Review - Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu

 Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a tale told on on a scale unparalleled compared to that of many other plots. It displays an intellectualism not seen by many other shows in its complex use of strategy and analysis of political ideologies.

That being said, it's not an anime for everyone. For those of you who do not enjoy the Omniscient Third person perspective, and slow but deliberate pacings, this show is not for you.

There are three mediums of persuasion according to Aristotle: Pathos (appeal to emotion), Ethos (Ethics), and Logos (Logic). All to often, the main persuasion methods used in shows tend to be emotional. We 'relate' to a character, or we are brought into emotionally gut-wrenching scenes. And of course, this isn't a bad thing at all! However, in today's day in age we seem to be forgetting that the other two exist.

Unlike most shows, LotG main focus is this appeal to Logic and Ethics. The main concept of this show is an analysis of political structures, mainly, authoritarianism versus democraticism. And throughout the show it evaluates the strengths and flaws in each. Secondly, it sociologically studies society as a whole, and the people within the society. Therefore, it looks how Political, Economic, and Religious structures intertwine to influence the general public. And it goes into quite a lot of detail on each of these points.

It's characters are quite memorable and mostly consistent of 3-Dimesnsional personalities. Yang Wen-Li wishes to avoid war if possible, but he is willing to do it in order to preserve the maintain Democratic-Republicanism as a whole - to maintain the freedom of the individual. He also undergoes rather major character development. He often is presented with many compromising situations to which he adapts, and sometimes changes his earlier stances on his viewpoints.

But of course, something I'd like to focus on for the remainder of the review (since most people tend to not cover this) is the masterpiece that is the soundtrack for this anime.

Not often does one see the sound designer choose classical music for the predominant soundtrack of a series, but as a classical musician myself, I was delighted. The soundrack features works from Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninoff. Hayden, Mozart, and more. I enjoyed seeing if I recognized any of the pieces, and a couple which I did are:

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonaata mvt. 1

Beethoven - Pathetique Sonata mvt. 2

Ravel - Bolero

And more

Particularly I found it exciting that even with the use of classical music, the sound designer put the music well with the emotions of a given scene. Things are not overdone, but are placed in just the right context.

Rating: 10/10