Some of the most memorable epic tales are usually set in outer space, involving empires that span across star systems and galaxies, and we love calling these shows ‘space operas‘. Put ‘anime‘ and ‘space opera‘ together and usually the first thing that would come to the minds of otaku vets would be The Legend of The Galactic Heroes – which I haven’t seen (sadly), but from what I’ve read about it, I don’t think I could deny them that.

The Seikai Saga by Morioka Hiroyuki

However, I’d like to bring out something that apparently so few have ever seen or even heard of, which is a shame as I think it is definitely one of the most fantastic space epics to ever, ever come out of Japan. As you may have guessed, I am talking about The Seikai Saga, originally a series of novels by Morioka Hiroyuki. They are more popularly known by the names Crest of the Stars (Seikai no Monshou, prequel to the series) and Banner of the Stars (Seikai no Senki). The ‘Seikai’ name is used to collectively refer to the whole franchise, taken from the original Japanese names.

The Seikai Saga begins with two major factions, the classic old-style humans of the United Mankind, and the genetically reinforced ‘elves’ of the Abh Empire. The story begins with the two major factions holding a fragile peace between themselves, and the major driving force behind this setup is the Abh Empire itself.

Maids, guns, blue hair. Oh, but it gets better.

The Abh are a race of genetically engineered, ‘perfect’ human beings – well, you might be familiar with Coordinators – except that the Abh have advanced so much that they can interface with their machines by directly linking it to their brains, and that they can live up to hundreds of years, pretty much immortal by our standards.

Being as they are, The Abh continue to expand their empire across galaxies, one planet after another, colonising and extracting the planets’ natural resources as well as agricultural and industrial produce and of course, taking advantage of each planets’ military power.

Lafiel and Jinto, a case of Princess Meets Aladdin. Sort of.

The story is mostly told from the perspective of two major characters. First is our humble human dude, Jinto, son of a politician who surrendered his planet when the Abh came, thus making himself and his family part of the honorary Abh (think honorary Brittanian, if you will). Modest, casual and resourceful, Jinto is very easy to love as a character.

Of all people, he meets Lafiel, the grand daughter of the current Abh Empress, thus making her an Imperial Princess, a candidate to succeed the throne of a vast, intergalactic empire. She’s.. awesome. ‘Cause, well, I’ll just make this clean and simple; she’s a tsundere and she is voiced by Kawasumi Ayako. She also loves cats.

Women who captain ships are always awesome.

The Seikai Saga is a series that spans across 7 novels, which have been adapted into 3 anime series as well as a movie and an OVA (please save your comparisons with LotGH for later), all by Sunrise. Not very surprising, eh? The Seikai Saga has one thing many space-themed anime lack – real-time, and sensible battle tactics and formations (No, charging into a fleet of enemies with only your GAR-powered machines, and tossing galaxies at each other don’t count).

Most of the plot in Seikai involved politics, but the real adventure lies in the chemistry between Jinto and Lafiel (of course). The main theme that drives the story is Jinto’s progress throughout his political career as a Duke in the Abh administration, as well as his stint as a military officer under Lafiel’s command.

That's ten ships ambushing one. Multiply the scale of this scene by several thousands, and you can pretty much guess what to expect in Seasons 2 and 3.

It also introduces some interesting sci-fi concepts, such as planar space and the space-time bubbles, which created many interesting situations for plot development, and even more so in combat. Beyond that, however, is the fact that Morioka took it one step further and developed Baronh, a fictional language spoken by the Abh, complete with its alphabets, grammar and vocabulary! Not many authors can pull that off, so that’s really something worth mentioning. For the record, the show is in Japanese, but the Baronh language itself plays a very interesting role in the story-telling.

Before this review gets too long and draggy, I shall leave you with a narration at the beginning of the series and I earnestly wish that you would pick this up and enjoy it as much as I did.

The cat is her boyfriend's. Aww.

Once upon a time there was a traveler crouching in pain by the roadside. A man who was walking by sat next to the traveler before he could ask for help. The man lectured the traveler at length about having a healthy lifestyle in order to avoid sickness. Satisfied with his speech the man stood up and left. His name is the United Mankind.

Next, a very beautiful woman approached the traveler with an inquisitive look on her face. The traveler said, “Well, don’t just stand there, help me.” The woman replied, “Do you want me to help you?” She then discussed at length the situation with the traveler until she fully understood the problem. And then she nodded and left. Shortly after, the woman brought all the doctors, nurses, and staff of the closest hospitals with her.

Her name is the Humankind Empire of Abh.

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