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Seikai Trilogy [Manga] #2
Banner of the Stars
Having escaped from the planet Sufugnoff, Lafiel now commands her own assault ship. As she deals with the pressures of leading her crew, Jinto tries to prove his worth to the empire as the ship's supply officer. Illustrations.
200 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
did-not-finish
May 7, 2017Ew. Sorry not sorry. I can't do this. It's to confusing & the art style is much to cutesy for a story that's supposed to be about big awesomeness interplanetary wars with super humans. :/ it want more drama & darkness. Not two kids making goo-goo eyes at each other.
& if this is supposed to be 3 years after book one, the characters sure haven't aged much. :(
Plus, again, I'm bombarded with crazy made up words & terms that to nothing but distract from the story.
God, what a waste of $13! :( oh well. I didn't by them all new, so at least there's good news there. & I can at least trade the train wrecks of "books" in for store credit at the used place.
& if this is supposed to be 3 years after book one, the characters sure haven't aged much. :(
Plus, again, I'm bombarded with crazy made up words & terms that to nothing but distract from the story.
God, what a waste of $13! :( oh well. I didn't by them all new, so at least there's good news there. & I can at least trade the train wrecks of "books" in for store credit at the used place.
October 7, 2018
In this installment, Jinto and Lafiel have finished their three-year schooling and are ready to embark with their own ship (Lafiel as captain, Jinto as her chosen supply officer) with their first mission in the on-going war between the Abh and the United Mankind. There are of course surprises on this mission, including meeting the sister of the man Lafiel was forced to kill in the first book, and battles which will test Lafiel’s will and ability to command as well as Jinto’s skills and training – and of course their relationship with each other.
In all honesty, I was reading this book to get it done—the space war aspect of it just does not carry enough weight for me to care much, and the use of Abh words is overused even though I did know to check them against the glossary in the back. One such example is when they use the Abh word for “battle” instead of just writing “battle” – there is no reason to substitute in a made-up word for such a common word. The times where they use Abh vocabulary for the aspects of space travel are understandable, as it fits in with the world. But using these random Abh words just to use them, when we already figure the characters are speaking Abh or some other foreign language, is completely unnecessary. Unrelatedly, there is also a lot more visual fan-service shots (yes, even more so than the help the deceased brother kept around him in the previous book), which throw this book much more firmly in the category of being written/drawn for a male gaze, or at least for people who like to see over-exaggerated breasts in various states of being covered or not in greater detail than necessary.
On the plus side, at least this book had some better messages worked in to it, notably when Lafiel and Jinto are asked by the above-mentioned sister to remember her deceased brother by joining her for dinner. Lafiel understands it as a duty to mourn his death, and we have this poignant observation that occurs:
Additionally, we get to see more of how Jinto supports and helps Lafiel, and how she also supports and helps him, too – they are given equal ground from which to work, each from his or her strengths, and neither is portrayed as inferior or superior overall to the other. They complement each other nicely in abilities and in respect. But this is not enough to carry the book, or even the series, when there is so much else that is sub-par/not enjoyable/interesting to me. I will read the third book just because it is the last one and won’t take me long to read, then the series is done, and I can give it all away without any regrets.
In all honesty, I was reading this book to get it done—the space war aspect of it just does not carry enough weight for me to care much, and the use of Abh words is overused even though I did know to check them against the glossary in the back. One such example is when they use the Abh word for “battle” instead of just writing “battle” – there is no reason to substitute in a made-up word for such a common word. The times where they use Abh vocabulary for the aspects of space travel are understandable, as it fits in with the world. But using these random Abh words just to use them, when we already figure the characters are speaking Abh or some other foreign language, is completely unnecessary. Unrelatedly, there is also a lot more visual fan-service shots (yes, even more so than the help the deceased brother kept around him in the previous book), which throw this book much more firmly in the category of being written/drawn for a male gaze, or at least for people who like to see over-exaggerated breasts in various states of being covered or not in greater detail than necessary.
On the plus side, at least this book had some better messages worked in to it, notably when Lafiel and Jinto are asked by the above-mentioned sister to remember her deceased brother by joining her for dinner. Lafiel understands it as a duty to mourn his death, and we have this poignant observation that occurs:
Additionally, we get to see more of how Jinto supports and helps Lafiel, and how she also supports and helps him, too – they are given equal ground from which to work, each from his or her strengths, and neither is portrayed as inferior or superior overall to the other. They complement each other nicely in abilities and in respect. But this is not enough to carry the book, or even the series, when there is so much else that is sub-par/not enjoyable/interesting to me. I will read the third book just because it is the last one and won’t take me long to read, then the series is done, and I can give it all away without any regrets.
August 13, 2017
This volume focuses on the relationship between Lafiel and Jinto, the main characters. Lafiel is Abh, while Jinto is a human coming from one of the worlds the Abh has conquered. They are friends in spite of this and also in defiance of their very different stations of life and cultures. Not much space battling happens in this story and for some reason, the Abh are shown to lose battles a lot yet are still winning the war against the humans...hmm. I would also think that Jinto should be more conflicted about being a collaborator...his father may have given up control of the planet he oversaw for the humans to the Abh, but Jinto did not associate with the Abh until he finished school and went off on his military tour with the Abh. I suppose that Jinto just really, really likes Lafiel and Lafiel can let her hair down around him. This is the only good part of the story.
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August 20, 2009The Shape of Bonds (Seikai Trilogy, Vol. 2: Banner of the Stars) by Toshihiro Ono (2004)
August 16, 2010
Like the previous volume, this volume is rushed and doesn't take the amount of time with the story or characters that the anime did, but the art is good and the book is overall a decent read.
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