Anime Legends — Seikai no Monshō pt. 1

After I heard about Bandai calling it quits on publishing anime in North America, I decided it was high time to make a push to watch a slew of Bandai-published series I did not get around to watching yet, while I could still find them.

The Seikai no Monshō collection of anime series (based on several books) consists of Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, Banner of the Stars II and 3 OVA episodes which were never translated (Crest of the Stars: Birth, a prequel, and the two-part Banner of the Stars III).

Crest of the Stars

The first story in the series tells of how the male and female leads met.

Our story opens with an attack by the Abh — a genetically-enhanced, spacebound, militant splinter species of humans — against the planet Martine in the Hyde system. Our young hero, Jinto Linn, the son of the planet’s president, is whisked away to safety as his father sells out to the invaders, becoming Abh royalty as count of the system. This move makes Jinto his heir.

Having established that, the story jumps forward about a decade. Jinto has grown up living with the consequences of the invasion, and is preparing to leave his home star system for the Abh’s military academy. As a member of the Abh nobility, he is required to serve a 10-year tour of duty.

Jinto is picked up by a young Abh pilot-trainee named Lafiel. This would mark Jinto’s first time meeting one of the “children of the stars” and his first trip into space. Lafiel shuttles Jinto to the patrol ship Gosroth, which is to take him to his training.

Here, Jinto receives another idiot lecture revealing his pilot is in line for the Abh throne. Unlike the way such a revelation is usually played, Lafiel’s bloodline is what forces her into the military, and defines her relationships with the other characters. Jinto, being the first person who ever needed to ask her what her name was, becomes the only person in the universe allowed to address her without a title.

Long before the Gosroth can arrive at its destination, the ship is stalked and eventually attacked by several ships from the United Mankind (consisting of every non-Abh government). At a 10-1 disadvantage in ships, the captain orders Lafiel to transport Jinto, a non-combatant until he enters the academy, away from the looming, hopeless battle.

Crest of the Stars follows Lafiel and Jinto’s journey to return safely to Abh territory as war breaks out. Along they way, they fall behind the line of enemy advancement, where Lafiel must learn to trust Jinto as his experience living with land-bound humans is called on to disguise and hide the two from the United Mankind occupation forces.

There’s a certain interactivity to the plot of Crest of the Stars and its sequel series; the viewer feels compelled to figure out the Abh. Jinto’s questions and Lafiel’s expositions seem to do little more that awaken more curiosity.

There is a certain dissonance in finding the good guys in the series. The Abh are first introduced as the heartless race who invaded and conquered Jinto’s homeworld without provocation. The glimpses of the people in the government and military of the United Mankind do little to endear themselves as well. The only “nice” people seem to be the various landers Jinto and Lafiel encounter. In the end, we only know the Abh is the right horse to back simply because Jinto does not resist them.

In the end, the story does leads you learn to like the characters you’re “supposed” to like, hate the characters you’re “supposed” to hate, and think everybody else is a touch off their rocker. The space combat scenes manage to be both intimate and grand in scope, and remind me how beautiful they looked before the day when all spaceships were required by law to be rendered CG. While the story focuses heavily on Jinto and Lafiel learning from each other in these 13 episodes, it also accomplishes quite a bit of very interesting world building for this future in the stars.

We’ll continue both Anime Legends and Seikai no Monshō next week with Banner of the Stars.