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beccastareyesDay 19 - Change you’d like to make to any one anime: Fix the pacing problems in Crest/Banner of the Stars.
I've mentioned this before -- there's a lot of anime adaptions I hate because the writers made them boring. It's one good thing about Slayers, IMO -- even the seasons/arcs that keep a lot of the novel elements in play while not trying to make them carry more than they're able.
Crest of the Stars has this problem. Banner is worse. The main thing is that the anime is so slow-paced that a lot of times it feels like nothing is happening. (I think the directors finally got the right idea by making Banner III an OVA, rather than trying to make a season from a single novel.)
It's not that the plot isn't exciting. Fish out of Water Jinto is being escorted to the capital of the Abh empire for education. Thanks to a deal made by his father, he is both Abh nobility as his father's heir, but knows nothing about them besides 'blue-haired space elves'. A pilot trainee is assigned to help him -- who turns out to be Lafiel, the granddaughter of the current Abh Empress.
The ship he's on ends up being caught in a war between the Abh and their neighbors, and Lafiel is ordered to get the civilian out of the war zone. On their way, they are caught by a Abh Baron who thinks it would be a great idea to use the chance to declare rebellion, and crash-land on an occupied planet when Lafiel has never set foot on one in her life.
There's space battles, gunfights, culture clashes, politics and all that good stuff... but somehow most people are bored by it, because the show likes to have Long Conversations and doesn't space things out at all well. And the second season is worse, since it tries to spread one novel's worth of material over 13 episodes.
The English voice-acting is also terrible. The budget doesn't help -- there's a lot of still shots here which suggest to me that the animators were running on a shoestring.
So, if I had the money, I'd like to do a proper remake -- perhaps doing CotS as a movie or OVA, and perhaps combine Banner I and II into a single season. (Or get writers to write me some filler episodes.) Heck, I'm not even wedded to the idea of an anime -- CotS might work fine as a live action film and BotS as a series premise. Most of the SF is relatively conventional, and James Cameron taught us that the universe is apparently ready for blue-haired space babes.
Previous Days
Day 1 - Very first anime: Speed Racer; Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2
Day 2 - Favorite TV series: Slayers
Day 3 -Your anime crush: Thoughts on anime adaptions
Day 4 - Favorite Film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were): Mizuno Ami, Sailor Moon
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character: Louise, Familiar of Zero
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap: Miaka & Tamahome, Fushigi Yuugi
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever: Climax, Princess Mononoke
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene: Climax of final episode of Kino's Journey
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime: Here is Greenwood
Day 11 - Favorite mech series: Vision of Escaflowne
Day 12 - Best installment of a franchise you don’t like: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki
Day 13 - Worst installment of a franchise you do like: Slayers: Hourglass of Falces
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper: Sylphiel
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like: Eureka SeveN
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you: Akira
Day 17 - Best Background Music: .hack//SIGN
Day 18 - Best Five-team: cast of Digimon Adventure 02
I've mentioned this before -- there's a lot of anime adaptions I hate because the writers made them boring. It's one good thing about Slayers, IMO -- even the seasons/arcs that keep a lot of the novel elements in play while not trying to make them carry more than they're able.
Crest of the Stars has this problem. Banner is worse. The main thing is that the anime is so slow-paced that a lot of times it feels like nothing is happening. (I think the directors finally got the right idea by making Banner III an OVA, rather than trying to make a season from a single novel.)
It's not that the plot isn't exciting. Fish out of Water Jinto is being escorted to the capital of the Abh empire for education. Thanks to a deal made by his father, he is both Abh nobility as his father's heir, but knows nothing about them besides 'blue-haired space elves'. A pilot trainee is assigned to help him -- who turns out to be Lafiel, the granddaughter of the current Abh Empress.
The ship he's on ends up being caught in a war between the Abh and their neighbors, and Lafiel is ordered to get the civilian out of the war zone. On their way, they are caught by a Abh Baron who thinks it would be a great idea to use the chance to declare rebellion, and crash-land on an occupied planet when Lafiel has never set foot on one in her life.
There's space battles, gunfights, culture clashes, politics and all that good stuff... but somehow most people are bored by it, because the show likes to have Long Conversations and doesn't space things out at all well. And the second season is worse, since it tries to spread one novel's worth of material over 13 episodes.
The English voice-acting is also terrible. The budget doesn't help -- there's a lot of still shots here which suggest to me that the animators were running on a shoestring.
So, if I had the money, I'd like to do a proper remake -- perhaps doing CotS as a movie or OVA, and perhaps combine Banner I and II into a single season. (Or get writers to write me some filler episodes.) Heck, I'm not even wedded to the idea of an anime -- CotS might work fine as a live action film and BotS as a series premise. Most of the SF is relatively conventional, and James Cameron taught us that the universe is apparently ready for blue-haired space babes.
Previous Days
Day 1 - Very first anime: Speed Racer; Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2
Day 2 - Favorite TV series: Slayers
Day 3 -
Day 4 - Favorite Film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Day 5 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were): Mizuno Ami, Sailor Moon
Day 6 - Most annoying anime character: Louise, Familiar of Zero
Day 7 - Character you’d most like to slap: Miaka & Tamahome, Fushigi Yuugi
Day 8 - Most epic scene ever: Climax, Princess Mononoke
Day 9 - Saddest anime scene: Climax of final episode of Kino's Journey
Day 10 - Favorite slice of life anime: Here is Greenwood
Day 11 - Favorite mech series: Vision of Escaflowne
Day 12 - Best installment of a franchise you don’t like: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki
Day 13 - Worst installment of a franchise you do like: Slayers: Hourglass of Falces
Day 14 - Current (or most recent) anime wallpaper: Sylphiel
Day 15 - A reality check for a genre you like: Eureka SeveN
Day 16 - An anime classic that simply doesn’t work for you: Akira
Day 17 - Best Background Music: .hack//SIGN
Day 18 - Best Five-team: cast of Digimon Adventure 02
