Category: Tytania

Short Synopsis: Making use of the bad organization of the enemy, Fan lets himself get caught, in order to escape again.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Here’s an interesting one: for February, this show is going to be on and off: in two weeks it’s having yet another hiatus, though in March, it’s going to have double episodes for four consecutive weeks! That’s really got to be the point where this series needs to deliver. It’s been building up so much, so it’d better have a damn good finale! And with a bit of luck Lydia will also actually start DOING something.

It’s a shame that this series is always going to remain in the shadows of Legend of Galactic Heroes. I bet that if the connections with that epic were gone, this series would have been generally better received so far. It’s still a very unique anime to me (I refuse to believe that LoGH was awesome in the same way that this series is).

Fan… the guy remains strange. At first sight he has no big reason whatsoever to go after any other Tytanian than Alsas. There is no “my people are oppressed so I’m just going to bust Tytania to free them”, and neither is he a great moral knight that’s so typical of most of his counterparts in other anime. Now that I think about it, he doesn’t have any huge ideals and this makes this series step away from the moralistic themes that may be a bit too present in anime. For him, it’s just a simple game: he doesn’t care whether he dies or not, he just wants to see how far he can go. It’s rare to find a main character in anime like him. And I think that that’s why I came to like this show so much: aside from perhaps Miranda, every single character here is flawed, and unlike your average perfect character. And in a way, I’d much rather see how far Fan can go with his gamble than the umpth teenager who’s fighting for the power of love.

This episode also showed some surprise background for Miranda, including yet another surprising death. This show really likes to kill of characters at the time you’d least expect it, doesn’t it? ^^; It’s a shame, because the guy was pretty smart, even though this episode showed that he lacks the experience in practical combat. He could have grown into a pretty formidable foe. Though I guess that Miranda realized this as well, so she killed him before he got the chance to prove a threat.

Short Synopsis: Fan’s back and proposes a plan to get his own reward money.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
So this episode was quiet, mostly used for comic relief and building up for the next major story arc where Fan is going to face off against Zalish somehow. It’s interesting how this series really puts the emphasis on plans and strategy, rather than concentrating on the low-level details of it.

If I understood correctly, then Fan plans to turn himself in because the planet he’s on lies in a remote region of Tytania. He’s hoping to make use of the bad organization of the place to make his escape once the money is received. In this episode, he basically investigates to find the weaknesses in said security.

On the Tytania-front, I’m surprised that Jouslain still has whathisface as his assistant. After the coup, you’d think that he’d hire somebody else. In the meantime, I was also surprised on how eager Idris was to get his hands on Fan. It sounds like he’s finally got a rock-solid plan in order to get Fan in his custody, though Jouslain is more intent on taking out Zalish, it seems. This could prove to be interesting.

Short Synopsis: Space battles? What space battles?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
This series really is something different. Here we have Fan Hulic, he’s wanted by the entire country of Tytania, he’s just won a big battle against the empire, he’s seen as a hero now even more, so what does he do? He spends an entire episode staying at the house of a little girl and doing silly dances. Don’t get me wrong, this series is awesome, but SO NOT in the way I thought it’d be. XD

Because yeah, the fact remains that this would have been a pretty boring episode otherwise: Fan is depressed over the death of Lyra and sees the light at the end of this episode. It’s really one of these typical episodes that you see everywhere, just like the beach-episode or the “defeat the big bad guy”-finale-episode: they appear so often that they really get predictable and boring unless something special or extraordinary spices it up. In this episode this was Kallen and her strange yet energetic personality. And that mother of hers who doesn’t find it strange for her teenaged daughter to bring a strange man who’s about twice her age home of course. ^^;

And Bertrand! The poor bugger actually survived! The creators of this series really love to bring people back from the dead, only to let them struggle like a fish on dry land for an episode before fileting them for real. In this episode he’s given a final chance to find Fan Hulic, but instead of immediately arresting the guy, Idris commands him to wait things out for a bit longer. This allows Fan to escape before the forces to defeat him can even properly arrive. And that’s saying a lot, since Fan really wasn’t that focused on fleeing this episode.

Oh, and to close off. I don’t often praise this series for its gorgeous visuals, but I do have to say that this episode featured some pretty backgrounds. Could it actually be that the creators saved the biggest part of the budget for this series for the second half? Now that’s a new one.

Short Synopsis: Zalish’s mother goes crazy, Fan meets an old acquaintance again and the Estrads carry out their plans.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
I’m beginning to see what made Legend of Galactic Heroes such a loved anime. These creators are just really good storytellers. They know exactly when and what to build up, and from there they proceed and make everything snowball out of control. What simply started as an innocent plan of Alses to get his hands on Fan is escalating into chaos, which lead to the death of two people, and the arrest of countless, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the bloodbath yet.

When this series started, I found all the tactical planning pretty lame and dull, but thankfully they were only building up for their second half. There was plenty of juicy character-development in this episode. The always so composed Zalish is starting to crack under the pressure of his brother’s death and his mother’s rages. Jouslan meanwhile shows his true colours: he didn’t simply lack ambition like I originally thought, but he’s much more someone who waits for the right moment in order to for a complete and utter checkmate. He resembles Idris in a way, with the only difference that his patience lasts longer than that of Idris. ^^;

Still, this episode did remove quite a few actors from the main stage when the entire Estrade family and their allies gets rounded up like it’s nothing. I really thought that they’d last longer than that. But at the same time, it’s about time for the creators to reveal the purpose of a certain princess. I mean, she can’t do nothing for much longer, can she?

Short Synopsis: Fan Hulic versus MISTER BUSHIDO!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
I very much doubt that Legend of Galactic Heroes was awesome because of the same reasons, but nevertheless I really can’t deny that Tytania has its own unique charms. I’m not sure exactly where on the way everything went right, but this episode was simply awesome and the characters of this series are so much fun to watch.

Ah, and to think that the creators only kept Alses alive for one measly episode, simply to flesh out the rest of the cast a bit more. I really thought that he’d become some sort of psychopath villain through the series, but in this episode it became apparent that he’s stopped being a threat whatsoever: he descended into a simple psychopathic coward. The only reason why he was involved in a battle was because Fan Hulic wanted revenge for Lyra’s death.

It’s great to see that Idris is now basically dancing on not only the grave of Alses, but also the one of his ambitious subordinate whose name I forgot. In the meantime, I’m also interested in how Zalish is going to deal with his mother, now that her favourite son is dead, and at the same time Jouslan and Ariabart are still happily drinking tea with Lydia. Let’s see how long that’s going to last. ^^;

Short Synopsis: Fan Hulic and Miranda attack Alses’ mansion to rescue Lyra.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
And so this episode quite forcefully removes the last fear I had against this series: the fear that the cheesed up romance between Fan Hulic and Lyra would ruin the series. The creators first proved me wrong by making their reunion actually adorable, rather than annoying, and if that wasn’t enough already they then proceeded to actually kill her off from the show! So that’s what that sequence in the ED meant, where she is covered in thorns: it wasn’t to symbolize that she’s the eternal damsel in distress of this series, but rather that she never could live a really peaceful life.

This really was the episode to show that, even though everyone’s dressed in frilly clothes and drinks tea when going into battle, the creators mean business. Alses losing his eye is the perfect example of that, and I think that this really is the perfect closure for the first half of the series: it’s been quite dull at times, but nevertheless it knew exactly how to build up, and the real meat of the eries is about to start, with Fan Hulic finally hating Tytania enough to fight against them seriously.

I feel that Alses losing his eye is going to trigger a snowball of reactions within Tytania, which is going to really upset the balance they have created so far. Salish is going to have to deal with a deranged brother, Idris lost one of his lackeys, and Ariabart and Jouslain are also probably not going to sit still after these events.

Short Synopsis: Fan Hulic, Miranda and the others make preparations to safe Fan’s damsel in distress.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just trying to catch up on as much as possible of what I missed the past week when I was away. ^^;

In any case, I’ve tried to ignore it, but after this episode I just have to speak up about the animation of this series. It’s just abysmal at times, and yet this series doesn’t belong in the categories of series with crappy art. What impresses me about this series is that even though this series has a very limited budget (most likely the result of Artland taking up two series this season, overcasting themselves with the addition to Count and Fairy), and yet it doesn’t try to cut corners: there are hardly any cut corners. There’s movement nearly everywhere, even though this is a series about people talking. I can spot hardly any still frames, and at times the chins of the characters actually move when they talk (rather than simply their lips moving up and down). It’s a common trait of the recent Artland series: they really aren’t the best, they don’t have the largest amounts of money in their pockets, but at least you can see that despite their shortcomings, they try to make up for it. It works pretty well, though unfortunately it does mean that a lot of faces are really distorted.

In any case, I really liked this episode, even though it was mostly building up. Perhaps it was the prospect that Fan Hulic is actually going to DO something. He may be a lazy bastard, but at least the guy knows what he needs to do when he really wants something. I also suspect that the Euria-traitor is simply going to be political bait again, once he gets defeated by Fan Hulic (I also suspect that that’s why Idris left catching Fan Hulic up to Alsas: he wants to be 100% certain that Hulic is going to lose, otherwise he’ll just lead the same fate as Ariabart and Zalish). I do wonder what the poor bastard was thinking when he volunteered himself to go and catch Hulic, although I guess that he figured that it was a worse disaster for him when he lost, compared to Idris.

I’m also curious: what’s up with Alsas and his “Hyuuren”? He really never seems to change this, despite hearing numerous times that it went wrong. It’s funny, in a strange way, especially since everyone and his dog has to correct him all the time.

Short Synopsis: Euria runs into problems due to inner conflicts.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
At this point, I’m about to take back all the bad things I’ve said about this series. Tytania has really been getting better and better with every episode. Everything finally makes sense: the characters in this series are meant to be very flawed: they’re meant to stay far away from Mary Sues and Gary Stus, the only downfall of these flawed characters is that they take a while to warm up to, rather than the perfect characters who often appeal immediately.

And really, every character has some sort of major weakness in this series: Idris is a lying bastard, Zalish loses his temper too easily, Alsas is incompetent and a mother’s boy, Jouslan lacks ambition, Ariabart lets everyone walk over him, Ajman never does anything for himself, Fan Hulic hasn’t done anything after his victory and suffers from lovesickness, Lydia is an annoying brat. Really, name any character, and there’s some sort of obvious flaw, only Miranda seems to be an exception to this rule. As stereotypes, these guys suck, but they become interesting once you get to know them, and they become fleshed out beyond the mere stereotypes.

I’m also impressed: the creators found a valid reason to keep Lydia in the story that actually makes so much sense: she never chases after Fan Hulic in the end, she just becomes bait for him after one of her comrades sold her out. Meanwhile, Hulic’s love is more like an obsession than a genuine crush: he can’t stop thinking about her, but whether it’s actually love… I don’t know yet. This episode also showed very much that Fan Hulic isn’t the only one who can outsmart Tytania, when Miranda outruns Zalish. It’s just that Tytania hasn’t given many people the chance to stand in a position similar to him, and his victory also received quite an amount of publicity, making Tytania’s defeat even worse.

Short Synopsis: Lydia goes on an adventure inside the Tytania Headquarters.
Highlights: Ajman… what the…?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Well, that was solved surprisingly easy, although Lydia now is officially inside Tytania. This was a very strange episode overall, especially for this series. You just wouldn’t expect the creators to just dedicate one entire episode to the escapades of a spoiled little girl. It did serve its purpose, though. The slow pacing of the series is finally beginning to pay off, and I’m beginning to warm up to the characters. It’s at least good that the characters are getting multi-dimensional and away from the stereotypes before the real action can start.

But really… Ajman was portrayed in a very disturbing way in this episode. He’s probably the most stereotypical member of the cast, but this episode portrayed him as some sort of obsessive old guy who has too much free time and likes to stalk little girls. Wtf?!

Oh, and it also seems that Lyra is about to return to the series again, and I really hope that she’s going to make a more positive impact than her first appearance. Ah well, at least I’m glad that the creators didn’t try to put in some silly love triangle or something.

There’s one thing I’m wondering, though. Is 26 episodes really the right amount of episodes for a series such as this one? I’ve read somewhere that Tytania is smaller than LoGH, but with this pace the second half is going to have to try and cram in a lot of development in order to put in a satisfying story. I think that 39 episodes for this series would have fit a series of this calibre better. Politics and short series never went together well.

Short Synopsis: Zalish is sent out to destroy the rebels.
Highlights: Finally Lydia gets something to do!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, so this series continues its path of solidly building up. This arc was really meant to show a bit of the side of the rebels other than Miranda, and how despite having lost the battle against Fan Hulic, the Tytania family is definitely something to watch out for. Zalish completely wiped out the pirates in this episode without any bit of effort. Fan Hulic meanwhile, seems to finally feel a bit like fighting again, so who knows where this series might take us.

I’m also glad to see that Lydia finally gets to do something, rather than hang around in a random garden. As a naive princess, she offers herself as a hostage to prevent Tytania from taking some vital resources that can be found on her planet, and basically labelling her country as bankrupt. The impact she’s going to make on these Tytania-guys must be quite severe, for her character to be such a major character in this series.