Banner of the Stars II (BotSII) is - get ready! - a sequel to Banner of the Stars I, which follows up from Crest of the Stars (CotS). As per usual by this moment, I'll avoid spoiling currently reviewed part of the series, but I might and probably will spoil the previous parts.
Traditionally for the series, the narrative follows Lafiel and Jinto in their personal journey, while often showing the larger picture of what's happening on the front of the war between the Humankind Empire of Abh and the Alliance of Four Nations.
The key event of BotS1 gets significant consequences in BotS2 - success of operation Renibu allows to proceed with the main plan and stitch together the two Imperial kingdoms - Larch and Sulzaede. To achieve this goal, operation Renibu is rebuilt into operation Breg - "Hunter". Imperial forces one expand their foothold in the territory of the United Mankind using their inability to organize a proper attack force. Though, some forces of the UM are still operational in the area, and the united fleet of Renibu is now split into several smaller fleet, each of which is tasked with annexation of UM worlds and fending off any straggling UM fleet formations.
In order to annex the world, the Empire has to complete several formal procedures. First, a star system for the empire equals a feudal domain, depending on its population and resources - it can be a barony (no inhabitable planets), a viscountdom (has uninhabited planet(s) but they are not yet populated), a countdom (has inhabited planets), a marquisate or a dukedom (for larger populated systems). A newly annexed system means a new feudal domain is formed - ergo, a new feudal cannot appear there from the air - noble status is earned with hard work in the Empire (or by selling out your homeplanet :P Joking, tho, - Dusanuy had his reasons to provide Rock Linn with noble status, and his decision had to be verified by the Empress and Elder Counsil). Before a feudal - called 'a monarch' - is assigned to the system, a temporary monarch has to be assigned, from the ranks of the fleet, which annexed the planet, to later be replaced with imperial officer sent from the capital to oversee the system before it officially gets a ruler. Next, a monarch has to assign a planetary representative, to organize communication between the planet and the Empire. This representative can be a planetary ruler, or he can be assigned by planetary government, or whatever. Planets receive the complete autonomy from the Empire, with several significant exceptions: 1) they have to provide the right and guarantee its free realization to its citizens to covert into Imperial citizenship; this means that a person is free from obligations to the planetary government and now a direct subject to the Empire. 2) they have to allow organization and provide free access to the Imperial Star Forces recruiting agency; 3) they have to agree and guarantee that they will never produce inerstellar flight capable space ships. If ships of this type are already owned by the government or citizens of this planet, they are requisitioned by the Empire and returned as freely-rented Empire owned ships. The monarch has literally no say in the internal policies of the planet, but he has the monopoly on trade with it. Ergo, he can influence planet by investing into local economy; the planet can theoretically isolate itself, but usually it is plain stupid, as their trade is untaxed (unlike profits of their monarch), and if they'd disable Imperial institutions - Star Forces would arrive to have a chat.
Now, why I am wasting all this time on this explanation? Well, because Lafiel is assigned as a temporary monarch to Lobnass system, which was a side-acquisition after a small-scale battle won by the fleet she's attached to, and Admiral Bebaus has fun times assigning her as a monarch. Jinto, as a count, gets the duty of vice-monarch. Upon arriving to Lobnass system, the local government of Lobnass II planet comes into contact - ... all four of them. Lobnass II was a UM prison planet for the most extreme criminals deemed unsociable. They live in a lush island in the middle of the ocean, overseen by a small armed force of UM armed guards. The prison is separated into three areas, where inmates are free to live the way they want - all female sector, all male sector, and mixed middle area with sterilized population (point in advance: sterilization is volunatry). Each of four factions is claiming to have the right to rule the world - the males, the females, the mixed area, and the prison administration. And to make things funnier - an uprising of inmates can happen at any moment, as some of them are armed and very aggressive.
To make stuff even more fun - a splinter fleet of UM is detected, and manages to sneak in through the breach of Breg fleets, and is on approach to Lobnass system.
Of all the adapted parts of the series, Banner II is probably the most emotionally powerful one. This story manges to push the character to their limits without any forced or stupid moments; Jinto is Jinto, Lafiel is Lafiel, Sobaash is a friggin' scary basterd I tells ye, nut most of characters are put under unexpected strain. A boring assignment tests them in far more ways that the whole battle for sord Aptic could.
And, what is even more important, this story is the rare case when the creators manage to do the right thing, and instead of constant scaling up the action - they scale everything down, while actually making stakes higher then ever. And, I think, this is a very important point in the overall narrative of the story, of which people often tend to forget in the fervor of engaging entertainment: every life matters. A life of a great Admiral, of a count, of a princess - and of a lowlife criminal. In some areas moral is universal to every human -- and so many characters in this story come through the universal morality testing to actually come out triumphant.
This story is just brilliantly built. Each character plays their role, there are no unnecessary scenes, and all the parts of this mechanism come together in the beautiful peak that is the ending.
Though, some baaaaaaad stuff is here, as well. This part has only 10 episodes, and for some elements of the story to play in full it is not enough. Plus, the technical strain, as usual, raises its ugly head with some bad, bad, bad 3d models.
The beginning of the series for some reason spoils part of its ending with a flashforward and some weird meandering timeline stitching, which, as always for this series, was absolutely unnecessary and harmful. I actually ripped the stuff for myself and recut all main seasons to minimize the flow damage to the series, because oh my god, how better it works - at least for me - when structured in a more proper fashion.
As shame that this part is the last proper adaptation of Banner of the Stars. Following 2-parter OVA is far too compact and rushed to work, and further books, where the war makes some epic turns and we see some characters from unexpected angles, and in unexpected positions, are neither officially translated (though this will. I hope, change soon), nor adapted in any way.
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