Youjo Senki is the tale of an objectivist who is reborn as a child soldier in a imperial nation that is a mix of WWI and WWII era Germany geopolitics and military, but technology is supplanted with magic. The main character, who is renamed Tanya, is the picture of Japanese neoliberalism and the central "punchline" of the story is that her result-oriented pragmatism is instead seen as fierce patriotism and ideal military prowess by her superiors. Tanya has the foresight of extensive knowledge related to military procedure and uses this to amass countless accolades, hoping to secure a cushy desk job position in the rear guard (which is the neoliberal ideal.) Instead, the military brass in their fear and admiration continue to assign her to the front lines where she doesn't want to be. This initial formula was quite entertaining to me.
Unlike a majority of people who have been enamored by the WWII style German military outfits and believe this to be a celebration of the military might of the Nazis, its actually quite clear from interviews with the original LN author that is intended to be two things: 1) a manga that covers WWI history and military procedure, a market relatively untouched in Japan and 2) a satirical critique of war, religion and Tanya's underlying objectivism. The story makes clear that war is a terrible thing and the justifications the "pacifist" Tanya makes for her actions are in fact deeply hypocritical. Tanya believes her actions are simply to maximize efficiency and end the conflict as quickly as possible, when in reality, she becomes seen as a "devil" even by those within her own nation.
The issue, for me, stems with the execution of such a message. Beneath all the dense plot and attention to detail is a fairly stock standard isekai plot. Tanya is an all respects a very generic Mary Sue, with the ability to defeat entire squadrons and forces much more powerful than anyone else can handle by herself. She is armed with knowledge nobody else possesses, power that far eclipses anyone else, and also has divine intervention guiding her. The manga goes out of its way to establish a tense action story in each sortie, with Tanya rushing forward into explosive air battles. It is written almost like a shonen at its core, and as a result, Tanya is presented as the one to be rooting for. Whether inadvertent or not, she is increasingly built to be a sympathetic character which in turn assigns moral ambiguity to her actions. Even though what she is doing is clearly evil. Her actions are sociopathic to their core, and in any actual context she would be considered a war mongerer. All sympathy or moral ambiguity her actions may imply are simply projected onto her from the outside. Her inner monologues make it clear that war is simply an equation of human capital to her, and it doesn't matter as long as she comes out safe and on top. This would be a brilliant satire if the format for it wasn't so weak. Instead, you have people in reddits and on image boards praising the nazi loli for her epic war crimes, and much of the fault does lie in the delivery.
Maybe you think I'd be wrong to state that because Carlo Zen specifically made sure that the world he was building was not a fascist one- the Empire is one supposedly devoted to racial equality. Yet I cannot shake the fact that this is such a weak way to develop an anti-war and ultimately anti-capitalist critique. If you want to develop a satire, you develop a satire. If you want to develop an action adventure story, you develop an action adventure story. If you are going to develop both, you need to find a proper balance. Where Youjou Senki fails in its balance is that so much emphasis is weighed to the isekai action story that it becomes easy to forget what it is critiquing. The message is essentially eclipsed by a bunch of heroic looking figures in Nazi garb committing what are essentially war crimes.
Carlo Zen is admirable in his goals, but his execution is irresponsible. The final nail in the coffin for me was an entire chapter devoted to her committing an obvious war crime, that is followed with her monologuing to another sympathetic character that what they are doing actually saves lives and is justified. The way he goes ahead and presents these realities of war as morally ambiguous is already logically weak to me, but the fact he plays it straight and attempts to humanize the aggressors was borderline insulting. I would've a million times preferred her to just have the usual monologue about human capital. Instead what would be a powerful statement is marred by common isekai tropes and an attempt to present nuance where there doesn't need to be. To cap it off, this brutal war crime was preceded by a very generic anime battle. It robs the message. And its clear that it did because I see plenty of discussion where people attempt to justify this action by Tanya morally and pragmatically. This demonstrates a death of the author issue that I just don't feel comfortable reading.
To reiterate, its irresponsible. But not because of the author's intentions. Its because this medium is so weak for what he wants to accomplish. There is a popular saying: "there is no such thing as an anti-war film." Why is that? The spectacle, the action, the generic emotional arcs rob the central satire. The action in this series and the MC are clearly presented to be "cool." The author becomes so engrossed in telling a war story that he ends up softening his critique of war. In trying to present an anti war message, it fails because the isekai aspect glorifies it. Not my cup of tea.
