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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 21 November 2006 00:00 |
 The final volume of Crest of the Stars, and an emergency landing leaves Lafiel and Jinto on a planetary surface - very much not Lafiel's territory, and suddenly Jinto finds himself in charge, while the local United Mankind militia try to track them down. Above the surface, meanwhile, battle is joined as the Abh fleet arrives...
9 - To the Battlefield
The ambassadors for the other human nations appear before the Abh empress, who is in no mood for threats or negotiations and immediately declares war. Meanwhile, Lafiel and Jinto leave the Febdash territory to continue their mission to Sufugnoff. On approach to the Sufugnoff gate, they detect a number of space-time clusters - enemy ships, part of a United Mankind fleet blockading the planet. Even after running the blockade, Lafiel finds that the planet has already fallen to the attacking fleet - leaving her and Jinto short of options. With no fuel to fly to another Abh base, Jinto suggests landing on the planet, where for the first time Lafiel, for all her knowledge of life in space, becomes dependent on her Lander friend...
10 - Escape: Just the Two of Us
When the Abh go to war, they do it in style - and with victory the only option. Led by Admiral Trife, the fleet begins preparations for the first counter-attack against the United Mankind. Down on Sufugnoff, meanwhile, Lafiel's having trouble coming to terms with life on the surface, and with having to rely on someone else in a situation where she's out of her depth. Jinto decides they should head for a town and try to hole up there until they can find a way off the planet, but with the United Mankind now in control and hunting down any Abh sympathisers, Lafiel's appearance is like to cause more than a few problems...
11 - Sufugnoff Gateway Battle
As Trife's fleet approaches Sufugnoff, they detect the first members of the United Mankind fleet. Although originally keen for a battle, seeing the UM ships fail to run away at his first appearance leaves him a little unsure of what course of action to take. Down on the surface, Kyte receives a tip-off on the location of his fugitive Abhs, while Lafiel fills Jinto in on a little Abh history...
12 - Lady of Chaos
Spoor and her attack group become the first of the Abh to engage the United Mankind fleet - although to listen to her, you'd think it was just another dull afternoon, she treats the enemy with such disdain. For Admiral Trife, the battle soon becomes a contest with Spoor to see who can have the most fun with the enemy. Down on the planet, the United Mankind finally catch up with Lafiel and her Independence Party captors / friends - but Lafiel's not about to give up without a fight...
13 - Trouble Soaring Through Heaven
Jinto and Lafiel emerge from the caves into a theme park, where the park's mechanical mascots - programmed to apprehend any non-paying visitors - are just the first of the problems they have to deal with, as Kyte and Entryua are also hot on their trail. With the Abh fleet already arriving above the planet, capturing Lafiel and Jinto is more a matter of principle than anything else for Entryua, but Kyte's own prejudices about the Abh are about to become a problem. In the end, the independence fighters come to their rescue again, and the priority becomes finding a way to get off the planet...
A sizeable chunk of this disc is given over to events in space, where it quickly begins to look as though the other human nations, led by the United Mankind, may have bitten off more than they can chew by antagonising the Abh, who are very much inclined to make sure they never get the opportunity to annoy them again. There are two main characters on this side of the story - Admiral Trife, the man in charge but who doesn't really seem to have much in the way of tactical nous, and Rear-Admiral Spoor, who has a lot of fun at her crews' expense but is more than competent in the field - and hides a rather ruthless streak under her calm exterior.
One thing that stands out here is that I've yet to see an Abh who could be considered entirely sane - they all have some aspect to their personality that's just a little bit unhinged (even Lafiel - just watch her reactions when someone truly angers her). That's a large part of what makes them so appealing as characters, I think, and definitely one of the show's stronger points.
We also get the first major engagement of the series here. The Gosroth's destruction earlier in the series gave a little taster of how Crest of the Stars handles space combat, but that was a one-sided skirmish which what we get here is on a much larger scale. Most of episode 11 is given over to portraying the battle for the Sufugnoff gate and is suitably epic in feel - fans of space combat will have very little to complain about here.
Things get complicated very quickly for Lafiel and Jinto - as well as having to evade capture by United Mankind forces, led by the obsessive Inspector Kyte, they also have a run-in with the local independence movement, who recognise Lafiel as royalty and hope to make use of her status in advancing their cause. There's quite a bit of fun had here, as Lafiel tries (and fails) to adjust to life on the surface, and reacts badly to Jinto's plans to make her look less Abh-like. There are moments, though, when the pair are genuinely in danger, so there's some good tension in proceedings too as their pursuers get closer and closer to them.
The final episode of the series is double-length, and covers a lot of ground in terms of both tying up the series storylines, and in providing "where are they now" segments for most of the characters that Lafiel and Jinto met during their little adventure. Crest of the Stars is perhaps different in that it's lead characters are never really the heroes, they're just caught up in events around them and reacting to them as best they can. Instead, the appeal of the series comes from Lafiel and Jinto's relationship, which is seen to grow throughout the series and eventually becomes something that could well be described as some form of love - even though neither of them would openly admit it in quite those terms. The space scenes with Spoor and Trife provide a break from the heavier character moments and are almost a separate story that helps paint the backdrop to the events that Lafiel and Jinto take part in.
I've been a fan of Crest of the Stars since the first moment I saw it, and seeing it again here hasn't done anything to dampen my enthusiasm for it. It's richly-developed world and multi-layered characters create a series that simply draws you in, and it's very easy to just forget about time passing while you watch. The episodes tie up the series in a very satisfying way, and while Beez's release does have one or two minor niggles I still can't recommend it enough.
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