Banner of the Stars II: Protecting the Precious (Seikai Trilogy #3) (Manga Monday on Thursday!)

March 5, 2015January 21, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ Leave a comment

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Title: Banner of the Stars II: Protecting the Precious

Series: Seikai Trilogy

Author & Artist: Hiroyuki Morioka & Wasoh Miyakoshi

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Manga

Pages: 248

Synopsis:

Jinto and Lafiel are working on the new Basroil and their assignment takes them to the fringes of the continued war with the United Mankind.

They are to evacuate a planet, only it turns out it is a prison planet and various factions are claiming to be in charge.

Jinto must therefore head planet side to sort everything out. And nothing goes right. Eventually Lafiel must choose between her duty and her feelings.

My Thoughts:

The artist changed, so the artwork was different and I have to say, I was not a fan of that change. Also, there were a couple of instance of fan service that just didn’t need to be there.

Storywise, I didn’t feel like things really took off until Jinto and Lafiel got to Lobnos II, which was quite a ways into the book. All the other stuff dealing with Lafiel’s brother and other Abh felt extremely extraneous and superfluous. It was fluff.

But, when things went South and Lafiel had to make the tough decisions, it was well done. Also, things didn’t end as I was expecting since this was a manga and my recollections of the anime were pretty fuzzy, but it was a good ending and I enjoyed it. I really wish more of the anime existed, so I could watch it, but such is life.

Banner of the Stars: The Shape of Bonds (Seikai Trilogy #2) (Manga Monday)

February 23, 2015January 7, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ Leave a comment

Title: Banner of the Stars: The Shape of Bonds

Series: Seikai Trilogy #2

Author & Artist: Hiroyuki Morioka, Toshihiro Ono

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Genre: Manga

Pages: 200

Synopsis:

3 years after Crest of the Stars, Lafiel has command of her first ship and Jinto is the Abh equivalent of First Mate. The United Mankind is still kicking so the War Machines of both nations gear up and things start to heat up.

It is testing time for Lafiel and Jinto, to see if the years of training have paid off.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this volume a little bit more than the previous book, but I suspect that is because it was shorter and didn’t have as much ground to cover as the first volume.

I think there was more Abh talk/terms than in the previous one, but since they were referring to military ranks, ships, missiles, etc, it really didn’t matter to me because something is either a person, a ship, a missile or a laser to me.

I wouldn’t recommend this except to die hard fans because so much that makes Banner of the Stars an exceptionable anime is cut out here to make things fit. I don’t regret buying this,not at all and I did enjoy it, but it is more for Completeness’s sake than anything else.

From a librarian standpoint, it was interesting to discover that there are two ‘potential’ covers. This one you see and then another with Admiral Spoor naked on the cover. I suspect though that the cover of Spoor was something put out by Tokyopop before the actual release and it never made it to paper. One little stone in the avalanche that brought them down.

And just for completist’s sake, here’s the alternate cover, that I can’t find verification of on paper, only digitally. You can see why Tokyopop might not have released this, as this series was aimed at teens [and their parents who did the actual buying]. This picture IS the front page of the volume I have, but in black and white. And that folks, is what is called gratuitous fan-service.

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Crest of the Stars (Seikai Trilogy #1) (Manga Monday)

February 16, 2015November 5, 2022 ~ Bookstooge ~ 1 Comment

Title: Crest of the Stars

Series: Seikai Trilogy #1

Author & Artist: Hiroyuki Morioka, Aya Yoshinaga, Toshihiro Ono

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Genre: Manga

Pages: 260

Synopsis:

Jinto’s father, former Governer, surrenders to the Abh and becomes royalty. Jinto is schooled in the life of the Abh and then sent on to their capital for further schooling. He is taken under wing by young Lafiel, who is in direct line to ascend to the Throne of the Abh.

War breaks out between the Abh and the rest of humanity and this causes Jinto and Lafiel to have several adventures.

My Thoughts:

Having read this back in ’07, I wanted to finish the trilogy, as I was never able to get my hands on the next 2 books.

One thing that is slightly confusing is that there is a trilogy of Light novels also called the Seikai trilogy. And it is the same characters.

Not having watched the anime recently, like I had previously, I was able to judge this better on its own instead of propping it up with the anime [which I just love and think is the best thing ever]. It actually stands up really well. The plot is abbreviated and the subtleties are really gone, but I already noted that in my previous review. In some ways, the shortness benefits the manga. If it was too much longer, it couldn’t have really fit into one volume. And that is the thing, this is simply ONE story, about Jinto making it to the Capital and making friends with Lafiel.

It is a good backup to the anime and I am glad I own these.

Crest of the Stars

June 5, 2007November 5, 2022 ~ Bookstooge ~ Leave a comment

Crest of the Stars
Seikai Trilogy #1
Hiroyuki Morioka
manga
245 pages

this was the manga adaptation of the anime by the same name. So pack 13 episodes into one manga and this is what you get. But considering, they did a bloody fine job! The only complaints I have are that there was a bit more fanservice in the Baron Febdash arc & most of the nuances of the Human/Abh differences simply could not be shown. Watch the anime, if you like it, you’ll like the manga.