Legend of Galactic Heroes

[David75]

If you can, get central-anime's version. Especially for the one million stars arcs, the image quality really is something else, and subtitles are billions light years above the others in terms of quality.

[shinta|hikari]

I just watched the entire series and the 3 movies, and I must say this is a masterpiece. It was an awesome work, especially considering when it was produced, and had amazing characters. I particularly loved Yang, and I was devastated for 3 days after watching that episode.

My favorite scene of the show is this.

[Buffalobiian]

I finished the 110 episodes from the main series. Like the general opinion here, I liked this a lot despite the flaws it had (some of which had be rather frustrated, but anyway.. I finished it). What's rest of the series (Gaiden + movies) like? Are they also worth a watch? I do feel a bit burnt out at the moment (maybe my fever cold has something to do with it).

----------------------------------------------------------------

















Military

One thing I really wonder is why they keep saying Rheinhard is as brilliant as Yang, when in reality for the larger part of the series Rheinhard has shown no more wits that some regular soldier from the rows whereas Yang is all the time predicting every move of his enemies (unless not predicting them gives better results) and winning every fight. Well, at least up till 69.5 episodes. Perhaps Rheinhard will recall at some point where he forgot his brain and will retrieve it (along with the brains of his supposedly equally competent commanders who in reality aren't any better than the average corporals from my army times).

I share Kraco's sentiments here. Reinhardt as a tactician seems every way to be inferior to Yang despite them being called "equals". I'm not sure if it's poor execution or if they really did want Yang to be in a league of his own.

In the earlier battles (before the Imperial Civil War pretty much) when Reinhardt still had direct control over his (one) fleet, he seemed to execute plans on the same level as Yang, but they'd come out equal while Reinhardt would always start with a larger force. The "setup" was that Yang was always the one to dive in at the last moment to save the Alliance (he had a good grasp of the situation), while Reinhardt would have up suddenly put up with the variable known as Yang.

In the latter stages of the story, most of Reinhardt's "errors" were due to his incomplete control over his huge navy, with dumbass Admirals being lured into traps they honestly shouldn't have fallen for. (Bittenfelt of the Black Lancers, I'm looking at you.. though what you lacked in neurons you seem to make up for with missiles and guts, so you survived).

The fleet battles more often than not were confusing. It's hard to see why a certain side would win, or why a certain side would lose. Perhaps it was my misplaced expectations, but I keep thinking that Code-Geass level tactics would be awesome in this show between military geniuses.

Staying on the topic of military and might, those Terraists (awesome name btw) wreak massive damage. Yang says that terrorism doesn't change history, but boy must you work hard to save history's course from it. Where do they even get their guns from? The military? If so, their one true merit must be their delusion drug that they use to make everybody their puppets.

Characters

As far as characters went, I'm so pro-Imperial. I'm slightly biased since I love the whole aristocratic elegance theme of Imperialism, but the characters appeal to me a lot more.

I pressume most of you like Yang Wenli... so what do you guys think of Loengramm? You guys like him?

Reinhardt vs Yang: Yang's funny to watch and speaks more wisely than Reinhardt, but the latter has the vision and drive that I (and almost everybody else) is attracted to. He's also good looking, just to put icing on the cake. He's not always right (and I don't like his "How dare you" remarks as Kaiser), but damn he's charismatic. His death had a lot more impact on me than Yang's.

Reinhardt's charisma also lead to many admirals devoting themselves to him rather than the dynasty (as rightly said in the show), which in turn makes me admire and connect to them more so than the Alliance team. Devotion to a person just seems that much more personal, understandable and likable than devoting to the abstract principle of democracy.

Interesting characters existed on both sides (Schenkopp is the most notable one from the Alliance's "secondary" characters). The Alliance characters suffered a bit from their "rag-tag" organisation for me. It didn't even occur to me that Attenborough was pretty much the highest Admiral next to Merkatz underneath the Commander. His ability didn't shine enough for it to be apparent to me. The entire Alliance team's relationship was both closer and looser than that between Reinhardt's admirals. They were closer as a family, but their attitudes and devotion to their beliefs seemed so based on "foppery and whims" (to use their own words), it's hard to take them seriously when it's like they're doing it for fun.

The Imperial had many more "traitors" and "defects", but admiral-class and above were all men of sworn loyalty and often pride. Sometimes too much pride, which lead to unfortunate downfalls such as the likes of Reuental. Of the lot, Oberstein stands out to me the most. He's the silent one who stands for what is absolutely correct, so much that he becomes the necessary evil behind the empire's success. That guy deserves a lot more credit than what's given to him.

And for all the "ugly art", the women are fine in this show. The smart Frederica, Princess Dianna-ish Hildegarde, even the sultry Dominic and of course the tsundere Katerose. The one I couldn't get behind however, was Annerose. She's... actually not that pretty.

The openings and ending theme songs are pretty good - particularly the EDs. Too bad I can't find all of his songs in full versions.

I'll likely take a bit of a break from the LoGH universe and spend some time on other things that I've neglected (currently airing anime, life in general..), but I'll come back to visit if you guys tell me the prequels are good.

[shinta|hikari]

Yang was always the superior tactician, even he himself said so. What he recognized about Reinhardt is his strategic ability, which exploits his charisma and political skills. The difference between the two was also discussed in the show.

When Yang died, I felt like I lost a good friend.

[Buffalobiian]

Yang was always the superior tactician, even he himself said so.

He did? I thought he was reluctant to admit something like that, despite Schenkopp's confidence in him. I picked up on the strategy bit, yeah. I do remember Yang commenting that Reinhardt was very good at executing his plans fast.. but that's all I remember.

How about the rest of the material? I have them on download at the moment..

edit:

When Yang died, I felt like I lost a good friend.

I agree with that in nature, but less intensely. Yang felt like someone you could talk to (the "audience" was essentially Julian). Reinhardt felt like a leader you look up to.

[shinta|hikari]

I have seen the movies. I remember some being good, while 1 was just horrible.

I have not yet seen the gaiden because I burned out just like you did. Moreover, when Yang died, LOGH was just not the same to me anymore.

[Buffalobiian]

I have seen the movies. I remember some being good, while 1 was just horrible.

I have not yet seen the gaiden because I burned out just like you did. Moreover, when Yang died, LOGH was just not the same to me anymore.

Yeah, that sucked - particularly for you since you like Yang more than I did (and I still liked him quite a lot). Kinda like me and Death Note.