Otakuism

The Legend continues. Like my last post this is more a collection of thoughts and conjectures on the story thus far. Ton of spoilers too.

The big focus of the second season is how Phezzan manages to manipulate both sides into war and eventually gets the Empire to outright conquer the alliance. However, with all the realism this series possesses I find it hard to believe that a single planet state could control both sides so well. I think the arc would of benefited from an episode or two highlighting the economics of the future and better showing how Phezzan is a threat rather than just throwing them out there. Then again, it’s hard to say how successful Phezzan is since in the end Reinhard basically says “screw you” and conquers them anyway.

LOGH is understandably vague when it comes to technology. Yes, there’s FTL travel in the future but it doesn’t really say to what extant. Hell, the first time we even really see warp travel in the show is in ep.30 when the Empire moves Geiersburg fortress with warp engines. No matter how unexplainable the technology is, moving a giant fortress by warp to battle another fortress is always cool.

God I love the Rosenritter. It’s always great to see the Empire’s soldier shit their pants whenever they realize the Rosenritter have come out to slaughter. Especially Schenkopp, since that guy can take out an entire batallion by himself, and even almost takes over an entire ship singlehandedly later on.

LOGH has some really weird moments sometimes. This bizarre image from ep.36 is one of them. It’s basically about Reinhard pining over Kircheis, again. There’s definitely a strong mancrush going on here. This is also the first time the young Kaiser shows up, and of course he has to be a spoiled brat. It’s funny to see the guys kidnapping trying to act nice at first and then decide just to knock him out and take him.

Everyone underestimates Reinhard in the show, calling him the blonde brat and saying he’s too young to be a genius. Interestingly enough, Yang is also chronically underestimated throughout the show by the Alliance. They don’t underestimate his strength, but instead his morality. The powers that be constantly think that Yang will seize power at any moment and keep Yang down accordingly, even if it means it will hurt the rest of the Alliance. But anyone who even listens to Yang talk understands that he has no aspirations of leadership at all. To him even the worst democracy is better than the best autocracy. Of course any normal person would destroy the Alliance government in a heartbeat, especially with Truniht in control, but that’s what makes Yang special. Reinhard may be a genius but Yang is much more mature than him in understanding his own ideology and reasons. Reinhard selfishly seeks power for his own ego and it’s merely a by product of his own strength that the society is made better, but Yang doesn’t serve his own interests but others. As much as Yang despises the idea, he really is the true military man.

ep.40 is the first documentary episode, which literally shows Julian watching a documentary about the history of the Empire. I really had to laugh that he was watching the thing off of a floppy. LOGH really hasn’t aged technologically that well. It’s a fascinating episode for fleshing out the world, though there are some really disturbing moments. Like illustrating the corruption before the Empire by showing fat naked women dancing on tables. I understand the necessity for showing sexual promiscuity, but why do they have to be FAT naked women? There’s also some chilling images of mass executions and body pits, making the parallels between Rudolf and Hitler all the more obvious. It’s also interesting that Rudolf, the man who champions genetic purity, has a retarded son himself. The episode does a great job of highlighting the real main theme of LOGH, that history is circular and that tragedies and progress exist in all times.

Ep.50 features a great ridiculous strategy from Yang that I just love. He basically positions his fleet right in front of a black hole so that the enemy can’t get around him, and then manages not only to get around the enemy fleet but then push IT into the radius of the black hole! God, death by black hole must suck. Actually, death in just space itself sucks. A later episode shows, very graphically, how much blood and guts are lost when a battleship explodes. Not pretty at all.

I also know that female space pilots are just plain hawt.

The second season ends with a ton of changes to the LOGH world. Reinhard actually conquers the Alliance, Yang goes into retirement and gets married (I loved the Yang X Frederica storyline. Such a cute couple.), Julian is setting off on his own to Eath, and Reinhard finally crowns himself Kaiser. Emphasis on the crowning himself. It reminds of that story about how Napolean seized the crown from the Pope’s hands to put it on himself. I really wonder how the show is going to go on from here with the war basically over, but there is still the threat of the Terraism Cult on the horizon. How’s that for a pun? I’ll be disappointed if LOGH comes down to fighting a bunch of masked cult members, but I’m sure it has plenty more surprises in store for me.

I’ve finished the first batch of Legend of the Galactic Heroes episodes and I just have to say…wow. This show just blows me away. The characters, the story, the music, the pacing - everything is just perfect. This is one of the few anime that I would really call artistic as the themes and arguments it brings up are still relevant to this day, and indeed are relevant for all time. Several episodes got me thinking about various things, so I’m just going to go through and point at the stuff that interested me:

In ep.3 you got this great “with us or against us” speech by Truniht, the secretary of defense for the Free Planets Alliance. After his speech he’s immediately set upon by Jessica Edwards, a widow who had lost her husband in the previous battle. She asks Truniht where he was during the fighting and where was his family, or the families of any other politicians. For this action she is later attacked by the PKC, an illegal yet tolerated ultranationalist paramilitary group, but fortunately she is rescued by the quick actions of Yang Wenli. Living in America it’s easy for me to draw parallels between these events and the Iraq War, especially in the early years of the war. However, in truth these events could be related to any war, which is really what makes LOGH so fascinating.

In ep.4 it’s a very minor thing that caught my attention. There’s a brief ceremony where Reinhard is honored for his bravery in front of the Kaiser and other military officials. It is essentially a closed affair for the elite. Contrast this with the Alliance ceremony in the previous episode, which is a huge spectacle used by Truniht for political gain. It starkly contrasts the two societies governments and the way the leaders interact with the citizens.

In ep.5 (I promise I’m not going to go through every episode; the early ones were just awesome) we see Kircheis put down down a noble rebellion on Kastrop. The funny thing is that the noble runs the place like ancient Rome! Everyone wears togas and laurel wreaths and there’s pillars every where. When Kircheis does put down the rebellion the nobles followers, dismayed by his increasingly erratic behavior, stab him all at once just like Julius Caesar. The whole thing is just an ironic shout out to Caesar! It’s also a clever critique of dictatorship in an already autocratic society. Whether this is a foreshadowing for later events I don’t know, though a few minor nobles later on also get killed in a similar manner but replace daggers with lasers.

Ep.11 has another fun historical reference in the character of Marquis Benemunde, a noble who was once favorite of the Kaiser but is now forgotten as Reinhard’s sister Annerose takes her place. She concocts an elaborate planned, helped along by nobles who also despise Reinhard, to kidnap Annerose and poison her. To poison her Benemunde uses poison from her ring, a reference to Lucrezia Borgia from the Italian Renaissance. I only actually know this from Gankutsuou. After her plan is foiled she is allowed the “honor” of killing herself instead of being executed and is force fed her own poison. It’s all very medieval and brutal but also fascinating to watch. I also found it funny that in the Empire common thugs wear capes and masquerade masks. Are we really in the future?

Ep.18 features another ironical historical moment as the nobles rebel against Reinhard and fight for liberty, equality, and fraternity. Actually they’re just protecting their own skins, but the whole thing sure does look like the Tennis Court Oath that officially started the French Revolution.

LOGH has a lot of little characters that show up to provide a different view of things and put a human face on the often ugly facade of war. Ep.22 features the two most human guys that show up for thirty seconds in anime ever. The noble Littenheim is losing the battle and chooses to run away, but his escape path is blocked by his own supply ships. Instead of just going through them, since space is big and all, he instead opens fire on them. Right before this we get a scene with two guys, one of them showing a picture of his wife and newborn twins to the other, commenting on how he wants to go home and hold them soon. Both of them are then killed in the attack by their own forces. Now that’s just brutal right there.

Ep.23 features the greatest character conflict so far. Reinhard has to decide whether to prevent or not a noble nuclear attack on a planet. If he allows it then the nobles are basically finished as no good soldier will fight for them. But he’ll also be sentencing two million people to death. Like my favorite Star Trek episode “In the Pale Moonlight” everything is done perfectly here, with Reinhard’s reluctance, Oberstein’s machinations, and Reinhard’s acceptance that he’ll just have to ignore Kicheis’s opinion. A brilliant episode all around.

Ep.24 has the greatest weapon ever: chunks of ice shot at near light speed. Yang Wenli’s idea to get around an expensive automatic defense satellite is to just shoot ice really fast at it. It’s such a simple idea but the way the episode uses it is awesome. A real Crowning Moment of Awesome for Yang Wenli and ice. Also, more Antonin Dvorak used here.

Big spoilers here, but ep.26 is really the most surprising episode so far for me, as it basically kills of Kircheis, Reinhard’s best friend and heterosexual life partner. I’ve really tried to avoid spoilers for LOGH so I had no idea this was coming and I just assumed that Kircheis would survive seeing as how integral he was to Reinhard’s character. The effect this has on Reinhard is just devastating, as he immediately goes into a deep depression and by the time he comes out of it he’s definitely a different person. His eyes are drawn much colder and I really have to give credit to the animators for making me feel unsettle in his presence. This is now a guy who will either use you or kill you.

These are just a few highlights that I jotted down while watching, but really everything has been perfect so far. It’s just impossible to say everything that is so great about this series, from its very human relevance to all the historical shout outs for history buffs like me. I’m a quarter of the way on my journey and I’m definitely looking forward to more.

And for those who think LOGH might be boring, just look at all the gratuitous violence you’re missing. Real men in space fight with axes, after all.

Watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Two episodes in and I love it. There’s no more dynamic an opening than a giant space battle. I find it rather funny that the opening narration of the very first episode of a show about war basically says how war is meaningless and will ultimately be forgotten. Even Yang Wenli and Reinhard seem to know that, Yang probably more so, but the battle at the moment is more pressing.

LOGH immediately sets itself with two very different sides at war. In one corner it’s the Space Prussians - is there a better kind of prussian? - better known as theGalactic Empire. They have snazzy uniforms, cool german names (cause german is the most badass language ever), and everything from their ships to their houses possesses a unique 18th century austerity.

In the other corner there’s Democracy InAction, or the Free Planets Alliance. They wear french caps (yay revolution), have garish mechanical design (boo capitalism), name their ships after ancient greeks (yay oligarchy), and use fighters called spartanians. Probably trying to evoke the image of Sparta defender of Athenian democracy from the Persians, rather than the Sparta that fought meaningless wars for a century that led to Greece being conquered.

LOGH is one of the fews anime I’ve seen that actually feels like a proper space opera, partly because classical music is the soundtrack. But there’s also the distances involved, the grand movements of people, and the death star-like Iserlohn, covered in a sea of molten metal with its own patented planet smasher, Thor’s Hammer (yay norse mythology). Of course, LOGH is still a 110-episode OVA with multiple movies and side-stories, so this may be quite a long journey.