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REFLECTION: LEGEND OF GALACTIC HEROES Legend of Galactic Heroes (銀河英雄伝説 Ginga Eiyu Densetsu) is a hard science fiction, socio-political, space opera. Beginning as a novel written by Yoshiki Tanaka, they won the "Seiun Award" (the equivalent of Japan's Nebula award) for best novel in 1988. The series is viewed through the eyes of two military geniuses and follows the evolution of two societies: the Galactic Empire and Free Planets Alliance. Popular both in Japan and China, the series aired for four seasons. Throughout the series there is no explicit right or wrong-only different sides in a war; a common theme in LOGH can be summarized in the quote: "There are few wars between good and evil; most are between one good and another good." Likewise, the story seems to abandon the idea of free will, as it is shown quite clearly that every character’s actions are determined by material circumstances and history. There are secular, deterministic, and relativist tones throughout the series; there is no room for God in this universe. Throughout LOGH the mortality of man is emphasized by numerous deaths, ranging from the mass slaughter of civilians by military looters, to the assassination of main characters by religious fanatics. By the series end, about half the main characters die surprisingly quickly and undramatically. The two main characters in the series are Yang Wenli and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Wenli, of the democratic Free Planets Alliance-is a striving scholar of history, born of a failed small business owner, he is forced into the military to pay off his college loans, yet he strongly believes in democracy, noting that any system built in dictatorship will be Animation Liberation Magazine 32
only as strong as its leadership. Reinhard begins as a noble in poverty, which makes it so that his father is forced to sell his sister as a concubine to the Emperor, an event that scars Reinhard for life. Being of the Empire, Reinhard believes the system of democracy is overly idealistic, and that humanity needs to be united by a single, powerful ruler. As mentioned earlier neither of these two figures are presented as being absolutely good or evil; they merely have different philosophies concerning politics due to their own unique histories in their respective societies. There are heavily strategic battles throughout the series, based on cold calculation they contain virtually no heroics. This is demonstrated immediately in the first episode, when Reinhard is surrounded by three separate enemy fleets, outnumbered two-to-one. In this situation, Reinhard wins an initial victory by quickly moving his fleet ahead to meet the closest of the three groups as soon as possible. The reasoning is straight-forward: even if the enemy fleet as a whole outnumbers him, since it is divided into three separate groups, his fleet overall will be able to outnumber the enemy in any one particular place. As Reinhard puts it--"It comes down to numbers." That is simply one of the many examples of Napoleonic style warfare presented throughout the series. EXCEPTIONS TO THE NAPOLEANIC THEMES: There are a few times, to be accurate, when individual actions matter. When Yang is asked to seize the nearly impenetrable Iserlohn Fortress he succeeds by using Rosen Ritter (Knights of the Rose) shock troops to take hostages. One can also argue that Yang and Reinhard's actions may constitute exceptions to the series historical materialism in themselves. However these exceptions only prove the rule, as it is heavily implied that Yang's and Reinhard's place in history is determined by the growing escalation, and hence desperation, of the rival factions to defeat the other militarily by utilizing the best possible strategists. Likewise, Yang's meeting of the elite shock troops and his orders to attack Iserlohn fortress are the natural, and inevitable outcome of his being perceived as a threat to the civilian leadership, and his meeting with the Rosen Ritter occur as a result of their defecting from the Empire due to their individualist tendencies, and their willingness to make a scene in public (as the last attracts Yang's attention). The importance of history permeates the series: there are multiple episodes solely devoted to explaining the history of mankind up to the Astarte Encounter (the opening battle sequence). Even in the character's personal lives history is paramount, the viewers come to understand why Reinhard is motivated to unite the galaxy by viewing his childhood experiences as a poor noble who seeks power to save his sister from a life of bondage. Yang Wenli's political viewpoints likewise become understood from his history as a free citizen in a democracy, one who has heavily studied history and has learned about past leaders who have brought their society to ruin. Two other examples involve Jessica Edwards who becomes the leader of a pacifist party after her husband Animation Liberation Magazine 33
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