Legend of the Galactic Heroes (also known by its Japanese title
Ginga Eiyu Densetsu or the German
Heldensagen vom Kosmosimsel that it sticks on top of every episode for some reason) is a 110 episode anime series produced between 1988 and 1997 based on the Yoshiki Tanaka novel by of same name. There's also two movies and 55 other episodes. I've seen the movies but I haven't seen the other 55 episodes so I can't vouch for them but how bad could they be?
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a story of foppery and whim.
Of pretty men and spaceships.
Very pretty men and quite a few spaceships. Also, it is not at all rare for this show to put German text with Japanese subtitles with English subtitles of the Japanese subtitles.
http://a-hiro.cocolog-nifty.com/diary/2014/02/4-2c13.htmlAccording to this article, at a recent production of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes play (which is apparently a thing that exists), a new adaptation of the novel was announced! I cannot actually read this article, but Nathan might be able to. Maybe everyone's lying to me and that's not what that article says at all!
Legend of the Galactic Heroes tells the story of pseudo-space Imperial Germany waging war on pseudo-space-United States of America. A young, handsome blonde noble named Admiral Count Reinhard von Lohengramm, whose sister is the Kaiser's courtesan, has risen to a leadership position in the Galactic Empire, but a young, handsome brown-haired gentleman on the Alliance side, Yang Wen-li, has risen to a Admiralty position and won't let Reinhard achieve his dreams of galactic domination so easily. Reinhard dreams of becoming Kaiser of a united human galaxy while Yang dreams of early retirement where he can pour more whiskey into his tea and sleep until 10 AM and live with his adopted son Julian Minci who is less than a decade younger than him and appears to also serve as Yang's housekeeper.
Leading the Imperial faction is a lazy party-animal Kaiser and a group of old sword nobility who think little of the Petticoat Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm, who only got where he is because his older sister is sleeping with the Kaiser. Leading the Alliance faction is Job Truniht, a Thomas Jefferson look-alike whose incompetent leadership is bolstered by his pseudo-Ku-Klux-Klan paramilitary that beats his critics into submission and scares the voters into keeping him perpetually in office and perpetually losing the war. Both Reinhard and Yang yearn to reform the government: Reinhard dreams of becoming Kaiser while Yang dreams of getting as far away from the government and Job Truniht as possible.
In between their territory lies two chokepoints. In one is the fortress of Iserlohn, an impregnable Imperial fortress that looks like a marble. It's basically the Death Star except covered in a thick layer of liquid mercury so it's totally opaque. On the other lies the Margraveate of Phezzan, a former Imperial vassal that has become an independent merchant republic that trades with both sides led by the Marquis Adrian Rubinsky, who looks like Professor Xavier from X-Men and who has a wife named Dominic for some reason.
There are also the Terraists, devotees of a religion named Terraism. (This is not a joke)
Earth had been devastated long ago in something named the Thirteen Days War, which looked like this:
The only people who care about the nuked out husk of the mother world are the Terraists, whose sacred motto of "Terra is my mother, Terra in my hand" leads them to plot to hijack the future of the Galaxy in their own direction. Rubinsky, who seems to be a history buff, compared them to Christians before Constantine, implying he sees himself as Constantine perhaps?
Terraists tend to wear banners with their slogan on them when committing their acts of Terraism. Suffice it to say that Terraists are not motivated by foppery and whim.
This is all well and good, Mikado, but how can I experience the foppery and whim for myself?Good question, boldface! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNyY2F1OurUbDBCtILijHYI52YAiIvSX5
Watch the two movies listed first first, then watch the 110 episodes, then watch the other 55 episodes, I guess. They're probably good.
Olivier Poplan there is the living embodiment of whim, and Dusty Attenborough, quoted above, has enough foppery for 10 men.
Does the Imperial side contain foppery and whim as well?Paul von Oberstein and his cold robotic eyes have only scorn for your foppery and whim.
(Seriously, though, if Admiral Wolfgang Mittermeyer isn't foppish, the word doesn't have a meaning, and Oskar von Reuenthal is ruled by his whims)
What's the soundtrack to this romp of foppery and whim?Mostly Mahler, some Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, a bit of Verdi. Surprisingly little Wagner.
I'm in! Does it have a song for the Alliance that sounds like an Engrish cargo cult parody of American patriotic music that I can ironically sing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs8BSSpU5fUThis is the Alliance's anthem, "Liberty Stands for Freedom." I'll let the Youtuber who uploaded it play us out:
