Banner of the Stars III - question about fansubs

psicic

I'd forgotten all about the 'Banner of the Stars' series of anime (Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars I and Banner of the Stars II) until I came accross some old DVDs yesterday. I remember the series being very good. Think Military/Sci-Fi Otaku mixed with strong character development and 'Space Soap-Opera' elements! Yay! What more do you want?!:p

I know there was an additional 'Crest of Stars' OAV and that's still not licenced. Anyone know of any group that subbed it?

Likewise, there's apparantly a true sequel OAV released last year called, unsurprisingly, 'Banner of the Stars III'. Again, it's not licenced yet. Anyone know of any reviews of this? Anyone know of any group that subbed it?

Thanks

sharingan

There was a Crest of the Stars special, that was a digest of the original TV series plus about 25 minutes of added footage that brought it up to threatrical length. It was never fansubbed or licensed, the only version around is a horrificly babelfished HK version.

Banner of the Stars III was fansubbed by [ANBU] and should still be available.
I am not overly impressed with the translation (it preserves Engrish, and ignores accepted translations for the Bahroin language).

It was a good chapter, though I wish there was more of it.

psicic

Thanks for that.:)

Downloaded and watched it. Yeah, the translations were a bit off-putting, but not the biggest letdown. The whole OAV felt a bit rushed, given the pace of the preceeding series.

There was enough story to stretch things out for a good 8, if not 13 episodes, with proper development of things on Martine and so on(vague to avoid spoilers). A lot was kind of skipped over and we didn't get to see any of the on-going 'Operation Hunter' ops.

I know, I know, it's all supposed to be about Lafiel (and, for now, Jinto), but even the 'relationship' bits felt rushed.

Still, overall it was a good - albeit too brief - dip back into the 'Seikai' universe. I, for one, hope they make number 'IV' a proper series or 6 part OAV - there seems to be a lack of good Space-soap-opera/military battle these days. :rolleyes:

sharingan

psicic wrote:

Thanks for that.:)

Downloaded and watched it. Yeah, the translations were a bit off-putting, but not the biggest letdown. The whole OAV felt a bit rushed, given the pace of the preceeding series.

It was originally planned to be a 6 episode OVA, but they cut it down to two episodes. I think the justification was that the third Banner novel didn't have enough material that would drive sales at an OVA level. Basically not enough action.

This is the part of the book where Jinto reaches his crossroads and must make hard decisions about his future. in fact there is no turning back for him - rather poignant actually.

I don't know what book 4 is like, but I gather that the war heats up perhaps.

psicic wrote:

Still, overall it was a good - albeit too brief - dip back into the 'Seikai' universe. I, for one, hope they make number 'IV' a proper series or 6 part OAV - there seems to be a lack of good Space-soap-opera/military battle these days. :rolleyes:

I thought the character stuff was very solid, but it always is in this series. I would prefer that any followup series is made into TV anime myself.

As for the whole space stuff, I recently finished Starship Operators and thought it was very enjpyable. Not in the same league as the Seikai series though. A friend of mine has been urging me to get into Legend of the Galactic Heroes too, but I will wait until the fansubbers have completed it. I have watched some Galaxy Express in the past too, and I really wish that someone fansubbed that quicker - that was excellent stuff. I never got into Space Battleship Yamato but I was impressed with how watchable it was for something of its age, and I admired how it left its imprint on the genetic code of all Space Opera that followed it. I get the feeling that Irresponsible Captain Tylor might be something to my liking, as its touted as being similar to Patlabor which I loved.

Not space opera, but hard sci-fi, there is the modern classic of Planetes. Honourable mention to Kurau: ~Phantom Memory~

The one thing that rings true is that Space Opera, once a staple of the anime industry, and a contributer to many of the classics is now a forgotten genre. A couple of shows a year at best.