Talking about the Abh over at Chizumatic again recently gave me the impetus to haul out Banner I and load a DVD at random. Turned out to be the episode where Jinto and Lafiel are invited to dinner with their commander…to celebrate the birthday of that commander’s brother,
First, yank the disc out and put in Crest, specifically the DVD containing the dinner between Baron Febdesh and Lafiel (now THAT is a dinner with priceless moments! Lafiel’s smile….brrrrrrr!)
Second, I hunted down Banner III and started BT’ing it. Banner III was released as an OAV in 2005, and there doesn’t appear to be any hurry to release it here in R1. If they ever do, I’ll be happy to buy a copy, but in the meantime, It’s high time I got to see more of Jinto and Lafiel.
Looks like it’s going to take quite a while, given the few torrents currently underway.
Edit: Downloaded overnight. Also, I realized part needed to be in the spoiler above. Unfortunately, I’m having problems with the DVD players in both computers right now, so a screencap isn’t in the cards, or I’d post one of Lafiel at the end of the dinner with Febdesh. Their drinks should have frozen over, that was so icy.
Update: I started a response to Steven’s message, but it quickly grew too much to be a mere reply, so here it is…. sans spoilers, for the most part.
The new class looks sort of like a smaller Gosroth; it’s mentioned that the new ships don’t have the mines, which makes them a lot more maneuverable. (In fact, it’s remarked at one point that being down the weight of the shuttle will give one an even bigger advantage. It seemed … odd, and I wonder if it wasn’t Abh humor at work.) The ships do seem to have the same before-and-aft railgun arrangement though. The fansubbers translated their class as “assault frigate” and I think that’s about right. They’re meant to operate in groups of 6 like the patrol craft.
The artwork was much cleaner and sharper in Banner III, as it’s fully digital-cell (or whatever the terminology is). Although I really like the new look, this was a bit off-putting with Lafiel in particular, as they seemed to have the most trouble keeping her on-form, and it gave me a bit of trouble with some other characters. The show jumps back and forth in time much like the first couple of episodes of Crest, which is also somewhat confusing. I think I followed most of it, but one part (see below) still doesn’t make sense to me. I found that I should have watched Banner I again before watching III, as I had difficulty remembering some of the minor characters, which was exacerbated by the change in the art.
As for the synopsis, I think I read the same one, but if so, it was badly flawed. Whomever wrote it missed a lot of the subtleties of the interplay between various parties. For one thing, the “battle” when the first group arrived at Martine bore only a superficial resemblance to the one described. The events were there, but the facts were different. (Something to remember when you watch the news, these days.) The strength of Crest/Banner is in how the characters all express themselves, especially the Abh; not everyone says what they’re thinking. So what really happened, as opposed to what everyone said happened were two different things. The meeting between Til and Jinto was also nothing like what was described. The events were there, but the feel was entirely different. It may be that the synopsis was influenced by the novels, and the animé is the one not being faithful, but I don’t think so — it would be highly out of character, given how much of the author’s flavor has made it through in the first 3 series.
Overall, I would say that anyone who is waiting for this series to be licensed in R1 is in for a long wait. It might be, just to complete the story, but this part of it suffers from not having any space battles, like Crest, or Banner I and II. The combat with Martine is described in retrospect (another time jump), which was a mistake, I think, as it destroyed any tension. To compensate, it appears to be trying to hard to “gin up” a mock battle between two groups of the new assault frigates Ekuryua gets a few minutes alone with Jinto in a part of that battle which makes no sense to me (going to re-watch later, I think I missed a key point), but her reaction to show
was intriguing. She is obviously still carrying a torch for Jinto–but it’s not in her style to do anything about it, let alone speak of it. I’ve always thought that she was a little too tightly wound, and Ekuryua confirmed it here. Spoiler warning!! showWell, anyway, it’s not just obvious, but it’s pretty much in the open that Jinto is going to be Lafiel’s consort, as there is a discussion of what their children will be like–although it’s not exactly between Jinto and Lafiel. Still, I want to be a fly on the wall when they discuss show
Disappointingly, it strongly hints at the end that there are no plans to make a Banner IV, as the closing credits include a “what they did afterwards” montage.
I’ve read a synopsis of the Banner III episodes but haven’t seen them. Atosuryua’s new assignment is the part I think would be most interesting to see. I wonder what the new ship class looks like?
Started a response, but it belonged in the main body, due to length and that it was really a semi-review.
Ekuryua was promoted at the end of Banner II, and went with Sobaash to her new command. Was Sobaash one of the commanders of ships from the new class? Or was there some excuse to get Ekuryua away for a while so she could be in this series?
In Banner I & II, there never really were any romantic sparks between Jinto and Ekuryua. It was more a matter of Jinto being the first grounder Ekuryua had ever had a chance to really know very well, plus Ekuryua’s eventual relationship with Jinto’s cat. Given how strange she is emotionally, there may have been something going on inside her head, but I don’t think there ever was anything real. (And yes, Samson teases Jinto about a love triangle, but I think the only reason he would do that is because there really wasn’t one.)
Having Samson become Jinto’s business manager in the Martine system makes extraordinarily good sense. I can see him being very good at it. It’s a perfect fit, an ideal solution for everyone involved.
So just what do they all do afterwards in the montage?
Sobash is the commander of the ship that Jinto and Lafiel end up entering the system on.
Ending montage (with the fansubbers’ spelling) is behind spoiler tag for those who don’t want it, well, spoiled. Some additional parenthetical comments from me: [spoiler]
Viscountess Abliarsec Neic Dubleuscr Parhynr Lamhirh (Lafiel): After the meeting, she returned to the Star Force. She took over for Sobach and was inaugurated as captain of the Assualt Frigate Flicaubh. She departed for a new battlefield with the reorganized 1st Scourge Squadron.
After the exercise, many new Scourge Squadrons were commissioned, but Kilo-Commander Atosryak remained with the 1st Scourge Squadron. She currently commands. The name of her beloved sandbag is still unknown. (This is from a joke earlier in the show that I did not get. Neither did Jinto or Lafiel.)
While many staff members transfered to new squadrons, Vice Hecto-commander Sobach was appointed 1st Scourge squadron’s Executive Officer and now works as Atosryak’s right hand man. He lent the Assault Frigate Flicaubh’s captain’s chair to Lafiel and was finally freed from her jealousy. (Huh?)
Ekryak (Ekuryua) was promoted from Front Flyer to Deca-Commander, and remained with the Flicaubh as a navigator and Executive Officer, serving as one of Lafiels arms. There was talk about her becoming the Gunner, but former Captain Sobach strongly opposed it. The reason is unknown, but she does not mind at all. (Note: it’s a joke in the show that she pilots like a maniac. I don’t remember that from the earlier series.)
Samsonn, the first vassal of the Haider Family, continues to gather materials and personnel to rebuild an anti-matter fuel plant and construct a fuel extraction base in the Haider Earldom. His days of running a farm are far away.
Pabherryak (he was the engineer on Basroil?) works in the Anti-matter Fuel Plant Construction Convoy together with Samsonn. Using his expert knowledge of reactors, he spends his days with alcohol and anti-matter (y’know that does NOT sound like a good idea!!), he also devotes himself to entertaining Samsonn. (Remember kids, alcohol and anti-matter don’t mix!)
Sernaik & Co. President Fegdakpek Sernaik (Seelnay, the former Febdesh servant). She joined the convoy together with Pabherryak and the others, and now pilots the anti-matter fuel tank inspection boat Sernaik. She also plotted to create a princess bodyguard unit, which made Samsonn keep his distance from her.
Diaho left Jinto’s hands and he is enjoying his freedom at the Clybr Palace. The three kittens were given to Que Durin (his school friend), Haider Earldom Deputy Administrator Swosher, and Lafiel. They have a peaceful life. His mate Serkryka is currently ignoring him.
And finally, Count Lynn Ssynek Rokr Haider Jinto bid farewell to his homeland, and returned to the Star Force. He was appointed to serve as a secretary aboard the Flicaubh under Lafiel’s command. Ekryak became his superior.
After he decided to live his life as an Abh, his dream of returning to his homeland never came true. [/spoiler]
Thanks for that. It seems odd that there should be any intrigue regarding Lafiel and Sobaash; I had the impression they got along very well. But if Sobaash was bumped aside and Lafiel was given her position, that naturally would lead to bad feelings. Unfortunate that was done.
Sounds like the new class of ship has a lot larger crew than the assault ships. I wasn’t sure if that would be the case.
Definitely somewhat larger than the Basroil class. They felt and looked like smaller Gosroth ships. Given that the Three Powers Alliance (or Four; it’s considered certain that Hania will join them eventually) seems to use swarm tactics in which they close and merge bubbles, then overwhelm the target with attacks from multiple directions, it strikes me as the best counter. Assault Frigates lose the ability to hit at range, but become much more nimble in a furball. During a large fleet action, they’d have to be accompanied by dedicated mineships though. This is not a class that could exist on the battlefield by itself.
I think the big advantage of this class is fights in planespace, such as the tailchase at the beginning of Banner. The problem in that one was that it took 10-12 assault ships to have a reasonable chance against an enemy patrol ship alone in a single bubble, and even with those numbers usually anywhere up to 6 of the assault ships would be destroyed. That’s because the antiproton cannon just doesn’t have enough punch to seriously hurt anything that has a decent shield.
One of these new ones could take out a patrol ship with a single shot. That radically changes the situation in a plane-space battle. It would force enemy patrol ships to fight together in bubbles, which slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. It also means that they can be chased down by friendly patrol ships and attacked with mine swarms. (Especially if the Empire switches to cluster mines, which seems inevitable.)
Oops… for “tailchase” read “sternchase”…
Hmm. Doable, yes, but if I’m the United Mankind, my counter-tactic, once I figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the new class, is to offer stern chases whenever possible, without merging bubbles for defense until the last moment. Use mines to thin out any obvious Assault Frigates. Given the poor sensor conditions in planespace, and assuming a mixed-class Abh fleet, it would be iffy. But a pure AF fleet would be forced to close under fire that they couldn’t return. Although I suspect the Abh probably designed the AF’s with a much improved point defense, based on Aptic Gate and other battles….
In short, I don’t believe these ships could be used agressively for recon and patrols in homogenous squadrons, but as a part of an integrated fleet, they’d be extremely nasty — especially if they have upgraded point defenses.
Rewatched. I concede the point on Ekuryua… if anything, she’s back to being mean to him.