Finished watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988)

Finished watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988, Artland, Madhouse, Magic Bus, 110 OVAs) on 8/18/2018.

   Two opposing forces rule the Milky Way. The Free Planets Alliance, whose military space force is commanded by the talented genius fleet admiral, Yang Wenli; and the Galactic Empire whom with their very own military prodigy, Reinhardt von Musel quickly rising up in the ranks, seek to overpower the alliance for complete control of the galaxy.

   Oof! What a long and intricate journey this show has been for me. Definitely glad I watched it for sure. Seems like a very important piece of anime history in my books, at least. Seriously, the immense size and depth of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is not one to take lightly. And while it may overwhelm its viewers with history and military technicalities, I believe most folks can still very well enjoy the show just on the easier elements to grasp. I'm talking about the character aspect of the show and the beauty of its art style. What I mean is that Legend of the Galactic Heroes dwells immensely on political monkey-business and space war shenanigans, which is fine, I believe that's one of the major things that defines the series, but its individual characters and their personalities and development are just as fleshed out as the tactical warfare that goes on in space. To compliment the beauty of this show, the soundtrack is comprised of various works by famous classical musicians such as Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Vivaldi among many others. I'm not quite sure of this, but I believe not one track was composed specifically for this show.

9/10 - Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a beautiful piece of artwork in all its aspects, and one that I think represents the best in the vast world of anime.

Finished watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars

Finished watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars (1988, Artland, Madhouse, 59mins) on 11/8/2017.

Set in a fictitious future where mankind has expanded into deep space, even having colonized other habitable planets, two factions have been waging war for years in the sea of stars - the Free Planets Alliance, and the Galactic Empire. Working under the flag of the empire, Reinhard von Lohengramm arrives at the Iserlohn Fortress, but not before he has to deal with an attack by a small Alliance force in which Yang Wen-li serves as a Staff Officer.

After having watched a handful of space-opera series, namely Captain Harlock, Yamato and Macross, I came across recommendations for the Legend of the Galactic Heroes as THE space-opera to watch. Well, why the heck not, I thought. Having looked through a few screenshots and artwork I began to fear that the series might be too serious and technical for my taste. Well... I came to find that it was, but! It did a very good job at it, thus surprising me. Well, this movie at least. The artwork is beautiful and the classical music that goes with it only emphasizes its beauty. Specially when it plays during space combat and you see the tactical plans being made on the fly. It's... oddly exciting. And for a later 80's movie, I can only imagine the animation quality must've been pretty amazing! Another thing that caught me off guard was maybe how Reinhard and Siegfried acted around each other. From the movie alone I was able to gather that they seem to be close friends but... I guess I wasn't expecting how, uhm, well, comfortable they are with each other. As if the movie is trying hard to appeal to a specific audience... perhaps. Not that it's something that bothered me, in fact I was amused by it. There's just something, graceful about them. And to further accentuate that grace there's this visual theme that the Empire seems to have adopted with the inside of their ships. The decks all seem to share this early Roman aesthetic with marble pillars and architecture. And the uniforms they wear are also beautifully detailed as opposed to the more basic, army-like look of the Alliance.

8/10 - It's definitely quite different from what I've watched so far. Then again, I don't have that much space-opera under my belt. But it was a great movie for sure and I definitely recommend it. It's not very long either, which is great in case you feel like it's not really your cup of tea. But if you're into the genre, I'm sure you'll appreciate this movie for sure. And you don't have to pay much attention to the more complicated war mumbo-jumbo to appreciate the movie. As long as you get the basic gist of it, it becomes very enjoyable.