Youjo Senki

Tanya Degurechaff is a young soldier infamous for predatorial-like ruthlessness and an uncanny, tactical aptitude, earning her the nickname of the "Devil of the Rhine." Underneath her innocuous appearance, however, lies the soul of a man who challenged Being X, the self-proclaimed God, to a battle of wits—which resulted in him being reincarnated as a little girl into a world of magical warfare. Hellbent on defiance, Tanya resolves to ascend the ranks of her country's military as it slowly plunges into world war, with only Being X proving to be the strongest obstacle in recreating the peaceful life she once knew. But her perceptive actions and combat initiative have an unintended side effect: propelling the mighty Empire into becoming one of the most powerful nations in mankind's history.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Degurechaff, Tanya Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Serebryakova, Viktoriya Ivanovna Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

von Zettour, Hans Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

von Lergen, Erich Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Sioux, Mary Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

von Rudersdorf, Kurt Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Weiss, Matheus Johann Supporting

Hamano, Daiki Japanese

Existence X Supporting

Tezuka, Hideaki Japanese

von Schugel, Adelheid Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Sioux, Anson Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Kikushima, Kazufumi Producer

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Reviews

Oct 3, 2023

RESOLVING_POWER

Recommended

I watched Youjo Senki, also known as Saga of Tanya the Evil. I watched the first season, the OVA, and the movie. At the time of writing, Season 2 has not yet aired. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is about a salaryman who gets reincarnated in pseudo-WW1 Europe as a young orphan girl (Tanya) while retaining their original personality. Tanya has an aptitude for magic and joins the military as an officer in the mage unit. Tanya is sort of an 'anti-hero' main character in the sense that they are highly self-interested and morally ambiguous.

The action scenes in Youjo Senki look good and have detailed ... fight choreography along with nice sound effects. The audio production quality of this is what I'd expect from a movie – it's pretty nice. In fact, Youjo Senki overall has movie-like production quality. The visuals are a strong point – the setting in particular looks fantastic. The European landscape often looks amazing. Furthermore, the architecture and interior decor feels authentic for the time period and is consistently meticulous and vividly detailed. I could tell there was a lot of attention to detail put into how the setting is depicted. One of my favourite things about this anime was admiring the intricate interior design of each room, and the cinematography does a good job of displaying it! Additionally, the character animation is fluid and well done too, including facial expressions. There is also lots of variety among the character designs, making each member of the large cast distinctive and easy to discern. The visuals of Youjo Senki are excellent.

Although the premise of this show is neat, I found the actual episode-by-episode story underwhelming and very predictable. Speaking more generally, although I found Youjo Senki entertaining, I never found it suspenseful or exciting, which seems like a shortcoming for a violent action-heavy show set in a war zone. The protagonist plot armour is blatantly indestructible, and the stakes never feel high as a result. It is a fun easy-to-watch show though. Despite the war theme, this anime feels best suited for casual viewing – it never feels all that serious. This isn't Saving Private Ryan; it's just a silly isekai anime and you should set your expectations accordingly.

Tanya's VA does an excellent job and is very unique and memorable. Her voicework really enhances this show and deserves a lot of praise. The voices for the various military officers fit their roles well too. The OST seems well produced – it is mostly military themed; it could have had a little more personality I think. Conversely, the ED song sung by Tanya's VA oozes personality (Aoi Yuuki is super talented).


My overall rating: 7/10
Youjo Senki is fun and entertaining, but it is also predictable and lacks suspense. I didn't find the story interesting or engaging at all. However, the production quality is consistently movie-like and the action scenes are well done. The early-20th-century European setting often looks excellent and quite detailed, both indoors and outdoors. Tanya's VA does a memorably terrific job and adds a lot of personality to the anime. The audiovisuals of Youjo Senki are great in many respects.

For anyone fond of the early-1900s European setting, Youjo Senki is worth checking out. Even if you don't like how silly the story is, the setting really does look terrific. I would also recommend this to action fans because the fight scenes are quite captivating. If you're looking for a solid cinematic experience, Youjo Senki can provide that.

Youjo Senki reminded me a lot of Shuumatsu no Izetta, which is another anime that involves flying magic users fighting in WW-era Europe. I liked both these anime but for different reasons; Youjo Senki is more playful and has better visuals and action scenes, whereas Shuumatsu no Izetta is more dramatic and has lots of cute memorable yuri romance.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 4, 2023

Boo-U-

Mixed Feelings

Although Tanya has a interesting new take to isekia anime where it more civil rights war like ear I thought was very interesting right off the bat and no to mention the mc is a little girl, it is lacking in plot and just focuses on war. I understand Tanya existence is supposed to be a big f u to the being x and to live a comfortable life later on but that's what it really comes down to. Sure some antagonist is thrown in later on but that's how it feels, Just tossed in for the sake of it. Where ... supposed to be rotting for him too apparently because he has a family. That's the only reason they give to us to root for him. :T
The Magic in the anime is kind of what's keeping the anime interesting in my opinion because magic like that where they incorporate a gun and flying before and it was favorable.
Animations is well done and its clear they stick to a dark pallete of colors to represent the dark a deadness of war and the state of the environment so that was always a tell to keep the certain atmospheric vibe they were going for.
Not much else to talk about other than the cast of characters are kind of bland expect of course Visha her second hand but that's the only memorable one.
There should've been more to it other than being x being annoying and Tanya arguing with him.

If you're looking for a civil war era like anime with magic incorporated then this anime is definitely for you especially again if you mainly like war. Also some cute girls to make it a bit better for this anime would be good to watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 24, 2024

Hazamelis

Not Recommended

Okay so here my thoughts on the anime in general. When I was recommended this anime I was intrigued by name Tanya of Evil, I thought we would get someone with a lot of blood-lust and someone who would do anything to achieve her status of power, I knew it was an isekai and I was willing to put up with the whole "loli" aspect of the character if it had a compelling narrative, but it seems that the title itself is not really accurate, it is only a localization blunder, and her character is actually more strategical than plain evil. The crazy bits of ... her character seem to be exaggerated either by the anime or the story itself put it is clear is just smoke and mirrors to make the protagonist more "fun" than what she actually is. Overall, this is what I have seen:

- The character is put in a situation where they lack the social advantages to advance, this would have been interesting to see, but they were given enough magical power to make them competent.
- There is no clear reason as to why Tanya has to fight so early in her childhood, she just says that its her only choice, but no sense of urgency is given to let the army join her so soon.
- Considering that the character went through a full reincarnation, it would be fair to say that her brain is starting to develop again, nevertheless this doesn't show and Tanya is given a logical, reason focused thinking when it comes to battle and strategic planning. She is shown having some breakdowns, but it is never a plot that is followed up, another aspect of the issues her new body would give her that is not followed upon.
- Her strength and stamina seem to be the same as an adult's, sure, they use magic and guns most of the time, but she is seen kicking, pushing and even hurting people with no physical problems, another issues of her body that is not followed upon.
- Never she is seen to be not taken seriously because of her age or gender, aside two or three mentions of concern of sending a child to a war. Not followed upon.
- While the story focuses in the battle and war tactics, reading the commentaries of episodes before it seems that the strategical thinking is heavily reduced in the anime. More than that, having only one side with an ace up their sleeve comes as rather boring since there is no competent adversary for the enemy to fight. I have been watching other war focused anime like Legend of the Galatic Heroes, where we see the fighting from two sides, which makes the strategical thinking of war a lot more interesting with the two sides trying to outsmart each other.
- Most of the battle and war focused thinking seems to be focused in repeat or reenact previous world war battles verbatim. The people who are into these historical subjects might enjoy the references and see the events re-enacted over with the new characters, but little is given for the people who are not in the subject at all.
- While I have enjoyed explaining the reincarnation side as a result of making God angry, his role seems to be rather to active in the story, appearing several times in the anime, which I find rather conflicting since it feels he might be interfering too much in the protagonist's world.
- The magic system is not interesting, it is only a way for the writers to make the battles go whatever they want without little effort.
- While making the protagonist an atheist is interesting, I feel that the duality of believing in God or praying to God as an almighty being could be clarified further or explored more with its implications since this is the basis for the story overall. The protagonists knows there is a being that can mess up her life, a being that can reincarnate her and make her suffer, so it seems unwise to make him angry, this could have worked if Being X didn't appear so frequently in the story since it could have put doubt in Tanya's mind about his existence and the memories she has.
- None of the characters aside from Tanya and Erich are actually interesting.

So overall we have, no blood lust protagonist, no actually interesting strategical battles, no rise from the bottom of the social chain protagonist, no social hurdles, no physical hurdles, no psychological hurdles, nothing really to latch ourselves upon. Yes, I have seen some interesting stuff, like how Erich seems to think and react towards Tanya, or how she is starting to get angry at the chain of command and God herself, which could lay upon a path for a slightly more interesting narrative when we stop reenacting real life events (those episodes were really boring) and the anger of the protagonist comes more into light. The only thing we have is a slightly fun character that over react at times but not even nearly enough, not really. So my final verdict is: this anime is just your below average isekai trash, sorry, it is a 5/10 from me. Next!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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