Legend of the Galactic Heroes Review for MAL
(This Review Contains Spoilers)
Introduction:
For some reason in the Anime Community, there is this...almost cult like mentality for certain series. We also have buzzwords that keep being thrown out like “Classics” or “Masterpieces” or even people hating stuff that’s “cliche” or what have you. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of those shows where people really like it for not being anime, but being something else entirely. I have seen individuals claim that this show is the “greatest work of fiction”, not just the best anime mind you. The GREATEST WORK OF FICTION! You got dudes comparing this to fucking Plato or Socrates. Literally, go look up an article or two or even talk to some of the defenders that like this show. They think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
Originally? I had dropped this show years back because I dealt with some of it’s fans who actually were unironically annoying. I actually ended up not looking at anime in general for a while, due to the constant circle jerking that this series got. Now? Recently, I’ve gotten back into anime. I decided to sit down, open my eyes, watch all 110 episodes of this with my new and improved self. Did I enjoy it? No, lmao. This shit is actually stinky and smelly. Oooh, I know the pitchforks are ready to be thrown at me. I don’t really care. I am confident and can stand on my very two feet that this is NOT the greatest anime ever. It is also FAR from being the best fictional series ever. They are many, many, MANY anime out there that are far more deserving of the title of “masterpiece” and overall? Many of which are just better than this overrated show.
Anyway, let’s get down to business…
Story and Characters:
Legend of the Galactic Heroes focuses on the Free Planets Alliance and the Galactic Empire. The FPA being a “republican democracy” (lol) and the Galactic Empire being...a...see the thing is? It’s supposed to be a Monarchy, but the series jumps from calling it a “Monarchy” and an “Autocracy”. I guess it’s an “Autocracy” then lol. The FPA are inspired/based off of the republics that you see in reality. (America, France, Modern Germany, and so on) While the Empire is based on the Prussian Empire from back in the 18th-19th century. The FPA and the Galactic Empire are at constant odds with each other throughout the series. You will learn all about it, who started what, and exposition dumps by fake historians. It tries to portray this cynical nature of conflict in which whatever you do? Conflict will always start anew. The problem lies in how a lot of this is executed because there is a rather poor understanding of politics within this narrative. Not only that, but characters don’t even feel like “characters” but political caricatures that the author is shoving into the story. The author has a very surface level view of politics and philosophy. I’m not sure why many anime fans on MAL and the ones I’ve talked to think this is “deep”, but when one actually sits down to hear what these characters are saying? You will find out that neither the political aspects or the philosophy are anything mind blowing.
Let’s start with our 2 main characters. Reinhard Von Lohengramm and Yang Wen-Li. They are supposedly based on real historical figures, but I don’t really care about this because they don’t do a great job in reflecting them at all. We’ll start first with Yang, since he bothers me the most out of these two. Yang is a strong supporter of democracy, if you haven’t noticed already. Yang originally wanted to be a historian, but couldn’t because he had to enter military service first. His father passed away when he was younger, so he was left penniless so he had no choice but to go in there. My problem with this character is that I wished we saw more of him trying to wheel himself out of the war effort and end the series off by becoming a historian that he wanted but instead….
He’ll rant, rant, and rant about his ideals. The problem is? His ideals are flawed and he’s supporting a political ideology that is pretty much destructive to begin with. Yang supports this flawed political position throughout the entirety of the show. He never experiences any character development, he never thinks about what he’s doing is wrong, and he never questions himself. Yang supports democracy and is in staunch opposition towards war, yet that doesn’t stop him from killing millions of people. On top of that? He blames some of his actions on war itself, but not realizing that he’s partially responsible for it as well along with the many commanders that partake in it. War is not some abstract concept, lol. War is caused by human beings who have differing ideological clashes. Yang Wen-Li also does not understand anything he’s saying either.
For example, when he first meets Reinhard? It goes like this:
“Reinhard: Is democracy such a great thing? Didn’t the Galactic Republic give birth to Rudolf and his Galactic Empire? Wasn’t the one who delivered your beloved nation into my hands your own ruler, chosen by the free will of the people of the Alliance? Democratic rule is a body chosen by its citizens in free will which subsumes the power and spirit of self.
Yang: if you could pardon my rudeness, your excellency, your words are as if the value of fire should be denied, simply because arson exists.
Reinhard: Hmm, that may be true, but wouldn’t you say the same applies to dictatorship? you cannot deny the efficiency of government by a strong leadership simply because tyrants do exist.
Yang: I can.
Reinhard: How?
Yang: The right to violate the rights of the people belong to the people. In other words, when the people gave power to Rudolf von Goldenbaum, or to an incomparably smaller man like Job Trunicht, the responsibility belongs to the people. It belongs to on one else. Thats the important point. The sin of dictatorship is that the people can push off the failures of government onto one man. Compared to that cardinal sin, the accomplishments of a hundred wise rulers seem small. In addition, your Excellency, a ruler as great as you is exceedingly rare. It’s only natural that your accomplishments and your failures also stand out.”
Yang is incredibly wrong because:
Secondly, if you could somehow prevent arson by removing the means by which is brought about (fire), there is a very good argument to be made that you SHOULD actually do it.
Yang's only real argument then is, I guess, that dictator's are flawed? But then so are the rulers of a democracy, who manipulate the people's desires to their own benefit. And Reinhard is talking about dictatorship under the perspective of strong leadership, so Yang ultimately has no point.
Yang literally has ZERO idea of what he’s talking about. It gets worse, lol. At one point he’s being court martialed by a bunch of people right? The politicians ask him questions and what have you. Yang literally states that, “A nation doesn’t create individuals by cellular division. Instead, it is individuals with autonomous intent who gather to establish a nation. In a democratic society, it is axiomatic as to which one is the master and which the servant.”
I don’t know how this is “deep”, lol. If you actually think about it for a couple seconds? All he’s saying is that individuals with a lot of potential will come together, form a collective, and establish a nation. The Nation serves the People, but in retrospect? The People should also serve their nation. Which, we’ll get into my next quote:
“People may need societies, but they don’t necessarily need “nations.””
Nations are a part of society, Yang. Nations are an integral part to someone’s identity. That’s how we tell who is who to begin with. That’s how we identify and differentiate an American from an Englishman. They come from different nations, which play apart in who they are.
He also says stuff like the “army doesn’t side with the people and it’s used for violence”. Okay, no lol. A National Army is used for violence yes, but it does side with the people. An army is made up of individuals who are there to protect their nation from invaders foreign and domestic. “Violence” is not always a bad thing, unless you’re using it to protect those you care about. Yang also says crap like, “Living things know nothing about their ancestors, only the genes they inherited” That’s wrong too because when you trace your bloodline back? You can indeed look up quite a bit of who your ancestors are, what they did, and how they lived. So, no living things can indeed know a lot about their ancestors if they take the time to find out that information.
Yang is actually so idealistic in his belief of democracy, that it hurts.
“I believe that being ruled by the worst democracy is preferable to being ruled by the best autocracy. That’s why I’m fighting Prince Reinhard von Lohengramm on behalf of Job Trunicht. I think it’s a good principle.”
This is actually [redacted]. Job Trunicht is literally corrupt to the bone, yet you still fight under him? You yourself are aware of how benevolent Reinhard has been (for the most part) yet you’ll still fight under this dude? Why not do a military coup, take him out, and make the Free Alliance better? The worst democracy is no match for an Autocracy that is at its best. There’s no comparison, even a 5th grader can understand this. A system that is at its worst is not better than a system that is at its best.
There’s another point where Yang says this too:
"when the absolute majority of the people affirm and accept autocracy, we who advocate for the sovereignty of the people become the enemy of the people…If we have to bring down a virtuous ruler to preserve the institution of democracy, democracy becomes the enemy of good governance. We have no choice but to laugh at such a paradox."
Okay, so people accept autocracy because strong rulers inspire change. Giving power to individuals gives access to mob rule, which will only create chaos.
Democracy was always an enemy of good governance...from the very beginning. People who watch this show, likely have never picked up a political book in their life or they are nihilistic, liberal, atheist, and think they know about politics because they read some crap about the 2016 election. So, “Anime Fans” think they are smart for watching this show and they think this show can flex on many others. This is not the case as the author has a poor understanding of political subjects.
So, Yang doesn’t understand anything he’s talking about. On top of that? He’s a delusional idealist who is protecting a broken ideology that has never worked in history. The Founding Fathers of America were against Democracy for a reason, that’s why America is a Constitutional Federal Republic not a Democracy. Yang also never changes his stance or views throughout the series. He remains static up until his death, which was comical. He’s got quite a bit of Mary Sue traits in all honesty, he also only seems to care about his pensions. This character is awful. He has no direction and I feel like the author wanted to do something grand with this character, but the execution was poor due to not understanding how character writing works. Yang has Mary Sue traits because barely anyone argues with him, they romanticize him as this genius who knows everything. They even put his face next to the founder of the FPA itself, like it’s ridiculous.
Enough of Yang Wen-Li for a bit. Let’s talk about Reinhard, lol. Reinhard starts the story off with an estranged relationship with his father. His father sold his sister off to the noble Goldenbaum Dynasty. Reinhard gets angry, since he loves his sister. He and his boyfri-Uh I mean best friend go on a journey to acclaim power to get his sister, Annerose back. Now, Reinhard actually has an interesting motivation. He’s set up nicely unlike Yang Wen-Li who is a terrible character throughout the series. The problem is? Once he defeats the Nobles and gets his sister back in the...uh...first fucking season. (God. The villains are actually fodder lol. More on this later.) Instead of looking into how Reinhard plans on making lives better for the Empire? He sees war as a tool for him to gain more and more power. He wants to “seize the universe” after all as he told Kirechis. How is he different from the Nobles then? Sure, he’s made lives better for the people. We don’t see much of it, but the narrator sure does tell us a lot about it. However, Reinhard has murdered and slaughtered millions of people. I could argue more than Yang and he’s completely self aware. He even got brainwashed by Oberstien in one episode where he let millions die just to broadcast it live, so he can frame the nobles. Such a pointless act, he was BEATING them. Why do this? Then Reinhard shits himself when a survivor from that planet he nuked came to rebuke him. Reinhard just stands there in shock. Like? You got yourself convinced by Oberstien and you didn’t see this coming? Lol. He even started trusting Oberstien more than his best friend Kircheis. Then when he died? We get constant reminders of, “If Kircheis was here…” Whatever dude, nobody cares because the series is assuming things would be different if he was still alive. Who knows? It could’ve gone either way, but it gets annoying of the constant reminder of if “this guy was here” because you’re telling me that literally all the characters except a select few are actually useless in this story and can’t make any real change. Sad lol.
Ultimately? Both of them are wrong. Yang who keeps being a soldier and killing people because he follows his ideals in keeping democracy alive and Reinhard who thinks he has to defeat Yang and gain the whole universe. On top of that? This series loves dickriding it’s two protagonists very often. They never experience any real challenge by anyone besides themselves. They are deemed as “majestic” and “perfect” even with their flaws or what little they have. I need to ram this point in but war is not decided by one smart guy who is just better than everyone else, it’s a combined effort where many very smart people put their minds together. This idea that one guy is such a good strategist and everyone else is just a pleb that stands no chance is such a typical anime trope. And people make this anime out to be more than just a typical anime. Which is downright [redacted] because people compare this anime to the fucking “Illad” or “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Like stop, it’s not that deep or profound. They are much better anime in which they do their themes appropriately. Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are examples. Yes, Western Anime Fans online. I know you guys hate these series but I don’t care. These series focus on morality, ideals, and have politics within them too. It’s a lot more fleshed out there, then in this show which is literally a borefest. Gundam also does political stuff better than Galactic Heroes, if you want a “safer” example from me lol.
Now, adding onto this? Let’s talk about the other characters. They are equally as unremarkable as Reinhard and Yang are. Every other character here are basically typical military officers, an empty shell just there to take orders. The only exception are people like Reunthal and Oberstien who have a bit more going for them. However, when it’s time for them to actually do anything in the story? It's the very last season. Yes, I’m aware that all these other characters do get backstories but they aren’t deep or profound. Only Reunthal has a really tragic one. The rest of these guys? They have the most cliched rom-com type backstories for a war setting. Pathetic. I was expecting detailed backstories for these characters in where they went through some kind of personal struggle. After all? This is the best fictional story ever told right? Surely it has to live up to its expectations? Hint: It doesn’t.
That leads us to our villains. The villains are one dimensional, they are not interesting, and are generic as all hell. Reinhard and Yang are not geniuses for beating these guys. Literally any other anime character with a good degree of strategy could take them. They are actually fodder. The Aristocrats that Reinhard faces up against? They are a joke. The military coup that Yang had to go up against? They ended up destroying each other. None of these villains provided any real challenge for our main characters, which is sad because then there’s no obstacle in which they can grow from. That includes the Fezzan dude Rubinsky and the Terrarists. They are literally jokes, there’s not much depth to them besides the fact that they want to control everything and kill our main characters. That’s it.
Like I said before? Reinhard and Yang (to a lesser extent Julian and the Rosen Ritters) are treated as these God Tier opponents that overcome any obstacle within their way. They end up being just typical anime characters. It’s just like DBZ where everyone just takes a backseat while Goku and to a lesser extent Vegeta do all the fighting. Reinhard and Yang are the only ones who can challenge each other. This is very lame because then the entire “morally grey” concept is thrown out of the window since these two characters can literally change the scope of the setting itself by being there at that present moment. On top of that? Everyone is either delusional (Yang and his friends) or no better than the evils before them (Reinhard). So, it’s just a bunch of assholes fighting each other, while even bigger assholes are manipulating them from the shadows.
So, let’s talk about the FPA and Empire itself….
The Free Planets Alliance is supposed to be a “republican democracy”. Okay? So, where is Congress? Judicial Branch? Legislative Branch? Executive Branch? Checks and Balances? Stuff that can check, fine, or even reform the will of the majority? Where is it’s own Electoral College? What even is a “republican democracy”? It’s supposed to be based on French or even American ideals, but neither France or America are “democratic republics”. America is not a democracy, but a Constitutional Federal Republic. I guess it’s based off of France then, which is closer to what they mean by “democratic republic” I guess. However, again it’s missing a lot of the key factors that make these nations what they are. We barely get to see how the FPA functions. I mean, how can we? It’s corrupt after all. There might be a President, but he’s probably corrupt as shit with nobody to check his power. There’s this one scene where all the members are sitting at the round table and are looking at a screen in which they talk about how support for them is falling apart due to how they are handling the war. Then, they all vote on some plan or solution which can better the situation. This is not how any of this works. You learn nothing of civil law. You learn nothing of private and criminal law. You learn absolutely nothing. The FPA is a “democratic republic” but it has nothing in common with any political systems today. It’s all surface level nonsense.
Let’s look at the Empire. Already we have an issue of where it doesn’t know if it’s an Monarchy or an Autocracy. Is it a Monarchy? If so, it’s missing a lot of stuff. A Monarchy is a solemn and covenantal service to God in which the monarch is ultimately subject to the Creator to give an account of his or her stewardship and rule over His people. The greatest monarchs in history are those who were the most effective stewards of the good order, prosperity, and peacefulness of their realms. A Monarch’s reign is to be blessed by God and is focused primarily on his salvation. Reinhard is not this whatsoever. They do not have a religious component at all within this frame, after all this series treats religion rather poorly. Reinhard is also garbage when it comes to politics, hell the series makes note that he isn’t very good at it. That’s why Hilda does most of the work. Reinhard is only good for war, he loves fighting and conquering. He is not a good Monarch, he’s no better than the Goldenbaum dynasty. Now? If it’s an Autocracy? Then, that’ll make more sense, but even so Reinhard should’ve become a lot more flawed because no man would have all that power and not end up becoming corrupt. Look what he did in the last season, he wanted Julain to prove his worth if he wanted to continue Yang’s belief of a “republican democracy”. These characters never get reprimanded at all by other people. They are literally perfect within their narrative.
What this series could’ve done was compare and contrast the concepts of Monarchy vs Republics. As in, compare the strengths and weaknesses of a society in which is backed by a constitution vs one that is backed by the will of God. This series doesn’t do this. I understand this is a Japanese Anime, but it’s no excuse. Other anime have their own literary themes too, in which they explore upon with great depth. This series is supposed to be the greatest in all of anime, yet it does nothing. The author wanted to do something big and grand, but ended up faltering. However, because most anime fans online do not look at politics (much less religion or go outside at all) or understand it? They watch this 80s cartoon that nobody cares about and get manipulated into thinking it’s profound. Terrible.
Battles and the “profound” strategy
So, I'm gonna keep it a buck 50. The battles and “strategy” are awful. The strategy consists of either retreating, encircling the enemy, surrounding them, using a formation, pincer attacks, and battles aren't even 3 dimensional but 2 dimensional. They call the main characters ``geniuses" yet anybody with half a brain cell can see how simple these battles are if they actually watched the show and didn't dickride it. There are only sometimes where the battles become a lot more intelligent, like when they used a black hole or blew up some giant space station that the Empire was planning on using. Otherwise? The battles can be summed up as such. This isn’t Hunter X Hunter or Jojo Bizarre Adventure where you see a whole slew of creative battles. Hell, there’s better fight scenes in Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, or your typical Shonen than this. A lot of it is extremely simple or just filled with plot armor due to main characters being literal Gods.
Editing and Voice Direction:
There’s a lot of great VAs in here. For example, Reinhard’s voice actor is literally Vegeta. If that’s not cool? I don’t know what is. You also have Char Aznable’s VA voicing one of the characters. Now, the problem is that even though you have a lot of great VAs? They sound so dull and souleless. There’s only like one or two scenes where you really felt the emotional weight of some of these characters. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of talking where they sound so robotic. They are even times where characters sound almost robotic, when it comes to explaining military plans or literally ANYTHING else in general. There’s no feeling in the way these characters express themselves, they just sound whack. All this over explaining, exposition dumps, and narrator constantly talking makes watching this anime a chore. I could’ve gotten through 21 episodes of Dragon Ball by the time one of these episodes finished, LOL. In Anime, this should be easy to do but the “greatest anime ever” failed to do something so simple.
The editing is cheeks too. Sometimes when watching the show? The show would cut to different scenes so weirdly. They are times where you’re watching an episode and there’s no real flow to how scenes transition. They are times where a conversation would often switch focus to another event for no reason. I also feel like this show REALLY has its hands full with the constant explaining, even the characters do it. There are times where characters just walk together, sit down in a room drinking shit, and or close ups of their faces where they are just talking about crap all day just to pad out the episode. It’s so grating, lol. They are times where the narrator jumps in at the near end of the episode just to tell you what’s going to happen next. Alright, narrator. Thank you very much. (Sarcasm) It’s like I’m reading a book. Which is sad because this is a cartoon. I’m supposed to be watching something, not watching a documentary on fake history. Gundam does war so much better, I swear.
Animation and Art Style
The characters do not look appealing. They don’t stand out, they all look like average joes. They don’t have any iconic designs like your Luffy or Goku. They aren’t really stylized either, this is just a sorry attempt at making them look like real people. I know what you’re going to say, “What’s the point?” The point is, even for it’s time? It’s unremarkable. Look at Tanka’s other work, “Arslan Senki” right? Those character designs actually look remarkable. (Props to the legendary Yoshitaka Amano). Here? Bland and lame. Characters also look the same too and have the same build. The animation is also poop as well. They largely consist of either still frames of battle ships shooting each other or just these boring props of characters sitting around doing nothing. There’s also the melee combat, which is pretty straightforward in all honesty. It’s nothing impressive, even for it’s time. You had stuff like Gunbuster, which is filled with excellent animation. This? Extremely muted and often entire stretches of dialogue that can last for most of an episode. This is mostly with talking heads sitting on a table and repeating the same crap over and over while the same handful of frames are repeated over and over. (Getting annoyed? Excellent. That’s what this show will do to you.) The show's visuals are awful. Backgrounds are literally a still image with nothing in it and when there ARE people in these frames? They don’t move at all. It’s insulting the medium completely by not being an anime, but some visual documentary for you to read. It’s not entertaining, if it’s not entertaining? It doesn’t deserve it’s 10/10 MAL score nor it's score on Anilist either as being the top rated anime. I feel like people who give this a 10/10 don't actually like the show, they are probably obligated to do it because they don't want to go against the popular opinion.
Sound design and Music
The sound design is alright. You can hear things clearly, but sound effects don’t have that “POW!” factor that other anime have. Sometimes when things explode? You don’t feel that level of power like you do in other shows. It lacks a lot of impact, which makes an anime exciting but this is not an “anime” but a book so…
Anyway, while I do love Classical Music? The music here either sucks or does not belong in this series. Honestly, most of the tracks are forgettable. I literally only like the second opening theme and the fourth. Otherwise? None of the tracks are that memorable to me.
Why this Series fails as a Science Fiction.
Now, I’m not done ragging on this series yet. People like to say that this is the best “space opera” or the best “sci-fi”. No, this is not better than Star Wars. It is not better than Gundam, Macross, Space Battleship Yamato, Cowboy Bebop, Galaxy Express 99, Ideon, Dunbine, Evangelion, and so on and so forth. All these shows I listed actually contribute to the genre of “Sci-Fi” and or “Space Opera''. This? This doesn’t. This novel (Yes, this was originally a novel) was published in 1982. So, 41 years after WW2. WW2 was decided by the following three key technologies: radar, decryption, and nuclear weapons. WW1 and WW2 evolved technological advancements during the time when countries were facing off against one another. Why didn’t something similar happen between the Galactic Empire and the FPA? America was literally industrializing during WW2. Countries were learning new strategies, forming new organizations, and were creating new programs all due to the war effort. None of this happened in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, not one. In Gundam, new robots are constantly being made and new technological advancements are being made/mass produced for the war effort. Gundam is more realistic with its approach towards warfare, than Galactic Heroes is. There was one episode where they still used fucking pidegons as messengers, LOL! If that’s not pathetic? I’m not sure what is. The technology being as advanced as it is here? It sure does not look that way. They are using the same ships over and over. Nothing is getting updated, improved, nor are any new fields of
technology being produced. Terrible.
The battles in this series can be chalked up to Roman Empire styled space battles with Napoleonic Formations. Even then, it’s all surface level because they only manage to capture the very basics of how those people fought back then. On top of that? Remember how Yang dies a ridiculous death? Yeah, the Terraists literally managed to disguise themselves as Empire people and managed to sneak on the ship to shoot him in the leg. This is so ridiculous. You mean to tell me these people have been fighting for so long and none of them have dealt with disguises or people trying to infiltrate their ranks? What kind of future is this? There is no CIA, FBI, or MI6 equivalent? The future is dumb. You barely even get to see how the Terraists try to undermine the war effort. One episode the Terraists or was it Rubinsky and his goons? They were planning something. In short, there was a massive explosion that happened. Many people got killed and I remember Oberstien got gravely injured. How come we did not see the Terraists getting together, formulating their scheme, and then carrying it out? How come we didn’t get to see the villains infiltrate their ranks? Why is information done so poorly in this series? It’s like the series mainly wants to focus on the “philosophy” and “politics'' which literally all suck.
What about AI? Nobody talks about that in this series. What about seeing new WMD’s being developed? This series came out during the Cold War, you’d think they’d highlight that by talking about the significance of that and how it plays a role within politics. The series did have nukes, but how they executed that concept was done so poorly. As I explained above Oberstien wanted to frame the Royals. Duke Braunschweig decided to make an example of the entire planet by launching nuclear missiles at it. The use of nuclear weapons on inhabited worlds had been a taboo since the Thirteen Day War. He overruled his aide, Commodore Ansbach, who had advocated a more selective policy of punishing only the ringleaders of the rebellion. Reinhard wanted to stop it from happening, yet Oberstien told him to let it happen and use it as a propaganda device. Reinhard was WINNING! You didn’t need to sacrifice millions of lives just for this. [redacted]. Oberstien also deliberately lied to him too about the time all of it was going to happen.
We are like...800 years into the future. You mean to tell me that these people don’t have the technology capable of stopping massive nukes? No force fields, no gamma ray bombs, or any creative way to showcase really powerful weaponry? You’re in space, lol. In real war? There’s lots of different tools and weapons that can give you tactical advantages. You have artillery, tanks, airplanes, ships, submarines, mines, spies and a whole lot of other things. In this series, they basically ALL use the same ships, since it is never said that either side has better ships, which all use the same kind of laser to shoot at each other. There are a few rare anomalies but this is supposed to be the “greatest sci fi/anime/fictional piece of work ever. Objectively speaking”, so it should live up to expectations. It doesn’t though. For a world so advanced? They also seem so backwards at the same time. They could have used different ship types, which would have made the battles more interesting, some kind of blockades of supply lines or so many other things.
They also talk about, “muh morale”. “Morale” doesn’t win battles. “Morale” is built and cultivated through the SUCCESS of many battles. Just having it on your own isn’t going to do anything for you, lol. You need to have morale and MANY other things on top of that to make your soldiers fight efficiently in battle.
This series fails as a Sci-Fi. It is downright the worst Sci-Fi I’ve seen. It also disregards Aliens and Supernatural Phenomena too. For an anime? This is very shameful. However, it’s not an anime. It wants to be “deep” and “profound” aka “realistic”. What it ends up being is surface level garbage. People only like the cynical nature this series has because THEY agree with it. If you don’t agree with it? You are alienated from the experience, so it becomes a problem overall for any viewer watching this.
Conclusion:
Legend of the Galactic Sweaty Ball Sacks is not the worst anime ever made, but one of the worst. It is however, the worst Sci-Fi/Space Opera ever made which is still just as insulting because I love Sci-Fi/Space Opera. Normally, I was going to give this a 3 but it’s fanbase is insufferable so I’m giving it a 0. This series has a lame plot, terrible characters, some of the worst animation/art in anime history, and it doesn’t feel like a Japanese series but something else entirely which sucks balls. I watch anime for it being anime, not for it being “unique” and “different”. Just because something is “unique” and “different” that doesn’t make it good, execution matters. A “cliche” is not bad, it all depends on how an author executes said cliche. I don't understand why this series is number 1 on both Anilist and MAL. It is one of the most bland shows in the industry. Oh well, since this gets 10/10 across the board because it “supersedes” the medium? I can assume that most people, even within this very community do not really like anime. The philosophy and war diatribe is also garbage too. The politics are surface level or are just ass. Why am I watching a cartoon, yet I’m treated to literal documentaries of bullshit that nobody cares about?
So, to wrap up my thoughts? This show is visual and literal diarrhea. The show doesn't understand how politics, technology, or even basic human communication works. Some episodes are literally like filler episodes, except they aren't because it's important to the plot. The problem is that the show has a narrator which overexplains things to to the point where you're better off just reading a book. The show doesn't inspire any deep emotion, why would it when it's characters feel like robots or awkward people? This show absolutely blows. It's bland, dry, incompetent, and doesn't grasp it's own themes.
I watched all 110 episodes of this series. That's a lot of time wasted, but I had to do it because it's fans will say that it gets better after 20, 30, 40, or so on and so forth episodes. It doesn't get better, it gets worse and more tiring. So here's what you can do:
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