Reviews for Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (8.65) 392j48

Note: This review is based on Central Anime fansubs, which are surprisingly good considering the age of this anime. Quality is plausible, while the translation is pretty good.



Based on a novel written by Ishigoro Noboro (Astro Boy TV2) Legend of Galactic Heroes is an magnificent space opera, an undying classic which not only holds the value of helping anime media to go as far as it did, but is interesting and engrossing enough to overshadow many anime which came, or will come after it. It is a massive historic record of the life of Reinhard von Lohengramm, a man of unrivaled talent, enormous pride and invincible will. A man who sets out to conquer, to get his hands on the whole galaxy known to humanity. It is a tale about politics, about vigorous clashing of absolutism, democracy and religious sects. It is a tale about the foolishness of humanity which, even after thousands of years, still wages wars for the very same reasons, repeating the never ending circle. Rich both in strategy and political dogmas, Legend of Galactic Heroes is a must-watch for everyone daring to call himself an anime fan.

Animation: 5/10

Animation by Kitty Films, as could be expected from a show of 110 episodes length, improves with time. However, as could also be expected from a show made more than 20 years ago, animation is certainly outdated. I it it must have been quite good when the show originally came out, I mean, it doesn't look that ugly even now, but, well, in some instances you will definitely feel the drawbacks of now ancient technology. Well, still better than black and white movies, mind you.

Bland backgrounds and lack of fluidity certainly leaves much to be desired. Especially space battles appear quite lame. All you see are some geometric ships in the dark background shooting weird lights around the screen. Well, I guess, it's as far as they could go in those years. People also look quite weird when they move. Especially in the first episodes there are many cases where they seem to literally slide around the screen. Oh yeah, it should be noted that there is some really cool gore scenes in this show. I certainly didn't expect to see intensities coming out of a maimed person in anime of the previous millennium.

Character designs is the part which aged the least in this show, for example the design of Lohengramm is simply amazing. Be it his young days, be it his later years, his majestic aura never ceases to shine. When he grows long hair and people start comparing him to lion, I got the feeling he is getting quite similar to Griffith (Berserk), my all time favourite character. So yeah, Lohengramm does look awesome. Other characters, unfortunately, are quite generic: short hair, simple faces, one brush here other there; nothing to gaze at. Well I guess it suits the show though when you consider the fact that Lohengramm is supposed to be above normal humans in every way possible. Though I still felt kind of unfulfilled without any attractive female designs. Also, near the end of the show, for some reason, animation as a whole suddenly improves, but character designs, in a few scenes, become slightly inconsistent. Weird.

Sound: 8/10

Yeah, sound effects might not be the greatest, but the music quality is marvelous. And it's no surprise as the track offers classical music collected from various distinguished composers. I have even had the luck to hear some compositions of my favorite Czech composer Dvorak here and there. I must it I was quite surprised there. However, the somewhat clunky direction by Akegatawa Susumu (Barefoot Gen, Utawarerumono) doesn't do the great music justice. Too much silence, far too much silence! And even if the great composition is on a go, it's barely modified, they just let a 10 minutes long track go from the beginning of the episode to its middle, even though a lot of different stuff happens during that time. All opening and ending songs of the show without exception are soft, lyrical pieces, which, well, kind of suit the mood of space opera. Though I must say classical instrumental themes would have suited the epic feel of Legend of Galactic Heroes far better.

Voice-acting talents, however, are worthy of the great music this show spurts. Mitsuishi Kotono (Neon Genesis Evangelion as Misato Katsuragi, Sailor Moon as Usagi Tsukino) has a role of Katerose von Kreutzer and successfully makes her into the only female character that I have actually noticed in this show.

Story: 9/10

It's not so common in anime to find a story which fixates on such heavy politics. It's really cool when they show the weaknesses as well as strengths of both democracy and absolutism. It actually made me realize that absolutism is not only a logical polity, but is more efficient than democracy. If you have a good ruler that is (which is the same idealistic impossibility communism was). Anyway, it's really cool when you can observe both sides of the conflict. It kind of makes you want root for both of them and you usually get confused in the battlefield. Who is really right? Who is really wrong? Both of them are right, both of them a wrong, and humanity simply cannot exist without causing conflicts after all.

The show is long, but it is so good you will not notice how fast do those episodes go. It's a great political tale, it gives you much insight in politics, it tells a tale of a hero. There are some awkward moments in the beginning, like when one of the characters repels terrorists with a water hose, but once the stage moves to space all becomes believable and emotionally engrossing. It's also pleasant that you never know who will win and who will die, as even some of the main characters might not be shielded by the definite "immortality". Like in the real history.

Characters: 8/10

This show has two main characters, Reinhard von Lohengramm and Yang Wen-Li. One stands for autocracy, one for democracy. Both of them are unrivaled war leaders, and both of them respect each other. While Reinhard is fueled by ambition, Yang is fueled by the feelings of protecting peace. Reinhard is a natural born leader and, once he attains power, makes his empire advance fast and far. Yang Wen-Li on the other hand wants to end the war and become a historian. Since he has little interest in politics, corrupted politicians make use of him, and usually screw everything up in the battlefield thanks to their incompetent decisions. Though very different, both stars of the show are really attractive human beings and great leads. Both of them represent something and do a great job at that. Though I personally lean to Reinhard's philosophy, I can easily see many people rooting for Yang. Anyway, it kind of reminded me of Death Note and Light Yagami's battle versus L. Though not as engrossing, Legend of Galactic Heroes might have been the great grandfather of such battle of wits.

There are some great side characters as well. Oskar Von Ruental is the first one who comes to mind. Though not very important at the beginning he starts to carry the show near its end. Though not as brilliant as Lohengramm, Ruental is also a genius military leader with many ambitions, who though, likes autocracy, views it in different eyes than Lohengramm. Another great character is Paul von Oberstain who is using Machiavellian dogmas in pretty much every situation. In turn he is hated by everyone, but his actions keeps the stability of things and makes the state to efficiently move forward. Though completely emotionless, I found much to like in his evil labeled character.

On the other hand, despite the fact that this show spurts a tremendous amount of various characters, only very few others without the already mentioned ones, are developed to the level where they can be called human beings. The biggest disappointment is probably the fact that this show doesn't have a single engrossing female character. All females which come into the picture are like background, they ask questions, make coffee and do other useless stuff. Katerose was the only female character I found interesting, but, unfortunately, she didn't get enough screen time to become a full fledged character. Hilda von Mariendorf, on the other hand, gets her screen time, acts a fairly important role in the romance inclined episodes and works as a plot device quite a few times, but her, well, simple existence, is so overshadowed by the brilliant male leads that you can barely notice her. Also, the leaders of religious sects are way too shallow. I mean, after having an 'evil' guy like Oberstein who seriously has many reasons to be 'evil', it kind of feels weird to see a generic evil guy commanding a crazy sect of lunatics to blow everything up and ...err, attain power through that? How exactly?

Myers-Briggs personality indicator:



Value: 7/10

Let's face it. Legend of Galactic Heroes is good, it's even great, but it's still 110 episodes long. I certainly wont delete it, I will keep it in my collection and will write it to the DVDs. However I can not tell I am going to re-watch this anime for sure. It's a show which should be experienced at least once, then kept in the memories with all the other classics.You wont find that many shows similar to this one after all and it's always interesting to see an evolutionary cornerstone of a particular media.

1. Conclusion: Though officially labeled for 13+ years old viewers Legend of Galactic Heroes is a classic which is best watched by a more mature 17+ audience. I mean, what kind of insight in politics and Machiavellian dogmas can you have when you are 13? Anyway, not only it is a classic, it is a great anime by itself. Many emotional, many engrossing moments await you in there. Even after 20 years there haven't been a show which could mimic Legend of Galactic Heroes. So if you like space operas, you fancy megalomania, are interested in politics or like strategy, darn, give this great show a shot and you wont be disappointed. Seriously, there haven't been a show like Legend of Galactic Heroes yet, but if I were to say, I think Code Geass are relatively new shows which resemble this anime best.[/i]

One of the things I've noticed in the years I've been on AniDB is that most reviews are overwhelmingly positive. There's nothing unique with AniDB in that respect; it is common all across the web. One study I've seen said that 88% of reviews were positive.

When I (finally) finished Legend of Galactic Heroes (LOGH) and came here to look at reviews for it that was the first thing that came to my mind. Across 7 reviews it has an average of 8.95. It is good -- for long stretches extremely good -- but it has more faults, failings, and foibles than such a high rating would suggest

Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LOGH) is a masterpiece in the sense that it is the crowning achievement of the author. That doesn't mean that it will appeal to everyone or that everyone should watch it, however. But for those willing to live with dated animation and willing to step slightly outside standard anime tropes there is a lot of reward to be found.

The first thing you notice as you begin watching LOGH is that it is absolutely bursting with story. There's a lot to be told here and the director doesn't have time to waste of recycled scenes, long drawn out battles, windy diatribes, and overlong and overnumerous flashbacks. This sense of story telling urgency is compounded by the absolutely brilliant way that most of the episodes in the first season flow over the intro and outro. It's like the director is saying, "Holy crap! There is SO MUCH STORY to tell here that we need those extra 3 minutes of this episode."

It is a refreshing and amazing change of pace from most anime nowadays that fills like they've got about 12 minutes of "stuff" expanded in 22 minutes of air time. Unfortunately, they get away from this kind of overflowing of the intro and outro after the first season or two and I really missed it.

With a 110 episodes and a centuries long backstory that starts up in media res you might expect a lot of filler episodes or long flashbacks. I think there were about 2 episodes that I counted as true filler. Likewise there were only a handful of lengthy flashbacks; LOGH was written before the current fascination with flashbacks to fill out backstory took hold of the manga/anime world. Unfortunately, LOGH also lacks the crisp, frenetic pacing of a modern action series like Bleach or Naruto.

Paradoxically, less filler meant it was less likely that I would watch LOGH compulsively. You watch an episode and feel like you've made some progress in the plot. Something happened. I didn't often feel the need to watch 5 or 6 episodes at a stretch. When I watch something like Naruto I often feel like I need to watch 4 episodes in a row before I feel like anything of consequence has happened.

As you're watching LOGH you begin to feel like it is the least anime-like anime you've ever seen. There's no good or evil here. Both sides respect one another and often talk about the good points of their enemies. The main characters are all much older than usual in anime -- early to mid-20s with ing characters who are older enough to have families. This is a welcome change of pace from the usual 13-year olds that populate so much of anime today. This meant that the characters espoused more grown up and nuanced viewpoints. There were a couple of scenes where a main character would say something like, "You can't win everything in life just by trying harder. Sometimes things are just impossible and you have to run away." I like Luffy in One Piece but that kind of dose of reality is a welcome alternative. Just because I like ice cream doesn't mean I want it for every meal every day.

The combat was also more grown up than anything else I can seeing. There is no reliance on super technologies and powered up mechas to determine battles. The winner has either better strategy/tactics or overwhelming firepower. There are a few scenes scattered throughout the series that powerfully showed the visceral agony and terror of warfare. I'm not talking about the gratuitous exploding eye balls of some of the more ultra-violent anime around. I'm talking about the mere reality that when a warship gets hit in combat people die. And sometimes they don't die quickly or easily. This isn't Bleach where someone might be cut up by a sword, shed no blood, and then fall down. People bleed profusely (but not in Evil Dead geysers). They try to stuff their intestines back in as the life seeps from them. Their skins melts as fire sweeps the corridor. Like I said, don't expect this to be like the standard anime interpretation of violence. This is more like what you'd see in a mature Hollywood war movie (say, Saving Private Ryan) and is extremely effective.

So far it may seem like I think it is the best thing since sliced bread. (On a related side note, everyone talks about how brilliant this show is but it seems to have had very little influence on the anime that came after it. Why is that?) What are the problems?

The biggest one is simply that the Main Story arc doesn't really have the legs to go 4 full seasons (110 episodes). This is hard to talk about without spoilers but the entire last season felt like a waste of my time, with one extremely large bullshit storyline. Parts of the third season felt the same. So there was about 2 1/3 seasons that I felt were good, strong, quality. Unfortunately, that leaves quite a lot of the show that doesn't live up to its earlier heights.

In the earlier parts of the show you're willing to grant a little more suspension of disbelief because the show is firing on all cylinders. When it starts to ebb you begin questioning and nitpicking at things. roriconfan's review mentions some that I agree with (and some that I don't; religion is evil). Here are other complaints that keep the series a couple of steps away from Perfection.

For such an alleged genius Reinhard seems to spend most of the series either losing or deferring to someone else's judgement.

The battles are ridiculous World War I naval sea battles. For all the talk about "strategy" very little of it comes across in the series. It seems like mostly they line up across from one another and pound it out for a few hours/days. Modern warfare is all about manoeuvre and LOGH feels extremely anachronistic.

The half-hearted efforts at "love" in the show are handled poorly and fall into completely typical anime patterns. It is also amusing to see how LOGH (like most science fiction) simply projects the mores and morals of its time into the distant future. In LOGH when a smart, successful woman with a career gets married she is expected to drop it all and become a housewife. (And that entire relationship came totally out of left field; did they even go on a date before they got married?) Teenagers who like one another are completely unable to express affection for one another just like in every other anime you've ever seen.

Way too much exposition by the narrator explaining what characters are doing/thinking and why. At times it feels like someone is just reading a wikipedia entry to you. It just feels like a major storytelling failure. "Show don't tell." The world is complex and multifaceted but anime is a poor medium for conveying all of that complexity. There just isn't a lot of time on-screen to develop all of the characters there are, to convey all of the facts that exist in the world. But when, in episode 70 or something the narrator casually mentions that iral X (who you've seen hundreds of times) is one the most brilliant and gifted people in history at fleet manoeuvre and operations you can't help but feel like a fast one has been pulled on you. What? You couldn't have dropped some hints to that effect along the way rather than just have the narrator tell me?

The author gets overwhelmed by the scales he deals with and it ends up breaking suspension of disbelief. These are supposed to be massive galactic battles. 7 millions men and 40,000 ships on each side. 1.5 million dead in the space of a few hours. That is massive! That's a lot of orphans and widows you made overnight. The political repercussions (which there would be even in the autocracy of the Empire) would be massive. How do these two empires have the finances to keep on a continual war footing for apparently 100+ years with constant engagements on this scale? How do 100,000 soldiers in Iserlohn get enough food and water to live? Do they have an economy? Do the soldiers get paid?

How is it that the Empire starts the series with a slight military advantage (which becomes overwhelming one Phezzan s them) and then has a series of crushing victories against the Free Planet Alliance (FPA), yet every time there is another battle the FPA somehow has enough of a fleet left that it is still a major threat to the Empire?

LOGH is far from a flawless masterpiece but it has a lot of truly great qualities to commend it. I think the problem is that anyone who watches all 110 episodes (and then goes on to write a review about it) is almost by a definition a fanboy.

But there simply isn't another anime like LOGH, which why my "Value" rating for it is so much higher than anything else. I'm not a big believer in telling people they should watch "classics" or "important" or "foundational" shows. You should watch whatever bring you enjoyment, whatever entertains you. LOGH has enough flaws that I can't recommend it without reservations: you are probably going to be let down by the last season and it has plenty of other flaws along the way. The biggest impediment is going to be a sense of pacing that feels glacial to those who live in the post-MTV world where we're accustomed a million jump cuts and non-stop adrenaline.

But if the notion of LOGH intrigues you at all you should give a chance. Watch three or four episodes before forming a judgment about whether you want to continue the series. Maybe, like a lot of others, you'll decide this is a Perfect 10 for you. But even if you're like me and are more ambivalent about you still will have watched 110 episodes of a series that is often brilliant and entirely unique.

ANIME EVOLUTION SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.sitesdebloques.org/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=page&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

TEASER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRtYuG6MgX8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCoCiz-WZg8&feature=related

I used to love space adventures in my teens. Any movie or series with spaceships and aliens was the best thing after… Actually it was the best. But my early experiences with the so-called Space Operas in anime were less than average. I never liked Captain Harlock and Banner of the Stars lost its track after the second season. What could possibly be better than Star Trek or Babylon 5?

So, here I am scrolling through the database and bump on this series. It was quite strange looking at the name, since I’ve wasted a hill of pocket money reading magazines about anime and this LoGH was never mentioned not even once. So, like the immature guy I was back then, being bombarded by the latest Pokemon movie and the brand new Naruto series, I paid no attention. If it ain’t famous, how can it be good, right?

So, several years later someone gives me to watch this series and I begin with no expectations about an unfamiliar title, loathing the previous Space Operas I’ve watched. Five episodes later, I was hooked. Fifty episodes later, I began giving away series I previously thought were awesome. After I finished the entire series, I yelled “Publicity, go f*ck yourself”! Where the hell was this diamond hiding all these years? Why doesn’t anyone mention it and waste pages after pages about the latest Bleach filler? F*ck you ment. F*ck you!

And after this cheery intro, I have this last thing to say. Series are 90% of the time overrated or underrated. This series happens to be in the top 10 of most sites. It is one of the few occasions where the ratings do it just.

ART SECTION: 9/10
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 2/2, Backgrounds 2/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 2/2

Ok, honestly, it is not the most beautiful thing in existence. Still, considering the time it was made and the amount of work and detail it was given, all things considered we can say with certainty that it kicks ass. Actually, you hardly believe it was made in the 80’s. In fact, it has such a small amount of static images and almost no repeating frames, making even recent series to run in shame. Did I mention how everything is hand-drawn and instead of the usual quality drop of today, you actually witness a quality increase as the series progresses? Holy sh*t!

It does a fine job making everything look realistic. The characters look, act and move quite real. And it doesn’t censor blood or gore as they usually do. There are several violent scenes that really make your stomach twist, without turning anything to some ridiculous Elfen Lied splatter parade.

The backgrounds have variety in locations although they are generally quite generic and repetitive after awhile. You get the feeling that there are only half a dozen different ships and types of buildings in the entire galaxy. Which is kind of weird, as the animators didn’t even bother having a simple color swap to set apart the various platoons and armies of the same armada. I have no complaints of all the military uniforms looking the same. You don’t choose how to dress in a real army, like some Bleach captain. Neither that the ships all look the same. In real life every pilot does not have a unique, custom-made Gundam just for him. I just wanted some way to know at which division (sic) everyone belong to without having to be told. This aesthetic problem, along with some glitches here and there concerning smooth animation is the only reason I do not give the series a perfect mark.

SOUND SECTION: 10/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 3/3, Music Themes 4/4, Sound Effects 3/3

Sound has little to complain or praise. Voice acting is very well done, without ridiculous pinches making you think that someone is an irritating loli or a satanic villain just by the way he or she sounds. Everyone sounds pretty realistic and uses an interesting set of words in his dialogues. Plus, you may recognize some pretty famous voice actors in this one. My only complain is they talk too much and tell too many things instead of being more active. That kind of turns the series into some preachy educational documentary and makes it sound boring at times.

The music themes are ballads for the most part and sound pretty good for their kind. The first op and ending in particular are superb.

There are several famous classic pieces playing is key points in the story, mostly during the space battles. That gives something familiar to listen to with some established music.

STORY SECTION: 9/10
Analysis: Premise 2/2, Pacing 2/2, Complexity 2/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 2/2

As sad as it may sound, the majority of stories in anime are lame. Really, they are. They sure look awesome if you compare them with an average Saturday morning cartoon but they still are lame. Too simple, too naïve, too incomplete, full of plot holes and un-existing endings. Well, although not perfect, LoGH has boldly gone where no anime has ever gone before in of multi-layered, complete storytelling. It has a serious story, a huge cast, a very complicating relation chart, a gigantic storyboard, an epic-scale scenario and it has a nice, solid ending. It still has its share of glitches and specs of naivety but if you compare it with almost any other story out there… F*ck you ment. F*ck you!

Anyway, the story is way to complicating to describe but it does cover all tastes from time to time. So, there is no way you will hate all of it. The story is about human ambition that leads to endless wars for power and wealth. It is mostly a democracy versus autocracy but makes sure not to take obvious sides. It is also heavy on politics and depicts nicely how authority is evil only when it is misused and not because democracy is better than having a king.

The battles are also a very interesting thing to notice. A war is won through tactics and politics and not with the latest Gundam power-up. So, it is not about the specs of the spaceships. Technology plays a minor part in the story, anyway. Instead, it is about the mannerisms of the fleet leaders and not some weird special power that bends the laws of physics (and reason). Oh, and it is one of those rare anime, where war and violence are not presented as cool and awesome. They are shown to be quite catastrophic and negative for the humankind. Yes, the series is full of battles and death but it is supposed to make you hate war and not get a boner by watching some trendy anti-hero wasting hordes of aliens with a cool-looking weapon.

Still, many may find issues that make the otherwise epic story to appear silly, despite its efforts to be realistic. Some I can point out are:


As I said, all of the above are glitches, mostly of an aesthetic level. The messages off the story are the real meat of the anime and they are really awesome to pay notice to. Still, the same glitches are what made me drop the story section a bit. It is otherwise way too good to believe they pulled it through so well.

It still has enough openings for a prequel movie trilogy and two more prequel series showing the teen years of Reinhart and his gradual ascend to power up until the beginning of the main series. We get to watch all those major events that made him the person he is in the series (his family tragedies, his friend Kirchieis, his hating for the deprived nobles). We also see how he ed the army and had to simultaneously fend against invading armies and corrupted nobles. We have some cameo of Yang as well, although he doesn’t play any major part in the story. The story there is quite mediocre as there are no major events or even a decent ending. Almost all action scenes were skirmishes and not the epic space battles I was so fond of. Plus, there are a lot of boring events that made Reinhart and Kirchieis to look like teenage detectives, out to protect the world from the deprived nobles’ schemes. It reminded me of several cheesy detective series that were quite lame. It kinda felt like it was undermining the seriousness of this title and the characters are too less interesting. Although Reinhart retains his dramatic personality and cool attitude, everyone generally has weak presence and really slow, if not any, character development.

CHARACTER SECTION: 9/10
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 2/2, Development 2/2, Catharsis 2/2

Well, there are hundreds of characters and none of them is memorable for his special power or just for his personal quirk. No teen superhumans, defeating armies alone and then being beaten by tsundere girls out of sexual frustration. And no miraculous healings and resurrections and sudden power-ups by yelling or being beaten to a pulp. Forget all that shonen bull shit. In this series, if you die, you stay dead. And no matter how good you are in battle or politics, you still need a few thousand soldiers as . The characters are gray and not separated into the good guys and the villains. Although there are several treacherous ones that are just short-term antagonists, there are still hundred others that are simply ambitious and selfish. And very few act identically or have only stunt roles. And most of them mature or see how they matured through their flashbacks. Or die (and stay dead). That makes it a worthwhile cast by default.

Reinhard von Lohengramm is an ambitious bishounen, out to conquer the galaxy with wits, military force and the screams of a million fangirs, so all of you who dig leads like Yagami Light and Lelouch will definitely like this one. He is not just brains and looks, as he has some yaoi innuendos all around him and does strive to change the world for the sake of his sister (so Lelouch-like, I know).

Yang Wenli is also an interesting fellow. Aiming to be a historian but ending up using his knowledge to protect his side from the empire and becoming Reinhard’s nemesis. He does sound preachy at times, as he spouts moral monologues about proper leadership and historical events and saving lives all the time. Still, it is nice to see how he is a genius in his work and quite sloppy in his personal life (so L-like, I know).

As for the secondary cast, a great number of generals and other military staff help to enrich these two characters with several side stories and different points of view. The female cast is rather back-seated, as the cosmos appears to be a man’s world even in the distant future. Most women are presented as simply emotional , doing chores, bearing children and being the romantic interest of the leads. Still, they get a lot more respect than women in anime do in general. I still won’t give a perfect here, as some characters; especially the secondary aristocrats and the religious leaders; are quite fake and boring and damage the seriousness of the story when they are present. If the plot calls for it they behave like complete jerks and idiots, just so we will cheer whoever stands against them.

VALUE SECTION: 10/10
Analysis: Historical Value 3/3, Rewatchability 3/3, Memorability 4/4

Oh, that’s easy. This anime is so above everything else that it deserves nothing but a perfect score. It is such a complicating story that you will definitely not be bored if you ever watch it again. And it is memorable for its characters and engrossing story. So what if the majority of people have never heard of it? Screw the majority and their commercial, superficial anime. This anime happens to be the best space opera ever, both in anime and live action form. And it does change you as a person with its magnitude of feelings and emotions.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 9/10
Analysis: Art 1/1, Sound 2/2, Story 2/3, Characters 4/4

One glitch here, one boring scene there, I can’t say I fully enjoyed it or didn’t think things could be done better. Still, it is peanuts to the whole and deserved it time and money.

VERDICT: 9.5/10
I must say, I was never a fan of slice-of-life or school romances or series that generally aim to make you feel emotional and fuzzy inside. But this series, with its war theme next to political intrigue and share of social life under the pretext of historical events is an exception. So, onwards with it. It deserves it.

SUGGESTION LIST
Similar in space types: Planetes, Tytania, Crest of the Stars
Similar lead characters: Code Geass, Death Note
Live action series: Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (the remake)
Cartoon series: Exosquad

It is my habit to go straight to the point and I hope readers can forgive me if this review lacks the often poetic and fancy language found in other "professional" reviews.

Anxious to lay my hands on what is often known as the "Star Wars Trilogy" for anime, I was more than glad to see Central Anime releasing the LD captures. At the time of writing, I have finished the first season and some midway through the second.

One-Liner:

LOGH belongs to a unique league of its own in SF anime and few animes can put up a challenge when it comes to sophistication.

The Good:

#1 Animation - For an anime that was made in the 80s, the animation is top notch and unparalled. Motion is fluid and the use of colors are just about vibrant enough to convince others that it might be a mid 90s production. As expected from any old school anime, CGs and 3D effects are not found anywhere. This might be a turn off to some new anime fans, but vintage lovers will like it.

#2 OP/ED Themes - The opening and ending themes are quite tastefully done with grandeur associated with Reinhard for the former and a somewhat mellow mood we see in Yang Wen Li for the latter.

#3 Story - The most amazing aspect lies in its story and a vast range of characters. For those who are familiar with other SF like Crest of Stars or Gundam series, LOGH is nothing like any of those. Heavy emphasis is placed upon political intrigue in all 3 nations and characters are more than often subtle and definitely not the usual cookie cutter types.

First off, there's no first person point of view narration. Granted it has two protoganists, but the story unfolds from many perspectives including some rather minor characters that only make an occasional appearances.

When our two heroes do battle, it's more on a strategic front rather than a personal one - we get to see more on the cognitive process of a commander rather than bleeding edge and blood racing spaceship battles. This is mre than a tad different from most series whereby battles are usually depcited with up and close ferocity.

Romance is hinted throughout the series, but does not form the main theme of this trilogy. Platonic friendships, mutual alliances, subordinates, romantic relationships, and a mix bag of adversity and iration between the two protoganists gurantees a wholesome experience for viewers.

The Standard:

#1 OST - BGMs while nothing spectacular, supplement the anime quite well.

The Bad:

None so far.

Legend of Galactic Heroes (LoGH) is a true classic, perhaps one of the most important works of the two decades of its release. Many fans claim it as one of the best series of all time and rightfully show. There are, however, a few issues that make it fall short at a chance for perfection. LoGH is a show that is absurdly expensive, deep, and intriguing, but at the same time misses the mark to keep you on track of many of its greatest moments due to rushed dialogues, production inconsistency, and an overall overabundance of content.

Also, it's hard to adapt to such an old series these days, especially with the huge difference of animation and sound quality to recent standards, but LoGH has so many strengths in other departments that if you give it ten episodes or so you'll likely to ignore the poor production quality and see the true strengths of this superb series.

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Art & Animation
When someone who has watched recent animes is presented to LoGH, this will probably look like the worst department of the show. While the old quality can be an big issue, in order to review the show one must first compare it to other shows of its time. The animation is clumsy and the drawing quality is poor, but when paired against most shows of the late 80's LoGH is a bit above the average, earning points with its nice design and losing some with a below the average animation. The length of the show, however, spans more than a decade from episode 1 to 110, and as the episodes go on, the quality slowly gets better and better. By the 100th episode the difference is huge when you compare it to the early stages. Most of the show is focused on dialogue and political warfare, and thus the animation is never really required to make the biggest parts fo LoGH shine. For its purpose and genre, the overall art and animation is good.

Sound
For those who adapt watching the old animation, the area that shows the most annoying issues is sound direction. Background music and soundtrack are fine, with some superb classical music mixed with an average lyrics. If all the OST were instrumental only, we could have one of the best of its kind here, but the openings have such an average singer that takes a bit of the overall quality. The true issue here, however, is voice-acting. The actors appears to be in a constant rush of talking and delivering information that as a consequence they lack any emotion. This behavior is extremely tied to how much depth the show has in its plot and characters, but listening to constant talk that has almost none emotion and a bad lip sync can annoy for a time. You get used to it, but it can hinder your experience and may force many to quit watching the series even after twenty or more episodes. Unlike the art and animation, this never gets better.

Story
LoGH tells the tale of the simultaneous rise of Lohengran within the Galactic Empire and Yang Wen Li within the opposed Alliance. These two masters of tactics start as prodigies of strategy and warfare, commanding small forces in the seemingly eternal struggle between the old-fashioned and dictatorial Empire and the democratic but poisoned Alliance. This tale will move on through decades, with the protagonists starting as young prodigies and ending as established and experienced leaders.

1. Complex and Big
   LoGH's plot is simply superb. Not only is the tale very well paced but the setting that it builds is so vastly detailed that can quickly overwhelm those that expect only an average space drama. Both opposing forces are very complex, with their differences clashing and their similarities resonating, creating a very realistic conflict of ideals and selfish wishes. The governors, policticians, generals, all of them have a role to play, but it falls to Lohengran and Yang Wen Li to shine. Those two will present themselves to the galaxy as true masters of tactics, with Lohengran taking the political route as well to rise within the Galactic Empire.
   
   Easy to Follow
   Political struggles, backstabbing, treason, and all required elements of a war tale are present here and executed with incredible quality. Perhaps the amount of content presented can be so huge that people can have a hard time to grasp it all, but the basic lines of the plot are very straightforward, thus allowing for most people to catch the most important events without much trouble. Basically Lohengran and Yang Wen Li will clash multiple times, with clever thinking, very tacticful actions, lots of planning, and big spaceship battles. Only with that the show is already awesome, but the added detail and complexity to the story behind these "duels", most importantly their consequences to the world, makes LoGH one of the most immersive shows ever made.
   
   Rush
   The amount of information is so huge that sometimes the show can even feel rushed, especially with the rushed voice-acting (see above). On contrary to normal shounen space dramas, where we have fillers, LoGH would in fact make good use of another 50 or 100 episodes. Still, these flaws are so small that they pale to the strong points of the tale.
   

Character
Another great asset of LoGH is its immense and superb cast. The two leading characters are truly remarkable and togheter with the great setting they move everything in great order. The power of both characters is greatly presented, making them as human as possible without turning them into unrealistic super-powerful tacticians. The cast is immense, with many new characters appearing and others moving out of the scene and yet conserving the humanity of them and their personalities. Development happens for most characters, but a few are likely to be the same in the end as they were in the beginning.

1. One-Sided Show
   There is, however, some annoyances that get bigger and bigger as the show goes on. Despite both main characters being smart and war masters, the results are always in favor of only one of them no matter what the other do. After 70 episodes watching all the superb plans of this character failing again and again, you like to wonder if he's really smart or if he is a complete moron in of tactics. Because of this pattern the events became more and more predictable even with the twists trying to deceive it, and this makes the late part of the show less enjoyable.
   

Value
LoGH is a true classic. It brings depth that was only seen in the early Gundams and a few other animes before it and succesfully delivers it in a extremely long and enjoyable series. It's a show that teaches all others how to make a lenghty and yet consistent experience. It's not completely original, but has many unique aspects such as the two superb main characters and a cast that delivers everything they are required to. It lacks in animation and has issue with voice-acting, but besides that everything is great. While rewatching it may be a tough challenge because of the length, it's something much more thinkable than any other show of the same size.

Enjoyment
Watching the spaceships firing at each other is no fun, but expecting the outcome of the battles and what strategies to be used is truly great. The addicting value of LoGH gets higher and higher and only after 70 episodes or so it starts to lose this, but the decline of this quality is yet small and by the end you'll still be totally absorbed. For those who like to see the development of a character through his life, for those who like warfare, space combat and hundreds of tactical twists, this is the absolute show.

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Comments
LoGH has many superb elements. It's political game is better than almost any other, suring even the Gundam series in overall, it's characters are deep and different, without relying on stereotypes and focusing more on realism than impact. The tatical war is perhaps better than Code Geass stuff, and so on. In fact, for those who've watched Code Geass, this show could be called it's father with more depth and no flashy characters.

LoGH, however, is very poor in quality. First because its age is long gone and advancements in art and sound had such a great leap that LoGH seems very archaic. Second because even when compared to its contemporary shows, it's still only average. Because of this issues, the overall narrative loses when compared to recent shows, the battles are less exciting and even the dialogue scenes lack more realism. Gundam Z, for example, is older than LoGH and has a much better animation.

I was impressed with LoGH and I usually don't tolerate really old shows because of their clumsy animations. The intrigue and setting of LoGH really took me by surprise and I'm sure anyone who likes political conflicts and tactics will be addicted by this superb show in the same way. Another great aspect that drawed me in was the fact that the years move by and you won't be seeing an annoying teenager commanding forces, but a more belieavable adult. Those who've watched Beast Player Erin and were impressed by how she got older and gradually evolved, LoGH has this same type of experience.

Synopsis:

Two states go to war - one a democracy - one a monarchy. Conventional wisdom says that the democracy should naturally triumph over the autocracy, as it is more able to the people. But history is not as simple as these idealistic theories. What happens when the elected leaders of a democracy are decadent fools who can't see past the next election? What happens when the autocracy is governened with talent and safeguards the rights of it's people? The personal tragedies and glorious triumphs that result from people being caught in the tempest of history are laid bare in Legend of Galactic Heroes.

Introduction:

Legend of Galactic Heroes is fantastic. Obviously, taste is subjective, but unless you have some idealistic prejudice, I would wager you will enjoy it - and if you do have such prejudice, my advice is to overcome it for your own sake. Being a longer anime, it will require an investment of effort to watch - just like the best literature sometimes requires an investment of effort to read, but pays more dividends. Legend of Galactic Heroes is a classic because it is a maturely written drama, which is not only a compelling war epic, but also a very humane and touching exploration of the lives caught in such a conflict. It explores these individuals relation to the polity they live in - how their happiness is linked to the success and folly of the state. It is also a classic due to it's fascinating characters, who can move legions with the force of their personality. They demonstrate ethical concepts and honour through their actions, without ever needing exposition. The viewer need not be told by secondary characters about how great the main characters are - they can see it for themselves. On the one hand, the democratic Free Planets Alliance soldier Yang Wenli is a humanist of the highest degree, who sees the job of a commander as being the safety of his troops and nation. He would take extra losses and risk losing a war if it would save a few extra civilians, and is fantastically introspective. Being a historian, he is well aware of the historical importance of the events surrounding him, but often powerless to prevent history from repeating itself. On the other hand, the Empire's Reinhard von Lohengramm sees the tragic waste of human potential arround him, and resolves to to enact social change by force, rather than watch an inept system waste good people. He has the ability of Augustus or Alexander the Great. But where these two men who share so much in common might have made fantastic comrades, their incredible skill is fated to collide. Along the way, they will illustrate how societies rise and fall by their own orchestration.

Art & Animation: 9

The art would have gained a 10/10 in it's time, but has aged slightly. Nevertheless, the animation is fluid, and there is no recycling of footage. The characters are impressively expressive in their facial expressions and body language. It is obviously not comparible to watching real actors perform, but close enough that it does not matter one bit. Clearly a lot of budget went into this. I personally don't care if an anime looks slightly older, but know that some people might go into this just for it's space opera visuals, which in reality are beside the point. Rather than mislead them into thinking this would stand up to the likes of Akira, I give a score of 9/10.

Sound: 9

How can I possibly give an anime anything less than 10/10 in sound, when the soundtrack consists of the music of Gustav Mahler and other renowned classical composers? Also, how can I give this rating considering the sheer professionalism of the voice work? Well, again, I do it so that nobody will be misled, knowing that some people will not appreciate how the anime does not have it's own specially composed soundtrack with it's own leitmotifs. These ratings are incredibly subjective, and will change depending on the viewer.

Story: 10

The strong point of this epic, is that it actually IS an epic. Rarely do dramas actually merit the label. An epic is something that covers an incredibly wide scope of human experience. War and Peace is an epic because it deals with such huge themes as spirituality, warfare, how human history is written and how to live one's life. Legend of Galactic Heroes covers themes as wide-ranging as what makes a good government, what is ethical, how a military should behave in times of war, how to live one's life in the absense of religious belief, and many other facets of human existence. It explores them convincingly and to a degree that frankly shames most entertainment, complete with a realistic and uncontrived plot that is very entertaining.

Characters: 10

Fittingly for an epic, LOGH has an epic cast. The characters will carve themselves into your mind. The two protagonists, Yang Wenli and Reinhard von Lohengramm are some of the most compelling and maturely written characters you will find in a TV drama. Some people have compared them to Yagami Light and L from Death Note, saying that this is like a thinking man's Death Note. Such comparisons arn't without merit, but to compare this anime to a less thematically complex one that came twenty years later does not do it the justice it deserves. LOGH stands quite well on it's own, as a seminal classic.

Conclusion:

If you like anime, invest the time in watching this. It is essential viewing in the same way Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop or Neon Genesis Evangelion are. If you are a fan of science fiction or space opera, you cannot afford to miss something that is as important as Star Wars or Star Trek were in the amount of influence it wielded on the sci-fi anime genre. If you like German culture or history, there is something for you in the Empire's many resemblances to 19th century Prussia. If you are just a good natured person with questions about history, politics, or philosophy, and want a story that gives convincing arguments, pick this up.

You may as well skip the rest of this review, because the bottom line is this: this is the ultimate military and sci fi anime to date. There is no other anime that can outcompete it in this genre and this is a universally accepted fact at this point.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes) is a 1988-1997 anime that many consider to be the best and most sophisticated anime to date. While there are a multitude of reviews for this anime, I thought I would give it a go as well. That said, this anime is far more complex because of its length and, and as such I doubt I will cover everything there is that can be said about the anime here. Additionally, there are a ton of reviews for this anime that cover in the very least the facts about it quite well, such as the historical prototype of the planet Phezzan, and so I will not go into those too much either. I do not feel I can add too much to what is said in those reviews. Apparently there is even an academic work covering such themes in this anime by a polish man. This review is mostly my impressions from the perspective of cinematography. One thing I will say right off the bat, is that one has to be careful with subtitles in this anime, as I feel some translations are better than others.

As far as I am aware and as was said earlier, this anime completely outclasses most military-futuristic anime as well as political anime or even most live action work for that matter. By that classification I mean popular anime like Code Geass, Attack on Titan, Youjo Senki, or 86, the latter being representative of a more modern series. All of these anime bring forth somewhat overlapping ideas and they fall far short in the same fields of thought as compared to those in this anime. They also fail to achieve the same levels of execution in direction and plot. In the very least I have not come across anything that comes even close. To be sure, it tackles a very ambitious premise and executes it well. That said, at a length of 110 episodes, it is very daunting to watch it fully and take it all in as a single series and is generally prohibitive to people who would prefer to casually watch anime, though it is very enticing and people who prefer to binge watch their anime will spend every second available to finish this series.

As a whole, the main thing in of themes that differentiates this anime from the aforementioned millitary-futuristic anime is that the anime overall avoids any edgyness and yet it is deathly serious on its non trivial themes and messages. It goes to the point that you not only sympathise with the 'villains' (if they can be called that) but it is always unclear for whom you should be rooting for and not because of the "you know the villain's backstory and how he came to be this way but he is still bad' cliche, which happens all too often. There are a lot of themes present in the anime, from merits of democracy versus autocracy, to Machiavellianism. It should be said, though, that the themes themselves are often looked at on the surface and there is no deepness or newfound truths, so to speak, that are shown here. Instead we get how these themes intersect and work convincingly, which is just as good. The anime tackles the various paradoxes that can threaten the existence of schools of political thought and how to rectify those paradoxes. For instance, the very existence of the perfect and just autocratic ruler in the face of Reinahard von Lohengramm already threatens the advantages of a democratic system, in the eyes of Yang Wenli. At the same time, the defender of democracy Yang Wenli is himself an amalgamation of some of the best takes I have heard of in of politics and life in general. He is also a very conceptual character in that he may not be a perfect soldier or a ruler like Lohengramm, but he is a ridiculously powerful tactician and strategist as well as completely unwavering in his beliefs. His Achilles heel is the fact that he is ready for a lot of sacrifices for his beliefs. There is also some irony associated with him as he collected a lot of his friends and allies not only through his beliefs, but through his character, which on its face is the hallmark of an authoritarian ruler to be, even if he defies any such transformation. That just goes to show that even good would-be authoritarian rulers have their place in a democracy. Similairly, the existence of Job Trunicht shows the weakness of democracy. He was not some alien or part of any particular conspiracy. He was even worse than an opportunist, as someone who had nothing even vaguely relating to honour as part of his character, and thus allowed the Alliance to fall even when it had more than enough power to fight. Both of these examples are potent. There is also an overhanging theme of warfare going back to its roots with infantry using axes and crossbows in certain situations and not having access to reliable communication in the middle of a battle. This is supposed to say that mankind will fight with sticks and stones once again eventually. This goes to the larger point of futility of warfare, in that in the battles shown, it is normally tens of thousands of ships engaging one another and firing almost arbitrarily, which results in absolutely abyssmal casualties that are measured in the hundred thousands. In episode 51 it is shown that it becomes more of a chaotic event than a coordinated action at that point. One of the more subtle and powerful themes is that people can be much more contemptable than they themselves think. If even a small fraction of anime that is released nowadays had even vaguely similar ideas, then most anime would not be relegated to one season isekai stuff, ridiculed by the community. This anime trumps any anime I know of in of its themes, in the very least those that dictate how a government should be run as well as philosophy on warfare. Compared to this anime, almost all anime I have seen only use political and war themes in the form of mere repetitive platitudes, that is if they use them.

One fun thing to do is to read the texts that are shown in the anime, like on a piece of paper that is on screen. Some of them are so random it is hilarious.

The plot to the anime is very well done and excellently accentuates certain events and characters to fuel its message. I personally have never seen a more displeasing act of government control than that of what happened to Jessica Edwards, for instance. I suppose there are a couple of uncertainties in plot, but they are by far overshadowed by the merits of the plot and its tenets. It should also be noted that only twice in the whole anime do the authors show faster-than-light travel, despite it being mentioned earlier and clearly necessary for travel in this universe. This seems to exist as a given.

One aspect that makes the plot really successful is its pacing. With 110 episodes, the director had ample time to play his plot out fully and develop characters, not to mention tailor the direction to the music perfectly. For instance, with the case of Reuenthal's child, such a plot twist and all the other associated developments would not mean nearly as much (and are almost cliche on their own) were it not for the fact that Oskar von Reuenthal has been extremely and patiently developed as a character. There are quite a few such plot mechanisms that rely very heavily on them being executed patiently that would not work or would be cliche otherwise. Nowadays very few anime can maintain such pacing.

There are quite a few references in the anime to military lore, especially what appears to be the military history of the USSR. An FPA pilot was named Ivan Konev, a pretty obvious reference to a famous WWII Soviet commander. In a flashback to Yang Wenli's academy days, he can be seen looking at pictures that seem to depict the Eastern Front as well as possibly the Afghan War. A lot of the names of Imperial officers also vaguely correspond to famous German generals, though that is far from accident. Even Yang Wenli's story of wanting to become a historian which then turned into military leadership is reminiscent of Vo Nguyen Giap, a man who is credited with the defeat of about 4 different nations at the hands of People's Republic of Vietnam. A lot of places also resound of famous battles, such as Hotel Batavia on Phezan. An Alliance carrier is called Ameretat, which is a term in Zoroastrianism denoting that ancient religion's concept of immortality, which is ironic since that carrier did not last.

The direction is impeccable, especially in the battle scenes. I felt Antonin Dvorak's 9th Symphony Op 95 reverberate through my bones in Episode 15. In fact, episode 15 is an excellent example of how many "battle events" can be shown properly within one episode, something very few anime directors succeed at. This anime can compete with Star Wars in of direction with relative ease, though I would be hard pressed to say which one is a better series. Despite ample opportunity for shock scenes, the director used them very sparingly in order to suddenly show them in places like episode 51 to hammer a point across very effectively so much so, that that scene is more tragic rather than shocking. This puts this anime apart from Attack on Titan or 86, where gore is there simply for shock value and show generic and edgy "reality of warfare" type of thing with no overhanging motif. In particular in the case of Attack on Titan, because shock scenes have been overused, the viewer gets numb to them.

The animation looks very archaic as compared to modern anime obviously, owing to it being rather retro. It does take some getting used to, but it is detailed and fluid for most part. The animation quality and even some of the characters designs are somewhat inconsistent throughout, but that is because this anime took a decade to air. This means that Yang Wenli can look completely different a couple of episodes on, from a curved chin he goes to a more oval head with massive eyes, especially in the first half of the anime. The 4:3 format is also outdated and requires patience from the viewer. Many of the scenes containing spaceships have been reused as well in other episodes. Thanks to the animation and the direction, though, the viewer has a pretty decent time of following the various space battles, because it is not chaotic. The space battles do at times look a bit simple, because quite often they break up into ships simply exploding to indicate who is winning, which feels a bit primitive to do too much. Compared to a non-anime movie, Star Wars was quite a bit more creative and daring in its direction, thanks to Lucas, but he focused on following individuals through battles, with the battles themselves serving as more of a backdrop, whereas here the characters are directly in control and engaging in these massive battles. It should be noted that while it may seem that there is not too much gore and shocking scenes, this certainly changes with episode 52. In particular, the deaths of alliance crewmen in that episode is not something one can easily forget. This scene is also a very good example of how to use a shocking scene to underpin the ideology in the plot, unlike the 1st season of Attack on Titan, for instance, where it seems that the gory scenes were just a backdrop or a situation for the characters. Overall, while the direction is great, the animation is outdated and inconsistent, which may drive away some people from watching this anime. Animation is definitely the weakest part of this anime, though I feel they did what they could with it and did it well for the time and the massive amount of work.

There are several OPs and Eds throughout the anime, but the third ending was the most memorable for me. It showed what life Yang Wenli wished for. As the ED progressed and the music continued being dreamy, characters appear in the scene that are unlikely to appear as they were in front of Yang Wenli in his civil life. It soon cuts to Julian Mintz watching these scenes almost like a memory.

The characters in this anime are impeccable. Even all of their names sound so distinguished and yet natural, even the minor ones. That said, it is annoying that for most of them you have to actually their names, as there are quite a few characters. Louis Mashengo's repetitive eternal wisdom of "Humans cannot go against their fate" is notable and oddly fitting, that is for sure. Another thing I noticed is their likability. There are not really any characters who suddenly turn bad or the other way around. Simply put, most of the characters are very likeable and in general can be seen as very good people, but those characters that are shown as bad are literally presented as the worst things to exist. Probably the only mistake made in regards to characters is that some seemingly important characters are not given enough attention, such as Fyodor Patorichev of Katerose von Kreuzer. This also applies to Lao, who appears to feature more prominently in the novels and even in this anime he is recurring. Had they and other similar characters only had more dialogue, then the characters of this anime would be even better as a whole. For Patorichev to be given relatively little attention is also a shame, since he features quite prominently in the Spiral Labyrinth arc of the Gaiden series.

The OST is somewhat unique in that it almost entirely consists of either OPs and Eds or classical symphony music. Such music includes works by Frederic Chopin, Antonin Dvorak, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. The precise music can be found on the many Spotify playlists relating to this anime. The symphony music is used very well and timely by the director, and I will never forgive them for that because I have found quite a few works by Mahler and Dvorak, but every time I listen to them, I instantly get thrown right back into the scenes from this anime. One thing to note is that AniDB lists the record brand VEB Deutsche Schallplatten in the credits to the music, presumably the classical ones. This record brand was a monopolistic enterprise in the German Democratic Republic. Among other things, I feel that even this adds more of the Prussian feel and adds to the political aspect of the anime, considering that Prussia was part of the GDR. Since GDR ceased to exist in 1990, it would make sense for that record brand to be able to sign an agreement to license the music for this anime, which started to air in 1988.

The legend of the Galactic Heroes is a product of tremendous ambition and extremely skilled execution in writing to back it up. If you are a fan of strategy and politics in anime, then I couldn't think of a better title, even taking into its length and age. In this respect, it probably even trumps Code Geass, not to mention inferior and more edgy titles like Guilty Crown, that just involve these aspects simply as erstwhile plot mechanisms. It is also better than Youjo Senki, which has a relatively fresh setting, but is still just a pompous attempt at exposition of WWI style combat. In of dialogue between Prussian officers, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu outdoes Youjo Senki by a mile, if you are into that. With all of this in mind, it is a bit sad to see this anime fail to gather the same kind of classic status as other anime of the time and is instead relegated to a relatively obscure series, held in high regard by those that have watched it, but one that seemingly does not appeal to the general audience, contemporary and present. It seems that this is why the Die Neue Thesis series has been greenlit, as not that many people will link it to this anime at this point and it will seem newer than it is. Nevertheless, there is a fair amount of fan material made for specifically this anime, such as a wiki page (not hosted on Fandom, which is kind of quaint) and a mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, the latter of which, unfortunately, has not been updated in over a decade. To end this, I will agree with one of the earlier reviewers, greenobeano, in that this anime certainly has reconfigured my own scale by which I judge cinematography as a whole now. I can't bring myself to doubt that this anime is better than my "best" anime, but it certainly ravaged everything below that in my list and placed itself solidly at number 2. The curse of this anime is that having seen it, one will automatically compare other anime to this anime, and god forbid that the anime in question has any political or war themes.

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: June 18, 2013. Review #50: Legend of the Galactic Heroes

In March 12, 2012, I posted my first anime review which was Cowboy Bebop. it was a Sci-fi smash hit set in space. Back in 1999, I saw the Star Wars Trilogy and I am very fond of that Space Opera series, especially the Original Trilogy. I am now into Star Trek and I like how creative and imaginitive it is as well as it being thought-provoking and intellectually engaging. Up until now, I have posted 49 reviews so far (excluding the supplemental reviews I did in the past) up to this point. I have now reached the milestone of 50. Well... This is it! This is the big one... Let’s go where no one has gone before and set out to Space, the final frontier... with LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES!

For decades, the Galactic Empire has been involved 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 iral 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. All the events that will take place in space, the galaxy and the universe will appear on the pages of history.

To be technical, like My Conquest is the Sea of Stars (the Introductory movie), this movie is made by three studios, Kitty Films, Artland, and Magic Bus. The animation in the movie looks nice and all, I can’t really say the exact same thing for the Main Series of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I can explain in a reasonable way. The budget isn’t high at first and the quality is at it’s lowest in the first season, but it still looks nice from time to time. It does not take a while to adjust to because this was made in 1988 and ended in 1997... So expect it to look old-fashioned while you’re watching it. When I mentioned that Season 1 has the lowest quality in animation, I am not lying too much about that. This should not turn you away from watching it...because it’s an old anime, there’s not much room to get yourself adjusted to it in time, what you’ll need to get adjusted to is the heavy amount of dialogue and it’s settings. This first season devotes most of its screentime to establish the settings, the story, and its characters for this long epic that is to be witnessed by the viewer. If you can sit through 20 episodes or so, it will start picking up. It will take awhile to get there. Season 2 starts to improve in time, and this is where the story starts rolling on its own pace. Season 3 is where the show starts to look pretty good and become far more interesting.. However, when you start getting into Season 4, that’s when the animation shines. The animation improves over time and this was a good thing back then. Honestly, the animation is good on its own. If there is something I must point out that I commend the creative staff of this anime for making terrific character designs for this anime. The character designs in this show look fantastic.

I can assure you 100% on one thing. The soundtrack is Epic in this show. It makes great uses of classical music from Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Chopin, Ravel, Mussorgsky, you name it! It does make the show elegant in its own way. If you think it was cool to hear Ode to Joy in Neon Genesis Evangelion or if it was cool to hear some classical music in some other anime. Legend of the Galactic Heroes entire soundtrack is EPIC CLASSICAL MUSIC! I like listening to classical music from time to time and it’s nice to hear some in this show. The music is used terrifically in this show. I almost forgot to mention that the only musical pieces that aren’t from classical pieces, it’s the opening and closing themes. They really set the mood for all the seasons.

As far as voice acting goes, bear with me because this will take a while for me to bring up the performances in this show. Let it be known that there is no English Dub to this anime. Like the rest of the franchise, it was never licensed in America. This is an obvious reason why no English Dub exists. With that out of the way, I’ll bring up the performances that do stand out. Ryo Horikawa and the late Kei Tomiyama are fantastic as Reinhard von Lohengramm and Yang Wenli. Keiko Han is great as Annerose (Reinhard’s Sister). and Masashi Hironaka is great as Siegfried Kircheis. There are a lot of standout performances in this show. The late Kaneto Shiozawa was terrific as Oberstein, Nozomu Sasaki is also terrific as Julian. Even Norio Wakamoto is in this show and he is fantastic as Reuenthal. Other noteworthy seiyus for this show are Kazuhiko Inoue, Kotono Mitsuishi, Masako Katsuki, Sho Hayami, Toshio Furikawa, Yoshio Sakakibara, Chikao Ohtsuka, Akio Ohtsuka, Aya Hisakawa, Ryotaro Okiayu, and Unsho Ishizuka. Let’s not forget, Yusaka Yara is the narrator of the show and he deserves to be mentioned. There are some currently well-known seiyus in this show which should be a nice treat if you watch enough anime Subtitled that is. When I reviewed My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, I wasn’t joking that there are a shit ton of characters in this show. Well, there are a shit ton of casting roles in this show and I said what I deemed necessary to bring up. Look up the entire cast at your own leisure because explaining all the other well-known cast would just drag this review much longer and I got other things to go over with this show.

Out of all the things about this anime, the story will be the hardest thing for me to talk about concerning Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I can assure you that watching 110 episodes of this anime was no easy task. This is because this anime is heavy with political and military intrigue. Not to mention there’s more than 100 characters in this show that are tied into character threads with the more important characters. This show somehow made the cast prove their worth in the long run. Or did it? Well, let’s get over the main leads... Reinhard is a political idealist and a military genius and he sets his ambitions to conquer the universe to end the corruption of the universe. His sister Annerose was sold by their father and Annerose was to serve as a consort to the Emperor - Kaiser Friedrich IV. By Reinhard's side is his best friend Siegfried Kircheis and Kircheis vows to follow Reinhard until he accomplishes his goal. However, Reinhard is not the only military genius floating around in space. Yang Wen-li is also a military genius. However, he harbors no great ambitions. Reinhard is d with the Galactic Empire and Yang Wen-li is d with the Free Planet’s Alliance. These two commanders are terrific and they are great opposites that compliment eachother while they are part of a massive conflict in space. The main focus of the show is mainly about Democracy Vs. Autocracy. It is about one form of government against another. Now that I explained this, it should be made very clear that this anime is not a roller coaster ride. It is like reading a long novel. In fact, Legend of the Galactic Heroes was originally a novel series written by Yoshiki Tanaka. There are three things this anime comes with...It is very political, If you think the political moments will slow the story down while you watch this series, keep in mind that it serves the story. it is also has Military intrigue because there is a great amount of detail on strategy. This is also a very intellectual anime. This plays a huge part with our two main leads as well as the many characters connected to them. Every single episode of this show requires the viewers’ attention. This is the hardest aspect of the show for some to sit through. It is very intellectual with its political settings, military intrigue, and the characters’ thoughts, ideals, and political opinions. It also does not hold anything back when something horrific happens. The theme of war is present throughout the series and that comes to no surprise, really, and it tells this story effectively when it can. The portrayal of Humanity is displayed pretty well in this show and there are a lot of characters that are likeable. Reinhard is interesting as the show progresses further and further, for those familiar with historical events. I heard that Reinhard shares many traits with Napoleon Bonaparte, which it’s fair to say that Yoshiki Tanaka probably has a love for history. One of my favorite characters in this anime is Yang Wen-li, I just love his personality. He’s a very smart tactician who doesn’t want a damn medal for his accomplishments. He just wants to live his life in a simple way, I really like this guy. Mittermeyer and Reuenthal are also great in this show.. Characters like Oberstein, Schenkoph, Frederica, and Poplan are also pretty memorable. Julian is also a great. I can honestly tell you that this show was able to contain an elaborate setting and story with well-developed characters, a soundtrack of classical music, and avoiding any fanservice and many clichés ALL IN 110 EPISODES! This anime is very different than meets the eye. This anime is considered to be unrivaled by some, which now brings me to some issues I have with this anime...



This is a minor nitpick because this is to be excused much later on. The animation isn’t all that great at first. it seemed to have a lower budget to begin with on this show. This anime makes up for this because the animation improves over time. I have seen many shows where they either stay consistent from start to finish, or the animation quality in the show diminishes over time. There are few animes I have seen where animation improves over time or stays consistent. I am glad that the animation in this show improved over time.

However... after the show’s completion, it was released on DVD in Japan. not only was it released on DVD, it came with new animation cels in certain moments. These “Re-visions” either made certain scenes look better or they were made to fix errors. A common complaint would be understandable that it can be distracting to see old animation cels and new animation cels being shown back to back. If you end up watching the Remastered Version. You will be dealing with this on Seasons 1 and 2. It seems Star Wars isn't the only Space Opera series with these kind of problems. Now to think of it, Why do I keep thinking of a Star Destroyer whenever I see Reinhard's Flagship "The Brunhild"?

I wonder if Star Wars had some influence over this anime

Maybe I am overthinking this. Anyway, The Remastered Version might not sit well with all viewers of this show... It’s a take it or leave it thing I guess.

One other minor nitpick is that the notable characters that are part of the Terraist Cult are like stock bad guys, that and maybe it would be nice to see a positive side to religion being portrayed instead of just showing the negative extremist side.

However, my last minor nitpick are the scenes where the characters are talking to eachother like in a normal-life situation. I will excuse this completely because it gives the show a sense of realism. This aspect may not sit well with everyone. I was patient to sit through those kind of moments in the show even though this anime is riddled with dialogue.

If I had any problems with this show, it would be pointed at the Narrator at some parts of the show. I personally have no issue with a narrator explaining events that took place off-screen inbetween certain moments. What I did not like about the Narrator of this show is that he strongly hints an event at times. This was done lightly before Episode 26, and there was even a moment where the narrator strongly hinted an event that would happen on Episode 82. You know what; This is technically a spoiler, but the hell with it! That Narrator’s job is to explain things like events that take place inbetween scenes or recap previous episodes or events. His other job is to not TO SPOIL A F***ING PLOT TWIST! This anime is supposed to be intellectual, and this is not a smart move by the creative staff. Episode 82 should have left an impact to not only just the characters, but the viewers as well. The events in this episode had little impact for me thanks to the narrator! But you wanna know something? the narrator is there to give this anime the feel as if it is being told from a history book. That is exactly the intention in Legend of the Galactic Heroes when it comes to narration. All I can say is that you need to get used to it. Still, there is no excuse for having a narrator spoiling something before it happens.







Now it all comes down to this... I am NOT going to blindly give this anime a 10. Why? Because even though Legend of the Galactic Heroes is mostly terrific, the animation had a few hiccups, and some characters are bounced around in certain episodes, making it harder to follow or care for these characters. However, they are used extremely well. Thank God for the name subtitles or I would be confused as hell. Seriously, those subtitles come in handy. However, I find the narrator's hinting future events a bit questionable. What really does work is the portrayal of politics and war and this is one of the best Anti-war messages portrayed in anime and even other fictional mediums.

However, when I review an anime, I do not fall for public opinion just because of what the majority claims something to be. I also don't buy into the hype that quickly either. Legend of the Galactic Heroes on the other hand is a very underappreciated anime, but deep down inside despite my nitpicking, I don’t have much to hate about this series. This show is actually very good. I can’t lie about that. I commend the creative staff for putting a massive amount of effort in making a show of this scope. The late Noboru Ishiguro deserved to rest in peace knowing he made the what is arguably the greatest Space Opera anime ever made, as well as making the longest OVA series ever made.

This is an epic space opera and this is a show for anyone that likes Science Fiction. This is science fiction taken seriously even though this is an anime that deals with politics, military intrigue, war, and humanity in space.

I strongly believe that everyone has their own opinions and should form their own opinions. When it comes to Anime, I believe everyone has an equal say concerning a specific anime regardless of differences in opinion. In the end, I can’t say that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is required viewing, But I can say that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is for those with acquired taste.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is unlicensed, as well as Yoshiki Tanaka’s novel series of the same name. A movie prequel with the subtitle “Golden Wings” is also unlicensed, another movie called “Overture to a New War” is also unlicensed, a prequel series called “Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden”, which consists of 2 seasons is also unlicensed. The entire franchise is unlicensed; your only way to experience this series is by watching it online. When this series does get licensed someday (which might not happen), pick this show up if you like it.

With all that said, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is an astounding piece of work. It exceeds with its scope in the story and it has an epic use of classical music. This anime may not have been perfect in animation. This is later excused as this series progresses. With its elaborate political settings, smart military intrigue, social commentary, and intellectual level as well as character development... Legend of the Galactic Heroes is worthy to be called an Anime Masterpiece in its own right. It is also considered one of the Greatest Animes of all time. Regardless of personal opinion from others. I highly recommend this anime to anyone that is into Science Fiction and Space Operas.

I give Legend of the Galactic Heroes a 9.5 out of 10. It is EXCELLENT!

Feel free to leave a comment.

Critic’s Log - Postscript: Well... with this review wrapped up. I have now posted 50 reviews. It might not sound like much, but this is a milestone I was looking forward to. I know that I intend to continue as long as I can. If you have been sticking around on my reviews. I want to thank you. If you went through this entire review, I thank you for your patience and I apologize for making it long-winding, I hope you can fully understand. I want to thank all the friends I have made inside the anime community. (no matter the amount), and I want to thank a good friend of mine (which I will not name by request) for getting me back into anime after I had a brief disinterest and I also thank her for recommending me some shows which turned out to be fun.

I want to give everyone one last message while I wrap-up... This message is to all but at the same time, This message is to you...

Live Long...and Prosper.

Before explaining my ratings, I will talk about some general stuff of the seriesitself:

I ed the first episodes of Legend of Galactic Heroes because the title sounded very promising to me. I was indeed greatly entertained and immediately dragged in. Firstly i found it funny that they use (or misuse) german all over, however on second sight a great space opera unfolded.
I´ve always been a fan of science fiction space-travel shows, and usually they involve aliens; LoGH however, only humans and technology. This fact makes the show quite interesting, if you are actually bored from those super power, alien, one-guy-defeats-enemy sci-fi series. In fact, in this future a person alone has become insignificant on battlefield. Even heroes can die fast during a LoGH battle, which usually involves tenth of thousands ships. Therefore the focus lies mostly on the commanders in charge, their tactical and strategical decisions. The series is also very long, 110 episodes + 3 movies + 2 prequel series with at least 24 episodes each. This makes it possible to go very much into detail on every aspect, be it history, character developement, ground or space warfare (for the ground warfare it would certainly receive a R rating . Despite the length of the series, there are no fillers or something; if you miss one episode, you miss some actual plot. However, some episodes are based around less important characters than others.

Now I will explain my ratings:

Animation:
I watched the Laserdisc version of LoGH (the subs from central anime) up until episode 43 or something; the subs for the series were stalled at this point until the DVD bootlegs were released. Especially at the beginning, the show does not look really good. It is not bad either, castles, cities as well as ships and environment are well drawn, but especially the characters could have looked better. However the remastered DVD version, which I watched from 43 onwards, looks actually pretty nice. Nevertheless there is a heavy drawback of the DVD bootleg version, because the subtitles are of very varying quality, ranging from very poor to good. Therefore, if you want good translations watch central anime, if you want good animation watch the bootleg (unfortunately, there is no sub version legally available to buy at the moment).

Sound:
The sound is really good. Especially the music is remarkable. It is all classical music made long ago and even despite that, it fits perfectly into the scenes (If you have watched Gankutsuou, you know what I mean). If you are into classical music, this show is just great, as it will surely introduce some great music you did not know up to this point. The sfx and synchronization are also well done, with many well known seiyuus giving their appearance.

Story:
The story is about a great war, which has been going on for 150 years now, a conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance. There is also a third neutral country, Phezzan, which watches the battle, but indirectly tries to influence it. The war is also a war of the systems. For the Galactic Empire is a feudal country, while the Free Planets Alliance is democratic. In the Empire, technology and its developement has been mostly restricted to warfare and some basic things. Its citizens are living very much in an environment similar to the 19th century (A reference to Prussia is often made). The Free Planets Alliance is smaller compared to the Empire, but does not try to restrict technological development. The story sets in, when the time of two great heroes has come, who possess the ability to finally end the war. Reinhard von Lohengramm on the Empire's side and Yang Wenli for the Alliance. When Reinhard's sister was taken by the emperor to serve him as a concubine, he swears revenge, that he would free her some day. Now he became the youngest Fleet iral in the history of the empire, but he still has a long way to go.
Yang Wenli is advisor in the 4th fleet of the Alliance, he did not want to become a soldier, but a historian in the first place. However, his incredible sense for tactic and strategy brought him up that far. He also believes in democracy being the best system and wants to protect it.
While some aspects of the story are not really innovative, it is the composition, which makes it great. Also the aspect the story evolving around the two heroes, giving therefore both sides of the story, is just incredible.

Character:
It is amazing how many different Characters exist in the series and each has their own history, which led him into the story. The two main characters are Reinhard von Lohengramm, Fleet iral of the Galactic Empire, and Yang Wenli, advisor in the 4th fleet of the Free Planets Alliance. The plot mainly evolves around the two of them. Their character, as well as others changes throughout the story. Some minor characters however are stereotypes which does not really disturb, but sometimes leads the story into an obvious direction.

Value/Enjoyment:
The series has a lot of value, because it is not only enjoyable to watch, but also many things in the series are like a metaphor of today’s conflicts and thematics.
For example the two systems of democracy and autocratic rule are more or less compared. The watcher may decide for himself which is better. Since the series is soincredible long, a complete rewatch would probably take too much time. However, I found myself to look some episodes again, or even a whole season. What I occasionally think to be a slight drawback to enjoyment was, that in some battles, events happen too fast and the viewer can not really follow, so it might seem a bit unrealistic (especially in the first two episodes, which probably discouraged some potential viewers. They made that up in the movie "overture to a new war", which covers the events of the first episodes, but most likely a viewer watches them after the series). Nevertheless, if this aspect is seen with the series as a whole, it is really nothing.
I also liked how the series managed to answer everything of the main plot, but to throw off new questions with the end. I can only confirm what the other two reviewers wrote: If you like sci-fi anime, you have to give the series a chance. The first and second movie can be also watched before watching the actual series, since they were made either before the series or cover the first episodes.

First up, I'll write a summary of my thoughts of this show, all you need to really read to get my opinion about Legend of the Galactic Heroes is that. But if you want more indepth reasons as to why I think what I think, you'll want to read on, as I will explain why I think certain things further on. There will be a bit of reiteration going on in the indepth part, as you basically should either read the summary, or the indepth parts depending on what you care about.

Summary
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has it all, if you're looking for war, gore, murder or other things of that kind, look no further. If you're looking for love, joy, happiness, here you are. If you're emo and want sadness, tears and sweat, this has it. It has every kind of imaginable characters (within the realm of possibility) that you can hope for. The story is truly epic, leaving you breathless for more after each episode. For being from the 80's, the animation is really outstanding, and as it lasts for almost a decade, the fact that they haven't used korean inbetweeners for 99% of the show is what makes it possible to keep the high quality of animation. The music is great; it fits in with the moods of the scenes perfectly, and they have alot of truly inspiring songs here.

Alright, that was the summary, now for the indepth review:
Animation
As the show is made during almost a decade, from the late 1980's until the late 1990's, the fact that the standard of animation is outstanding throughout the show is amazing. Now, there are a few different versions of this that has been released, there is a DVD version, and an LD version. I watched the DVD version, which is supposedly restored/buffed up from the LD version, and there are noticeable differences. One pretty odd thing is that they added alot of blood to the DVD version, which fits, because there is alot of bleeding being done.
As there is alot of fighting going on, those scenes need to be well done, and they are. You can feel the despair of the people in the ships that get blown up, the terror striknig the masses during bombings, and the elation of the winners as they celebrate their victories.

Sound
The sound is perhaps the worst bit of this show. But it is still very good; really great voiceacting, very good sound effects (even though you aren't supposed to hear anything in space ), and superb music. If you like classical music, you'll be awed. If you don't, well, the music fits with the scenes so well that if you don't want to notice it, you don't haveto. Just let the scenes immerse you in their atmosphere. The fighting scenes have good sound effects, and even though you aren't supposed to hear anything in space, really, in a multimedia entertainment medium that is mostly about space battles, if you can't hear anything from all the shots being fired, and ships blowing up, you'll be bored to tears. So it is to me most acceptable that they let you hear that, though alot of the time they let you hear it from within the ships firing/blowing up, which makes me impressed by all the voiceactors being able to capture the deaththroes of the characters they're doing the voice for so well.

Story
The story is what really makes Legend of the Galactic Heroes shine. It is brilliant. It has drama, romance, war, politics. If you're looking for a shallow shounen sports/mecha/hentai or something like that, you'll be disappointed. This is a scifi opera of epic proportions. The story is set far in the future, when humankind has colonized hundreds of planets, and the government spans half the galaxy. The story initially focuses on two young officers on different sides of a conflict between those wanting a democratic rulership or an autocratic rulership. This sets the background for an epic fight that lasts across the generations, and affects everyone in one way or another.
Most stories that try to take on such epic proportions as Legend of the Galactic Heroes does fails miserably - the reason for this, I belive is because they aren't long enough. This series though, is 110 episodes 3 movies, and then 2 other series of 24 and 28 episodes. This makes it possible to tell such an epic, and yet it never feels long. You always want to see what happens next, and you'll be given moments of joy, love, happiness, sadness, tears and sweat. All the ranges of human emotion are displayed and conveyed here.

Characters
There is really nothing to complain about when it comes to the characters in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, there are alot of them, they are diverse, and the best part of it all: they are all extremely well developed. With as much screentime to work with as this series has, they are able to develop every character as much as they want, and they do it extremely well, nothing in the story or character development feels contrived. The bad guys have their reasons, the good guys have their reasons. Actually, there are very few bad guys. And on some level you can sympathize with everyone that is not insane. Yes, there are a number of insane individuals too. Everyone reacts in natural ways to the characters and events happening around them, there are stupid people as well as extremely smart people, and everything in between.

Value/Enjoyment
If you're into scifi, battles or just a great story, this is for you. If you just want something light and shallow to laugh at occasionally, stay clear. If you give this show a chance, it will drag you in, chew you around and spit you out a changed man (or woman). Legend of the Galactic Heroes has an awesome story, and great characters, so you'll not be left wanting if that's anything you care about.