SUMMARY
In
the distant future, two gigantic space empires exist, The Abh and the
Triple Alliance. The Abh are led by genetically engineered humans,
who prefer the comfort of space to terrestrial existence. The Triple
Alliance is made up of "Landers" the Abh term for non-space
humans.
Jinto is a "Lander" from a planet conquered by the Abh. In
order to prevent bloodshed, Jinto's father surrenders, and sends his son off
to school to become an Abh aristocrat. He meets Lafiel, the princess
of one of the Abh royal families. Through a series of adventures,
the two of them became the closest of friends.
Operation
Phantom Flame is fully underway. In an effort to determine the next
target of the Triple Alliance, the Basroil is sent on a recon
mission. After a heated battle, the crew of the Basroil discover
that the Triple Alliance has developed a new kind of space/time mine.
Unlike regular path clearing mines, these mines remain dormant in space
time bubbles until another ship enters its space. They then
activate, causing serious damage.
With the enemy
on their way, Lafiel enacts a daring plan to save her crew, and stop the
space mines. If she fails, the entire crew will die.
DVD
VISION TEST
VIDEO:
The DVD quality is excellent. The CG elements move smoothly and are
breathtaking. With a lot of dark blues, you would worry about
pixels. There are none to see. This is a solid
transfer.
AUDIO: A bit of a shock. The Japanese 2.0 audio is louder and
clearer than the English track. The sound is
crisp and rich. The English track still good, but it is a little softer
and not as clear. The dialogue and music came from the front speakers
of our Altec Lansing stereo system, with background sfx from the sides.
EDITS: No edits have been made. This is clean and
un-cut. Even the open and close are the original.
EXTRAS: Text "newsletter" from the writer of the novels,
Hiroyuki Morioka and a gallery of character line art. Oh, and a reversible cover!
WIDESCREEN
REVIEW
STORY:
Whoa. Talk about your epics. Based of the very popular novels
Hiroyuki Morioka, Banner of the Stars is the "Legend of Galactic Heroes"
for the 21st century. Tsutomu Makiya and Yuchiro Takeda script is a
story of love, friendship, drama, and action. They also do a pretty
good job of keeping those of us who have not seen the first series, in the
know. The dialogue does have a pretentiousness to it, but they don't
overload it with hyperbole and rhetoric. This is a "Space
Opera" of the highest order.
ACTING: Again, another surprise, considering Bandai has some of the best
dubs out there. The Japanese cast is way better than the English
cast. The Japanese love "dorama", and some of the best performances
come from these types of stories. Ayoko Kawasumi spares us the
"cutesy" voice for Lafiel, and instead, gives us a strong young
woman. The rest of the cast is top notch, with the strong voice of Rika
Fukami as the impassive Admiral Spoor.
On the flip side, I
am not impressed with Jessica Yow's portrayal of Lafiel. It comes of
a little flat, and unemotional. I do like Keith Hamil as Samson, and
I prefer Matthew Erickson deeper voice for Jinto.
FAN SERVICE: Well, if you consider close shots of women in moderately
tight uniforms or low cut formal wear fan service, you got it. Oh,
there is a brief nude scene in episode 6!
CONCLUSION
Banner
of the Stars is a space opera, make no bones about it. In this volume, the
main characters take second stage to the politics of Operation Phantom
Flame. The internal strife, combined with a deadly new weapon, make
the future of the Abh military quite uncertain.
As
you can guess, there is a lot going on. For me to cover every major
and minor plot point would take hours. This is not an anime you can
jump into. You may have to watch this volume several times to catch
all of the sub plots. Naturally, most of the secondary plot points
directly relate to the main plot, Operation Phantom Flame.
I
think It's going to come down to which race is the better fighter.
For my money, it's the Triple Alliance. The Abh seem to be more
concerned with fighting a battle with "elegance" than actually
winning. Sure, they want to win, but not at the expense of aesthetics.
They also play by the rules.
The "Triple Alliance" don't play
by the rules at all. Down and dirty, combined with sheer numbers is
the way they fight. They also use underhanded tricks, like the dormant
mines. I can understand why the Abh are worried.
I
miss space battles in anime. Banner of the Stars brings
them in massive number, thanks to the wonder of CG animation. I hope that Banner of the Stars will inspire future writers
to include scenes with massive space fleet blowing the hell out of each
other!
While
the space ships looks awesome, the actual animation is a little on the
simple side. Not that it's bad, just plain. Also, there is way
too much blue for my taste. I am sure that there is a meaning to
using blue, but I could care less. With blue characters, blue ships,
blue space, It's just too much.
One
of the shining parts of this series continues to be the musical score by Katsuhisa
Hattori. I love his opening theme, very reminiscent of the theme
from "Star Trek Voyager". I could listen to it for
hours. I like his use of electric guitars and keyboards to infuse a
slight "rock" vibe into his majestic sound. While not as
prolific as Yoko Kanno, his score helps to get you into the mood of
things. I hope that I can get a copy of the soundtrack.
"Banner of the Stars"
continues to be one of the best space operas out there. I will be
getting the next volume as soon as I can!
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