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Banner of the Stars 2 Volume 2: Prey (DVD)

It’s not too often that you will see an anime series run for a long time, and this series is into it’s third season. Banner of the Stars II continues the story of Jinto (the human male and now Deputy Ambassador) and Lafiel (his female Abh Territorial Ambassador) this time with the crew still working on the recently recaptured planet of Lobnas II (a former prison planet). The planet is segregated into three parts: male, female, and sterilized co-ed part. With the planet’s capture – the Abh are trying to set up a stable emigration off the planet for the populace. The “citizens” (both prisoners and prison staff) have standing offers to emigrate to the Abh Empire – but not everyone intends to leave.

Episode 5: Rebellion

The continuing problems associated with bringing a newly captured planet into the Abh Empire plague Jinto. The planet is now experiencing a rebellion led by the male populace, and even worse, they’ve been armed by some of the security staff from the planet. So the rogue staff and the rebels are now attacking the remaining staff and they appear to be after keeping the female (un-sterilized) on planet with them. By capturing a large number of the “breedable” females, it would be possible to set up a society on the planet.

The rebels have breached into the center compound (the co-ed living area) and are making a run for the western compound where the women are housed. Jinto orders a mass exodus of potential immigrants by ordering the transport ships to pick up all willing travelers as quickly as they can be boarded. Unfortunately the rebels are making the escape difficult by crippling any potential loading operation of the transports. With the situation becoming more

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untenable all the time, the Planet Administrator orders a fallback of all defending staff to the spaceport. The rebels show their talents one more time by capturing both the administrator and Jinto, so this mission isn’t looking particularly promising for the Deputy Ambassador.

Episode 6: Abn Hell

Jinto, now in the hands of the rebel faction, discovers why the rebels are trying to capture the

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planet in the first place: Alkiak. Alkiak is the name of a drug that the prisoners discovered on the planet and it is only available on Lobnas II; the reason for the treasonous turn by some of the staff is either due to addiction or greed -- the opportunity for quick wealth by aligning with a potent drug trade. With the capture of the two highest ranking officials, the rebels try to force the Administrator to rescind the Emigration Order which would prevent any of the women from legally leaving the planet. After repeated threats, the Administrator refuses to comply.

Now deciding to use Jinto as a leveraged pawn, the leaders contact Lafiel and try to dictate terms to the Abh Ambassador. The reply is bleak: if you kill an Abh – you will experience something worse than death, the Abh equivalent of Hell. After their reply, Lafiel orders all of her officers to standby and prepares to abandon Jinto because the Abh do not negotiate.

Episode 7: The Flag of Gasarus

With the threat of an existence that the existentialist Abh would refer to as hell – the leadership of the rebel group starts to fall apart out of fear of retribution. The factions naturally thin themselves out – and a unified leadership emerges, one that decides to hold onto Jinto for protection (although I fail to see how holding onto a person who is similar to a nuclear warhead and keeping him nearby would be considered a good idea).

Up in space, Lafiel is contact by the Grand Duchess of Letopanyu who is commanding the First Fleet near Lobnas II. The First Fleet is currently shadowing an enemy fleet approaching the planet, and is staying at a scouting distance to prevent losses against superior numbers. With the evacuation of Lobnas II not going to be finished in time, Lafiel convinces the Grand Duchess to provide some time by engaging the enemy fleet – but the Duchess isn’t happy with the thought of sacrificing soldiers for the sake of escaping prisoners. With some additional coverage provided, Lafiel brings down the remainder of the transports in order to grab all of the remaining people in one shot.

With the intense flow of this disc, the three episodes just go by so quickly. I was absolutely surprised when the third episode ended -- I'm already looking forward to seeing the next disc. The only complaint is on the way that Abh speech is being treated – all Abh speech was originally translated into Kanji along the bottom of the screen and that’s where the subtitles are displayed… it’s really difficult to read the text during those scenes. Otherwise, no complaints - great stuff.

- Tazman

(December 20, 2003)

"Be careful with my head-jar, ass."

- Bizzaro Sparks (Sealab 2021)