Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 5[Birth of the 13th Fleet]

Now this was the part of the original OVA series that I really started to get interested in LOGH though in that this was episode 3. I find it great that neither Reinhards nor Yangs society is perfect so there is no real villain in regards to the two sides. No side is effectively more right because both have their positives and negatives. The Empire is good if you are born Nobility but otherwise the class divide has a hefty amount of unfair privileges and prejudice. The Free Planets Alliance allows for personal freedom…assuming of course that person is supporting the war and doesn’t have pacifist sentiments. Both are essentially a dictatorship, just that one is more open about it while the other hides it under a false pretense of equality. Nothing shows this more than the politician Truniht making a impassioned speech at a funeral about the glory of dying for your country and how people should aid in the war against the empire. Jessica Edwards certainly made a good point in interrupting that speech by pointing out that what he is saying is true but is highly hypocritical when Truniht and his loved ones remain safely outside of the war while others go to die for their country. It’s all well and good to praise the guillotine as being a honorable death but you better be willing to put your head under it if you want your words to hold weight.

But boy, Truniht truly is a slimy politician that makes me hate him all over again. He just has that absolute insincerity and greed. Topped off with his own personal army which is disguised as a radical nationalist group whom remove anyone who poses the slightest risk to his influence, he truly is the kind of creature I would love to toss out an airlock. So I relish any opportunity for people to piss him off, be it Jessica pointing out his hypocrisy or Yang refusing to stand and applaud his speech. It is interesting to note that the officer that berated Yang for not standing up is the same officer who assaulted his home leading the PKC. On that I will say that the anime didn’t quite do a good job explaining why the PKC gave up so easily. It wasn’t just because they were sprayed with water but also because that activated the fire control system and called the police to Yangs house. Julian certainly is making himself at home though at this point in time he’s been living there for quite a while. The remake does a better job of showing how young Julian was while in the OVA he looked more like a young man than a teenager. Got to say that both of them were quite calm in handling the whole situation of the PKC throwing a grenade through the window. Almost as if it was a regular occurrence.

So Yang is given his next mission to capture Isolation Fortress, which has quite a big role throughout the series. I think next episode will go into detail as to why this fortress is so important so I won’t explain why but this mission is really risky. It’s like an ultimatum to Yang, either pull off something no one ever has and win more accolades or die in battle so as to not be a thorn in Truniht’s side. Yet Yang always responds with the attitude of a salaryman going to another day of work. I rather liked the small moment where Yang held a broken piece of a plate in his hand after the PKC attack, remarking that it was the only genuine thing his father had. Suggesting that his father was a bit of a conman with his merchandise. From the look of next episode it seems we are not getting back to Reinhard yet and instead be seeing how Yang handles his unreasonable mission.