While both Seikai no Monshou and Senki were excellent series, to me it seemed like they still were missing something, and I don’t just mean Monshou’s disappointing finale. I still can’t exactly put my finger to it, but whatever it was: Seikai no Senki II has it. The third Seikai series more than surpasses its predecessors.
It doesn’t just take the best of the two prequels: the dialogue of Monshou and the combat of Senki. It also introduces a complete new layer: diplomacy. A huge part of this season is about the two lead characters, in charge of a planet full of prisoners that’s about to descend into a civil war. The planet’s political system consists out of four parties with all their own issues yet who have to live together somehow. I personally loved watching Jinto trying to save himself in this situation: his words suddenly carry the lives of tens of thousands.
The dialogue of Seikai no Monshou and Senki was already really good, but Senki II’s dialogue turns out even better. The creators put so much meaning in just about every sentence. Every sentence is spot-on, whether it’s about the characters in the series, or the politics. The scenario itself is also full of twists and turns that yet make full sense when put into the story itself.
The series thrusts us really in a world that neither the characters nor the audience knows anything about. It cleverly makes use of the fact that it’s already got 26 episodes of established characters, while at the same time it also delivers powerful new characters who are gripping and full of flaws from the beginning. While the first Seikai no Senki was generally very focused (it was very much a series about war), Senki II instead was about a whole array of stuff: it’s a very varied series in which one episode may be about politics on a small insignificant planet, the next about space battles, on to switch back to some banter between a bunch of army commanders. It covers the full spectrum. Seriously Sunrise: why don’t you make stuff like this anymore?
| Storytelling: | 10/10 – Perfectly paced, varied, hard-hitting; science-fiction at its finest. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – Terrific dialogue, both the old and new characters rock. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Excellent music. The graphics do what they need to do and nothing more. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – Excellent portrayal of an ongoing war on many different levels. |
Suggestions:
– Toward the Terra
– Hi no Tori – Uchuu-Hen
– Gasaraki
This one is another one of those hardly ever mentioned shows that normal Anime fans have no means of discovering unless they get an extremely strong recommendation from someone they respect (such as this blog).
Somehow while I understand it was the full intention of the author, the rest of the main cast gets left out of the action in this segment. I like it more when both Lafiel and Jinto do their thing – together.
Also Senki III the heroine gets breast inflation… (sigh)… why
It is such a sad thing to see Hiroyuki let go of this work. I eagerly anticipated the release of Sekai no Senki V, and its been six years since the wait has begun.
All I can say is that I was happy with the end of Sekai no Senki III since it was a very nice logical conclusion to series with Lafiel and Jinto cementing their relationship further.
Figures. With your warped tastes to give higher rank to the worst title of all four.
I found the dialogues in this show rather boring and pointless ( watched it quite some time ago, though), LotGH in comparison has much better dialogue. Of course this is just my opinion. 🙂
Actually, I’m not sure about whether or not I’d rather rank this show higher than any of the other parts of the franchise, considering it’s been a long time, but can sincerely say that I also enjoyed it.
But once again, I imagine that Sunrise would be willing to make more Crest/Banner of the Stars adaptations if the novelist had continued the novel series, but so far, like egress63 has commented, this seems to remain the main problem.
Seikai no Monshou/Senki is a beloved anime series. It might be relatively unknown to newer anime viewers just because of its age.
Seikai no Monshou is a character introduction tied into a basic adventure story.
Seikai no Senki I is primarily about the Ahb and Lafiel rather than war. Think about it, relatively little actually happens in the war itself, but we see a lot of Ahb characters in action. It uses the war as a way of providing insights about the Ahb. For example, consider Lafiel’s position in the empire, and how and where they are stationed in the war. Also, Jinto is in a pure support role.
Seikai no Senki II is focused on Jinto. It’s really a coming of age type story. Has to do with Jinto accepting his role, and gaining the maturity to acknowledge his relationship with Lafiel. It has the ‘trapped in darkness’ and ‘awaking to self’ part at the end.
I liked this installment better than all of the others in the series. While III had the potential to surpass it, you could tell the producers had to stuff an entire season’s worth of material into an hour, and as a result you don’t really get to enjoy the plot as much.
While overall I like the Seikai no Senki franchise, I think Monshou/Senki I had minor stuff that detracted a bit from fully enjoying the story (the ending for the former, and the series pacing for the latter). I feel Senki II got it all right, even though you don’t see Lafiel/Jinto together that much.
All of the Seikai series are great but I agree that this is the best one.
FERK YEARRRRR BANNER OF THE STARS!!
I totally remember watching this on Anime Unleashes back on TechTV. xDD
Thought I found the ship battles a bit… inattentive xD;
This one is my favourite amongst all Seikai series….
Can’t wait for Senki IV and more Seikai no Dansho adaptations!!!
Yeah idk. There are parts of II that really bother me a lot more than the other seasons. I don’t want to give many spoilers away, but I feel like the whole problem could’ve been avoided if Jinto wasn’t acting like a moron at times. That said the last few episodes of II ARE the best of the franchise, and they have great emotional impact.
This franchise is truly a great one. Rather than say one installment is better than the others, I would say that decision is dependent upon the type of show you enjoy most. Crest is a much more personal story, focusing on the principal couple. Banner 1 is the military story, it has a much larger scale, spanning star systems. I appreciate what Tzuge says above, that Banner 1 (Senki 1) is really about the Abh themselves, that makes sense, but it also is structured around the planning and execution of a single (large-scale) military strategy. Banner of 2 is the diplomatic installment; it also features Jinto. Unfortunately I haven’t seen Banner 3.
So, whereas I don’t know that the different installments stand on their own, I think it is fair to say, depending upon the type of story you like, you will prefer a different installment the most.