TL;DR I ramble on about an obscure sci-fi anime I love a bit too much and I'm too excited for this.
Yesterday, I found out that Funimation was re-releasing the entirety of Banner of the Stars (I'll call it Seikai no Senki from here on out) on DVD, and it comes out on December 4 this year. For Crest of the Stars (Seikai no Monshou), which comes before Seikai no Senki, it's 13 episodes plus an OVA for about $35... Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, that's how it goes, because that series is 13 episodes long. Seikai no Senki, however, is a bit more bang for your buck, $42 for Seikai no Senki I (13 episodes), Seikai no Senki II (10 episodes), and the two-episode OVA Seikai no Senki III. So about $80 for 39 episodes that spans 3 series. It's... I'll live with it, the original 2006 DVD releases are all separated and don't have the OVAs, and are probably about $120.
So you might be wondering, what exactly IS Seikai no Senki? It's a sci-fi anime, taking place far into the distant future where humans have perfected space travel. For millennia, the Landers (regular humans, often living on planets) and the Abh (human subspecies derived from the Landers, built for space travel) have had a contentious relationship, with minor skirmishes here and there, and the fragile peace came to a violent end when an Abh patrol ship, the Gosroth, was destroyed in a battle.
The series follows two characters, a Lander nobleman named Jinto, and an Abh girl named Lafiel. Of course, Lafiel's not just any Abh girl, she's an imperial princess, in line to the throne of the Abh Empire, her grandmother being the current Empress. Seikai no Monshou is about when the two met and the first few days of the war after the Gosroth was destroyed. Also, a maid rebellion happens at one point. Seikai no Senki takes place 3 years after that, where Lafiel is now captain of her own ship, the Basroil, and Jinto's right by her side as her supply officer. Seikai no Senki II is a bit slow, a bit more political, where the two are ambassadors of the Empire to help resolve the issue of... I actually don't remember, something about evacuating the prisoners off the prison planet Lobnas II (I call it SPACE AUSTRALIA).
What exactly are the Abh? As I said earlier, they're a human subspecies, genetically engineered for space travel. They have blue hair (though green and purple, oddly enough, are also acceptable hair colors) and a special sensory organ on their foreheads. They also can't get drunk, and they live up to 200 years, but their appearance stops aging after 25. They also need to modify their genetics because their genes are rendered weak and fragile after millennia of doing so, and it's been specifically stated that they're descended from Japanese people. For the most part, they often use artificial wombs, so out pops the baby from the machine after 9 months. Hell, they even have their own language, Baronh, and there is an online dictionary somewhere.
Just... gods. I love this anime so much. It's so underrated, and I don't get why. Yes, the animation style is a bit dated, but the art holds up well, I think, and the music is so beautiful and the story is wonderful. The anime series are based off a series of novels by Morioka Hiroyuki, and the novels have actually revived interest in the sci-fi genre in Japan. But with this re-release, I hope there's enough interest renewed in the series to get Seikai no Senki IV, V, and VI adapted, but I'm not very optimistic on that. Just one caveat if you watch... don't watch the English dub, please. It's... clunky is being generous. Awful is more accurate, and that's even compared to other bad English dubs, too. If you made it this far, thanks for being patient with me, lmao. It's always such a shame that this anime doesn't get enough love.
Yesterday, I found out that Funimation was re-releasing the entirety of Banner of the Stars (I'll call it Seikai no Senki from here on out) on DVD, and it comes out on December 4 this year. For Crest of the Stars (Seikai no Monshou), which comes before Seikai no Senki, it's 13 episodes plus an OVA for about $35... Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, that's how it goes, because that series is 13 episodes long. Seikai no Senki, however, is a bit more bang for your buck, $42 for Seikai no Senki I (13 episodes), Seikai no Senki II (10 episodes), and the two-episode OVA Seikai no Senki III. So about $80 for 39 episodes that spans 3 series. It's... I'll live with it, the original 2006 DVD releases are all separated and don't have the OVAs, and are probably about $120.
So you might be wondering, what exactly IS Seikai no Senki? It's a sci-fi anime, taking place far into the distant future where humans have perfected space travel. For millennia, the Landers (regular humans, often living on planets) and the Abh (human subspecies derived from the Landers, built for space travel) have had a contentious relationship, with minor skirmishes here and there, and the fragile peace came to a violent end when an Abh patrol ship, the Gosroth, was destroyed in a battle.
The series follows two characters, a Lander nobleman named Jinto, and an Abh girl named Lafiel. Of course, Lafiel's not just any Abh girl, she's an imperial princess, in line to the throne of the Abh Empire, her grandmother being the current Empress. Seikai no Monshou is about when the two met and the first few days of the war after the Gosroth was destroyed. Also, a maid rebellion happens at one point. Seikai no Senki takes place 3 years after that, where Lafiel is now captain of her own ship, the Basroil, and Jinto's right by her side as her supply officer. Seikai no Senki II is a bit slow, a bit more political, where the two are ambassadors of the Empire to help resolve the issue of... I actually don't remember, something about evacuating the prisoners off the prison planet Lobnas II (I call it SPACE AUSTRALIA).
What exactly are the Abh? As I said earlier, they're a human subspecies, genetically engineered for space travel. They have blue hair (though green and purple, oddly enough, are also acceptable hair colors) and a special sensory organ on their foreheads. They also can't get drunk, and they live up to 200 years, but their appearance stops aging after 25. They also need to modify their genetics because their genes are rendered weak and fragile after millennia of doing so, and it's been specifically stated that they're descended from Japanese people. For the most part, they often use artificial wombs, so out pops the baby from the machine after 9 months. Hell, they even have their own language, Baronh, and there is an online dictionary somewhere.
Just... gods. I love this anime so much. It's so underrated, and I don't get why. Yes, the animation style is a bit dated, but the art holds up well, I think, and the music is so beautiful and the story is wonderful. The anime series are based off a series of novels by Morioka Hiroyuki, and the novels have actually revived interest in the sci-fi genre in Japan. But with this re-release, I hope there's enough interest renewed in the series to get Seikai no Senki IV, V, and VI adapted, but I'm not very optimistic on that. Just one caveat if you watch... don't watch the English dub, please. It's... clunky is being generous. Awful is more accurate, and that's even compared to other bad English dubs, too. If you made it this far, thanks for being patient with me, lmao. It's always such a shame that this anime doesn't get enough love.
