Its really good except for a few minor pixelation on CGI scenes.

Perfect. Nuff said

Perfect. Nuff said

Great buy if your a sub fan but get Macs perfect collection if your not

Well the coloring was a little dull, and a few pixelations here and there but over all very nice.

I found no problems with the audio. I actully prefer the Japanese over the English dub.

I found no problems with the audio. I actully prefer the Japanese over the English dub.

The story, I love it. I'll leave it at that.

Ripped from the R2's. Really good except for minor macroblocking and ghosting in two or three episodes. This can be annoying. Other than that, the set is great.

No problems here.

No problems here.

Extras from the R2's were included in the set, but they weren't subbed, so big deal. Great show, although it leaves you hanging. Even though people say don't bother with Banner of the Stars, I'm still going to. I need more of this show (even though I'm gonna have to buy the R1's). 5/5

Great video picture was perfect the entire time

The audio quality was solid

The audio quality was solid

The story is very compelling. This is less like an anime script and more like a scifi mini series. The art was unique and the characters and backgrounds integrated well. This is an excellent space opera with many side themes...very captivating.

This is one of my favorite series. I've seen the sequels, and they don't compare with this one. This series does not rely one sillyness, like many other series. Yet, it manages to make you laugh. It is a pretty sophisticated series. Very well thought out. I saw this a while ago, but I vaguely remember the subtitles to be flawless. It had to be in order to fully appreciate the interesting dialogues. I highly recommend this first series of Crest of Stars. Try Birth, (a prequel) too. But I wouldn't bother with the two sequels.

I loved this series. It was a wonderfully done space opera! Finally ... a decent series without ninjas, mechas, or cute little junior high school girls!! I couldn't stop watching it - I had to go out & buy all the other parts to the series too ... sekai no senki etc. The audio was a little low but the video and subtitles were well done except for the usual HK typos in the subs. I'd say that this was as safe a buy as you can get if you enjoy your anime with a story line and some action here & there. The characters have depth and the story is well cultivated. A+ in my book :)

Video: 3.5/5 - some ghosting, but perfectly watchable Audio: 4.5/5 - perfect stereo Subs: 4.5/5 - Nearly perfect This is a great series, and a very good HK-set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I agree with the video, audio, and subs comments below. I'll just add that the first 8-9 episodes are excellent, followed by 3-4 just so so episodes. Otherwise this set is an excellent value.

Not much to say. Video: Great, DVD rip with a little bit of grain/small pixelation in the heavy action scenes. In a few scenes there's also a LITTLE ghosting. But this only happens in a few episodes, in a few scenes. Definately nothing to worry about. audio: Uhm... good. I guess. Nothing wrong with it. Subs: Very good, fansubs rips. I'd almost say 'perfect'. edited by Markaveli on 06 Oct 2002 2:43 am

Crest of the Stars is a can of worms dying to be openned. There is a sort of intangible attraction that absorbs you into the show and its characters. From the elaborate intro to the sweeping music tracks; this is anime on another level. Action is few and far between but the manner in which they pace the story makes it very worthwhile.

Video: 4/5 (some rather strange pixellation in some frames, mostly CGI related) Audio: 5/5 (no complaints) Subtitles: 4.5/5 (almost perfect) I really liked this series a lot! For once, we get sci-fi anime without giant robots. And it's excellent--very deep, very high production value, and an engrossing storyline. I won't try to summarize the story, because this has been done by others in great detail. There's an R1 release for this, but it's hard to find and rather expensive. This review is about the MI/AC release. Video: I have no complaints overall. The only slight glitch is that there are some places where the video shows strange artifacts. They may be part of the original source, but some of them just look way too weird to be the case. However, the non-CGI animation is absolutely fantastic, worthy of many anime movies. 4/5. Audio: No complaints at all. Keep in mind my audio setup is just a 27" Sanyo stereo TV, so I'm not especially aware of Dolby vs. 5.1 or any such things. But on my equipment, it sounded great. The casting for the voice overs is very good and fits each character like a glove. Subtitles: Excellent subs! I've noticed only one or two typos. The only problems with them is that 1. there's a lot of Ahb text on screen which has a Japanese subtitle, but they don't give an English subtitle, which means I have no idea what the text says; 2. when there is an English subtitle to Abh narration, it's set *over* the Japanese subtitle, and the latter can't be turned off--it's a bit hard to read, but I managed without having to pause the image, so it musn't be that bad; 3. the names are phonetically correct, but don't match the other spellings I've seen of them. It's not really a problem--it's just a bit strange. 4.5/5 Overall, you probably want to see this show if you're a fan of science fiction, whether in anime form or not. It would be a solid series regardless of the medium, anime or live action. edited by bge on 18 May 2002 3:14 pm

Excellent overall... packaging, subs, picture, and audio are all super. Only problem is the translations of the on screen text: sometimes there is none. But nothing that major. One of my first HK series, Crest of the Stars or Seikai no Monshou as it is known in Japan is one of the best anime out their. Truely an epic series similar to Legend of Galactic Heros. Based on a novel, the series has great detail and character developement and some of the best dialogue I've seen in anime. The story revolves around Ghinto and Lafiel and the coming galactic war. Some might find it lacking action especially at the begining, but make no mistake, this is a series you want to see to the end. Currently has two sequels; Seikai no Senki and Seikai no Senki II, a movie and a special.

Impressive quality all around. The story is very interesting and it really feels like a movie split into episodes, unlike Cowboy Bebop. It's pretty unique as this is one of the few animes with substantial amounts of dialogue, which is well written and fairly witty at times, and surprise, it's got ferocious space battles too. The detail is amazing, they've even introduced the fictional Abh language (both spoken and written - although the last one is taken from the book). Strongly recommend this one!

Very good set with top notch subs and excellent video quality. Definatly worth checking out. edited by pucky on 20 Mar 2002 4:14 pm

I have the region 1 set and the seller sent me this instead of Sekai no Senki so I compared the two. For $60 less, buy this set. The video and audio are almost the same and the sub is pretty close to the region one set too. You will not miss very much. Ofcoure the subtitles are not as good, but they are B quality compared to A quality so this is a set worth your money.

Cut to the chase here. Video - Excellent, obviously an R2 rip, very rich colors and very sharp. The only problem I could notice was in some episodes that used CG or computer effects for computer monitors and such, during movement you would get some blurriness on the video. See CG and low bit rates don't go together. It isn't bad, and its very minor compared to most HK sets. Its mostly a problem on one disc that has more episodes than the rest. Audio - no problems here, very good in all respects. Subs- Perfect subs here, most likely fansub scripts because of how good they are. Only minor things are the normal spelling errors that you get in HK sets. But perfect subs otherwise.