Youjo Senki

I'm writing this review based on my impressions of the first few episodes, and what I know about the manga and LN. Its unfortunate, but this anime is probably already hopeless.

In a NUTshell (NUT is the apparently new studio responsible for this), this anime has failed. The art is crap, the animation is crap, the screenplay is crap, the sound is crap, and the voice acting is crap. No amount or quality of plot could possibly make up for this.

Art: 3
Can be said as simply as this: "What the hell did they do to the main characters' faces?" The art is extremely basic and lacking ... in detail; take a quick look at the art from the LN or manga, and you should instantly see the massive downgrade in quality. Even without that comparison, it's some of the lazies and shittiest art you can find in any commercial anime.
My complaints that you should probably skip:
Single lines as eyebrows, no textures, no details, maybe 6 different shades of color per character (2 for hair, 3 for uniform, 1 for skin. Complete shit), and a full color palatte that I can probably count on my fingers. The backgrounds look pretty much all the same, and in the few minimalistic action scenes, there aren't any backgrounds at all; just solid blocks of monocolored shit. And what the hell is with Serebryakov's diseased dinnerplate eyes with spines sticking out the side? Her face looks completely f***ed up.

Animation
As if the art wasn't bad enough by itself; the anime boasts tons of simple panning, still-frames and frames with just mouth movement, tons of recycling the same animation (For example: portrait of person A's mouth moving, switches to portrait of person B's mouth moving, then to the same previous portrait of person A's mouth moving); overall, it's some lazily-ass garbage; a pathetic excuse for animation.

Sound: 3
The soundtrack is mediocre, the sound effects (such as guns or cannons) are completely off and have garbag depth and quality, and the voice acting is predominantly shit; about as bad as your average English dub. Every single character aside from Tanya sound slow, stupid, and retarded, and the idiotic dialogue doesn't help either.
Tanya herself is supposed to be intimidating despite her age, but it comes out as flat and childish in the voice acting (Maaybe I'm being a bit harash with Tanya's voice, but the rest are truly horrific).

Character: 3
None of these people act or sound like they've ever been in a battle in the entire lifetime. Dumb narration monologues that state the obvious are common (Like "He's doing that? But that should be impossible!" or "What? He just used an explosive shell!). Moreover, they sound like carefree, blind idiots, as if they were from some slife of life anime, not a war anime.

Plot
It's obviously too early to begin judging the plot, but all other aspects heavily swing this anime into the "complete shit" rating.
If you were wondering, the anime is based in an alternate setting of WWI that includes mages, set from Germany's (The Empire's) perspective. Not particularly innovative so far, since much of the anime follows real history.

Before Youjo Senki even aired, I had preconceived notions about it. Based on its ridiculous main character and overall premise, I was sharpening my literary claws in preparation to critically rip it to shreds in this eventual review. Lollis, reincarnation, magic and the tedious politics of war were all aspects I roll my eyes at individually, so naturally I didn’t have my hopes up very high after the first episode. After concluding the final segment of Youjo Senki, I can say without doubt that my initial impressions couldn’t have been farther from my analysis of the finished product. It’s an anime I wanted to hate, ... but in the end surprised the hell out of me.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil starts out on a battlefield. The fog of war is palpable and laden with smells of gunpowder and blood. Screams of agony and despair resonate from friend and foe alike, causing your bones to shake with an uncontrollable fear. This is war. The first thing I noticed about the anime was the expert level of sound design. Each explosion and gunshot echoed in my brain, causing my focus to increase with each passing moment.

Then, as if transported from the wrong anime… Tanya appeared.

The stark juxtaposition of the cute, Aryan 9 year old against the malevolence of a gruesome battlefield was hard to swallow. I just couldn’t grasp how she was written into the anime at all. To add to her perplexing position, appearing beside Tanya was another glassy-eyed damsel, who clumsily trudged through the combat zone, narrowly evading enemy fire. Adding to the gunfire and merciless killings was the boom and crack of magical attacks from certain individuals. Mages, who could harness supernatural forms of energy contributed to the battle, a clear reminder that I was watching an anime and not a literal historical account. I paused the episode to digest what I was seeing. I know anime in general has its fair share of nonsensical moments, but the contrast of these characters and abilities with the haunting atmosphere was jarring.

As the series continued, I became less fixated on Tanya’s chibi appearance, and more focused on the personality she exhibited, or the precarious situations she found herself in. Without spoiling, her backstory and purpose is explained, though not in the most sensical way. This disclosure causes most of the “what the hell?” moments to dissipate, and triggers the viewer to really hone in on the finer aspects of what Youjo Senki has to offer. The magic abilities some characters possessed were also loosely explained, as anime often does. Though I’m not sure how I expected these powers to be any bit of believable.

The main story itself is nothing special. We get dropped into an ongoing war between nations (presumably during World War I), both at each other’s throats trying to gain the upper hand in the theatre of battle. Tanya is a captain of a small battalion, relatively insignificant to the grand scheme of things. Through willpower and a stern leadership style, Tanya excels through the ranks in order to gain supreme power and ultimately defy her maker, God himself. There aren’t many “aha” moments or intellectual pondering to be had, just a straightforward war story with the added twist of a cutthroat preteen at the helm. I will also admit that while entrancing to look at, the magic elements weren’t entirely necessary, as the series had enough occult moments to go around.

But seriously people, we don’t need a recap FOR A TWELVE EPISODE SERIES.

If you care for historical fiction or war jargon, this anime is chock-full of it. After the noisy, action-packed battle scenes fade out, they are followed by debriefs, strategery and political patois to ignite the interest of any history buff. Very little of the past or present parallels our world technically, but the rhetoric and red tape of fighting a war are synonymous with some of the battles fought in the 1900’s. Many risks are taken, with some paying dividends while others blowing up in the commander’s faces. It can be pretty engrossing if you can get past Tanya’s childish appearance.

The characters in Youjo Senki are irrelevant with the sole exception of Tanya. She’s cute, ruthless and has a severe case of Napoleon syndrome. At first, I was so nearsighted that I assumed any other main protagonist would’ve been a better fit for the story, but as the anime went on I actually began to think the opposite. Having such a unique character as Tanya for the lead gave Youjo Senki the propensity to stand out from the crowd of its genre. I could appreciate the route the writers went with her backstory and who she really was, but I think her past life should’ve been elaborated on a bit more. In the end, Tanya grew on me as a character, and I eventually even began to empathize with her situations, something inconceivable to comprehend when she was introduced. One complaint I have about the characters is the trouble I had differentiating between friend and foe at various points in the show. Although Tanya and Serebryakova stood out due to their arresting appearance, the others disappeared into a muddled mess of similar faces.

The animation and action scenes in Youjo Senki are some of the stronger points of the anime. No pixel lag or framing issues at all. Definitely one of the strongest showing in visuals this season, and the animators should be patting themselves on the back. The art style is grim and uninviting, utilizing a blend of muted dark colors. This style accentuates the vibe of each scene, and adds to the militant structure of the strategic scenes. The character models for Tanya and her female right hand are vibrant and contrast the battlefield well, and their facial expressions all flowed accurately.

There hasn’t been an anime I’ve pointed out solely due to sound quality since I watched the 2015 release of Knights of Sidonia. Anyone who’s seen that show knows how much realism and feeling was put into each sound effect, and how satisfying they were to listen to. Youjo Senki’s sound engineers emulate the harsh conditions of a war setting meticulously and with a level of finesse barely rivaled. I was quite impressed. The OP, though not always there worked to get the viewers pumped for some intense action scenes, while the epic, pulsing ED was my favorite of the season. Aoi Yuuki did a bang-up job portraying the adolescent tyrant, and from what I’ve read she had a lot of fun playing her as well. The rest of the OST flowed together beautifully, with each track transitioning seamlessly into the next, and adding a level of believability to the accompanied scene.

Most importantly, should you watch Youjo Senki? I was ultimately impressed with how much my mood shifted through the 12 episodes, and can give the anime a solid recommendation. The story won’t blow you away, and the characters (sans Tanya) are uninspiring, but the action scenes and strategic nature of the battles will offer plenty of incentive to stick around. Plus, if you’re all about reincarnation and fighting “God”, there’s plenty of goodies for you to indulge yourself with. I’d recommend this series to fans of action shows or large scale battle shows like Attack on Titan, or Overlord, though the historical elements could relate its fans to Joker Game or others. Surprise of the season? Possibly, but I was certainly glad I watched it, and I’m sure you’ll like it too! Thanks, as always for reading and be sure to check out the rest of my Winter ‘17 reviews!

Youjo Senki’s protagonist Tanya quickly rose to become my personal favorite character of the winter 2017 season. I guess psychotic loli nazis make for exquisite characters.

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Plot: 6/10

Set in an alternate universe that is similar to the era of the first World War, Youjo Senki follows Tanya Degurechaff as she fights in the Empire’s army. This empire is essentially the world’s version of Germany. In fact, every territory mentioned in the anime shares a geographic resemblance to actual European countries in our world. The major difference between reality and this fantasy realm is that magic exists in this parallel universe while it obviously (though unfortunately) doesn’t ... exist in our society. It is revealed that Tanya has an abnormally high affinity with magic, which is the predominating reason why she is able to quickly rise through the Empire’s ranks along with her cunning and manipulation skills. Youjo Senki’s story follows Tanya as she fights for the Empire and steadily rises to become their most notorious soldier.

In terms of execution, Youjo Senki has both positives and negatives. It does an excellent job at introducing Tanya and providing background on her sadistic personality and distorted mentality. The anime quickly delves into her backstory, giving viewers valuable information on Tanya that helps them to better understand her goals and actions. However, at around the midpoint of the amine, it feels like the detail put into the plot dissipated. It seemed like Tanya’s motivations and goals evaporated and were replaced with her blindingly following the orders that were given to her by her superior officers. In the initial episodes, viewers were given insight on Tanya’s reluctance to follow the commands bestowed upon her and were showed the ways in which she planed to worm her way out of undesirable situations. Yet later on in the anime it feels like she just blatantly accepts whatever the higher ups tell her to do or just complains about the orders but then executes them without question, which results in blandness that could have been avoided if Tanya had simply acted like she did in the first few episodes.

When it comes to the story, the anime did a fairly decent job at portraying how differing countries can end up disagreeing and fighting to a point that culminates in a world war. My problem was that there wasn’t much information given on why the Empire was fighting on so many different fronts in the first place. I believe that the first episode might have quickly explained this, but it was so poorly done that I can’t even recollect what that reason might have been. Was it for territory? Power? Could it have ben out of desperation? Were they attacked first? Whatever the reason might have been, it was so indeterminately established that it made the warring seem somewhat pointless.

Another thing I’d like to mention is how useless trench warfare is in the world of Youjo Senki. Just think about it. In this universe, magic exists, and individuals who posses magic, known as mages, are given flying devices and enhanced weaponry. If technology is advanced enough to create these flying contraptions, then why even bother to waste time and funding on ground forces? The mages can literally decimate them with an aerial assault as shown in the first episode. While it was an important battle tactic in the first World War, trench warfare and grounded units in general just seem like an utter waste in this anime. It takes so much time and effort to dig trenches, yet soldiers in them get wiped out at a laughably swift pace by the mages. Shouldn’t the government and military of these nations focus on building up their mage forces since they can literally wipe out entire battalions without taking a single loss as shown with Tanya and her squadron?

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Art/Animation: 5/10

I have mixed feelings about this section. On one hand, the backgrounds and scenery can look very vivacious and detailed at times. When it comes to the battles, dark colors and imagery are used to emphasize the tense atmosphere that a battlefield is meant to have. However, I find that watching simplistically animated individuals flying around in the sky while randomly shooting at each other gets boring rather fast. The only character that keeps these scenes fresh and interesting is Tanya, whose insane facial expressions alone make the fight scenes much more enjoyable to watch.

I start to have problems when it comes to the character designs. Excluding Tanya, they are all rather plain, but there is nothing particularly wrong with most of them. However, the appearance of secondary protagonist Viktoriya is quite lackluster. I think the animators were trying to make her look cute and innocent, but her design is just sloppy. I have mixed feelings on Tanya’s design. Sometimes she looks perfectly fine, however in some cases (usually when her lips are drawn in an overinflated manner or her eyes look weird), I’m not that fond of her appearance. There just seems to be an inconsistency with the art regarding Tanya.

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Sound: 9/10

Tanya’s voice actress, Aoi Yuuki, does an exceptional job at making her character sound both adorable as well as insane when necessary. She really brings life to Tanya, and I just loved listening to her voice. The opening theme song is performed by one of my favorite groups, Myth & Roid, and is definitely an above average composition. The ending theme song, Los! Los! Los!, is an addictingly catchy tune, and it has become one of my personal favorite anime songs. It is sung by Aoi Yuuki, so more props to her. The sound quality in Youjo Senki is easily one of its stronger points.

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Characters: 7/10

Tanya Degurechaff is one of the most entertaining characters that I’ve seen in awhile. As I stated in the beginning, Tanya is essentially a psychotic loli nazi (yes, I know that nazis are from WW2 and not WW1, meaning that its inaccurate to label Tanya as a nazi since Youjo Senki is set in a period similar to that of the first World War, but I find the title ‘nazi’ to be very befitting of Tanya) who derives pleasure from the suffering and annihilation of her enemies and is stimulated by the carnage effectuated from battle. This is honestly enough to certify Tanya as a rather good character, but does she accomplish enough to be considered a great character? In all honesty, I don’t think so. The latter episodes don’t really develop her much, and the enjoyment derived from watching her slowly decreases as the anime progresses. Nonetheless, Tanya is still a detailed and intriguing character, and its refreshing to watch her in action.

I’m not going to dedicate much time discussing the supporting cast since they really aren’t worth mentioning. They’re all there to either advance the plot, fill up space, or be sacrifices to Tanya. Oh, and there’s also Viktoriya. I really don’t see what her purpose is.

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Entertainment: 6/10

Youjo Senki starts off strong by showcasing its leading character completing epic feats throughout the first couple of episodes. Unfortunately, with each passing episode, especially after episode four or five, my interest in the show steadily dropped. It was still good, but I felt like the plot started to drag on at a slow pace without much happening outside of Tanya and her squad killing enemies who would just sort of appear without any significant explanation on their goals and/or purpose. All the anime let us know was that they were all vastly inferior to Tanya, which always meant that the outcome of these skirmishes would be the same. This resulted in some boring episodes that honestly weren’t very entertaining viewing experiences. The only thing that remained consistently enjoyable to watch was the sadistic nature of our leading lady Tanya, and quite honestly, that was enough to keep me interested in this anime.

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Overall: 6/10

While the overall plot left more to be desired and the animation took away from the general presentation of the anime, Youjo Senki was still able to be a good series due to its entertaining protagonist as well as its great sound quality and the general enjoyment derived from watching it. If you’re looking for a strong and/or insane female lead, I’d suggest watching this anime. If you’re into vaguely historical anime integrated with fantasy, then I’d wholeheartedly recommend Youjo Senki.

I got mixed feelings about this anime, it isn't great but it isn't garbage either.

Story: Could have been done better, the characters really don't seem to just be props half the time for the crazy loli protag and the it feels like the only truly alive person is her. The concept of the story is nice, I haven't seen it touched before in anime but unfortunately it's potential isn't reached.

Art: I have to say it is good at some points but most of the time it's god awful. The girls in the anime don't look decent at all, the protag herself sometimes has a ... Donald Duck lip thing going on, however art of urban areas and during battles isn't half bad. I can't over look the fact some of the minor side characters look better than the main ones which is quite sad.

Sound: The OST is pretty good, I like the opening and the flow of music runs good with most situations through out the anime. Though for the running theme I dare say it would have fitted better if it sounded more German.

Characters: They very mediocre and overall I'll forget about most of them a month or two after I'm done with this anime. The protag herself isn't to bad but the wasted potential is noticed.

It's worth a seasonal watch for 2017, but I wouldn't pick this up again at the rate it's going... overall I feel there is a lot wrong with this anime that can be easily fixed and in other areas like the story should have been given more detail.

Youjo Senki is a twelve episode anime from earlier this year. It was brought to us by NUT. So far, this series and its recap episode are NUT's only aired productions. It's based off of an ongoing light novel by Zen Carlo. So, we have an anime from a new studio based on a light novel I've never heard of with an author I know nothing about. How exciting for us.

Story:

The series opens with Tanya, our protagonist, leading a squadron of mages in the Rhine in some bloody skirmishes. We then go back and see that our narrative opens properly with a salary man firing ... someone for incompetence. It's clear from the narration that he has no sense of empathy and he's just coldly doing his work. Just when you're wondering how this remotely connects to the stuff from earlier, he's pushed in front of a train. Time stops and he starts talking with Being X, a powerful creature who claims to be god and in charge of the cycle of reincarnation. X sends our protagonist to another world, saying that he will make him acknowledge him as god by making his situation desperate. Our protagonist becomes Tanya, with his personality and memories intact. Tanya's magical potential is quickly discovered and she joins the military. At least this series gives her an early childhood to get used to a drastic change in gender and uses reincarnation as the tool for it instead of having her be changed by aliens and instantly okay with it for no adequately explored reason, looking at you, Kashimashi.

Of course, this series does have some issues. Being X's interest in this one person doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, they won't acknowledge you as being god. Why not find some people who will instead of wasting a bunch of time on this one person? Is it because you consider it a challenge? Also, if you wanted to make things desperate for her then why did you give her a massive amount of magical power? Is Being X a part of the Q continuum playing a game with a different member of the continuum where they each take turns using their powers to do different things to this poor girl to see how she'll respond? One reincarnates her as a little girl in another world, the next comes in and gives her a lot of magic to undermine the first and so on. Maybe it's explained in the light novels that go beyond the anime, but it seems kind of flimsy here. The narrative itself also follows a rather predictable path. Once they introduce a situation, it's pretty obvious where they're going to go with it. There's never a point where they subvert your expectations and do the unexpected. Except in terms of the military allowing a little girl to join. That's pretty bizarre.

That being said, it is still kind of compelling to watch. This series borrows a lot from all of those JRPGs where your party has to fight against the arrogant god-figure who sadistically toys with ordinary mortals. Which I'm okay with because I like a lot of those games; FF Tactics, Breath of Fire, Xenogears, FF Legend, Shin Megami Tensei. Etc... So, it's kind of interesting to see a lot of their basic tropes converted to a different medium. The series is good at setting up parallels between this world of magic and our world and of having Tanya use our strategic history to her advantage. And the strategies she suggests are kind of clever. They aren't basic nonsense that any grade schooler knows like disguising yourselves as the other guys nor do they only work because the enemies act like morons. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu should take notes.

Characters:

This is one of those series that tries to make its characters both pretty unsympathetic & complex. Like Dune or Watchmen before it. Does it succeed? Kind of. Tanya is a character who's motivated entirely by self interest. If she does something for one of the troops under her command, it's probably so that she looks good. It's established right from the beginning that she doesn't much care for them or their lives and she will send them to their deaths without any real concern.

The main thing that makes her kind of interesting is her feud with Being X. You would think she'd be willing to acknowledge him as “god” just to make things easier for herself, given her general outlook. But she steadfastly refuses and defies him at every turn. We see her stubbornness come into play a few other times too but never to the same extent. Being X is pretty much the standard god-figure from those aforementioned games. An arrogant prick who toys with mortals and demands praises. The various supporting characters vary. A lot of them don't have much in terms of personality. Some of them are about as developed as you could reasonably manage for a side character in a twelve episode series.

Art:

The art style in this is kind of interesting. The facial designs are really expressive. I particularly like the way they do Tanya's smirk. The series is also good about creating an otherworldly atmosphere when Being X shows up. The only real issue I have is that there are times when the characters look like they're superimposed over the backgrounds instead of blending in. It's an effect rather like looking at a part of a film where it's really bloody obvious the actors are in front of a green screen.

Sound:

They got some pretty good actors. Yuuki Aoi takes on the role of our heroine. Hayami Saori voices our most important secondary character and the Being X vocal effect is pretty grandiose. I have more mixed feelings towards the music. The incidental music tends to be decent enough but I kind of really dislike the theme tunes. Most of them have that heavily synthesised quality you tend to get when someone can't sing and is relying on auto-tune to make it sound like they can.

Ho-yay:

There isn't really any romance in this series, ho-yay or otherwise.

Final Thoughts:

Youjo Senki is one of those series that's interesting enough for me to want to see a follow up but not strong enough for me to call it good. It's all right and if NUT does a follow up I'll definitely review that when it's finished but, for the moment, there are too many unaddressed questions. Especially Being X's motivations behind this level of interest in one person. It's also a tad too predictable. It's a decent start, but it needs to do some more work on developing its ideas. My final rating is going to sit at a respectable 6/10. Next week we'll look at Arion. I don't think the film is actually about the immortal horse, but we'll see.

Youjo Senki asks the question “If the reason for lack of faith in a higher power is the lack of need to yearn for the peace of mind granted by the concept of a higher being that will see you through the tough times, how far can you break someone before they start seeking comfort in a higher power? A greater purpose? A deeper meaning?” It then follows it up with the question “How much of the story can you sacrifice for the sake of spectacle?”

The answer apparently to the last question is “pretty damn much”.

But first, the watching order for Youjo Senki. Start with ... Episode 2, then Episode 3. Episode 1 occurs in the middle of Episode 3 but I recommend watching Episode 3 first and then go back to Episode 1. You can skip Episode 1 but it does provide a good spectacle.

And ultimately, that’s what the show is despite its great concept: a spectacle. I cannot ultimately judge a show by its first season alone though but judging the first season’s ability to stand on its own is not without merit, no?

Let’s get right to it. Youjo Senki lacks sufficient character development given that it desires character-driven drama. That problem is the most glaring. The most painful part is that the show tried. It just didn’t do so well. We see Tanya scheme and we see the scheme backfires at her. We see her plan based on the knowledge she retains from our world. We see her develop a sense of camaraderie with the men under her command. We see her rage as events beyond her control cascade around her. It makes for a fun watch. But it ultimately does not advance her character in any significant way because the need for spectacle supersedes the need for character development.

Tanya is grounded to a world she is not invested in. She only cares about herself. She has nothing to lose and that gets in the way of tension. Without risk, there is no drama. Being X is simply a monster generator at this point, creating more and more powerful enemies for Tanya to overcome with no rhyme or reason.

Their dynamic is ruined because the show forgets that love is an emotion just as strong as hate. The show taps on to hate and threatens to leave the viewers detached as Tanya's proverbial hate-boner stiffens because the only reason we have to be even invested in her is because she is the MC and by extension her enemies are ours too. Well it's not. Love and hate are two sides of the coin that is the basic currency of drama, the currency of investment. Love a character and you'll inevitably despise her enemy.

But Being X is now merely a phenomenon, not a character. And with nothing to lose, Tanya is virtually without weakness.

It’s for that reason that the fights are just purely spectacle instead of a narrative. The battles that should have developed the character and the story became a sport of how fast and how spectacularly can she mow down her enemies.

Good rule of thumb: “A fight must not break the narrative, but rather reinforce it. If the story has to be put on hold for the fight to occur, that fight shouldn’t occur at all.”

But for what it’s worth, this show is enjoyable. And we don’t know to what heights it can truly soar until its story ends. So for now, enjoy. This is Studio Nut’s first splash and I must say they did a splendid job, my complaints notwithstanding.

[6.5/10]
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The year of surprises. Recently, both western media and anime have been surprising me, usually in a good way. From Kong to Dragon Maids, I've found shockingly enjoyable entertainment in places where I really wouldn't expect it to be. Maybe i'm becoming softer, as the escapist entertainment slowly drags me through the depths of "why don't you just have fun!" and "just turn your brain off, dude!" and whatever other insipid statements tend to spring from the bad taste crowd. I'm not above making fun of someone for the kind of shit they watch, so when i'm conscious of the kind of shit i'm watching, ... well, it creates a whole new self-aware dynamic within my mind.

I think that's my own idiosyncrasy though. I try to be as tepid as possible whenever introduced with an outlandish concept, like a salary man-turned loli in an alt-world war 1 with magic. Maybe that's why I've been getting surprised more and more. Gauging how excited you are can possibly salvage an iffy premise. Youjo Senki, or Saga of Tanya the Evil is one of those premises that becomes synonymous with stereotypes in anime.

I'm prone to indulging in those stereotypes too. Whether it be laughing at blunt storytelling, bad character chemistry, or more vague things like farcical story concepts, like meeting a dragon while drunk and having it turn into a cute girl who is also a maid. Concepts that are generally reserved to this kind of escapist entertainment also known as anime. Senki is no different. But surprisingly, it does have some pretty awesome and memorable qualities about it. I feel like this is what some action fans may be looking for.

As someone who has come to the conclusion that action anime isn't all up my alley simply due to the way the way it is very often constructed. Senki surprised me. It's strange because I am definitely a huge action fan in the live action medium, as well as a huge horror fan (anime doesn't really have much horror, though), yet the kinds of shows I've seen within this animated medium haven't done all that much to impress me with the action itself.

Maybe i'm being overly cynical since I really dug Kill La Kill, and thought Mob Psycho 100 was pretty solid recently, as well, and while Mob definitely excelled in its action, Kill La Kill was more interesting to me with its characters. I guess what i'm saying is that my experience with the actual action in action anime has been rough.

Here is where Youjo Senki comes in. While not something that is revolutionary or particularly awe-inspiring, there are elements here that any action fan can really get behind, not another dragged out twenty episode Shounen.

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[The War]

As I briefly explained, a salary man gets murdered by a co-worker he just fired and gets reincarnated into a German loli who tests positive for "magical capabilities" and becomes a powerful, yet very young battle mage in what can only be described as World War 1 Alt-Germany. With all the other parallels to other countries landing square in the "tasteful" zone. This salary man-turned-loli is incredibly cynical. Of humanity, faith, and just about anything in between.

He gets greeted by a "god", which he aptly refers to as Being X who gives him the opportunity for reincarnation but only if he takes up the name of the lord, pretty much. Of course this cynical guy doesn't want to do that, hence getting transported into wartime. The interest here stems from his relation with this pho-God and how this "God" is portrayed. Greedy, unfair, and somewhat petty, similar to some of our gods, but not all-knowing.

So a battle begins. Being X fights for this salary man's faith, and the salary man, who is now Tanya Degurachaff, fights with all her will to never bow to a being like this. A fight of faith versus humanity, with the humanity being cynical of humanity. Interesting, but may straddle the line of pettiness. Thankfully, Senki never journeys deep into that rabbit hole, and apart from a very well-placed monologue towards the end of the show, this show stays preach-free, which is a big thumbs up. Again, that stereotype of "moralistic anime preachiness" is, maybe not subverted, but surprisingly not all there.

Tanya rises in the ranks, trying to establish a comfy space in the back-lines, but gets constantly thrown face-first into the brunt of the action. She ends up commanding a battalion of semi-forgettable characters that follow her headlong into battle. Her stature (and age) are questioned, but only lightly, creating a very strange verisimilitude within this world. On one hand this is absurd, on the other hand this introduction of magic can actually excuse their recruitment of such a young officer. She's prone to incredibly powerful magic, but not powerful enough to be some overpowered main character, which prevents this show's Shounen-action roots from showing at all.

Senki feels more of a globe-trotting adventure with a lot of very colorful pit-stops. Very similar to something like a Call of Duty campaign. Not necessarily a bad thing, especially since this show puts a lot of effort into creating political conflict which ends up being back-ended by the action. Not every episode ends with action, and not every episode really needs to. Tanya, and her VA, Aoi Yuuki, do an outstanding job in conveying this persons feelings as the show progresses, even if sometimes I could do without the constant introspection.

It always feels as though the war is bigger than Tanya herself, even if she is responsible for a very powerful battalion of mages. Which is great. This is a massive war with a lot of political ideologies colliding and it really wouldn't make sense to put this character at the forefront of it all, even if her eventual influence on a lot of the leaders who we see constantly sitting around important tables talking politics and smoking cigars feels a little too easy.

The technology of this war is confusing, but I suppose it ought to be. Being X is constantly interfering with other people, giving them advice and occasionally even empowering them with more powerful magic. The progression of technology is sudden and important, as years pass in the blink of an eye. I think Senki is at fault with not showing character growth as these years pass, which is unfortunately up to the artists to do, by aging Tanya accordingly. While she definitely matures in the sense that she becomes more seasoned to the war, no character feels different after the multiple-year conflict, visually. No scars, nothing.

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[Presentation]

The presentation is a bit of a mixed bag, however, there is definitely more positives to be said. The best thing I can say about Senki is how breathtaking its sound design is for a low budget TV anime. The gunshots, explosions, and everything in between sound crisp and powerful. Some moments truly stand out due to the sound, here. The OP and ED aren't too bad, inhabiting a grunge-rock base with some more pop-oriented elements thrown in during their chorus. I think they are good enough to be memorable. The OP itself is somewhat disappointing, with boring imagery and overall not too much creativity injected in it.

The sequences where new-comer studio NUT put visible effort into turned out awe-inspiring. Especially a prolonged ten-minute battle sequence near the end of the season was truly one of the better sequences in recent memory. However, there is some really blatant and unfortunately bad use of CG throughout the shows less-than-exceptional battles. One glaring moment was with a battleship cruising on what I believe was 'water' but the rendering was so hideous that it looked like a PS1 game. There is some frame rate issues with soldiers marching. All these things plague so many TV anime.

The sound, and surprisingly, the editing does a lot of the heavy lifting. While this show was often dark and brooding, the editing and direction in many cases actually gave it a lot of life. Yutaka Uemura, whom I have not seen any work from, does some very solid work on Senki. Certain scenes and cuts really stick out as creative, fun, and even exhilarating. Even some more dialogue-driven scenes are cut well, which brings a new air to the way you listen to two people discuss war politics, which isn't always the most interesting topic.

Character design is generally not too memorable, as it focuses mostly on realistic designs that contrast hard with our main characters design. It isn't a bad thing, since I actually enjoy more realistic approaches to design. Many of them just don't stand out as much.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Characters in an Alt-History]

So Tanya is an attempt at an anti-hero. She's called "evil", but words like cruel, greedy, conniving, self-righteous, and powerful come to mind more often than evil does. There was one scene where "evil" can be attributed to her name, but everything else more lays towards the "Chaotic Lawful" side of things. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I never really got the idea that she was some evil psychopath. If anything, she was just self-absorbed and only caring about herself, which is a fine character trait.

As a protagonist she's the most engaging character in the series. I also really want to thank the show for not relying on poorly-placed comedy to make light of certain scenes. While there is comedy, it is often more understated apart from a few glaring places, which is acceptable. With Tanya harboring more of an anti-hero roll, you end up siding more with some of the people she kills, rather than herself. One scene particularly worked well, with imminent civilian casualties being swept under the rug due to a law-interpretation she wrote the paper on. She values logical solutions over emotional ones, which may make her, as I said, cruel and ruthless, but she doesn't really indulge in a lot of what she does. She simply is uncaring towards it.

Viktoriya is the most prominent secondary in the show. Her design is perhaps the most questionable, as her eyes are a bit too big for her face. It looks odd. What is the most questionable is her role within the show. She really just plays a cute girl that slowly becomes encapsulated in Tanya's world. Viktoriya doesn't have much of a character arc. I wouldn't call her all that pertinent to the show and her eventual role is mostly just another girl, however, it just ends up pointing out the complete lack of females within the show overall. Weird.

While I do say she's supposed to be a "cute" character, I wouldn't say the show overly relies on the "cute" aspect of her or Tanya for that matter. I'm really happy about that. This could've easily just been a show where a cute character murders people, and that would've lost my interest within the first episode. Thankfully it springs for a more in-depth approach to a character, even if it is definitely a result of marketing a character like this.

One of the biggest issues that Senki develops is its lack of actual consequences. The show itself has some moral ambiguity to it, which really surprised me since I virtually can't think of any action or drama anime that has moral ambiguity. With that said, though, the ambiguity is all it really has. In the end, you are still supposed to like the side you see the most on screen. Especially some of the comrades that fight alongside Tanya in her battalion. They get hurt, but there are hardly any deaths. There aren't many characters that you see for more than an episode that die, and the show often does a fake-out for their deaths, which robs it of any impact whatsoever. This is such a disappointment because Senki does have an interested aura of moral grey to it, which is sorely missing in anime.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion]

The Saga of Tanya the Evil is a surprisingly solid series. Even if it is plagued by a rough start, with the first few episodes being either incomprehensible or kind of boring, it makes a quick transformation towards the middle and end of the series. The story isn't anything to write home about, but Tanya's battle against faith is interesting and the refreshing morality of Senki elevate it to being pretty damn memorable.

Even the opening and end credit themes are stuck in my head hours after watching the series. This is the kind of series I may want to see more of within this medium. Although it doesn't have the brutal emotional impact I feel it could have, there are some really positive elements here. Unfortunately, it doesn't have all too much violence or consequence, but the character interaction and eventual evolution of Tanya is worth the watch on its own, with the crisp, explosive sound design being the icing on the cake.

If it weren't for the sub-par animation at a few time-saving moments during the series, this would be one of the more visually fresh and arresting shows recently. I think there is a lot to say about Studio NUT as well, who definitely have a lot of passion behind their first project, and rightfully so. There are issues with the product overall, but the end result is a positive one. Maybe the cynicism of Tanya makes me want to contrast myself here, but Youjo Senki was a surprisingly entertaining series, and I look forward to seeing more, if there is more to come. It sure has a hell of a set up.

I never had an intention of writing a review for any show, but for whatever reason i feel compelled to do so here, if only to clear my mind. I likewise have no interest in drawing it out or indulging in the typical hyperbole that reviews on this site tend toward, so to get to the point: Youjo Senki (the show) is a poor story. It is a poor story because, in essence, there is no tension or development throughout the show. Now, there are many ways to write a good story, and i'm not here to cast aspersions on any particular method or subversion ... of method. But generally speaking, it is difficult to make something compelling if the characters never face any real strife or challenge. Tanya faces neither, internally or externally. If the show is supposed to be plot-driven, it fails because there is no wonder or mystery as to how events will be resolved: Tanya will always succeed in her aims without facing much of a problem, the Empire's plans always obtain without so much as a setback; if the show is supposed to be character-driven, then it fails because Tanya's character doesn't change throughout the runtime of the show: she is the same person in the first episode as she was in the last, and there are no other characters to speak of for her to interact with. Perhaps one problem feeds into the other, as for there to be any development in a character they must face some trial which tests their preconceived notions. And so with no trials there can be no development. One could continue the analysis of Youjo Senki as a theme-driven or setting-driven story, or as a visual or auditory experience, but it would just be belabouring a point. It excels at none of those either.
Though i would like to say so, it would be too far to say that Youjo Senki isn't actually a story, that nothing really happens in the show. Things do happen, it's just that they are predictable and unexciting. It is remarkable that, even in show where the main antagonist is God himself, the main character faces no adversity. Once the novelty of a duck-lipped loli psychopath in military dress wears off, it is difficult to see what remains to keep the viewer interested.

Let's play the Youjo Senki question game™, everyone!

1.Name two characters not including main loli and meant-to-be-relatable-to-the-viewer-but-not-really? newcomer girl.

Why, you may think, that is just not important in this kind of story! Character development and such is non-important! And I completely agree. This anime was meant to be nothing more than an insane loli being crazy all over WW1 with magic. And that would have been completely fine. Yet they screwed that up, of course they did.

Rather than just being an insane loli Tanya is early on revealed to have been reincarnated from our world. However, the whole plot point about Tanya being actually a middle ... aged Japanese man seems to exist merely so that the anime can do absolutely nothing with it and make you wonder what the whole point is. In the end, it all comes up to some encounters between Tanya and God, who is angry that this one particular person does not believe in him. This kind of makes me wish that they had a plot twist revealing that He has actually done this to millions of people, each with his own alternate WW1 reality, but that is sadly not the case.

Anyways, this all seems to lead to a completely unearned and out of place philosophical moment in the last chapter, albeit it is presented with interesting visuals. All of this is completely unnecessary, no one is watching this to find out how pragmatically evil Tanya will trump the equally amoral God.

Oh, it also does that thing where it keeps telling you how bad war is while portraying it as something completely awesome and practically harmless, since, inexplicably, none of the main cast dies nor suffers any major injury at any point.

Ok, you say, the plot is broken and the characters are uninteresting, so what? I watch this for the amazing battle scenes. Yeah, well...it doesn't really have much going for it in that regard. Fights are little more than things moving fast and light flashing in front of your face. There is little to no tension since, as I mentioned before, we are not given any reason to believe that these guys can even die, Tanya even survives a full-on explosion all Nappa-style. And the CGI that always appears at the worst moments is so bad I actually recommend watching those particular scenes if you're in need of some cheap laughs.

Still, when it tries it can provide some really visually entertaining scenes and it ocasionally gets into the so-bad-it's-good territory to make it somewhat bearable if you have a lot of free time. Not recommended though. 5/10

Youjo Senki is a light novel adaptation and an isekai. Two things I'm not normally that interested in, but this one caught my eye because of its unique setting, dark color pallet and unusual art-style.

What's interesting about this one is that it's set in a Germany allegory and a world of the 1920s that runs parallel to our world's World War I (with some WWII elements added for good measure). This parallel world also contains a minority of people who are born with magical powers and are also used in the war effort.

Tanya the protagonist is an atheist and a cruel man from our ... world who seems to enjoy his job of firing people from his workplace and generally takes pleasure in getting ahead at the expense of others. One day a person he fired pushed him on to a railroad track and right as the train is about to hit him, a Godlike being stops time and sends him to the other world I described above to reincarnate as a little girl (who also happens to be a mage) in order to make him go through hardships that will strengthen his faith in God (aka making him a more decent person).

What's good about this show is that it plays out like a character study. There's lot's of fairly well written narration coming from the protagonist that gives you good insight in to his way of thinking and he's placed in a very uncomfortable situation that does challenge him as a character... well, sort of. In this new setting Tanya joins the military since it's wartime, but has no intention of being on the front-line, so the series creates circumstances to drag her there in spite of herself, because of her magic skills and high intelligence.

The first 3 episodes serve as a very strong introduction to everything I've just described.

Unfortunately, after those first 3 episodes, the series becomes more hit or miss in many respects.
You see, the series' main appeal and thing that's most worthwhile about it - is its protagonist. And no, this is not just my subjective opinion, this is something that is as close to a statement of fact that you can make about this show. I'm positive that even the fans of this show would agree.

The issue I have is that the internal study of the protagonist is put on hold for the rest of the series in favor of focusing on a more external exploration of its politics, its world and Tanya's role in it. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem if the setting, politics and battles were interesting, but that's not often the case here.

There's very little that's fleshed out about the setting throughout the series and even less about the characters inhabiting it.
It's like the show is just expecting you to have external knowledge about history in order to understand the setting and the differences between each nation. Which I do, but that's hardly enough to get you invested in what's happening in the show itself. There's lot's of dull moments and mission briefing scenes and vague political discussions involving characters you know little to nothing about, followed by battles against nations you know little to nothing about which eventually makes your mind wander.

There's no other character that has a proper character arc or plays a significant role in the story, nor has a stand out personality that you come to care about or remember. Sure, there's some guy who wants to kill Tanya at some point, but I struggle to even remember what his deal was, probably because Tanya didn't care either. Tanya is generally a pretty unstoppable force in the series that never seems to have much trouble overcoming her obstacles. Oh and there's also a female sidekick who's kinda cute.. And that's all you can say about her.

Tanya us on the front line and she stays there for the rest of the series' duration and that's pretty much it.
Eventually however, the series does seem to bring back an important theme from the very beginning and linking it nicely with what is happening in the present - making sitting through the series a little more worthwhile. While also setting up the movie sequel.

Speaking of which, the movie sequel finally starts exploring the setting properly, exploring differences between the alliance nation (Britain), the Empire (Germany) and the Soviet union equivalent. As well as setting up new characters that have personality and agency aside from Tanya. Not to mention some pretty epic battles and at least one instance of someone challenging Tanya physically.

The film still doesn't give further development or any change for Tanya's circumstances unfortunately. The ending of the film is still left open and basically just takes us right back to square one, with Tanya being in the same situation she was before, only with a bigger unit under her command this time...

Visually this show is fine, I guess.
Although far from exceptional, the animation is acceptable and it has flashy action to show off from time to time. The color pallet is often times very grayish and not always pleasant to look at, but occasionally this is used to its benefit of having high color contrast between the dark tones and Tanya's bright blonde hair for example. The locations also look pretty cool and it has just enough camera work that is used during conversations to further magnify what is happening and to keep the eye from getting bored. It also has a semi realistic art-style when it comes to background art and male characters, but for some reason female characters like Tanya and others have disproportionately giant eyes. It's obviously intentional, but the result isn't always very pretty.

The music, sound design and voice acting are all pretty damn great.
I recall lot's of epic battle tunes with what sounds like large choirs as well as a creepily great opening song that fits the series very well.
Tanya's voice acting specifically stands out making it feel like you're actually hearing a cynical grown man coming out of a little girl's body. The extremely high pitch she has does take some getting used to though.

Overall I realize that this is coming from my own bias of just expected this show to center more on what I found most interesting about it. I enjoyed the first 3 episodes a lot, the rest was a bit of a drag sometimes.
Yeah, the movie improved the war drama aspect, but I think that it could've been better as a 12 episode series with a solid ending, development and closure for its main character as well as a resolution to its silly anti-capitalist (or maybe pro capitalist? It's hard to tell sometimes) themes, instead of stretching this concept for all its worth. Putting development on hold for the sake of an okay-ish, but otherwise unremarkable war drama only to leave us hanging for another season which may or may not come.

I kinda liked the show anyway though.

Story-
This is a story about a salaryman who has no belief in the existence of "God". Thus when he was killed, "God" decided to make him submit to him by putting him into despair. So "God" decided to reincarnate him in another world as a girl and give him A LOT OF MAGIC power. That was indeed logical. In order to put him into desperate situation, the protagonist must be given high level of magic power and he can unleash full potential of it just by saying "God". How logical thing to do. Anyway, our main character is the antagonist of this story. She is ... sent to a world where war is all there is. There's also magic. She fights for the German-type Empire and her 12-man squad always wins against 100-man battalion. For some reason, enemies were most of the time shooting at the sky and the guy who was supposed to be putting our mc into despair suicided. If you look at it, for some unknown reason our mc is quite talented about war. Anyway, the story is decent because the main plotholes are too much like those in FPS war games.

Art-
The art is amazing. Sometimes CG was used but not too much. The fighting animation was fluent.

Sound-
The sound of a explosion, weapon firing, soundtracks are top notch. Voice actors did quite a great job to make the viewers feel like that they are actually watching real-world.

Character-
Since there are no character beside our mc, there's no character growth.

What looks like an intriguing concept dispelled itself with a distasteful play. The sage of Tanya the evil is at most ONLY interesting if it was not for Tanya. I don’t get the hype around it as I didn’t like the story at all. Making something evil could work to entertain your audience. But for me I was far from entertained. Even as form of art it didn’t trigger a “oh wow” reaction. With “the sage of Tanya the evil” they’ve gone overboard with having an evil main character and association with religion. Artichoke taste bitter but is undoubtingly more tasteful than medicine. Soy ... sauce is salty but a hundred times better taste maker than sea water. As for this story they missed the mark of being brilliantly evil and gone all the way to distasteful. Sadly enough there were more short comings than the story alone.

Animation
The animation was at times super great. Some scenes of Tanya shooting bullets or certain shots looks fabulous. The color and composition is great and you can simply sit back and relax. Then most of the time the animation is lackluster and misses all the details from before, making the lack of effort even more apparent. I wished they sticked to either “have everything look good” or “have everything look mediocre”. You could say that the animation swings forth and back like a metronome.
The CGI is noticeable. The crowds or trains which are made with CGI models are “cleverly” blurred to make it look like its hand drawn, but that is what is unsettling. Sometimes you see some well-drawn shots of Tanya and then a whole blurry crowd of cheering soldier. This same technique is done with flying. It makes it look like the law of gravity and mass look like a joke. If you’ve seen Redline or Gurren Lagann you can see the understanding of mass and speed in the animation. I totally missed that here.
The animation of lips make the character look like little ducks.

Sound
The music and soundtrack were the only thing that was good about it. The dynamic range of blasts and speeches were great. Blasts did sound hard and conversations normal. The music enhancing the “evilness” of Tanya were neat. Not much to mention more.
Voice acting was topnotch. VA knew how to convey the right feeling and were fitting for the personages.

Enjoyment
And as far as character and enjoyment go…. Well I didn’t enjoy it at all. As you’ve read before, the animation quality was heavily bouncing up and down and the music was just there to emphasize that. But then the worst factor of all is Tanya. This is the story of an heartless salary man who gets gender bent resurrected as an evil warfare loli. The use of “believing in god” as an underlying motive was so badly woven into the story that the mention of being X and believing became bothersome. But you need some sort of way to materialize the “isekai god”.
The use of magic was unique and certainly interesting but they left it out pretty early on and were only left hanging and guess what their magic is all about. They really missed an opportunity here. Because the only thing I know is “Tanya has much magic, thus she wins”
The cast was okayish. Nothing special and not to bothersome. You can clearly see they are filler because of the lack of character and depth they have.

What was great about this the mc is are the dialogues and thought process behind them. They certainly have a lot of effort of writing them. But the execution of action is what repels me from this anime. Tanya is evil and that is what supposed to be appealing. Yet it isn’t. The antagonist from Death Note was charming, smart and cunning. At least that’s what I feel when I watch him. The same goes for Ainz from Overlord. But then Tanya I feel like I want to kick her face with some heavy boots. Her mannerism, her thoughts her behavior is simply irritating and nothing to cheer on for. At one moment where she takes the enemy his riffle I thought “ew this is simply disgusting”. The lame excuse of “god” and her power behind it is simply not good enough to justify the injustice she brings.
On top of that there is one seen where she flexes her super powers and then proceeds to not use it for the whole anime.

Afterword
Maybe there are some people who will love it for the war or military aspect but as far as im concerned I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The cons outweigh the pros and I would say that the anime missed the point of entertainment or art at all. Animation was so so and the character were okayish to horrible.

Youjo Senki is an unusual Isekai by all means. It is a slightly altered Faustian drama that cut out the middle man (Mephistopheles) where the 'bet' is wagered between the MC and God directly. 'Tanya', as our MC - being reborn as an orphaned girl in Germany - is called, is thrown into the midst of a World War I setting. There is combat magic though and ofc Tanya is adept.
What unfolds is an Isekai show without sex, rapid skill growth, 'exploring the world' or the unwavering unity of MC and mission.
Instead we get Tanya: child soldier, sociopath, narcissist and well-educated from a ... past life.
She dreams of a rear-end position on a career track in the military but gets a front-row seat to the fiercest battles in the many theaters of a world war.
Now this is where it should have gotten interesting:
but the rebellious show, after coming off strong, remains (much like any other Isekai) in its comfort zone. There's a grueling battle, some show of Tanya being a good superior while having a terrible personality, followed by a return trip to Headquarters and a 'victim of your own success'-styled reason for immediate re-deployment.
Youjo Senki laid pretty decent ground-work but fails to water the field.
i.e.: Characters are already developed when they are introduced and I'd say that is a strong point in the start of the show.
Instead of unnaturally developing characters they could have dived deeper into them.. but they don't do that at all.
A general lack of depth is Youjo Senki's biggest shortcoming. Politics, tactics, interactions, hurdles, 'God' and his meddle, the various countries and their many soldiers are all just swiped over. It's similar to a Tinder session where images and profiles are quickly examined and thrown into box a (keep) or box b (toss).. neither of which actually matter much after the fact.
Its superb animation, vivid expressions, resting duckfaces and over-the-top (in a good way) sound design keep the show entertaining nonetheless.
Youjo Senki manages to be incredibly boring and exciting at the same time. If you're looking for a clear-cut action show this military fiction comes highly recommended. If, however, you expect anything more from this: expect to be disappointed.
Summa Summarum: Youjo Senki is a very well-made One-Trick-Pony.

I rarely rewatch anime. I don't enjoy doing it. However, I made a rare exception to this show, since I just read the manga, and I just finished catching up to the novels as well. I enjoyed them both. The manga especially surprised me with how it changed source material, but in a good way. The emphasis on characters, dialogue, and details of battles that were skipped over in the light novel series made for a good manga, and actually made up for a lot of things I was dissatisfied with the novel series.
Alright, how about the anime?
I really should trust my own ratings ... of shows. I actually watched this show before, a few months after it finished airing in 2017. I had absolutely no memory of it, only that it was extremely mediocre. Mind you, I do not have the memory of a goldfish. I in fact, do remember shows I watched over a decade ago, yet this anime, I failed to register in my mind almost any impression. I truly had forgotten it. Which is also another reason why I decided to rewatch it. Surely, it was worth the rewatch. After all, the source material is great.
Sadly, it truly is a rushed piece of garbage.
What are the good things? Well, the backgrounds look pretty good. Some fight scenes, maybe two or three of the fights were actually satisfying to watch, Dacia, Shock and Awe, Arene, and many other scenes where Tanya's troops were fighting the enemy, were not that great. Whether it be the crappy CGI, or just the fact that angles are drawn or only certain portions of the fight are shown, such as a person firing a gun, explosions covering half the screen, close ups of people rather than fighting, etc, there's actually not a lot of "action" we get in the many fights that happen. It's all abstracted or animated in such a way that you get the 'feeling" that a fight happened, but no real impact was demonstrated. Overall, though, the art is OK. It's passable. Certain portions of the series are animated well, and it's a ton better than Overlord, to say the least. It's decent. There's a lot of cut corners, but at the same time, I do understand that animating armies and fights are pretty high budget, but that does not really remove my dissatisfaction. I mean come on, Arene barely had any fighting shown, and Shock and Awe was limited to a few frames of explosions. Plus, you could tell that all the budget went into the skirmish in episode 11, which was one of the few decent fight scenes, admittedly, since everything else was so slow paced in those episodes with barely anything going on, completely contrary to the fast pacing done before.
As for OST, well, it's pretty damn good. I'll just leave it at that.
But hey, the art / OST is not everything. What about characters and story? You know how I said that the manga had much more emphasis on characters, dialogue, and details of battle compared to the LN? It did trade off a lot of monologing that Tanya did, but oh well. That's fine. In exchange for monologuing being taken away, a lot of extra content was added. What about the anime? In the source material, Tanya monologues for about 50% or more of the entire story. What does the anime to make up for this lack of monologuing? I do admit, the first 5-6 episodes was able to barely have the viewer make sense of Tanya's personality with minimal monologuing but overall, actually, the portrayal of Tanya is completely different in the anime as compared to the light novel OR the manga. It's all because there's absolutely no development of any character or story, and it's fast paced as all hell. The anime manages to throw away a majority of the monologuing while simultaneously speeding through all the plot events like a checklist. Remember, the anime is actually AHEAD of the damn manga even though the manga is at chapter 55 in serialization. Chapter 55, of a series that has 50 page chapters. Usually, anime only adapt 20~ or so chapters when chapters are this long. It just illustrates the fast paced nature of the anime.
Arene, Shock and Awe, Republic's armistice, search and destroy mission at sea, Tanya's war college, Rhine front training of recruits, etc. These events I listed are either skipped entirely or just rushed. For how many events that are skipped, the anime sure is still zooming through the material it decides to adapt. What you get is a steaming pile of garbage. Not only do you not understand the plot and events that are going on because a lot of it is rushed or skipped, you also fail to have any empathy or understanding of any characters in the story since they get no screen time and dedication to their development. What you get is "army orders" making the plot go on without the viewer understanding most of what's happening, and Tanya and her crew fighting despite the viewer again, not having much of an understanding of them either. Sure, the interactions between Being X and Tanya are pretty good, especially the train scene. Overall, what I realize is that the earlier parts of the show adapt at a slower rate and are animated better, which makes it a lot easier to stomach. Tanya's speech to Lergen at the very end of the show had upside as well. However, whether it be the decent fight scenes or decent dialogue that showcase a character, it is buried beneath the reeking pile of garbage.
It truly is no wonder how I have no memory of the show. It reeks of mediocrity and brings nothing new to the table that the LN or manga had not done already. it's rushed, has poor fights, lacks almost any character development or compelling dialogue. The anime sucks, read the manga or LN.

This is a purely graded review, don't read this if you're interested in getting an overview of the show, I'm purely writing this to convey my feelings to people who have already watched the show / read the manga. Light spoilers may follow.

Story-

The story remains mostly unchanged from the manga, however, skips some pretty key details and changes others, which makes for a generally less concise experience and story than the manga had. I understand they did this because of time and budgetary reasons, but it still detracts regardless. Still, the story is quite good. 7/10 overall.

Art-

Why.

Why does Viktoriya look like that? Why does may ... sue look like that? Why do the side characters look good while the main characters look like they were designed in sub 10 minutes by a child sweatshop worker just off their 12-hour shift? WHY?

The character designs looked good. GREAT, even, in the manga. Why do they look so astronomically shit in this? It isn't even artistic license at this point, it just looks fucking awful. There is certainly some merit in the "budget argument" here, as it would definitely suck up the budget to animate the characters as they look in the manga. But WHY DID THEY DO THIS. Viktoriya looks like a fucking blob, the eyes are too big, never animated correctly, the mouths are too small and also poorly animated, hair seems at times to have no or all physics known to man, and generally, the animation is just hard to fucking look at. Another gripe I have with the animation is the excessive use of CGI shots. CGI can be used well, and in moderation- it is neither here. It is not blended well or used at an unnoticeable level, with sometimes KEY SCENE OBJECTS (CENTRE STAGE FUCKING OBJECTS!?!?!? REALLY???) being 3DCG. This is a big no-no.

Overall, the animation is badly done, badly blended, pathetically implemented, and just generally a hellscape. 1/10.

Sound-

Godly OP, Godly ED, fine sound design. 8/10.

Characters-

Characters are largely unchanged from the manga, which is good- because they are great in the manga, but something overall just feels off. Not that I can explain why or what feels off, but something does. Maybe it's the animation or the character designs interfering with my critical judgment. Overall 8/10.

Enjoyment-

IMO, while not being more enjoyable than just reading the manga or the LN (do it, people- you don't burn your eyes on this shit and you get to experience both a better story and characters, it's a win-win.) The anime still holds on to a lot of that enjoyment, and the fact that this is animated at all, regardless of how badly it is animated, adds a lot to that enjoyment factor. 8/10.

Overall-

Overall, 7/10 for the story, 1/10 for art, 8/10 for sound, 8/10 for characters, 8/10 for enjoyment. The mean and therefore overall score comes out at a 6.4/10

Final verdict- read the manga. It's better in almost every way and there's literally no reason not to.

[not many spoilers, i'll keep it vague] I'll start off by saying that Youjo Senki had quite a lot of potential. One of the main reasons why I started this series was because I felt that its premise was interesting and unexpected - an atheist salaryman reborn into another universe as a girl, participating in a world war? You don't find that in most animes, so kudos for that, i guess.

The most problematic area, in my opinion, was character motivations and relationships. To me, Tanya's motivations were never clear at all. She did say that all she wanted was the 'climb the ladder in the ... rear' and not go to the frontlines. But at the frontlines, she displays aggression and an enthusiasm for violence that contradicts her statements from before. This is especially problematic as this is a very character-centric anime. This means that the plot revolves around Tanya, and her rapid-response battalion. If her motivations aren't clear, then the plot is essentially devoid of investment on the part of the main character. Furthermore, there was a lot of potential in terms of relationships between characters. For example, her relationship with the female war veteran that follows her everywhere could have been more well-developed. What do they think of each other? Why are they paired together? What about her and her battalion? There are some scenes of camaraderie, but nothing to outrightly suggest that they have much loyalty to Tanya.

The plot was also problematic, in the sense that it kept pushing for pay-off, without the set-up required. This is an anime about war. That entails really dark and heavy themes, of death and destruction and bombs. However, we as viewers usually don't get invested in the war and violence at all if we aren't emotionally invested in the the characters. In other words, the deaths of unnamed characters usually fail to incite any emotion in a viewer, unless the story has "set-up" our investment in the character. Okay, to be fair, they did try in a few instances (can't say, spoilers), but it wasn't enough, and at most they spent about a minute on it? There wasn't enough time spent to make sure that we understand and value these characters, and would be sad if they died. Thus, despite the constant emphasis on a "world war", I didn't feel much for it. Furthermore, there is quite a lot of patriotic talk in the anime (like,, everytime someone important opens their mouth). However, the anime only 'tells' us - instead of 'showing' us - that the consequences of losing this or that battle would be bad. Of course, anyone would understand that losing battles and seeing people die is bad, but reality is that depicting a successful operation in the face of all odds doesn't leave an impact the way failing and seeing your men die does. Then again, 12 episodes aren't enough time for all that set-up, though it does pay-off quite nicely in the end. (See: Kuroko no Basuke and the Inter-school competition)

The art was quite good though, I particularly liked the way they depicted the battle scenes, though the way characters were drawn kind of put me off. Music was okay, not amazing, but okay.

All in all, not very worth watching, but still pretty enjoyable. The ending is a pretty good twist (and a perfect set-up for a next season heh)

I'm what you would call a completionist of any shows that I watch. Once I start them I feel an obligation to finish them. Well I really struggled finishing this anime, which is odd because I am by no means picky when it comes to my anime. The one thing that sort of interested me was the reincarnation of the business man into Tanya, but they never even explored that. So basically he was reincarnated somehow with the knowledge to become a general as a little girl that is super op, unlikable in (not a fun way) and boring. I would recommend this anime if ... you have a thing for lolis, slow paced completely unexplained plots and only one character being the focus for most of the screentime. If not I would advise you to not waste your time with this show.

Youjo Senki, or as it has been translated into English, The Saga of Tanya the Evil, (which is particular, and will address later) is a piece of alt-history fantasy. Our main character is a Japanese salaryman living in the current day, who has rejected God, and after being killed by a former employee, out of resentment for having been laid off, is told that he must accept God in his next life. This next life is where the story begins, in the year 1925, during The Great War, but not quite the same as the real one. The biggest major difference, as you can probably ... gather, is that the armistice wasn't signed on the 11th of November, 1918, and the war has continued, mostly in the same manner as the real Great War, with the exception of the fact that as it turns out, magic exists in this universe, with Mages (Tanya being a major one) who are able to precisely send artillery strikes onto targets, as well as stop getting hit, and other magical things. It's also worth noting that the country names are different. The German Empire (the country Tanya fights for) is 'The Empire', the US are the 'Unified States', the UK are the 'Allied Kingdom', all of which mean little to me, beyond France, who are the Entente Alliance. I won't go over this too much, but could they have chosen a worse title? It'd be like if it took place in the Cold War, and Germany was called the NATO Warsaw Pact.
And so, Tanya, (who's a 13 year old girl unlike most the officers who are just middle aged men, by the way) must find a way to end this stalemate and win the war for the Empire. And this is the highlight of the show, since the action is all very well orchestrated, and it uses the setting of WW1 more as a backdrop than as something it attempts to actually emulate, there's never an intertitle telling you she's in Ypres or the Meuse-Argonne or anything, but it's just muddy trenches and villages in Europe so they all look pretty much the same, and it's probably more DAK than Imperial German Army with the fact a lot of it isn't emphasised on the trenches, which isn't a complaint. Still, that's not to say I have no complaints at all in regards to this. Mages are capable of sending surgical strikes onto their targets with ease, so surely this would be enough to have a major change to the trench warfare system, if not the abandonment of it. After all, what actually caused it was the combined arms Blitzkrieg, predominantly utilising planes and tanks, both of which are used in the show. But no, it seems like soldiers in this universe are told to sit in a trench and wait for someone to charge over the top, and if some flying loli comes up with something that I can only guess is a G43 (a magazine-fed semi automatic German rifle, which may be anachronistic but the Unified Kingdom had M1 Garands so if they don't care about historical accuracy then I don't) then just accept your death.
So, to get to the point, it's about our titular character Tanya, who is evil, it even says so in the title. But is she really? She might be an extremely staunch atheist, even in the face of supernatural happenings, which isn't particularly evil, but neither are her actions. I know a thing or two about Patton and Guderian etc. (i.e. important military personnel from the 1910's onwards), and she really doesn't strike me as that different to any of them. If I had to describe her philosophy in a sentence, it would be getting the mission done at any cost, but she didn't do anything especially wrong in my opinion, even in one of the later episodes which I felt was meant to make the viewer perceive her as Hitler or something. Perhaps it's because we're so used to anime protagonists being absolute beacons of moral behaviour, and never doing anything bad, and so I was in the wrong mindset, expecting her to slap a shell-shocked soldier or firebomb Paris or something. At the end of the day, she's not that great of a protagonist. She's better than what we usually get, and I'd rather she's as she is than some Shinji Ikari, but I feel like the author rested a lot of the entertainment value on her being a great character, which I didn't think she was.

So, is Youjo Senki a bad show? It really isn't, and of many instances of moe-isation of war, this does strike me as one of the better ones, but it just could've been so much more, and I suppose it's like some WW1-era artillery. It tries to hit many things, but fails to hit any. A show about the Great War, a show about magical powers, a show with an amoral yet compelling protagonist. It tries to be all of these, but doesn't do any with that much finesse. It's not a bad show, it's all well made, but it's certainly not one I plan to watch again any time soon.

Story: 5
I personally thought Tanya the Evil was a good show. It is far from perfect however it falls short because of its "mediocre" story in my opinion. That might be because I just don't enjoy war stories but seeing how it progressed and how it attempted to push these sudden changes for no reason made me see the overall product and unsatisfactory. However saying this the story did have some moments were it had me thinking and staying up watching the show.

Art: 6
The art was fair its what I expected seeing the anime's picture and certain screenshots. The animation was lackluster with ... fights which I didn't really like however some "gun" fights and kills were pretty good. The attention to detail however with some major scenes didn't allow me to really feel what the creators wanted me to feel I guess...

Sound: 7
In regards to sound it was good the control of fighting with gun shots and voices were well balanced. The opening was good I enjoyed but ended up skipping near the end. However that might of been because I didn't really like hearing it overplayed. The magic casting sounds were good as well but not perfect.

Character: 9
Overall: The only character I would really highlight is Tanya due to her having the most impact and her progression being the thing that drives the plot. She was a very strange character. No unique is a better word. She was portrayed as evil however if you look into it at a more "person against the word idea" you can see he/she had good reasons. She doesn't really fall out of character and if she "does" she is joking and supporting the characters with the conversation making nice warm feeling scenes. Overall she is a great character and her progression is presented almost perfectly in 12 episodes.

Enjoyment: 5
I didn't really enjoy that much of Tanya the evil mainly because the plot didn't do for me. I just didn't really like watching because I felt as if the show could of done with more episodes to further development certain things with I felt forced which broke my concentration with enjoyment of the show. Furthermore I didn't like how certain things were explained rather then showed which did heavily impacted the score I am giving it.

Overall: 6
Overall Tanya the evil is an alright show. Some moments stick out more then others and Tanya has some major moments where the anime provides you with certain thoughts making it impactful and memorable. However it doesn't do this much for me and I didn't really feel what I thought I was gonna feel going in to it. Its a good show however could of done things a little bit differently to make a more impactful show in my opinion.

(I don't really write reviews so don't take this too seriously)

The First World War is a particularly fascinating case study in human suffering. The seemingly nebulous ends on part of the participating states, paired with the tremendous loss of military and civilian life for very little tactical gain in addition to the premiere of new technologies such as mustard gas and long range artillery, render the conflict one of the bleakest and most anti-humanistic affairs in our long and already violent history. The Saga of Tanya the Evil sets itself up in a unique position to explore the human cost of the war from the eyes of both the soldiers in the trenches and the ... officers seated in high command. Unfortunately, the introduction of the mage system and the decision to turn the punished reincarnated salary man into an absurdly overpowered angry demon loli cause the show to fall flat of this potential.

The plot features Tanya, said angry demon loli, leading the alternate universe Axis powers to a string of laughably one-sided victories against their inept opponents episode after episode. Their forces are never shown to suffer any serious losses nor are any of the "risks" they take shown to fail. Even when members of Tanya's squadron are defeated, they only come right back in the next five minutes of screen time. In this regard, The Saga of Tanya the Evil fails in the most essential task of any good war story: to establish a tangible sense of danger. The characters too are lacking in depth and easily forgotten, and the sound design, important in this genre for immersing the audience in the show's setting, is unconvincing at its best.

If you are looking for another wish-fulfillment fantasy action show to waste a couple hours on, perhaps you will be satisfied with Tanya the Evil, though there are better ones out there than this. Ultimately, my biggest disappointment with the show is knowing what it could have been. What could have been a show about the philosophical musings of a cynical Japanese businessman forced to rediscover his humanity in the midst of the devastation of war is instead reduced to a bland, mediocre tour of the battlefields of World War I without any of the stakes or consequences.