Reviews

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of its kind, but if someone forced me at gunpoint to compare it to anything else, I'd say it's "like Game of Thrones, but in space"... which is kinda true, but it doesn't really do it justice. LoGH is really one of its kind. This anime tells the story of the final years of a 150-year struggle between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets' Alliance. There is no "good side" or "bad side" - both of the aforementioned major teams contain their fair share of sympathetic/heroic characters and despicable/villainous characters, hence the comparison to Game of Thrones. The only exception is one unambigously evil minor faction, more on them later. Another thing both series have in common is named characters dying left and right: with two notable exceptions, none of them receive the luxury of a long, drawn-out and dignified death scene - all of them die the same short (but relatively painless) deaths their redshirt underlings die.

Let's start with the good: LoGH has an amazing soundtrack and amazing voice acting. The animation might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I believe it is very aesthetic, it has its own unique style and identity. Where LoGH really shines is plot and characters: the anime does an exceptional job getting you invested in the story and fates of the various characters, even minor characters (whom you don't except to live for long, given the nature of the series) are nicely fleshed out and have their own personalities and motives. Every time I was watching the anime, the endings of episodes had me going "just one more episode". The two main characters are the die-hard idealist Yang Wenli on the FPA's side and the (especially under the corrupting influence of his machine-eyed advisor) quasi-Machiavellian pragmatist Reinhard von Lohengramm on the Empire's side. Their struggle is also a struggle of ideologies and personalities: Democratic Republicanism with all its flaws (such as a government that constantly screws over Yang, who remains loyal to them nonetheless) versus Autocratic Monarchy with its potential for benevolent dictators and enlightened despots like Reinhard; Yang's blasé attitude towards the military (with his main motivation being to earn enough money to retire into a comfortable life) versus Reinhard's limitless ambition and personal vendettas. All in all, great anime, it really is a masterpiece...

... but even masterpieces aren't without their flaws, and LoGH has a few. First, the narrator. Yes, LoGH has a narrator, and in my humble opinion, it detracts from the experience. Show, don't tell! Secondly, the Earth Cult, oh god, the Earth Cult... In a show featuring nicely fleshed out characters and dominated by the eternal struggle between two morally ambiguous sides, both of which feature a mix of heroes and villains, the Earth Cult stands out as an underdeveloped yet overrepresented (when it comes to screentime) one-dimensional generic Bad Guy Cult that couldn't look more obviously evil if they tried, with the story arc that sees them at their most prominent being the weakest spot of the series in my humble opinion. Simply put, the Earth Cult doesn't deserve the amount of prominence and screentime it gets. The ending is slightly anticlimactic too.

All in all a great show, an eternal classic. As some other reviewers said it: this is the real Star Wars, George Lucas' franchise should be called something else.