Seikai no Monshou

Seikai no Monshou (aka Crest of the Stars) is an anime series based on the Seiun Award winning light novel trilogy by Hiroyuki Morioka. Hiroyuki Morioka's seikai series is sort of intermediate between the flowery and grandiose martial sci-fi of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the ambitious and elaborate world building (galaxy building?) of Dune, and the 1990's aesthetics of moon-eyed bishoujo anime and, as such, has the ability to appeal to a wide range of viewers. Seikai no Monshou follows the tribulations of Lafiel, an imperial cadet and not-so-secret princess of the blue-haired space elves, and Jinto, a young puppet baron of the empire that Lafiel is tasked with escorting. The empire, more specifically, the Abh Empire is a vast space faring polity run by genetically modified humans who seek to control the galaxy and the worm hole-like inter-dimensional openings that allow for interstellar colonization, trade, and warfare. While the Abh's galactic empire might sound a bit evil, it appears that the Abh only want what's best for their terran subjects who are allowed to enjoy a good degree of freedom so long as they mind their own planets and leave space to the Abh; after all it wouldn't due to allow those greedy and unpredictable terrans to start some sort of... some sort of Star War! Unfortunately, the good intentions of imperial overlords rarely go unpunished... The seikai series also plays around with gender roles in ways that, for the time, were interesting enough that Seikai no Senki (the main series that acts as a sequel to Seikai no Monshou) was nominated for the grand prize of The Sense of Gender Awards. In Seikai no Monshou, the traditional gender roles between Lafiel and Jinto are reversed as Lafiel, a Strong Female Character, is portrayed as more competent and capable when handling conflict while Jinto takes on more of a sensitive and supportive role. In addition, the Abh have what could be described as a feminist society and many of the important Abh characters are powerful women who are contrasted with the terran women who are typically portrayed as servants or service workers whose potential is hidden behind their menial position in society. In general, there's a lot to like about Seikai no Monshou but maybe not all that much to love. I sort of get the feeling that a big part of the novel series's appeal is in their world building but an anime series can only fit in so much lore before its opening credits. It's also a series whose slow, character focused story might be a hard sell to modern audiences and that's before factoring in its dated animation and 90's gender politics, but I enjoyed it well enough and will check out it's sequel soon.