Today on ANN, I reviewed a show that I fell in love with just a couple years ago, Crest of the Stars. Approaching the space opera genre with thoughtfulness and a clear character-first focus, Crest of the Stars is basically the perfect combination of Legend of Galactic Heroes and Spice and Wolf, a show both staggering in scope and rich in intimate character moments. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Here’s my review!
Hmm, as a sci-fi fan I really didn’t like Crest. The large scope never felt believable because it never related to anything on the scale of our characters. The leads’ relationship would work nicely in a lower-stakes setting, but it fits awkwardly in the context of an arranged marriage that’s the only hope for your planet – there’s plenty of dramatic potential in that premise, but the show plays it as cute and wholesome, with the implication being rather glossed over. The leads themselves were nice enough but didn’t really have enough characters to play off. Ultimately very little seemed to happen – it’s paced very slow, which again could work in another context but fits poorly with the broader setting. And the animation quality is very much… of its time, shall we say.
If you’re looking for a thoughtful forgotten space opera, Starship Operators is a much better pick IMO. It doesn’t quite have the same aspiration to LOGH-style scope, but it’s tighter and makes much more effective use of the sci-fi setting, while also giving the characters complete arcs that are resolved within the series.