Legend of the Galactic Heroes
And thus it is over, my long journey over the past three months or more watching this 110-episode anime, its prologue movie and its two prequel spin-offs. I'm grateful to have experienced this anime. Among the anime fandom, "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" truly lived up to its name, a legendary series renowned for being an utterly unique anime that completely defied the convention of "cartoon is just for kids" even as early as 1988. And its recognition as a mature series isn't attributed to something as superficial as "shock humor" like many adult cartoons like Family Guy, but rather, it's because of its many thoughtful political discussions criticizing both democratic and autocratic governments, its brutal portrayal of warfare yet recognizing the significance of its existence in shaping nations for the better or worse, its questioning of the role of a soldier and the meaning of his loyalty, its rich cast of myriad characters who are each so thoroughly fleshed out, and last but not least, its groundbreaking space-fleet battles utilizing strategies and tactics so brilliant that they would probably fascinate any intellectuals even today. LoGH was truly one of its kind, which was why it easily made it to my top must-watch list for a long time. It stood among (and perhaps even above) the ranks of other renowned anime series like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and many others that have come to revolutionize Japanese animation.
When I said that I'm grateful to have watched this, I guess I should elaborate more on why a mere TV series would earn my appreciation that way. Anime wasn't always a part of my life, as I only started watching anime actively during my college years. Prior to that, I might have watched the occasional Pokemon and Digimon, maybe a Cardcaptor Sakura, but it was just casual viewing, and I didn't really come to appreciate the medium as I would in later years. I guess it was just fascinating to me back then that there are these cartoons that convey such complex themes a seven year old would have no possible way of comprehending. And it wasn't just one or two niched movies like what Watership Down did for American animation either; there were at least a dozen anime series in the '80s or '90s that were pretty violent and definitely not for kids. And I guess I've always been someone who's more interested in unique movies and TV shows that does something special I've never seen before. There was always this thirst for novelty and originality, so much so that when I've experienced all the "must-see" anime like some of the titles I mentioned above, the other normal anime just became kinda stale for me. Many anime are decent entertainment, no doubt, but they just couldn't satisfy this addiction of mine to see something brilliant and revolutionary. That's why whenever an anime like LoGH comes along, it earns my utmost appreciation for being "one of the greats" that shines its brilliance as bright as the star fields in the anime itself.
When trying to recommend LoGH to others, I would often make the mistake of giving it a generalization as insulting as "Star Wars meets Star Trek". Many LoGH fans have stated that it's really the Chinese novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that inspired the 1986 novel the anime was based on, something which I can't comment on since I have no knowledge of either books. But I think it's easy for anyone unfamiliar with the series or even anime itself to judge the anime's content based on its space-fleet battles than anything else. I feel like that would be a mistake, because as amazing as the strategies were in these battles, they are but the surface to what makes up most of the anime: political and ethical arguments, philosophical musings, multiple coup d'état of tyrannical governments, purging of corrupted governments, riots over unfair government treatments, etc, etc. It's less of a "space battle anime" than it is a political anime, and even that isn't entirely accurate due to its epic Shakespearean coups against empires and kings. It's more like Japanese Game of Thrones in space.
And you know, it's not just its grandiose themes either. As I mentioned, there are lots of characters in the anime, and the audience is given ample time to familiarize with them. Most of them are unique individuals that don't really belong to any cliched character archetypes either. I'm not going to go into details for every one of them, but the two main characters are Yang Wenli and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Yang is a walking contradiction in that he's a pacifistic soldier who's willing to kill hundreds of enemy forces in order to achieve democracy for his people, albeit in ways that would result in the least amount of bloodshed. And god, he's just such a brilliant tactician that he ended up annoying the heck out of me. He truly lives up to his nickname, "Magician Yang" for being able to often thwart the enemy forces in unpredictable ways. As for Reinhard, the passionate Golden Boy is my favorite of the two in spite of being an autocratic leader. His goal in the beginning was that he's fighting for enough promotions to free his sister from the binds of a Kaiser (she was sold off by her father in debt). But over time, once he rose in ranks, his goal was to unite the entire universe to achieve universal peace, free from the bloodshed and corruption he had to endure under previously corrupted Kaisers. It's a bit naive, but I think that's why I favored him. He has this kind of energy and ambition that would make anyone follow him. He's not as brilliant a tactician as Yang, but he's a better strategist who could see the bigger picture. He's still intelligent enough, however, to utilize really creative ways of winning the battle. For example, in the prequel movie, he used the planet's gravitational gas cloud to his advantage and easily disposed of his enemies that way. You'll come to see lots of these "out of the box" strategies in the course of the series.
The fact that these characters have such rich backgrounds and storylines is probably essential to the kind of unpredictability that will be forced upon their lives. Any one can die in this anime, and I do mean any one. There are no "rules" or story conventions how a character's fate would go. I would often make the mistake of thinking, "In a typical story, this character would probably do so and so, or he will have some deus ex machina to save him." I was often proven wrong. This anime threw me off many, many times. And if it was any other anime with less developed characters, I probably wouldn't have been as affected when someone important dies. And oh my god, so many people died. I think it's important that so many of the talented people in this anime ended up dying though. It speaks to the kind of sacrifice these characters are willing to make for their ideals. Yang's adopted ward, Julian Mintz would later reflect on this as Yang did, that they had to kill so many soldiers in order to achieve peace. A lot of blood are on these characters' hands in order for their to have a negotiation or treatise even, that it easily makes them wonder if all these killings are pointless clashes of egos. In short, it's like Ron Perlman said in Fallout: "War never changes."
But all the accolades and praises aside, I think what matters most in the end is whether if you have any interest in such political content in the first place. My reason for watching it is due to its significance in the anime industry (and also its brilliant writing and unpredictable storylines), but for the general audience like yourself, I think that if you have a skeptical image of anime, probably associating it with the likes of mainstream anime like Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, and if you love Game of Thrones, I think it wouldn't hurt to give the prequel movie a shot, the movie titled "My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars". See if you like what you see, and then be prepared to spend months watching the 110 episode anime (also the two prequel series, each numbering up to 20+ episodes).
In closing, this anime is by no means a flawless masterpiece as it still has some questionable decisions made by the characters, not to mention its over reliance on narration for exposition and its episode previews spoiling every upcoming episode, but I think for what it is, for what it has done in the history of anime, it deserves my full marks for being one of the most unique and well-written anime that ever existed.
Final Score: 5/5
