Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate: Legend of the Galactic Heroes is by no means a stupid show, and it's not lacking in depth, nuance, and thematic breadth. Across a mammoth, sprawling 110 episodes (core episodes, I've just learned from the main page, there are apparently more side stories), it charts a massive galactic war between a Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, and more to the point between the ambitious nobleman Reinhardt and the free-wheeling scholar Yang, plus such a huge cast of characters on both sides of the war I daren't even get into it.
And, while the animation's a bit... old-fashioned (though I personally like that this was before anime character designers decided no one should have noses), and the pacing's not necessarily what a modern viewer would prefer (expect lots and lots of narration and speechifying), in the end, if you're looking for a grand space opera, epic in both scope and substance that could've come from any country, look no further.
...Unless, you know, you want to think about it just a bit further.
Let there be no bones made nor excuses proffered: this is a story about how a brutally authoritarian, militaristic, class-stratified society ultimately absolutely dismantles a decadent, crumbling, failing democracy. And to be clear, it is because (within the story anyway), the lantern-jawed, manly warmongers of the Empire are aristocratic neo-Prussians that they win, and because the Alliance is stuffed with effete, corrupt politicians whose soldiers refuse to coup them, seize absolute power, and create a military dictatorship because they believe that all men are created equal that they lose. Yes, there is some nuance there: some Imperials are useless losers whose only qualification is that they happened to emerge from the correct womb after the correct penis entered it, and the Alliance is stated to have some logistical advantages from its liberalized policies.
But, a nuanced show that argues against democratic egalitarian government, and for militarized authoritarianism, is still making a bad argument that has very bad implications for the real world... before we bring in the spicy soup of eugenics, which the Empire used to practice (though the series thankfully stops short of attributing its success to them), or the elephant in the room that the series comes from a country that used to practice a particularly-abusive form of colonialist fascism.
And man, no matter how good so many of the elements of the show are, or how nuanced and human the characters and storytelling might be, at the end of the day it's still never going to get past the rot at the heart of its political themes.
Anime As Good As Fascist Propaganda Can Be
...Maybe propaganda is too strong a word?
Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate: Legend of the Galactic Heroes is by no means a stupid show, and it's not lacking in depth, nuance, and thematic breadth. Across a mammoth, sprawling 110 episodes (core episodes, I've just learned from the main page, there are apparently more side stories), it charts a massive galactic war between a Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, and more to the point between the ambitious nobleman Reinhardt and the free-wheeling scholar Yang, plus such a huge cast of characters on both sides of the war I daren't even get into it.
And, while the animation's a bit... old-fashioned (though I personally like that this was before anime character designers decided no one should have noses), and the pacing's not necessarily what a modern viewer would prefer (expect lots and lots of narration and speechifying), in the end, if you're looking for a grand space opera, epic in both scope and substance that could've come from any country, look no further.
...Unless, you know, you want to think about it just a bit further.
Let there be no bones made nor excuses proffered: this is a story about how a brutally authoritarian, militaristic, class-stratified society ultimately absolutely dismantles a decadent, crumbling, failing democracy. And to be clear, it is because (within the story anyway), the lantern-jawed, manly warmongers of the Empire are aristocratic neo-Prussians that they win, and because the Alliance is stuffed with effete, corrupt politicians whose soldiers refuse to coup them, seize absolute power, and create a military dictatorship because they believe that all men are created equal that they lose. Yes, there is some nuance there: some Imperials are useless losers whose only qualification is that they happened to emerge from the correct womb after the correct penis entered it, and the Alliance is stated to have some logistical advantages from its liberalized policies.
But, a nuanced show that argues against democratic egalitarian government, and for militarized authoritarianism, is still making a bad argument that has very bad implications for the real world... before we bring in the spicy soup of eugenics, which the Empire used to practice (though the series thankfully stops short of attributing its success to them), or the elephant in the room that the series comes from a country that used to practice a particularly-abusive form of colonialist fascism.
And man, no matter how good so many of the elements of the show are, or how nuanced and human the characters and storytelling might be, at the end of the day it's still never going to get past the rot at the heart of its political themes.