The background of Crest of the Stars.
I watched the first 7 episodes of Crest of the Stars at Otakon 2001 (an anime convention held yearly in Baltimore MA). Needless to say I fell in love with the series. Crest of the Stars, also know in Japan as Seikai no Monshou, has one of the richest, original, and intense plots ever conceived. Such wealth of content is no accident. This anime is based on the Sci-Fi novel series by Morioka Hiroyuki. Seikai no Monshou I "teikoku no oujo" (Crest of the Stars I "Princess of the Empire") was first published in April 1996 and it’s considered a best seller of the Sci-Fi genre in Japan.  In fact, it was so successful that this first book had to be re-printed three times within two months of its initial release. Hiroyuki’s success allowed him to publish 5 more volumes later on.
 

The story.
It would take me several pages to give you just an introduction to the world of Crest of the Stars. Therefore, I’ll just give you some basic insight on the main ideas. Crest of the Stars is set many years in the future. Mankind has harnessed the power of a newly discovered special particle which allowed humanity to expand across galaxies. Throughout the years many new nations have risen and fallen in outer space. There are 4 dominant nations however. Three them form something similar to NATO and they call themselves the “United Mankind”.  The remaining one is called the “Humankind Empire Abh”. These two superpowers do not get along very well. The first episode will give you an introduction to the past of one of the main characters, Jinto Lin. He is a young prince and his duty is to represent his planet which was more or less invaded in the by the Abh when he was just a kid. Jinto’s people don’t like the Abh and they hate Jinto for having a higher status. By mere coincidence he meets a young girl called Lafiel who is also a princess of the Abh Empire. Times are not good however. Humanity is on the brink of the biggest war ever seen, and the relationships between the 2 superpowers are growing weaker by the minute. Jinto is not Abh by birth but he is by politics. Nevertheless, he must choose to either stand with his people or to support the Abh. He must also struggle with getting used to the Abh culture, and sort out any feelings of love he may have. As far as creativity is concerned, Hiroyuiki even went as far as to create a new language and alphabet for the Abh. Each episode is introduced to the viewer in spoken Abh. That’s quite a nice touch indeed. You may thin “oh so this is about the evil Abh Empire?” Not quite, it’s not clear who is good and who is bad. The viewer is presented with Anti-Abh propaganda as well as the Abh response to it. It’s all left to you to decide which side is right or wrong.
 

Music.
Crest of the Stars had a rather large budget so the sound FX department took their time to do a good job. If you have watched anime for a while, you will notice how some shows reuse sound effects from previous ones. This is not the case at all with Crest of the Stars. As far as I can tell all sound FXs are original and they all retain good quality. Music is another big plus. The variety and of compositions as well as the quality of them help set the scene for the viewer’s enjoyment. 
 
 

Visuals.
While not as visually appealing as a series like Cowboy Bebop, the creators managed to give Crest of the Stars a look of its own. The CG is not used to overtake a scene, but rather it is used to enhance animation sequences. Crest of the Stars also aired in a rather expensive Japanese network so you can expect the visuals to be above the rest of the shows. Please note however, that this is a TV series. While it does look very good, it couldn’t stand next to some of the latest OVA or Full Movie features. Another problem I noticed, was the somewhat degraded quality of the image in the first two DVD’s. I don’t know why Bandai let this happen but it’s certainly outrageous. Fortunately, the third and fourth DVD’s look flawless.

Conclusion.
American fans rarely get a chance to watch anime of this quality as a home release. The sequel to this first installment just aired in Japan last summer. Hopefully Bandai will bring this one as well.  Although there are quite a few space battles, hard core Gundam/Mech fans could be disappointed at the lack of focus on action sequences. However, people looking for an involved story and serious character development should definitively give it a try. You can find tons more of info about this series, novels, and even lessons on how to write in Abh by following this link:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/4777/Seikai/seikai.html

Reviewed: Episodes 1-13.

Story: ******* (7/7)
Animation: ****** (6/7)
Music: ****** (6/7)
Overall: ****** (6/7)