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

Feb 14, 2009

Beatnik

Recommended

Golden Wings is a slight misstep in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes franchise, not enough to stumble on its face but not enough to style it out by whistling innocently and pretending it didn’t almost trip over.

It’s best to watch this movie after episode 54 of the LotGH OVA, as this movie was released after that and before episode 55. The story is set before the OVA, but after watching 54 episodes of Reinhard ascend through the ranks of the military and getting comfortable with his acquaintance, you can get the most satisfaction out of Golden Wings in seeing him ascend through the ... ranks of military school and learn how he matured into an adult.

All the characters from the OVA are near unrecognisable in their new incarnations in this movie. It’s the first thing to hit you if you've been watching the OVA for a while. They lose the handsome character designs and replace them with foppish haircuts, wide anime eyes and voice actors that don’t match their characters, Yang Wen-li especially. It’s pretty jarring and serves as a barrier between the two experiences, with only the thematic narrative tying the two anime together neatly for the viewer.

The movie is a spotlight on Reinhard and Kircheis. The first twenty minutes don’t tell you anything you don’t already know if you've seen the OVA, but after they graduate from military school the plot picks up and shows us their friendship getting them through tight scrapes in the beginning of their military careers.

Yet even with that encouraging premise, the movie as a whole is a big step down from the OVA in nearly every department involved, from art, direction, but most importantly, in story. Yes we get a nice background on two beloved characters of the LotGH universe, but generally this movie is directed in a very sluggish, bland and hand-holding way with a script exactly the same. The OVA by comparison is bold, assured, confident, intelligent and doesn’t hang around for you to keep up, it’s too busy being awesome.

Golden Wings is too busy trying to hook a completely different viewership, one that will be sorely disappointed when they check out the OVA and are hit in the face with masterful direction and sublime script, and not five minute montages of Reinhard and Kircheis running around as kids without uttering a word, just laughing like lunatics on crack.

Ok, there's only one five minute montage of lunatic kids on crack. The latter half of the movie has a decent enough plot that manages to tie an Alliance attack on the Death St-, uh Iselhorn fortress; and Reinhard's life at risk by imperial grouches. It culminates in a reaffirmation of one of anime’s greatest friendships and a pretty cool death scene for an obligatory bad guy.

Getting in the way of Reinhard and Kircheis’s friendship will cost you your life, don’t forget that. They used to be crack-dealing hyena-laughing junkie kids back in the day didn’t you know?

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 11, 2012

ggultra2764

Mixed Feelings

Whoever was involved in making this movie within the Legend of the Galactic Heroes franchise made something that is quite the far cry from the quality writing and presentation one would expect from the franchise. Golden Wings' presentation is significantly different from other chapters of the LoGH franchise sporting a far different drawing style, new voice actors in the roles of the show's prominent characters, taking away the title's famous orchestral music scores for generic dramatic pieces and dumbing down the writing of the series to the point where this movie gets in the annoying habit of rubbing in your face the ordeals faced by ... Reinhard and Kircheis. The last mentioned issue was one that really irked me as other titles within LoGH are well known for their intelligent writing that explores the complex motivations of the show's various characters and factions, while Golden Wings doesn't seem to trust the audience to come to their own conclusions with how the characters go about with their activities throughout the movie.

As for this movie's plot, it is mostly focused on establishing the bond with Kircheis and Reinhard with the first third of the movie showing how they met and joined the military to rise in power while later parts feature the two involved in a battle at Iserlohn Fortress with Alliance forces and getting by against Imperial assassins from a grouchy concubine of the king who is simply jealous of Reinhard's sister getting the king's attention. Details from the first third of the movie are likely those you would have already seen from the OVA series and while the Iserlohn Fortress battle is a decent enough plot, it still reeks of the annoying hand-holding that Golden Wings' writing has with exploring the difficulties faced by Reinhard and Kircheis through their rise in the ranks of the Empire's military.

While Golden Wings isn't a bad movie per say, it lacks the sophistication and intelligence that is given to other titles within the LoGH franchise as the movie is too radically different in presentation and writing to be admired by the franchise's fans. If you really want to see the challenges faced by Reinhard and Kircheis in their early military years, you would be better off checking out the two LOGH Gaiden OVA titles.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 12, 2015

Abby-

Not Recommended

Okay, this definitely won't be an objective review, but at the very least I'll try to make it descriptive and hopefully understandable, even for people who disagree with me. There's not really any need for another review of this, I just really feel like putting my negative thoughts about this movie into words.

As I said, this won't be objective, and it's coming from the perspective of a fan of the main series, and my criticisms are intended to be read by other fans of the series (after all, I don't see why anyone else would watch this). On its own, this movie might have been ... "okay", nothing great, but really nothing worth getting worked up over. But since it's so heavily associated with the established characters and plot line of what is my favorite anime, I can't help but find it frustrating to watch.


First of all there's the art style. Most of the characters get a jarring facelift that leaves them unrecognizable from their original iteration. For a new viewer who isn't familiar with the original art style, it might not be quite as irritating, but nevertheless it is a step down in terms of sheer quality, and definitely looks rather ugly. I was in pain when I saw Yang's appearance, but enough of that. I could complain about the visual design all day.


The art is a superficial issue that can be overlooked as long as the story and writing is up to par, right? Well it's not! A battle between the Empire and the Alliance that takes place at Iserlohn Fortress serves as a backdrop for most of the story. Well this is a good start. Are you looking forward to those interesting moments of juxtaposition, where the perspective shifts back and forth between the Empire and the Alliance as the battle develops? Well too bad. Any perspective from the Alliance side is rare and shallow. What about the complex military strategies and plans, laid out by the most intelligent commanders of the fleet? "Wait, what's strategy again?", the studio who made this asks.

In fact, the battle barely gets any special emphasis at all. It never makes any effort to explain why the battle is important, or why you should care about it within the confines of this story. Instead, the real focus of conflict comes from the most generic, uninteresting, and cartoony villain that's ever been in the series. "Such impudence!" and "How rude of you!" were his most memorable quotes. Also he looks stupid.


Really, the most annoying thing about this movie was how pretentious it felt. It was trying to imitate what made the OVA so good, and hoped that if it just echoed a few things without putting much thought into it no one would notice.

The most grating example which made me realize this was when Yang, who could hardly be called Yang due to the fact that his face and voice is entirely different, at one point says "Even though I think wars are pointless, I end up thinking of ways of winning them." Wow! That sure was precise of you, Yang! It's almost like the creators didn't know how to write dialogue for you and just made you state the most fundamental aspect of your character out of nowhere...


In summary, this feels like fan fiction. It completely misses the point of LoGH in almost every respect. Even though it has just about everything you'd expect: Reinhard and Kircheis bromance, large-scale space battles, and even some intrigue, it's all executed with no spirit or finesse, with a complete disregard for what makes those things worthwhile in this series. Reinhard's unrecognizable face serves as a good metaphor for this movie: You're -told- that he's Reinhard, and you see a slight resemblance at first, but in the end he's just an unidentifiable mutant masquerading as someone you once knew.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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