Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu

The 150-year-long stalemate between the two interstellar superpowers, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, comes to an end when a new generation of leaders arises: the idealistic military genius Reinhard von Lohengramm, and the FPA's reserved historian, Yang Wenli.

While Reinhard climbs the ranks of the Empire with the aid of his childhood friend, Siegfried Kircheis, he must fight not only the war, but also the remnants of the crumbling Goldenbaum Dynasty in order to free his sister from the Kaiser and unify humanity under one genuine ruler. Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, Yang—a strong supporter of democratic ideals—has to stand firm in his beliefs, despite the struggles of the FPA, and show his pupil, Julian Mintz, that autocracy is not the solution.

As ideologies clash amidst the war's many casualties, the two strategic masterminds must ask themselves what the real reason behind their battle is.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yang, Wen-li Main

Tomiyama, Kei Japanese

von Lohengramm, Reinhard Main

Horikawa, Ryo Japanese

von Reuenthal, Oskar Main

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

von Oberstein, Paul Main

Shiozawa, Kaneto Japanese

Kircheis, Siegfried Main

Hironaka, Masashi Japanese

von Schönkopf, Walter Main

Hazama, Michio Japanese

Mittermeyer, Wolfgang Main

Mori, Katsuji Japanese

von Mariendorf, Hildegard Main

Katsuki, Masako Japanese

Minci, Julian Main

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Attenborough, Dusty Main

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Yokoo, Michio Producer

Suzuki, Youji Producer

Nagayama, Kuniaki Producer

Mikami, Tetsuo Producer

Reviews

Nov 8, 2025

HERMIT_PAIMON

Recommended

"A lost piece of art "
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of the most ambitious works I've seen after battleship yamato in terms of decisive politics and hunger to improve itself . The most negative point of this show is most positive for me , people usually criticize or drop this in initial phases due to complain of slow pacing .

In my my opinion slow paced shows with 100+ eps are perfect, they allow the plot to mature naturally .Events rarely unfold in a single episode. Some barely move the plot, and focus on building characters and the universe. There's no immediate ... pay-off, and you might be underwhelmed by the time the wheels start rolling.

This is also a very accurate adaptation, which follows the original story almost word for word.
Fitiing for a story of such grand scope, there are hundreds of characters in this anime. Soldiers, politicians, diplomats, merchants, average civilians - you name it. The amount of characters, storylines and intrigues is huge, similar to mahabharata . Despite having so many characters, the overwhelming majority of the main cast is very likeable, well written, sympathetic or charismatic . It's impressive how this story manages to successfully combine the grand and epic storyline of the ongoing galactic war with the interesting personal conflicts of the main cast, including many charming, well written and memorable interactions between them.

This is a shame that it's not well known outside the vetran and retro anime pros in anime world . This is my 2nd rewatch in a while . Highly recommended .

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by HERMIT_PAIMON (72)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 24, 2025

notweebo

Mixed Feelings

This show is undoubtedly a masterpiece in its own way, its rich in character building, world building, plot, and so much more, there's quite a lot going on here, and its honestly on a whole different scale then many other shows avant grande style, buuttt, it has somewhat of a unique problem in that it starts off really strong, but degenerates into just plot. Like by episode 80 and especially 90 the show is such a drag, its just plot battles and plot intrigue and the animators appear to not know how to create suspense and tension any more, and it ends out as super ... boring. Like this show is so weird in that it excels in many of the areas most shows are weak in and has the makings of something remarkable, its quite amazing at the beginning to, but that its a little unwatchable because of just how untensioned it becomes.
Overall:
Plot is peak 10/10
characters are complex with a variety of different emotions and perspectives that tear at them and are quite relatable and understandable 9/10
sound is aight
graphics are kinda bad but its from the 1980/90s so idk what one expects.
Theres quite a lot of other stuff that's either aight or good like editing or design, what really kills this is lack of tension and it fails to keep the same quality all the way through. If you watch, be prepared for a long haul

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by notweebo (5)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 27, 2024

Golui

Not Recommended

I have never written a review, but this anime just blew me away so much, I think it's finally time.

This review was slightly revised on July 28th, 2024 to be a little more coherent. The original review was posted on June 15th, 2021.

TL;DR It was bad.

It was in fact so bad, it almost cured my crippling anime addiction.

I, like many others, was drawn to this anime due to its high rating, and equally high praise. I was in the mood for something a bit more serious, with clever writing, smart characters, political intrigues, and conspiracies. I was disappointed in every aspect.

Obligatory "no, it did not ... get better after 20/60/109 episodes".

At the risk of beating a dead horse, the first sign that something is off was that the battles in 3D space were, in terms of tactics, in 2D (save for maybe one or two). Now, sure, it would be hard to write and show these to the reader/audience - but if it that's the case, do not write your epic in a space setting. From what I understand, the series is a nod to Napoleonic wars and strategies, but in my mind, that is no excuse. Heck, I would even ignore it had it not been for the fact that "Oh no, we are surrounded!" is usually a major turning point in the battles, and then the audience can clearly see that if the losing party just went up, or down if feeling a little adventurous, they would easily be able to retreat.

This show is a shining example of famous doctrine of "tell, not show". To be fair, there is a part of me that enjoyed the report-like summaries from the narrator, but I feel that these were overused. There also seems to be an issue with the show runners misunderstanding what "foreshadowing" is. Hint: It is not foreshadowing when the narrator blatantly tells us a fact in an ominous manner, as he tends to do at the end of every second episode. In short, I have some mixed feelings about that part.

Some light spoilers follow.

Then, there were the Replicants. I mean, the Alliance. Long story short, at one point in the story they get defeated multiple times, lose a majority of their units, are left with measly numbers, but keep engaging the Empire and _winning_. This seems ridiculous, as it seems they always have the exact same number of ships left as they had a few battles ago, but we also are told that they have no means of getting new units. Full disclosure, I haven't done the math on that - frankly, because I don't think it's worth my, or anyone's time.

But the Empire is not problem free either. My major issues are with the senior staff of, who are mostly a bunch of half-wits, or reasonable people who become half-wits, because plot advancement, I guess. Probably the only character I looked up to was Mittermeyer, who actually was came off as mostly reasonable, with logic that I could follow, decent advice, and a heart of gold (mostly). Some of the major offenders in the idiot department include Bittenfeld and Reuenthal (but only in the latter part of the series). Then there's Oberstein. I disliked him initially, which was the point, I suppose. But then, I started seeing his value and believed his counsel was needed. But when I thought about it some more, I realised that Oberstein's character makes no sense. He is portrayed as being a cold-hearted pragmatist trickster, willing to use any means necessary to achieve whatever he thinks needs to be done. But the problem here is he takes it to the extreme. No compromises whatsoever. Oberstein is implied to be very smart and, being a trickster and manipulator, familiar with human psychology. As such, he should be able to comprehend that his cutthroat approach will only alienate other officers, and thus hinder the efficiency of the army. And yet, for some reason, he tends to wear this as a badge of honor. Having that one jerk-who-is-always-right is perfectly fine, but not when their jerkiness is in direct opposition to what they are trying to achieve when portrayed as smart to be trivially be able to recognise that their outward behaviour actively hinders their schemes.

My final gripe is with Reinhard. At first, he is an in-universe tactical mastermind. A prodigy, a genius. But then, for no reason, he suddenly isn't? It's not even that he stopped taking active part in battles - he is on the battlefield essentially every chance he gets. He just asks the people around him for advice, and then says "Indeed, please do that". I guess, yes, that _is_ what the senior officers are on the bridge for, but we get no insight into his own thought process - he just parrots his advisors' orders to the fleet. No matter how absurd.

To conclude, it goes without saying that I did not enjoy this series. There were moments when I had hope and thought to myself "Is this finally when it gets better?" only to be disappointed.

Do yourself a favour, and go watch something else.

Micro update:

I still get flashbacks when I randomly stumble upon anything related to this anime. It's been over 3 years since I watched it and my opinion of it still has not improved after "aging" in my mind. The unfortunate part? I still remember most of the plot. It just stays with you, for better or for worse.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Golui (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Before the Year 2000

by TheRiseofAnime

47 Entries · 46 Restacks

Essential & Elite Anime

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 1.4K Restacks

Every Anime Rated #1 on MAL

by hesienbob69

30 Entries · 3 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for August

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for August Week 1: August 7 - August 13 Anime releases Black Clover Part 1 Blu-ray & DVD Combo Digimon Adv...read more

Aug 6, 2018 2:33 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (0 comments)

NHK Announces Best 100 Anime

To commemorate one hundred years of Japanese anime history, NHK has announced a list of 100 Best Anime on Wednesday at NHK BS Premium. The list is based on the audi...read more

May 3, 2017 7:07 AM by tsubasalover | Discuss (547 comments)

	Poll: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) tainteddonut - May 28, 2008	283 replies	by Chevycheb »» Dec 3, 5:05 PM
	Poll: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 32 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tainteddonut - May 29, 2008	56 replies	by Safrichh »» Nov 29, 7:52 PM
	Poll: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 54 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tainteddonut - May 30, 2008	145 replies	by Sweetcat431 »» Nov 22, 7:09 PM
	Poll: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 51 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tainteddonut - May 30, 2008	122 replies	by DavidMahomes2014 »» Nov 22, 12:20 AM
	Poll: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 64 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tainteddonut - May 31, 2008	60 replies	by Junothree »» Nov 20, 2:23 AM

Top 13 Best Military/War Anime of All Time

Unsurprisingly, many of the more 'epic' anime out there feature fictional military organisations, but so do some lighthearted comedies. This list has a little something for everyone.

by NicWat10

799,074 views

CollectionAction

Top 16 Best Space Anime of All Time [Updated]

We all enjoy looking up at the night sky, and watching the stars. And quite often we wonder what exactly is going on...out there in deep space. Fortunately, there's a ton of excellent space anime which will clue us in and make our imaginations run wild!

by MisterD98

527,596 views

Collection