Forum - View topicWhat do you think of Geneshaft and Banner of the Stars?
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gzilla04
 Posts: 81 Location: Illinois |
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What do you think of Geneshaft and Banner of the Stars?
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18584 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I can't speak about Geneshaft, but Banner of the Stars is a direct sequel to Crest of the Stars. While seeing Crest first isn't essential, it's highly recommended because you'll get a lot better explanation about the setting, races, and two key characters involved.
Crest/Banner form the early chapters of what feels like an epic space saga. Although there is some action and a small amount of humor in them, they are generally serious, heavily character-driven dramas. On the downside, they tend to be a bit too talky and at times dwell a little too much on supporting characters. On the upside, the lead characters are quite appealing and the new race created for the series - the Abh - is both fascinating and well-developed. They even have their own language. (Your first impression will be Elves in Space, but that's not really accurate.) One other thing: I'm a dub-favoring person, but the English dub for Crest/Banner is, at best, weak. I recommend the sub. |
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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I really like Banner too.
I'd say definitely watch Crest of the Stars first, though. For one thing, I don't think you'll get the full impact of one of the subplots if you don't know the history of what Jinto and Lafiel went through with Baron Febdash. Unlike Key, I did like the scenes with the supporting characters. No matter what else Spoor is she's never dull, the head games Dusanyu played with his Chief of Staff were fun, and I really, really liked the Bebaus twins' subplot - some of my favorite parts of Banner, actually. I'd snatch up a decent spinoff about any of them in a second. I do agree that Jinto and Lafiel make the series - really likeable characters. Basically, it's a good series to try if you lean towards SciFi like Star Trek and Babylon 5. |
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ShellBullet
 Posts: 1051 Location: I hit things, with my fist. |
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Crest of the Stars was a great series. It took a long time to introduce the characters and set up the backround to the action that takes place in the latter half of the series, but all that developement really pays off towards the end. By the time you get around to Banner of th Stars, the two main characters are already in place, but the series continues to develope side characters. How well you like the series depends on how well you like character developement. I didn't enjoy Banner as much as Crest, mostly because spoiler[ the action takes place almost exclusively in space within the confines of the Abh military, I preferred the concept of crash landing on a hostile world a bit better. ] Nevertheless, I added Banner of the Stars to my collection; it is a quality series.
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Lord Van
 Posts: 70 Location: Savannah Ga |
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I saw the first few episodes of Geneshaft and didn't really care for it. The story did not grab me and the main characters seemed kind of dull.
There's a review of the first DVD on ANN and it sums it up pretty good. |
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Nani?
 Posts: 632 |
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I watched the first disk of of Geneshaft disliked it greatly. I mean the main character spoiler[ Is a second class citizen because of her Genetic status but she goes around beating up or argueing with VIPs on a space station that she is serving on.]. It would have gotten my vote for worst anime ever but unfortuately I've also seen Kimera.
Banner of the Stars I like however, but it is the third of the the three Banner/Crest series for the reason already stated. It takes place in the Abh military and too exclusively so. I will say Banner II is my favorite do to how they reslove the Jinto/Lafiel relationship. All the Best, Nani? |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Eh, I didn't think Geneshaft was that bad. But on the other hand it wasn't that great, either. It was...there. It was average. Some of the characters were interesting, some of them weren't, the script coulda been better, and the setting was sort of interesting (genetic manipulation, retainers to keep males in check, Jupiter's moons, all that jazz). I wanted to see more of that typing dog, though. He was awesome.
Banner of the Stars I absolutely adored, though. One of the best examples of epic, character-driven science fiction in recent anime. Brilliantly-written, all-around awesome cast (needed more Spoor & Atosuryua, though), and some great combat sequences, to boot. I highly recommend watching Crest of the Stars first, though. It's an excellent primer in terms of establishing the main characters & setting, which will in turn allow you to appreciate Banner & Banner II all the more. |
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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Haven't seen Geneshaft.
As for Banner of the Stars, I thought is was only ok, at best-- just to put up a differing opinion. Crest of the Stars was, for me, intermittently engaging-- good enough to rent, but not to buy. I thought this was a bit less engaging than that. Why? I like my good dialogue, and this has got that, but I need a plot that develops faster than what these shows offer. I felt like you have to wait around for 3 or 4 episodes before much of any real consequence occurs. That is too long for me. And although I find Lafiel very engaging, and Jinto has his interesting moments too, I also found the side characters lacking. Finally, I've never found the space battles in these two shows very engaging-- it's hard for me to tell who is who, and there is way more time spent planning an action than there is completing it. I'm sure that's all very realistic, but unfortunately, I found it drained all the tension and drama out of those scenes. Anyways, I know it's almost sacrilege to say this, but I just didn't find Banner of the Stars so great. Less time is spent on the interesting relationship between Jinto and Lafiel, and more time is spent on side characters that are less interesting and who take waaaayyyyy too long to say stuff, with far too many dramatic pauses for my taste. Phew. I guess I had to get that off my chest.  Crest of the Stars though wasn't too bad at all, a bit slow for my tastes, but with pretty good dialogue.
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DigitalDisaster2000
Posts: 14 |
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Personally, Banner of the Stars is a bit to talkative and can be extremely confusing, but if you can understand Crest of the Stars, it makes a good sequel series. also has a sequal called Banner of the Stars II.
As for Geneshaft, it is a little faster pased, and has a fair storyline, but after 3 episodes it got so introspective that I stopped watching it, so it may get better in later episodes, and is cut frame the same basic cloth as the Sekai Trilogy, the name for all the Crest/Banner of the stars. |
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MeggieMay
 Posts: 607 |
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I liked both Geneshaft and Banner of the Stars. Of the two I loved Geneshaft and like Banner. Banner's main problem, IMO, was that the animation was a bit dated, as well as the dialog being a bit dry and talkitive at times. However, Banner is probably the best straight up traditional Science Fiction military Anime I've run into so far and I do wish the novels the story is based on would be translated into English so I could read them.
With Geneshaft, I started out realizing that I would have to give it some slack due to the some of the rather silly dated SF premise's it was using spoiler[like people only living to a certain age (like Logan's Run) and the population being more women than men (because men are too agressive - very 1960's pulp SF), all by world goverment decree]. However, after seeing the second episode and reading the title for it it finally clicked 
Geneshaft is a flat out, open, homage to 1960's literary written Science Fiction!!! The silly dated SF premise's are intentional  . They, and the episode titles, are straight out of stories written in the 1960's by Anne McCafferey, Robert Silverburg, Arthur C. Clarke, etc. and that was part of the point of the show.
Figuring that out made Geneshaft even better, IMO  . So that's my take on these two shows.
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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That you call Anne McCaffery dated displays that you're really poorly read on good science fiction. Bet you think Heinlein is a dinosaur too.
Geneshaft fails not because it's a "homage" to "silly dated sci-fi", but in the fact that its characters are forgettable and transparent, its plots uninteresting, and its animation is uninspired. Quite frankly, the only thing I recall of any significance in Geneshaft was the utter bitchery of the female cast. |
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MeggieMay
Posts: 607 |
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Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm pretty well read on SF, IMO (though I have to admit I never got into Heinlein's work after attempting to read Friday in High School). Sorry to make you feel old here but Anne McCaffrey wrote most of her major works over 40 years ago, Heinlein 55 to 60 years ago (he's been dead almost 20 years, if not more). These books really are old now, whether we feel old ourselves or not
That said, what's dated here isn't McCaffrey and Heinlein's (or any of the others) writing but many of the underlying concepts they used in their books from the 1950's and '60's. The idea that the future would have world goverments and age limits as to how old you could be before you had to cease living is very 1960's in its thought process. Those ideas are what I'm saying are silly, at least IMO in retrospect. As a teenager I thought they were quite interesting but I'm no longer a teenager and the world they foresaw isn't even close to having ever happened  .
Anyway, I didn't think the female cast of Geneshaft was all that "bitchy." As for transparent plots, most of the Anime out there are pretty transparent plotwise IMNSHO. So that isn't even something I was thinking about. Now, that doesn't make your not likeing Geneshaft any less valid than my loving it. It's all opinion and if you didn't like it, you didn't like it. However, my opinion isn't any less valid than yours just because you think you know how old I am and/or how well read I am, because you don't know the answer to either of those questions. |
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gzilla04
Posts: 81 Location: Illinois |
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My take of the two shows
Crest/Banner- I have seen Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars but not Banner of the Stars II yet. But the first two where simply awesome. Awesome sci-fi and the characters where good at times. Final Grade A+ Geneshaft- It's a ok show. The girls get bitchy really fast though. The anime was good and the story was decent at times. If you haven't seen it yet it is shown on Anime Unleashed on TechTV(not sure the next time they will show it). Final grade C+ |
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MeggieMay
Posts: 607 |
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I just looked at the current schedule and it looks like Geneshaft's due back in October, after they cycle through Soultaker, Gate Keepers 21, Boogiepop Phantom, and Banner of the Stars 1 again (though G4TechTV hasn't actually aired Soultaker before - I was starting to wondering if that one was going to re-air or not).
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.com person
 Posts: 18 Location: UP IN YOUR NOSE |
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I've haven't seen either or crest of the stars
I'm really planning on seeing Geneshaft Geneshaft sounds a little dull though still |
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