Jun 15, 2021
I have never written a review, but this anime just blew me away so much, I think it's finally time.
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 2D. 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. 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.
This show seems to practice the famous doctrine of "tell, not show". There also seems to be an issue with the show runners misunderstanding what "foreshadowing" is. Hint: It is not when the narrator blatantly tells us a fact in an ominous manner, as he tends to do at the end of every second episode.
Then, there were the Replicants. Oh I'm sorry, I mean the Alliance. Long story short, at one point in the story they get defeated multiple times, left with measly numbers, and 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 know 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.
The senior staff of the empire are mostly a bunch of half-wits. Probably the only character I looked up to was Mittermeyer, who actually was mostly reasonable. Some of the major offenders in the idiot department include Bittenfeld and Reuenthal (in the latter part of the series). Oberstein's character also makes no sense. He is portrayed as being a cold-hearted pragmatist. 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 too smart not to know that his approach will hinder the efficiency of the army. What is more, he knows full well that it will earn him resentment from other senior officers, yet for some reason, he tends to wear this as a badge of honor.
My final gripe is with Reinhard. At first, he is an in-universe tactical mastermind. But then, for no reason, he suddenly isn't? It's not even that he stopped taking active part in battles. He just asks the people around him for advice, and then says "Indeed, please do that". No mention of his own thought process - he just parrots his advisors' orders to the fleet.
To conclude, I did not like this series. There were moments when I had hope and thought to myself "Is this finally when it gets better?" only to be disappointed.
Go watch something else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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