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An enormous, sprawling 110-episode Space Opera which was originally released to home video, (making this the longest-running OVA of all time, although it was later shown on TV.) This is in Japan, of course, as neither the anime, nor the manga, nor the huge series of novels which preceeded it have ever been released in America. (A noble yet feeble attempt at licensing a dub version of the anime was made many years ago, but no one bit, and thus the only way the series is accessible in English nowadays is through Fan Subs.)

The meat of the story is this: sometime in the 35th century, humanity has spread out amongst the stars and has split off into two great superpowers which are now sadly engaged in a decades-long knock-down, drag-out war with each other. Fighting in the forces of the Galactic Empire (whose government is based on 19th century Prussia,) is an ambitious young noble named Reinhard von Muesel, more famously known by his later title, Reinhard von Lohengramm. Fighting in the opposing Free Planets Alliance (a government which resembles a crumbling, bloated 20th Century democracy,) is Yang Wen-Li, an easygoing historian who reluctantly joined the military because he was broke. Together, these two men (both tactical geniuses) are destined to commit great deeds, eventually becoming the series' titular Galactic Heroes.

This is not your typical anime. The story is played very straight and seriously and is crammed with detail. (It's also crammed with characters, from the big players at the top of the government to the lowly farmers and grunt soldiers at the bottom who get everything done. There's, in fact, so many that the series always shows a character's name when he shows up on screen.) At times, this can become confusing—to the point where one really needs a scorecard of some sort to keep all of the character's names and ambitions straight. Also, the pace of the story is a bit slow. (Make that extremely slow. It's possible to watch an episode where the heroes prepare for an invasion, skip ahead three episodes, and find the heroes still preparing for that same invasion.) Even so, this anime makes for an interesting, and at times compelling, watch. The world this story takes place in is thoroughly realized; the character's motives and actions seem real, and it's obvious that the author of the original novels, Yoshiki Tanaka, had a sincere love for and a good understanding of history. As evidenced by the quote above, this is not an anime about the good guys vs. the bad guys. (Not that there ISN'T a single bad guy, or villanious faction in this anime, but they seem evenly spaced amongst the various governments and factions vying for power. As villains tend to be in real life.) If you're a history or military buff or if you just want to watch an anime that's more substance than style, then you should definitely check this series out.

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This show provides examples of:

• Absent Aliens
• The Ace: Yang Wen-li is a slight subversion. Yes, he is sometimes lazy, and likes to hit the bottle pretty hard, but if he's leading a battle he WILL win. Period. Even Reinhard Von Lohengramm, who has gone through the humiliation of ONLY being defeated when Yang's involved, sees him as a worthy opponent instead of an enemy.
• Ace Pilot: Ivan Konev, Olivier Poplin
• A Father To His Men: Any officer worthy of the role in the series exhibits this, but it's much more evident on the Alliance side, where protocol doesn't get as much in the way of the relationship between officers and the soldiers under their command. Yang Wen-li is pretty much this trope incarnate.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Terran cult has apparently been using Phezzan to manipulate both the Empire and the Alliance for centuries. Subverted in that in the end it doesn't really work.
  • That doesn't mean they don't leave their shit-stained mark on history... RIP Yang Wen-Li :-(
• Animal Motifs: One of the games has two little omake parodies of the Momotarou story, one for the Empire's side and one for the Alliance's side, in which the characters are wearing animal costumes (with the exception of Reinhard and Julian who play the role of Momotarou). In the Empire version, Kircheis is a dog (and can't say anything other than "Yes, Annerose-sama/Reinhard-sama"), Reuentahl is an eagle, Mittermeier is a wolf, Wittenfeld is a tiger and Oberstein is a bat. In the FPA version, Attenborough is a dog, Schoenkopf is a monkey and Poplin is a hawk(?)... and Karin is the Queen of the demons.
  • In the series proper there are quite a few, too. Mittermeyer's title of Gale Wolf and the Lohengramm Dynasty's winged lion, just to name two.
• Anti Hero: Reinhard is closest to Type IV.
• Armchair Military: Many of the Alliance Army's top brass who got there by smooching posterior. Goddamn them.
• A Million Is A Statistic: Subverted, the series tries its damn best to make you see how awful and tragic the death of the average soldier is. The officers in the army also constantly show that the deaths of their subordinates weight on them heavily.
• Anyone Can Die: Characters die, often unexpectedly, regardless of their minor or main status. Of the Speaking roles in the 1st Episode only Annerose and Wolfgang survive the series.
  • Attenborough and Poplin also make it through.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight AND subverted. In both sides of the conflict, there's people who use their authority for heavy loads of badassery and people whose authority is actually a detriment to their society. Reinhard von Lohengramm, Yang Wen-li and their subordinates are examples of the former. Job Trünicht, the former Imperial Nobility and some particularly incompetent military officers on both sides are examples of the later.
• Awesome Moment Of Crowning: For Reinhard, though it doesn't take place at the end of the story.
• Back From The Brink: Yang Wen-li is notorious for this.
• Badass Adorable: Julian starts the series as a Cute Shotaro Boy, ends it as a blond-haired pretty boy. You would never suspect the things he can do with an axe, ESPECIALLY if you push his berserk button.
  • Let's reminisce about some of his achievement, shall we?
    • Joining the army while still in his teens.
    • Taking down myriad enemy fighters and a battle cruiser on his first actual space flight, which was during a training exercise.
    • Serving as Yang's liaison in Phezzan and managing to escape the planet during an imperial invasion and capturing an enemy ship while doing it.
    • Being commissioned as a lieutenant while still in his teens.
    • Going to Earth and not only helping take down the main body Terran Cult and revealing many of their conspiracies, but also doing it WHILE SUFFERING FROM DRUG WITHDRAWAL.
    • Participating with the Rosenritters in taking Iserlohn a second time, and distinguishing himself in said battle.
    • Becoming Yang Wen-Li's successor after his death. Them's some big shoes...
• Badass Bookworm: Yang Wen-li. He had dreadful grades in the military academy, but that's mostly because he never wanted to be a soldier, he wanted to be a HISTORIAN. And in practice, he's formidable on BOTH accounts: he's a strategic genius without equal and his knowledge of history allows him to second-guess the enemy's motivations and strategies easily.
  • Yang is -by his own admission- quite inept when it come to actual combat: Julian his way closer to the definition: he is quite the bookworm -thanks to his foster father influence- but you do not want to face his fury
• Badass Army: The Rossenritters, General Schoenkopf's motley crew of infantry badasses. They're so bad, they've actually gotten out of ambushes by saying "We're the Rosenritters" and the enemy turning tail.
• Beam Spam: Alliance ships are particularly prone to this tactic, having up to eighty beam cannons mounted at the bow.
  • The theory among fans is that the beam cannons on Imperial ships are more powerful where the FPA relies on multiple, but less powerful, beam cannons, which would explain the 6 cannons on Imperial battleships in comparison to the 32 cannons on FPA battleships
• Better To Die Than Be Killed: Alliance Rear Admiral Borodin, during the Battle of Amritsar, upon finding out that his fleet has been reduced to eight ships, pauses only momentarily before using his service pistol to blow his own brains out.
• Beware The Nice Ones: Yang is a nice guy and a great drinking buddy, who does not like war and does not even enjoy being good at it. No matter what you do to him, his worst reaction will be a snarky remark. It takes no less than 73 episodes (four years in story), to finally make him snap: the result is bloody. Yang's foster child Julian is also guilty of this: he starts as a Cute Shotaro Boy, but he knows kung-fu and heaven take pity of you if you push his berserk button.
• Big Damn Heroes
• Bishonen: Loads of 'em, including our two main heroes, especially in the manga.
• Bittersweet Ending: Not THE ending to the series, but A ending: during Reinhard von Lohengramm's coronation as Kaiser of the Empire, he was heartbroken that the two people he most wanted to be there with him, Siegfried Kircheis and his sister, were not present.
  • The actual ending is rather bittersweet, too. What with Reinhard dying, finishing the chain of Kill Em All, and Mittermeier's "You too, Felix?" *sniff*
• Bling Of War: Apparently the guiding principle of The Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes; its highest-ranking admirals sport full capes (in unique colors!) and field marshals' batons.
  • Their insignia are literally embroidered on the uniforms. In real silver thread. It goes from rather simple patterns for junior officers to the ornate tapestries just short of the flak vest for admirals. You see, the Empire really dug that ceremony thing.
• Boat Lights: Oskar von Reuentahl, much to his chagrin.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Wittenfeld has elements of this, being the agrresive leader of the Black Lancers and of muscular build. But his attitude and habit of attacking without orders does earn him the dislike of some admirals, namely Wahlen and Oberstein.
  • Schoenkopf also loves taunting his enemies right before sending them to their grave.
• Booby Trap: How Reuentahl and Mittermeier catch Ovlesser.
• Bunny Ears Admiral: you would never guess how deadly this social misfit, borderline alcoholic, unable to keep his own house in order without the help of his foster child can be when he is not commanding his army
• Casanova: Olivier Poplin and Walter von Schoenkopf turn this into an outright contest. Walter's been at this long enough to have an illegitimate daughter, Katerose von Kreuzer, in the same fleet.
  • Reuentahl is also infamous for this, though less so in the anime than in the novel.
• The Chessmaster: Any character who isn't a Magnificent Bastard is likely to be one of these.
• Civil War: On both sides, practically at the same time. The Empire's resulted in a change of regime that invigorated its stagnant society. The Alliance's resulted in needlessly lost human life and a weakening of the morale of its populace and military.
• Complete Monster: Rudolf von Goldenbaum. You'd think that in a series so full of moral ambiguity, there couldn't be such a horrific person. On the other hand, when someone proclaims themself as ruler for life, dissolves the Parliamentary system, puts into place a very strict form of eugenics (basically, if you were handicapped or poor, you'd either be euthanized or sugically sterilized), having anyone who opposed him killed (which, as historical tapes showed, numbered around 4.5 billion killed)...I think you get the point. Needless to say, he went way beyond the reach of any Well Intentioned Extremist, and it was his tyranny that caused the creation of the Free Planets Alliance.
• Conscription: Both sides resort to drafting soldiers to keep their numbers up, but in an interesting subversion, the Empire actually has a much easier time getting volunteers to join after Reinhard Von Lohengramm assumes control of the Imperial military.
• Cool Ship: Main characters (particularly in the Empire side) get their own custom Shiny Looking Spaceships, the most obvious ones being Reinhard's bright white flagship, the Brunhilde, and Siegfried Kircheis's bright red flagship, the Barbarossa. On the Alliance side, the most unique example in Nguyen Van Thieu's flagship, the Maurya, which is seen painted with tiger stripes. Now consider that these ships are about 800 to 1000 meters long...
• Creepy Monotone: Does Paul von Oberstein ever sound anything BUT sinister?
• Crowning Moment Of Awesome: A GREAT DEAL MANY, and surprising for such a low-key, paced series. If a character is named and is part of either military, expect him/her to have moments to shine. Of course, Yang Wen-li, Reinhard Von Lohengramm and their highest subordinates get the lion's share, but many lesser characters also get moments of badassitude.
• Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Many. This series runs the entire spectrum of emotions, and tenderness is one of them.
  • Yang Wen-li's cutely awkward wedding proposition to Lieutenant Greenhill. Not only was it a tender moment, it was a surprising one, as they had been merely officer and subordinate up to that point.
    • And on that note, after the Alliance government orders the ceasefire and surrender of Yang's fleet, Yang meets with his subordinates and lets some of them go with Admiral Merkatz to start forming a revolutionary army for his eventual battles to restores independence to the Alliance. After his meeting with his subordinates, a downtrodden Yang tells Greenhill "I honestly do not know if my decision was right or wrong." Greenhill's reply? "It was the decision of a good man, and the only thing I know is this: I am hopelessly, head over heels in love with you." Cue the kiss, much fist pumping from the audience.
  • There's also Mittermeier and Reinhard proposing to Eva and Hilda, respectively. At least Reinhard had the good sense not to pick yellow roses...
  • After hearing Reinhard von Lohengramm's declaration of war, an old and frail Admiral Bucock sadly gets up, knowing what is coming. Cue his wife walking in, his old uniform in her arms, a warm smile that can only say "I understand, dear" on her face. That particular moment made this troper teary eyed.
• Dangerous Deserter: Yang Wen-li is seen as this after he escapes from prison and reunites with the Merkatz fleet. This is another testament to the Alliance government's utter stupidity.
• Days Of Future Past: High technology abounds, but The Galactic Empire looks more like Versailles than The Future. The people running it also tend to dress like 18th century aristocracy. You'll also see people dressing in togas and in 20th century fashions —which you'd think would have become quite passe by the 35th century.
  • Mind you, the Empire's Prussian fashion sense has a distinct cause - its founder was a German FanBoy.
• Dead Sidekick: When Yang's old friend and mentor figure of sorts Alexander Bucock gets killed during a desperate battle he has started to give Yang enough time to organize his own troops, Yang reacts by crushing a plastic goblet and by stopping being lazy, and when a character that has remained undefeated against the local galactic empire despite VERY unfavorable odds while being drunk half of the time and sleeping the other half stops being lazy, going after him is not recommended.
  • Also, Kircheis whose death sends Reinhard into his first Heroic BSOD.
• Death Is Dramatic: Played very straight. If a character that's not very important dies, it's only barely acknowledged. When a MAJOR character dies, the character's death can be felt throughout the entire series, i.e. Siegfried Kircheis.
• Defensive Feint Trap: A favorite tactic of the Alliance. Yang Wen-li's so great at using them that Imperial admirals facing him actually consider RETREATING when he goes on the defensive.
• Deflector Shields: and sometimes, you even see them work!
• Delaying Action: Another favorite tactic of the Alliance. In fact, the Empire much prefers starting with the advantage and keeping it than using lesser numbers in any situation, although they will use it if needed.
• Died In Your Arms Tonight: Happens a few times, but the most straight playing of the trope(and the most HEART-WRENCHING) is Siegfried Kircheis dying in Reinhard Von Lohengramm's arms.
• Double Agent: arguably Adrian Rubinsky: although technically he is not a double agent, he plays a very similar role.
• Dress Coded For Your Convenience: Alliance=20th century Western-style civilian wear and beret-borne military uniforms. Empire=19th century Prussian-based military uniforms and noble wear. Phezzan=20th century European-style evening wear.
• Driven To Suicide: Count Braunschweig, Helmut Lennenkanpt, Admiral Borodin, Oskar von Reuentahl, Hans Eduard Bergengruen... This series drives many people to off themselves.
• Dropped A Bridge On Him: Jessica Edwards.
• During The War
• Dying Alone: Yang Wen-li, of all people. It is heartbreaking.
• Et Tu Brute: The effect of Reuentahl's rebellion on Mittermeier and Reinhard.
• Fallen Hero: Oskar Von Reuenthal. Particularly tragic, since he did not rebel against Reinhard out of genuine malice or ambition, but because he was framed and was too proud to accept punishment for a crime he did not commit. His death is arguably the most senseless and undeserved in the entire series.
• Famous Last Words: Most main characters.
• Expospeak: GLORIOUSLY subverted. The LOGH world is VERY vast and VERY complicated, its fictional history starting in the midst of the 21st century, and the series itself occurs in the 35th century. That's fifteen centuries of history, so you'd think episodes revolving entirely around historical exposition would be boring: NOT SO. The writers use a very ingenious device to do it: the characters themselves are studying the topics that are being expositioned as part of the plot, so you can actually see WHY they need to know this and why WE need to know this as well. Examples include Julian's trips to Phezzan and Earth, in which Julian watches historical documentaries on the history of both to understand why the society of both planets is as it is. The second trip is particularly interesting, since it covers the period right after humanity started colonizing space, and because Oliver Poplin watches it with Julian and gives his point of view on the events being studied, revealing a lot of depth from a character who's been portrayed as not very serious. Reinhard Von Lohengramm himself is used this way as well, reading de-classified documents from the Empire's secret police, which reveal the backstory of the Goldenbaum Dynasty's many emperors: their accomplishments(or lack thereof), the intrigues and backstabbings. All these episodes are fascinating breaks from the action, and understanding the wealth of history that comes before the events of the series amplifies its epic nature. Well done, writers.
• Fan Nickname: "Boring Germans in Space", due to one of the sides having noticeable Germanic influence and the fact that some anime fans find it painfully slow-paced.
  • A variant is "Boring Gay Germans in Space" - for obvious reasons.
• Faster Than Light Travel: necessary, considering that this takes place between two arms of the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Faux Action Girl: Lt. Greenhill graduated salutatorian of her military class, so you'd expect her to be fairly good at physical combat. But when she and a fellow soldier are attacked by the PKC, she literally runs crying into a corner while her friend gets beaten up. Was it reallly too much to ask for her to at least get in a fighting stance? And if you have to run, at least try running into a different room instead of running headlong into a corner!
  • To be fair, they were completely cornered and the PKC had stun batons and intent to kill, so they were for all intents and purposes completely defenseless. And come on, everyone should remember Greenhill's CMOA when she singlehandedly infiltrates the building where the Alliance government is keeping Yang prisoner and blows the brains out of his would-be assassin right in the nick of time.
• The Final Frontier
• Final Speech: (Almost everyone who dies gets to have one.)
• Foe Yay - How some fans interpret the relationship between Reinhard and Yang.
• For Want Of A Nail: This trope doesn't happen, but given the historical theme of the show, sometimes the narrator or one of the characters will comment on how some tiny insignificant detail had changed history.
• Four Star Badass: Many. This series' most distinguished characters tend to be high-ranking officers in their respective army, at least Admiral or above. There's a REASON they got that far. The most literal example of the trope, however, would be General Schoenkopf, commanding officer of the Rosenritters, the Alliance's special forces infantry platoon. Facing him in battle is a DEATH SENTENCE.
  • And on that note, let's not forget Oskar von Reuentahl, the only man to fight Schoenkopf head to head and live to tell the tale. No wonder he's one of Reinhard Von Lohengramm's elite admirals.
• Freudian Excuse: Reuentahl is a textbook case. Most of his issues stem from the fact that his mother hated him.
• Fridge Logic - During several major death scenes, a character will fall down and start bleeding from the mouth when his ship is hit without ever being directly shot himself.
• Gender Flip: For some reason Rubinsky is a woman in the manga adaptation, called Adriana Rubinskaya. Her personality is the same, though, and even her appearance: she's just as bald as his male counterpart. (She's a lot prettier, though.)
• Glory Hound: SUPERFICIALLY the motivation behind many politicians' and officers' support of the war. The politicians, however have less idealistic reasons, and the officers don't last long...
• Good Looking Privates: Common in both sides, but in a different way: the Empire's soldiers are elegant and gentlemanly in the extreme, while the Alliance's are more roguishly attractive. Both sides have their share of lady killers as well.
• Good Republic Evil Empire: Subverted... and how! Sure, it takes a regime change to fully subvert this trope since the Galactic Empire isn't precisely a bowl of peaches at the start of the series, but the Alliance starts out as mostly rotten and pretty much stays that way.
  • It is actually played straight, but in a very subtle way: The Alliance is at the lowest point of its decadence at the beginning, while the empire gets a new, competent, charismatic, popular leader who crush the former rotten imperial nobility and put better, more honest people in charge of his administration and reach its apex. Even so, the Alliance at its lowest, with less people, a smaller territory and less resources is more prosperous than the empire at its peak and manage to fight its militaristic enemy to a standstill and it takes dozens of Xanatos Gambits and the Alliance leaders screwing up with their best admiral at every turn to finally allow the empire to have the upper hand
  • In reality, the show doesn't take a true stance on which form of better. Really, it shows the positives and negatives to both sides, but doesn't single one out. Like Yang said himself, there is nothing inherently wrong with a dictatorship, it just matters who the dictator is.
    • Yang Wen-li even goes so far as to say that if the Alliance was formed to oppose a ruthless dictatorship, and that it is now a BENEVOLENT dictatorship, that there's no real reason for there to be an Alliance anymore. Considering the dreadful state of the Alliance government and his position within it, those are words DANGEROUSLY similar to treason. But the again, it's Yang Wen-li we're talking about.
    • And on the other side, during the third season, Reinhard states that he would never have won if the idealistic people who still believed in the founding principles of the Alliance had been allowed to lead. What is interesting here is that it is stated that the empire was decadent because it was ruled by aristocrats who believed to be the embodiment of value and greatness, and became better once Reinhard, who was a lot more cynical even about himself, but also way more competent took over, while the Alliance which still had some efficient politicians and intellectuals among its leaders (Truenicht was a full fledged Smug Snake, but was way smarter that the Empire's nobility) but their lack of idealism was what caused the Alliance downfall. In other words, the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism is actually the most important plot point of the whole series, as it resumes the ideological differences between Yang (for whom idealism comes first, even if it means serving worthless elected officials) and Reinhard (who values efficiency above all else even at the risk of crossing the Moral Event Horizon): Brilliant
• Government In Exile: Some defeated Imperial nobles attempt this. Reinhard Von Lohengramm does not approve.
• Gratuitous German: on the Empire's side, German being the language spoken there. "Feuer!" "Neue Land," "Kaiser," and of course "Sieg Kaiser! Sieg Heil!" complete with what looks suspiciously like the Hitler salute. As mentioned before, the Galactic Empire was founded by a German (or, more specifically, Prussian) Fanboy. The title screen for this series isn't even initially in Japanese, but (horrible) German: Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel, which translates roughly into "Hero myths from the cosmic island" — the additional Blind Idiot Translation-ness of using the wrong grammatical case is sadly untranslatable.
• Guile Hero: Yang Wen-li is a textbook example: Smarter than any Chessmaster or Magnificent Bastard in the series, managed to control a personnal Badass Army of one million soldiers, overthrew a junta with insulting ease, fought Reinhard to a standstill while being hopelessly outmanned and outgunned, raised his foster child to become able to keep working for his cause after his death, and yet, still obviously a good guy
• Happily Married: Wolfgang and Evangelin Mittermeier are like an oasis of peace and love.
• Harsher In Hindsight: Any viewer of this series Post-9/11 would blanch at the similarities between the the Free Planet Alliance's military woes and the handling of the War On Terror, specifically how the war is being run by politicians who have no business whatsoever running a military operation. And this from a series literally two decades old (three, if you consider the novels). Wow.
  • An especially striking example is Job Truenicht's speech about fighting to liberate the Empire's outer territories from under tyranny and bringing them democracy.
  • Yang Wen-li's death is a Tear Jerker on its own right, made even worse by the fact that it was his voice actor's last (non-posthumous) role: not long after Tomiyama Kei suddenly died. He was only 56 years old.
• Heroic BSOD: when Kircheis dies protecting Reinhard (Heroic Sacrifice much?)
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Reinhard and Kircheis, Poplin and Konev, Reuentahl and Mittermeier (despite the latter being happily married). Bordering on Ho Yay.
• Hey, It's That Voice: a side effect of Loads And Loads Of Characters, an ear that notices Japanese voice actors might spot, among others, Captain Kurotsuchi, Gamabunta, Dr. Black Jack, Jigen, and Char and Haman
  • And in one of his first roles, Guy Shishioh. For real!
• Hilarious In Hindsight: The Alliance's 4th Fleet flagship "Leonidas".
• Honor Before Reason: Yang is a democrat: he serves the democratically elected alliance government, period: even if he did not vote for the people in charge, even if they are a bunch of Smug snakes, even if their orders are stupid: they've been chosen by the people, they are in charge even if this means to capitulate after winning a battle and having his nemesis at gun point
• Ho Yay: Say anything you want, the subtext between Reinhard and Kircheis is pretty obvious even to those who are not into slash. (Once upon a time some male Japanese fans complained about Lo GH doujinshi with "please, no more gayness, having Reinhard and Kircheis is enough!") The manga version and Michihara Katsumi's illustrations crank up the Ho Yay considerably. (Yes, this is official. Sparkles and all.◊
• Hyper Competent Sidekick: Subverted, in that, while Siegfried Kircheis is this to Reinhard, Reinhard is nowhere near ineffectual(he's pretty much the most formidable character in the series, in fact). The first time Kircheis's fleet of 2000 is sent out, it's completely on its own against a ring of satellites that decimated a fleet twice their size in seconds. The second time, he has a force of 40,000 against 50,000 enemy ships. He wins both times with minimal effort and almost never losing the soft smile on his face.
  • And what about Hilda? having the only person able to outsmart Yang has his lover/wife/right-hand-man/heir was what allowed Reinhard to emerge victorious and alive during the second season. In fact, having HyperCompetentSidekicks is Reinhard's MO and what differentiates him from the rest of the petty nobility of the Empire: they want servile underlings, he wants efficient officers. Reinhard even goes as far as forgiving blunders from his officers and merely requesting they do a better job next time to prove themselves. His officers are more than happy to oblige.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: By this point Earth has a total population of ten million and is home to a fanatic cult that wants everyone to either return to Earth or die in a fire.
• It Was His Sled: It's pretty well known just how far the series takes it's Anyone Can Die policy.
• Kill Em All: the author, Tanaka Yoshiki is not nicknamed "Mass Murderer" for nothing. By the end of the show, most of the main cast is dead.
• Last Name Basis: Most characters, especially in the Empire. Even close friends such as Reuentahl and Mittermeier never call each other by first name. Kircheis calling Reinhard and Annerose by first name is a rare exception.
  • A well-earned exception, natch.
• Last Stand: More common on the Imperial side, but seen on both sides.
• Law Of Inverse Fertility: Reuentahl and Mittermeier
• Loads And Loads Of Characters: This anime has quite possibly the largest cast of any show ever. Bleach and Naruto put together have nothing on it. Seriously.
  • According to the Official Gineiden Encyclopaedia, there are 660 named characters in the main series, side stories and movies.
• Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places: Oskar von Reuentahl has serious mother issues that manifest in his peculiar attitude toward women.
• Luke You Are My Father: Rubinsky and his councilor, Rupert Kesselring. Slightly subverted in that Rubinsky knew all along Kesselring was his son, but acknowledged it as a sign of respect to Kesselring on the anniversary of his mother's death. Rubinsky also acknowledges that he appointed Kesselring his councilor not out of nepotism, but out of genuine respect towards his abilities.
• Luminescent Blush: Hilariously, Reinhard and Hilda in episode 90. Also in fourth season, Julian and Karin.
• Mad Scientists Beautiful Daughter: Invoked by Poplin when they go to Earth. Boris Konev promptly shoots him down by saying that he "should write for children's TV anime".
• Magnificent Bastard: Many whom vary in effectiveness, but Reinhard is the best of the lot.
  • Then again... Paul Von Oberstein, anyone?
• Meaningful Name: So many of them: Reinhard means brave and cunning, Hildegard means "battle stronghold", Julian means youthful, Adrian means "Dark" and "Rich", and the best example is Yang Wen-Li himself: in Chinese, Wen means "culture, literacy" while Li means "reason, logic" as well as "strength, power": quite fitting considering that the man's brain may be the most dangerous weapon of the known universe...
  • Even some Imperial flagships have meaningful names/Theme Naming: Reinhard von Lohengramm has "Brünhild," red-haired Kircheis has "Barbarossa" ("Red-beard"), Wolfgang Mittermeier, paragon of male virtues, has "Beowulf", Tall Dark And Handsome Tragic Hero Reuentahl has "Tristan", orange-haired, yellow-eyed, short-tempered Wittenfeld has "Königstiger" (king tiger), artistic and wise Mecklinger has "Kvasir" (in Norse Mythology Kvasir was the wisest man in the world and the mead of poetry was created from his blood), and Eisenach, the Silent Admiral who is famous for communicating through hand gestures, has "Vissar" (misspelling of "Vithar", son of Odin who was famous for being always silent).
• The Men First: The best officers on both sides of the conflict ALWAYS make their soldiers' lives their first priority. Many of the greatest military victories in the series happen with almost no loss of human life, Siegfried Kircheis being the best example(as in winning a battle with NOT A SINGLE LIFE LOST on his side).
• Mildly Military: A nice subversion: The Alliance, and especially the "Yang Team" are very casual: you will see them throwing parties, drinking alcohol during strategic meetings, going after every girl they meet, and even making fun of their leader's (lack of) sex life in front of him. Do not take this for a lack of competence or discipline: the know the horrors of war, and have chosen to enjoy life as much as they can between battles. When the battle starts, you're quick to remember why they were handpicked by Yang.
• Military Maverick: Yang Wen-li, though never reckless, almost never adheres to Alliance convention. Which is good, because those who do are invariably shown to be incompetent, inflexible morons. The entirety of the Rosenritter contingent are also mavericks, of the more reckless sort.
• Minovsky Particle: This series goes one better with Zephyr Particles, which are invisible, directional, and extremely flammable even in vacuum.
• Mood Whiplash: The beginning of the third season is VERY mellow compared to all that happened before: Reinhard is emperor, and has to deal with the duties of a ruler and administrator instead of soldiering, and Yang is married and retired, but constantly living under imperial surveillance. Of course, this is only temporary, as the war eventually flares up again and places both men into the environment they are most suited for.
• No New Fashions In The Future: If they're not stuck in the 18th century, they've got a serious case of Eighties Hair: Frederica Greenhill sports a mullet, while Adrian Rubinsky dresses and even looks like Telly Savalas.
  • Admiral Willibald Joachim von Merkatz bears a stunning resemblance to Charles Bronson.
  • Let's not forget Admiral Ernest Mecklinger and his Porn Stache.
• No Export For You: Thankfully, the non-malicious version, but the practical version. Quite a few distributors would love to bring a franchise with this much quality and prestige out in the West, but at this juncture the logistics of such an undertaking are staggering in their scope. Even discounting the side-stories, there are one hundred and ten episodes to dub into English or even just subtitle (which, discounting the OP/ED portions, still amounts to something on the order of thirty-six hours of material), and realistically good sales would require dubbing; if dubbed there are at least dozens if not hundreds of actors to recruit, quality of footage and transfer must be ensured for all the material, if dubbed the entire soundtrack has to be re-layered into the English track (again, thirty-six hours of such), and then the distribution company would have to distribute a product that is roughly equal in length to the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica combined. It might have been possible years ago had the series been released in America roughly coequal to the Japanese releases, but at this point outside of a television deal (for a series which contains animation that is upwards of twenty years old, even if it still looks pretty good) with advertising support, any kind of domestic release is completely impossible. An OVA-style release would be suicide in the current market, even at five episodes per disc: five episodes per disc at, say $30 would still equal a twenty-two disc set that would cost the consumer six hundred and sixty dollars. So barring a miracle with Sci-Fi or Cartoon Network or a similarly interested television network, a United States or European release will never happen - not due to any apathy or maliciousness on the part of anyone on either side of the Pacific, but just from the sheer, mind-boggling scale of such an undertaking in the current market.
  • It's worth noting that the hobbyist fansubbers who have subbed LoGH with the highest dedication and quality themselves took years to complete the main series - and to this day they're still working through the side stories. Anyone attempting to translate LoGH faces an absurdly Herculean task.
• Norio Wakamoto: Oskar von Reuentahl, one of his earlier roles.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Alliance is so full of these, it's a miracle they get anything done.
  • It is a testament to his patience worthy of the Buddha that Yang Wen-li does not get medieval on his nation's leaders, considering how much they go out of their way to fuck with him and his plans.
• Odd Friendship: Tall Dark And Handsome, filthy rich aristocrat Oskar von Reuentahl who has a Dark And Troubled Past, all sorts of psychological issues, and is a well-known womanizer; and short, blond, commoner Wolfgang Mittermeier who is a paragon all male virtues (well, mostly) and is Happily Married to his childhood sweetheart. They met in a barroom brawl when they were still cadets, clicked instantly and over the years their friendship (as well as their military prowess) has become somewhat of a legend in both the Empire and the Alliance.
• Officer And A Gentleman: Reinhard von Lohengramm. For one, he orders his entire fleet to salute the slain enemy admiral Bucock after the Battle of Marr-Adetta. Many of the other Imperial Admirals qualify for this as well, particularly Mecklinger, and Mittermeier who went as far as executing one of his own men for rape and pillage.
• Offing The Offspring: Adrian Rubinsky offs his own son Rupert Kesselring just before the Imperial invasion of Phezzan. Granted, this was actually due to Rupert's failed attempt at being a Self Made Orphan. Also, Kaiser Friedrich IV only ended up on the Galactic throne because his father had executed his two older brothers for treason.
• One Sided Battle: Averted. Many of the larger pitched battles are brutal stalemates with millions of casualties on each side, no matter who wins in the end. The camera frequently switches to the gory deaths of mooks from both sides to highlight the horrific human suffering caused by war. These scenes tend to be filler for the narrator's author tracts bemoaning the futility and hypocrisy of jingoism and violence. The taking of Iserlohn and Siegfried Kircheis's supression of the Kastrop Rebellion certainly qualify, though.
• Only A Flesh Wound: Utterly subverted, despite futuristic medicine technology. Wahlen loses an arm and has to get it replaced by a prosthetic. Yang dies from blood loss after being shot through the femoral artery. Reuentahl dies from blood loss as well, after getting impaled through the chest, although he specifically refused to get himself treated.
• Orchestral Bombing: Oh yeah.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Partially subverted. Humanity is shown to have largely abandoned organized religion prior to the events of the series, but it resurfaces in the form of the Terran Cult, as well as the somewhat hilarious Imperial penchant for invoking "the great god Odin" and Valhalla. The latter seems to be mostly a vestige and/or formalities, though, since no Imperial character is shown to be religious.
• Overly Long Name: Despite the penchant for long, important-sounding names in the Galactic Empire, the winner here is actually Alliance politico Henrique Martino Borges De Arantes E Olibeira, who shows up in maybe four episodes.
  • That's also a Spell My Name With An S case (the correct name would be "Oliveira").
• Pet The Dog: Oberstein has an actual dog, and the narrator mentions that Lang secretly gave money to charity his entire life and was apparently a loving father and husband as well.
• Planet Of Hats: Phezzan, where everyone is a scheming, moneygrubbing merchant.
• Portmanteau Series Nickname: Gineiden, short for the Japanese title Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu.
• The Promise: "Please win the universe, Lord Reinhard!"
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Other than the opening and closing themes, the entire soundtrack is made up of classical music.
• Puss In Boots: Reinhard has Kircheis, extremely talented and utterly loyal to his Reinhard-sama. Reinhard trusts him so much that he goes as far as saying that talking to Kircheis is the same as talking to him. Later, Hilda becomes Reinhard's Puss In Boots and she manages to beat Yang at his own game, saving Reinhard in the nick of time, and demonstrating that she is the smartest Xanatos-style chessmaster in a series full of them, way to go, Fraulein
  • Yang is also at heart a Puss In Boots: he could become the Alliance chairman: his popularity is so high that he would probably be elected in a landslide, and he would make a better leader for the Alliance, (simply because, he actually listen to those beneath him), but nope, he choose to not be in charge.
• Putting On The Reich: Slight subversion: while the fashion of the Imperial army is quite based on German fashion(specifically Prussian), the story's refusal to take sides actually means that the superficial similarity is exactly that, superficial. It would have DEFINITELY applied when Rudolf Von Goldenbaum was emperor, though.
• The Quisling: Seen amongst the less honorable on both sides when the opposing side invades.
• Rape Pillage And Burn: The Alliance, of all people, resort to it to resupply after Reinhard Von Lohengramm destroys their supply ships during their "liberation" of the frontier territories.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Alexander Bucock, Sidney Sitolet
• Recycled INSPACE: Just from the description this anime sounds like War And Peace IN SPACE! Which really just makes it all the more great.
  • It's more like Romance Of The Three Kingdoms...
• Red Baron: Many characters have them, but the one most commonly referred to by his nick name is "Gale Wolf" Mittermeier.
  • Yang Wen-Li has a few: miracle Yang, Genius Yang, The Hero of El Facil, etc.
• Redshirt Army: Anyone who fights the Rosenritters. (Except for Reuentahl, possibly the only person whose fight with Schoenkopf ends in a draw.)
• The Remnant: many of the old nobilty continue to plot and act against Reinhard von Lohengramm's new empire, even if it's a hopelessly lost cause. A few of these, though, kidnap the 7 year-old Kaiser and seek asylum with the Alliance, causing the then cold war between the Empire and the Alliance to REALLY heat up.
• The Rival: Mostly the two main characters, to each other, but rivalry exists between other characters as well.
• Sacrificial Lion: Just because many characters die doesn't mean some of them aren't remembered more than others. Kircheis is a good example.
  • Let alone Yang. At least with Kircheis we could see it coming...
• Schizo Tech
• Soap Opera Disease: Seriously, what are the chances that one of the smartest politicians and military leaders in the galaxy would die of a "rare mutative connective tissue disease" at the age of 25, two years after becoming Emperor?
  • And Tanaka Yoshiki could just have opened a medical book and given Multiple Sclerosis to Reinhard even if rare, in some cases the illness HAS killed people in their middle 20's
    • Well yes, but arguably realism was never really the point. The mystery illness was just a device to give Reinhard a "proper" death that rounds out his legend. Hilda even tells people that Reinhard didn't "die," he "let go of his life" or something to that effect.
• Someone To Remember Him By: Felix, Reuentahl's son by Elfriede. Reuentahl even comments on the Dramatic Irony before he dies. Slightly subverted in that the real mother wants nothing to do with the child, but at least this way he gets to have the best possible adopted parents.
• Space Is An Ocean
• Space Is Noisy: Lasers go pew pew, causing ships to explode in EarthShatteringKabooms. In at least one battle, opposing commanders even seem to yell at each other over loudspeakers (as normal communications would ostensibly be jammed).
• Space Opera: The quintessential anime example.
  • It is also a subversion: one usual characteristic of space operas is not taking into consideration the impact technology and the colonization of space have on human civilization. This series REVOLVES around how advancing technology and the colonization of space have changed human society, and it takes pains to make sure this is explained in loving detail.
• Space Pirates: In the history of this particular universe, they are one of the primary reasons the Galactic Empire was founded in the first place, but they are mentioned only infrequently.
• Spell My Name With An S: despite most of the names being perfectly valid, often existing Western names.
  • The most egregious examples are probably "Joanne Lebello" for Joao Rebelo and "Guen Van Hugh" for Nguyen Van Thieu. Even main characters aren't immune (Julian Minci / Mintz). The official website rectifies some of this ... but then gives us new mistakes like Dusty Attemborough.
• Smug Snake: Job Truenicht, oh god Job Truenicht.
  • An interesting thing to note: Truenicht's name seems to come from the pro-apartheid politician Andries Treurnicht, and France have two far-right politicians called Karl Lang and Philippe de Villiers: real life SmugSnakes sharing the name of their fictional counterparts.
• Space Navy
• Standardized Space Views: All the time.
• Starship Luxurious: Every Imperial flagship and space fortress apparently has space for mahogany and ivory detailing and expensive artwork. The Alliance ships are, however, clearly more utilitarian. Trope usage is probably intentional.
  • It probably has to do with the Empire spending more money on its ships. Aside from looking fancier, Imperial ships are also more developed than Alliance ships, for example they're able to actually land on planets (even in water), etc.
• State Sec: The Empire, unsurprisingly, does this better than the Alliance.
• The Stool Pigeon: An Imperial soldier who broke protocol through an inappropriate comment was snitched on by another. Reinhard von Lohengramm asked Fraulein Mariendorf to use her judgment on how to handle the situation. Hildegard did punish the soldier that broke protocol, but she punished the snitch even worse by demoting him. Lohengramm was pleased, saying that it was wise of her to prove the point that no soldier can expect reward from him for duplicity and betraying his comrades. Classy attitude from both of them.
• Storming The Castle: The taking of Iserlohn.
• Survivor Guilt: Most characters face this at some moment or another, since many people they care for die during war, but probably the most gut-wrenching is Julian's guilt after he finds out it was the Terran Cult who killed Yang Wen-Li.
• The Strategist: Yang, celebrated as Hero of El Facile, finds himself in this role as the story progresses.
• Tactical Withdrawal: Both sides use this extensively, especially if one of the more humane and prudent officers is in charge at the time.
• Talking To The Dead: Reinhard von Lohengramm does this constantly when facing a moral quandary.
  • In an example of how much their careers mirror each other Julian starts doing this as well after Yang dies.
• Tear Jerker: It's practically IMPOSSIBLE not to cry in this series: its kill 'em all nature and extensive character development results in characters we have followed for hundreds of episodes, whom we have shared joys and sorrows with, to break our heart when they die. If you don't cry when Yang Wen-li and Reinhard Von Lohengramm die, you are SERIOUSLY jaded, man.
  • This troper didn't cry at any of those occasions but cried together with Mittermeier at Reuentahl's death.
• Teen Genius: Julian Mintz and Reinhard (in the OVAs, prior to the main series - he's around 19-20 when the main story starts).
• Terraform
• Thirty Xanatos Pileup: Yang, Reinhard, Oberstein, Reuentahl, Rubinsky, Truenicht, De Villiers ... - most of the time the chain ultimately leads back to Yang, Oberstein or Rubinsky.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Almost everything Yang and Reinhard do is based on their ability to predict what the other side will do. Example In order to take Iserlohn again (taking advantage of the trap he left the first time) Yang proceeds to send contradictory fake orders to the commander, on the assumption that the commander will believe that the real orders are the ones to stay in the base (they aren't, but even Yang doesn't know that). He further assumes that the commander will assume it's a trap to get him to leave the fortress (it is; he does), and that he will leave anyway in an attempt to trap Yang's fleet (which he assumes Yang will send to the fortress as soon as he leaves; he does) between the fortress and and it's defense fleet. This all happens. The only thing the commander failed to realize, is that Yang planted a code in the fortress the last time he abandoned it, which allows him to disable the fortress, and capture it.
  • Xanatos Roulette: Subverted: The Terraists are an ancient cult that has been secretly manipulating the universe. When they try to put their plan (which involves predicting the action of every major player in the universe) into action however, it fails as often as not and They end up being controlled by a member who doesn't care about their religion. Then they all die
• Took A Level In Badass: Julian Mintz, just... Julian Mintz: goes from Cute Shotaro Boy to the Mario of the Yang team and also their leader
• Tragic Hero: Reuentahl is brilliantly talented and has every trait necessary for becoming a great ruler, but he's outshone by Reinhard's sheer genius. Although he respects and admires Reinhard, his conflicting feelings of loyalty, admiration, ambition and jealousy cause his fall in the end.
  • Not to mention how traumatizing his childhood was. Being condemned as a bastard and not worthy of being born since you've had a sense of self is brutal, no matter how rich and lavish his surroundings were.
• Tragic Keepsake: Reinhard von Lohengramm's medallion.
• Two-D Space (Although there are some exceptions.)
  • Really, it's both played straight and subverted at the same time. On one hand, the ships tend to always move 2-dimensionally. On the other hand, their fleets are so freaking huge that in order to pack them into such small areas (since long-range communication is now impossible due to how advanced EM jamming has become), there are ships flying above and below others, so obviously they CAN move 3-dimensionally.
  • There was a battle early on in the series where the Alliance, who were lower in space than the Empire fleet, took advantage of the 3rd dimension in space and attacked the Empire at a 45 degree angle, obliterating the Empire's ships that had only forward-facing guns.
  • Author tried to justify it by complicated explanations about how their ships are designed, controlled and managed, but it didn't sound very convincing, really.
• Two Lines No Waiting: Possibly Third Line Some Waiting.
• Ubermensch: Reinhard is a military and political genius who wants to reform The Empire from the inside by taking power.
  • Subverted in the later seasons when it's revealed that he's not very good at anything else other than being a military and political leader - economy, etc. is beyond the scope of his talents and interests. Fortunately he's aware of this and surrounds himself with talented people.
• Unfriendly Fire: The Empire's Admiral Littenheim actually opens fire on his own men to cover a retreat. He gets killed like the rat he is.
• Values Dissonance: There are a couple of jokes about Frederica's cooking ability that given that she's both a naval officer and later, a politician would seem a little out of place in a modern, western show.
  • For that matter, Frederica is the highest ranking female officer in the series at Lieutenant. There are no female Admirals on either faction. So much for gender equality. Hildegard von Mariendorf is eventually given a rank equivalent to Vice Admiral, before she ends up as Kaiserin, at which point military rank ceases to matter anyway.
• Villain By Default: the Terran Cult
• War Is Hell: This series does not shy away from showing the senselessness of war and the misery it causes.
  • Episode 51 in particular is VERY jarring. The series has shown how bad war is up to this point, but in this particular episode, casualties are shown VERY graphically, as in amputated limbs and disembowelment. No other episode drives this trope home as powerfully.
• Wave Motion Gun: Both Iserlohn and Geierburg Fortresses have them. As does Fahrenheit's flagship, the Ahsgrimm, though you only see it fired once.
  • Also, in a definite CMOA, Yang Wen-li actually IMPROVISES one by having all the ships in his fleet fire at the exact same point in space, causing the beams to fuse into a bigass beam that cuts through the enemy fleet like a knife. WOW.
• Well Intentioned Extremist: Paul von Oberstein is an example of a "protagonist" with no apparent conscience, whose role is to essentially do the dirty work that Reinhard simply won't. Particularly when he intentionally fails to stop a planet from getting nuked to oblivion, in order to get propaganda photos to benefit Reinhard's fight against the high nobles. Possibly a case of Utopia Justifies The Means.
• What A Senseless Waste Of Human Life: Said by multiple characters on numerous occasions, at least in spirit.
• With Due Respect: Happens often on both sides. Officers who're willing to listen to their subordinates generally are better off than those who don't. The most extreme case is Reinhard Von Lohengramm: if Siegfried Kircheis has any doubts about any course of action Lohengramm wants to take, Lohengramm WILL listen to him, even after Kircheis's death.
• World War III: happens in 2039, long before the series actually begins.
• You Are In Command Now: The first instance of Yang Wen-li taking command of a fleet is through invocation of this trope. Good thing, too.
• Zeerust: Julian Mintz is actually seen firing up DOS to load a history program on his 39th-century desktop computer. Other things of note: handheld phones do not exist, and people still use answering machines, albeit with video functions. (The novels were written in the late '70s and '80s; the anime, made in the late '80s to '90s didn't even try to update the technology.)
  • That computer is shown to have 566198844 megabits of RAM (539 terabits), though.
• Zerg Rush: The Alliance actually relies on this tactic to win the very first battle of the series (Astarte). Predictably, they don't.
  • The Empire also used the same attack in the same battle, to a greater effect.

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Legend Of The Blue Wolves

Noteworthy Anime

The Littl Bits