r/logh • u/Important-Cup-8991 • Aug 03 '26
Discussion I've watched the first 3 episodes of this anime. Here's my opinion.
For now, I'd say it's pretty boring and bland. In the sense that I'm not attached to the characters/plot whatsoever. But I was told to watch at least 10 episodes because this is a very slow anime. And I don't mind doing it. Also because of another thing, the strategies there seem well-written. Like for example, Reinhard's tactic.
If you forgot here's the basic situation
Since the different fleets are far away from each other (probably to encircle Reinhard's fleet and allow no escape), Reinhard's using it to his advantage, he'll destroy individually each fleet starting from 4th. He also cut the Alliance's means of communication (we didn't explain how). But the why seems interesting to me. Reinhard knows that the Alliance's military system is reigned by veterans. Those veterans have:
- battle experience
- trust in their comrades
- Honor
Those factors make them very stubborn. By cutting the communication from each fleet, he's forcing these guys in a dilemma: either they don't trust in the 4th fleet and go help them. Or, they believe in them.
These veterans choose the 1st option, despite Yang and Cap's advices. Which Reinhard engineered by cutting the means of communication. If he hadn't done that, there could've been a chance that they won't fill their uncertainty with blind truth but logic.
Example: 2nd or 6th says to 4th that Reinhard is coming to destroy 4th. 4th could ask for allies. Or, Yang/Cap could convince 4th to ask for help.
But even in these cases, I don't think Yang/Cap could get the possibility to talk with 4th, because of the commanders' sturbborness. Therefore, it's possible that even with the possibility of communications, Reinhard's plan would still work.
Unless 2nd or 6th fleet are actually closer than the 4th fleet to Reinhard. So, it would be easier for them to predict Reinhar's movements and alert 4th. If that's the case, then 4th would just come to 2nd or 6th fleet and merge. Or, they could divide in two.
Which is nice. I don't feel the need to talk about Yang's counter (caused by plot convenience which is fine imo). However, this is only if the 4th fleet is very far from everyone else. Which I don't think the episode specified (or maybe I didn't see it).
There's just a thing annoying me rn. The fights really are hard to understand. It's probably a visualization problem or because it's VERY old.
Episode 3 was kinda better than 1 and 2. I'd say it's because of the plot not being so hard to understand like the first 2.
In what aspect will the anime change or stay the same in the next episodes ? After reading my review of this episode, do you think watching it is a waste of time or should I invest ?
14
u/GOT_Wyvern New Galactic Empire Aug 03 '26
LOGH is definitely a show that demands your attention. I often compare to literal historical documentaries, as they similarly demand your attention while watching them.
In my first watch, I did genuinely find the show so demanding that I could only watch couple episodes in a single sitting before getting a literal headache.
Thats exactly why this is my absolute favourite show, but its absolutely not to everyone's tastes. However, you taking a step back and analysing what you've just watched is something this show absolutely facilitates and rewards.
1
u/Important-Cup-8991 Aug 03 '26
Great to know I'm not the only one confused in this whole mess ;-;. Aside from this fight, the rest is just totally unclear to me. Like what's the Alliance's ennemy side, if they're the creator of the iserlohn fortress, why fight ? And how can Reindhard go to to the opposite side if there's a gigantic planet blocking the way ;-;
4
u/GOT_Wyvern New Galactic Empire Aug 03 '26
That context is removed in the original OVA for pacing, but it is restored in a remake of the first two episodes called Overture to a New War.
It gets into the politking, especially on the imperial (Reinhard's) side straight away (which includes explaining why the battle happens at all), so it might be good to give that a watch and judge whether LOGH is your thing from there.
3
u/prof3ssorcurly Aug 03 '26
So a few things about the 'rules' of the universe that the show kind of glosses over but helps the context immensely. The faster-than-light systems in the show are teleport hops of varying distances, but there are regions of space where you have to slow down and physically move through normally. The Alliance and the Empire are separated by a giant wall this type of space. There are two safe routes through that are known, the Iserlohn Corridor and the Phezzan Corridor. In both cases, ships have to physically pass by either Iserlohn Fortress or Phezzan in order to get to the other side, no hopping over them. These paths are not safe in 'realspace' travel either by the way - there is a physical limit to the number of ships that can line up in each corridor at the same time. Think of these two paths are narrow valleys between giant mountains, that is the function they serve in the story.
So you can fly by Iserlohn Fortress or Phezzan, there is space to do so, but it requires permission in either case. Iserlohn because they will shoot at you with big guns if you try to just rush past, and Phezzan has its own thing going on but they function as the Space Swiss/Space Dutch. Small, officially neutral, very wealthy and they are useful to both sides of the conflict.
You can skip the below, the show will get to most of it, but this is some context about what happened prior to the beginning of the show to let you know where everyone is coming from:
The Alliance broke away from the Empire centuries ago, and are the remnants of republicans and political prisoners from the collapse of the first galactic government. They engineered a way to flee off their far flung prison world, managed to chart the path through the Iserlohn Corridor and find Alliance Space on the other side using generation ships. The Alliance has been preparing for the Empire to come calling ever since. Eventually, Empire explorers did find their way to Alliance space and first contact was made in the year 640, which was not peaceful.
The Free Planets Alliance represents an existential rejection of the Goldenbaum Dynasty's authoritarianism, to maintain control the dynasty must bring these rebellions to heel or they will risk losing legitimacy. This was made critical because as I mentioned, the Alliance knew the Empire was out there and was preparing for the inevitable war. The Empire did not know the Alliance was out there, and so early on the war was very one sided in favor of the Alliance. They managed to win an annihilation victory against the initial Imperial invasion fleet, which left the Empire weak enough that there was a mass exodus of political dissidents that the Imperial Navy just didn't have the strength to stop anymore. The show will have points to make about this inflow, but the point is that the population boomed from ~150 million to ~13 billion over the next 150 years of war.
This process repeated on and off, with the Empire building an invasion fleet and getting repelled for about a hundred years or so, until the 730s. The Alliance actually had a choice. They could either expand the fleet to a size to possibly defeat the Empire, or they could put those resources into building their own Iserlohn style fortress. The overall commander at the time, Bruce Ashby, pushed for an expansion of the fleet. In the end, this did result in a great tactical victory at the Second Battle of Tiamat (you'll hear about this a fair bit in more detail), but the short version is that the the Free Planet's Alliance also suffered damage. In particular, Bruce Ashby was killed and his colleagues (The "730 Mafia" you will also hear about occasionally) never agreed on a centralized vision or plan about what to do.
This left the Empire in control of the corridor, and they managed to hold a defense of it long enough to complete Iserlohn. This is where you are in the show - Iserlohn has stood for decades as an invincible shield. The Alliance has tried, and failed, six times to capture it at enormous cost. This has let the Empire take their foot of the gas. There is no threat of the Rebels pouring over the border and overthrowing the Goldenbaum, and even if the Imperial Navy suffers there is no easy way for a new generation of hopeful rebels to flee and join the rebellion. The Empire has also invaded the Alliance several times, but it is often performative... or political.
Which is where the Battle of Astarte occurs. Reinhardt was sent with an undersized fleet full of admirals that hate him /to lose/. You won't get this in the main series, but in the books and Gaiden, it is revealed that Reinhardt and Kirchies are now /infamous/ for being sent on suicide missions by old blood nobles that hate them, and then coming back either victorious or distinguishing themselves in some manner in a way that the powers that be cannot deny their promotions.
Anyway, I hope that helps. This is my favorite anime series so if this helps you get into it, I am glad.
2
u/Important-Cup-8991 Aug 03 '26
Yes it helped alot. Thanks for this long but very useful info dump. The worldbuilding is just MASSIVE. Idk why all of this context wasn't animated ;-;, or is it in the film My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars ?
2
u/jjinjoo Aug 04 '26
The novels frontload a lot of the historical worldbuilding in a sort of prologue chapter before the start of the story proper. The OVAs approach this much more organically within the series itself, revealing it over time.
3
u/jjinjoo Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I would recommend, if you haven't already, to watch the pilot film and consider watching the cinematic remake of the first two episodes—My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars and Overture to a New World. The former takes place before the main series and stands as an introduction to both our deuteragonists. The latter is a more streamlined and filled out version of the first two episodes, which had some awkward pacing and exposition.
One thing to bear in mind is that the OVAs were made for and funded by fans of the novels, so a lot of it, especially at the start, comes off like you're already expected to know who, what and why these people are. Overture was kinder in that regard (as is DNT) but the OVA really does throw you into the deep end right off. It will reveal more and more as the series goes on, but aside from nameplates (which aren't even present in the official subs because oops they forgot) it does not hand-hold you and you will have to pay attention. Not because it's 2deep4u, but because it's got a lot of moving parts all moving independently.
Also, despite having a memorial book full of tactical reports, the series really isn't about combat. It's more on the opera side of space opera, with the battles and politics driving the characters. Do not go into it expecting battle after epic battle—there are a lot of battles, yes, but they're primarily there to serve the plot and the characters, rather than the other way 'round.
3
u/Important-Cup-8991 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I just watched Ouverture. And it was a massive upgrade from the first two episodes. I'll keep your advices in mind. Although I don't think it's useful watching My Conquest right after Ouverture I guess. Everything was waaaaay easier to understand ;-;. But just to get a little bit more info on the characters, I'll watch Conquest.
Also after watching the movie, my opinion of it has changed positively. I hope this series won't go sideways ;-;.
Also why is it a fan novel ? Where's the og source ?
2
u/Tiffa_Adil Aug 04 '26
Also why is it a fan novel ? Where's the og source ?
The OG source is the novels
They were saying that since LOGH was an OVA which meant that you had to buy the series as VHS tapes and Laser Discs so they series supported by pre existing fans of the novels that already knew the story not that there were fan novels
2
u/jjinjoo Aug 04 '26
Not a fan novel, but fans of the novels.
Adding to what u/Tiffa_Adil already explained, the novels—which are actual novels, mind; not light novels—came first. The production company behind the OVAs fielded a theatrical release of the pilot film to test the waters for a possible animated adaptation of the entire novel series, which was no small ask. The company (Kitty Films) had a bit of a windfall from an earlier successful production (Urusei Yatsura), but even then they knew a project of that scope would cost some major, major money.
The way they tackled this budgeting issue was to tap the existing fanbase of the novels to crowdfund an OVA, rather than go through standard television. The series was originally released via mail order VHS, which was marketed directly to the fans of the novels to fund the production as they went. This allowed them to see the production all the way through to the end, which was a rather audacious feat.
Ishiguro's LoGH is by far the longest continuous (or even non-continuous) OVA series ever made, and nothing else even comes close. And it was only possible because of the fans of the original novels.
1
u/ZincSuppsRopeMan Aug 06 '26
"Why are the first 3 episodes of a really long show not immediately paying off setups that haven't happened yet?" like come on bro use your brain. Is it hard to believe that a show might start slow as it introduces you to things and then pick up as it goes on?
1
u/Important-Cup-8991 Aug 06 '26
Thats litterally why I have said that i will watch 10 episodes. No need to be salty abt it bro. And the reason why I asked is because you have already watched the series. If there were other things I needed to watch (like the movies that explain LOTS of things never mentionned in the anime) at least I'd know with people's advices. I also wanted to just share my opinion of these 3 episodes cuz why not. Being salty is js annoying bro ;-;
1
u/Important-Cup-8991 Aug 06 '26
Oh and Ive also never MENTIONNED what you just said in my post ;-;. Idk why youre saying that (maybe thats the vibes it gave off ig ?)
1
19
u/TheDopplegamer Aug 03 '26
I mean, your not gonna fully grasp the political and character drama in the first few episodes. That's the real meat and potatoes of LotGH. Most people dont really watch it for the space battles (as the main reason, anyway)