And the visage of victory is drunk, apparently. Or just delusional. This being Tytania, though, I’ll wager both.
It’s been a while since I last touched an episode of Legend of Galactic Heroes (I’ve left off somewhere in the 70s at least a year and a half ago and will be forced to go back to the 50s to restart the current arc because there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to remember all that happened), so I had been missing the spectacle of giant space fleet combat. I was most pleased to see LoGH-style spacecraft rendered with modern-day production values, and equally impressed by the same overly elaborate retro-futuristic spacecraft bridge design as from The Animanachronism was. I wager that Tytania has much, much better scenes in this regard than LoGH did, if only because LoGH had the (lamentable) self-control to keep the Prussian opulence and extravagant tea pouring (the best part was when he issued a command to purchase the entire planet the tea came from after one small, hesitant sip) off the bridge.
LoGH also had the self-control to not have Oberstein jab a sword through spaceships in a highly symbolic moment in the OP. That has to be the best part of the OP. No, really.
Even more fun, our intrepid not-really-a-hero hero this time around is almost the diametric opposite of the cool, calm, and collected Yang Wenli: Fan Hyulick. For one, his name is infinitely sillier (this is a pro); for two, whereas Yang was quiet and reserved and very much an intellectual (he just wanted to be a history professor :( ), Fan is boisterous, bawdy, and seemingly a dolt. The mood is very much set through the overexaggerated opulence and evilness of the Tytania clan that Tytania as a series will probably be much lighter in mood than Legend of Galactic Heroes (which, itself, was played with the same straight-faced-ness, it was just less ludicrously amusing in the way Tytania seems to be) even if it goes on to address important issues in galactic politics.
It’s hard to tell at this point exactly how Tytania will proceed, but at 26 episodes, it’ll be a much quicker watch than the infamously long Legend of Galactic Heroes. It’s sillier, yes–but I’m also finding it just as legitimately intriguing (to the extent one can be at two episodes) as LoGH was, it’s just amped up the space opera pulp-ish-ness factor to make it even more awesome. And, barring nothing else, Tytania will probably give me the impetus needed to join others in finally finishing Legend of Galactic Heroes. Has someone printed up a T-shirt that announces (in German, of course) that one has finished Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel? If not, can someone do this? If not, can those people who were making custom Free Planets Alliance jackets make a lot more so I can pay $300 to look like Yang Wenli?
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 