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Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has to be my most favourite anime of all time and funnily enough it was a recent watch too so this reasoning isn't fuelled by nostalgia by any means as I genuinely feel this anime is a masterpiece that everyone should watch. Many actually remark this anime doesn't even feel like an anime in terms of themes and story, and that makes sense as it barely follows many anime tropes and actually has it's origins in a 1982 novel of the same name, instead of a manga, that ran between the years 1982-1987. Whilst not feeling like a traditional anime and being a massive effort to get through (110 episodes in total, also has a spinoff prequel series which is over 50 episodes IIRC) I'd highly recommend this series to anime and non-anime fans alike as it's a truly great piece of media to watch and is one that definitely sticks with you after you've seen it. By watch the anime I mean watch the original OVA which ran from 1988 to 1997 as the 2018 remake, though I've not watched it, from what I've heard is vastly inferior in comparison to the original release, also they did some of the character designs so dirty as well:
Holy shit I forgot how bad the remake designs are, who the hell vetoed this? They did Oberstein, Reuental & Cazzelnu so dirty (like why the hell is Cazzelnu Asian now?)
As mentioned earlier, this series does originate from a novel and only in the last eight years has it been officially translated to English. Is it worth the read despite the OVA being the most recommended way to experience the series? Well, from what I know the original Japanese books are very good and even sold over 15 million around the time of their original release, but the same can't be said about the English translations that released between the years 2015-2019 as apparently they are full of grammatical errors and switch translator throughout leading some books being better than others in translation quality, but overall the reviews for them aren't awful and if you aren't too nitpicky about sloppy translation here and there then go for it, but if you're an English speaker definitely watch the OVA first.
So, what's a basic synopsis for this series for those who are new to it? Well basically humanity is in space and is divided into two main factions: The Free Planets Alliance, a pro democracy coalition government and the Galactic Empire, a monarchist empire founded by unironic Space Hitler. They have been clashing for over a good few hundred years now and the story finally focuses on Yang Wen-Li, a Free Planets Alliance Admiral who's strategic brilliance helps save the Alliance's asses many a time and the Reinhard Von Lohengramm, a space Napoleon who serves the Galactic Empire who is fixed on uniting humanity under his rule to achieve true peace in the universe. They clash constantly throughout the anime with wins and losses for both sides, and each side is so interesting to follow, especially when anticipating what they will do next. There are loads more characters other than them two and I would be here all day naming them as the cast is huge and the OVA has the largest voice cast of any anime ever made, but despite the number of characters each major one gets a decent amount of character development throughout the series which makes watching them grow throughout the series so enjoyable. Oh and loads of them die too, yeah this is space Game of Thrones people; the series is brutal and will kill off your favourite before you know it, which is just more reason why you should watch the show.
So, what are you waiting for? Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes today and come back in here once you do so so you can discuss it with rest of us below. Possible spoilers below btw so you've been warned, if you are posting a spoiler warn us beforehand at least.
(PS: I know this thread should technically be prefixxed as Books & Literature since being originally a book series and all but because most people in the western world have seen the anime and won't even check out the novels I'm labelling this thread as Anime & Manga)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has to be my most favourite anime of all time and funnily enough it was a recent watch too so this reasoning isn't fuelled by nostalgia by any means as I genuinely feel this anime is a masterpiece that everyone should watch. Many actually remark this anime doesn't even feel like an anime in terms of themes and story, and that makes sense as it barely follows many anime tropes and actually has it's origins in a 1982 novel of the same name, instead of a manga, that ran between the years 1982-1987. Whilst not feeling like a traditional anime and being a massive effort to get through (110 episodes in total, also has a spinoff prequel series which is over 50 episodes IIRC) I'd highly recommend this series to anime and non-anime fans alike as it's a truly great piece of media to watch and is one that definitely sticks with you after you've seen it. By watch the anime I mean watch the original OVA which ran from 1988 to 1997 as the 2018 remake, though I've not watched it, from what I've heard is vastly inferior in comparison to the original release, also they did some of the character designs so dirty as well:
Holy shit I forgot how bad the remake designs are, who the hell vetoed this? They did Oberstein, Reuental & Cazzelnu so dirty (like why the hell is Cazzelnu Asian now?)
As mentioned earlier, this series does originate from a novel and only in the last eight years has it been officially translated to English. Is it worth the read despite the OVA being the most recommended way to experience the series? Well, from what I know the original Japanese books are very good and even sold over 15 million around the time of their original release, but the same can't be said about the English translations that released between the years 2015-2019 as apparently they are full of grammatical errors and switch translator throughout leading some books being better than others in translation quality, but overall the reviews for them aren't awful and if you aren't too nitpicky about sloppy translation here and there then go for it, but if you're an English speaker definitely watch the OVA first.
So, what's a basic synopsis for this series for those who are new to it? Well basically humanity is in space and is divided into two main factions: The Free Planets Alliance, a pro democracy coalition government and the Galactic Empire, a monarchist empire founded by unironic Space Hitler. They have been clashing for over a good few hundred years now and the story finally focuses on Yang Wen-Li, a Free Planets Alliance Admiral who's strategic brilliance helps save the Alliance's asses many a time and the Reinhard Von Lohengramm, a space Napoleon who serves the Galactic Empire who is fixed on uniting humanity under his rule to achieve true peace in the universe. They clash constantly throughout the anime with wins and losses for both sides, and each side is so interesting to follow, especially when anticipating what they will do next. There are loads more characters other than them two and I would be here all day naming them as the cast is huge and the OVA has the largest voice cast of any anime ever made, but despite the number of characters each major one gets a decent amount of character development throughout the series which makes watching them grow throughout the series so enjoyable. Oh and loads of them die too, yeah this is space Game of Thrones people; the series is brutal and will kill off your favourite before you know it, which is just more reason why you should watch the show.
So, what are you waiting for? Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes today and come back in here once you do so so you can discuss it with rest of us below. Possible spoilers below btw so you've been warned, if you are posting a spoiler warn us beforehand at least.
(PS: I know this thread should technically be prefixxed as Books & Literature since being originally a book series and all but because most people in the western world have seen the anime and won't even check out the novels I'm labelling this thread as Anime & Manga)
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