~STORY~
If you are reading this review having not watched the series, I'm not going to spoil it for you, I wouldn't want to do you the disservice of preparing you to watch LOGH. It's a grand interstellar political drama, where those with power rise and fall. Eras will end, civilizations will crumble and all for what? Honour? Ambition? Greed? Perhaps for the strength of one's beliefs? For it is human nature that, even centuries into the future, remains unchanged.
And really, this is how LOGH shines. While set far in the future, LOGHs does not lose its human element, its sense of realism. I've heard a few people say that the first dozen episodes are quite slow, but I was enamoured with them; because it takes the time to intricately set up a world - a grand and well put together stage for its actors to present themselves within. It brings you into this detailed place, helping you understand what its inhabitants value. It provides context to shape the future of the show's plentiful clashes of personalities and ideologies.
This is another success of LOGH, its display and very balanced discussion of the ideologies that shape the two primary sides of the galaxy - A democratic rule against an autocratic rule, which one is 'better'? As a westerner who has been taught the value of democracy my whole life, I of course lean towards the government by the people for the people. But a democracy can become corrupt, and an autocracy can have a just and fair ruler - so then, who is to say which one is truly superior? I'll let you watch and find out for yourself.
Another grand achievement of LOGH is its many space battles. While I did enjoy Code Geass, I did start to find it boring that the fights came down to 'who has the strongest single robot'. LOGH does not have this problem. The ships involved in the various battles are evenly matched, so it all comes down to strategy and tactics. "The Art of War" must have been read by a great multitude of the fleet commanders in the series, as they display stratagems that are obviously inspired.
Progression is clear and logical, the various challenges that arise for both sides make sense, and are dealt with in a way that makes sense. And that is a good tell of a story: it makes sense. It is also very evenly paced (depending on your taste for the previously mentioned world building). I would say something about the ending, but I don't want to give anyone that hasn't watched it yet any sort of indication of what happens!
The final thing I'll say about the story is that it is deep, and I do not use that word lightly. And I don't mean the sloppily executed, poorly written "deep" - where the creators forcibly try and shove their views, their 'message' down your throat. No, it's just the very human nature of the anime, coupled with extensive cast that allows for so many different sorts of people to experience the same thing, and react to it differently - thus causing the viewer to think about how they react to it. No more is this obvious than how the anime deals with death. Those who fear it, those who accept it, those who try and run from it, and those who appear to actively pursue it. Death can come quickly without warning, or maybe it's given you obvious signs of ends approach. It does not differentiate between those of different class or belief, from those who 'deserve' it, or do not. Legend of the Galactic Heroes shows all sides, and that's how I'll end this enormous story section.
~ART~
The quality greatly improves from the initial dozen episodes - though while watching I hardly noticed until I rechecked the first episode right after I had finished the last. It's style is definitely of its time, but I really love the older anime art styles. Just keep in mind that this anime was made when everything was hand-drawn, hand-coloured, hand-everythinged - so you'll see a few clever shortcuts they did in order to save time in animation, but it certainly didn't bother me. I can't fault an anime for being old, and this is one of the best looking 'old' anime I've watched in a long long while.
~SOUND~
The soundtrack is fitting for an anime of this calibre. While I'm not sure whether it contained any original songs, LOGH contained a very wide variety of Baroque, Classical and romantic period music - all used very appropriately and to great effect.
~CHARACTER~
I love every single character in this anime. I mean, a few of them are absolute scumbags, but I love how they are written. Since the cast is so huge, I can't possibly hope to cover them all - but they are all wonderfully diverse, so wonderfully well written and developed. They all of varying degrees of honour, courage, ambition and... well, I can't say it much better than "foppery and whim" (you'll understand once you watch it). And you know what's the best? You see characters develop, while sticking to their core values. I also must say, I predicted various characters to do certain things, and they didn't - and other characters I expected to react in certain ways - but they reacted differently. It's not that the characters were erratic, but rather I had misread their intentions and character - which is refreshing! If you can predict a character, they don't have much character to begin with!
But there are two characters I must mention - two whom I cannot go without mentioning; and that is of course the two main characters: Reinhard and Yang Wenli. I love anime where characters are given other character to compare with for great results - and these two are my favourite. Reinhard of the imperial side, with much honour and ambition; and Yang of the Alliance who is honourable and has no ambition other than to get his pension when he retires. They are both so similar, yet so very very different. When they clash, my heart sings. They are both flawed, they both fall short, but they are both also so strong as to carry the hopes of nations on their backs. I will end this section from a speech that Yang Wenli gives early on, which perfectly sums up his character "Because we can only drink good tea while we're living. Everybody, let's fight so we don't die.
~ENJOYMENT~
No yeah of course I loved it, if you couldn't already tell. 10s all the way across the board.
~OVERALL~
While I'm tempted to say that this is my new favourite anime of all time, I'm not sure I can. Not because of any flaws (and mind you, there are some - just none that I can really mention without spoilers), but rather that I have nothing that can really compare to it on the same level. I love the writing of Monster, but can a thriller compare to a epic space drama? I love the characters in Ping pong, but can they compare to an anime with 99 extra episodes to work with? I love the ideas and execution of Fate/Zero, but can I really compare ufotable's enormous budgets to an anime made 17 years ago? All I can say it that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is brilliant, masterful, and unlike anything I've ever seen before. Please, go watch it; don't let it's age or high episode count deter you.
Now I really have to think of what to watch next... maybe something that isn't good so I can lower my standards and acclimatize to the regular standard of anime again. Either way, Toodles~
