Banner of the Stars: The Shape of Bonds (Seikai Trilogy #2) (Manga Monday)

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Title: Banner of the Stars: The Shape of Bonds
Series: Seikai Trilogy
Author & Artist: Hiroyuki Morioka, Toshihiro Ono
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 200


Synopsis:
3 years after Crest of the Stars, Lafiel has command of her first ship and Jinto is the Abh equivalent of First Mate. The United Mankind is still kicking so the War Machines of both nations gear up and things start to heat up.
It is testing time for Lafiel and Jinto, to see if the years of training have paid off.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this volume a little bit more than the previous book, but I suspect that is because it was shorter and didn't have as much ground to cover as the first volume.

I think there was more Abh talk/terms than in the previous one, but since they were referring to military ranks, ships, missiles, etc, it really didn't matter to me because something is either a person, a ship, a missile or a laser to me.

I wouldn't recommend this except to die hard fans because so much that makes Banner of the Stars an exceptionable anime is cut out here to make things fit. I don't regret buying this,not at all and I did enjoy it, but it is more for Completeness's sake than anything else.

From a librarian standpoint, it was interesting to discover that there are two 'potential' covers. This one you see and then another with Admiral Spoor naked on the cover. I suspect though that the cover of Spoor was something put out by Tokyopop before the actual release and it never made it to paper. One little stone in the avalanche that brought them down.

And just for completist's sake, here's the alternate cover, that I can't find verification of on paper, only digitally. You can see why Tokyopop might not have released this, as this series was aimed at teens [and their parents who did the actual buying]. This picture IS the front page of the volume I have, but in black and white. And that folks, is what is called gratuitous fan-service.