 More classic SF fare here, as we approach the end of BotSII. Although I still find myself wishing there was more of Lafiel in this set of episodes...
See, the problem is that this story takes place mostly on the
surface of Lobnas II, which is pretty much Jinto's domain. Lafiel does
get some airtime, but it's fairly limited - especially by the standards
of Crest and Banner I. It's a sad state of affairs for Lafiel fanboys...
None of which is to say that this disc isn't as good as it could be - it's definitely worth watching.
Events on Lobnas II continue to spiral out of control - the inmates
from the Eastern & Central areas are openly rebelling, apparently
with help from a lot of the prison guards (we find out why they're
helping towards the end of the disc). The women from the Western area
are well aware what'll happen to them if the men get their way &
are desperate to get off the planet as quickly as possible - but events
aren't making that easy.
When Jinto is evenutally captured by the rebels, Lafiel is left in
an awkward position, and eventually ends up having to ask for help from
an unexpected quarter - Spoor.
Whaddya know - they can do ground-based action in this show, too,
although it's not on the same level of detail as the space combat
scenes from previous episodes. Jinto's trying his best to be of use to
the people on the ground - which gets him a telling-off from the
Administrative Director for trying to be a hero. You can't help but
think he should've listened when he ends up in the hands of Agnusson.
There's a feeling in places of Jinto being in over his head, yet
wanting to make sure that as far as he can, he'll make sure events turn
out alright. Sadly the room he has for maneuvering gets more and more
limited as time goes on.
There are 2 scenes on this disc which I have to flag as classics.
First, there's the explanation of Abh Hell. I won't spoil it, but yet
again we see that you really don't want to mess with the Abh.
Secondly, there's the conversation between Lafiel & Spoor, where
Spoor eventually agrees to commit her forces to what can only be a
losing battle. Both scenes are great examples of what BotS does
so well - moving a story & fleshing out characters and background
through the dialogue rather than the action of the story. Personally, I
love it.
Banner II is different in tone than it's predecessors -
mainly as it's mostly a land-based story & focusses more on Jinto
than the earlier stories. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I
haven't decided yet, but even if this were the poorest of the Crest / Banner
stories, it's still head & shoulders above most other SF anime
shows out there, and this disc just continues the trend. Well worth
it... |
