One of the things I ask myself with every time I encounter a remake/reboot/reimagining is “Why? What does it offer that wasn’t done before?”
Admittedly, I haven’t finished watching the OVA, nor have I read the source material. So I can’t in good conscience tackle the issue about what the story offers more than what was told before. Here’s what I do know though: The New Thesis will have updated visuals. It is only expected. A New Thesis and a generation to entice; and it went okay. I guess.
For one, despite criticisms of its character designs, exemplified by the mocking fan title “Legend of the Generation of Miracles”, the characters feel a little more varied than what we usually get in anime, some with distinct facial features and enough variety in hairstyles and facial hairs to easily identify them if you’re that much of a hardcore fan, at least for the more visible characters.
The rest of the show’s aesthetics is nothing too surprising. It is par for the course of what I would expect from a modern day depiction of the future environment and technology. There’s the usual drill of holograms, although it’s far more toned down, far less intrusive, and far more useful than some movies I can name. Other than that, there’s also the same old cinematic technique of having a contrast between the spaceships of both factions: the Alliance’s ship designs and ship interiors is austere while the Empire’s is steeped in grandeur.
In terms of battle, it puts priority on spectacle as is expected. It evokes the same technique of fleet-wide battles Star Trek and Star Wars employ: cinematic first and foremost. Think DS9's Sacrifice of Angels. And it is as illogical and inefficient. In fact, LoGH has often been described as a series that views warfare in only two dimensions. And it retains that aspect. Fleet tactics doesn’t seem to be more advance than the line-of-battle approach of the 1600s.
This approach is probably the most pleasing visually and the most workable one in fleet-wide battles, cinematically speaking. I can understand. I'm okay with that. It’s simply the one that gives you plenty of frames of reference for the action occurring on the screen. It’s for the same reason fighter aircraft engagements in movies are set to occur within visual range. It gives you visual cues that are easy to understand and process. You can easily pinpoint who is winning and who is losing. The problem with this series in particular is that it doesn’t make full use of the visuals. The battles feel like set piece engagements instead of dynamic and ever-shifting. It’s just two sides exchanging a volley of fire, with no meaningful information given. It doesn’t help the viewer(s) understand what is happening. It just gives them something to look at. Given the space battle style used, I feel like that’s missing half the purpose. Heck, the visual cues (holograms) inside the spaceships' bridge areas are more informative and helpful in informing us of the state of battle. This is a series that banks on improved visuals as one of its perks. Its visuals should be more useful and informative. That or they utilize the holograms more and create more focus and depth on the commanding officers as they give the orders that decides the fates of entire planets.
Because, ultimately, I consider this to be the main draw of the series: two legends in the making, their choices, and their intertwined story that spans the galaxies and affects the entire course of humanity.
I feel that the series has taken solid steps in that direction. Episode 1 begins in the Battle of Astarte and wastes no time in introducing and establishing one of its main characters while Episode 2 shows us the same battle, this time through the perspective of the other main character. It then utilizes Episodes 3 & 4 to individually introduce each character, where they’re coming from, and how they got to where they were in the Battle of Astarte. This setup allows us to appreciate and understand where both characters are coming from without fighting for our attention over the course of a single episode -a far, far stronger approach than the first episode of the 110 episode OVA where both characters are fighting for screentime, resulting in a far more fragmented introduction. Here, we are allowed to focus on one character for one episode, and then the other in the next.
It could have done more though. It wasted some prime opportunities to delve even deeper.
Case in point: the simulation in Episode 4 flashback. Episode 4 tries to paint Yang, still a cadet, as someone worthy of the title magician, through a simulation against the top student of the class. Demonstrating a character’s capability and, well, measure of his character, using a simulations program is not a new concept. It’s the futuristic space exploration stories’ shorthand/equivalent to demonstrating a character’s intellect using chess. It has been used for example, to paint a picture of James T. Kirk, in what is commonly known as the Kobayashi Maru scenario.
The series did not use its simulations effectively. It could have been used far more effectively to tell us what kind of commander he is by putting him in a situation where he has to make difficult choices or emphasizing clearly how he pursues his mission. Perhaps it tried to tell us what kind of commander/tactician Yang is (one that values the objective much more than anything else, according to his actions in this test at least) but it was vague and inconclusive because we don’t understand what that test entails. Was his move really a gambit, sacrificing the bulk of his fleet in an outnumbered fight of attrition while a detachment the opponent blatantly ignored accomplished the objective? We don’t know. All we know is that it was supposed to be the test that gets him noticed and set him on his path, and he won over the top student of the class because the top student of the class simply forgot Yang’s win condition.
But still, all in all, it could be a decent space opera. Viewers who came here for political intrigue or military strategems would be disappointed however.
The series attempts to tackle the political sphere and sets up its narrative in part to cater to that. But it strikes me more as a space opera than a debate, a space age set drama about the follies and triumphs of humans. With that, it attempts to put its characters to the forefront at first, and the political sphere is secondary; which is nice, because its politics and arguments are basic and simple. It lacks nuance and detail, and relies on simplified versions and preconceived notions of concepts such as liberty, the social contract, and government. How they view political systems may not be as black or white as is the norm but it also still boils down to the basic identities of what constitutes a democratic and an authoritarian government. That it is different from the way political viewpoints are normally tackled in the entertainment industry is not a testament to its genius but a reminder of how low that particular bar is set.
At times it can even get more comically, unintentionally or not. Those patriot patrol guys or something should have been a far more insidious symptom of the cracks in the Alliance’s façade. The reaction of the kid especially should have been the creepier option: thinking this was all perfectly normal and acceptable in this society rather than being self-aware, extremely so. The scene felt like it wasn’t given gravity it needed. It could have felt as fucked up as a child continuing to love the parents who neglect and hurt him because he thinks that it’s one of their ways of showing love or that because it’s his fault he misbehaved that they beat him severely.
Its views and understanding of warfare roughly falls under the same pattern. The first episode attempts to demonstrate to us the cranial capacity of one of its main characters, Reinhard, by having him prevail while outnumbered two to one. Reinhard pulls this “amazing and unprecedented victory” off in a rather straightforward manner, through a concept we call Force Concentration. Look it up in Wikipedia. The problem with this is that it’s such a basic and commonly accepted concept in war that it’s hardly daring or revolutionary. And yet for the admirals and commodores of both sides that are not the main characters, this was baffling and overwhelming. The factions these characters are in have been at war for over 150 years and yet this is a revolutionary and daring plan, one that helps justify him getting promoted to one of the highest echelons of the Imperial Military? This doesn’t paint Reinhard as a genius. This paints him as a slightly competent man in a war fought by insufferable idiots. He’s not necessarily smart. He’s just fighting with and against dumbasses.
And frankly, that last couple of sentences sums up this series. This one stands out because it is different from the score of repetitive mediocrity.
