What’s this?
Following the resolution of their respective civil wars, the conflict between the Alliance of Free Planets and the Galactic Empire has resumed in earnest. Julian Mintz, adopted son of Yang Wen-Li, enlists in the Alliance military and, while undergoing training during a routine patrol, becomes involved in a conflict with a passing Empire fleet. Under the command of Dusty Attenborough, the Alliance soldiers struggle to hold their ground until Yang can send reinforcements, while Julian and his fellow recruits struggle to adjust to the realities of being thrust into real combat for the first time.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Gekitotsu It is the third season of the new anime of yoshiki tanakaThe epic sci-fi novel and airs on Crunchyroll Thursdays.
How was the first episode?
Christopher Farris
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Three years later we are back with another set of new legend of galactic heroes movies with Crunchyroll once again, cutting them and releasing them as weekly episodes. Of course, it’s more likely the other way around, as with just the pacing of the previous ‘season’, this first episode works pretty neatly as an isolated half hour, connected to a larger whole like any piece of serialized storytelling. Well enough, and it means there’s enough focus in this premiere episode to bring us back to the story of all these Galactic Heroes, with enough commentary on the status quo to remind us how we got here (although given the narrated story-density of books from LOGH, it wouldn’t hurt to at least go back and peruse some previous plot synopses. It’s been three years after all).
Helping us understand all of that is the fact that this one is relatively narrower in focus and smaller in scale than the LOGH adventures that used to end up before. The real-world style march of time in this galaxy sees Yang’s young ward Julian formally enlist in the Alliance military, and it’s through his eyes that we re-engage with the central conflict of this series. . It comes across as an energetic and focused reintroduction of things, where without any focus on Reinhard or his consolidation in the Empire, we get a lot of flashbacks of Julian’s training and details of what has happened up to this first battle. he finds himself. They also add some informative setup for future long-term developments of this arc (there’s a reason why a class question prompts a full-on rant from Julian about warp technology), but otherwise this is firmly a story about seeing the war. through the fresh eyes of a rookie and his contrasting feelings with the various flavors of veterans we know exist in the ranks of LOGH.
That’s all very well in terms of directly defining Julian as we follow him through this new phase of his life and the plot of the show, but it also has the side effect that the series feels given to over-explaining his tones on everything. moment. Basically, there is no time to watch Julian reflect on his situation on his own, each point must be punctuated by a conversation with someone else in this establishment. For example, the episode sends Dusty in to have this emotional and detailed conversation with Julian between fights, where the kid directly lays out all of his thoughts and feelings about the battle he was just in. The episode ends with Julian’s novice-at-arms. Peter rambling about the complexities of experience and survivor’s guilt in relation to the deaths of his more experienced comrades, when the next simple and solemn shot of Julian looking at his instructor’s name on the list of the deceased communicates that same impact very much. more effectively in a moment. If you’ve been aware of this LOGH adaptation for so long, these kinds of overt sensibilities aren’t really surprising, but it’s still a bit annoying to see that they’re still in place, even as the series shows hints of knowing how to do more with less.
Thankfully, many of LOGH’s appreciable little touches linger here. The part where Dusty tells a funny anecdote to the bridge crew and everyone laughs, despite being in the middle of a heated battle, I love it. Likewise, the idea that the moves of seemingly inexperienced fighter pilots would cause Empire officers to doubt their approaches because they’re used to coming up against the strategies of Yang’s galactic brain is an amusing acknowledgment of how far the reputation has come. of the main characters. at this point in the story. And it’s all delivered with the glossy finish now expected of this modern animated adaptation, making the most of the opportunity to open with an episode that features plenty of dogfighting between spaceships. Some of its less welcome adaptive flourishes persist, but this is still recognizable. legend of galactic heroesand it’s still nice to have more of that.
Richard Eisenbeis
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One of the best things about space operas is the size of their stories. Here we have the beginning of a new season, with one of our protagonists at war suffering the tragic death of a close friend and the other having just crushed a rebellion full of people he respected. However, this episode is not about any of that: our main characters hardly appear. Rather, this episode is a largely self-contained “boots on the ground” story from the front that focuses on the first deployment of Yang Wen-li’s adopted son, Julian.
Julain is in a unique position. While he is smart and brave, he stands in the shadow of the Alliance’s greatest hero. Instead of being jealous of this fact, he is humbled and wants to be useful to his adoptive father. But how do you support such a man? By becoming a fighter pilot, Julain has decided to be Yang’s eyes on the front lines. His personal struggle over the episode is one of ego, learning to accept wins and losses without letting them go to his head or drive him to despair.
At the same time, the entire episode is a graphic example of the futility of war. What we see is a pointless battle: two patrol fleets colliding with each other and starting to fight. Then both sides call for reinforcements and just shoot each other. It’s a mindless meat grinder of a battle. Nothing will change based on who wins or loses. By the time Yang shows up with a fleet so large that retreat is the only option for the Empire, almost all of the fighter pilots besides Julian are dead, and the other rookie who survived is on the brink of a mental break.
It’s great drama-filled material that explores the nature of the human soul, or to put it another way, it’s a normal Legend of the Galactic Heroes episode.