Back to Autismonaut's Profile Autismonaut's Profile

Let me preface this review, dear readers, by saying that you will most likely only enjoy the Youjo Senki LN if you enjoy discussing ethics, philosophy, military strategy, logistics, and other academic topics pertaining to war. If you are someone that simply enjoyed the anime for the "nazi loli" blowing stuff up (Ironic, given that the Empire is based off of the German Empire, not National Socialist Germany) then you will almost certainly grow tired of it.

Youjo Senki or "The Saga of Tanya the Evil" as the unsuitable and loathsome English localization would call it, primarily focuses on Imperial Battle Mage Tanya Degurechaff's attempts ... to navigate the political and strategic circumstances of an alternate WW1 scenario as a grunt with the sole goal of surviving and eventually retiring or living a comfortable life in the rear. Much of the text consists of Tanya's inner thoughts, often comparing real world history and perspectives to the alternate world she resides in. What makes the story interesting is not wondering whether or not Tanya will emerge victorious on the tactical level, but rather if her best efforts will allow the Empire to improve its strategic position. Overall, I'd highly recommend the series for anyone with a love of history and a mind for politics and warfare.

However, the series is not without its faults. There are several occasions where technological developments would completely alter the way in which war is fought in the alternate world. An obvious example would be the widespread use of tanks by all combatants, barring Dacia. With armoured vehicles, one would expect for WW1-esque positional warfare to fall out of favour for a rapid war of movement much to the Empire's advantage. The wasteful practice of sending hordes of infantry to storm machine gun positions and triumph over the enemy trench by trench would not occur, or at least not to the scale where the conflict devolves into attritional warfare.

The anime is a terrible adaptation of the source material, altering the protagonist's personality in order to cater to a cringe edgelord audience, ruining character designs, and ignoring much of the strategic, logistical, and tactical concepts explored in the books.

Tanya is transformed from someone driven by practicality and valuing human resources in the LN to transferring two of her troops to a position likely to be shelled to kill them off in the anime. This directly conflicts with her original personality. Even the western title is completely inaccurate, opting for "Saga of Tanya the Evil", when her character is supposed to be much ... more complex.

I need not dwell on how appalling the visuals are in the anime. Many of the side characters are unrecognizable, sporting haircuts that would conflict with military standards and generally look inferior to their manga/LN counterparts (i.e. Lehrgen). The poor designs are not helped at all by the overall ugly art style and copious amounts of jarring 3D models and CG.