Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These - Kaikou

For over a century and a half, two interstellar states have wrested for control of the Milky Way. The Galactic Empire, an absolute monarchy ruled by Kaiser Friedrich IV and an entrenched nobility, seeks to suppress the rebels daring to oppose the inviolable crown. The Free Planets Alliance, a representative democracy led by a corrupt High Council, degenerates as its elected leaders⁠ use war and conflict as a way to win popular support.

But this long-standing stalemate between the Empire and the Alliance ends with the rise of two opposing military geniuses. Reinhard von Lohengramm, a minor noble and High Admiral of the Empire through his strategic brilliance and his sister's position as the favored concubine of the Kaiser, dreams of conquering the galaxy and uniting mankind under his iron fist. Meanwhile, Yang Wen-li of the Alliance, an avid historian and reluctant commodore hailed as the Hero of El Facil, uses his tactical prowess to navigate around his leaders' incompetence—and to carve the path to lasting peace. As the war rages on, Reinhard and Yang each strive for their ideals and to secure their place among the stars as the leaders of a new era of galactic heroes.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yang, Wen-li Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

von Lohengramm, Reinhard Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kircheis, Siegfried Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

von Reuenthal, Oskar Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

von Oberstein, Paul Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

von Schönkopf, Walter Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Mittermeyer, Wolfgang Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Minci, Julian Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Attenborough, Dusty Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Greenhill, Frederica Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kuroki, Rui Producer

Isobe, Maaya Producer

Tasaka, Hidemasa Producer

Reviews

Mar 16, 2023

Khalfanii

Recommended

I can’t believe I never heard of this whole series before, I binged it all and loved it. It’s almost a cross between code geass and death note but without any magic. This show watches unlike a typical anime, unpredictable, fast and well paced with no unnecessary stretches of drama.

Also great animation quality, art, voice acting, likable characters;I really hope this show continues to be made. It’s my number one space related show for sure! There’s only about 48 episodes so far but if it had 1000 episodes I would happily watch it all. This is one of those shows I wish would never ... end and now I’m just rambling to try and fill the text requirements.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 17, 2022

WitchFromMercury

Mixed Feelings

This is a remake of the original 1980s OVA series (which in turn was based on the novel series) of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. If you remove "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" and made this it's own sci-fi anime it would be worth a watch but for someone who saw the original it can't compare.

For one LotGH had a score that was entirely classical musical (with no exception except the endings and openings). They had a classical piece for almost every scene and it was all appropriate. It never felt forced or pretentious either.

Instead Die Neue These has its own score and it's really ... boring and at times awkward. One of the major appeals of this show is the music and it got ruined.

Also the character designs were changed severely. It seems like the demographic of this remake is for girls and that they turned it into a fujoshi version of LotGH.

For one, they made Kircheis a Chad with a deep voice and a really intimidating ultra serious almost robotic person. In the OVAs Kircheis was a big softie and a sperg and very gentle. This new Kircheis is like a terminator in comparison to him. Also Kircheis always looked like a sperg and awkward in the OVA but they made him way too cool in this one (and thus boring).

Since the episodes are a lot less they condensed a lot of events and much is missing. For someone who didn't see the original nothing will seem rushed to you (the story flows smoothly) but having known what was cut it's really unacceptable to me.

For example the massive fleet battles instead of showing all of the destruction it's pretty much just some talking scenes and a few key battles between specific officers (but not the massive fleet warfare you would see in the original).

The art style of the Empire is ruined because they went for a medieval theme when it's supposed to be 1800s/early 1900s Prussian. The Imperial palace of Neue Sanssouci isn't a palace at all anymore but instead a really tall castle which clashes with the Prussian uniforms the characters wear.

Fraulein Mariendorf is also ruined because in the original she was portrayed as a very awkward woman but now she looks like a typical OL you'd find in any anime.

Frederica Greenhill is cute in this but looks kind of generic and they made her tackle a member of the Rosenritter (the strongest ground forces in the entire series (one of these men is worth 15 regular ground soldiers in combat)) after he sexually harassed her. This scene was really out of place and never existed in the books or the OVAs and she's not the kind of person to get violent with someone on her side. She's supposed to be really mousey not throwing giant muscular men over her shoulder. It seemed like blatant feminism inserted.

The Empire this time around is extremely boring while the FPA is interesting because they have new scenes of the civilian life on Heinessen. It's cool seeing Yang Wenli in his car and walking on the sidewalk. The scenes with Julian (his adopted son) at his house are way more detailed. In fact there's probably an entire arc of Yang Wenli's home life.

As a fan of the original series which didn't really have such scenes (they were there but not as indepth) it was kind of cool. But slow scenes like this that are dialogue heavy and are "slice of life" will make it really boring in a rewatch (the original is extremely rewatchable because of the lack of these "slide of life" scenes that pretty much all modern anime are about now).

The battles are really boring because of how condensed they are now with how few episodes they had for what they had to cover.

The CGI is also awful. Sure it's really shiny but shiny and flashy is a cheap way to make the graphics seem impressive.

The original series was way more impressive with how detailed it was considering it was all hand drawn. So seeing lots of strobe lights and spinning stuff on the ships doesn't impress me compared to how beautifully drawn the ones in the original were.

Also the Alliance uniforms are not as good. Instead of Green bomber jackets, white khaki pants, black boots, berets, and white scarves they now wear these pea coats (traditional navy coat I know) that look like they're made out of polyester.

I don't like the blue. I preferred the greenish black bomber jackets from the original and the scarves. The original had more of an Air Force theme to the FPA while this new one went more Navy.

Aside from that the FPA new character designs aren't that bad. Yang got a little softened up but he's still recognizeable. Schenkopp also looks 10 or even 20 years younger but I like his personality more in this adaptation. Cazellnu is different (way more of a sarcastic jerk) but the change is also welcome (not because it's better but it's not necessarily worse), he at least stands out more now.

I also liked the way they handled the Iserlohn infiltration in this series. In the original Schenkopp blew it halfway through and they had to end up fighting dozens of soldiers before they could secure Iserlohn after the lockdown was initiated after they siezed the bridge. In this series Schenkopp killed the soldier who would've activated the lockdown prior to him pushing the button as he was reaching for it.

They did it for time reasons (since it would've took another episode to cover getting the lock down reversed by resetting the Iserlohn main reactor and fighting their way to there) but in the end it made Schenkopp seem cooler with how smoother this infiltration went.

However we lost one of my favorite scenes in the process, when Schenkopp while grappling down the reactor plunged nearly to his death and ended up hanging above a woman in the civilian city within the center of Iserlohn who looked up and smiled at him and he smiled back before activating his grappel which zipped him back to the reactor level. The city itself was beautiful and extremely well animated. In this new series you wouldn't know that Iserlohn housed a civilian population.

It's worth watching even for someone who watched the original but you would really be cheating yourself if you watched this instead of the original.

Perhaps for someone new to the series it would be a good start but they should instead watch the original first.

I feel bad giving it 5/10 because it does bear the Legend of the Galactic Heroes name so I will give it 6/10 (which is the score I would give this series if it was its own standalone anime).

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 26, 2018

NoizyFrog

Not Recommended

Funny

I did not read the original novel or watched the OVA from the late 80s, but I heard a lot of praise for those works, as Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LotGH) is apparently one of the greatest anime of all time. Now, in 2018, we got a new take on this hot classic property and I thought it would be a perfect entry point for me.
It is hard to find any value in this anime: characters are not interesting to pull all the attention; action is dull; mind games are weak; depiction of war lacks necessary authenticity or meaningful commentary; rivalry is done better ... in any shounen anime. Where is the epos I heard so much about?
RATING: 3 – Bad

STORY: “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” - except every word is a lie.
“Legend” is an overstatement in association with events in this show. Yes, we see a greater scope of corrupt and egoistic governments mismanaging countries, disillusioned about their dependence on permanent state of war. However, (unintentional?) bad writing coupled with serious delivery tanks any credibility as social commentary as well as a parody.
“Galactic” does not serve the setting any justice, because the show lacks sci-fi vision. Technological progress is present only in military tools; everyday tech, clothing or architecture are frozen in time. It seems like society structures also did not evolve despite new hurdles, like administration of multiple planets; on the contrary, the society even degraded back in case of the Empire. Furthermore, warfare is executed with practices from Napoleon wars: huge armies stand before each other and trade losses or undertake a head on charge, which is sold as strategic masterpiece. Considering war is one of the major themes, the presentation is disappointing or even laughable. Just let it take place in 17th century with stupidity in commando tents and on the battlefield. The show simply does not explore potential of its own setting.
“Heroes” implies there are individuals, who excel above the masses. However, there are no such characters in this show. Wen and Reinhard are considered strategic prodigies, yet their skill is just an illusion, created by comparing those two with utterly incompetent and/or mentally challenged side characters, whose sole purpose is to make the supposed heroes look good. As one example look at Commodore Falk. The show simply fails to build up genuinely smart lead characters.
There are even more issues, like blatant introduction scenes and info dumps. The later ones are sometimes incomplete, like the world-building attempt in ep 3, which explains the history behind the conflict between Empire and Alliance, yet does not mention the 3rd faction. Where did they come from?
“Anecdotes of the Unimaginative Fakes” would be an appropriate title.

CHARACTERS: No bonds, no motivations, no characters.
The main characters are Reinhard, on the side of the Empire, and Wen on the side of the Alliance. In their environment, those two are considered strategic prodigies, as repeated ad nauseam on multiple occasions. Wen acquired his skills by reading history books, whereas Reinhard is a natural, I guess, because the show never bothers to show his development.
Should Wen’s character be close to source material, it would make him grandfather of all lazy and laid back attitude main characters infesting today’s light novels. Occasionally he will make a smart comment on events or dumb speeches, however his words are directed more towards the viewer and not his environment, thus have little narrative impact and serve as moral guideline for the viewer, which further devalues this character.
Reinhard is an ambitious smug with hatred towards the Empire because…I actually don’t know. How is it not an honor, but disgrace, for his sister to be Emperor’s wife? What are those motivations?
Support characters also got a budget treatment; relationships are clearly defined in dedicated introduction scenes, however there is no time to reinforce those bonds, so that in the end you know who they are but you do not care about them. “Wen’s little slave is cleaning the house and cooking meals again? Oh, it’s his adopted son. Didn’t notice that.”

ART & ANIMATIONS: talking heads; Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V ships.
LftGH 2018 is bland: bland character designs, bland ship designs, bland backgrounds, everything is bland. Animation did not strain the budget either, because there is not much to animate in a dialogue heavy show. Around episode 10 the overall quality takes a major dip with off model characters and horrible gray backgrounds.
Space battles are boring and void of any energy or tension: all you see are copy & paste CGI ships trading red or blue laser beams left and right. Expect to get zero visual entertainment. Fast-paced battles between small fighters, as you can witness in the OP, are rare and not impressive.

SOUND: Geshiikaaa!!!!!!!!!
Music, especially the OP, is way better than the show deserves and is the only positive remark I can make. Original voice act runs into serious troubles pronouncing overabundance of western names; professionals should show more expertize on their field.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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