Crest of the Stars

Crest of the Stars (Japanese: 星界の紋章, Hepburn: Seikai no Monshō) is a three-volume^[1] space opera science fiction novel written by Hiroyuki Morioka with cover illustrations by Toshihiro Ono. Beginning in 1999, the novels were adapted into anime series, the first of which ran for 13 episodes on WOWOW. The initial novel was followed by a second, ongoing novels series, Banner of the Stars (currently 5 volumes, aka Seikai no Senki), which was adapted into three sequel series to the anime—Banner of the Stars (13 episodes, aka Seikai no Senki), Banner of the Stars II (10 episodes, aka Seikai no Senki II) and both adapting the second novel, two recap movies—Crest of the Stars Special Edition and Banner of the Stars Special Edition, and an OVA Crest of the Stars Lost Chapter (aka Seikai no Danshō). The fourth anime series, adapting the third novel, Banner of the Stars III (aka Seikai no Senki III) is an OVA released in Japan in 2005.

Plot

Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars (series I and II) follow Jinto Lynn, a young count whose world is taken over by the space-dwelling race of the Abh. When Jinto was a young boy, his father, Rock Lynn, under threat of invasion, handed over their world, Martine, to the Abh in exchange for a position within Abh society. Young Jinto is sent off to school to learn the ways of Abh nobility and the story of Crest of the Stars picks up as he meets the young Abh princess, Lafiel as they are about to travel to military school for Jinto's further training.

However, in the midst of their travels, Lafiel and Jinto (along with the Abh ship Gothlauth, aka Gosroth) find themselves at the very beginnings of a war between the Abh Empire and the Four Nations Alliance of humankind—an anti-Abh alliance of the democratic nations of the United Mankind, the Federation of Hania, the Republic of Greater Alcont, and the People's Sovereign Union of Planets.

Development

The series, both the anime and novels, are notable for the fact that Morioka created for them an entire language, Baronh (and an accompanying alphabet, Ath), which the Abh speak, read, and write. Almost all written text in the anime is in Baronh, with occasional text in other (invented) languages; at least one planet is shown to have adopted Ath to write their own language (although this is not a plot point, and easily missed).

Media

Books

Despite being commonly dubbed as a trilogy, the work is actually a three-volume novel.^[1] The novel is composed of the following volumes, which were translated and released in English by Tokyopop in 2006 and 2007:

• Seikai no Monshō I "Teikoku no Ōjo" (星界の紋章I 帝国の王女) (Crest of the Stars I "Princess of the Empire") (Released September 6, 2006 in U.S. by Tokyopop)
• Seikai no Monshō II "Sasayaka na Tatakai" (星界の紋章II ささやかな戦い) (Crest of the Stars II "A Modest War") (Released January 9, 2007 in U.S. by Tokyopop)
• Seikai no Monshō III "Ikyō e no Kikan" (星界の紋章III 異郷への帰還) (Crest of the Stars III "Return to a Strange World") (Released May 8, 2007 in U.S. by Tokyopop)

Manga

Tokyopop also released a manga adaptation of the novel by Aya Yoshinaga. The manga was illustrated by Toshihiro Ono and Aya Yoshinaga. Hiroyuki Morioka is also credited on the cover as the original creator.

Much like the anime series, it covers all three volumes. Dubbed the first part of the Seikai Trilogy, since two other companion manga were also released, adapting Banner of the Stars and Banner of the Stars II:

• Seikai Trilogy, Vol. 1: Crest of the Stars

In June 1, 2012, a remake of Crest of the Stars as a web manga by Kōichirō Yonemura was announced.^[2] Beginning on September 3, 2012, the first chapter of the web manga was published.^[3] In September 11, 2012, FlexComic released volume 9 of its magazine for free featuring the manga remake of Crest of the Stars.^[4] Volume 1 of the manga went on sale on May 11, 2013.^[5] Volume 2 of the manga went on sale on May 12, 2014.^[6] Volume 3 of the manga went on sale on July 9, 2015.^[7]

Anime

Crest of the Stars Volume one "To The Stars" region 1 DVD.

Crest of the Stars was released in Japan in 1999 and in the United States by Bandai in 2001. At the end of 2002, TechTV announced that Crest of the Stars was to be one of the initial titles as part of their new Anime Unleashed programming and began broadcast at the end of 2002 and through 2003. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment in 2012, Sunrise announced at Otakon 2013, that Funimation had licensed Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars (Seasons 1 & 2) and Passage of the Stars.^[8]

Video Game

Roughly a year after the Anime finished airing, at the end of May 2000 Bandai Visual released a video game adaptation for the PlayStation. It features a story inspired by both the Crest of the Stars and the Banner of the Stars novels, incorporating some of their characters. The game consists of 67 different space battles, with a story split in two paths and three possible endings each.

Reception

In 1996, the world of Japanese science fiction novels was in a slump. Many people considered the genre dead to such an extent that authors avoided it. The appearance of the Crest of the Stars novel was not only a surprise but also earned it the Seiun Award.^[10]

References

External links

• Crest of the Stars at the Seikai Web
• Crest of the Stars (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Crest of the Stars (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

Reviews

• Crest of Stars – The overview of Crest of the Stars with excerpted scenes
• Review of Crest... on THEM Anime
• Web.archive.org