For decades, the Galactic Empire has been locked in an interstellar war with the Free Planets
Alliance, a conflict that involves thousands of spaceships and millions of soldiers on both sides. Two
new commanders enter the conflict with great hopes: Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the
FPA's Yang Wen-Li. As they deal with superiors and subordinates, maneuver through complicated
political arrangements, plot strategies, and win battles, each will be tested, and ultimately,
changed, by the reality of war.
(Source: Anime News Network)
For a while, some of the people who I usually talk to on MAL have come to claim that I am some kind of contrarian, due to my refusal to shout unconditional praise for some works considered to be “classics” in the same fashion a few circles do. I don’t feel that is true, though, when taking into account my general stance (just look at my other reviews!), it just so happens that I have a very particular way of judging any given work, hipster glasses off. For that same reason, when I began watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes, or Ginga Eyiuu Densetsu, I tried to free myself from any external preconception, so that by the end only my own judgment would be as fair a result as possible, coming only from my own perspective and no one else’s. Currently, the anime sits at 8th place among the highest scored titles on MAL, with an average score of 9,10, so you might imagine that analyzing it is kind of a big deal. It also has a somewhat small but quite dedicated audience that takes it in very high regard, besides being a generally respected work. This is the point where the petulant me raises his voice among the crowd to say “Well, I have some disagreements to make here!” Just for fun, I’m going to call this one GED, because fuck me if I had to write any of the acronyms the series has whenever I need to refer to it! __Story and Characters__ Oh boy, this one is a beast! As you might imagine, properly tackling a show like GED is not necessarily an easy task if you plan on doing it in depth: it has a total run time of 110 episodes, the storyline is divided into two main fronts, a fair share of it is dedicated to politics and it’s fucking packed with dialogue! For the sake of my sanity (I still have it, don’t worry!), this will be another review where I’ll tackle the different aspects of the series separately, in order to voice praises and criticisms in an easily digestible way. By the way: due to its scope and the themes the series tackles, both positives and negatives are heightened in the big picture, so if it seems that I’m being overly harsh to poor GED, keep in mind that there are equally strong positives to help mitigate the issues I’m about to discuss, and people have talked to death about such positives, so allow me to be somewhat picky this time. The best way to begin this will be to address who are the main forces at play in the story, so let’s get to them. Two major forces are at war in the universe of GED: the Free Planets Alliance and the Galactic Empire, represented by Yang Wenli and Reinhard von Lohengram, respectively, the two characters to receive major focus from the narrative. The two develop a rivalry between themselves and the presence of one in the battlefield is bound to call for the other. Starting with the Alliance, Yang Wenli is the tosser who hates coffee. I’m sorry, there’s more to his character, but I still can’t forgive him for that posh attitude. Yang is laid-back, somewhat lazy, quite introspective and has a strong devotion to the concept of democracy. This last trait is highly emphasized by the show, although it tends to get quite overbearing at some points, making his character come off as very preachy. In these instances it seems like he is more of a mouth-piece of the concept itself, because besides spouting general observations about history, he's not very effective at defending why democracy is the better system. Humm, I wonder if this is what people who hate Urobuchi mean when they criticize his characters. ~~~img550(http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/958/964/d1a.jpg) __At least the man knows friendship is something to cherish.__~~~ Close to Yang is Julian Minci, a teenager who lives under Yang’s tutelage after losing his parents, who shows to be highly curious and with far more active and responsible demeanor than Yang. Julian is mostly relegated to secondary role, but around episode 82, when the rivalry between Yang and Reinhard is resolved, he becomes the focus on the Alliance’s side. Episode 83, by the way, has a particularly great character moment between Julian and Frederica Greenhill, Yang’s wife, who decides to take political responsibilities after spending most of her screen-time being just an add-on to the plot. For the most part, it seems that his arc is going to be that of becoming just a doppelganger of Yang (seriously, he begins to speak and monologue just like Yang, at some points), up until near the end of the series, when he takes action to be an agent of change in the manner Yang is not capable of. Also close to Yang is Schenkopp, captain of the Knights of the Rose, an elite group of soldiers feared in combat. Having been born in the Empire, but exiled from there still in his childhood, Schenkopp works as the practical balance to Yang’s over-analytical personality and often offers him questions in regard to the validity of his believes. On the Empire side there is Reinhard, a young, authoritative and slightly idealistic but still down to earth rising military prodigy (on the anime’s standards, that is!) who decides to make a name during the war in order to garner power and influence so he can one day save his sister, who was taken as a concubine by the emperor, as well as overthrow the current ruling force of the Galactic Empire and reform the rules of the galaxy. It’s visible that some of the influence held by Reinhard at the beginning comes from the preference the emperor has for his sister, but that is also supported by his talent and effectiveness in combat. Reinhard hates the nobles and the current ruling dynasty, the Goldenbaum, and his desire to be the next regent puts a target on his back, as he gains the contempt from the nobles. The emperor could not care less, funny enough, the guy just wants to enjoy life and wait for death. The closest friend of Reinhard is Siegfried Kircheis (I’m starting to get a slight bias against Germanic names!), a man who has been in love with Reinhard’s sister, Annerose, and vows to help him conquer the galaxy. Kircheis is extremely loyal to his friend and serves as his moral compass at the start of the series. His influence decreases as the series goes on, though, and that brings the most visible changes in Reinhard’s character, making him more ambitious and prideful. In case you are wondering, this is a positive. ~~~img400(http://pm1.narvii.com/6242/0aa543ad8c0e975834a37b15cf58f2220ec4c9ce_hq.jpg) __Unleash the Fujoshis!__~~~ Next in the line of influence is Oberstein. He is cunning, stoic, an absolutely deceiving bastard full of dubious intent who constantly challenges the viewer into pondering what his real intentions are. In other words, Oberstein is amazing, the best character in the show, every moment he’s on screen is a better moment and if you disagree you are just flat out wrong. I’m not biased. Due to his methods of getting results, he is compared to a medicine that creates strong adverse effects and garners a great amount of distrust and hatred from other officials. Bunch of ungrateful fucks! His character offers a great contrast to that of Reinhard. While Reinhard is good natured at heart and charismatic, he is still ambitious for glory and cherishes the pride of battle, which are heroic traits on the surface, but still result in the deaths of millions. Oberstein, in the other hands, is not afraid of being hated, seen as the bad guy and of using methods that are considered cowardly or dishonorable, but still minimize damage and the loss of lives. ~~~img350(http://i.imgur.com/l0o5N0P.jpg) __He knows how to surprise even his superiors!__ ~~~ From Reinhard’s admirals, the most notable ones are Mittenmeyer and Reuental, two close friends who share their leader’s disdain for the nobility. While Mittenmeyer is optimistic, strongly tied to family and somewhat naïve with politics, Reuental is dreary, cynical and ambitious, which makes some of their interactions almost comedic in the way that Reuental reads into other characters in a manner Mittenmeyer is oblivious of. The remaining officials under Reinhard’s command are very straight-forward and simplistic characters, but they have just the necessary amount of depth for the position they occupy within the narrative, which is not detrimental to the series. Let’s be honest, folks, would it really be important to have Bittenfeld or Lennenkamp be fleshed out any more? On the side of the Alliance, though, I’ll not forgive Poplan, that guy needed a major overhaul in writing. He appears frequently enough to be a relevant character, yet 90% of his dialogue is of the same breed: remind the audience he’s a womanizer, crack a joke about him being a womanizer and occasionally take a cheap jab at Attenborough. This is not quirky, this is one-dimensional! The biggest drawback for GED in the character department is the antagonists. While the bulk of the conflict revolves around Yang and Reinhard’s rivalry, a sizeable portion of conflict also comes from specific antagonistic forces acting against each one specifically, or against both at once, like Rubinsky and the Cult of Terra. The problem with such antagonists, though, is that, except for Rubinsky, they are poorly written, one-dimensional, severely deficient on the brain-department and meet their end in anticlimactic fashion. Now, you may ask why I’m being critical of the antagonists being lackluster while cutting some slack for Reinhard’s officials, so let me clarify: conflict is what moves a narrative; therefore if the agents who bring forth that conflict are subpar it damages the work as a result, as it implies that not enough thought was put into that aspect of the story. The biggest offenders, when it comes to characterization at least, are the corrupt politicians from the Alliance who decide to go against Yang. Most of them are not even characters themselves, just plot devices that appear in the narrative in order to bring trouble upon Yang, having absolutely no logical reason to do so. They have nothing to gain from throwing the guy under the bus, ESPECIALLY once the war has ended, and no justifiable reason to go against the one who was their biggest asset during the war. For all intents and purposes, they are shooting themselves in the foot out of pure irrational spite. The ones who get some semblance of characterization are shown to be pathetically easy to manipulate buffoons with no vision of the danger they willingly throw themselves into because of unfounded fears. On this side of the galaxy there is also the Order of the Patriotic Knights, who are big offenders of logic. This order is a known terrorist group, under the control of Truniht, the Alliance’s major asshole, and yet they are somehow seen making public speeches and attack dissident voices in broad daylight, at the exact moment it would bring more attention and raise suspicions about their connections to Truniht (just see episode 03). ~~~img500(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CG7r4NtVAAAgydL.jpg) __Hi, we've heard you need a plot-hole, so we got one fresh out the oven!__~~~ Against Reinhard there are the nobles from the empire, who see on him a threat to their position, this one at least being a grounded and logical fear, as Reinhard genuinely wants to reform the empire and bring an end to the nobles’ abuses. These nobles, however, are fundamentally one-dimensional characters. Think about the very stereotypical picture of an entitled douchebag noble you’ve seen plenty of times in fiction and you’ll get exactly what these characters are. They show absolute disdain for the lower classes, see themselves as having some sort of inherent superiority, similar to kings who saw themselves as chosen by God in centuries past, are easily prone to act recklessly and blatantly stupid when their pride is hurt and, when cornered, become absolute cowards. No wonder they are the first ones to go down. ~~~img350(https://i.imgur.com/WmjAi7S.jpg) __That's right, Reinhard, don't inspect the enemy who just came him the room pushing a massive coffin! __~~~ Acting against both sides you have Rubinsky and the Cult of Terra. Rubinsky is the feudal lord of Phezzan, an independent planet whose economy is heavily based on trading between the Alliance and the Empire. He happens to be the antagonist with the better characterization, being treacherous, ambitious, karma-savvy, but still highly self-aware and with a hint of spite on his tongue. Sadly, Rubinsky is not immune to stupidity, as his major plan during the mid-section of the story suffers from a major flaw that the audience can see coming from 10 miles away. Seriously Rubinsky, did you really not expect Reinhard to come rudely knocking on your door so he could get to your neighbor of the other side? Ultimately, though, the major issue with Rubinsky is that he becomes simply a plot device by the end. He appears when needed during the second half to instigate some conflict, which will turn out mostly ineffectual by the end, and when that role is exhausted he is simply discarded by the narrative. That same fate is shared by the Cult of Terra, the agents of several plot-relevant events throughout the series. In essence, the cult is a religious group who sees Earth as a sacred land and holds the restoration of its power and relevance as their ultimate goal, an objective they are willing to use terrorism to fulfill. While the main goal and core belief of the group is clear, the nature of the Cult of Terra as a religion is fundamentally left unexplored. Here is something that bugged me as I watched the series: why do people even join this cult? Earth, by this point, is a completely irrelevant planet, populated by just a few million people and with very little natural and technological resources, so making it the center of humanity again would be unfeasible. This even raises inconsistences as to how did the Cult have enough money to finance the rise of Phezzan as an independent state. Aside from that, the ideas that could make the cult attractive to people around the galaxy are never explored, its fundaments never brought up. The entire religion serves as nothing more than a generic antagonist, complete with an unfaithful douchebag leader and servants willing to blindly sacrifice themselves with no prospect of victory, so it’s easy to conclude that the religious aspect was implemented simply because it was the easiest to insert without raising as many questions as some other brand of villain would. Religions act based on faith, so who cares if it doesn’t make sense within the story anyway? ~~~img400(https://lowermidtable.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/logh63.jpg) __The terrifying might of the Cult of Earth__~~~ For the sake of comparison, look at the religion of Vodarac in Eureka Seven, or the Church of Yaldabaoth from Arslan Senki, another of Tanaka’s works (I don’t even care if you think it isn’t a good series, the parallel is valid!). In Eureka Seven, it’s explained about the meaning of the concept of Vodarac, its connection to the Coralian and what it means to its believers, as well as the effect of it in the narrative and the way it ties to the faith itself. In the case of the Church of Yaldabaoth, being the world of Arslan Senki one with rudimentary science, it’s logical that people would attach themselves to a religion that seeks to explain the universe, especially one that is the official faith of its nation and holds executing “infidels” as common practice. In both series the reasoning for people to join the faith is clearly defined and doesn’t raise contradictions in regards to their role within the story. Taking Earth out of the equation, the Cult of Terra could easily be turned into a terrorist group with political motivation and their role in the series would have been essentially the same. Throughout the series, the Cult continuously loses power, until it decides to do a desperate attack and is finally ended in anti-climactic fashion. Speaking of political motivations, let’s talk about something where the series excels at. A very commendable trait of GED’s depiction of politics is that it doesn’t depict only the game of power, but it also includes the human factor within it. Paying some attention to modern and old politics will show that personal beliefs, morally influenced ideologies and the desire to be an agent of good play a role in governments almost as big as the standard game of interests and intrigues. Not to say that the series leaves aside that aspect either, you can easily see that at play within the nobles of the Empire and even more within the Alliance, where corrupt politicians abuse power in order to manipulate media and keep their levels of influence. If you’ve read various analyses of the series, you might have heard a few times (or many, as I have!) the main question it brings up: what is better, a corrupt democracy or a just autocracy? While the characters on the Alliance side, or at least the good ones, are very devote to the principle of democracy, as it’s in their belief that a govern that still has to bow to the people’s will is fairer, the show itself seems to have a slight bias towards autocracy, perceptible in the way it treats Reinhard’s actions and the effect of his government. Another trait that is commonly highly praised by the fans of GED is its battles, both in the epic scale present in them, as well as the strategies in display. Sadly, this is another aspect I’ll have to criticize. There are issues in the depiction of battle tactics, in the presentation and in the writing itself. Let’s start with the strategies. I suppose video-games don’t exist in this distant future, since even though these battles take place in space, where they would have freedom to position and maneuver fleets in all directions, nobody takes advantage of the z-axis. The vast majority of space battles take place in a strict two-dimensional plane, and you can count in one hand the amount of instances someone remembered they could move up or down with their massive spaceships. This leads to the most glaring problem: the vast majority of the tactics used are predictable and simplistic. What can eventually break the monotony is the introduction of futuristic elements, like Zeffir particles, but for the most part such strategies involve just fleet positioning that Hannibal would consider just part of a beginners guide: multiple times it’s visible when the some fleet (usually lead by Attenborough) is retreating to lure the enemy into their plan, or when one fleet is about to be surrounded by the enemy, the biggest offenders in this case being Bittenfeld and Fahrenheit in episode 79. There’s another aspect to this issue, but this one I’d like to discuss when talking about the presentation. Eventually, this creates a disconnect between what is show on screen to what the show keeps telling us in regards to Yang and Reinhard’s supposed strategic brilliance. For my money, I’d bet on Bucock being the one that truly displays to be an strategic mastermind, as even though he only leads two battles, both of them are masterfully conducted. In both instances, Bucock makes excellent use of the scenario surrounding the troops, predicts enemy movement, leads them into successful traps and manages to hold off vastly bigger armies. For all accounts, he only loses because the plot demands so. GED actually makes a strong case for the value of experience against natural talent, if you look at it that way, as Merkatz also shows to be a much more cunning military leader than his young counterparts. When it comes to issues with the writing, it’s visible on how the usual antagonistic forces that get in the way of the main heroes are defeated by their own incompetence, to a point that can sometimes become contradictory to what their characters are supposed to be. When faced by Yang or Reinhard, it’s not uncommon for admirals and generals to commit grossly amateurish mistakes that the audience itself can see through. Here is an example: one of the first battles in the series, designed to “prove” Reinhard’s genius, is one where his fleet is outnumbered AT LEAST 3 to 1 by the Alliance’s army. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Now here is a question; if you are close to engaging the enemy in combat and your troops have vast numerical superiority over theirs, how do you proceed: position your army in a manner that allows you to quickly surround and dispatch the enemy forces, minimizing damage taken and preventing them from escaping, or you separate your soldiers in troops small enough to be inferior to your enemy and position them in a way they can easily be picked apart and destroyed? Because this last one was the method chosen by the Alliance’s fleet. By all accounts, Reinhard took the advantage not because of any brilliant strategy, but because of his enemy’s crushing idiocy. I say that these are issues with the writing because, being such characters experienced commanders, such rookie mistakes should be out of the equation if the idea is to highlight the efficiency of the main cast or make the antagonist seem like even slightly competent characters. ~~~img500(https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/yang-wenli/images/5/5e/Fourth_Battle_of_Tiamat.png/revision/latest?cb=20101014113159) __See if you can find who you care about in the middle of this mess!__~~~ The last issue I’d like to discuss in this section is the role of the narrator within the work. Now, the existence of a narrator in a work like this is not an issue; when you have a large universe with organization far different from what your audience is accustomed, it’s natural to include narration to ease your audience in, so that the elements of the story don’t come out as jarring. The problem with the narrator in GED, and this is possibly the most pervasive issue, is how overbearing it is. This obnoxious prick constantly chimes in the most varied situations to give away stuff that could be easily inserted within dialogue or individual thoughts without compromising the narrative, when he’s not giving away bafflingly pointless details. He blatantly spouts what the characters are feeling and thinking at certain moments, he narrates actions and emotions the exact moment after we saw the characters act it on screen, adding nothing to the scene (“Not being able to defeat Yang, Bittenfeld got extremely irritated” thanks, by I noticed that on my own!), he even feels the need to tell how many spoons of soup Reinhard ate! His is also one of the voices you’ll hear the most during battles, as they frequently opt to have days take place within an episode with only the narration explaining the events. This problem has a lot to do with the source material the anime was based on, the novels: that overbearing style of narration and the way certain events of the story are paced within the narrative are very characteristic of how a novel is written. The issue here is that GED was not translated from one media to the other in any smooth fashion, even as an anime, it retains a style of narration that is not fit for this media specifically. Since anime is an audiovisual media, it benefits more from having the scene and the characters themselves show what is going on, not having it spelled out for the viewer. __Presentation__ Let’s be honest, folks: taking into consideration the amount of whisky, wine and beer consumed by these characters, I’d say half of the main to secondary cast should recognize they have some sort of drinking problem! I can’t be the only one who sees that! Ok, going back to the space battles, let’s talk about that last issue I mentioned. As you watch the series, you’ll most likely notice these battles are presented in two manners: the first one, obviously, are those where we get an overview of the combat, with the massive spaceships firing at the enemy and hundreds being blown up in both sides; the other one is the fleet movement being displayed in the monitors and commented. The first point of contention here is the way the action displays how these battles evolve: the sequences of lasers getting fired are not enough to convey the flow of the battle, so most of the information about the combat is relayed by the characters in command, making the action itself lackluster. These sequences lack the flare that traditional action sequences have and it took me a while to understand why, but I would, controversially, say that the scope is the source of the issue. The numbers are all so high, counting on dozens of thousands of ships and millions of soldiers, that the series has difficulty properly framing that within the combats and simply displaying random ships being blow up doesn’t cut it, it’s not enough for the viewer to understand how those particular vessels being destroyed is in anyway meaningful to the big picture, when so many of them are shown in every battle and rarely anyone important is in them. Also, just looking at enormous ships far apart from each other be destroyed doesn’t pack the same variety and creativity seen in traditional action sequences the media can provide, like gunfights, swordfights or the tried-and-true mecha-battles, so the combats in GED don’t take long to seem somewhat “samey”. ~~~img400(https://lowermidtable.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/logh79.jpg) __Riveting, isn't it?__~~~ Let me get a bit light with the bashing, though, I can feel the target on my back itching. If you wanna know about the animation: it’s pretty good, son. It’s distinct, not featuring the most common visual tropes associated with anime, characters have varied designs, making it easily to distinguish them immediately and the series generally packs a unique visual identity, setting it apart within the media. Sometimes you can see a few shoddy frames, but the work generally has very stable animation quality. One aspect that might be divisive when it comes to the visual presentation is the Imperial’s infatuation with 1800s style fashion, architecture, furniture and pretty much everything else. Seriously, they even use gold coins to bribe a guy at one point! Whether you find this particular visual identity goofy, thematic relevant, stylistically clever or just plain unnecessarily is up to you, but it does raises some questions in regards to world consistency and logic. It took me 42 episodes to see the first security camera on the streets of an imperial city, for once, while none seemed to be present at the Emperor’s residence. When in focus is on the military aspect, though, there’s care put into making the pomp of each rank translate into their appearance, with uniforms distinct to common soldiers, generals, admirals and so forth. You probably want me to talk about the soundtrack, which is composed of classical pieces, but here is the problem: I barely notice them! Perhaps that is because I was so focused on the dialogue and plot that I happen to miss them, but I generally could not remember the pieces that played throughout the series. Same can’t be said about the voice acting though, which is packed with classical voices from anime, like Shiozawa Kaneto (Rei, from Hokuto no Ken), Inoue Kazuhiko (Cyborg 009, Kakashi, etc), Horikawa Ryo (Vegeta) and Sakakibara yoshiko (the Puppet Master, from Ghost in the Shell), pulling their A-game here. __Personal Ramblings__ It’s clear to many that, while critically acclaimed, GED is also somewhat of a niche product, so let’s do that exercise I like to bring up and try to understand why it garners such reputation. For once, the audience who composes fans of the series seems to be composed mostly by people who are drawn to older works, so having started in the late 80s certainly gives it that old-school appeal. The series also has a distinctive aesthetic that is a clear departure from the standard anime-look, even for the time it began serialization. That aesthetic possibly helped sediment it as a work of clearly serious tone, appealing for those who looked for something of more mature look within the media. Adding to that, the characters are mostly adults, certainly appealing for anime-fans who are somewhat tired of the overreliance on teenage/kid characters that we see throughout the media. Lastly, the theme of politics is one that is not seen so often even in other media, and seeing it being tackled gives an intelligent vibe to shows that are able to handle it properly. Also helps that the entire work is design to have a very classy feel to it. This might not be the most accurate assessment to make, but I believe most people tend to look at anime only focusing on the big picture: the most surprising twists, the main actions protagonists partake, the big events in the plot. Looking solely at the big picture, Legend of the Galactic Heroes sure is an impressive work: whole solar systems are involved in the conflicts, battles feature impressive large numbers, it has long spamming plans taking place, deals with an universal concept and its main characters are noticeably treated as larger-than-life people (none of them up to Samus level, but hey, they do their best!). However, I think that when you look at it with your mind on the details is that the nuances, real qualities and flaws become a lot more noticeable, and when it comes to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, its qualities are surely strong and worth comenting, but its flaws are also quite persistent for it to be among what I consider to be the very best in anime.
Legend of Galactic Heroes (LoGH) is one of my favorite shows in any genre. There can be a tendency for fans of certain anime to overly praise things that aren’t that great as some kind of “too deep for you to get it” masterpiece of writing, so I was a little wary heading in to this one. It turns out that in this instance, the brigades singing a show’s praises are (for the most part) absolutely right. Shows like this are a balm for anyone tired of the endless parade of cute girls doing cute thing shows; or tired of watching shows where the protagonist ends up being a lazy, whiny, good for nothing who just has things in life handed to him or her for no discernable reason. This is a show about galactic history being made and unmade by great men and women and the difficult decisions that accompany all such struggles. LoGH, when approached with the right mindset, is one of the best space operas that has been put on film. While it’s not perfect (what is?), it is one of the best animated fiction stories that I’ve had the pleasure of sitting through. There are some problems and challenges with the show, and these may end up making the show tough for some to watch, so I figure I’ll get these listed and out of the way. 1.) The artwork and animation are dated. While I don’t think that this is a show that needs to rely on flashy visuals to tell its story, this is a 30-year-old anime and shows its age. 2.) This is a dialogue heavy anime. There are a great many scenes where major characters sit around drinking, philosophizing, scheming, and occasionally bullshitting around. LoGH tells its story to you through these conversations and doesn’t rely heavily on narrative recaps or other exposition. Exposition is there at points, but this is a show that you have to pay attention to in order to understand what characters are thinking and doing. With the dated visuals and animations, this isn’t going to be a flashy style over substance show. 3.) This show demands a lot from the viewer. While I think that anyone can enjoy the show if they enjoy a space opera, the more historically educated the viewer is, the more they will get out of the discussions. (Knowing a bit of Prussian history helps a LOT with understanding the Galactic Empire for example). You aren’t going to be pandered to with nonstop flashy action sequences (see problem 2) so it’s a little tough to turn your mind off if that’s what you want to do. 4.) At 110 episodes, this show is an investment of time. While there are a lot of shows out there that go longer than this, those looking for something quick and light to watch aren’t going to find that here. This series takes its time to build up the characters, factions, history, and battles. I feel that this show is worth the investment, but some people aren’t going to like the fact that it’s going to take quite a few sessions to get through this one. That out of the way, regardless of one’s preconceptions, if you have any serious interest in history, political philosophy, space opera fiction, music and its role in narrative, or heroic character studies, then you owe it to yourself to watch this show. As I said, this show isn’t perfect, but it’s a tour de force that becomes greater than the sum of its parts the more you dive in and invest your time. There are other shows that can do certain of the themes I mentioned earlier in this paragraph better than the way that LoGH does, but it’s very rare to find a show so well rounded and constructed that it ends up doing all of these things at such a consistently high level. Without spoiling anything major, at a broad stroke the series is about the political and military confrontation of an autocratic Galactic Empire and a democratic oriented Free Planetary Alliance group in the major arc. There are other minor political/economic interests that have their own loyalties and diplomatic ties, specifically a nominally neutral trading alliance based between the two major factions, as well as a religious cult that operates behind the scenes and has its own agenda and goals. What makes the show as compelling to watch as it is has a lot to do with the fact that we’re watching case studies of great men who struggle against their factions decaying political institutions. It feels like you are observing great history in the making, being along for the ride if you will, following interesting characters who very much become heroes in the classic sense of forging their own destiny and trying to remake their world and their place in the universe. There’s a bit of Joseph Campbell in here, as well as Machiavelli and the other greats of politics to deal with as well, but it’s up to the viewer to discover the themes themselves. I think that the beauty of LoGH is that it doesn’t come right out and tell you that one faction or way of doing things is “the correct way”. Much dialogue is spent debating the merits of democracy vs. autocracy and the major players in this historical drama each have their own opinions and are well versed enough to engage in the ramifications of each system and its strengths and weaknesses. There is also a distinct level of respect and decorum towards the other faction that harkens back to earlier times in our own history where opponents were treated with dignity and honor. This ends up doing the viewer a great service by not reducing the different sides to an obvious paragon of all that is good and virtuous, and their cartoonish villainous counterpoint who manifests all that is wrong and evil and probably kicks puppies for fun. LoGH doesn’t seek to spoon feed you the answers or give you an obvious team to “root” for. LoGH respects your intelligence and lets you watch and make your own decisions as there are good and bad folks on each side. It also does this in a way that one doesn’t need to be versed in multiple languages to read the original works of the great philosophers and political thinkers to have an understanding of what’s going on either. The show’s dialogue ends up being presented in a way that those who don’t care about reading up on history or politics can easily follow along perfectly well. It can also be appreciated on a different level if one does understand these things as well. Even having a good knowledge of classical music and how the pieces tie in to the mood and what’s going on screen, while unnecessary to enjoy the show, will open up another avenue of enjoyment that one could explore as well. The show layers this complexity in a way that never reaches the heights of pretentiousness that some other pieces end up wallowing in. There’s little that’s shown that doesn’t end up building the narrative or fleshing out characters in a reasonable manner. With regards to the great characters of this show, they are almost too many to list. Yang Wen-li and Reinhard von Lohengramm are great faction leaders. These are great men by deed and accomplishment, but also have realistic and somewhat tragic weaknesses that make them human and, in many ways, relatable to us. They are also the two premier military minds of their respective factions and watching their strategies unfold is great. That’s not to say that these two steal the show all the time, however. There are other great characters that all have their own development and strengths and weaknesses to work through. You’ll have favorites and those who are memorable as the show goes along. The voice acting is great and emotional, and in a dialogue heavy show like this, that’s a blessing. There are a ton of great voice actors in this, and they do a great job of making their characters and their personalities come to life. LoGH doesn’t pander by having characters act in ways that are outside of their character (at least not very often) for plot convenience. Characters who succeed one show by aggressively attacking may end up being hoisted by their own petard in a later episode by acting in a similar way. Most of the characters follow their principles whether or not it actually leads them to the correct choice or not. Watching the chess games between people trying to outguess each other’s strategies plays out well and you get the feel of watching a giant chess match between great military generals at times, even if on occasion, you do wonder about the success rate of certain characters. It actually ends up making you think even more about what is and is not the right course of action to take in certain circumstances. Some decisions that seem like admirable adherence to principles or really smart at the time actually come back to haunt later in the series as well, adding another layer of depth to the overarching philosophical questions that are constantly raised. There are other minor things that make the show great as well, such as the pacing and world building, which may seem slow at first, but actually works out really well by showing how the major players interact and what’s going on behind the scenes. Occasional episodes will fill you in on the history and direction of both factions, so you eventually become your own expert, and you are never wondering about the background details of the story or how things got to where they are. You understand how you got here, and where things are going. Coming from some other shows that simply exist as manga or light novel advertisements, where background information is sparse, sometimes nonsensical, or requires you to read novels, manga or wikis outside of the program to understand what’s really going on this is refreshing and makes you feel like you’re watching something where the author actually understood how to tell a complete story. The soundtrack of classical works always ends up complementing what’s going on screen and captures the mood quite well. You’ll hear soaring themes during battles and major moments, and you’ll hear great pastoral music when characters are off in the countryside. Having a bit of knowledge of the great works isn’t necessary to enjoy the music, but students of music will smile at how well each piece of music’s theme goes along with its scene. A full soundtrack for this show would be deep and broad, as there are generally 6-10 pieces over each of the 110 episodes. It’s been said by many that LoGH is Star Wars done right and while I don’t think that LoGH is trying to do quite what George Lucas’s series was trying to do, the statement has merit. There have been some great space operas over the years, but few are quite as thought provoking and entertaining as LoGH. Once again, this series is a must watch for anyone looking for a space opera that will stick with them and give them things to think about for years to come. There is no perfect animated series out there. However, Legend of Galactic Heroes rightly deserves a spot in the upper echelons as a champion that transcends the medium. I can’t recommend it enough.
~~~ # **An army is a tool for violence, and there are two kinds of violence... Violence to control and oppress, and violence as a means of liberation.** *** # **Attention: SPOILERS AHEAD** img440(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/401758812790325248/557596949142831134/legend_of_galactic_heroes_gay.gif) ~~~ *** First things first: I think I now get the appeal of the fandom surrounding this work. The directorial differences to modern works, the reputation of the series, and sheer length of it prove as a barrier to entry to it that makes many that cross the boundary feel some kind of exclusivity to it all. There are not that many that finished the series, and having most conversations about it be in high praise about the show definitely lends that exclusivity feeling a nice air. **But**, I have few but intense grievances with the show that keep me from drinking the kool aid and going full circle jerk about the work, and I'll get to them first before I'll bring the post back home to the many aspects that are genuinely great about the show afterwards. So hang on tight for the next paragraphs, I promise to end the post on a high note. ~~~**The Bad**~~~ *** First of them: For your own sake, please please always skip the previews. The narrator spells out exactly what happens in the next episode. There's no bait and switch like with some previews nowadays. You have been warned. In a world where we hate on works like SAO for having endless, boring, and visually bland exposition dumps; it was impossible for me to overlook this with LotGH. Watching Monogatari alongside this show likely didn't help either. And this is not necessarily a critique on the dialogue writing part. High strung aristocracy talk comes with the expectations, that's okay. Monogatari had it's fair share of technobabble and pretentious dialogue that is entirely out of place for high schoolers. The show consists in overwhelmingly large parts of two or more characters talking at each other. But the cinematography and direction failed to stand the test of time. The visual language just doesn't carry the political and techno babble to a level where just watching the people converse would be interesting. To be perfectly fair, *most* modern anime still has trouble creating great blocking and composition for exposition scenes, but some gems like the fence discussion in the first episode of The Promised Neverland (with truly great blocking from 12:00 onward), exist. Or my personal benchmark for an interesting conversational scene would be the final confrontation between Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the 2008 movie Doubt, where the camera and actors are like in a dance with each other. This leads me to another directorial blunder which the series repeatedly makes. Every few episodes, there will be a scene which is entered and left without leadin and leadout time. And they're almost exclusively conversations. I once literally caught myself wondering what the fuck happened when the episode went from one conversation cutting to an entirely different one between Phezzani or Republic Alliance citizens (can't quite remember) without lead-in time jumping straight to the meat of conversation, and leaving as fast as we entered back to the scene that preceded it. I wondered: who are these people, where does this scene come from, how does it fit contextually with the scene surrounding it? Thankfully though, this happens less than the harsh tone of the paragraph might suggest. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd call this a nitpick of mine. The last of my big gripes, and an entirely personal one, with the series would be, that the whole package, the execution, just didn't land as well for me as it surely has for a great deal of viewers. With exception of the things I already stated above, I can't quite put my finger on why that is. I went into the series promising myself that I'd watch at least one episode per day, which I later bumped to two, seeing as it would just take too much time for me. I largely sticked to that schedule, but there definitely were stretches of time where I had dreaded the need to watch more episodes, where I already forgot all of the political babble from the day before. Never enough for me to consider dropping the series, but I'd lie if I would say I enjoyed the entire ride. ~~~**Minor Gripes**~~~ *** I could not help but be bugged about the stark contrast between their capacity for faster than light travel, and the large spans of time they spend traveling from system to system. But I recognize that the story structure did not provide any elegant solution to this problem. True warp would deflate any sense of tension and urgency in battles when you could just instantly call for reinforcements. But the need for the tech to exist is there, if you want realistic distances between systems, and travel within normal human lifespans between them to be possible. But, why did they never distinguish between normal and ftl travel? Is there even a difference? If so —and the moving of Geiersburg Fortress, and the visuals accompanying it suggest so— why did no one consider using warp for escape/pursuit or use as a relativistic kill vehicle? To be fair though, these problems plague most space operas, and in the big scheme of things it's no big deal. It's only if you **break** established conventions like The Last Jedi did, using that Rebel ship as a relativistic kill vehicle, which then in turn calls all preceding space battles and the lack of the use of that tactic into question. In that regard, by never distinguishing a difference between normal and ftl travel, and never bringing relativistic kill vehicles up, LotGH at least stayed consistent with itself, hence this only being a minor gripe. Considering that the work is set thousands of years in the future, the exclusive adherence to traditional gender roles, and at times a bit misogynistic views are a bit odd. This dawned on me by episode 100, where the new Galactic Empire higher ups debate about succession rights and women's role in that aspect. By series end it looked like Reinhard and Hilda had differing views on that though. And all in all the latent misogyny in LotGH can be chalked up to it being an artifact of the time in which the work was written. ~~~**The Awesome**~~~ *** Okay then, with the depressing stuff out of the way, let's get to the main dish. While I was indifferent to the classical score of the show for most parts of it, while most everyone loves the idea of it, there were times when they chose a fitting piece, where it really hit me. `E97's use for Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3: I. Kräftig. Entschieden` is such a case for me. Perusing Gineipaedia (where does this name from?), where they noted down the name of the pieces used with timecodes in every episode entry, turned out to be a nice classical music learning experience too. Let's face it. You're practically bound to cry, or come close to it, at least once if not more during the runtime of the show. With over 100 episodes of time to spend with some of the characters, and the high body count nature of the setting, you will have plenty of opportunity to get a window into the characters. You'll share their joys and sorrows, and will inevitably get heartbroken when they die. For me, considering my gripes with overall execution of the series, this was mainly only the case when Yang found his end. It was so sudden, un-glorious, and painful to watch. Bleeding to death in total solitude alone with his resting thoughts. Killed by an unnamed character without a fight. But what made this one character death stand out from among the prominent ones was how this was the only occasion where the atmosphere shift really reached me. The show really took a bunch time for us to share some intimate moments of mourning with the bereaved. Especially with Frederica, long having deduced Yang's demise from the behavior of the people surrounding her, took me by surprise with her calm demeanor at first. But the emotional breakdown when after she had the confirming conversation with Julian and the viewer gets to be alone with her and her tears, was all the more painful as a result. They were torn apart from each other after less than a year of marriage, with only a few short months of quaint and peaceful family life together in that time. And what Yang told to her about not being deserving of familial happiness because of his tremendous guilt and inflicted death and destruction as a military commander —also where his drinking "problem" stems from— turned out to be a prophecy. I like to imagine that this tragic thought swirled around in Frederica when she finally broke down. Thankfully though, my heart was then mended in return when the Cazelnu family invited her over for a wholesome dinner. Although I lost interest in the political aspects of the show when It became obvious to me that by necessity of needing Reinhard to remain in the plot, the show would be a bit less critical of authoritarian forms of government than I would have hoped, the main messages that the show is not shy of hammering into the audience's head over and over and over again are timeless, and arguably really relevant in this exact time. Seeing how many nations across the globe are somehow regressing back into nationalism, LotGH is certainly a great way to remind oneself of the pitfalls of it. The creators dealt with nationalism and religious extremism in a straight forward manner and were not afraid to show what they thought about it. They're shortsighted schemes that thrive on hate to mute and control the populace. The nationalistic leaders of the Free Planets Alliance doom their nation into collapse through a failed invasion into the Empire —for which they built public support by feeding nationalistic zeal— losing millions of soldiers only for the sake of remaining in office. Or during the episode where Julian is watching a documentary about the Goldenbaum Dynasties history, to which the quote of Yang Wen-Li in the title of this post alluded to: An army is a tool for violence, and there are two kinds of violence... Violence to control and oppress, and violence as a means of liberation. You know what we call a national army is fundamentally the former example. It is a pity, but history does not lie. When those in power confront popular opposition, there are not many examples of the army siding with the people. Far from it, in the past in country after country, the army itself evolved into a power structure and came to control the people with violence. We get a pretty good display of what can result when nationalistic demagogues abuse military power. In the end, while almost all characters show a certain patriotic pride for their nation, by the final episode, all the hardliners and zealots got the short end. And then there's the best character in the show, Paul von Oberstein, because he is just such a brilliant antihero. Hidden behind his calm and stoic attitude and these cybernetic eyes was always the pure intent to bring and end to the Goldenbaum Dynasty and see Reinhard thrive. He used the apparent ambiguity of his intentions to serve as a bearer of blame and hate for despicable things that, in the end, Reinhard made the final decision on most of the time. This happened most prominently with the massacre on Westerland, which turned out to the most beneficial result it could have for Reinhard and his followers. This had the result of rallying the entire population of the empire behind him against the remnants of the Goldenbaum Dynasty, but leaving Reinhards image of the benevolent dictator largely unscathed, as Oberstein took the full brunt of the blame. *** So, that's it. These are my thoughts on the show that I could scramble together at this point. I don't care too much about making some deep point obscured by flowery prose to make this seem way more interesting than it is, but for everyone that read the whole thing I want to thank you! Have a lovely day. *** **Disclaimer: I'm not a friend of scoring, therefore I left the score at the default setting. The text alone should speak to my judgement, and I don't deem that possible to be condensed in a single number. See my profile Bio for more reasoning.** # ~~~**The score is not representative of my judgement!**~~~
Often times, we end up with shows that are praised merely for attempting what they attempt, and not for what they actually execute in practice. Legend of the Galactic Heroes (from here on out shortened to LotGH) is one such show - while the show has an incredibly niche following and is a cult classic of sorts, it's beloved for supposedly being a hyper-realistic story about a clash of ideologies, military might and will, with a fanbase that'd religiously defend it - to the point where almost every time I'd update my progress with the show, chances are some fan would either PM me or write an angry comment on my wall, asking why I gave the show a low score. So, my curiosity over its insanely high rating and cult following drove me to try and experience the show. On my first two viewings, I'll readily admit that I actually fast-forwarded the show - I couldn't handle its slow, bland presentation and incredibly choppy pacing. I tried to give it an above average score and convince myself that maybe something about the show wasn't to my liking, maybe I didn't understand it. In the time between my second and third (and proper) viewing, I started a Masters degree in International Relations, got my best friend - a Biology graduate - and finally decided to sit down and experience the show for what it is. What I found blew my expectations to pieces. The show isn't bad. It's straight up one of the worst pieces of fiction I have ever seen, and fails on so many basic levels it's astounding. The story essentially is a clash of ideologies between republican democracy and authoritarian (it's implied that it's theocratic but this never gets addressed in clear terms) monarchy. Both empires are inspired by French and Prussian ideals respectively, which due to how much Germanophile sentiment exists in Japanese society in general (most probably due to the alliance between the Axis powers in World War 2), has the narrative obviously side with the Prussian authoritarian monarchy. While I do say this, flaws in both systems are frequently addressed and discussed, but never genuinely resolved in a meaningful way. This is part of what the narrative tries to do - instead of end things on a positive note leaving the future up to interpretation, it tries to portray the cyclical nature of history, and how inevitably, conflict will start anew, and whether said conflict is good or bad is left up to the interpretation of the viewer. I can admire this kind of theme presentation if it weren't for a certain flaw in the narrative. The show leaves absolutely nothing to the viewer's interpretation, and I mean that in the worst way imaginable. Long, drawn out narrations about the history of this and that region, location or conflict. Entire episodes that are literally mini-documentaries about the backdrop behind this or that event. Conversations where the exact same bloody point about the cyclical nature of history and how democracy despite its flaws is better than dictatorship are repeated ad nauseum. Characters often speak information to each other that they already know only so that the audience would know in ways no human beings would speak like - this is an issue in Japanese media in general (and I'd happily admit plenty of things I love also do this), but never have I seen any work of fiction abuse it to the same extent as this show. The worst part of it is that the potential for interesting, exciting moments are there. Plenty of scenes have these dramatic instances with classical music blaring in the background with characters that have been around for a long time dying - and then promptly this gets interrupted by the narration, explaining how this or that character is feeling, making any emotional investment impossible due to the show being absolutely incapable of presenting a story in any meaningful way. Several scenes come to mind that I won't mention due to them being heavy spoilers, but I find it difficult to believe that even the most diehard fans of this show didn't find this at least somewhat grating. Another major problem is the show's pacing. The show is not entirely sure if it wants to tell things in a linear or non-linear fashion, and this makes it unwieldy and unfocused. Often times, important events happen but aren't addressed until later, and the narration would stress how important they are despite no tangible impact having been felt in earlier parts. This particularly becomes a problem in the last stretch of the show, where the pacing slows down to a crawl and it becomes clear that both scriptwriting and production - already absolutely abysmal as they are - decline even further. Uprisings happen, for example, but the narrator stresses their historic importance to the narrative - even though we as the audience have already seen what happens in the aftermath of these events and no real impact was felt. This leads into the show's editing and direction, which is astonishingly bad - scenes are just edited together with no real flow, so often times you'd watch the show and the show'd randomly switch focus in the middle of a conversation for no reason. At first I thought this was the show trying to raise suspense or build up tension, or even maybe leave something to the audience's interpretation. This is anything but the case - the show's pacing is just that atrocious and poorly edited together, and the direction makes any attempt to invest in the show worthless. This applies to everything from random closeups to characters' faces and endlessly repeated frames in order to pad out screen time - while this is a normal tactic in anime, generally speaking especially the further back you go, the show completely abuses it and it ends up ruining the pacing further. OK, so the budget is unimpressive, the direction is choppy, the editing is questionable and the narration is the worst thing ever. What about the more superficial aspects? Are the battles tense or interesting, or hell even just fun on a basic level? The answer is no. The battles are usually these still images of spaceships with terrible flash effects, with the occasional spaceship moving slowly and awkwardly the later the show goes on - this means that the focus is not really on the spaceships' action, but rather on the monologues and strategies between these commanders shooting at each other. This is where a big part of the show's renown comes from - it's often praised for this instead of putting substance aside and letting the superficial aspects came over. OK, no problem. So how does the show portray these monologues or battles then? By having these drawn out simplistic as hell tactics involving surrounding enemy forces using basic as hell pincer attacks, and with every tactic being extremely obvious to the audience. What makes things worse is that almost every enemy to the main character(s) that isn't another main character(s) is dull, generic mook who's making dumb decisions and refuses to listen to their soldiers about the obviously dumb decisions they're making. This flanderization never genuinely stops throughout the whole show and gets worse the longer the show goes on - the show is unbelievably formulaic after a time and loses the ability to surprise the audience very quickly because of this. This extends to how the show sees spoilers - there's no real point to not spoiling LotGH to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, and the reason is because the show is both incredibly obvious with red flags and incapable of having its narrator shut up and not spoil the audience on events that are about to happen. You know that infamous meme title episode everyone makes fun of with the title "X dies?" Now imagine that every few episodes being done again and again and again. It's boring, tedious and grating, and since the show already fails on so many levels outside of this, makes the watcher incapable of enjoying it even on a superficial level. This drags me to yet another issue with the show - the extremely obvious plot armor. And look, I can enjoy shows with more plot armor than a piece of Swiss cheese the size of Mount Everest, but here it gets even worse because the show already fails at being suspenseful or engaging on a basic level. With some exceptions that only happen in order to force the plot to progress in a supposedly meaningful way, LotGH's main cast have some of the most ridiculous plot armor I've ever seen. Soldiers often have their guns pointed in the general direction of this or that important character but randomly change their mind and shoot elsewhere instead of just killing them. Characters lose an entire tank worth of blood but somehow are still walking and fine the next day, and the show often has characters catch fatal diseases that should have them be impossible to move, except somehow one character later on somehow manages to knock up his wife, go to battle, act around as if he's only slightly exhausted and only has a fever. To call this absurd is to be a comedian; the show lacks self-awareness of just how ridiculous this is, and due to most audience members not being educated on basic scientific facts (which clash directly with the show, in most cases being common knowledge even in the 60s) this flaw gets overlooked. What the show is absurdly terrible at, more than any other show, is having any kind of meaningful climax; important events sometimes happen with no meaningful payoff or self-reflection, and this makes this show in a certain sense quite literally talking the talk but refusing to walk the walk - characters sometimes say absurd things like willing to abandon the military and not minding if their comrades die, or casually joke about having an entire population below a certain age die, or characters straight up joke at their superiors in the middle of battle with their superiors promising to punish them once the battle ends. Nothing comes of any of this - there's no meaningful conflict in the show, and characters often speak what they want to speak in ways that no one in an actual military or especially in the middle of battle would, let alone any actual likable human being. I'll get back to this point later on. The show doesn't stop there but also is thematically incoherent; it wants to talk about the cyclical nature of history and conflict, but also stubbornly refuses to avoid the pitfalls of classical realist approaches to both history and politics. This means that the show's assertions are extremely securitized and always top-bottom rather than bottom-up, meaning that if you don't view things from those lens you're immediately alienated from how the show's portrayal of politics is soulless and humanless. Very little is shown of how society changes under Reinhard's rule beyond simply assertions by the narrator - with nothing to show for it most of the time - and this is more grating when looking at the Free Planets Alliance, where politicians are shown to be nothing but incompetent buffoons who have no idea how politics or the military works and on several occasions running straight into bullets when cornered by enemy soldiers in a blind panic. This extends to the judicial system, police institutions and everything else in the show - despite this being supposedly a democratic state where individual civil liberties are protected, it takes the classical realist approach that democracy is irrelevant and all states are these hyper-rational actors that only care about security and nothing else (despite very little rationality actually existing in these characters' actions, but we'll get to that later) and as such, equates an authoritarian state where people are murdered for being disabled or impaired with impunity with a state where civil liberties are protected. While this hypocrisy is addressed, it never goes into a meaningful thematic point. The show ironically also kind of self-proves it being dated as hell by never really stepping out of this theoretical framework; in many ways it feels like an academic wannabe wrote a political drama with how he thinks people act from a theoretical approach rather than start actually see how people act, making the show both irrational and theoretically inconsistent as well as laughably dated and unrealistic. I'm not the kind of person to care about realism in my fiction. But the show fails on such a basic level at researching basic theories and facts it's actually astounding. This brings us back to an earlier aspect involving the show; its insistence to end significant plot points with anticlimaxes. Major events often just happen involving major characters and development either is minor or negligible, and this easily adds to the increasing apathy and disillusionment involving watching this. An easy example is how on one particular occasion, a character almost gets assassinated for his abysmal policies and there are traces of an internal conflict that starts to brew, contradicting that character's policies and slowly altering his relationship with another character. This never leads to meaningful drama, and aside from one passive-aggressive stance against that character is never mentioned again - the empire continues its horrific policies and nothing changes. This kind of writing is spread all across the series, and it makes trying to care for the show's piss poor attempt at raising stakes insanely difficult when the show keeps resolving plot points left, right and center like this. A minor point to make as well is the subtitles; it's clear after a certain point that if you as an audience member has seen more than a handful of shows that at times the subtitles used for this show are desperately trying to make its boring as hell script more engaging and interesting. Characters repeat sentences across the show so it's not hard to instantly catch when the subtitles aren't meshing with what the cast or narrator is actually saying, and a lot of the script is generic fare otherwise. This ultimately adds to an extent to the non-existent enjoyment of the show, especially during the hilariously edgy ax battles where characters would scream words that they're clearly not actually saying - but your milage may vary on whether this is a good or a bad thing. So alright, the plot isn't competent, the battles are anticlimactic and dull as hell, themes are incoherent and nonsensical, it's anticlimactic even with its characterization, its direction and editing is abysmal and it's dull and predictable due to the narrator refusing to shut up and let any kind of atmosphere within the show exist or leave anything to the viewer's interpretation (despite the narrative attempting to do just that). OK, so now let's finally move past the terrible story and plot and onto the artwork and animation quality; is the show at least pleasant to look at? The answer to this question is still a firm no. Even by the standards of its time, animation is extremely muted and often entire stretches of dialogue that can last for most of an episode happen with talking heads sitting on a table and repeating information and questions that the audience have more or less memorized, while the same handful of frames are repeated over and over. The show disgraces the medium of animation by literally having no point in being animated; I can't think of any moment where the show's visuals ever showed something the audience that the show wasn't already literally telling, minus a few glances or body movements but then again most anime have the basic decency to have that kind of body language, so we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel here. There was never a moment where I particularly thought the show looked good; while the backgrounds are decently-drawn, the muted colors and often unremarkable as hell shading made it difficult to pay attention at times, and this isn't a problem limited to the show - but coupled with all the flaws addressed previously, it made the show unpleasant to look at. This brings me to an aspect the show gets praised for; the artwork. LotGH's base character designs look strangely repetitive and often character faces are copied and pasted ad nauseum. This isn't necessarily a problem for me - most artists in the medium copy and paste the same exact face on every character, and the fact this show has characters that have extremely distinct designs should award it points in its favor. Where they compensate for this, however, is having digital coloring take over in order to make characters look more distinct to an amatuer while in reality it's the same face over and over - LotGH's digital coloring absolutely blows and it made telling characters apart (especially in the first season of the show) an absolute headache. In a certain sense, despite clear effort by whoever did the character designs for this show, the show looks even worse than your standard same face syndrome template anime because its coloring is insanely dull to look at. I don't mean that to mean that I want your standard brightly colored anime hair everywhere; what I'm referring to is the way the show is shaded is strangely mute and uninteresting, making the show extremely unpleasant to look at in general. This doesn't just apply to the characters - even when visiting all these varied locations that could be interested there's this strange feeling that whatever cities you're looking at look jarringly similar because there's no attempt at making them distinct culturally or socially - this kind of approach is consistent with the show's securitized approach to history and politics, but also helps - in addition to everything else - make the show absolutely lifeless and a pain to look at. Alright then, the show's plot, artwork and animation are all terrible. What about the sound design and the soundtrack choice for this show? Surely at least those are competent. You may have predicted this, but those are also poor. The actual soundtrack behind this show is actually pretty great - ranging from soothing violin riffs to classical music to piano pieces to these great orchestral tracks. It easily could've been one of my favorite soundtracks in anime if it weren't for just one thing. The sound design is absolute garbage; tracks would randomly start playing with no semblance of coherence about the context of a scene, making watching the show bizarrely trippy and had even the few moments where the narrator or characters stopped talking and didn't ruin a scene feel strangely unfitting. This made watching the show a pain, and unless you're a complete diehard fan of classical music and the likes you're not going to appreciate this. This isn't to say that I think classical music or music that's like it can't fit a scene in anime, because plenty of shows have done that and magnificently succeeded in doing so. The show doesn't really try to make the tracks playing fit the scene; they're just slapped on with no real consideration about what's going on on screen. This isn't where I stop, unfortunately; voice-acting is also astonishingly poor and no real performance particularly stands out, despite an abundance of excellent VAs being in the show. This makes any engagement even harder, since while discussing important events characters sound dull and soulless, and even in the middle of battle screams feel strangely muted, as if someone was lowering the volume of the characters. For some reason, a lot of the time during battle characters would start yelling something and somehow - while screaming - the soundtrack would blare louder than their screams, which I found obnoxious. This gets repeated a lot and was a major reason why I found it difficult to take the battles seriously - the characters simply don't sound like they're in a battle with anything at stake, and everything feels half-assed, like the crew were just thrown into a room, made to voice a line with just one take and promptly leave so that the staff would get the OVA of the month over with. It's impossible to mention the sound design without mentioning yet another issue with this show; for some reason, the sound in this show'd sometimes spectacularly flare up and decline for no real reason, and on numerous occasions I straight up wondered if my headphones were going bad, a concern that I realized was shared when my friend started saying the exact same thing and wondered what was going on. My friend has a hearing impairment in an ear and she started wondering if she was going deaf - according to her, this is the first and only show that made her wonder this. If that doesn't give a decent idea about how bad the sound design is, I don't know what will - I highly recommend playing this show at a lower volume if you watch it, because playing it at a higher volume makes it absolutely grating when inevitably the volume starts dipping in quality in the show on its own. Alright, the story, artwork/animation and sound are unimpressive at best. What about the characters? Surely a show of such renown would have likable, complex, extremely well-developed characters that aren't single-note or defined by the themes of the show rather than having any personality of their own, right? No, they're terrible. All of them are complete garbage. Characters are extremely boring and uninteresting to watch and follow, and they're completely unlikable. Some would argue the show isn't aiming to write characters that are necessarily likable, and I'm going to magically assume this is true (the show isn't really interested in making a moral argument nor is it aiming to do so, so it goes without saying they're certainly not moral). Then the question becomes...why should I care about this? Why does any of this matter? This show never genuinely does anything to settle this. What's worse is the characterization and how the show is unable to separate who the characters are from the exposition the show gives out. Very little of the show has characters simply doing their own thing, away from the action or politics; instead, it feels like the show is just bombarded non-stop by these characters injecting the plot everywhere to the point where it stops being human. This even applies to personal conversations, where characters would almost never talk about their personal lives but always repeat the same points about democracy and military dictatorship ad nauseam in ways that human beings simply don't do. What's worse is how the show perceives personality traits; the cast is essentially an ensemble of 80s tropes that may or may not be married, have a lover or have kids. I really hope you're thick enough to think that marital status or how many children you have is a personality trait, because the show is dumb enough to think that. If anyone wants to kickstart a drinking game for this show I absolutely highly recommend taking a sip every time characters mention or allude to having a lover or having kids, you'll be wasted in no time. Who knows, maybe the show'd actually be remotely entertaining to watch if you did that. But nothing, nothing compensates for the soulless robots that are the main characters of this show. They're complete, absolute Gary Stus with character flaws that never genuinely get in the way of anything they do - and who interject this and that oh so intelligent wisdom about pessimism involving the state of politics in their world. If you don't agree with them then good luck finding anything else to like about them, because the show expects you to agree with one of them and interject yourself into them, essentially turning the show into this bizarre wish fulfillment for hipsters who think being pessimistic about the state of politics is a personality trait. Not a single conversation in this whole show feels like human beings talking to each other. Some particularly jarring moments are when characters are cracking jokes and laughing together, and not a single one of them are funny. If you like sitting awkwardly about characters saying unfunny things to each other, you'll probably love this show because it's filled with characters laughing at jokes that are thoroughly unfunny. Essentially, this was my reaction every time that happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUh2DuXKOkc This brings me to the "villains" or mooks behind this show, if you can call them that. There are plenty of shows where generic villains do dumb shit, but it's fine because it happens once in a while and isn't just the whole thing. Now, outside of a handful of characters, every single villain in this show is somehow that generic stereotype. Imagine how fucking grating that is, to consistently watch one of the main characters face off some forgettable, generic mook and take him down. And that happens again. And again. And again. This is not good or exciting. This is tedious. Near the end of the show, the show decides to spice things up by making main characters have a go at each other formally in battle, but at this point any investment had is gone and some mooks are actually still around to ruin this. A moment that particularly comes to mind is in a character's flashback when he's about to get tortured and his torturer comes, and instead of just torturing him he just starts talking for around 3 minutes and the character dodging. I am not joking, that is an honest to heavens actual scene in this show and I couldn't stop laughing at how stupid it was. So, let's wrap this up and get to my impressions. The show is disappointing in every sense of the word - and the fact it receives such critical acclaim honestly baffles me. I can rag on yet even more flaws - the show's approach to futuristic technology is completely uninspired and generic, and the show doesn't say something about politics that you don't already know from either reading politics, current affairs and the ongoing state of international relations. I'm not even particularly angry about this show despite it being one of my least favorite things in existence - the show doesn't inspire any particular deep emotions, it's just so utterly bland and dry that it kind of becomes memorable in its own right for that reason alone. I notice the show is approximately 110 episodes with a runtime that varies from 25 to 33 minutes, aka around 47 to 52 hours long. You can do many things in that time. You can: - Watch something you actually like and isn't a complete waste of time. - Watch several documentary series that'd lecture you on history and politics more than this show ever would. - Read a few books on politics or international relations, which are more interesting than watching two empires and a cult have a go at each other in basic, simplistic as hell ways with boring mooks everywhere. - Read countless news articles. - Ponder the state of the world and think about differing perspectives and your own place in them, if you feel like procrastinating. What you can also do is not waste your precious time on this show, because you're better than that and you deserve better than that.
Rewatch. An interesting word. Especially in the event of getting the opportunity to reexperience a work which changed your perception of the medium. A chance to see how it measures up with the passage of time and evolution and development of your own beliefs. A work like that for me was Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu or Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LOGH) in English. My first time watching this masterpiece was between Aug-Oct 2014. What I saw, transformed my perception of anime from something to kill time to a medium which could potentially rival my admiration for novels. LOGH was to serve as a template of not only what an anime could achieve if given the care and attention, but also what I was to expect from my future 10s henceforth. Sounded like a great plan. But people change and what we first considered inviolable might not remain so on a second look. I was however sure that LOGH would still be unchallenged with this passage of time. Heck, Count of Monte Cristo went through the same ordeal, only to emerge unscathed. I was expecting the same from LOGH as well. But before starting my part reaction and part review, it’s important to give some context as to why I thought of rewatching the show. The strongest reason was my read of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong. The novel is credited to have influenced LOGH. And having read the book, I can attest definitely see the similarities between the two. LOGH definitely has a strong Chinese influence in terms of how both the MCs approach their respective philosophies. The 2nd factor was my personal growth itself. My experiences post my bachelors was some of the best years of my life in terms of personal growth, where I emerged a far more rational individual. Keeping these two in mind, I believe I was justified in giving the show another ride. I restarted my journey in December 2018, finishing it on 23rd March 2019. And boy what a journey it was. To people not acquainted with the work, LOGH is set somewhere in the 35th century AD, with the galaxy divided between the democratic Free Planets Alliance and the autocratic Galactic Empire. Both the sides have been at war for over 150 years, without any significant change in the status quo. However, both the sides have seen the rise of individuals who will change the face of the galaxy forever through their actions. “The deeds of men remain the same”, the narrator declares, thus presenting to us the themes of the work from the start. Humans remain the same, no matter the age. The conflict between democracy and autocracy in the series is the latest form of this theme. We admire the resolve of fighters for the respective sides who have their own sense of good and evil and clash against the other side to defend their beliefs. And yet, at the same time, we are exposed to the apathy of the existing powerholders and society in general. It is these people whose ‘deeds’ has led to the current circumstances. Apathy, while a shield from the world, also hinders one’s ability to respond and fight for their ideals, when such a situation arises. This creates conditions for unscrupulous individuals to take over power and subject their fellow human beings to atrocities. This is of interest, given the political climate we find ourselves in today. The anime also provides a platform to discuss various political ideologies and philosophies. It however does this without boring the viewer and not going in depth. This enables the viewer to also think for themselves, making them an active participator in the watch. The battles themselves are inspired from Chinese tactics, in the way they are conceived and executed, again paying homage to ROTK. The melee battles however are absurd, with men going at each other with axes and all that fun medieval stuff, which does make it comical at times, despite not intending to. Another major point of criticism is the portrayal of religion in the series in general. It is unfortunate, given the sheer scope of the work and their overall importance to the plot of the series, that they ended up drawing the short end. Some more background into their motives and ideology would have enabled this area to be truly flawless, at least in my eyes. Moving on to characters, LOGH has one of the largest cast characters in any story. At the same time, it makes them so real, as if I were watching actual historical series. Most of them are military men. And despite being at war for over 150 years, they are not blinded into hating the other side, but rather give respect where its due. These characters can identify with each other far better than their own political masters. One might argue that the anime promotes militarism through the honourable soldier trope to an unbearable extent. But upon closer study, one can find that these men have their fair share of flaws. It’s just that they do not allow these flaws to hinder them in their aims and dreams. Another aspect which I greatly appreciated was the balanced depiction of characters from both the sides. There is no ultimate good or evil (one could say that the religious group is the big bad). The anime achieves this through allowing us to see the story and characters from multiple perspectives, thus deepening our knowledge and respect of motives of these characters. And though the lack of a villain might make it unconventional to many, it doesn’t take away from the amazing character development and dynamics. In this rewatch especially, I was able to appreciate characters who I ignored or didn’t care about the first time. Individuals like Bucock, Trunhit and Julian were definitely the biggest beneficiaries of this rewatch, with their motives striking the right chords with me. Reinhard and Yang Wenli were a pleasure to watch as always, with their charisma and ideals offering rallying points for their respective groups. Reinhard was and still remains my favourite character in the anime medium, until I find someone else. The animation, though dated is bearable and only continues to improve as the series progresses. The character designs are great, without looking similar and captures their personalities and expressions with aplomb. The soundtrack is made of Classical Music, boasting names like Mahler, Dvorak, Mozart, Wagner to name a few. A really good way to get started listening to these great composers. To finish off, the rewatch was definitely worth the time. It was a show meant for me, combining historical, political and philosophical themes harmoniously. And I would highly recommend it to people who are fond of the same genres.
~~~img5000(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/642255229160521759/714552319970115584/155041.gif) ~~~ >__There are few wars between good and evil;most are between good and another good ~ Yang Wen-li.__ whats so interesting about LotGH is how critical the narrator is especially with the "honor" of these characters. The series doesn't glorify war even a bit, it is extremely critical of those whose honor were earned with the lives of those they fought against:the millions of nameless corpses that made Yang and Reinhard Etc who they are in the series. The series isn't about them as much, as it's about both of them coming to terms with the hidden costs of their success through the ranks. Reinhard is the master of the universe whose center lies outside of himself in Kircheis. img5000(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/642255229160521759/714550991017738320/tumblr_nzqnriSWid1u0p4xwo1_500.gif) __Yang narrativizes, Reinhard IS the narrative.__ ~~~img5000(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/642255229160521759/714551122928467988/9656af5743c1a4099e5716b72f32524b.png) ~~~ Oberstein was vindicated within the end: the narrator is speaking from a neighborhood within the longer term that has finally recognized the appalling waste of human life that results from old-fashioned military honor married to futuristic fleet technology, the purpose being that commanders are so faraway from the realities of the chess pieces they're ordering around that it both makes it nearly impossible for those embedded within the military hierarchy to try to to anything about it, and provides someone like Yang the chance to explode the whole coordinates of the war. ~~~img50000(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/642255229160521759/714992248995184700/tumblr_inline_p2tuvnEF2C1uzj55m_1280.png) ~~~ There's a reason Yang is more comfortable with computer simulations than the guns, war has become completely abstracted from its own reality. it needed,a dweeb like Yang to come in and destroy these overblown "men" at their own game. The scale of conflicted handicaps everyone BUT someone like Yang whose historical perspective lends itself to just the kind of cold, analytical manipulation that's needed,tho in Yang's case that coldness is balanced by wellread compassion, Oberstein really was right about almost everything. ~~~img5000(https://external-preview.redd.it/0hNXWdDjybyymwQXdw_pTyr2qhmjP0w7ejEkgdHgroA.png?auto=webp&s=d3ac156308438e9c156b19902319f97fe1ab6786) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ the word limit rule is really stupidddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes takes itself seriously, and that might be its biggest strength as well as its greatest flaw. While I think it’s overrated on this website, to say that I didn’t like the series would be a lie, and I wouldn’t have finished it if there hadn’t been aspects of it that I really enjoyed. The parts I liked and disliked differ from what I’ve read on other reviews, so I’m hoping my perspective helps other viewers that don’t necessarily belong to the demography that has hailed LOGH as a classic decide if this is a show worth investing time on. The story follows two rising military geniuses, one from each side of the conflict presented: young and ambitious Reinhard von Müsel from the Gallactic Empire, and the reserved historian-turned-tactician Yang Wenli from the Free Planets Alliance. While the focus is definitely on these two and the people around them, their allies and their enemies, the series tries to tell its story with as much detail as possible, resulting in episodes entirely dedicated to minor characters that are somehow related to the conflict, and even episodes written with the format of a history documentary. We even have a narrator to fill us in on the events that we don’t get to see, and to give light on the characters’ feelings and purposes. It certainly gives the plot a sense of greatness I haven’t found in other anime, but it’s a form of story-telling that isn’t for everyone. I'm a History teacher and maybe that’s why I found all of Yang's long discourses about the nature of human history (and even History as a discipline), and all the detail-orientated world-building episodes entertaining, but I can see how such an exposition-heavy show might be just plain boring for others. I think that's a valid complaint but it's not one of the things that affected my enjoyment of the series. Something that was totally lost on me was battle strategy. I have no interest in the specifies of war and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was not missing much plot-wise by not paying attention during battle scenes, except in certain cases. Sometimes, these scenes serve as important moments of characterization. Even with my disinterest in what some might call the core of the series, I still found plenty of other things to enjoy and that kept me entertained. One thing that wasn't disappointing as much as it was just surprising, given the reviews and opinions I had read about LOGH before, was that the political themes really aren't as complex as some people make them out to be. It's not about democracy versus autocracy, or the rights and wrongs of democratic and authoritarian governments. It's always about Yang versus Reinhard, or Yang's fleet versus Reinhard's. It’s about the people that fight for them and their reasons to do so, and it’s also about war and peace. I was scared the Empire centric episodes would be apologetic towards autocratic governments, but I really don't think that was the case. LOGH critics (in a rather simplistic way, too) bad, deteriorated, corrupt governments, but not democracy itself. Ultimately, it all comes down to Yang and Reinhard. Yang fights for humanity’s freedom and not for power, and values human life above all else; Reinhard fights for personal motives and wants to spread his vision and rule over the entire universe. To me, this makes all the difference, and if the creators were really trying to make viewers engage in a debate on democracy and autocracy then I don’t think they succeed. The bigger theme is war and how it affects people, starting from civilians but with an obvious focus on the military. All characters have lost or will lose something to the war, be it loved ones or individual freedom. I found LOGH's political themes interesting, but I wouldn't say it does anything revolutionary. It did make me think, and that's something I value in the media I consume. Also, if you expect a cheesy space opera anime from the 80s to teach you politics, ethics and philosophy, I think you'd be better off taking a 101 college course on the subject or even just reading a Wikipedia page. Finally, I found the end of the series immensely disappointing. Paradoxically, it gave me exactly the resolution I wanted, but the execution left much to be desired. Mysterious and sudden sicknesses (plural) came to light in the most convenient moments, bordering on deus ex machina territory. The last 20 episodes or so were also simultaneously cheesier and bloodier than every other episode combined. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m still not entirely sure if my enjoyment of the previous episodes makes up for how much I disliked the ending. The story greatly benefits from how charismatic its two main characters are. Particularly, it was very hard for me to be objective about anything Yang did. He somehow manages to win every battle he takes part in, despite all odds being against him? I liked him so much that I was willing to accept it without questioning it or expecting a more realistic outcome. I wanted Yang to always win, I wanted him to survive, I wanted everyone from his fleet to get a happy ending. Yang’s backstory, mannerisms, ideas, hopes and flaws make him a really interesting and successfully fleshed-out character. Reinhard too is a well-made character, and his phycological progression throughout the series, his experience with loss, grief and loneliness, is deep, complex and something that made me feel sympathetic towards a character that I would have otherwise disliked. Both characters are immensely self-aware and that makes their rivalry slash camaraderie all the more satisfying. This level of dept isn’t achieved by many other characters, which is to some extent understandable given that LOGH presents not only wide cast of secondary characters but also dozens of minor ones, that get a name and a second on the spotlight. Some secondary characters only get one or two traits and stay static throughout the series. I think this is more evident for Yang’s fleet (besides a few exceptions, particularly Julian), Poplin being the biggest victim. On the side of the empire, Hilda, Mittermeyer and Reuenthal get some excellent development that really carries the plot for the second half of the series. Sadly, the characters that get the shortest end of the stick are undeniably the women of the series. LOGH's treatment of its female characters is honestly a shame. I was hoping it would turn out to be a "quality over quantity" situation, given how there are only about 5 female characters of any significance on the show, but that was not the case. I appreciate how varied they are, but even that doesn’t make up for how poorly they’re handled. While Hilda ended up being one of my favorite characters, and one of the most complex and interesting ones, the rest felt flat and replaceable. As a female viewer this was not only noticeable but also something that took away from my enjoyment of the show. Annerose had the potential to be a compelling, layered character, but she gets all agency stripped from her very early on in the series and never manages to get it back. Frederica is another example of wasted potential. She holds a significant position, yet we never see her take an active role besides one small arc. Besides Hilda, Jessica was the only other female character that was allowed to have a story of her own with agency over her actions, but she doesn’t get to become a "fixed" part of the series. Having even just one genuinely fully fleshed out female character is still something many anime today don't accomplish, but with LOGH having such a huge cast, it really was just plain disappointing that only a small handful of them were women, and that only an even smaller fraction of those had any real relevancy to the plot besides being the main character's relative or romantic interest. Even Hilda lost a big part of the importance she held as her own character when she went from advisor to wife. This is my only real complain about the characters on the show, but it's an important one and something that I consider to be a major flaw. Despite the issues I’ve mentioned, I think the characters and the relationships that they establish with each other are some of LOGH’s strongest points. These bonds are deep and dynamic, and in some cases, like with Mittermeyer and Reuenthal, they become major plot points. The character drama centric episodes are amazing, and the ones I enjoyed the most by far. The animation isn’t spectacular, and it can get choppy at times, but it fulfills its purpose. There were even some very visually pleasing scenes, with detailed backgrounds and nice use of lighting. I found the character design strong enough to make up for the below average animation. As for the sound, the voice acting is fantastic. It gives life to the characters, specially Yang and Reinhard. I would argue that this is one of LOGH’s biggest accomplishments. Except for the the big bad villains, most characters sound like regular people and it really works in favor of the serious and realistic tone the show aims for. The soundtrack features exclusively classical pieces, and again it works in favor of the show’s atmosphere. All that being said, I can’t bring myself to rate this show with something lower than a 7. I loved the characters, and I enjoyed being a part of their journey throughout all 110 episodes. I wish a lot of things had been handled better, but in the end, I appreciate the show for what it is. For those still not convinced, I recommend watching the 2018 remake, Die Neue These, to get a taste of what you’d be in for if you decide to watch the 1988 original.
__Legend of the Galactic Heroes__ youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JvF25hJw3k) And thus it is over, my long journey over the past three months or more watching this 110-episode anime, its prologue movie and its two prequel spin-offs. I'm grateful to have experienced this anime. Among the anime fandom, "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" truly lived up to its name, a legendary series renowned for being an utterly unique anime that completely defied the convention of "cartoon is just for kids" even as early as 1988. And its recognition as a mature series isn't attributed to something as superficial as "shock humor" like many adult cartoons like Family Guy, but rather, it's because of its many thoughtful political discussions criticizing both democratic and autocratic governments, its brutal portrayal of warfare yet recognizing the significance of its existence in shaping nations for the better or worse, its questioning of the role of a soldier and the meaning of his loyalty, its rich cast of myriad characters who are each so thoroughly fleshed out, and last but not least, its groundbreaking space-fleet battles utilizing strategies and tactics so brilliant that they would probably fascinate any intellectuals even today. LoGH was truly one of its kind, which was why it easily made it to my top must-watch list for a long time. It stood among (and perhaps even above) the ranks of other renowned anime series like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and many others that have come to revolutionize Japanese animation. When trying to recommend LoGH to others, I would often make the mistake of giving it a generalization as insulting as "Star Wars meets Star Trek". Many LoGH fans have stated that it's really the Chinese novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that inspired the 1986 novel the anime was based on, something which I can't comment on since I have no knowledge of either books. But I think it's easy for anyone unfamiliar with the series or even anime itself to judge the anime's content based on its space-fleet battles than anything else. I feel like that would be a mistake, because as amazing as the strategies were in these battles, they are but the surface to what makes up most of the anime: political and ethical arguments, philosophical musings, multiple coup d'état of tyrannical governments, purging of corrupted governments, riots over unfair government treatments, etc, etc. It's less of a "space battle anime" than it is a political anime, and even that isn't entirely accurate due to its epic Shakespearean coups against empires and kings. It's more like Japanese Game of Thrones in space. And you know, it's not just its grandiose themes either. As I mentioned, there are lots of characters in the anime, and the audience is given ample time to familiarize with them. Most of them are unique individuals that don't really belong to any cliched character archetypes either. I'm not going to go into details for every one of them, but the two main characters are Yang Wenli and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Yang is a walking contradiction in that he's a pacifistic soldier who's willing to kill hundreds of enemy forces in order to achieve democracy for his people, albeit in ways that would result in the least amount of bloodshed. And god, he's just such a brilliant tactician that he ended up annoying the heck out of me. He truly lives up to his nickname, "Magician Yang" for being able to often thwart the enemy forces in unpredictable ways. As for Reinhard, the passionate Golden Boy is my favorite of the two in spite of being an autocratic leader. His goal in the beginning was that he's fighting for enough promotions to free his sister from the binds of a Kaiser (she was sold off by her father in debt). But over time, once he rose in ranks, his goal was to unite the entire universe to achieve universal peace, free from the bloodshed and corruption he had to endure under previously corrupted Kaisers. It's a bit naive, but I think that's why I favored him. He has this kind of energy and ambition that would make anyone follow him. He's not as brilliant a tactician as Yang, but he's a better strategist who could see the bigger picture. He's still intelligent enough, however, to utilize really creative ways of winning the battle. For example, in the prequel movie, he used the planet's gravitational gas cloud to his advantage and easily disposed of his enemies that way. You'll come to see lots of these "out of the box" strategies in the course of the series. The fact that these characters have such rich backgrounds and storylines is probably essential to the kind of unpredictability that will be forced upon their lives. Any one can die in this anime, and I do mean any one. There are no "rules" or story conventions how a character's fate would go. I would often make the mistake of thinking, "In a typical story, this character would probably do so and so, or he will have some deus ex machina to save him." I was often proven wrong. This anime threw me off many, many times. And if it was any other anime with less developed characters, I probably wouldn't have been as affected when someone important dies. And oh my god, so many people died. I think it's important that so many of the talented people in this anime ended up dying though. It speaks to the kind of sacrifice these characters are willing to make for their ideals. Yang's adopted ward, Julian Mintz would later reflect on this as Yang did, that they had to kill so many soldiers in order to achieve peace. A lot of blood are on these characters' hands in order for them to have a negotiation or treaty even, that it easily makes them wonder if all these killings are pointless clashes of egos. In short, it's like Ron Perlman said in Fallout: "War never changes." But all the accolades and praises aside, I think what matters most in the end is whether if you have any interest in such political content in the first place. My reason for watching it is due to its significance in the anime industry (and also its brilliant writing and unpredictable storylines), but for the general audience like yourself, I think that if you have a skeptical image of anime, probably associating it with the likes of mainstream anime like Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, and if you love Game of Thrones, I think it wouldn't hurt to give the prequel movie a shot, the movie titled "My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars". See if you like what you see, and then be prepared to spend months watching the 110 episode anime (also the two prequel series, each numbering up to 20+ episodes). In closing, this anime is by no means a flawless masterpiece as it still has some questionable decisions made by the characters, not to mention its over reliance on narration for exposition and its episode previews spoiling every upcoming episode, but I think for what it is, for what it has done in the history of anime, it deserves my full marks for being one of the most unique and well-written anime that ever existed. __Final Score: 5/5__
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, comumente chamado por Legends of the Galatic Heroes (LOGH), arremete a um futuro fictício que nos mostra uma galáxia dividida por uma guerra secular entre duas nações: um aristocrático e absolutista Império Galáctico e uma democrática Aliança de Planetas Livres. A série protagoniza o embate dos ideais de nações governadas por um sistema político radicalmente diferente do outro. A obra de Yoshiki Tanaka conta uma história epopéica sintetizando a realidade. A série nos mostra, através de várias situações retratadas, como as decisões tomadas pelos governantes interferem diretamente no funcionamento da sociedade, inspirando ideais onde grupos de pessoas se unem para lutar por sua soberania. LOGH aborda a diferença sociológica destes dois sistemas opostos. Mais do que apenas espaçonaves explodindo umas as outros, o que vemos são estrategistas planejando seus movimentos para alcançar o êxito dentro de suas ações. O enredo descreve como cada lado lida com as consequências da destruição e a reestruturação de uma sociedade atingida pela guerra. Ginga Eiyuu pondera as virtudes e defeitos desses sistemas com profundidade e imparcialidade. Em outras palavras, o anime é uma reflexão dos regimes abordando todas as ramificações possíveis, em todos os contextos imagináveis: militar, político, religioso, filosófico, social... Não se inclinando, pesadamente, para um lado ou para o outro; ambos têm seus prós e contras quando vistos objetivamente. É aquela velha questão sobre o que é melhor: uma monarquia ou democracia? Uma boa monarquia geralmente é melhor do que uma boa democracia, mas uma monarquia ruim é pior do que uma democracia ruim. Certamente que o absolutismo pode ser extremamente prejudicial para um povo quando se é governado por um déspota, mas é inegável que ela pode trazer mudanças com mais facilidade do que outros sistemas. Já a democracia pode dar poder ao povo, mas se este só escolhe governantes corruptos, egoístas e incapazes, que vantagem trouxe possuir esse poder? Reflexões do tipo são levantadas ao longo da história sem termos a necessidade de resposta: é algo para cada um considerar. Aqui surge o primeiro paralelo com a nossa realidade. Para os primeiros teóricos, e também fundadores, a cerca do pensamento político da sociedade existem três formas de governo onde cada uma divide-se em boa ou má: o governo realizado por uma única pessoa, o que é realizado por alguns e o que é governado pela maioria. Após a morte de Sócrates, as reflexões sobre o modo de governar foram intensificadas, sobretudo por Platão em sua coleção de livros entitulada A República. Para o grego, quando uma única pessoa governa pelo bem de todos temos uma monarquia; quando este monarca governa para si surge a tirania. Já o governo de um grupo de pessoas em prol da sociedade geral é chamada aristocracia, quando esta é governada pelo interesse do próprio grupo observamos a oligarquia. No entanto, o governo realizado por todos em favor de todos é chamado de politéia e o governo da maioria que delibera sobre seus interesses pessoas é por ele chamado de democracia. Para o filósofo, dentre os governos bons a democracia é a pior. Contudo, entre os governos ruins ela é o menos prejudicial para a sociedade. Em contrapartida, o historiador grego Políbio, responsável por observar distintos impérios da antiguidade, identifica uma sétima forma de governar, entitulada Governo Misto. Esta forma utiliza-se dos 3 sistemas de Platão unindo-os em um só: o Rei (monarquia) é delimitado pelo Povo (democracia) que por fim é controlado pelo Senado (aristocracia). O antigo império romano foi um dos exemplos práticos das ideias de Políbio. É evidente que estes sistemas possuem suas falhas uma vez que as pessoas responsáveis pelas decisões tendem aos vícios da humanidade, como a sede pelo poder. O cerne de Galatic Heroes gira em torno destes desvios de virtudes dos governantes. Reinhard e Weng Li representam bem estes sucessos e falhas. Enquanto o imperador galático desponta como um gênio militar que levaria o império à soberania, este está fadado a cometer eventuais erros. Platão enxergava na figura do rei-filósofo, aquele que mais possuía o conhecimento, o que conseguira atingir o mundo das ideias justamente pelo seu comprometimento com o saber, a pessoa mais capacitada para governar a nação. No entanto, quando este monarca desviava-se do caminho do conhecimento e cedia ao vicioso desejo de ter mais poder encontrava, então, sua perdição. Orgulho e vaidade são um dos vícios que culminaram Reinhard a cometer erros que lhe foram por sofrimento, seu e do seu povo. Da mesma forma é visto em Weng Li. Yang era igualmente genial, de natureza pacifista, odiava a guerra e por isto conquistara a confiança de todos ao seu redor. No entanto, a ideia de pessoas serem seguidas pela população em geral, como é observado através dos grandes estadistas democráticos, tem seus riscos. Yang Weng li representa bem a exploração da ideia de que as pessoas são mais propícias a seguirem outras pessoas do que ideais ou ideologias. >"Os humanos não lutam por princípios ou filosofia. Eles lutam pela pessoa que incorpora seus princípios e filosofia. Eles não lutam por revoluções, eles lutam pelo revolucionário." Com isto surge o mal da democracia moderna. Entes poderosos que, utilizando-se de podres narrativas, tomam atitudes tirânicas, rasgando sua própria Constituição, para perseguir seus adversários políticos por uma "suposta defesa da democracia". Tantos são os exemplos do mundo moderno de como a ideia de "em defesa da democracia" é perigosa. Em "defesa da democracia" juízes, ministros, presidentes, perseguem seus adversários, cerciam liberdades, criam presos políticos, aplicam sanções, censuram, e até mesmo iniciam guerras. Como pode uma coisa supostamente boa, que supostamente pertence a todos e que, supostamente representa o poder de todos, culmina em menos liberdade e malefícios à sociedade geral?! A realidade é que os governantes da modernidade utilizam-se do discurso da ideia de democracia para atribuir seus próprios interesses. Políbio caracteriza a constituição de uma nação como boa ou má levando em consideração o uso da força, militar e jurídica, que foi necessária para impor a forma de governo. Para ele, esta negativa forma de governo da maioria é chamada oclocracia: o governo que é feito para controlar as massas. LOGH é criticado por parecer um anime falante e maçante mas é exatamente o contrário. A emoção e o drama desta saga estão além de qualquer outra história adaptada para animes. Quando um personagens morre existe a sensação de perda palpável, como quando se perde alguém importante do convívio pessoal. Até personagens coadjuvantes são importantes. Cada um é bastante memorável, totalmente desenvolvidos, mesmo sendo secundários ou terciários. Por se tratar de uma série longa significa que todos eles terão a chance de se desenvolver tão bem quanto as duas figuras principais. Ao contrário do que se imagina, o anime não glorifica nem torna a ideia de guerra "legal". Também não aponta pessoas sofridas pela devastação com o velho idealismo de histórias juvenis retratadas pela máxima de Herói x Vilão ou Opressor x Oprimido. Obviamente que estes não são os únicos temas abordados ao longo da história, o que os tornam difíceis de serem todos citados por se tratarem de 110 episódios. Existem ainda abordagens de temas como o Culto da Terra que é uma exploração do fanatismo religioso e do terrorismo como ferramenta política e o Phezzan que é uma analogia das consequências de um globalismo exacerbado nas ideias de liberdade, como na faceta de uma lógica de venda e lucro maior que a importancia de pessoas. O Phezzan representa com bastante êxito o mal do globalismo, com suas decisões mundiais cada vez mais centralizadas e o avanço econômico e tecnologico em detrimento dos bons valores e costumes. Representa bem como a pauta global, ainda que busque uma riqueza financeira, causa a doença cultural da sociedade. Com uma riquíssima ficção científica, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu ressalta com bastante clareza a ideia de que o sistema político importa menos do que as pessoas que o comandam. Lideres corruptos e egocêntricos sempre serão um problema. Não importando se falamos de uma monarquia ou de uma democracia. Um monarca capacitado e comprometido com seu povo pode trazer bonança e prosperidade, mas um tirano só trará a opressão. Se um povo engajado de poder elege líderes competentes, um povo alienado só poderá escolher qual será o próximo político a lhe roubar. Ginga Eiyuu transita facilmente entre a utopia e a distopia. A História está longe de ver a política como algo desgarrado da sociedade, como uma esfera além das capacidade humanas, que opera por si própria. As pessoas estão no centro. São as pessoas que fazem a política. Quer por meio da sua atuação, quer por meio dos seus líderes. Por estes e outros tantos motivos, em minha opinião, esta é a maior obra de animes de todos os tempos. Uma verdadeira obra de arte.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes Review for MAL (This Review Contains Spoilers) Introduction: For some reason in the Anime Community, there is this...almost cult like mentality for certain series. We also have buzzwords that keep being thrown out like “Classics” or “Masterpieces” or even people hating stuff that’s “cliche” or what have you. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of those shows where people really like it for not being anime, but being something else entirely. I have seen individuals claim that this show is the “greatest work of fiction”, not just the best anime mind you. The GREATEST WORK OF FICTION! You got dudes comparing this to fucking Plato or Socrates. Literally, go look up an article or two or even talk to some of the defenders that like this show. They think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Originally? I had dropped this show years back because I dealt with some of it’s fans who actually were unironically annoying. I actually ended up not looking at anime in general for a while, due to the constant circle jerking that this series got. Now? Recently, I’ve gotten back into anime. I decided to sit down, open my eyes, watch all 110 episodes of this with my new and improved self. Did I enjoy it? No, lmao. This shit is actually stinky and smelly. Oooh, I know the pitchforks are ready to be thrown at me. I don’t really care. I am confident and can stand on my very two feet that this is NOT the greatest anime ever. It is also FAR from being the best fictional series ever. They are many, many, MANY anime out there that are far more deserving of the title of “masterpiece” and overall? Many of which are just better than this overrated show. Anyway, let’s get down to business… Story and Characters: Legend of the Galactic Heroes focuses on the Free Planets Alliance and the Galactic Empire. The FPA being a “republican democracy” (lol) and the Galactic Empire being...a...see the thing is? It’s supposed to be a Monarchy, but the series jumps from calling it a “Monarchy” and an “Autocracy”. I guess it’s an “Autocracy” then lol. The FPA are inspired/based off of the republics that you see in reality. (America, France, Modern Germany, and so on) While the Empire is based on the Prussian Empire from back in the 18th-19th century. The FPA and the Galactic Empire are at constant odds with each other throughout the series. You will learn all about it, who started what, and exposition dumps by fake historians. It tries to portray this cynical nature of conflict in which whatever you do? Conflict will always start anew. The problem lies in how a lot of this is executed because there is a rather poor understanding of politics within this narrative. Not only that, but characters don’t even feel like “characters” but political caricatures that the author is shoving into the story. The author has a very surface level view of politics and philosophy. I’m not sure why many anime fans on MAL and the ones I’ve talked to think this is “deep”, but when one actually sits down to hear what these characters are saying? You will find out that neither the political aspects or the philosophy are anything mind blowing. Let’s start with our 2 main characters. Reinhard Von Lohengramm and Yang Wen-Li. They are supposedly based on real historical figures, but I don’t really care about this because they don’t do a great job in reflecting them at all. We’ll start first with Yang, since he bothers me the most out of these two. Yang is a strong supporter of democracy, if you haven’t noticed already. Yang originally wanted to be a historian, but couldn’t because he had to enter military service first. His father passed away when he was younger, so he was left penniless so he had no choice but to go in there. My problem with this character is that I wished we saw more of him trying to wheel himself out of the war effort and end the series off by becoming a historian that he wanted but instead…. He’ll rant, rant, and rant about his ideals. The problem is? His ideals are flawed and he’s supporting a political ideology that is pretty much destructive to begin with. Yang supports this flawed political position throughout the entirety of the show. He never experiences any character development, he never thinks about what he’s doing is wrong, and he never questions himself. Yang supports democracy and is in staunch opposition towards war, yet that doesn’t stop him from killing millions of people. On top of that? He blames some of his actions on war itself, but not realizing that he’s partially responsible for it as well along with the many commanders that partake in it. War is not some abstract concept, lol. War is caused by human beings who have differing ideological clashes. Yang Wen-Li also does not understand anything he’s saying either. For example, when he first meets Reinhard? It goes like this: “Reinhard: Is democracy such a great thing? Didn’t the Galactic Republic give birth to Rudolf and his Galactic Empire? Wasn’t the one who delivered your beloved nation into my hands your own ruler, chosen by the free will of the people of the Alliance? Democratic rule is a body chosen by its citizens in free will which subsumes the power and spirit of self. Yang: if you could pardon my rudeness, your excellency, your words are as if the value of fire should be denied, simply because arson exists. Reinhard: Hmm, that may be true, but wouldn’t you say the same applies to dictatorship? you cannot deny the efficiency of government by a strong leadership simply because tyrants do exist. Yang: I can. Reinhard: How? Yang: The right to violate the rights of the people belong to the people. In other words, when the people gave power to Rudolf von Goldenbaum, or to an incomparably smaller man like Job Trunicht, the responsibility belongs to the people. It belongs to on one else. Thats the important point. The sin of dictatorship is that the people can push off the failures of government onto one man. Compared to that cardinal sin, the accomplishments of a hundred wise rulers seem small. In addition, your Excellency, a ruler as great as you is exceedingly rare. It’s only natural that your accomplishments and your failures also stand out.” Yang is incredibly wrong because: 1. For one, the equivalence is false. Fire, for the most part, is a basic necessity for society to function, which on a basic level is not true for democracy (even if you're someone who is pro-democracy, you should agree with this). Secondly, if you could somehow prevent arson by removing the means by which is brought about (fire), there is a very good argument to be made that you SHOULD actually do it. Yang's only real argument then is, I guess, that dictator's are flawed? But then so are the rulers of a democracy, who manipulate the people's desires to their own benefit. And Reinhard is talking about dictatorship under the perspective of strong leadership, so Yang ultimately has no point. 2. He's also saying how the "right to violate the rights of the people belong to the people". How? This is wrong. People in power, aka the Elites are the ones who are violating the rights of people. How are you going to shift responsibility to the people, when it's possible that the people can be brainwashed by said politicians and their choice of words? Hell, for Christ's sake we see this within the show… Yang literally has ZERO idea of what he’s talking about. It gets worse, lol. At one point he’s being court martialed by a bunch of people right? The politicians ask him questions and what have you. Yang literally states that, “A nation doesn’t create individuals by cellular division. Instead, it is individuals with autonomous intent who gather to establish a nation. In a democratic society, it is axiomatic as to which one is the master and which the servant.” I don’t know how this is “deep”, lol. If you actually think about it for a couple seconds? All he’s saying is that individuals with a lot of potential will come together, form a collective, and establish a nation. The Nation serves the People, but in retrospect? The People should also serve their nation. Which, we’ll get into my next quote: “People may need societies, but they don’t necessarily need “nations.”” Nations are a part of society, Yang. Nations are an integral part to someone’s identity. That’s how we tell who is who to begin with. That’s how we identify and differentiate an American from an Englishman. They come from different nations, which play apart in who they are. He also says stuff like the “army doesn’t side with the people and it’s used for violence”. Okay, no lol. A National Army is used for violence yes, but it does side with the people. An army is made up of individuals who are there to protect their nation from invaders foreign and domestic. “Violence” is not always a bad thing, unless you’re using it to protect those you care about. Yang also says crap like, “Living things know nothing about their ancestors, only the genes they inherited” That’s wrong too because when you trace your bloodline back? You can indeed look up quite a bit of who your ancestors are, what they did, and how they lived. So, no living things can indeed know a lot about their ancestors if they take the time to find out that information. Yang is actually so idealistic in his belief of democracy, that it hurts. “I believe that being ruled by the worst democracy is preferable to being ruled by the best autocracy. That’s why I’m fighting Prince Reinhard von Lohengramm on behalf of Job Trunicht. I think it’s a good principle.” This is actually [redacted]. Job Trunicht is literally corrupt to the bone, yet you still fight under him? You yourself are aware of how benevolent Reinhard has been (for the most part) yet you’ll still fight under this dude? Why not do a military coup, take him out, and make the Free Alliance better? The worst democracy is no match for an Autocracy that is at its best. There’s no comparison, even a 5th grader can understand this. A system that is at its worst is not better than a system that is at its best. There’s another point where Yang says this too: "when the absolute majority of the people affirm and accept autocracy, we who advocate for the sovereignty of the people become the enemy of the people…If we have to bring down a virtuous ruler to preserve the institution of democracy, democracy becomes the enemy of good governance. We have no choice but to laugh at such a paradox." Okay, so people accept autocracy because strong rulers inspire change. Giving power to individuals gives access to mob rule, which will only create chaos. Democracy was always an enemy of good governance...from the very beginning. People who watch this show, likely have never picked up a political book in their life or they are nihilistic, liberal, atheist, and think they know about politics because they read some crap about the 2016 election. So, “Anime Fans” think they are smart for watching this show and they think this show can flex on many others. This is not the case as the author has a poor understanding of political subjects. So, Yang doesn’t understand anything he’s talking about. On top of that? He’s a delusional idealist who is protecting a broken ideology that has never worked in history. The Founding Fathers of America were against Democracy for a reason, that’s why America is a Constitutional Federal Republic not a Democracy. Yang also never changes his stance or views throughout the series. He remains static up until his death, which was comical. He’s got quite a bit of Mary Sue traits in all honesty, he also only seems to care about his pensions. This character is awful. He has no direction and I feel like the author wanted to do something grand with this character, but the execution was poor due to not understanding how character writing works. Yang has Mary Sue traits because barely anyone argues with him, they romanticize him as this genius who knows everything. They even put his face next to the founder of the FPA itself, like it’s ridiculous. Enough of Yang Wen-Li for a bit. Let’s talk about Reinhard, lol. Reinhard starts the story off with an estranged relationship with his father. His father sold his sister off to the noble Goldenbaum Dynasty. Reinhard gets angry, since he loves his sister. He and his boyfri-Uh I mean best friend go on a journey to acclaim power to get his sister, Annerose back. Now, Reinhard actually has an interesting motivation. He’s set up nicely unlike Yang Wen-Li who is a terrible character throughout the series. The problem is? Once he defeats the Nobles and gets his sister back in the...uh...first fucking season. (God. The villains are actually fodder lol. More on this later.) Instead of looking into how Reinhard plans on making lives better for the Empire? He sees war as a tool for him to gain more and more power. He wants to “seize the universe” after all as he told Kirechis. How is he different from the Nobles then? Sure, he’s made lives better for the people. We don’t see much of it, but the narrator sure does tell us a lot about it. However, Reinhard has murdered and slaughtered millions of people. I could argue more than Yang and he’s completely self aware. He even got brainwashed by Oberstien in one episode where he let millions die just to broadcast it live, so he can frame the nobles. Such a pointless act, he was BEATING them. Why do this? Then Reinhard shits himself when a survivor from that planet he nuked came to rebuke him. Reinhard just stands there in shock. Like? You got yourself convinced by Oberstien and you didn’t see this coming? Lol. He even started trusting Oberstien more than his best friend Kircheis. Then when he died? We get constant reminders of, “If Kircheis was here…” Whatever dude, nobody cares because the series is assuming things would be different if he was still alive. Who knows? It could’ve gone either way, but it gets annoying of the constant reminder of if “this guy was here” because you’re telling me that literally all the characters except a select few are actually useless in this story and can’t make any real change. Sad lol. Ultimately? Both of them are wrong. Yang who keeps being a soldier and killing people because he follows his ideals in keeping democracy alive and Reinhard who thinks he has to defeat Yang and gain the whole universe. On top of that? This series loves dickriding it’s two protagonists very often. They never experience any real challenge by anyone besides themselves. They are deemed as “majestic” and “perfect” even with their flaws or what little they have. I need to ram this point in but war is not decided by one smart guy who is just better than everyone else, it’s a combined effort where many very smart people put their minds together. This idea that one guy is such a good strategist and everyone else is just a pleb that stands no chance is such a typical anime trope. And people make this anime out to be more than just a typical anime. Which is downright [redacted] because people compare this anime to the fucking “Illad” or “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Like stop, it’s not that deep or profound. They are much better anime in which they do their themes appropriately. Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are examples. Yes, Western Anime Fans online. I know you guys hate these series but I don’t care. These series focus on morality, ideals, and have politics within them too. It’s a lot more fleshed out there, then in this show which is literally a borefest. Gundam also does political stuff better than Galactic Heroes, if you want a “safer” example from me lol. Now, adding onto this? Let’s talk about the other characters. They are equally as unremarkable as Reinhard and Yang are. Every other character here are basically typical military officers, an empty shell just there to take orders. The only exception are people like Reunthal and Oberstien who have a bit more going for them. However, when it’s time for them to actually do anything in the story? It's the very last season. Yes, I’m aware that all these other characters do get backstories but they aren’t deep or profound. Only Reunthal has a really tragic one. The rest of these guys? They have the most cliched rom-com type backstories for a war setting. Pathetic. I was expecting detailed backstories for these characters in where they went through some kind of personal struggle. After all? This is the best fictional story ever told right? Surely it has to live up to its expectations? Hint: It doesn’t. That leads us to our villains. The villains are one dimensional, they are not interesting, and are generic as all hell. Reinhard and Yang are not geniuses for beating these guys. Literally any other anime character with a good degree of strategy could take them. They are actually fodder. The Aristocrats that Reinhard faces up against? They are a joke. The military coup that Yang had to go up against? They ended up destroying each other. None of these villains provided any real challenge for our main characters, which is sad because then there’s no obstacle in which they can grow from. That includes the Fezzan dude Rubinsky and the Terrarists. They are literally jokes, there’s not much depth to them besides the fact that they want to control everything and kill our main characters. That’s it. Like I said before? Reinhard and Yang (to a lesser extent Julian and the Rosen Ritters) are treated as these God Tier opponents that overcome any obstacle within their way. They end up being just typical anime characters. It’s just like DBZ where everyone just takes a backseat while Goku and to a lesser extent Vegeta do all the fighting. Reinhard and Yang are the only ones who can challenge each other. This is very lame because then the entire “morally grey” concept is thrown out of the window since these two characters can literally change the scope of the setting itself by being there at that present moment. On top of that? Everyone is either delusional (Yang and his friends) or no better than the evils before them (Reinhard). So, it’s just a bunch of assholes fighting each other, while even bigger assholes are manipulating them from the shadows. So, let’s talk about the FPA and Empire itself…. The Free Planets Alliance is supposed to be a “republican democracy”. Okay? So, where is Congress? Judicial Branch? Legislative Branch? Executive Branch? Checks and Balances? Stuff that can check, fine, or even reform the will of the majority? Where is it’s own Electoral College? What even is a “republican democracy”? It’s supposed to be based on French or even American ideals, but neither France or America are “democratic republics”. America is not a democracy, but a Constitutional Federal Republic. I guess it’s based off of France then, which is closer to what they mean by “democratic republic” I guess. However, again it’s missing a lot of the key factors that make these nations what they are. We barely get to see how the FPA functions. I mean, how can we? It’s corrupt after all. There might be a President, but he’s probably corrupt as shit with nobody to check his power. There’s this one scene where all the members are sitting at the round table and are looking at a screen in which they talk about how support for them is falling apart due to how they are handling the war. Then, they all vote on some plan or solution which can better the situation. This is not how any of this works. You learn nothing of civil law. You learn nothing of private and criminal law. You learn absolutely nothing. The FPA is a “democratic republic” but it has nothing in common with any political systems today. It’s all surface level nonsense. Let’s look at the Empire. Already we have an issue of where it doesn’t know if it’s an Monarchy or an Autocracy. Is it a Monarchy? If so, it’s missing a lot of stuff. A Monarchy is a solemn and covenantal service to God in which the monarch is ultimately subject to the Creator to give an account of his or her stewardship and rule over His people. The greatest monarchs in history are those who were the most effective stewards of the good order, prosperity, and peacefulness of their realms. A Monarch’s reign is to be blessed by God and is focused primarily on his salvation. Reinhard is not this whatsoever. They do not have a religious component at all within this frame, after all this series treats religion rather poorly. Reinhard is also garbage when it comes to politics, hell the series makes note that he isn’t very good at it. That’s why Hilda does most of the work. Reinhard is only good for war, he loves fighting and conquering. He is not a good Monarch, he’s no better than the Goldenbaum dynasty. Now? If it’s an Autocracy? Then, that’ll make more sense, but even so Reinhard should’ve become a lot more flawed because no man would have all that power and not end up becoming corrupt. Look what he did in the last season, he wanted Julain to prove his worth if he wanted to continue Yang’s belief of a “republican democracy”. These characters never get reprimanded at all by other people. They are literally perfect within their narrative. What this series could’ve done was compare and contrast the concepts of Monarchy vs Republics. As in, compare the strengths and weaknesses of a society in which is backed by a constitution vs one that is backed by the will of God. This series doesn’t do this. I understand this is a Japanese Anime, but it’s no excuse. Other anime have their own literary themes too, in which they explore upon with great depth. This series is supposed to be the greatest in all of anime, yet it does nothing. The author wanted to do something big and grand, but ended up faltering. However, because most anime fans online do not look at politics (much less religion or go outside at all) or understand it? They watch this 80s cartoon that nobody cares about and get manipulated into thinking it’s profound. Terrible. Battles and the “profound” strategy So, I'm gonna keep it a buck 50. The battles and “strategy” are awful. The strategy consists of either retreating, encircling the enemy, surrounding them, using a formation, pincer attacks, and battles aren't even 3 dimensional but 2 dimensional. They call the main characters ``geniuses" yet anybody with half a brain cell can see how simple these battles are if they actually watched the show and didn't dickride it. There are only sometimes where the battles become a lot more intelligent, like when they used a black hole or blew up some giant space station that the Empire was planning on using. Otherwise? The battles can be summed up as such. This isn’t Hunter X Hunter or Jojo Bizarre Adventure where you see a whole slew of creative battles. Hell, there’s better fight scenes in Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, or your typical Shonen than this. A lot of it is extremely simple or just filled with plot armor due to main characters being literal Gods. Editing and Voice Direction: There’s a lot of great VAs in here. For example, Reinhard’s voice actor is literally Vegeta. If that’s not cool? I don’t know what is. You also have Char Aznable’s VA voicing one of the characters. Now, the problem is that even though you have a lot of great VAs? They sound so dull and souleless. There’s only like one or two scenes where you really felt the emotional weight of some of these characters. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of talking where they sound so robotic. They are even times where characters sound almost robotic, when it comes to explaining military plans or literally ANYTHING else in general. There’s no feeling in the way these characters express themselves, they just sound whack. All this over explaining, exposition dumps, and narrator constantly talking makes watching this anime a chore. I could’ve gotten through 21 episodes of Dragon Ball by the time one of these episodes finished, LOL. In Anime, this should be easy to do but the “greatest anime ever” failed to do something so simple. The editing is cheeks too. Sometimes when watching the show? The show would cut to different scenes so weirdly. They are times where you’re watching an episode and there’s no real flow to how scenes transition. They are times where a conversation would often switch focus to another event for no reason. I also feel like this show REALLY has its hands full with the constant explaining, even the characters do it. There are times where characters just walk together, sit down in a room drinking shit, and or close ups of their faces where they are just talking about crap all day just to pad out the episode. It’s so grating, lol. They are times where the narrator jumps in at the near end of the episode just to tell you what’s going to happen next. Alright, narrator. Thank you very much. (Sarcasm) It’s like I’m reading a book. Which is sad because this is a cartoon. I’m supposed to be watching something, not watching a documentary on fake history. Gundam does war so much better, I swear. Animation and Art Style The characters do not look appealing. They don’t stand out, they all look like average joes. They don’t have any iconic designs like your Luffy or Goku. They aren’t really stylized either, this is just a sorry attempt at making them look like real people. I know what you’re going to say, “What’s the point?” The point is, even for it’s time? It’s unremarkable. Look at Tanka’s other work, “Arslan Senki” right? Those character designs actually look remarkable. (Props to the legendary Yoshitaka Amano). Here? Bland and lame. Characters also look the same too and have the same build. The animation is also poop as well. They largely consist of either still frames of battle ships shooting each other or just these boring props of characters sitting around doing nothing. There’s also the melee combat, which is pretty straightforward in all honesty. It’s nothing impressive, even for it’s time. You had stuff like Gunbuster, which is filled with excellent animation. This? Extremely muted and often entire stretches of dialogue that can last for most of an episode. This is mostly with talking heads sitting on a table and repeating the same crap over and over while the same handful of frames are repeated over and over. (Getting annoyed? Excellent. That’s what this show will do to you.) The show's visuals are awful. Backgrounds are literally a still image with nothing in it and when there ARE people in these frames? They don’t move at all. It’s insulting the medium completely by not being an anime, but some visual documentary for you to read. It’s not entertaining, if it’s not entertaining? It doesn’t deserve it’s 10/10 MAL score nor it's score on Anilist either as being the top rated anime. I feel like people who give this a 10/10 don't actually like the show, they are probably obligated to do it because they don't want to go against the popular opinion. Sound design and Music The sound design is alright. You can hear things clearly, but sound effects don’t have that “POW!” factor that other anime have. Sometimes when things explode? You don’t feel that level of power like you do in other shows. It lacks a lot of impact, which makes an anime exciting but this is not an “anime” but a book so… Anyway, while I do love Classical Music? The music here either sucks or does not belong in this series. Honestly, most of the tracks are forgettable. I literally only like the second opening theme and the fourth. Otherwise? None of the tracks are that memorable to me. Why this Series fails as a Science Fiction. Now, I’m not done ragging on this series yet. People like to say that this is the best “space opera” or the best “sci-fi”. No, this is not better than Star Wars. It is not better than Gundam, Macross, Space Battleship Yamato, Cowboy Bebop, Galaxy Express 99, Ideon, Dunbine, Evangelion, and so on and so forth. All these shows I listed actually contribute to the genre of “Sci-Fi” and or “Space Opera''. This? This doesn’t. This novel (Yes, this was originally a novel) was published in 1982. So, 41 years after WW2. WW2 was decided by the following three key technologies: radar, decryption, and nuclear weapons. WW1 and WW2 evolved technological advancements during the time when countries were facing off against one another. Why didn’t something similar happen between the Galactic Empire and the FPA? America was literally industrializing during WW2. Countries were learning new strategies, forming new organizations, and were creating new programs all due to the war effort. None of this happened in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, not one. In Gundam, new robots are constantly being made and new technological advancements are being made/mass produced for the war effort. Gundam is more realistic with its approach towards warfare, than Galactic Heroes is. There was one episode where they still used fucking pidegons as messengers, LOL! If that’s not pathetic? I’m not sure what is. The technology being as advanced as it is here? It sure does not look that way. They are using the same ships over and over. Nothing is getting updated, improved, nor are any new fields of technology being produced. Terrible. The battles in this series can be chalked up to Roman Empire styled space battles with Napoleonic Formations. Even then, it’s all surface level because they only manage to capture the very basics of how those people fought back then. On top of that? Remember how Yang dies a ridiculous death? Yeah, the Terraists literally managed to disguise themselves as Empire people and managed to sneak on the ship to shoot him in the leg. This is so ridiculous. You mean to tell me these people have been fighting for so long and none of them have dealt with disguises or people trying to infiltrate their ranks? What kind of future is this? There is no CIA, FBI, or MI6 equivalent? The future is dumb. You barely even get to see how the Terraists try to undermine the war effort. One episode the Terraists or was it Rubinsky and his goons? They were planning something. In short, there was a massive explosion that happened. Many people got killed and I remember Oberstien got gravely injured. How come we did not see the Terraists getting together, formulating their scheme, and then carrying it out? How come we didn’t get to see the villains infiltrate their ranks? Why is information done so poorly in this series? It’s like the series mainly wants to focus on the “philosophy” and “politics'' which literally all suck. What about AI? Nobody talks about that in this series. What about seeing new WMD’s being developed? This series came out during the Cold War, you’d think they’d highlight that by talking about the significance of that and how it plays a role within politics. The series did have nukes, but how they executed that concept was done so poorly. As I explained above Oberstien wanted to frame the Royals. Duke Braunschweig decided to make an example of the entire planet by launching nuclear missiles at it. The use of nuclear weapons on inhabited worlds had been a taboo since the Thirteen Day War. He overruled his aide, Commodore Ansbach, who had advocated a more selective policy of punishing only the ringleaders of the rebellion. Reinhard wanted to stop it from happening, yet Oberstien told him to let it happen and use it as a propaganda device. Reinhard was WINNING! You didn’t need to sacrifice millions of lives just for this. [redacted]. Oberstien also deliberately lied to him too about the time all of it was going to happen. We are like...800 years into the future. You mean to tell me that these people don’t have the technology capable of stopping massive nukes? No force fields, no gamma ray bombs, or any creative way to showcase really powerful weaponry? You’re in space, lol. In real war? There’s lots of different tools and weapons that can give you tactical advantages. You have artillery, tanks, airplanes, ships, submarines, mines, spies and a whole lot of other things. In this series, they basically ALL use the same ships, since it is never said that either side has better ships, which all use the same kind of laser to shoot at each other. There are a few rare anomalies but this is supposed to be the “greatest sci fi/anime/fictional piece of work ever. Objectively speaking”, so it should live up to expectations. It doesn’t though. For a world so advanced? They also seem so backwards at the same time. They could have used different ship types, which would have made the battles more interesting, some kind of blockades of supply lines or so many other things. They also talk about, “muh morale”. “Morale” doesn’t win battles. “Morale” is built and cultivated through the SUCCESS of many battles. Just having it on your own isn’t going to do anything for you, lol. You need to have morale and MANY other things on top of that to make your soldiers fight efficiently in battle. This series fails as a Sci-Fi. It is downright the worst Sci-Fi I’ve seen. It also disregards Aliens and Supernatural Phenomena too. For an anime? This is very shameful. However, it’s not an anime. It wants to be “deep” and “profound” aka “realistic”. What it ends up being is surface level garbage. People only like the cynical nature this series has because THEY agree with it. If you don’t agree with it? You are alienated from the experience, so it becomes a problem overall for any viewer watching this. Conclusion: Legend of the Galactic Sweaty Ball Sacks is not the worst anime ever made, but one of the worst. It is however, the worst Sci-Fi/Space Opera ever made which is still just as insulting because I love Sci-Fi/Space Opera. Normally, I was going to give this a 3 but it’s fanbase is insufferable so I’m giving it a 0. This series has a lame plot, terrible characters, some of the worst animation/art in anime history, and it doesn’t feel like a Japanese series but something else entirely which sucks balls. I watch anime for it being anime, not for it being “unique” and “different”. Just because something is “unique” and “different” that doesn’t make it good, execution matters. A “cliche” is not bad, it all depends on how an author executes said cliche. I don't understand why this series is number 1 on both Anilist and MAL. It is one of the most bland shows in the industry. Oh well, since this gets 10/10 across the board because it “supersedes” the medium? I can assume that most people, even within this very community do not really like anime. The philosophy and war diatribe is also garbage too. The politics are surface level or are just ass. Why am I watching a cartoon, yet I’m treated to literal documentaries of bullshit that nobody cares about? So, to wrap up my thoughts? This show is visual and literal diarrhea. The show doesn't understand how politics, technology, or even basic human communication works. Some episodes are literally like filler episodes, except they aren't because it's important to the plot. The problem is that the show has a narrator which overexplains things to to the point where you're better off just reading a book. The show doesn't inspire any deep emotion, why would it when it's characters feel like robots or awkward people? This show absolutely blows. It's bland, dry, incompetent, and doesn't grasp it's own themes. I watched all 110 episodes of this series. That's a lot of time wasted, but I had to do it because it's fans will say that it gets better after 20, 30, 40, or so on and so forth episodes. It doesn't get better, it gets worse and more tiring. So here's what you can do: 1. Watch something you actually like 2. Actually read about politics from actual sources and buy books 3. Don't listen to what other people say online 4. Check out other anime that came out this season 5. Just stay away from this show. Humans have 100 years to live. You don't want to waste that watching garbage. You deserve so much better than that.
# ~~~____In The Eternal Night____~~~ ~~~(massive spoiler warning for the entire series)~~~ --- _"The legend ends, and history begins"_ I had heard of Legend Of The Galactic Heroes (LOGH) for almost as long as I had been watching anime and been involved in the community. The acclaim astonished me as it just seemed so untouchable, so massive, so hard to wrap my head around. This soon turned to disdain after hearing fans gush so much, what was so great about it anyways? The reason I describe my experience is because I am sure people have felt the same. I could never shake that curiosity though, so I went for it. LOGH quickly drew me in like few series have before. The curiosity soon turned to intrigue, investment, and then astonishment. I was stunned at what I had missed out on all this time. With all of that being said, LOGH is easily one of the greatest series I have ever watched. It is a pillar of the medium, that has stood the test of time and most likely will for decades to come. It tackles heavy themes of authoritarianism, democracy, corruption and more while still creating a memorable story. __This is my last spoiler warning, because I will once again highly recommend you watch this series. __ Now, onto my thoughts. --- ~~~__The Shield of Democracy, and Sword of the Empire__~~~ ~~~ img220(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/627998738031312906/888353486541045760/yang.png)~~~ Yang Wen-li is a slacker on the surface, who wants his pension and nothing more. He is almost the complete opposite of Reinhard in that regard as he does not have the ambition to conquer, despite having the talent. But this is actually due to his only ambition being that of upholding democracy. Even when his superiors disrespect him, and actively try to cause him defeat, he staunchly upholds that what he is fighting for is right. This characterization is excellently done. Yang never seems like he is doing anything that is so unrealistically noble that it's just silly, instead he ponders on if what he is doing is on the right side of history. But his actions are also polarizing enough at times, like his following of stand down orders instead of killing Reinhard at Vermillion, that they can also be criticized. I can't help but applaud the way he was made to be such a thought-provoking character. Reinhard is not only the opposite of, but shown to be confused by this mentality. He believes in absolute power, to hold that ambition and use it to drive him ahead, and the death of Kircheis is an very well used inciting event to drive Reinhard towards this end. But it also is a portrayal of how ideals affect a nation, and can lead to war. Yang and Reinhard both end up having to kill many on the way to success, and the series shows how it weighs down on them as it should. There are many great callbacks to this as well, such as a man attempting to assassinate Reinhard over the Westerland Massacre. Both characters, however, have a natural progression to redeeming themselves and moving past the guilt. They have families and pass their knowledge and spirit on to the next generation, leading to fulfilling character arcs for both. Of course, the show has a vast amount of characters beyond just those two. I wish Frederica had been fleshed out a little more, but she still is a great counterpart to Yang, and their relationship was really feel good. Her reaction to his death was easily one of the hardest hitting moments in the show and overall I felt it was a great portrayal of the emotions of a young death. Schönkopf is not a character that warrants too much deep analysis but he still ended up being one of my favorites. He is easily the most capable of Yang's allies in a practical sense, and I felt it was a good choice to have him be the one who is willing to criticize Yang for his lack of ambition. If there was any character who deserved to go down fighting it was him. Poplin, Cazerne, and Attenborough bring a lot of the levity without being annoying or unlikable, and they all prove themselves in various ways. Admirals Lutz, Bittenfeld, Fahrenheit, all show different traits which make them unique and memorable. Going in, I thought the scale of this series would make me quickly forget names but by the end I felt a very deep connection to even the more minor side characters, which is no small feat. --- ~~~__The Space Opera__~~~ _"Good people and remarkable people are killed meaninglessly. That's war, and that's terrorism. The sins of war and terrorism, in the end, comes down to that."_ The narrative is also an aspect I expected to have trouble with, but I never did. The pacing is perfectly balanced, and altering between Yang and Reinhard's sides never felt confusing or lost me. The build-up towards episodes with both was perfectly executed and these episodes always came at the right time. The first series is largely set-up to begin with, but deftly starts to weave in the main plot and the rebellions on both side of the galaxy. And of course, Kircheis' death is a great inciting event. The second series however, is where I feel the show really began to prove its greatness to me. It was a great decision to have the alliance fall, however early it may seem at first it's a very logical conclusion that is built up to masterfully. The ill-advised actions of the alliance in the first series serve as fuel to this flame, and set up the debate between corrupt democracy and benevolent dictatorship. Reinhard also finally triumphs, but a major twist comes with how hollow this triumph really is to him. As mentioned before, Yang defeats him tactically once again and only spares him due to the ceasefire orders. The crown means little to him at that point. Series 3 is the biggest triumph of the show for me. It not only begins contrasting the democracy and dictatorship, but comparing them. Lennenkampf's incompetence as a leader leads to his death and Yang rising up against him while the alliance, ever desperate to save the nation, imprisons Yang. Bewcock's last battle against the invading imperial forces is one of the highlights of the series, his committal to his values is inspiring and the scene of his wife handing him his uniform for the last time was moving. The Terraists are largely revealed this season to be the main antagonist of the show. They are a little too boogeyman-y but I like how they connect back to the Earth, and the history elaborated on in documentary episodes as a remnant of violent social institutions, and religion. Along with Fezzan and Rubinsky they divide instead of heal, and move back instead of forward. Of course, this all builds up to Yang's tragic conclusion. This was one of the most moving deaths I have ever experienced in a story in general. It was perfectly executed, did not feel shoehorned in, and ends up serving a greater purpose in the story. Frederica describing how she wished Yang SHOULD have died brought me to tears which few series do. The galaxy is broken, and it feels unreasonable for the war to even go on. Needless to say, but the show does an excellent job of making his death feel truly monumental. At the end, the funeral and then founding of the republic shows Iserlohn singing the alliance anthem. It takes on a new meaning as an upholding of the ideals that Yang died for. In the final series, every plotline is tied together excellently. First, there is Reinhard finally finding something to live for by marrying Hilda and having a child together. Then there is Mittermeyer and Reuenthal. Reuenthal is easily one of the best characters in the show. His background as someone who wasn't even meant to be born leads to his surging ambiton, an amplification of one of Reinhard's greatest traits, which shows how it can also be a downfall. Mittermeyer, his ever loyal friend tries his hardest but at the end it is Reuenthal's pride that leads him to not back down. He lives by the sword, and dies by the sword as the episode titles spell out. But at the end he still held Reinhard in high regard. At the end, with him passing his son on to Mittermeyer and killing Trunicht, it was a very fitting end to his character arc and a very touching moment. The type of tragic character that Reuenthal is can be very hard to get right but it is done perfectly. His actions perfectly fit with his character, and at the end he dies with honor. The church of terra stages their final attacks after this. This is probably my biggest gripe with the plot. The terraists, who were this insanely powerful organization who have succeeded almost all series with plots, completely stumble over themselves and fail to even touch Hilda or Annerose. I'm not saying I wanted them to die, but it is far from believable when this group that couldn't be stopped by armies was stopped by Kesler shooting them through a window. I get they were weakened but they seem like an afterthought towards the end, similar to Rubinsky although he is more believable. Despite this, the show still crafts a perfect conclusion. Oberstein, the morally grey and hated person he is, ends up being true to his characterization in every way, and dies for his Kaiser whether intentionally or not. I like that it was left up to interpretation and not just explained away. I think it was a major risk to have Reinhard get the disease that would kill him, but it paid off well and fits with his character. He had conquered all he needed to, achieved his dream, and passed on his knowledge to the next generation. You can also see the direct impact Julian has on him. Julian fought to reach him and proved to him that beyond the empire and democratic republics, that it was about the leaders. Julian did not just carry the institution Yang built, but grew into his own as a leader. This changes Reinhard's attitude and he ends up deciding to relieve his son of the pressure to be the best ruler. And Julian succeeds in planting just the seed of democracy that Yang passed on to him. Finally, Mittermeyer watches his adopted son reach to the stars and realizes that the spirit of discovering the world lives on from Reinhard, which was one of my favorite scenes in any series. I'd say it gives Reinhard meaning past his death the same as Yang, immortalizing both of them as heroes not just in battle, but to their loved ones and comrades. Overall, minus the mentioned issues. It is hard to call the narrative anything but a success. None of the deaths or twists miss and they all are perfectly paced. The story engages throughout and I never got lost. Despite the scale, the plot executes. _"Will you someday journey to those stars too?"_ ~~~img220(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/627998738031312906/888352887711887390/unknown.png)~~~ Of course the last elements of the plot that tie all the themes together that I must mention is the contrast between democracy and dictatorship, and wars and violence in history. This is one of the elements that the series does so much better than most that it is unfair. The themes are perfectly represented, both in dialogue and visually. The failings of the alliance are set up early with the secret police, failings at Amritsar and the coup and it's effects. The politicians are corrupt, and fail the citizens. In contrast Reinhard is extremely competent, and benevolent. This is why he is a perfect foil to Yang. As said, the worst enemy to a democratic republic is one good dictator. Reinhard is not by the people, but he is for them. However, who can say that the next ruler will be as competent as Reinhard? These are the cruxes of Yang and Reinhard's debate. As said for a series to execute so well on this front is almost unparalleled. It all comes together in a very satisfying manner as well since Julian influences Reinhard enough to know that at minimum the guidelines must be set for the future to have the best leader. When it comes to wars, violence and the mark they leave on history, the series does a great job exploring this as well. Yang frequently describes to Julian, using his studies as a basis, the use of righteousness as a cause for war and how this perpetuates this. This is proven by the characters deaths in the show as well and how they influence the landscape. I felt personally that the show got me thinking about how leaders are truly perceived in history, and whether we always know the full context of their actions. Whether you agree or not with any of the philosophy, it is a nice way to wrap up the major theme, as well as provide cause to the characters actions. _"In other words, the life of the Alliance is at an end! Its politicians toy with power. Its opportunistic soldiers are absorbed in military adventurism just like at Amritsar. And its citizens have turned over leadership to politicians instead of participating in it! The people have democratic principles on their lips but cannot spare the effort to safeguard it! The collapse of an autocracy is the sin of its rulers and leaders. But the collapse of a democracy is the sin of every citizen!"_ _"For example, while it is true that Duke Lohengramm might have that talent, what about his descendants? His successor? Rulers are not necessarily wise through generations... I do not think that the entire human race should be ruled by a system where everything depends on one person's character."_ ~~~img220(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/687401366435397643/881797570207285278/SPOILER_unknown.png)~~~ --- __~~~Technicalities/Wrap Up~~~__ I will briefly go over how I feel about the more fundamental/technical aspects. The art is clearly dated but actually looks good and enjoyable. It's helped by really unique character designs, ships, uniforms, etc. The characters looks really portray them well- Bittenfeld looks fiery, Mittermeyer noble, Schonkopf is rough and battle-hardened etc. I would be lying to say the show has great animation or uses the medium to the fullest but it looks good for the time and hasn't aged too badly, it works. Considering how hard space battles are to create it probably makes it more admirable that it just works. The music is all amazing, only some could probably be accredited to the actual staff because a lot of it is classical but also using the music they did for the show was a great idea. I thought most of the OPs and EDs were good but some a lot more memorable (OP 1, ED 3). All of the voice acting was great. I won't go on more since this is very long already, but to conclude I can say this: I am very glad this series proved me wrong. I went in expected a bit of a mess, and now it is one of my favorite series ever. I felt huge emotional impact, it lead me to think a lot about the themes it presented, and overall was just very engrossing, dramatic, and exciting throughout. It is hard to put in the words the beauty of the ending and the idea of passing on that reach towards the stars to the next generation. It can only be summed up with my favorite quote from the show. ___"In every age, in every place, perhaps it is an action repeated innumerable times.. people continue to pursue something forever out of their reach. Has that aspiration not appeared in all of us?"___ Beauty.
A young man sits at the command of a large fleet of ships, a tall red headed youth at his side, and allies who could be mistaken for friends at his beck and call. Opposing him is an older, albeit still quite young man, who surrounds himself with men he can trust, though you wouldn't be at fault for mistaking those people as his friends as well. Their battles are less an exchange of hatred or duty, but more an understanding of one another, knowing that if one had been born to the other side, they might have been good friends. This is the Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Despite what many of the reviews may lead you to believe, this series isn't a pseudo-intellectual historical diatribe meant to appeal solely to people who want to look like they have "based taste", nor is it a 1/100 "worst thing evar" series. Simply put, it is a very good anime, though one that ultimately isn't for everyone. Even ignoring the massive cast and 110 episode barrier (and that's ignoring the movies and side anime), there are elements like the official subtitles, subtitles that present the series as much more antiquated, using more fanciful and romantic language, and don't even get me started on Reinhard's royal "We". My point is, Legend of the Galactic Heroes isn't for everybody, hell, if you were to somehow get a hold of my anime history, you'd see that I started this series just about a decade ago, though it took me till this year to actually sit down and watch all of it. It's this thing we humans do call "maturing" and "not killing our attention span with shitty youtube videos". I know someone will misconstrue this as me saying that you have to have a high IQ to even like this series, but that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that if you're forcing yourself to watch this anime, just don't fucking watch it. Now, to actually talk about the show. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a show like many other anime. In fact, it's a lot like the good ol shounen and mecha anime pseuds like to compare this to. It's a show about the dreams of men, the dreams of Reinhard von Lohengramm, the dreams of Rudolf von Goldenbaum, the dreams of Julian Mintz. There are as many dreams as there are stars in the sky, but it's a question of how many of those stars are merely the brief flashes of dying stars we see off in the distance, and how many are still burning passionately. It's almost fitting that one of our protagonists, Yang Wenli, lacks any real dream. All he desires is to retire young and to read history, but such a simple dream is stifled by his homeland's hunger for war and further political power, he sees himself used as a figurehead, both in movements he does and does not agree with, yet all the same he wishes it could be someone other than him. He opposes Reinhard by being his complete opposite, a man with no desire for conquest or hunger for power, a man wronged time and again by his ruling government but doesn't share any ill will towards them. These qualities aren't there to show he is better Reinhard, but rather, another side of a coin. A casual viewer would get rightfully frustrated with how loyal Yang is to his military despite his protests, and many would probably get agitated, waiting for him to seize power like Reinhard, but Yang recognizes that is not a position for him to hold. Many people would disagree with him on that, and maybe he was wrong, but it makes for an interesting juxtaposition against Reinhard Von Lohengramm's conquests. Reinhard himself is similarly a character that is almost fitting as a protagonist. A man with dreams as far as the eye can see, who pulls people into his orbit through his sheer will to see these dreams bear fruit. From someone as loyal as Kircheis, to someone more akin to a venomous snake like Oberstein, Reinhard commands his subordinates like he's the sun and the rest are merely the planets orbiting him. It's hard not to be enraptured by him, and eventually as the show keeps pushing forward, as the war keeps on going, the viewers themselves are pulled into his orbit, wanting to see his victory, yet also not wanting to see Yang lose. It's in this way that Legend of the Galactic Heroes makes a battle of democracy and autocracy more than just propaganda or biased writing. By showing the flaws of both, while similarly showing them at their heights and the core ideas behind them, it creates a juxtaposition where it's hard to solely root for one or the other, the show almost becomes suffocating with how it makes the audience compare a man like Trunicht, a corrupt politician seeking to spread democracy, yes, but wanting to do it solely to have a large stake in history, to Reinhard, a man of morality and honour, who feels remorse for the actions he has taken in his pursuit of power and seeks understanding with Yang Wenli. Ultimately, the show does answer that question, of which is better between a flawed democracy and a perfect autocracy. But, it is not my place to write that answer out, rather, it is the duty of the viewer to seek that answer out, to grasp the future with your own hands, and see the truth that lies within. I could not give this series what I would consider a good review if given a millennia to capture the ideas it holds, quantify them, and then espouse them for the general public to see. The best review of this show is contained within the show itself. I'm not saying it's perfect, or even that if you don't like it you're wrong, but what I am saying is that you should give this series a fair chance. I'd like to thank @MiracleMajutsu for recommending me this series. He will be the one that writes the TRUE Legend of the Galactic Heroes review, one that stands above the rest. Maybe. This last paragraph isn't an epilogue, it's just some spoiler tagged thoughts I had about an element that's around till the end of the series, open knowing that I very well might spoil the ending. This is a very rambly section as well, which is why I saved it for the end. ~!It's very fitting that the greatest antagonist isn't politicians thirsting for power, nor is it aristocrats clinging to family names. Ultimately, the one "core antagonist" of the series is, in a very Tomino move, Earth, or rather, cultists who still see Earth as the center of the universe. I find the topic of separating humanity from Earth to be very interesting (one of my recent reviews was on Zeta Gundam if that didn't tip you off), so I find it fitting that in this sci-fi age, the group that controls many elements from behind the scenes is one who still worships Earth, still worships that floating rock in the sky. I know many people don't like this subplot, think it's silly, I certainly thought a lot of it was silly in its presentation, but I find it really at home here. The series ends with autocracy and democracy meeting in the middle, a meeting between Julian Mintz and Reinhard von Lohengramm that reshapes the future, and with it the remaining Earth cultists are killed. They have ended this century spanning conflict, one that has claimed potentially billions of lives, and maybe humanity can move forward once more. In the novels, it is stated that humanity used to have a far higher population count, but was on the decline, so Reinhard's early death ushering in a new life, one that he doesn't want to be born into unearned power, is quite a poetic way for the series to end. No more aristocracy, no more corrupt politicians, and Earth is only as important as anywhere else humanity inhabits. It's almost certain that humanity will repeat its mistakes, but the narration falls onto a bit of hope here at the end. The presentation allows that final scene to be seen as either positive or negative, humanity endlessly reaching for things they can't reach, but similarly, Reinhard wanted for the same thing, and at the end of it all he achieved a positive outcome, one he could be satisfied with. Perhaps Felix will reach for the stars in a similar way. Perhaps not. So are, the dreams of men. !~
LoGH is a classic space opera epic that transcends any other media in this genre. This one-of-a-kind sci-fi medium does the aspects of politics, war, history, world building, characters, lore, dialogues, strategies etc perfectly with well thought out narration and description. LoGH's story excels in the illustration of the concept "2 sides of the same coin". On one side u have autocratic government and democracy on the other. The best part about the story is that it does not exhibit which side is right or which side is wrong. It's a neutral narrative on both the conflicting ideologies. The documentary style of narration/storytelling gives a lot more info on the events and battles that took place over the course of human history and the present in LoGH which upscales the world building and lore, making it riveting and complex. It's very fascinating to see such a nuanced story to have absolutely no true antagonist except the corruptions, oppression and the miseries of people due to the internal and external conflicts that have been happening over centuries. The soundtrack in the anime is just perfect. Now the concept of dual protagonist is something I'm very much interested in (eg: Naruto). Reinhard and Yang Wen-Li are incredibly written protagonists of the story that fits into the concept and themes of the story ideally. The transition of Reinhard, a kid who cared and loved his sister and the only friend he had, to a teenager who realises and develops the sense of responsibility to eradicate the corruptions done by the noble families, oppressions faced by the common people and the imperfections in ruling the Goldenbaum dynasty by gaining military ranks and pushing through them attaining all the recognition and fame, and finally to a man who is the emperor of the new Lohengramm dynasty and the supreme ruler of the galaxy is done perfectly. On the other hand, we have Yang Wen-Li who is the complete opposite of Reinhard. Yang is someone who is laid back and has no kingly ambitions like Reinhard. But he indeed takes every responsibility to protect his ideologies. Yang is someone who doesn't want any recognition whatsoever. He is a simple man with simple principles. But Yang is a genius when it comes to war strategies and tactics and is better than Reinhard in this aspect. And its inspiring to see how they both share conflicting ideas yet has the utmost respect for each other. This type of dynamics is what I yearn when I consume a story like LoGH. My #1 dynamics now. The side cast in LoGH is easily the best in any media, no joke. Every single character in the show adds something to the story which is rare to find. They all feel important. The entire cast is written masterfully and shares complex and interesting relationships. The female cast is exceptional which again is occasional to encounter in this medium. Now the last thing i want to address is about deaths in it. The execution of deaths in LoGH is literally perfect. I'm astonished at how it can make deaths so beautiful and poetic. Even after the deaths of certain characters, they are relevant, and their will is carried like a torch till the end of the series which is intriguing since I've never seen any anime/manga does this perfectly like LoGH. In conclusion, this is the most realistic anime that I've ever encountered, and I don't think any other anime is gonna reach the heights of what LoGH has set. This was really a lifetime experience and I'm super glad that I gave this Machiavellian political anime a chance. 10/10
While Legend of the Galactic Heroes is primarily a narrative of a long political conflict, and in some part a character study of its main two rivals, the narrative “shifts goalposts” at several points to reflect the intentions of the story. This is noticeable by the climax of the first season, which is best characterised by its condescension towards most people in leadership, ascending Yang and Reinhard to heroic moral superiority in their respective places, purely based on their skill amidst incompetent rulers. The nobility of the Empire are comically foolish and presented at this stage with little to no nuance, and this sharp contrast places the spotlight so vastly on these two characters that even their comrades fade somewhat. This all changes at the death of Kircheis, causing Reinhard to expand his own view of the Empire, at which point more interpersonal dynamics are revealed, names are put to the faces of commanders in the Empire, and their own personal lives are explored. Another major shift in focus happens at the end of the second season, where the history of the Empire and Alliance is revealed. At this point Reinhard’s dominance over the Empire is certain, and Yang is fast approaching a similar position out of necessity. This increased focus on history reflects Yang’s growing anxiety over repeating the mistakes of the past with an autocracy under Reinhard, and growing awareness that he will be a name remembered in the future for shaping history. Yang’s death, under this presentation, marks the point where his influence is no longer unwritten. Yang’s story is set as the tragedy of a peerless man who tried to pave the way for history ahead of him, and that future now depends on the individuals around him at the time of his death. Reinhard steadily grows, from the brightest young leader in the Empire into a true ruler, and anxiety steadily builds over what might come of his rule. Yet Reinhard’s own dreams never fail, even as the web he spun around him in the Empire begins to collapse, he perseveres into the opportunity for true communication with those that came after Yang. The most striking change as the show progresses is the gradual process of fleshing out secondary characters, whose influence is not yet guaranteed as it was for Yang and Reinhard. Suspicion around Oberstein grows since the first season, and little is ever known about him or his true goals until the very end, when his death reveals a dedication to Reinhard and his goals that never faded, even as his methods were questioned for years, and many at his status had already thought to rebel. Julian is a character defined by his dedication to Yang and affection for Frederica, until the event of Yang’s death forces him to follow in his footsteps, and take charge, coming into at least a facsimile of Yang’s ability to lead and make decisions. Although in the present reality of the show, Julian seemed to live in Yang’s shadow, in the narrative’s “history books”, he may be the one responsible for finally negotiating the democracy Yang tried to build. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is often described as a depiction of the theory of “great men of history”, but where the show stands out is in gradually revealing the influence of people surrounding these men, building nuance where only a simplistic reading could be found before, even as the most powerful individuals are considering what their place in history will be. Yang realised that he did not want the responsibility that came with his dreams, only to live a simpler life as a family, but a role in determining the future was thrust on him again and again, yet he was able to die knowing he never made the mistakes he dreaded. At the end of the day, everyone in this story is aware of the way the future will be written - the books will justify those who were successful, and someone like Julian can accept the responsibility of carrying forward the dreams of Yang and those that rallied behind him, towards the beginning of history.