A story where there is no right and no wrong.
A story of war.
The saga of Tanya the evil sets itself in an era similar to that of World War I.
Tanya, a reincarnated evil that plays strictly by orders from a set hierarchy defies the existence of ‘God’ due to personal beliefs that unexpectedly made sense.
Due to that strict fixation and idealism that ‘There is nothing easier than following the rules’ and that ‘There is no such thing as an almighty being, of God...’ A being, a self-proclaimed god decided that this individual be taught a lesson that god exists and therefore reincarnated this intriguing personality as a little girl in an era of war.
Tanya retained her memories even after being reincarnated, with an aptitude for magecraft she decided that staying in the orphanage at a time of war would get her no where. Where rations and supplies were insufficient, one would only starve to death or become a scavenger for survival.
Hence, at the young age of 9 she had already joined the army and graduated with a post of Warrant Officer.
Due to her ideologies, Tanya was seen as the perfect soldier and the ace of the Empire (The country she was fighting for).
She was critically analytical and strategic allowing her to devise many strategies to aid the army, noticed for her talents she was promptly promoted to Major and assigned to lead a battalion to assist with top secret missions that would ultimately win the war.
Tanya at first was hesitant since she played by the books at first in order to end up at a level in the hierarchy where one doesn’t have to fight in the battlefield but fight in the rear, giving commands behind the scenes.
Not wanting her talents to be wasted, Tanya ended up having to do both fieldwork and strategic planning for the Empire.
The entire process of Tanya’s development was amazing. It improved her personality yet prevented her from deviating from her ideals despite some of which contradicts.
For example, when tasked to do fieldwork as a Major, Tanya tried to find a way to get out of the job or find a reason for being unable to handle the task.
Her first method was to recruit highly capable individuals and attempted to delay time by setting extremely high expectations in which to no avail.
Next she attempted to ‘torture’ her subordinates through an exhausting, nerve-wrecking and almost physically inhumane training regiment.
She thought that they would give up and quit leaving her with an excuse that the recruits weren’t capable enough however, due to Tanya’s cunning nature her subordinates feared yet respected her. They persevered on despite her cruel regiments.
That was when Tanya realised her methods weren’t working or didn’t apply to everyone.
Eventually, Tanya matured in character along with the relationship with her battalion likewise, her comrades grew closer to her as well until the war was finally over, or at least until an armistice took place.
Vengeance begets vengeance, hatred begets hatred and the cycle of violence continues. This held deep meaning and relation to the anime.
War may scale down over time but the speck of vengeance or hatred would still remain even if you were to lay down your hands and break the cycle of hatred. You will just die, the rest of the world that will live on, will continue to fight for vengeance and hate. Making your sacrifice as meaningless as it can get.
This was portrayed in the final episode where the unaffiliated colonies allied together to battle the powerful Empire that dominated and expanded massively.
Children and individuals that lost loved ones in the war, out for vengeance and seeking revenge. Talents hidden amongst the many come out in rage and form an alliance as war goes on.
This taught us yes another lesson, the nature of our world as of now because of fear, because of hatred, because of the seven deadly sins prevents the existence of an absolute power. If someone grows too powerful, fear and envy will arise from surrounding individuals. Fear breeds hate and hate breeds violence. Envy, like the latter works exactly the same way. These sins of man denies even the slight existence of a truly absolute individual
Need I say more? The never ending discussion of the existence of an absolute being that has overseen and will oversee everything will probably never be proven to exist or to not exist.
Tanya was cold hearted and relentless to a fault, her character was so unique since a simple ideal made someone develop such a brutal mentality. I loved that part of her, Tanya also recognised her deficiencies knowing that she’s better than many but there are others better than her. She was devoid of many beliefs set by the society yet was forced to believe that in desperation, persuasion can instil those beliefs.
Due to her ruthlessness, she has many aliases which related to the Devil.
That made sense since the self proclaimed God that reincarnated her kept trying to force her into believing in god and having faith but she never budged. She refuses to accept the existence of god to the point of resentment which contradicts the portrayal of a non-existent being but yet made a point across to express her feelings toward the self-proclaimed God she nicknamed Being X.
That however justifies herself as the Devil since the Devil, the rival of God would obviously resent God and likewise, God bares anger or hatred towards the Devil.
With the nature of that context, it places us in a unique setting of a imperfect yet perfect character since the perfect human is perfect due to their imperfections, flawless yet flawed.
A talk of philosophy which held deep meaning throughout the span of this anime which led many other talks for example the setting of war where there is no right or wrong, only survival.
The art style particularly peaked my interest, it carved a proper dark setting since it is in fact a time of war and in fact properly instigated scenes of sadism and blasphemy however, the poor yet amazing design of the characters that somehow did not contrast with each other yet contrasted with the setting of the anime left me in awe.
First, Tanya. A child with a cute face but in time a menacing look, an innocent character but in time, a mentally twisted and sadistic beast.
Then we have Serebryakov which literally could be judged by how she looks, a kind and understanding individual that would still follow orders from people she respected. She reminds me of Uraraka or Camie Utsushima from Boku no Hero in terms of looks and expression which conflicted with the seriousness of the anime.
After which we have people from Tanya’s battalion including two men that looks like Shang from Mulan, the two men were Johan Weiss and Koenig, at least to me they look similar.
The rest just looks like typical anime characters donning western apparels to blend in with the anime setting of a European era.
The OP by MYTH&ROID was amazing as usual, I love all of M&R’s music needless to say and the soundtracks were well done as well.
Tanya’s voice actor is undeniably talented being able to change voices so much so easily.
I have more to say but I won’t so I’ll end it off with Tanya.
The title of the anime, The Saga of Tanya the Evil or Yojo Senki
is actually
The adventures of Hitler and how he reincarnated as a little blonde girl
otherwise known to me as
That time Hitler reincarnated as a cute blonde girl
Take note that this review may be outdated. Always check my profile for my latest rating, I may have changed my rating due to various reasons.
