Tytania had some massive expectations working against it when it first aired. It’s supposed to be the spiritual successor to the Legend of Galactic Heroes, one of the rumoured best anime ever made (yeah, yeah, I’m going to watch that one some day). These are expectations it obviously couldn’t live up to, but if you watch it as a regular series, then it’s got quite a few charms.
Tytania is a Space Opera, but instead of going for the flashy overpowered mecha action scenes, it’s got a completely different focus, and instead becomes some sort of political thriller. It’s basically a man vs. empire type story and most of the series is dedicated to making it seem plausible why such a huge empire is able to fail such a seemingly simple task of capturing rebels. Corruption and inner-coutry politics for a large part of this series’ themes, and those who are looking for action are going to be disappointed.
What’s interesting about this show’s characters is that nearly every member of the cast is flawed. There are no mister or miss perfect here, everyone hast at least something of a vice or so, ranging from lazyness to incompetence, a temper or just plain insanity. This is exactly what makes this series so interesting to watch, seeing all of these flawed characters grow and develop (or refusing to develop) but it also makes for a bunch of really boring opening episodes. Seriously, in the first ten or so episodes hardly anything happens, and the show is just establishing the setting that it takes place in.
But what a fascinating setting it turns into. Series about politics always need a while to warm up a while, but when they do you, they create deep and multi-layered countries full of inner struggles where mots people care more about their own agenda than anything else, and in this series a lot of detail went into explaining how exactly the almighty Tytania Empire is going to fall apart.
The show does have its issues, though: the big focus is really the setting and characters, but the storyline is a bit buggy here and there, and one of the most grating flaws is tha the creators like to insert plotholes here and there to keep the story going. The animation is also… unorthodox to say the least. The CG spaceships really don’t look well, and characters are very often deformed when they speak. In exchange though: there is lots of movement in this series: characters’ chins move when they talk, and the show isn’t a collection of still frames, so the creators definitely get credits for trying. And either way, you have to admit that the characters look very stylish and charismatic.
It’s not the most solid season, let alone is it a question whether a second season is going to come along in order to animate the rest of the novels that this series is based on, but nevertheless it’s a fun watch for those who want something different from hand to hand (or mecha to mecha) combat. You should often take this show with a grain of sand, but it raises many good points and the characters are definitely fun to watch.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 |
| Characters: | 9/10 |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 |
| Setting: | 9/10 |
You are going to watch LOGH someday? Hopefully the someday isn’t long from now and I hope that when you do watch it, you shall review it every couple of episodes =D
you really do need to watch LOGH, i mean, i am watching right now, up to episode 30 and it is truly epic and awesome in every sense of the word. anyway, i really do hope this gets a second season. i know the animation wasnt that great. in fact, it was almost like they wanted to keep it in line with LOGH (which had it own budget problems) as much as possible. i sisnt mind the CG ships that much, in as of its integration, but as for the actual designs of the ships, yeah, pretty bland and boring. LOGH didnt blow our minds in terms of ship design either, but those main ships on the Empire’s side did look sweet, especially Reinhard’s ship. overall, i think a second season could only be better.
Great blog, great critics and great show (there HAVE to be a season 2)!
I started to watch LOGH base on your website’s comment, and frankly I do not get what’s all the fuss about it. The simplistic anti-war military vs. self centered politician warmonger dynamic really is quite laughable. But I got to admit, LOGH has a lot of realism and deep thoughts (the word “Afghanistan” kept popping in my mind when I watched the first 15 episodes). So, in my sense, Tytania and LOGH sets are very different (and Tytania is better).
LoGH asks two central questions: 1) Is a corrupt and defunct democracy better than an enlightened and benevolent dictatorship? 2) What is the value of one life when compared to the lives of many? There are other deep and philosophical questions asked in this awesome series, but I’ll let you figure those out. In my humble opinion, best anime ever! And certainly one of the best told stories I’ve ever watched.
@Me
If you’ve only watched the first 15 episodes, then that explains why you think its equal to Tytania. The depth of the story is huge and its a much better anime plotwise than Tytania.
Its not just about anti war vs warmonger… I think you’ve totally missed the observations of human actions in history that are reflected in the anime. The best line is from the second season opening “In Every age, in Every place, the Deeds of men remain the same”
If you haven’t watched past the first season (ep 26 +) You really need to watch the whole 110 episode monstrosity to really get the impact of the story.
IMO Tytania is a good anime but doesn’t stand a chance against LOGH
You’ll give a 10/10 to LoGH.
Watch LOGH already!
Not bad, not really great but first and foremost … LOGH it is not. For anyone who enjoyed LOGH (you’d have to suffer from something severe not to btw^^) you should check out David Weber’s magnum opus honor harrington. A lot of similarities but Weber significantly improves upon the space battle-/tactical-/technical-aspects that were underdeveloped in LOGH. It keeps up the scale and the rich cast of characters as well as the wide appeal with philosophical as well as historical themes though. Too bad the LOGH books were never translated. I always wondered how they would hold up vs HH. Likewise it’s to bad HH hasn’t gotten it’s own adaption yet.