I enjoy the most is when teh Supreme Commander of the fleet (Lafiel's father) and his assistant are planning their strategy over massive simulated fleets, and you can see in depth just how desperate the fate of te Abh Empire is. If you love military strategy and war history it's the sort of thing you can really get into (if only there was a strategy game based on this series eh?).
The overall pace of this show is much faster than Crest of the Stars (which still takes the cake for slowest start of any anime series I have ever seen which actually turned out to be worth watching), with a heavy emphasis placed on intense space battles. In fact, the first time I watched this show I felt like I did when watching a marathon run of Gundam Wing. It was like I almost couldn't catch my breath from all that excitement once the battles got going. If you want to see our protagonists in desperate dramatic situations this show definitely does not disappoint.
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