Ranked #564

Seikai no Senki III

Banner of the Stars III OVA is easily the best of the entire series. It comes full circle back to the planet Martine, where Jinto was born. He is returning to govern the planet but Martine wants independance, not to mention that half of their population hates the Abh. Banner III is about this conflict, as well as Jinto's relationship with Lafiel who has taken a leave of absence to be with him.

I cannot reveal too much more about the series without giving spoilers but the character development in this 2 episode OVA is outstanding. Every character has grown up and changed, even Diaho the cat. The plot is tight and the pacing is just right.

The ending is outstanding. Many loose ends are tied up but there is always room for further sequels in this universe. This is how a good franchise should end, if it is indeed the end. With people wanting more, but not really needing more because it is a "satisfying" ending.

If future ones are as good as Banner of the Stars III then I hope they make a 4th, 5th and 6th series. read more

ANIME NOSTALGIA SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc7Bh76Sapk

NOTICE
Consider this review a full synopsis of all seasons of the franchise. That is Birth of the Stars, Crest of the Stars, and Banner of the Stars 1, 2 and 3. Man, that’s a lot of stars …

…Which is ironic since the story has hardly anything to do with stars. The whole space thing is used purely as dressing for an otherwise simple tale of two youths and their weird romance. Which is pretty much the same for any other space opera out there and…

…Hey, wait a second, did I just write romance? Where are the interstellar wars? I mean space operas are about wars and thousands of spaceships blowing up right? Well, yes, there is a war going on and you do get to watch many battles between humans and aliens using high-tech weaponry. The thing is… like the stars, they are also dressing. So this anime kind of sticks out from the rest of the same genre as warfare is not a vital part of the storyline. You could remove it with little change in overall. The meat of the story is the romance.

Hey, wait a second again, am I telling you this is some sort of an average tearjerker that simply differs in the setting? Like, instead of high schools the background shows stars and planets? Yes and no. Mostly no. The main duo is a boy and a girl in their teens, which slowly fall in love with each other. Their social status is what keeps them apart as she is an imperial princess and he is a commoner. So far the premise is just like a corny romantic flick for teenage girls or something. But the catch is, she is also an alien and he is human.

Now, you may be wandering why that is a problem. Is it because she looks like an octopus with five heads and pincers for hands? Nope, aliens in this anime look pretty much human-like and almost behave the same. Only thing… they live 10 times longer than humans. And by their looks you would think they are cat-loving space Elves or something. So the thing is the boy is in love with a girl which by the time he is an old man, she will hardly be an adult. As if their social status and lineage weren’t enough of a problem, now this whacks them on the head. Very interesting as a premise I must say.

So now you may be asking, besides that annoying stomp, is it otherwise playing like a typical romantic comedy around a spoiled tsundere princess and a good-hearted wimp of a servant? Yes and no again. Although they do cover the prerequisites, they are still far more colorful and developed than any other similar master-servant anime-pair out there. Their background stories are looked upon with a rather deep manner that expands to their entire species. Learning about princess Lafiel is like learning about millions of years of Abh alien history, and learning about Linn is like learning about thousands of years of human history. Which is kinda funky as it’s practically the symbolism of how two very different civilizations try to coexist.

But let’s leave this aside a bit and talk a bit about the civilizations and what the heck is going on with them. The humans have been expanding throughout the universe and still don’t miss the chance to eat each other’s hearts out as usual. The Abh on the other hand are living quite peacefully amongst themselves. After being liberated by their creators’ control (by blasting their whole civilization to stardust) they decided they were wise and civilized enough to offer balance to the universe. And thus began a conquest of galactic proportions in order to bring peace and order the rest of the brutal races. Linn’s homeworld was quite low-tech in weaponry and surrendered almost right away, while most of humanity is now at a stand-still. Linn tries to get along with his new masters, which look like nice fellows as long as you don’t insult their superiority, a thing which may result to turning your planet like their ex-masters’. So this is where he meets Lafiel, during moments of hostility. The series is basically how he keeps trying to help Lafiel get back to her royal family and taking part in her goal to unite the universe under their rule.

Now, as much epic as all that sound, I’m afraid nothing complicating happens in practice. Birth is just an introduction where nothing much happens; Crest is how he tries to protect her from his colony and Banner how he goes along with her to various missions of warfare and negotiations with other planets. It sounds a lot but in reality it isn’t. In fact, most of the duration is spent on getting to know them, as well as the over a hundred allies and relatives, how they are thinking, living and striving for a better world. It’s all quite interesting from the point of sociology but if you prefer action and suspense, you will not get much here. By the end of Banner 3, you will know a lot about their past, a lot about themselves, and practically zero about what the heck is going on with the war or their romance. The main story elements are not developed much and left open enough to the point where they frustrate you. Where is the rest of it? What happened in the end? Am I supposed to learn Japanese just to read the books?

As much as one can enjoy the premise and the characters, the story is by far slow, dull at points and half-done as a whole. So as a warning, do not start watching in hopes of seeing major battles or great romantic developments because you will get very little out of it. I mean, there actually is a major war shown in Banner 1 and 2 yet it hardly matters story-wise and is not blood-boiling to begin with. You need to get into this with the proper mindset because space operas for most mean lots of spaceships blow up and characters betraying one another every 5 episodes. You WON’T see much of any of that.

The art is of course dated after all these years and many scenes seem to be stiff in terms of smooth animation or 3D objects moving around. Other than that, the atmosphere is great at sucking you in the mood of the story and most sceneries are fine in depicting the civilizations and their traditions. The music is definitely better as the music score does not age that easy and the voice actors did a fine job at keeping the mood serious and intelligent. Overall, I have no problems here besides making something memorable enough to keep listening or watching again and again.

In all, the “Something” of the Stars series is great in terms of looks, music and characters but surely loses points in story. There isn’t that much of it and is left incomplete, thus taking down the score in characters and enjoyment as well. The value is high for being quite unique in a genre that is rare in anime, yet follows some conventions that this title stands separate from. It surely feels inferior next to Legend of Galactic Heroes but it’s still top material. read more