The final spate of sidestories cover a number of topics: Wen-Li Yang finally gets to play historian and uncover more about an Alliance war hero, and Reinhard and Kircheis's get to show more of their trademark ingenuity as they fight the Alliance forces and handle yet another one of Beenemunde's schemes.
I have only two complaints about the 2nd Gaiden series; the first is about the digital ink and paint. While it makes the characters and scenes look bright and lively, it makes things such as scene transitions and starships moving and fighting look cheap and flat. The second is that we see far too much of Reinhard in this OVA, considering he got Gaiden Series I all to himself. The main series was pretty good at giving even character focus, even if he was a living god. Yang's oft-mentioned heroics at the El Facil system get a mere episode, even though we see a lot of him in Spiral Labyrinth.
I wrote my initial review after episode 26 of the main series, with few changes. After having watched all 162 episodes and 3 films, I can't heap enough praise on this series; this was an anime journey like no other. It explored themes such as realism vs liberalism, religious terrorism, political ethics and comparitive politics. It took the scale and maturity of its source material and used it to its full advantage, using slow but deliberate pacing and effective tropes that few other works would be comfortable trying. It used efficient music direction to enhance the tension and themes of scenes and get around the limitations of Stock Footage. It eschewed many common gags and character archetypes as well as a heavy love story, which helped avoid plot baggage. It was full of engaging characters who had brains, and despite being larger than life they felt like people you could actually get along with. It was also extremely versatile; whether it wanted to be a political/foreign policy thriller, a war film, a gritty action flick, a Hitler Channel-style documentary, or a Shakespearean tragedy it always succeeded and never felt awkward. Finally, it embraced Zeerust fully to ironically end up creating a largely time-independent aesthetic (except for some dated 80s tech). It's quite a tragedy that LoGH will remain an extremely niche franchise; it more than deserves to be compared with the works of Tezuka, Miyazaki, and Kon.
Gaiden II / Final Thoughts on the Heroic Tales from an Island in the Cosmos
The final spate of sidestories cover a number of topics: Wen-Li Yang finally gets to play historian and uncover more about an Alliance war hero, and Reinhard and Kircheis's get to show more of their trademark ingenuity as they fight the Alliance forces and handle yet another one of Beenemunde's schemes.
I have only two complaints about the 2nd Gaiden series; the first is about the digital ink and paint. While it makes the characters and scenes look bright and lively, it makes things such as scene transitions and starships moving and fighting look cheap and flat. The second is that we see far too much of Reinhard in this OVA, considering he got Gaiden Series I all to himself. The main series was pretty good at giving even character focus, even if he was a living god. Yang's oft-mentioned heroics at the El Facil system get a mere episode, even though we see a lot of him in Spiral Labyrinth.
I wrote my initial review after episode 26 of the main series, with few changes. After having watched all 162 episodes and 3 films, I can't heap enough praise on this series; this was an anime journey like no other. It explored themes such as realism vs liberalism, religious terrorism, political ethics and comparitive politics. It took the scale and maturity of its source material and used it to its full advantage, using slow but deliberate pacing and effective tropes that few other works would be comfortable trying. It used efficient music direction to enhance the tension and themes of scenes and get around the limitations of Stock Footage. It eschewed many common gags and character archetypes as well as a heavy love story, which helped avoid plot baggage. It was full of engaging characters who had brains, and despite being larger than life they felt like people you could actually get along with. It was also extremely versatile; whether it wanted to be a political/foreign policy thriller, a war film, a gritty action flick, a Hitler Channel-style documentary, or a Shakespearean tragedy it always succeeded and never felt awkward. Finally, it embraced Zeerust fully to ironically end up creating a largely time-independent aesthetic (except for some dated 80s tech). It's quite a tragedy that LoGH will remain an extremely niche franchise; it more than deserves to be compared with the works of Tezuka, Miyazaki, and Kon.