[May 2020 Tour] Jinto Linn: Adaptation in Space

Oh hey, long time followers, more than recent followers, and you new people who see this maybe. I seem to be back for another OWLS Tour. Fun times, right? Not really, I suppose. This new reality from Covid-19 we are facing by being forced to stay home has really taken a toll on all of us. I do work an essential job at the moment and I do walk the dog outside on very barren streets, so I have been outside more than a lot of people. I’m also an introvert, so being outside and energetic around other people is outside of my usual nature. So generally, I’ve been keeping myself together better than a lot of people. I’ve even been learning how to bake, so having more tasty treats around helps with moods for the most part. Mainly mine.

At the same time, my community band hasn’t met in a while and our concerts have been cancelled, church has come through online streaming so the community aspect of it isn’t as strong, and I haven’t seen friends in person in a few months. So no, I am not suffering as much as everyone else, but I have been hurt by not being able to see the kind and of genuine faces that I am use to seeing at least once a week. Adapting to this situation is just impossibly hard. Humans are social creatures. I am a very online person, but having my social interactions more online then usual doesn’t feel right to even people like me. I have fun online, but there is something about meeting in person that makes playing games more genuine, you know?

In case you are wondering, that’s what this month’s OWLS Tour is about. Adapting. Having characters learning to adapt to their new environments seems like one of the most basic things that an anime character can do because how loose the term adapting is. A character just learning how to cook something when another character teaches them could be called adapting. Same with a character going from middle school to high school because of all the changes in environment and people from that. That’s when I thought about series where I think adaptation is show cased as one of its character traits. I could work with an isekai series I like, but what about space? Then boom, it hit me. Banner and Crest of the Stars has Jinto Linn. Adaption is his character’s story.

Spoiler Warnings: While I am not going to spoil the entire story of the “OF the Stars” Series or even Jinto Linn’s story, I am going to share enough information that a person couldn’t walk into it blind if they are interested in the series. Maybe this will make you interested. Who really knows? Fun times ahead for sure.

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What Crest/Banner of the Stars Is About

Have you ever watched or read the classic sci fi a.i. stories where they have been abused and return to wipe out humanity after a while. Yeah, this series is like if that was turned on its head a little bit. In Crest of the Stars (I’m going to go with one, ok?), the Abh are an artificial space faring race created to travel through space for large amounts of times. They were created by humanity to be explorers. Now? They returned to live in human space freely. Not by conquering planets because those are left to their devices. You know, besides granting the local officials Abh titles. Kind of smart and easy decision considering planets don’t interest them a lot. Still a mark that they’ve been conquered by the Abh though which is offensive to some to be sure.

Crest of the Stars starts with one of those invasion events happening. The lonely and out of way planet by the name of Martine is one day visited by an Abh fleet. An Abh fleet with one of the most dry, sarcastic admirals possible just casually threatening the planet to turn over its control to them or else with sarcasm. You know, basically like he’s done this a hundred times already While the planet struggles to put up a defense with their one laser cannon against an entire fleet until the leader gives up his control and is an promoted to an Abh Royalty position and is taken off world. Does he save the world? Yes. Do the people of Martine hate him for it? Also yes.

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The Early Life of adaption with Jinto Linn

If you haven’t watched Crest of the Stars and didn’t know how that connected to Jinto Linn’s story, Jinto is the son of the leader who gave up his planet to the Abh. At eight years old, Jinto Linn became an Abh noble against before he even knew what was going on. Conquering a planet is a serious deal and a largely complicated matter. Nothing something an eight year old would ever understand unless they were a genius. So yeah, he was thrown into the world beyond his understanding. Literally. He was taken to another planet to learn the complex Abh language and culture before joining the military as a noble. You know, all without him ever having a say in the matter. All Abh nobles have to go to the military as a rule.

I think his early life before space military sounds like the hardest sort of adaptation that a person could have. This isn’t just going to high school or being isekai-ed away somewhere and having a chance to return. This harsh truth is Jinto’s reality and there is no escape from it for a long time until he can make his own way. I feel like all of this goes along with how his personality was when we saw him after a time skip. He didn’t fight back against the many changes thrown at him, he just casually accepted everything and went along with the trip. Then a certain Abh princess by the name of Lafiel showed up and things changed a little bit.

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When Things Slow Down

Lafiel is an interesting character on her own, but not going to say too much about her besides her being a Princess and having her life decided for her since the day she came to be. Something Lafiel dives into as hard as she can because she wants to rule. Lafiel was also the first member of the Abh race to meet him, so she left a very strong impression on him when calling him an Abh too. You know, because he’s one of many “landers” that is shuffled into the position of being an Abh. It’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Validation in something that you are forced to be in? I honestly wouldn’t know what to think here either because it’s such a strange situation to be a part of.

But yes, once Lafiel and Jinto meet, the story gets a strong focus. Jinto is following Lafiel’s dream, but he’s constantly questioning his place because he doesn’t feel like he belongs. Yes, he has a spot on Lafiel’s ship and yes he can easily fit into the role of being an Abh navial officer, but is that right? What if he could go back to being a lander? He’s spent time on two planets under Abh occupation. What does his homeland think of him since he was forced to leave? Can he go back and check to see how life would be without ever being an Abh? Forced adaptation has played a number on him. Just like a lot of people in this pandemic we are in.

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Conclusion

Thinking a little more about this, I think there is something to be said about being forced to adapt and how choice is a wonderful thing. It goes against the human nature thing of self-decided destiny and freedom of choice instead of going for the forced living condition to do what other people want you to do. There are people protesting the stay at home orders and/or don’t wear face masks in public currently or not and people are dying out there. I’ve had people I know die by this coronavirus and yet there are people out there protesting just wanting to die apparently. This is the world we live in where people care about their own freedom instead of the safety of the people around them.

You know what, at least we all aren’t locked away into royalty and have conditions that we have to live up to in order to live how we want later on in our lives. Like fighting in the military for a long time. You know, besides going to primary school before being sent off into the world. Being any level of royalty kind of sucks even if it comes with a prestigious title. Still, adapting to something goes against general human nature because we want to control everything that happens in our life and we can’t anticipate how others react, what will push things on us, or how the state of the world will change from a simple word. At the same time, adapting is a part of human nature too isn’t it? There is a reason why we liv ein wooden houses and apartment complexes and wear clothes instead of wearing animal fur and living caves. A person can’t survive without adapting to different circumstances.

Hope you are staying safe, everyone.

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OWLS Info

This post is from the May 2020 OWLS Tour. For those of you who haven’t heard of what OWLS is may be asking me and other people what that is. Well, that’s an easy question to answer. OWLS, also known as Otaku Warriors for Liberty and Self-Respect, is a group of otaku bloggers who promote the acceptance of all individuals.

There will be no judgement of people based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, or disability here. All of this is about humanity for humanities sake and hopeful betterment. Each month, our members are given a topic to write about and each of us approaches that topic in our own way. If you want to know more, please click here to go to our OWLS Blog Page. Find us here and maybe you can join us! We are always looking for more people.

If you liked this post and want to read more, Taku posted yesterday about ID:Invaded and Naja writing about something cool on Tuesday. Otome Games. Check out whose posting from this OWLS tour here.