Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Gaiden: Ougon no Tsubasa

The Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance have been locked in a seemingly endless war for more than a century and a half. In the Empire, a young Siegfried Kircheis meets Reinhard von Müsel and his older sister Annerose. Kircheis enjoys a happy friendship with the two beautiful blonde-haired siblings until the day that their alcoholic father, a lesser nobleman with low standing, accepts a request for Annerose to be sold as a concubine to the Kaiser. Although enraged, Reinhard is powerless to stop the whims of the Imperial Court. He and his father soon move away, leaving Kircheis behind.

A few years later, Reinhard returns in a military uniform and declares his intent to rise through the ranks and free his sister from sexual servitude. Kircheis joins Reinhard on this daring journey to save Annerose, yearning to forever stay by the side of his friends.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

von Lohengramm, Reinhard Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Kircheis, Siegfried Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Yang, Wen-li Supporting

Hara, Yasuyoshi Japanese

Attenborough, Dusty Supporting

Yokobori, Etsuo Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

von Grünewald, Annerose Supporting

Murata, Hiromi Japanese

von Beenemünde, Sussanna Supporting

Tsuru, Hiromi Japanese

von Krumbach, Gregor Supporting

von Müsel, Sebastian Supporting

Shimizu, Keizou Director

Aketagawa, Susumu Sound Director

Ueda, Yoshihiro Episode Director

Takizawa, Toshifumi Storyboard

Reviews

Jul 31, 2022

WdaCdaShdaDid

Recommended

I honestly really enjoyed this, though I didn't grow up with this series and so have no nostalgia glasses for it. If you like Reinhard and Kircheis' relationship, I would highly recommend you not skip this, as I see a lot of people suggest. It's not the best film there is, and the writing is often quite bad, but it's really a treat for their relationship in particular.

The writing is quite bad in a number of places. It's predictable, too. But honestly, the character interactions were the more compelling aspect, so I didn't mind.

I watched this after watching the first film and some of the ... first animated series, so I was familiar with the characters and had already seen versions of scenes included in the story. One of the scenes I saw before starting this was when Reinhard and Kircheis meet for the first time in the first anime, so it was quite fascinating to see a more recent version of the same scene. Although there honestly are animation updates that are pretty neat (the development of our understanding of how technology would advance, for instance, and how to represent that on screen), the art isn't that good in a number of places - faces in particular sometimes melt in odd ways - but the art style was by and large fine? The biggest issue I took with the changed art was the redesign of Iserlohn to just outright look like the Death Star, rather than the neat liquid metal sphere it is in the anime and other films. But outside that, the art emphasized Kircheis' gay panic a lot more than the series did, and it gave people seatbelts in the ships, so I think it's doing fine on the whole.

Yes, it was weird how many characters had odd face changes in this. I read that this is similar to the manga style, which might be part of the issue. And for better or worse, most of the story focuses on Reinhard and Kircheis anyway, so at least you don't have to be bothered too much by how strangely different Yang Wenli and Dusty look here.

The sound wasn't all that remarkable. I've played in orchestras for most of my life, so yes, I appreciate the neat usage of famous pieces in the anime series. But it wasn't exactly a compelling draw for me, so its absence here wasn't that big of a deal.

The film is basically "Reinhard can't keep his hands off Kircheis", and it's lovely. If you wanted a story where that happened, and where you see the depth of Kircheis' love of Reinhard (and vice versa) on display, this is for you. People have commented this is like fanfiction, and as usual, I don't think that's a criticism, at least in my book. It IS like fanfiction, and it's a nice treat for people who are fine with that. I had fun, I laughed. Maybe if you're a diehard fan of the series this really sucks, but if you just like shippy stuff, platonic or otherwise, this is great.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 18, 2023

Cayusashi

Mixed Feelings

For such a phenomenal series, this movie is a rather disappointing story albeit not terrible. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Golden Wings is shallow and missing what I love most about the series: political commentary with substance.

Chronologically the first event in the timeline, Golden Wings remastered the backstory of Reinhard and Kircheis along side adding context to how they proved their genius on the galactic battlefield. The first act is essentially a reanimated version of an episode with the other two acts continuing where the show did not without the same level of detail. We see Reinhard and Kircheis earning the respect of the troops ... they command, but this is the most depth to the story. The main antagonist is a guy hired by a completely irrelevant single episode antagonist from the first season, in the process missing an opportunity to flesh out anybody relevant to Reinhard's story. The storytelling is lazy and cheap. It feels like something made to tide over fans until season three of the show was released. The end is trying to use impactful dramatic irony since we know what happens at the end of season one, and I didn't appreciate it being so on the nose. I wanted the movie to tread new ground in terms of character development for both Reinhard and Kircheis, but we get nothing. The movie also forgets the most important part of the original series (to me): political commentary. Golden Wings chooses the familiar in a backstory you've seen if you're watching in release order instead of exploring different avenues of the two men's relationship.

If you couldn't tell, Reinhard and Kircheis are the only two people who matter. Reinhard is significantly more affectionate to Kircheis than usual, taking many chances to play with his hair unprompted. The romantic undertones are present between the two in the original series, but Golden Wings makes a point to signal the homosexual tension between the two in the most obvious way. Yang is almost completely absent, appearing only three insignificant scenes with a jarring new voice actor. No other familiar characters made an appearance. Reuenthal, Mittermeyer, and Oberstein are all absent without even a mention despite their importance to the overall story. It makes sense to cut out characters for new viewers, but I think Golden Wings makes too many cuts and doesn't have the original characters to make up for it.

The animation is clearly an improvement over the original series, but has a sort of uncanny valley feel to it. These are clearly familiar characters and places to anybody who's watching in release order, but there's something off about it. Reinhard and Kircheis don't look like younger versions of themselves, but are clearly children and being portrayed as such visually. Yang looks almost completely different to the point where I didn't recognize him at first. It's easy to tell the movie is leaning into the developing 90s animation style, but it wasn't quite adapted right for Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

The music is exactly what I expected out of the franchise. Classical symphonies perfectly executed for the space epic. I would have liked some more memorable tunes, however. The only song to stand out was the one during the credits. It was a melancholic representation of how Reinhard likely thinks back on these memories.

This movie was essentially three mediocre episodes of the anime. Starting this franchise with Golden Wings is like easing yourself in through the kiddie pool. It's nothing more than an introduction to the two (admittedly most interesting) characters without any real substance in terms of new content. Does this make it a bad movie or even a bad place to start the franchise? No, but the pool gets a lot deeper from here.

Plot: 6.5/10
Characters: 6/10
Art: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Enjoyment: 5.5/10
Overall: 6.6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 24, 2020

Lost_Viking

Not Recommended

The majority of people are going to be watching Golden Wings after seeing the main series of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. As one of those people, Golden Wings was painful to watch.

Where do I begin?:
-Dusty Attenborough and Yang Wenli look nothing like their characters from the original series, and Yang's voice actor and personality are even radically different
-On some of the Imperial characters, the uniforms look so different that you'd think they're Alliance uniforms at a glance
-There's barely any storyline perspective of the Alliance
-There's barely any interesting storyline at all save for what we already know from LoGH
-The music is mediocre at best compared ... to LoGH

If you've never seen LoGH this might be OK, but if you have stay away from this disappointment of a movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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