Seikai No Senki/Banner of the Stars

You wanna know what “Space Opera” means? Look no further

Abstract: Banner of the Stars is a direct continuation of Bandai’s Seikai no Monsho/Crest of the Stars, with the same cast, same plot, and same feel, so if you haven’t seen Crest, Banner’s going to get confusing.

In the year 955 of…some calendar, the empire of the Abh, a blue-skinned race of genetically engineered humans, are at war with the non-genetically engineered humans, led by the United Mankind Empire.

The story centers around Lafiel, an imperial princess, heir to the throne and captain of a small warship called the Basroil (Busy gal) and her supply officer Jinto. Y’see, in Crest the 2 met, nearly died a bunch of times while escaping the Abh Empire’s enemies. Oh yeah, they managed to fall in love along the way too.

So, can love flourish between a gal who’s bluer than the ocean and a guy whose home world is in the hands of the enemies? While set against the backdrop of a galactic conflict? Watch and see.

Based on the books by Hiroyuki Morioka, Banner’s got GREAT writing and clean, crisp art. The only slight knocks I have about the series are that because it’s character driven and not action (i.e., space battle) driven, it drags a bit at times. The only other problem is that I don’t think you could view this series more than once, so that brings down the score a bit. Solid Gold stuff though otherwise.

Background: As long as man existed, he’s always wanted someone else to do the dirty work for him. And in this series, that “Someone else” was the Abh. So, as humankind expanded into space, the Abh were engineered to serve in hazardous duties in space without getting hazardous duty pay. Think of them as disposable people.

Needless to say, the Abh didn’t like that much. So they rebelled and built a world-spanning empire to ensure they own survival with a fleet of warships that would make any villain with megalomaniacal dreams drool.

Anywhoo, this empire’s gotten so big that the remainder of natural-born humanity’s (The Abhs don’t reproduce the normal way, bleh) pretty darn nervous about paying homage to an empress the color of a Crayola crayon, so they decide to deal with the Abh. Permanently. The Abh were only too happy too oblige, so now both sides are locked in a battle that will decide the fate of mankind(s) for once and all after a 3-year truce.

You’d think that with such grand themes going on, the characters would have a huge role to play in the coming rumble. Especially since Lafiel’s supposed to inherit the Abh throne. Instead, she and Jinto are stuck on one of the smallest, more vulnerable ships in the Abh fleet and are in the vanguard of the attack. Not really a recipe for a long, prosperous life.

Okay, anyone just get the Star Trek reference?

So, between life-and-death battles, Jinto and Lafiel keep their romance alive while trying (And failing) to hide it from their crewmates. Oh yeah, never mind that the Ekuryua, another pretty Abh girl has her eyes on Jinto too. *Chuckles and rubs his hands together*

Materials and Methods: The clean, clear art has 2 primary colors: Black and blue. Black for space and blue for the Abh. The Abh have been drawn well by Keisuke Watabe as elves in space, basically. Since they’re been specifically engineered to live in space, they’re thinner (No gravity) and have twice the life span of normal humans. They even have pointed ears!

The space battles are very stylized, and since they’re not the main focus of the series, they’re a little skimpy at times. You’re not going to see a lot of fleets jockeying for position around each other, blasting away. Instead, most of the time the battles are shown on computer screen, with blips winking in and out of existence. Sounds like a video game to me.

The plot is very true to the original books by Mr. Morioka, with exquisite character development and characterization. Ayako Kawasumi (Aoi Sakuraba from Aoi Yori Aoshi) comes off as the deadpan, deathly serious Lafiel. Yet, even within her personality limits Lafiel’s love for Jinto comes across. Yuka Imai (Otaru Mamiya from the Saber Marionette series) as Jinto comes across as easy going, just trying to roll with the punches and survive the conflict he’s caught up in while remaining true to his captain and love Lafiel. And although she’s not in every episode, Kaori Shimizu (Lain Iwakura from Serial Experiments Lain) as Ekuryua, Lafiel’s romantic rival for Jinto’s affections, provides enjoyable and amusing romantic tension. And what makes that even funnier is that Ekuryua’s even more serious than Lafiel.

Results: Senki shows that you don’t need a lot of gimmicks to make a series work today. Rock-solid storyline and characters that feel believable in the context of the show carry the day. This series has those nice little touches that put it over the top. For instance, there’s even written into the storyline the various quirks and traits of the various Abh noble families. For instance, Lafiel’s family the Abriels are known to be dead serious, while my personal fave, the Bebaus, are known for their “Spectacular Insanity”. Other worlds and cultures have their own dietary norms and biases, so all the details put together really make the idea of empires pieced together from disparate, non-associated worlds work. Heck, they even generated a separate language for the Abh, in which the opening narration is read.

Since this series is set against momentous occurrences, there’s an edge of tension in every episode. Is this the episode where the United Mankind Empire will attack the Abh or not? Is that contact entering plane space (The show’s version of hyperspace) friendly? And, for crying out loud, when are Jinto and Lafiel going to just announce they love each other, regardless of what other people think?!? Unfortunately, the edge of tension also hinders the show, in that when you watch it all the way through once, the suspense is gone. There’s no draw to sit down and see the series a second time.

But the problem with such character driven shown is that there’s too much dialogue at times. You pray for a battle just to break things up. I mean, you concentrate so much on keeping track what everyone says that you ask “Um, shouldn’t they be fighting?” Then again, I felt a bit cheated watching the battles that occur. If they don’t show a computer screen tracking movements during the battle, it’s usually just a quick view of a ship firing a cannon or destroying mines that are trying to track it.

Senki also takes on, to a certain degree, serious issues. Since the Abh aren’t normal people, the whole idea of bigotry and fear plays a big part of why the United Mankind wants to destroy the Abh. And I’ll be honest, while I love the series, I don’t like the Abh. Another question asked is duty versus personal feelings. When do you set aside what you NEED to do for what you WANT to do?

Conclusion: I think all anime studios need to watch this series as a textbook on how to write a plotline. Seikai no Senki certainly stands above a lot of the drivel that’s put out today, and minor beefs aside with the lack of action, it was a near flawless production. I would’ve loved to have given it a higher rating, but what kept me from doing so was the lack of repeat viewability. Otherwise, run on out and see this pronto. Gold, no 2 ways about it.