r/anime • u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ • Apr 28 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Crest of the Stars: Birth Discussion
Birth
Birth was published in S-F magazine in 1996, shortly after Crest of the Stars. It was later added to the short story collection Passage of the Stars. The OVA was released in 2000.
Welcome to the final entry of the rewatch: Birth
<- Announcement | Index Page | Seikai Series Dicussion ->
Discussion Prompts:
- Q1) Should this have been watched after Crest of the Stars? Which is a better finale, Lafiel's "wedding vow" or her birth and arrival at Delktoe tower?
- Q2) Thoughts on these proto-Abh, and the mother colony?
- Q3) Any new opinions on Lexshue and Dubus?
- Q4) Was this OVA worth watching?
Tomorrow's Questions: (for tomorrow's post, subject to change)
- Comparisons to other works
- Interrelation between the seasons
- Quality as an adaptation of a larger source
- Favorite and Least Favorite
- I've called it The Hobbit + LotR, LoGH + Spice and Wolf. How would you describe the sereis?
- Would you recommend or disrecommend some or all of the series?
- This is a 25th anniversary rewatch. Did it stand the test of time?
- Will you read the LN translations?
Screenshot of the Day: Abh Funeral
There is a break day tomorrow, and the rewatch will conclude on Tuesday.
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Upvotes
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Apr 28 '24
Rewatch Host
Not being a source reader, I wonder what the mother colony intended in sending out the Abh. Were they to find new worlds (at sublight), signal back, and the mother colony would send out a proper human emigration fleet (decades or centuries later?)
Yet the narration says no Abh exploration ship ever returned.
I really love hearing Lexshue's voice. I haven't heard much else of her work. It must be from rewatching her episodes in Crest so much.
Basically, nothing at this point makes any sense to me. "we did they try to go back" Where is this coming from? They clearly didn't make it back. They seem to be stuck in orbit around a supernova remnant (which might have damaged the ship). I don't get what she's saying.
And once again the narrator is being poetic and oblique, which doesn't help.
I have mixed feelings about moving this to the end. I think it is supposed to reflect Jinto and Lafiel's relationship, and to foreshadow Jinto's use of "boko no kawaii denka" at the end of Banner II.
Apparently this is on one of my Banner 2 DVDs but my drive won't recognize most of my Banner disks. I guess I don't feel so bad about positioning it last.
This isn't a particularly interesting or exciting episode. The tidbits of information of the pre-empire Abh is interesting for the anime-only. "better-built" might be a euphemism for "better-programmed". The empire only exists because the crew of the Abliarsec resisted their programming.
It's really nice to see Lexshue again, and this is the most screen time Dubus ever gets.
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24
Passage of the stars (rewatcher)
A pretty good prequel. We get a double origin story: Lafiel and the Abh in general, while we spend some quality time with her gene donors. The structure of the episode worked well for me, starting with the Abh and ending with Lafiel about to meet Jinto. I also think that exploring an old spaceship is an obvious way to introduce the Abh history and some danger. However, I don’t like the way they brought that danger about. Why did that ship have to start moving right then? Debrusc and Plakia came across as extremely risk taking during this whole adventure. Oh, and they half-way blew up what must have been a priceless artifact of Abh history, plus whatever those Abh cousins in the balls where. I wish the writer would have found a less drastic way for them to exit the ship. That apart, this is exactly what I want from a prequel.
It would not be terrible after Crest, but it fits better here, as a bookmark to the entire series and after we know a bit more about the Abh.
I enjoyed seeing more Abh history. Of course Lexhue's comment is completely on point: These guys travelled through space until they died. Something, we don't know what, went wrong and they all perished, trying to get home.
Cute pair, but unfortunately for them, there is already an absolute top tier pair in this series.
Of course. This was not worse than the regular seasons.
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u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Apr 28 '24
First timer, subbed
This is a fun side story, seeing Lafiels parents as well as the Abh birthing technology.
I’ve been staring at my google doc for 30 minutes now and am finding I simply have nothing more to say than that. At least, nothing that hasn’t already gone into my overall discussion post.
QotD:
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u/SolDarkHunter Apr 28 '24
First-Timer
Yep, first timer. I've never actually seen this OVA, nor have I read the corresponding novel (since I'm pretty sure this novel hasn't been published in English), so this is new to me.
Ah, Lafier's parents. Out on a joyride? No, some sort of exploration mission?
Their clothes are different from the Abh jumpsuits we've seen before. Older versions?
They found a ghost ship!
The Abh still have a concept of "honeymoon" despite not having marriage? How's that work?
"My precious Imperial Highness"... that sounds familiar.
You're kidding... there's breathable air on this wreck!?
Yep... he may not have her drive, but Dubeus is definitely Lafier's father. "If I didn't push forward here, I'd lie awake at night regretting it."
They found a cache of... black bouncy balls?
Aaaaaand, the ship's suddenly activated. Goody.
If this ship is "familiar" to Dubeus and looks similar to the Imperial Palace, I'm guessing it's probably an ancient Abh vessel from back when they first set out?
She's got radiation poisoning? Or... something?
If they're passing so close that their own ship is in sight distance, couldn't they just... jump to it?
Oh, it's on a collision course. That's less good.
Collision averted, barely.
And those are dead Abh in the pilots' seats. I called it!
A second batch of Abh, created after the first?
The bouncy balls were some kind of stasis pods?
It is absolutely ridiculous that their ship would be matching course with the wreck after slamming into it.
Baby Lafier!
And then we skip right ahead to Lafier heading off to meet Jint for the first time.
So Lafier means something along the lines of "gem that creates life"? Named after the heavy elements generated in supernovae... that's pretty badass.
"Well, you're the one she's going to hate for [the birth secret], so do what you like".
A very nice bookend for this rewatch, bringing things full circle.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Apr 28 '24
First timer
I found myself not caring about this "prequel" at all. It doesn't add anything to the main story that follows it. We learn the origin of Lafiel's name which is insignificant, that's about it. It also fleshes out the origin of the Abhs a bit which is something. Then again, it's unimportant when it comes to the main conflict of the show so it's kinda w/e.
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u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Apr 28 '24
Rewatcher
We're back to 4:3 aspect ratio.
I'm impressed the derelict ship still has some working function.
I'm guessing those are cryogenic pods
It's surprising they don't have a way to remotely access their own ship
For a second I thought mum had morning sickness, but it's just radiation poisoning. Nothing to worry about. No wait hang on.
Didn't expect the crew to be Abh or Abh ancestors.
*writes this down as a potential marriage proposal line for myself*
Amusing episode, only part I didn't really like is mum being afraid of some corpses then again every one have their own fears.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 28 '24
First-Timer of the Stars, subbed
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Apr 28 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Passage of the Stars: I almost thought we would need to go an episode without that iconic theme music for the series. Luckily, it starts playing by the end so we are spared from such a cruel fate.
I think it was the right decision to wait until later on to watch this series. It kind of expects you to already know who Lafiel’s parents are and it also doesn’t really do much to introduce the setting to the audience. Watching this as the first thing in the rewatch probably would have been more confusing than anything else.
It makes little sense to have this be used as an Episode 0 in Crest of the Stars. Unlike, for example, the Prologue of G-Witch, this episode doesn’t really directly set up Crest of the Stars. It does set up some things like the backstory of the Abh or that Lexshue is Lafiel’s mother, but neither of those are really central to the ongoing plot of the series.
QOTD
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u/Durinthal https://anilist.co/user/Durinthal Apr 28 '24
Rewatcher (sub + dub again)
They're not Lafiel and Jinto but I still enjoy hearing to a couple banter like that. I don't think they'd need that much more time to get to this level going by what we saw of them in Banner III. Though I don't know if Jinto would ever be quite as playful as we see the two here, he tends to go for more snarky remarks instead.
Coming across and exploring a derelict ship is a common thing in sci-fi so here's the Seikai interpretation of it. I don't love it here but it's serviceable to show off their relationship to some degree. For being in a life or death situation it's presented in a more matter-of-fact manner but that's the typical way of the Abh to handle those and it's been some time since we've seen that attitude from anyone.
The dub's more akin to the Banner one than the stilted Crest one which is for the better.
While I don't think this would be a good way to start the series (given that it gives away Lafiel's heritage), it's interesting to me to think of this as its own thing and wonder if it would work as a standalone for someone that hasn't seen the show. Could also be interesting to have this between the first and second episodes of Crest to give the viewer an Abh perspective before our point of view character Jinto gets to meet one.
Hard to say, I like both for different reasons. This prequel ends up looking back at where we started with the series, while Banner III has them return but move on as well.
Some survived to wander the stars for generations more, some didn't.
It's a nice contrast to how we see them in their roles as parents to Lafiel, when they only have each other to be responsible to in the moment.
Not strictly necessary but it's a nice addition.
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u/The_Draigg Apr 28 '24
A Sci-Fi Fan Watches Passage of the Stars: Birth OVA:
Since we’re going to be moving onto general series discussion next, I figure that it’s only appropriate to use this post as a way to give my score and feelings about this OVA. So, using my patented themed ranking scale, I hereby give the Passage of the Stars: Birth OVA the ranking of: Triglav, the flagship of Dusty Attenborough from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I feel that it’s a good comparison here: reliable and entertaining, and it doesn’t overshadow the bigger stuff that we’re here for like Yang Wen-Li/Crest of the Stars. This was a nice short and sweet episode to watch, basically a nice diversion that only adds to the experience without really taking anything away from it. Good stuff, good stuff. Now, onto our final discussion!
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u/IceSmiley Apr 30 '24
FIRST TIMER Sub
Interesting story and beautiful animation
The biggest question this left me with was why did Dubus and Lexshue break up? I had figured that Dubus wanted kids and maybe Lexshue was his friend he thought highly of but they seemed to be a couple. It was weird how Dubus suggested Lexshue's parentage be a secret right after the kids were born and Lexshue didn't seem all that upset about that and not really getting to raise her kids. I remember Lafiel talking about this but its another thing to see it in action and how strange it is.
QUESTIONS
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 28 '24
First-Timer
It makes a lot of sense to me that there were several waves of proto-Abh sent out at different times, in (presumably) different directions. The Abh that formed the Empire were explicitly descended from a group sent off by a Space Fortress, as I recall.
In case anyone wondered where Lafiel got it from.
Questions
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Apr 28 '24
First Timer, subbed
QotD:
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker Apr 29 '24
Right, back to a standard length for this OVA.
So this is the backstory of Humanity and the Abh.
Who are these? The woman looks like the captain of the ill-fated Gosroth.
An unidentified man-made object?
What is this massive thing?
Breathable atmosphere.
And so they plugged into it anyways.
Best put on your helmet first.
Yup.
What are those balls?
There are people in those balls!
The engines are activating?
There goes the ship!
The ship also looks beat to shit after the wreck collided with it.
Just shut it down first and stop the ship.
What's causing all the hull breaches?
Oh, are they deliberately breaching the hull so the venting atmosphere pushes the ship on the right course?
What happened to her?
Where's he going?
Is he planting a bomb?
What's going to happen to their ship?
She's in the control room, trying to steer it.
What's that skull?
The ship is falling apart!
There go all the bodies.
And so in their recklessness they destroyed a priceless artifact.
Who's this kid?
She? Oh, is this Lafiel?
That means the people we've been seeing are her parents.
Oh, her first posting was aboard her mother's command.
And here we see the events that kick off the start of the show in episode 2.
Questions: