In Which I Try to Convince You All to Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes

[JONJONAUG]

Or would be if Firefox didn't crash after I spent an hour setting up an incredibly detailed post and was about to hit submit (insert string of obscenities here).

So I'm gonna link to a couple of Something Awful threads instead, reading the first page of each should give you a good idea of what the show is about.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1278668&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3087685&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

ENDORSEMENTS

Um dude. Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It is seriously in competition for my top spot with BSG and B5. It is a little older (late '80s-early '90s) so it's not slick and flashy. It has no goofy anime conventions, and I mean fewer than Planetes and Cowboy Bebop. It is straightforward, pure space opera with no aliens or magic or time travel. Most of the characters are over 30, all of them are realistically proportioned and, more importantly, written. It's a conflict between two great space powers in separate spiral arms of the galaxy. One side is a failing democracy, and the other is a reforming totalitarian state - there are heroes and villains on both sides.

It's more about the characters, the plot and strategy, and political wrangling than the battles - but they dwarf those of B5 and Star Wars, and usually are big fleet standoffs with fusillades and barrages and tactical planning, rather than ship-to-ship melee combat. Every piece of music besides the opening and closing themes, and the two national anthems, is classical music, as in Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc.

I can not talk this series up enough. It's never been licensed for the US, so fansubs are the only way you could watch it, but Central-Anime has finished the 110-episode main series, and is (slowly) getting through the prequels, which you would want to watch later anyway.

I literally cannot say enough good things about this series, and the only really bad thing I can say about it is, if you're at all a fan of anime, it sort of destroys your expectations of most series you watch after it. There are good anime and all, but very, very, very few ever get close to being as good as LoGH. It's a classic which few can ever hope to compare to, and honestly, it's THE best Space Opera ever presented on video, no question to me.

And so forth. It is very very very good. There is absolutely NO silly anime bullshit going on here, the entire show is either very serious battles in space, politics, or very well written fictional history. Many tactics, strategies, and political movements in the series have some real-life historical basis (if you're into politics or history at all you will have an absolute blast). The series doesn't focus solely on the major characters either, many episodes will focus mostly on the side characters.

It is also important to note that the two sides can't really be divided into "good" vs "evil". While there are characters who are clearly antagonists, they aren't limited to either side. There are a good deal of people looking to profit off of the war between the Alliance and the Empire, and there are people in each faction who are either incompetent or corrupt.

Proper viewing order is:

My Conquest is the Sea of Stars (1988 movie)
110 episode main series (1988-1997 OVA)
Side story episodes (52 episode OVA)

Some videos

About half of the space battle from the movie





Most of the battle from the second episode



The following is episode 14, it's important to make note of the fact that most of the series is not about big space battles

Some background: The Alliance is currently invading the Empire's territory, and is starting at the frontier worlds. Reinhard realizes that the Alliance sees themselves as a liberation crusade, and shrewdly evacuates the soon to be invaded planets of food and supplies to put a drain on Alliance supplies. Then he breaks the Alliance's supply line. Most of this episode focuses on a grunt footman of the Alliance fleet, rather than the big name admirals of both sides.

 

[@Li3n]

Hear of this, and it looks cool... but i'm not in the mood for a new anime right now... remind me in a few months maybe.

 

[Reboneer]

I'd heard of it (from the thread you linked to in fact), and went and downloaded it all months back, but haven't actually gotten around to watching it yet.