MovieChat Forums > Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (1988) Discussion > I've just finished LOGH, here's some tho...

I've just finished LOGH, here's some thoughts...

posted 16 years ago by Robert0666
9 replies | jump to latest

I've just finished Legend Of Galactic Heroes a couple of hours ago, and I must say that I am most overwhelmed by it's story. It's ambient, it's characters, everything, it's despise of modern politics, telling us that individuals are what matters not the political inclination because either it is a dictatorship or a republic, monarchic, whatever, there's always the possibility of some shady egotistical scum taking over.

Reinhard Von Lohengram proved to be a more proficient ruler in the Imperial side, more than any other ruler portrayed on LOGH (and even in our whole "real" history I'm afraid), but that is mostly because of his high values and sense of justice which he had to harbour since he began his long thread onto the top because of her most beloved sister, he was almost a perfect ruler in his time.
With his correct and honest values he despised mundane things, praised honour and valour and abolished the noble rulers of his time and opened way for the true owners of the land, the honest working people.

On the other side, on the democratic side, we have filthy examples like, Trunhit, who only cares for his well being, using everyone to obtain his greedy purposes.
Including our beloved Yang Wenli, locked on the chains of his republic, he couldn't act accordingly and honourably because he would go against his beloved Democracy that he believed, even if in the process he had to fight righteous ones trying to cleanse the filthy democratic rulers, a example portrayed on the "coup de etat" chapter. Even with all that, Yang was a very knowledgeable character and was a pleasure to hear his thoughts and his rightful views. Despise of what I said above he was true to himself until the end and deserves our utmost respect for it, a true pity that a great man like himself was a victim of the system.

Politics aside, the show was full of memorable moments, we had most of them portrayed on the huge spacial battlefield were dozens of thousands were sacrificing their lives for their beliefs, it's impossible not be absorbed by the story at this time and not drop a tear or two under so honourable so honourable conditions on the immense battlefield were millions of others had died and are still dying. If even the enemy pays respect, what would you do in that case?

To conclude, Legend Of Galactic Heroes is certainly one of those epic stories that most touched my heart, at least that they had touched my eyes is a fact.

[–] elandyll 16 years ago

I am about to finish LotGH, and I have to unfortunately disagree with Robert.

Those were some of the most boring and utterly painful hours of my life that I spent watching this anime, trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, given the quasi-worship state it has achieved in the anime fandom.

It has little redeeming qualities past its epic (in terms of scope, not thrill or interest related) depiction of the space battles for the domination of a grim and corrupt universe.

Technically speaking, the anime is downright ugly, with few character design passing the "Average" grade. For a Sci Fi anime in particular, Ship design, effects and combat choreography are -literally- at level 0. Extrememely disapointing.

Ok, so maybe it is in fact more of a thriller-politico-Sci Fi type?
I do love 2001, BSG (the new one), P. K. Dick's books, so there should still be some goods for me there, no?
Not really, no.

Where to start? Let's start with the most painful thing: dialogues.
Long. Boring. Chock full of cliches and pretentious self importance, dialogues in LotGH try to flesh out our characters (thank god they drop the flash backs after the first 40 or so episodes, I was literally ready to kill myself) and intrigues in lieu of action, but do very little, or rather do it in a very un-interesting way.
LotGH has a way of dragging on its dialogues to say so very little that is quite uncanny (those who have seen GitS2:Innocence will understand, even though LotGH does not have this hilarious habit of quoting Milton every 2 sentences to compensate).

Next, LotGh wants to give the illusion of an intelligent script, through its long, boring dialogues, and by chaining poorly thought out treasons and political intrigues. That is political intrigues on the level of a 10 year old, rather, that if you have ever been in a history class for more than a school year or ever been interested in TV politics you will find extrememely basic and childish in this Autocracy vs Democracy pretentious bable.

By the time you arrive at episode 80 (about 2/3rd of the original show), you will have had a mere 2-3 space battles to speak of, most of the action consisting of a computer display depicting red triangles fighting green squares (fleet formations).

The only (albeit small) redeeming factor is in the two main characters, Reinhard and Wenli, but given what happens at about 2/3rd of the show, interest drops sharply, and one might find fighting the urge to just stop watching.
Only out of the absolute hatred of quitting a show before the end can I continue to watch this mess to be honest.

It is hard for me to imagine how this poorly made show consisting at 90% of boring and very long dialogue scenes ever got so popular (specially in the west, the fascination of Japan for Empire era Germany not being anything new), but I can only imagine that some people got easily impressed by the 2-cents political-historical drama story, which in the end consists of little more than smoke and mirrors.

This review might be very badly recevied by fans, but it is my take on this show, which at this point I do regret starting to watch. Not something I will keep or look forward to buy, that is for certain.

______________________________________
Heroes - BSG - House / These are Good Times

[–] eroskitten 15 years ago

It's actually interesting to see a person who disliked the series so deeply.
Although I wholeheartedly disagree with your opinion in every sense, at least you're honest about your taste. Most people won't share such a polarizing view, and so it's refreshing. :)

[–] Sargonarhes 13 years ago

Meh, there will be some that hate it. I just disregard them as fools that look more for spectacle theatrics over plot driven story lines. To each their own.

[–] dont_b_so_BBC 12 years ago

Technically speaking, the anime is downright ugly, with few character design passing the "Average" grade. For a Sci Fi anime in particular, Ship design, effects and combat choreography are -literally- at level 0. Extrememely disapointing.

Technically? Sorry, but the word you are speaking of is "CATEGORICALLY"-- that is to say, YOU have certain "categorical" criteria as to "Sci-fi", "Anime", blah x 3...

IOW, your evaluation-- which you are fully entitled to-- would be more useful or meaningful FOR/TO others, if you could only get the category right: this is a "late 20th-Century" "Made-for-TV" "Novel-Series-based" "Space Opera" where nobody should even care about the kind of category/critieria that YOU have set for it... just like no fan of Babylon 5 would really be bothered by the CGI it used, or how people completely missed the point/genre when they complain that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon isn't "realistic".

But then, this is age of George Lucas-- heaven forbid that people learn to appreciate films in their proper context-- so we must "update(simplify and amplify)" everything to make it "relevant(marketable)" to "everybody(lowest common denominator)".

If you care enough to go around telling people you don't care... you obviously care.

[–] rikstah-1 9 years ago

Elandyll your post smells of someone who heard too much hype train from people around you and set out to hate the show before you even started.

You can't possibly be a fan of rubbish shows like The 100 and average anime drivel like Sidonia whilst simultaneously putting down THE space opera.

I watched this show before I had heard anything about it around 10 years ago, and having read a ton of sci fi, epic fantasy, and being an avid history buff I was blown away by the story.

I can understand that the anime was dated and even a little cheap for its time, and finding the anime boring based on this is understandable if you're used to more modern stuff, but the way you write of the dialogue and story is plain wrong.

Some of the intrigues you say are "10 year old" level are pulled straight out of the history books.

Calling the story "little more than smoke and mirrors" when its depth far outclasses any other anime since can't possibly be right.

Its one thing to dislike an anime or find it boring but another to type out a bunch of eloquently worded rubbish which has no basis in reality.

This is honestly like someone saying they didn't like war & peace because it was shallow. When the truth was they just found it boring.

TLDR; I think you set out to dislike the show from the beginning, or perhaps found it boring and decided to reason your opinion out, either way, some of the things you said are plain wrong.

[–] OrionAssante 15 years ago

I actually just finished this series tonight a couple minutes ago and have to say it was a complete and utter privilege to get to experience this epic story and the characters involved. This is a series I am going to treasure for a long time to come and look forward to future viewings.

[–] joels344 15 years ago

The series blew me away. I've never seen an anime so deep and complex, it was nearly unreal watching it. This is easily the greatest anime that I've ever seen.

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[–] Rad82 15 years ago

For once, I simply agree... Totally...
Haven't seen an anime as good as this since I started watching the damn things 3 years ago.... It really felt more like reading a perfect well-written book to me, than watching anything on screen. And yeh it was that good.

[–] supafly707 15 years ago

I got my hands on this a few years ago and I've consistently told people that this is the greatest "television" series I've ever seen, even though it's an OAV (technically, it was aired on TV in Japan a few years after its inception, but the new episodes were always released on cassette first). I'm glad there are more people here commenting on it. I just exposed my gf to anime about nine months ago, and after healthy doses of Berserk, Twelve Kingdoms, Crest/Banner of the Stars, RahXephon, Planetes, and Gundam/Zeta Gundam, I got her into this--my goal was to work her up to LOGH, and thankfully she's enjoying it.

One great news story I just read is that the entire series is being released on Blu-Ray in Japan. The bad news, still no North American distribution...it's disappointing because this is the kind of show that should be on prime time tv competing with the other great shows, like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter...yet NA seems unable to grasp the concept that animation is just as effective a storytelling method as any other.

Gotta keep our collective fingers crossed for a NA release at ANY point in the future, which I still doubt will ever happen.