The Seikai franchise has two OVAs, one that takes place after the three TV-series, and one prequel. While the former felt like the creators were stuffing an entire novel into just fifty minutes, the latter is an interesting little side-story. Like the title suggests, this isn’t about Lafiel, but instead about her parents.
This OVA works as a background OVA, telling a bit more about who Lafiel’s parents were (about which we were mostly left in the dark throughout the TV-series), but as a standalone short story it also works pretty well. It’s got a good atmosphere, and although it’s simple it’s well told and paced.
And of course, as expected from this series the dialogue is excellent. The characters are once again very eloquent and a lot of this OVA just consists out of Lafiel’s parents talking to each other. The script continues to be interesting and blend in well with the story that’s going on.
If you’re planning to watch this OVA, I’d recommend to at least watch it after watching the first half of the first season, otherwise it will lose some of its meaning. It’s a nice watch for any fan of the franchise, though.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,25/10
Seikai no Senki III was just one novel, but the original 45 min version was a tv special. The DVD release was 75 minutes long. The story is still very compressed, but the extra material was welcome.
As a big lover of this series (except the 3rd movie) why have I never heard of this prequal? has it never been subbed?
Watcherzero: it was actually released as a TV-special, after the first season finished airign and right before the second season premiered.
Several years have passed and to be quite honest I barely remember the details, which is why I won’t elaborate further, but at the time I was going through the rest of the related series it did give me the impression of being a nice piece of background material.
Ahh, looking it was released in 2000 but not subbed until 2008, after I had watched the other series.