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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Saturday, 08 July 2006 00:00 |
 Never anger an Abh. It's a theme that plays out right across the Crest of the Stars / Banner of the Stars series, and this volume has the first example of just why you shouldn't, as the Baron Febdash - an Abh with an inferiority complex - does a stellar job of annoying royalty. Royally. Before that, though, there's the small matter of the beginning of a major interstellar war to deal with. Sit back, and enjoy the fireworks...
5 - The Battle of Gosroth
While Jinto and Lafiel make their way towards friendly territory, the Gosroth prepares for battle against the oncoming United Mankind fleet. With the odds tilted heavily against them, Captain Lexshue does what she can to gain any sort of advantage, but despite the best efforts of her and her crew, their battle looks set to be in vain as the United Mankind ships draw closer...
6 - Mysterious Conspiracy
Lafiel and Jinto arrive at the territory of Baron Febdash - a remote outpost, with only gas giant planets and a fuel resupply station. It's the fuel that Lafiel's after as she attempts to get to Sufugnoff with her warning of the United Mankind's attack, but once the Baron realises he has an imperial princess on his hands, he sees an opportunity to improve his own standing and does his best to delay her. As for Jinto, he may as well be a lower life form...
7 - Fortunate Revolt
Jinto awakes to find himself in the company of the Baron's father, Sluf. As a consequence of his son's distaste for landers, he'd been confined to his own area of the palace for some time, and now Jinto has joined him. Keen to continue with her mission and more than a little enraged at the Baron's scheming & treatment of Jinto, Lafiel looks for a way to free Jinto, but soon finds she can't do it without help..
8 - The Way of the Abh
With Seelnay and some of his other vassals having opted to side with Lafiel, the Baron has to quickly find a way to prevent Lafiel and Jinto - together his one hope of avoiding being conquered by the United Mankind - from leaving his domain, but as if a rebellion amongst his vassals wasn't enough for him to deal with, Febdash now has another problem: Lafiel now very much wants him dead, and the Abh aren't retiscent about following through on such desires...
Sometimes the best episodes are the hardest ones to really write about, and so it is here. This volume of Crest of the Stars gets off to a flying start with the first deep-space battle of the series, and it's presented in a way that will keep you glued to the screen, capturing a lot of the feel of high-stakes combat without minimising or hiding the human cost of it. Good stuff, and a complete contrast to the rest of the disc - both in terms of pace, and in the absence of Lafiel and Jinto, who dominate the rest of the story.
That's not to say that the remaining three episodes aren't without their action moments - Lafiel does provoke the Baron's vassals to revolt, after all - but it's not really the focus of things. Instead, we get a lot of the verbal sparring that Crest does so well, both in a joking fashion between Lafiel and Jinto, and in an altogether more serious way between Lafiel and the Baron. There's a line that you really don't want to cross with Lafiel, and it's made very clear here when he crosses it and Lafiel produces her trademark angry look - and from that point on, the Baron's fate is pretty much sealed.
The only problem here is that the adventures of Lafiel and Jinto feel like a sidestory to what should be the main event - the war - but that's something we'll just have to get used to. The real story with Crest is the growing friendship (or more?) between Lafiel and Jinto, with the greater events being just background to the story and a way to keep them together. I can see how some may not appreciate that, or have a hard time with the extensive talking scenes here, but for me there are very few shows that can remotely hold a candle to Crest of the Stars in terms of keeping me watching. Very highly recommended.
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