Apr 27, 2016
"In every age, in every place, the deeds of man remain the same"
This is LOGH's basic idea and what makes it a timeless epic. It is a show that very carefully explores various political an philosophical topics, while never trying to preach an absolute truth. It rather presents the audience a lot of different point of views which all make sense and are in a way justified. Pair this quality with a glorious story, fantastic characters and a magnificient score, and you get what may very well be the best anime ever.
The show is set in distant future in our milky way galaxy, where
...
the universe is split into two political groups. The Free Planets Alliance which strongly resembles the US army during WW2, and on the other side an aristocratic german Empire with fancy royals. This contrast is interesting in itself, and while there are other players in the game, the main question of the show is whether democracy or monarchy is superior. As already stated, the final decision must be made by the viewer as the show does not take a clear position, which is fantastic.
To keep a neutral position the story is often told through a narrator who summerizes events like in a history class. This is important because the author created an unbelievably realistic scenario, and many, many events take place in this universe. LOGH cares a lot about world building and excels in it. The only minor flaw may be that you are disturbed that humanity hasn't evolved more in over a thousand years, but that does not hinder the drama in any way.
Other than that, LOGH thankfully does not utilize "Deus Ex Machina" means in any plot twist, and does not fall into the trap of trying to be too surprising. Everything seems reasonable and while plottwists sometimes can be seen coming, it isn't so important what happens, but how it happens. This increases the worth of rewatching the series immensely and it will never get boring.
To connect the ideas of the show to the audience the show uses an incredibly big cast of characters. If I had to compare LOGH to a famous TV Series,it would be Game of Thrones. In comparison, LOGH doesn't feature any unneeded characters. Everyone contributes to the story, features an individual personality and believable reasons behind his philosophy. It is simply incredible how many amazing characters this show has. This ranges from main characters to side characters, and it was a pure joy to watch these personalities talk and interact.
Since LOGH doesn't favour any side in this war, the war itself becomes even more dramatic. You can't root for anyone, you keep rooting for peace. And because characters do not have any plot armour, better prepare yourself for some manly tears...
From the technical standpoint it's amazing how well this series has aged. Of course the movement of characters is not as crisp as in modern works, and various other limitations of the time like resolution or contrasts are noticeable. Especially the space battles seem a little lackluster in the first 20 episodes.
However, as many times stated, the production team was eager to improve and it does!
But disregarding all that, the artstyle itself is really, really good. It perfectly underlines a serious war drama, and it always understands its own limitations. It doesn't go for flashy effects when it doesn't need to, it focuses more on characters and realistic looks. Characters are designed like actual humans (they have noses!), and even though they mostly wear the same uniforms, you can distinguish them pretty easily. It's remarkable how they managed to make each character recognizeable, something modern anime often fail.
The directing is superb, too. A lot of attention is paid to the body language of the characters and lots of details can be found, which give not only the characters but also the whole show more depth.
The soundtrack is outstanding, since it uses some of the most famous composers of all time like Mozart, Beethoven and others. Since Star Wars we know how well classical music goes with a space opera, that it provides a scale of epic- and timelessness, and LOGH makes use of this. And don't get me started about the intro and outtro songs, which are a trip to feeltopia (I'm talking to you, ending 3...).
Something a lot of people criticize is the slow pacing, which I can not agree at all with. You may need some episodes to dive into the world as it is very complex, and to get to know all the characters. But out of 110 episodes, there is no one which is unimportant. In every episodes something major happens - in fact, if another show would try to show all the events from LOGH, it would probably take over 200 episodes. LOGH is a masterpiece of directing and storytelling - sometimes an episode might look like a filler, just to take a u-turn and make the viewer realize why they showed this slice of life scene. I've never seen this executed this well ever before. Take notes, authors, this show is almost 30 years old and you haven't been able to do the same?
LOGH rewards the intelligent viewer. It is plot driven and dialog heavy, but there was not a minute where I was bored. It is a true epic that doesn't need boobs or stupid comedy to shine. Though being a very serious war drama, even the humour makes you smirk from time to time and allows for a great comedic relief.
All in all it is clearly the best anime out there for me. It just outclasses everything else, and I seriously dare to say that anyone with a taste for intelligent entertainment will like this for sure.
"The legend end, and history begins..."
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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