Of course, it would be very easy to give LotGH hollow praise, given its status as "lofty elitist anime that pretentious people use to impress people on the internet". As such, those contrarian in nature have begun to put it under scrutiny. And for good reason: LotGH is definitely not perfect, as tempting as it might be to pretend otherwise. First and foremost, the series has a beginning that is at best slow, and at worst, drawn-out, tedious, and with awkward execution. It takes 15 episodes for the plot to take a turn for the interesting, and even then, it takes longer still for it to truly become great, slowly climbing an uphill curve of quality.
So thank whichever nonexistent deity you pray to that LotGH is 110 episodes. In a shorter series, that would have been fatal. As poor as the beginning was, it wasn't a waste of time. LotGH has one of the largest casts of characters in all of anime, and takes its time setting up all the characters and plot threads it needs to.
It's especially important that the cast was properly set up, because if I had to name a single defining feature that made LotGH as good as it is, it's the cast. The two most central characters to the plot are Reinhard von Musel, and Yang Wenli, each on opposing sides of the war. The two are well-balanced opposites; where Reinhard is driven in his motive to free his sister from being a concubine of military aristocrats (among later goals which gradually develop), but often forced to questions the methods and choices he takes to achieve his ends. Yang, however, is in the military out of pure financial obligation, and despite his vocal support of democracy, he is often less than invested in the war, taking a more passive and cynical view.
Yang is the closest thing we have to a protagonist proper in LotGH, and from a storytelling perspective, he's a masterstroke. A common (yet misguided) criticism of LotGH is that Yang is there to force the author's opinion on us heavy-handedly, as an author-insert. While it is mostly likely true that Yang states many of the writer's views, this isn't an inherently bad thing unto itself. These views are blended seamlessly into Yang's own characterization; as a history scholar first and foremost, well-versed in the history of war and politics, Yang would be expected to have strong opinions on the subject. His interests and beliefs play out organically over a backdrop of a crumbling democracy.
To use Yang as a voice for the writer's own beliefs would only present a problem if it did not play organically into the story, and if Yang and the Free Planets Alliance were presumed to be, by default, representative of all things good. Not only is this not the case, but Yang himself is the first to establish it - Yang views things in as broad a perspective as he can, and does not believe himself a hero as a result - in the purest, most objective terms, devoid of context, he is nothing more than a mass murderer. Regardless of intent, as a military leader, he is responsible for the deaths of millions (also, he's an alcoholic, so, there's that).
This sense of broad perspective is echoed throughout the series. Characters from long-forgotten subplots re-emerge in ways that force you to rethink the events as you know them. Many characters that were presumed to be one-dimensional are shown to have more going on than the plot would suggest, lives beyond what service they have to the plot. The soldier's grizzly deaths aboard destroyed ships, always seen onscreen, are suddenly shown in all their graphic detail. The peak of this would be in one of the most intelligent examples of world-building and exposition I've witnessed in anime, wherein the history of the series' war is told through a documentary one of the protagonists chose to watch.
It's this perspective of objectivity that makes LotGH's writing shine. For a show as wordy as it is, it isn't all that didactic. The core conflict develops into that of a perfect autocracy versus a corrupt democracy, as while Yang may make a case for democracy, it's by no means stated by the plot that his beliefs are correct.
The supporting cast stands out just as much as the two protagonists, making the tremendous death count of the series all the more affecting. And the dialogue is strong to boot, making the interactions between them both believable and entertaining - several of the best "bromances" in anime are showcased here. Oskar von Reuenthal, one of Reinhard's best commanders, stands out as an exceptionally well-developed character, whose tremendous personal flaws are the driving focus of his character arc.
But perhaps the most surprising thing about LotGH, and something that is not said often enough, is that it is hilarious. Bar none, it has the best comic relief in any normally serious anime, never breaking tone or character in the process.
Besides the aforementioned flaws in its early episodes, LotGH's only major downfall is its low production values, especially in the earlier episodes, resulting in some rather poor animation and artwork. The shows visual design, however, does a good job of compensating for that, both in the military uniforms, the setting, and in particular, making every character in its immense cast look distinct (and impressively, sound distinct). Public domain classical music is also used to save budget, but luckily, it matches the show's design perfectly.
Final Words: LotGH is a heavy investment in time, but with a payoff unlike any other.
Story/Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Animation/Art: 3/10
Music: 8/10
Acting: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
For Fans Of: Monster, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
