The fascinating Legend of the Galactic Heroes lore gets expanded upon in this first Gaiden, with five new arcs narrating events not only preceding the events of the main series but also showcasing the history of the conflict between the Free Planets Alliance and the Empire with an in universe historical war chronicle.

This Gaiden is divided into five arcs: a long arc centered on Yang Wenli conducting historical research and giving insight on his early career and four shorter arcs dedicated to Reinhard and Kircheis and their meteroic rise upon ranks of the Galactic Empire.

The Yang focused arc, named Spiral Labyrinth, is a creative narrative making use of Yang's deep interest in history in order to showcase an intricate murder conspiracy of a brilliant FPA admiral dating decades prior to the events of this series. The arc follows Yang's personal investigation while attending his military duties, interviewing veterans from both the FPA and Empire alike while slowly unraveling the life stories of admiral Bruce Ashbey and his talented peers. We get to know Yang better during this journey, while also encountering the familiar faces of his old friend and future allies. While Yang's character does not undergo much development during this series, his strong opinions and frequent introspections are as frequent as in the main series. Only giving a glimpse of Yang's talent as an strategist (a recollection of the events of the El Facil evacuation is in the series), Spiral Labyrinth manages to introduce him as a character, giving more basis to his ideals as seen on the main series.

The four arcs centered on Reinhard narrate some of his earliest assignments (The Mutineer and The Retrieval), a personal quarry (The Duelist) and one of his first missions as a Vice Admiral (The Third Tiamat Battle). Being on the shorter side, these fairly interesting stories show Reinhard's unmatched leadership skills even as a prodigious teen. While his talents are acknowledged, Reinhard's somehow volatile and prideful personality also comes to light, causing clashes with his older and incompetent superiors while gaining the trust and respect of talented younger personnel. Though no major events occur during these stories, some important developments prior to the main series also take place such as the first usage of directional Seffle particles and the first clash with a dangerous foe of Annerose.

On a technical aspect, due to this being the last animated work related to the OVA adaptation, the animation was almost completely made with early digital technology, making some of the character designs look slightly different from the traditional animated OVA. While the characters are expressive and retain their unique feature, the animation is definitely far more unpolished than the OVA and the other Gaiden series. With all of the wonderful original voice cast returning, Yang Wenli's second VA does a great job at emulating his paused speech and vocal quirks, a big improvement from his cameo in the other Gaiden series. On the sound and music aspect, the opening Story of Time by Akemi is a beautiful song fitting for these story arcs, the different ending themes sung by Kei Ogura are a wonderful surprise for OVA viewers.

Overall, this Gaiden series is a nice add-on to the main series. While the Spiral Labyrinth arc surpasses the other four in quality due to its longer length and plot, the series as a whole is very entertaining with well thought lore and storylines. I would definitely recommend both Gaiden series to every LoGH fan.