Youjo Senki

miracles are just illusions caused by insufficient observation and understanding. they are just........glorious misunderstanding.

make way for the next generation isekai!

its actually been a long time since i have seen an anime that builds its society in such a deep level. if you write this anime into a book, it might even look like a history book in some section. with the combination of politics, military, magic and loli. i will recommend the anime to anyone who likes op and straightforward MC who is pretty much a villain in the core. XD

story - 9/10: the story is based on the context of WWI, as evidenced ... in the anime, they still uses trench method of fighting, but all side have already developed Gatling machine guns and long range artillery. on top of that, there are a group of people who can use their mana to use charged weapons, which they are called the mages. the story was how Tanya, the MC, used her cursed power which was given or 'blessed' by the God to create a storm in this bloody battlefield, which ultimately made the Empire where the MC belongs to the strongest country mankind have ever known. as a finally-passed-newbie state MAL user, i liked the story quite a bit even though i wasn't expecting too much out of it at the beginning, but one can not only judge from its cover, after the first episode, it really made my heart race from just seeing those epic battle scenes.

Art - 7/10: well, the art is actually not too bad if you are talking about everyone and everything about the anime except the MC and her assistant who are actually meant to be cute and charming looking, especially the assistant. but the result drawing was just unbelievable, i don't know if they purposely did that because its a shonen or they just don't want any ultra cute soldiers in their anime. but despite the art for women, every male character looks pretty damn likeable. every single one of them have completely unique feature and they all look powerful and cunning which gave the anime a completely new feel.

sound - 9/10: the OSTs in this anime was absolutely brilliant. there are always a blood pumping orchestra playing in the background whenever a battle is going on, and they did a really good job of knowing when to pause the music. unlike comedy, this dark themed series dosent always need music, a silence in some part can be really dramatic and suspenseful, which i think they did a really good job on it.

characters - 8/10: Degurechaff Tanya was unarguably our lead female MC in this series. despite having the appearance of a 9 years old girl, she earned the title of 'devil of the Rhine' for her ruthlessness and total invincibility on battlefield. which led to our suspicion of her actually been the antagonist of the anime. this however was quite a enjoyable point in the setting. apart from the MC, the first support came down to her assistant, who compare to Tanya, was like angel in the battalion. with her supposed cute appearance, kind heart, and the blush when scolded. she was simply the the best female character of the serie.

overall, i gave the anime a 9/10, which in my opinion is a reasonable number. people says that this is really similar to overlord, but i just cant imagine what are the similarity apart from both MC been the 'villains'. rather in here, she's meant to be protagonist and we the audience suspect her to be a villain and in Overlord, the skeleton dude was supposed to be a villain but he did nothing but helping villagers.

again, i thought this is a really well-made anime which everyone should spend some time and have a look.

Youjo Senki is not for everyone. The people who made this threw in a lot of subversive elements into the show. The character designs, our self-admittedly amoral protagonist, and the fantastical aspects incorporated into a setting grounded in historical strategy are all elements many people may not respond well to. With that said, I absolutely enjoyed it and it gave me a lot to think about. There's a philosophical bent to the storyline as the protagonist is fighting a war on two fronts, taking out enemies in the battlefield while rejecting Being X to her own disadvantage.

I didn't realize how much ... I wanted to watch a historical WWI war thriller fought with flying mages until I watched this. The aerial battles are well-executed. There's a lot of strategy going on throughout the battles. The sound and animation create a visceral effect that had me holding my breath much of the time. The battles don't drag out too long either and there are shifts in pacing that reflect on the characters planning and thinking before striking suddenly. I could watch this for the fight scenes alone. I've never seen aerial fights done like this.

Despite Tanya's reprehensible actions (episode 1 for example), I couldn't help but admire her for her other traits like her bravery, her leadership, and her resourcefulness. There are moments when she is genuinely scared but will swallow her fear to tackle her problems head on. In one of her first battles, she is intercepted and decides that strategically, the best move is to engage head on despite being at a disadvantage. As she is flying directly towards her enemy, she's fighting with her instinct to turn tail but follows through with her resolve to take out her threat. Despite being so clever, she often outsmarts herself and ends up in undesirable situations. She makes dangerous enemies. The supporting characters, despite seeming initially bland, do a good job being a counterbalance to Tanya. Really, when you look at her, Tanya is very much on her own much of the time and often has to go against the grain in order to achieve her goals. Her subordinates often don't understand her but have to learn to work under her and it's fun to see that growing dynamic as they learn to respect each other.

There's not really any precedent for Youjo Senki. It has a completely different feeling from other anime and so to me, it stands out even despite its flaws. There are some slow moments towards the end where the characters start to devote too much time to talking and strategy, but other than that, it was a fun, exhilarating ride. There's a lot going on and this show is a unique mixture of genres. While that can be refreshing for some, I also understand it can be too much for others. For me, this show was outstanding for the risks it chose to take.

Have you ever wanted to know what would happen if a magical, tyrannical, reincarnated Loli joined WW1?

Alright, the premise of Youjo Senki is EXTREMELY weird and probably off-putting for most (including me for many years), but I ask you to give it a chance regardless.

I’ll keep this concise so as to not spoil anything, Saga of Tanya the Evil is a wild and unique story where we get to watch what is essentially an alternative 20th century where magic is a known and common tool used in war. From this, a variety of horrifying and well-choreographed battles fought between multiple powerful nations from the perspective ... of our “protagonist”. The characters are probably the weakest part of the series, having little to no development, although it isn’t severe enough to ruin the overall viewing experience.

If any if this sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend picking this show up.

At first, Youjo Senki sounds like another anime with an edgy premise.
Fight against God ? A little girl that's a military genius ? Quite a few things could go wrong that surprisingly did not go wrong, quite the contrary.

This is a wild one, and one that I deeply enjoyed. I think the military tension is good, the anime is well paced and the animation is very good if not iffy when it comes to some 3D scenes. Overall however ? I like the message that it's trying to get through and it is the things that some may hate about this that I deeply enjoyed.

Honestly I really enjoyed it. I was worried the 35 year old man in a loli's body was going to be weird but you get over it pretty quickly and thankfully no lewd and uncomfortable jokes are made about it. Story's top notch for an isekai, art is amazing, sound is great (ending theme is straight fire). Over all I'd give it a 9.

This only thing that bugs me is Viktoriya's character design. It's so bad, and is the sole reason I didn't give this a 10. Beginning of the anime your immediately thrown into a very brutal representation of WWII. No mans lands, artillery, ... machines guns, barbed wire, mud, the whole shabang. It was ART until Viktoriya appeared. Right before a German solider gets blown to smithereens, in comes anime girl from Japan saving the day! What the hell? She looks so out of place! No other character has a design like her. Everyone, with the exception of Tanya, looks like a normal human being. Tanya's character model work well since she's a child and the main protagonist but Viktoriya's just constantly looks fake and out of place with her big skyscraper eyes and smooth featureless face. Her design kills the vibe and there's no way I could ever tolerate those sideways eyelashes.

Rant aside, I really fell in love with the show.

I watched the anime first, read the manga second. The manga is reads completely different than the show. I really liked both of them and even though they are vastly different, I can't really decide which is better. For example, the anime has a better portrayal of what Being X's is but the manga explains God's involvement and motivations better. If you really liked the anime, you should give the manga a read to see just how different things are.

Although I've rated this show very high it's not amazing story or character but it's attention to detail from the weapons and uniforms to reusing scenes to display different situations that help with the story.

Now I'm a fairly big military and gun nut so seeing uniforms fairly representative to the time is great. This show does something that I rarely see in anime and that's the attention to the firearms and this show does almost everything from loading the gun to operating them, it's always done well. Most weapons used are from the appropriate nations to what they used in WW1 with the only ... exception being the M1 Garand.

The attention to detail is amazing in this show with a few scenes I don't wish to spoil. just pay attention to scenes and you'll see things that are used to help world building and authenticity such as paintings in the backgrounds.

Characters there's some enjoyable characters that aren't super trope and are mostly unique. Tanya is a well done character at least to me albeit a little psychotic.

Most of my enjoyment comes from the attention to detail and pretty well done animation and art. The story isn't amazing but doesn't subtract from the enjoyment.

Tanya the Evil is a really good military movie with the lesson of the story being fu*k god. The animation most of the time is smooth but at times the cg is too much and for a second takes you out of the scene. The story being overall solid with some pacing issues that took me out of the story and making me check my phone. Tanya is the highlight of the series and easily the most memorable while the side characters can be easily forgettable. I still firmly believe that the title of the anime should have been "The Saga of Tanya the Devil" ... rather than "The Saga of Tanya the Evil", cause more or less Tanya hasn't really done anything evil and the title Tanya the devil emphasizes the nickname that was given to her in the series being The Devil of the Rhine. The most disappointing character of the series is being X, i hope that he was developed better because he felt like a plot device to enhance the antagonist of the series.

TL;DR at the bottom of the review.

i'm sure you probably heard of anime based on world war 1 and so on,but it's for the first time an anime does it in a unique way which turns out to be quite amazing in my opinion no matter how ridiculous it sounded like at first.That's Youjo senki,World war 1 with Magic and Supernatural activity done by a self-proclaimed god also known as 'Being X',this review will not contain any spoilers.and english isn't my first language so excuse any Mistakes i may have.

Story:7/10,the story is Not the most unique but it's also rather unique with the magic and ... supernatural aspect added into the world war 1 setting,it's still not shown who being X is and what exactly is happening but it's appearing slowly,so this will change when it fully airs,good plot.

Art:8/10,now i'm sure many people may disagree but i absolutely love the art,apart from some times the animators got lazy and how the art at the beginning seems very strange,especially the eyes,Slowly you get used to it and personally,i started Loving it,the backgrounds and overall is nothing fantastic,but the art is enough to make the series highly enjoyable.

Sound:8/10,the series has a great opening,done by myth&roid which is,personally one of my favorite bands and the ending is done by the Tanya VA herself which Is outstanding.The osts are nothing special but fit in with the atmosphere.

Character:7/10,I won't really say that the characters here are great,so far the characters are very far from that but the series isn't done yet so i can't judge that,but a highlight would be Tanya degurechaff,Which is,in my opinion a Very very interesting and well-done character,She's crazy,Selfish and has no mercy.Great character in my opinion,and being X is also very interesting on the way he sees things.There is room for development in this series,hopefully it happens.

Enjoyment:9/10,even if this series isn't perfect,it's very very enjoyable to watch.the comedy isn't out of place,the Action is well done,it's away from cliches as far as i saw and it's very Fun to watch,highly recommended.

Overall:8/10,The show is very enjoyable,the music is great,the art is Very good,characters need more developement,the story is nothing special but is also rather unique,It's very enjoyable and it's overall,a very nice show.(the show hasn't finished airing yet so this rating may change.)

Am I the only one here who do want to see Tanya Degurechaff grow while hoping she stays at the same age? Yes? No? Well... Youjo Senki or Saga of Tanya the Evil is a story of reincarnated salaryman who wakes up inside a blonde baby girl in a German-ish country right in the middle of a stagnant war. I was captivated with this anime by how it bring us the strategies within the war and not just that "they attack, I defend" kind of thing.

Yes, war strategies with a little spice of politics and "Being X" mixed inside would be the best to describe ... Youjo Senki. They never describe mages as the strongest forces in the world but a quick and fast to react force that could be used as a new way of strategy. In this anime, I could say that mages is some kind of their Scout class. They are the first one to be out of the gate to wreak the havoc behind the enemy's line while the others progress at the front line. Youjo Senki's writer really optimized that and wrote the strategies based on those ground.

For me, Tanya while being branded as evil from everywhere, she is not so evil as what she wants is living safely and peacefully. She tried her best to stop the war as she has that dream and obsession to beat Being X those drive her to do so. I love how they made Tanya frustrated over not being stop the war for good. I know from many books and websites of histories, that it was a mistake to overlook French Navy's escape to Africa and Tanya, who knew that from her previous life, took that to heart and fell into frustration as she was just a soldier who must obey the higher-ups. Her dream and obsession are two kind of thing that drives the character of Tanya and made her a very solid character.

While watching this anime, I have a good advice for you all. Don't watch this anime on full volume if you are wearing a headset. While the soundtracks are brimming with that military vibes, the sound effect will definitely make you deaf if you listen on full volume. While it is bad for your ear, I think it is a good way to immerse the war vibe in this anime as every bullet and shots being thrown must be deafening in real life, too. If you are not bothered to hurt your ear just to immerse yourself, don't say that I did not give you any warning.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anime being a tactical military drama that rarely I found in an anime with mages involved. With how the anime ended, I really look forward its movie and wish for another season for this anime.

This is a gem of a show. Few animes are able to take historical wars and add "magical/supernatural" elements that make it still feel historical and appealing. I went into this blind only seeing maybe 1 minute of footage beforehand and I greatly enjoyed it. The use of mages as airborn troops/scouts/artillery kinda made sense in the way that they never felt truly overpowered just in special division of their own. Kinda like how ships fight ships, planes fight planes, and sometimes they fight eachother. Mages are just weapons of war and Tanya is one of the most vicious tools of war the Empire has ... at their disposal.

The battles are very well drawn and the sound effects added to them make each fight feel unique. There is no recycled footage for the most part every fight is one of kind in the series. The one drawback is that obviously the show is named after the protagonist and she is built up as an overpowered character. There's no sense of "will she lose" only "how will she win?" Though the 12 episode series ended well to where they could do a 2nd season showing how Tanya could fall and end the series for good. I'm not sure if there a manga that continues this but i really hope that this show gets a movie or two or a 2nd season because when it ended i just wanted more!

When I finished the second episode of Tanya the Evil, I told myself this show could be something revolutionary. Episode 1 told us this was a show about a little Nazi girl flying in the air and killing people with magic. Episode 2 told us this show was a meditation on religion and the twisted morality of modern capitalism.

But, as I watched the rest of the show, I felt like those themes presented in episode 2 weren't as prominent as I would've liked them to be. Sure, we had a few good scenes of Tanya cursing God, but the show turned its focus to military ... strategy. If you're a history buff who is really into early-20th century war tactics, then you might love this show, since it spends a lot of time asking how WW1 would have played out if they had MAGIC! Personally, I was more into the religious angle and would have liked to see more emphasis placed on Tanya's conflict with the almighty Being X.

There's still a lot of fun to be had with this show, regardless of whether it satisfies your intellectual cravings. The production has some annoying cgi sprinkled in; one crowd shot had me longing for the days when they would pan over a still frame. That being said, most of the show's aerial action scenes were quite beautiful. The inventiveness of Superman flight with guns gave me the same feeling I had when Attack on Titan introduced samurai-Spider-Man combat. For all her sociopathy, Tanya is an engaging protagonist; it's hard not to connect with a character who gets so close to the things she wants, but always seems to stumble a bit at the last step. Meanwhile this show's OP and ED tunes are both insanely catchy; after each episode, these songs would battle for supremacy inside my brain.

I can't say Tanya is the instant classic I was hoping for from the second episode, but if you like evil children, military strategy, or a good J-pop/metal fusion tune, you might as well give the show a chance.

I have to give you an important advice: don't judge this series by the first episode.
Because, well, when I just had started watching I felt like it wouldn't be something worth my attention. It seemed very dubious and strange. However, begining with the second episode, affairs surely had taken unexpected turn.

The story is the most delicious part here. It's quite unique in some way (if you know an anime, in which the similar thing occured, tell me. Overlord doesn't count).
Generally, it is about the war. War similar to World War II, but happening in another world with magic. Though, it's not so ... hard to find references. I mean, it's obvious.
Our little cute girl fights for the sake of Empire, which is quite like Nazi Germany.
Some episodes were solely delicated to dialogues of the mc and others, discussing strategy and tactics. Those played their role as preparation for future fighting scenes which were executed with some good taste, I should say.
Pacing is a little fast. Maybe, it's even more fast than it should be.

Animation's okay. Almost all screen's time belongs to Degurechaff, but I can't really complain. I like her design and facial expressions. She's so adorable when she kills people with a smile on her face :).
I especially liked close combat scenes, it was quite a view.

Nah, I didn't like the sound here. It's something I don't like to listen to. OP, ED were pretty mediocre on my opinion. Nothing remarkable about another sounds.
What I did like was Degurachaff's voice. Also, I was quite delighted to hear Sato's voice from Ajin here :)

Characters?.. Well, that's a main flaw of the series. Because, in fact there're only two characters here. Degurechaff Tanya and Being X.
Another characters are very bleak, there's nothing noticeable around them. They're just a part of decoration. I mean, even Serebryakov. What can I say about her character, motives, plans, backstory? Nothing. Though, she was with Degurechaff from the very begining.
Youjo Senki is about a conflict between main character, protagonist, who detests Being X, which plays a role of antagonist in his own turn. That's all about characters.

I've quite enjoyed it. Not so much, as I might. Still, I surely would watch the sequel. Especially, after such epic ending. I'm quite interested where would the conflict lead.
I like the war theme. And I like when it comes to anime. I've heard there's the ranobe. I might check it out in the future. I've got a feeling anime has dropped down a lot of details.

I'm not sure about recommending it. Perhaps, I would recommend it to a person who're into war theme.

Youjo Senki is a good choice for you if you'd enjoy watching an isekai that uses its setting to explore the mentality and goals of a selfish protagonist with self-preservation as their only goal. The goal of the main character is not to save the world or change it, but rather just to live a life in the safest and yet lucrative way available for them. It doesn't make any huge arguments or portrays any traces of wish fulfillment, unlike other isekai. However, this series becomes a bad choice if its main character which lacks moral fiber, will not have any compassion for anyone and ... has no intention of acting in the best interest of anyone other than themselves is something that can cripple you from enjoying the show. Truly the one thing this series presents and does well, is its main character, and the amount of other flaws the show has cannot draw anyone in unless Tanya is someone you can enjoy. Not tolerate, enjoy.

Characterization:

“A middle aged man that has psychopathic tendencies dies and then reincarnates into another world as a little blonde girl with magical powers, who then joins that world’s equivalent of the Nazis”

Now, from just reading that description, I assumed that this is just going to be one big excuse for the show to constantly be edgy as fuck and just present constant over the top moments which may or may not be considered incredibly stupid. But frankly, I found that this show is not at all either of those things and the biggest tipping point in shattering that prejudice was the main character of the show, Tanya.

You see, that description doesn’t capture the core of who the character that has been presented actually is, but rather just the elements that are out of the ordinary about the character. Tanya prior to her reincarnation was not just some old loser that happens to be a psychopath, but rather, an office worker that was career driven, that has the mentality of a pragmatic corporatist. sHe was tasked with laying off any worker that doesn’t deliver any results and aren’t efficient in the company. His approach was without sympathy, and the only thing that sHe considers is how sHe can benefit the company, acting in a way that seems to be devoid of empathy because the fact is, what sHe’s doing is going to deliver better results and the other party’s feelings are not going to help the company sHe is a part of. After this event, sHe then reflects on how his life should be a smooth ride because of how well he has integrated himself into the system, using it as a tool to have a comfortable life. This background has shown me that Tanya is a character that vows to have a comfortable life and is only as ambitious as the system sHe is a part of demands. Her main and only concern is herself but will play the part sHe’s asked to play within that system. sHe will fulfill her duties diligently with the hopes sHe will become important enough to the system to be given an important enough position to make her indispensable but not involve herself further than “all my needs are met right now and I feel safe because the system values me”.

Eventually, one of the people laid off by Tanya kills her and that prompts Being X (God) to put Tanya through the process of reincarnation. Being X is unsatisfied that humans started lacking the morals instilled by the universe and their lack of faith is a concern. Given that Tanya tells Being X that sHe rejects its existence from both a realistic and rational point of view and sHe sees no need for the concept of God in his life, this makes Being X feel challenged. Due to the fact that Tanya outlines what made him feel secure in his life and not need faith in anything but what was in front of him, this prompts Being X to force Tanya to get reincarnated into a life where all the commodities he’s had are stripped away.

So she’s reborn as an orphan and lives a life under more dire circumstances, with the hope that these circumstances will cause her to finally have faith in Being X. Naturally, Tanya will aspire to reclaim the sense of security and comfort she once had, so when the army discovers she has high potential for magic, she takes that opportunity to join the army, and treat it as an organization that can guarantee her safety and comfort. Most of the conflict she has to endure in the series is often not actually an immediate threat, as much as it is what the system demands of her, and how Being X tampers with the world to make sure she will never have a comfortable life again, not allowing her peace of mind or physical safety and manipulating circumstances for that very end. As her only career path available is “War”, she has never been allowed a dull moment.

What I have expected out of the characterization of this series prior was seeing an edgelord living his wet dream of destroying the world and ruining people’s lives. Edge for the sake of edge. But what I found was something entirely different, as the character’s concern is not to use the world as an outlet to their unyielding rage, but rather, the world is an obstacle to their own safety that they try to overpower to the best of their abilities. Tanya’s selfishness and lack of sympathy for the world at large, which should make for an unredeemable edgelord, instead further accentuate Tanya’s motivation and what lifestyle deems would be best for her. Her flaws made her an interesting character for me, and her characterization has mostly been solid, save for a few pointless decisions taken in the process of adapting the anime.

However, she is the only worthwhile character to see within the series, as the other characters are merely pawns that merely exist to move things along. They aren’t written to be foils or to challenge Tanya in any way. They just exist so they can be used to make Tanya’s circumstances either more difficult, or for Tanya to use as some sort of resource. They are sheets of paper with just a few scribbles on them. In the future I hope there will be more active participants in the story that have at least half as much identity as Tanya does.

Execution & Appeal:

One of the choices the anime has taken is to make Tanya take some more cruel acts and be more ruthless than she was in the source material. I assume this is for shock value and attract as many edgelords as possible, but I don’t believe making a character even more unsympathetic is a particularly good decision. I get that a lot of shows bank on the show being an edgy cool thing, please be shocked at how much blood is spilling from my wrists. But shock factor is at the very best one tool to engage the audience to be used in moderation. The series seems to have enough meat without needing to make the show more bombastic through such elements. If anything, the show for me would’ve been more interesting if it simply focused on Tanya’s thoughts and mental state consistently, and displayed further the type of person she is. You can display ruthlessness without unneeded cruelty.

Now I do not want you to misunderstand. It’s not that Tanya’s ruthlessness is not a core element of the character. But the reasoning behind that trait can be misinterpreted due to its execution. Tanya is not ruthless because she takes sadistic enjoyment out of being cruel. Tanya is ruthless because she is selfish and she doesn’t have empathy for the people around her. This might sound like it should have the same result but it does not. Not caring means that you have no qualms with using people for your own ends and if they suffer for your selfish goals, be it physically or emotionally, so be it. That’s a neutral stance on it, because while that is an option, it brings no joy to the character. However in the show, Tanya acts crueler and seems to take even more enjoyment out of other people’s suffering, even forcing two subordinates within a role she was sure for certain they would die while fulfilling. It’s one thing to find unsympathetic a character that does not care because they are just not capable of it, and another to have a character actively take delight out of other people’s suffering. This can mislead viewers to believe this is just going to be an edgefest. Decisions such as deliberately making the main character uglier prior to reincarnation to make the character more unappealing, and making the character enjoy cruel acts such as the deaths of her subordinates, as well as having her think negatively of people attempting to help her and be of use for her, can only weaken people’s willingness to understand her as a character.

Another fault that hurts the series is the lack of details about how the world works. Since the world is a parallel to our own but with magic, it just hopes you are contextual enough with history and not care about how magic works. As a result, what is on screen is not something can further be analyzed in detail, since because you don’t fully understand how the world works, you cannot fully understand how the world operates. Sure, on some abstract level, I was able to enjoy how Tanya operated, how she planned to fight her opponents, how she discussed things with her superiors and so on. But none of it has been given proper context to fully understand the situation, and it has been written in such a way that any detail can be changed at any given time to manipulate the circumstances within the story. Moments where Being X interferes could have been a lot more impactful if prior we had the context of how everything that operates within that scene works. For a show that enjoys portraying a character that is very good at operating within a system and pays attention to a lot of crucial details that do not seem to be so, it doesn’t do a good job with presenting any of these details. This means that any confrontation that you see on screen, it has no meaning if you do not care about Tanya. And that’s a big fault considering that Tanya’s personality isn’t going to be charming for everyone. At the very least if the circumstances around her were built better and presented in a more detailed manner, the people that do not like her could have had at least fun rooting against her. This fault doesn’t affect me too much, since, as I have said, I can take her actions in a more abstract route and apply them to different contexts. I can enjoy her decisions, how this impacts the world’s view of her and what it means to Tanya because I can apply those to different contexts and that is the part that is relevant to me about the show. But even as that is, I could not care for the war displayed on screen at all, and the action scenes due to their lack of context in some situations and level of threat in others, I have not ever cared a bit about the action unfolding on screen, as I found it incredibly boring.

Experience & Theme:

There really is one single message the anime delivers, that being that regardless of how logical you are and how rational is your approach to the given problem, you have to take the other party’s feelings into consideration, even if your goal is not compassion. Because sure, you may think that the rational thing to do after getting laid off a job is to find another and work diligently. But if you don’t understand that inflicting negative consequences on another person can cause hatred, you may foresee what the best course of action they can take is moving forward. But you cannot foresee that their ill intent can cause them to abandon that route, because seeing you gone is the one last thing that can make them finally feel some relief. Ironically for the anime it is, it is somewhat surprising that it asks you to be more considerate of others. Even if the argument is made for the sake of pragmatism and self-interest, it is a surprisingly positive message.

If you’re a non-fan of the isekai genre, at the very least I can praise this show on the fact that it challenges that genre a bit. It has nothing to do with wish fulfillment and the world the protagonist is sent to is one that they do not want to be part of. Rather, the purpose of this world is strictly to challenge the protagonist and keep them in a state where they can never be satisfied with their current circumstances. The setting’s existence has a purpose, which while arguably it could’ve been done in a different way, given the premise of the show, I can praise it for having a world that was built for its protagonist, rather than a world built for a self-insert. I can recommend this series if you’re one of the people tired of what the isekai genre is, because it is something different., and the premise and its setting serve a purpose.

World Building & Story:

As I was saying while discussion the show’s execution and appeal, we know the bare minimum about the show’s world and as a result we know too little about what we are actually watching. Due to the lack of context about how the powers work, how the military operates and a lot of other things, what is on screen is just a fanfare that lacks meaning. A visual spectacle meant to signify [confrontation in progress]. The world needs a lot more detail in order for what is on screen to matter, as well as making the story feel a lot more meaningful. None of the events on the screen matter, unless they directly impact Tanya, and that while adequate enough considering the goal of the show is Tanya herself, if you choose to invest time into presenting the fights and the opposing factions, over fleshing out Tanya further, at least dedicate some of that attention to fleshing out the stakes for everyone that is presented on screen and how the world works. There really is nothing about that world that can be interesting to anyone watching. Sure, they may be intrigued by the magic system and flying, only for them to slowly realize no such thing exists. These are just abstract notions that have no purpose other than to make the show look interesting.

While I am entertained by Tanya, if the story doesn’t focus solely on her, then I need a reason to care about everyone else that is not her. I need every event to have some weight that is not strictly reliant on Tanya existing. Remove Tanya and everything that is on screen no longer matters whatsoever. This should not be the case. Only one character can be entertaining for so long and if they go unchallenged, they will certainly get dull.

Conclusion: If my description of the character has sounded interesting for you I recommend you to go for it. I found the character to have been interesting enough and to be portrayed well enough to consider it good despite all of its other shortcomings. It really is the one deciding factor for this show, and your enjoyment will bank on how much you can enjoy its protagonist. If you enjoy exploring the mentality of other characters despite their lack of moral fiber, you can enjoy Youjo Senki. The story is merely about this character adapting to its circumstances. Unfortunately if you do not care about either the character or the circumstances, you should steer clear.

This is not an anime about Not Nazis or magical girls.

This is an anime about a salaryman with upper level management written all over him pissing off the ultimate HR manager, a god, and winding up as a Magical Girl fighting alongside Not Nazis as punishment.

If you've worked with asshole managers, supervisors, directors, etc. this will be all too familiar. You get promoted to positions you don't want, or can't handle. You want a transfer, you wind up the LAST place you want to be. There are people working against you because they hate you (in this case it's justified) or just because they're inept.

You've ... worked for or with people like these. This is an anime about being a salaryman, but with a really weird setting. There's also no humor, but Japanese don't seem to laugh at the absurdity of employment like we do with Office Space.

Not really sure where they're going with the premise, since it seems to be "penance and redemption" but the setting is so absurd I'm not sure what kind of penance and redemption you can achieve by fighting alongside Not Nazis.

Youjo Senki probably put a lot of people off with its weird premise, even the poster on MAL looks strange. Personally, I thought it was going to be some lolicon-baiting comedy with warfare as a backdrop - I was prepared to drop it like it was hot - fortunately Youjo Senki is more than the sum of its parts.

Story:
The story is set in the continent of Definitely-Not-Europe, and there's a war going on that's somewhere between WW1 and WW2; Youjo Senki borrows events from both wars to tell its story, as well as adding its own flavor (most notably there's magic). Beyond the ridiculous circumstances ... the main character finds herself in, there's a serious, gritty, war story being told here. They did a great job at capturing the ruthless pragmatism and madness that grips people in life or death situations.

Art:
I loved the action scenes, the explosions looked absolutely fantastic, and the CG they used wasn't obnoxious. The characters look good, and Tanya has some distinctly-not-girly facial expressions that drive home intense scenes.

Sound:
Whether it's artillery shells or bullets, the FX in Youjo Senki are excellent.

Character:
Tanya is our reluctant "salaryman" hero(ine?), and despite her totally fucked personality, she is somewhat sympathizable; like any sane person, her goal is to not die. It never really got old how - though some people put up token resistance - everyone just accepted that a 10-year-old girl would be in the military and leading much older men and women, that's anime liberty for you.

The side characters are really, really, side characters in Youjo Senki, the focus is firmly on Tanya throughout. Viktoriya is the only consistently relevant one, and she's mostly used as comic relief, and can we talk about how she's in the pseudo-German army and her name is Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakova, which is probably the most pseudo-Russian name I've ever heard?

Enjoyment:
I always love a good war anime (well, a good war book, movie, or anything, really), and that's what Youjo Senki is, with the typical helping of anime nonsense along the way. I would highly recommend it to anyone who can palate the 10-year-old female killing machine and see the greatness beneath it.

Well the premise is certainly interesting, we have a 10 year old little girl commanding a battalion and it's not some cringe-y "hope of the whole world lies in this little girl so I must follow her to the ends of the world" kind of thing.

Tanya is a normal company employee that is quite good at doing his job, at the untimely moment of his death, god speaks to him and somehow he manages to irritate this being. He is then sent to a place as per his unfortunate suggestion, that will make him desperate enough to have faith in god.

Art:
The animation and action is ... handled quite good, it's not My Hero Academia levels but its consistency on how it moves is certainly pleasant and heart thumping when it needs to be. Some character designs seem to be out of place caricature (namely the protagonist(?) and one of her female subordinate) and while it can make sense on Tanya's part (protagonist) as she is 10 years old, it doesn't make much sense with the other, but you just kind of tune it out since everything else is great and since her face sort-a reflects her personality, in a way.

Sound:
No music used to force an emotion, it was handled well. Not exceptional but nothing to complain about either. Things that go boom, go boom, things that go whoosh, go whoosh and they go whoosh in a convincing way. It's pretty well done.

Character:
The characters aren't complex but that's not necessarily bad. A lot of anime mistake having quirks for having complex characters while I remember one very mediocre anime even just telling outright that their quirk is such and such. Really good examples of bad characterizations are One Piece and Fairy Tail where they put a quirk to some enemy like always saying something at the end of a sentence then putting some sappy back story and pat themselves on the back thinking they did good.
This anime doesn't have that, there's no tragic back story, they're just people trying to win a war. Their motivations are clear and they are understandable and believable. Yes you won't remember them, but in a way, you're not really supposed to. Don't get me wrong, you'll feel what they feel, but in the end Tanya is the star and you see that consistently.

Enjoyment:
This anime is surprisingly funny. How Tanya speaks to make things convenient for her. (that's basically her end-goal) but everything ultimately bites her in the back. It's funny how everything goes against her, well, almost everything. The consistency, the tone, everything is handled well. Even her "evil" is handled with taste. She's not some warmonger but she's no patriot either. It's a really fun series and I hope more people watch it.

Overall:
Thing's worth watching, definitely. The landscape of shounen is really changing. Before we basically had shouting protagonists, but now we have people with common sense and a lot of nuance. I love it, more please!

When I first heard about this show I expected it to be pretty stupid. It follows a young girl named Tanya who is born in an alternate Germany during an alternate version of WW1. Magic exists in this world and it is because of this that Tanya is enlisted into the military at a very young age due to the fact that she is naturally gifted with a high storage of magical power. Once in the military, she climbs up the ranks to major and ends up leading her own special unit in order to fight for her country. In actuality, ... Tanya is a middle aged Japanese businessman who was killed and then reincarnated into this little girl's body by God, whom Tanya calls Being X.

With a premise like this I expected the anime to be a comedy but to my surprise it turns out to be rather serious about its plot. When you first watch it I'm sure you'll laugh at how a bunch of soldiers are taking orders from a 10 year old girl but after a while that will completely have changed.

Tanya may be a 10 year old girl but as the show continued I stopped considering her to be a child. She is a mastermind when it comes to warfare and can be very manipulative and ruthless when the situation calls for it. Even though she is the main character there are times where you will think of her as a villain. She has killed officers who questioned her command and even ordered her troops to open fire on a group of civilians who may hold a grudge against the Empire in the future. Her character is extremely interesting especially when you consider that her only goal in life is to live comfortably away from conflict. However, even as she gets closer and closer to fulfilling her goal, Being X always finds a way to make sure that she's put in very deadly situations. However, even with all of the shit that Being X throws at her, Tanya is determined to survive and continually overcomes whatever the war or Being X throws at her. The fact that the writers were able to take a very strange and somewhat stupid premise and turn it into something this interesting is honestly incredible.

If you ever come across this anime I recommend that you at least give it a shot. It may seem like a very weird concept at first but after the first couple of episodes I'm sure that you will not be disappointed.

Youjo Senki, it's an intelligent, honest, and realistic show.
By realism I don't mean that it reflects our world, there are supernatural powers present in the setting, but it's realistic in that it's belivable. It's belivable that these characters, in this setting, would act the way they do.
Realistic doesn't mean actual, it means sensible, reasonable, and belivable.

The story keeps it together, it could have been polished a little bit more, but honestly it's better than fine.

The art-style might be a bit off-putting to some people because a few characters don't really represent the dark and gritty world-war setting of the show. But the animation is superb, ... the fights often contain very detailed segments of animation.

The sound is: i like the opening and ending, and the background sound complements the scenes.

Characters are belivable and pragmatic, they develop as the show goes on and are thoroughly relatable as well as enjoyable.

For easier refference, Code Geass, Death Note, Zetsuen no Tempest, Akame ga Kill, Casshern Sins, and Valvrave all feature similar enjoyment factors.

They are either intelligent, have maincharacters who are willing to kill, or just feature a somewhat dark and gritty world. Code Geass and Zetsuen no Tempest being the most relatable to Youjo Senki.
Rated a watch it/10

For story if you guys love Deutschland or you're a World War enthusiast, you would find it's story a rather interesting set when there's no WW1 yet until 1920's and magic exist in dis world. the empire (consist German Empire + Benelux region + Denmark + Austria/Hungary) are at war with Allies (france, England, Norwegian/sweden & .etc) and Federation (Russian).
this story had a great plot dev, where u can see different kind of setting, constantly fill with Action, thrill and comedy.

for Art, its hard to find a total-war theme anime in Great War era with such detailed and yet ... good scene colorization. but to be honest the Characters in manga was better drawn compared the one in anime (so i gib 9 in art instead).Still they had a good character Development in this war-tugged set.

As for sound, I'ts Kadokawa........
as far as i heard from myself some of the sound effect used in this anime comes from anime made before it, they re-using it again i suppose (if u don't get this, then it's fine). as for songs They has a good OP song (jingo jungle), ED song (Los ! Los ! Los !), and and insert song. (i like both the OP & ED song)
(note : for OP Jingo means Aggressive Nationalism/Fascism)

i enjoy it to the fullest, this anime centralized on a different perspective from the "Bad guys" (the empire), like some reviewers say it's same just like "Overlord" did.

BUT i'm gladly agree that this not a kind of biased shiet plot like Saving Private Ryan, Белый тигр, Fury or "Shuumatsu no Izetta" dat i fully despised. so Rest assure Für die "Deutschland" !!!

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.