Anime Review: The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These

Common Name: The Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Alternative Names: Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These - Kaikou, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis - Encounter

Score: 8/10, 5/5

Length: 12 Episodes

Genre: Action, Drama, Military, Political, Sci-Fi

Summary: In the far-flung future, there are 3 dominant ruling factions that rule over vast portions of The Milky Way who are determined, for various reasons, to seize control of the others' quadrants of space. The Galactic Empire, ruled by the long-lived and prosperous Goldenbaum Dynasty, rules with a tyrannical fist obsessed with all the old stylings and traditions of the German Reichs. The Free Planets Alliance rules is functionally a democratic republic, yet is run by a ruling class that is just as determined to hold power as the ruling nobles of the Empire. The Dominion of Fezzan is uninterested in the military struggles the Alliance and Empire usually engage in, choosing to seek a neutral facade while, economically, they are just as posed to seize control of the galaxy as their warring trading partners. While it may be easy to villainize one of these nations above the rest they all believe they are in the right, are guilty of various injustices, and are unwilling to give even an inch of the space they call home. Only history and its many cycles can give a glimpse into who might be in the right and who will reign victorious once the fighting stops--if it ever stops.

Review: There are honestly a great many points of praise to offer a series like The Legend of the Galactic Heroes, both in respect to its history and when solely regarding this new iteration of the franchise. To be clear, for all intents and purposes, Die Neue These is a remake of the original series from the 1980s. Yet, because it is an incomplete remake, it is also forced to contend with numerous complaints and issues that almost entirely void the show's better points. Looking at the work in its own right, however, I believe it ultimately trends toward the positive as it functionally remasters a dated but well-loved series for a new audience with the help of all the tricks and tools that this industry has developed and made the new standard since then. As I understand it, though, there is little to no difference between this new series and the old one beyond that technical facelift, so that is worth keeping in mind.

Christ if that facelift isn't worth the watch in its own right, though.

Seeing how I've yet to see the original series and can reasonably assume there are many others who haven't either, though, I'll give this show its fair shake, regardless of its storied history or disappointing conclusion. So, to start, Die Neue These ("The New Thesis" in German) is something of a political action drama that hearkens back to the old days of Sci-Fi in much the same way Gundam originally did. Through the obfuscation of setting this war drama in the vast reaches of space, rather than some easily identifiable land-bound nation, this show is primed to tell a tale on the nature of human politics, war, loss, ambition, and pride that is indelibly bound to human nature of the real world without stepping on too many toes. While it is easy to label the various space-faring nations to their real-world allegories, the comparisons are not exactly one to one. So, to effectively manage, maintain, and keep characters and events as detached from reality as feasibly possible without wholly severing the connection, this series starts out with that general statement that this is a non-representative work of fiction that has no bearing on real-world people or events. What it also does, however, is take that general disclaimer one step further as it states that, if parallels can be drawn between this work of fiction and reality, it is because human nature has birthed so cycles that have repeated so many times that everything that happens in this show is an inevitability.

More than just stating it, the show does a great job of showing

that "little extra" in the show's action as well.

While the Empire could be and rightfully is compared to Nazi Germany, they exist as a statement on oligarchies, dynasties, autocracies, and the evils of class-based systems in general. While it is easy to villainize them and call them the objective evil, the show goes out of its way to bluntly state that the evils of this nation are relatively well contained to the ruling classes. Yet, even then, there are exceptions to that blanket belief that the nobility of the Empire is evil. In fact, the show's main "antagonist" is directly invested in upending the societal norms of the Empire in his bid for power, in spite of being a direct product of the Empire's oppressive autocracy. For clarity's sake, I'm cautious to label Reinhard, the up-and-coming military leader of the Empire, an antagonist mainly because he is the lead for well over a third of the show as a whole. For all intents and purposes, he is the face of the Empire in much the same way that his boy toy/man crush/ crush, Kircheis is the face of the lower classes whose fates are chained to the successes and failures of the nobility. Yet, at the same time, it is clear that they are the most objectionable force in this show. While there is a good deal of granularity to consider with "right" and "wrong" in this world, but there is nothing subjective about the evils of a nation built on oppression and the genocide of people with "inferior" genetics. There is no ambiguity to the objective evils of the Empire. Where that ambiguity comes in play, though, lies in how responding to this nation's evils speaks to the assumed "good guys" of this series, the Free Planets Alliance.

Then again, how can a society so classy be evil?

Where the Empire exists as an allegory to Germany/Prussia of old in all their villainy, the Free Planets Alliance is the allegory of the United States or even the European Union and all the good and evil that comes with it. Where the Empire is essentially a monoculture that glorifies German/Prussian styles, belief systems, and uniform military prowess, the Alliance is a melting pot of cultures that has melded into a simplified "us versus them" nationalist state that prides itself on the "freedom" of its people. Like the United States has done for several decades now, the Alliance sees itself as a kind of righteous liberator in its battles against the Empire with the naive belief that they are committing an ultimate good. Yet, as the face of the Alliance (for the purposes of the show at large), Yang Wen-li, readily admits, all this really amounts to is a continuous cycle of death and justification for the Alliance a military state that can rival the Empire they battle. While they claim to be righteous in the defense of their freedom, the truth of that matter is that the Alliance, as a whole, is swayed by the desires of a group of rabble-rousing politicians and military personnel determined to stay in office, either out of personal gain or fear of what might transpire once they hand over their power. Yet, again this nationalist fervor and systemic corruption aren't the absolute of this nation. Like Reinhard is to the Empire, Yang is a rebel and seen as a potential threat to those in power given his open disapproval of the nation's state and the war at large. Labeling himself a pariah, he is forced to take on suicidal mission after suicidal mission in the hopes that he will be silenced. Yet, being a tactical genius on par with Reinhard, their efforts only lend Yang greater power and prestige that he never wanted in the first place. So, much to his and the military core's chagrin, he's essentially become essential to the Alliance--an individual whose loss would cripple morale but whose continued success only chains him to a military he openly dislikes.

Quite the opposite. Yang would be perfectly content as a self-made nobody.

Half the reason shows like this are so fascinating to me is due, in large, to the fact that they feel infinitely more mature than their mecha counterparts in the Sci-Fi world. Through the layers of obfuscation are flimsy at best, they offer food for thought into mankind's nature and its effects on the world as a whole. Though arrogance, greed, and recklessness are traits magnified to an absurd degree in many of these kinds of political dramas, I feel that Die Neue These skirts around this issue while still being held aloft by a pair of "Marty Stu" tacticians. How it does is this mainly represented through the repercussions of their actions, a consideration that doesn't get a lot of attention in many cases. As he plays his political game, Reinhard must play a delicate balancing game where he can seize more and more power without earning the ire of his fellow nobles or the attentions of the Fuhrer. In contrast, Yang battles for his life against the bloodthirsty nationalist core while trying to gain just enough prestige to earn a pension he can retire on in peace. Like Tanya in Youjo Senki, their Marty Stu brilliance is excused and made all the more compelling as their plans fall by the wayside thanks to an overly successful campaign or a mere coincidence that wasn't accounted for. In the beginning, for example, we see both the Alliance fail to defeat Reinhard's forces and the Empire fail to crush Yang when the Alliance's plan turns against them, resulting in a stalemate that can be called both a victory and a loss. The same can be said of the repercussions of Yang winning a decisive victory that only served to ruin his dreams of freedom and retirement as he's effectively shackled to the military as a vocal opponent to the ambitions of bloodthirsty nationalists and politicians that they can't afford to kill off anymore. In other words, a considerable amount of thought an nuance goes into the creation of these kinds of works to the point that it's fairly difficult to point to objective right and wrong, good and evil. Yet, with this Die Neue These, some semblance of that classic battle between good an evil can be identified as the evils of the Empire prevent the show from becoming so morally granular that it succumbs to the indecipherable sea of gray nihilism.

If that's a little too high-minded, though, the bromantic rivalry between

Reinhard and Yang is fascinating enough in its own right.

In the end, however, it is once again worth noting that the show ends on a somewhat disappointing note. Rather than continuing this series's journey entirely as a weekly show, it ends with the promise of more to come in the form of episodic films along the lines of the recent Digimon-tri films or Code Geass: Akito the Exiled. Still, to the show's credit, it ends on a note that speaks to the ultimate through line of the series: that history is cyclical as both Reinhard and Yang return to the battlefield where the show began. In other words, while it is disappointing that we won't see more of this show anytime soon or nearly as frequently as we might like, it does end appropriately. So, I'd say this show is well worth all the problems and frustrations that come with it. If anything, the skill and masterful artistry used to recreate the series has not only made up for the show's faults but has actively encouraged me to go back and see what the old series had to offer, since it is both complete and readily available. Though it might be a black mark to call this show a fantastic advertisement, that is the effect it'll have on me until those movies complete the story.

#Review #Action #Drama #Military #Political #Scifi