Crest of the Stars chronicles how Jinto met Lafiel and the events that followed before the war. When Jinto was a young boy, his world is invaded by the Abh empire. His father who was then president of the Hyde Star System, surrendered the system and earned for himself and his family a nobility within Abh society. Young Jinto is sent off to school in planet Delktou to learn the ways of Abh nobility and the story of Crest of the Stars picks up as he meets the young Abh princess, Lafiel who as a pilot trainee has been assigned to escort him to the patrol ship Gothlauth, a.k.a. Gosroth). Soon, they find themselves unready participants in the incident that would ignite the war between the Abh Empire and the Four Nations Alliance of Humankind — an anti-Abh alliance of the democratic nations of the United Mankind, the Federation of Hania, the Republic of Greater Alcont, and the People's Sovereign Union of Planets.
Characters
Main Characters
;Lin Shu Rock Yalulug Dril Hydal Jinto ;Abriel Nei Debrusc Borl Paryun Lafiel
The series is notable for Morioka's creation of an entire language, Baronh, and an accompanying alphabet, Ath, used by the Abh. Almost all written text in the anime is in Baronh, with occasional text in other invented languages; at least one planet is shown to have adopted Ath to write their own language.
Media
Books
Despite being commonly dubbed as a trilogy, the work is actually a three-volume novel. The three volumes were originaly released by Hayakawa Publishing from April to June 1996. The novels were translated and released in English in softcover format by Tokyopop in 2006 and 2007. On April 20, 2019, J-Novel Club announced they had licensed both Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars for digital and physical release. The J-Novel Club version of Crest of the Stars features a new translation. The digital release follows J-Novel Club's model of releasing "prepub" chapters on their website for premium members before the digital retail release on their site and other platforms like Amazon. The physical release for both series is in hardcover omnibus format, with three volumes per issue, with Crest of the Stars released on March 3, 2020.
Crest of the Stars I "Princess of the Empire" / "The Imperial Princess"
Crest of the Stars II "A Modest War" / "A War Most Modest"
Crest of the Stars III "Return to a Strange World" / "The Return to Strange Skies"
Anime
Crest of the Stars was released in Japan in 1999 and in the United States by Bandai in 2001. At the end of 2002, TechTV announced that Crest of the Stars was to be one of the initial titles as part of their new Anime Unleashed programming and began broadcast at the end of 2002 and through 2003. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment in 2012, Sunrise announced at Otakon 2013, that Funimation had licensed Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars I and II and Passage of the Stars. On December 25, 2019, Crest of The Stars and its sequel series Banner of the Stars were released on Blu-ray in Japan.
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Title
Original air date
Radio drama
adaptation was broadcast on FM Osaka, and has been released as CDs in three volumes. The cast is practically the same as the anime version, but with some changes.
Manga
released a one-volume manga adaptation of the novel in March 2000, after serializing it in Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh magazine in 1999. The manga was illustrated by Toshihiro Ono and written by Aya Yoshinaga, who has also written the anime adaptation. Hiroyuki Morioka is also credited on the cover as the original creator. Much like the anime series, it covers all three volumes. It was licensed by Tokyopop and released in 2004, under the name Seikai Trilogy, Vol. 1: Crest of the Stars, dubbed the first part of the Seikai Trilogy, since two other companion manga were also released, adapting Banner of the StarsI and II. The first chapter of a new web manga adaptation of Crest of the Stars by Kōichirō Yonemura was published in FlexComix Next on May 22, 2012, and the manga was transferred to Comic Meteor from October 2012. On September 11, 2012, Flex Comix released volume 9 of its magazine for free featuring the Kōichirō Yonemura manga adaptation of Crest of the Stars. Volume 1 of the manga went on sale on May 11, 2013. Seven volumes have been released by December 2019.
Video game
Roughly a year after the anime finished airing, on May 25, 2000 Bandai Visual released a video game adaptation for the PlayStation. It features a story inspired by both the Crest of the Stars and the Banner of the Stars novels, incorporating some of their characters. The game consists of 67 different space battles, with a story split in two paths with three possible endings each.
Reception
In 1996, the world of Japanese science fiction novels was in a slump. Many people considered the genre dead to such an extent that authors avoided it. The appearance of the Crest of the Stars novel was not only a surprise but also earned it the Seiun Award.
Reviews
– The overview of Crest of the Stars with excerpted scenes
