Well, since the poll was a failure anyway, I decided to experiment a bit. For the past five hours there was this cryptic link to a poll with four options. What I basically did was pick out four series that were recommended, which fit the criteria and seemed the most interesting, and labelled them as Contemporary Fantasy (Windy Tales), Mecha (Innocent Venus), Comedy (The Great Horror Family) and Science Fiction (this one). It was an interesting experiment, to see what people would vote for when they had no idea what they voted for. Especially how almost nobody voted for mecha or comedy.
In any case, I’ll be blogging this series for the coming season, even though it aired more than a decade ago. The rest of this season is just too dry to find 12 bloggable series, especially after blogging Kimi ni Todoke turned out to be a failure.
In any case, I’m impressed. This episode on paper would have been nothing special: there’s this big galactic empire that invades planets and Earth (or Martine in this case) happens to be one of them. Oh, and democracy seems to be abolished and the monarchy is back, so that the lead character can call himself the next in line for the throne at such a young age.
But the way that this episode described the take-over from the galactic empire was what impressed me. It offered a detailed back-story. It’s not just a simple case of “they were too strong, we couldn’t stop them!”, but the humans themselves, especially their president also screwed up big-time, and they could have actually won if it wasn’t for his actions. The betrayal of this guy will probably come as an interesting backstory, later in the series.
I really needed to see some parts of this episode twice in order to fully understand what happened. Certain characters appear before they’re introduced properly, which made following the first half of this episode quite difficult. For example, at the beginning of the episode there was this woman who was searching for Jinto, the lead character. Why was he running away?
Sunrise really was an excellent production-company around the times that this series was produced. It came with tons of creative and interesting premises, and I just can’t help but think that they dulled in for the past five years, perhaps with the exception of Gintama and Bakumatsu
Rating: ** (Excellent)
excellent choice for scifi. maybe it was good that you didn’t choose Aria. that show isn’t meant for episodeic blogging anyway.
Glad to see I at least piqued your interest with Great Horror Family. If you ever have a chance to check it out, I highly recommend doing so – even if you don’t blog it episodically, I’d love to see your take on the series as a whole. It’s really very good, especially the last story arc (the last four episodes, and the ending, are nothing short of brilliance!).
I like sci-fi a lot, though, and probably would’ve voted accordingly, had I seen your poll in time. So I’m intrigued by your final choice. (:
-Tom
hmm, I don’t really like sci-fi, so I probably won’t follow this one, but I hope you can at least watch Koi Kaze, Aria , Monster, NANA etc someday , ( all the series that are probably annoying you with everyone saying you must watch it 😛 ) Hope to see your thoughts on it someday anyhow!
Argh, I literally just finished watching this! If you’d announced this a week earlier I’d have been a happy man. Oh well.
Are you going to blog the later seasons as well if you like this one?
thestation, Sekai is at least as much a love story as much as a sci-fi story.
I hate sci-fi, but loved Sekai for that very reason. It provided me with an approachable window into the sci-fi world.
Looking forward to this blog series. And i hope you eventually continue with the rest of the series, beyond the first “season”.
Nice choice the whole crest of the stars and banner of the stars series is an old favorite of mine.
Ah a friend made me watch this series earlier this year. Wonderful anime, its got so much depth – think you’ll enjoy it. This season is a great chance to catch up on older classics, I’ll be doing the same.
Nooooooooo!!!!!
I discourage you from watching Innocent Venus.
I suggest Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket or Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team.
But I like your choice of Seikai no Monshou. I loved this series so much I rewatched it a few times.
Yes, awesome, I love this series and I’ll bet you like it too, since you like character development so much. Too bad the sequels aren’t as good though.
And Legend of the Galactic Heroes beats this by a million miles. But then again, it beats any series by a million miles.
Hmm, seems like you got the wrong idea about some of the few story premises in the show, I’ll try to clear up some of them without spoilers 🙂
“Galactic empire invades planets/Earth, democracy abolished, main character being next in line for the throne”
The Abh Empire is just one of five human factions that are left. Due to relativity(the colony ship that settled on Martine traveled via sublight iirc), Martine itself wasn’t settled all that long ago, hence their low level of technology. As for the heir thing, the Lin family is officially made into a noble family, with Martine being their earldom by the Abh when they took over, hence why Jinto became the heir.
“the people of Martine could’ve won if the President didn’t betray them”
Actually, the Abh could’ve easily annihilated Martine if they so wished, their technology level isn’t even remotely close. The Abh isn’t interested in governing the planets, their primary interest is securing the interstellar trade routes. Jinto’s father didn’t so much screw up, but rather was rather shrewed in his political maneuvering.
The women looking for Jinto at the beginning is Teal’s wife, who’s been looking after Jinto since his mother died. And IIRC, Jinto wasn’t running away, but rather got lost during the commotion? it’s been awhile since I last read the novels 😛
Saw this on TV a few years ago, I’m surprised they thought it had an audience lol. It is a very intelligent and refreshing show, hopefully people will pick up the series along with you. the sequel to the series is a little bit better though.
While I don’t comment on blogs, seeing Innocent Venus spurred me to post. You definately dodged a bullet with nobody voting on mecha. Based on the first episode, Innocent Venus had claimed my pick for best show of the season. And then, the creators seemed to forget what show they were making, and despite a two week break in the airing they never recovered.
I forgot about the show until midway through Kurenai that it occured to me that the two titles were done by the same studio with largely the same setup: randomly important little girl that requires protecting by a good natured guy. But, while Kurenai was graced by a strong vocal performance for Murasaki and great animation style, Innocent Venus had mediocre acting and animation all around.
As for the Contemporary Fantasy and Sci Fi choices, both are similar in the regard that the main premise aren’t the main draw of the series, especially in the case of Windy Tales. Windy Tales is a very standard slice of life involving a couple of high school students. While the characters do receive some slight wind powers, the only purpose the powers serve in the show is to appreciate the intrinsic beauty of the wind. Nevertheless the show was very relaxing, and the artstyle was rather striking, it was definitely one of my favorites.
Sekai no Monshou is also one of my long time favorites. The sci-fi and war elements often take center stage of the plot, but the show is really driven by the subtle character development. There’s just enough action to drive the characters closer together, but those looking for excitement in battles and conflict will be put off by this series. I think that’s the reason it escaped fairly unnoticed, despite being a very solid production from start to finish.
I’m happy that you’re blogging this one. ^^ I’ll watch along maybe, for I’ve been planning to see it.
Just put it in my queue. Looking forward to it.
I’m delighted you settled on blogging Seikai no Monshou. It is among my all-time favorites. Aside from the character development part which everyone before me mentioned, the viewer also gains a very detailed insight into the culture of the people; particularly the Abh culture, though not so for the rest of humanity. My advice for you is to not skip the intros in Seikai no Monshou, because they always have something new about the Abh culture to introduce, complete in the Abh language to boot. Very fascinating world- hmmm…galaxy-building in this series. You won’t be disappointed.
Even after a decade, it still has its own charm.
Innocent Venus is pretty awesome, ’tis a good choice. Probably one of the most underrated series of all time. People just don’t see that hidden gem inside of it.
Now this is quite a nice surprise, i did vote for sci-fi, but i was not sure what to expect.
I totally forgot about this series even if i did watch some episodes of it, but i stopped for some reason…anyway, glad you are blogging this anime.
Excellent show. Once you watch it you’ll feel compelled to watch the sequel seasons as well!
This is a pretty good series. The relationship between the two leads is the best part in my honest opinion.
Oh yay, i’m glad Innocent Venus was an option – I was the first to recommend it after all, haha.
As you said before, everyone has their own favorites that they just love. For you it is mahou shojotai. For me? It is none other than this series. This series is that awesome that I put it above the rest of the avant garde series that I watched.
Seikai no senki has four seasons: seikai no monrou and seikai no senki I – III. The first (crest of the star), the one that you are watching, is fair, but when it came to banner of the stars (seikai no senki I, its second season), well, things just don’t level anymore. I don’t even remember how many times I have watched it (the 2nd season, the first seikai no senki). I’d say that it is avant garde.
First thing first, though. This is a more of a SCI-FI DRAMA than an ACTION. The main charm of seikai no senki series is in its calm approach and the Abh’s philosophy, which manifested through the series and reach its final in the fourth season. And that I shouldn’t talk too much or it will spoil the rest of the season. People say that the series is _very_ slow, but I love it so much because of it. No superpower, no super robot, and in fact there is no single mecha. In Seikai no Senki, when the war in seikai no monroe escalated, things get even better. The lead characters are competent, but so does the rest of the crew, and so does every single one of the thousand fleet soldiers. The series was more of drama than action. I would love to discuss stuff with you if you get a chance to watch the rest.
The whole series is highly recommended. In my opinion, this is one of the better sci fi.
Hope I don’t spoil too much.
I just love to see that there are a lot of people that think the series are awesome, and stay loyal even after years!
I also like the way several people before me describe the series: intelligent and relaxing.
So while it is still very early since you are still watching the first episode of the first season, I do hope you will continue to the “second” season too.
psgels, you should actually keep in mind that this was based on a series of novels.
In other words, Sunrise did not come up with the premise but simply adapted it.
So what you should really point out is that the company would do well to try and do more adaptations these days. 😉
That said, I definitely liked this series and its follow-ups. It’s been years since I last saw any of them but they were all quite good in terms of creating an interesting setting and providing some nice character interactions. I hope you will eventually agree.
Crest of the Stars was shown here in local TV but since I had a busy schedule, I wasn’t able to watch a single episode. I heard it was good, though. I’m a little bit surprised that Innocent Venus sparked your interest. It was the one of the first DVD I owned and thought that the execution was lacking but overall, has its own charm. Although, you may not be able to blog it, I suggest you still watch IV.
If you ever don’t find a single show to blog in a season you could always watch ‘Legend of the Galactic Heroes’. There are more than 150 episodes and a few movies in total (main story is 110 eps and there isn’t a single filler episode, not kidding), and it blows Crest/Banner of the Stars out of the water.
OMG! Has it been over a decade since this came out! Am I that old!!! LOL! The Seikai series remains one of my favs after all these years. Glad you’re now watching it.
I’m glad you’ve decided to blog this series, I’ve been looking forward to reading what you think of it for quite some time. ^^
Definitely an excellent choice. This is a great, though somewhat basic, sci-fi series. Very good, nonetheless. I didn’t like the sequels as much, however. Hopely, you enjoy it while it last!
Very good choice. I’m glad this was the series that won that little poll. Will be interesting to see what you think of it as it goes along.
I’m watching this series now too… but does not seen to be comparable with The Legend of Galactic Heroes…
If you run out of animes next season, please, take a look at it…