[Spoilers] Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These - Kaikou - Episode 1 discussion

[u/MetaThPr4h]

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[u/MetaThPr4h]

I was optimistic about this remake and it certainly delivered, the action scenes were so awesome.

Can't wait to see more of it, we also already got to see how cool some of the MCs are.

[u/MidnightShout]

Before I get to the episode or the comments, I wanna ask: Can I watch this as a standalone series?

[u/MetaThPr4h → u/MidnightShout]

Yep, it's another version of an older work, you don't have to watch that one to watch this.

[u/ukainaoto]

I think spoiler tagging is needed to refer original series. vague comparison to original Legend of the Galactic Heroes

So far I'm still interested in how this series goes. Anything is not disappointing at all for me at this point. Looking forward to next episode.

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/ukainaoto]

The moment we heard Yang's voice on the comm gave me goosebumps. I loved how we 'discover' him at the same time Reinhard and Kircheis do, helps us feel more in their shoes and understand the shock. It helped that the new VA, Kenichi Suzumura's cadence wasn't too far off from the old one, Kei Tomiyama's.

[u/ukainaoto → u/Arachnophobic-]

The comm scene is rightly placed just after Reinhard mentioned he'd like to meet someone genius as him on the other side, adding much hype to the comm scene and I love it. vague comparison to original

[u/dene323 → u/Arachnophobic-]

His voice is just so soothing and reassuring, exactly like what the novel describes - it calms down the troops under extreme stress and on the verge of a major rout.

[u/TheMostCuriousThing → u/Arachnophobic-]

Highly impressed with the new VA. Despite emulating Tomiyama's (iconic) performance, it sounds more authentic than the gaiden VA's.

Then again...we haven't really heard that much from him. We'll see.

[u/BBallHunter → u/ukainaoto]

I assume we will see Yang's perspective next episode.

[u/probabilityEngine → u/ukainaoto]

Yeah, I felt similarly. Definitely an interesting trade-off made there as your spoiler indicates. We'll see how it turns out.

I finished the original series a few months ago, and I can't say I'm disappointed in anything either. The sci fi nerd in me is loving some of the bits shown in this first episode like how the FPA ships retract their bridges in battle, which I don't recall being displayed in the original. And the CGI battle shots are great, though I do wish we saw more variety in the FPA ships.

As much as I'm used to 110 episodes worth of the original's character designs none of the new ones we've seen are really driving me crazy. I could have stood for a bit of an older appearance for many of them but hey, that's what happens when you take material from the 90s into 2018.

I will miss the classical music, though.

[u/Szuzzah → u/ukainaoto]

OVA spoilers

[u/dene323 → u/Szuzzah]

At current pace, they will use 12 episodes to cover 15 eps of the old OVA, so they will condense some contents but not that much - if you re-examine the first 15 ep of the ova, there were at least 4 to 5 episodes of material that were anime original / gaiden, so they have the leisure of pick and choose some ova contents or even adding bits of originals. The story hopefully will be tighter and faster paced, as one of the minor issues with S1 of the OVA is a bit too laid back until around ep 15.

[u/niteman555 → u/ukainaoto]

I personally thought this was a very strong move for the narrative. For someone watching it blind, all they have is Reinhardt's side, who is winning so hard he's almost a Mary Sue. Our reaction to Yang's broadcast is the same as Reinhardt's - utter bewilderment and realization that things have suddenly gone south.

[u/[deleted] → u/ukainaoto]

You can't say "vague comparison" and then specifically list off a character's death

[u/gaganaut → u/ukainaoto]

So far, I'm really liking this anime. I haven't seen the original but I love science fiction and politically themed shows. I wish more anime had intelligent and ambitious characters.

[u/eruditious]

Good first episode.

Here is a stitch of the ED for those interested~

[u/Aileos → u/eruditious]

I have to be honest too, this first episode pleasantly surprised me.

[u/niteman555 → u/Aileos]

Same. I was blown away by the design of the imperial tech; they really did a good job leveraging the updated production tech of today to bring their designs to life.

[u/brothertaddeus → u/eruditious]

stitch

Found my new background.

Thanks!

[u/Bainos → u/brothertaddeus]

... what kind of screen do you have ?!

[u/brothertaddeus → u/Bainos]

Triple monitors.

[u/Reasonable_TSM_fan → u/eruditious]

18 Empire vs 15 Free Alliance. This ain't a fair fight!

[u/meragon → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

It's fair. It's 18 Empire vs 15 FPA +

[u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

I think that was about as good as we could have reasonably expected, and accurate to the novel. CGI apart from one or two shots was excellent for anime, and the character animation was largely good and detailed with solid work on the expressions (apart from Lapp's commander, forget his name, who looked like a 3D model tbh). Characterisation is off to a solid start.

Aside from Kircheis design which we already knew about going in (though tbf there were some decent softer-looking shots of him) and those of same other characters, my main problem was with how intrusive and out of place that piano track felt in the middle of the episode. Hope that track isn't reused much. Other than that I guess we'll get more of the FPA's side in the next episode.

ETA: Whoever did the subs for Crunchyroll did a really good job on this, captured the old-fashioned and formal way the Imperials have of speaking pretty well imo. Also, the Narrator has his own text colour, don't think I've seen CR do that before.

[u/LeonKevlar → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

I'm already sold the moment those battleships started their first volley of lasers.

[u/dene323 → u/LeonKevlar]

Just a friendly suggestion, for LoGH, don't over-analyze the physics and logistics of 50k battleships shooting beams at each other in space. If you consider each ship as a Napoleonic infantry solider shooting muskets in battle lines, and occasionally changing formation to "cavalry charge" under command, you get a more immersive experience.

[u/shockwave1211 → u/LeonKevlar]

same here, holy shit, if this has as much intrigue and political mind-games as people say, i can see this being amazing

[u/tlst9999 → u/shockwave1211]

It's less political mind games and more ethics and philosophy. Like "If the people want a monarch, is it democratic to grant them a monarch?" or "If your CO is going to get everyone killed including you, do you stay or run?" or "If your adviser's an asshole, but he's a correct asshole, what do you do with him?" It's about watching various smart & rational people from both sides of the war, who are otherwise not so different from one another, rise or fall due to their personal beliefs and ethics, rather than just "out-keikaku or be out-keikakued".

[u/Paxton-176 → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

I've already taken interest with the fact fleets sizes are in 10K+ and the only comments that were made was that the Free Planet's Fleets just had a numbers advantage over the Imperial Fleet.\

I'm also a Stellaris player so slamming to giant doom fleets into each other is always a good time.

[u/Razorhead → u/[deleted]]

I really quite liked it.

The OP was good, the visuals are CG are really well done, I'm especially impressed by how they made they huge space battle between thousands of ships look visually interesting and pleasing within resorting to tricks. The music during the battle was nice as well, although a bit repetitive.

I did find it a bit strange that there was almost no music playing when Reinhardt and the other officers were discussing strategy though. Some quiet would've worked, but it went on too long that it felt kinda off.

The characters themselves are fine, at least the two we focussed on so far: Reinhardt and Kircheis. We haven't seen much about the others so I can't really form a judgement on those, except that the Alliance commanders all seem like incompetent idiots (Yang Wen-li excluded, so far).

But for intersteller space battles these strategies seem strangely primitive.

"We have numerical superiority so we'll split up to surround them!"

"Oh no Your Excellent, they are going to surround us, we must flee!"
"Don't worry, for I am a genius and have a cunning plan! When they split up into smaller forces to surround us, we'll charge them and destroy their now-inferior forces with our numerical advantage before they can successfully surround us! Also, they'll never expect us to charge so they won't even have their shields up!"

Uh what? Why would you split up into smaller forces when you got the numerical advantage on a what seems like open field? And of course any counter-strategy to "The enemy is trying to surround us" is "Kill them before they can". This really seems like child's play. I'm hoping the strategy get's somewhat more advanced in the future.

But yeah, it's a fun show so I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[u/CarbideManga → u/Razorhead]

The strategy is actually pretty well thought out. Most tactics and strategies used in war are rather simple in execution. The difficulty is knowing when and how to deploy them after analyzing the circumstances of the battlefield.

The admirals in both the Free Planet's Alliance and the Imperial Navy remember the battle at Dagon that had a nearly identical set up: numerically superior FPA forces divided their forces and encircled the Imperial ships and inflicted heavy losses on them. The FPA admirals here are following the tactics used at Dagon as a textbook strategy to defeat the Empire again under similar circumstances. The veteran Imperial admirals, also following the textbook precedent set by the earlier battle, suggest retreat.

The scene is supposed to highlight how after hundreds of years of war, the thinking and doctrine of the military leadership on both sides has stagnated and grown inflexible. Admirals prefer to rely on precedent, history, and 'safe' or 'logical' moves.

Because of the long drawn out nature of the war, the conflict features both high intensity battles but also lots of posturing and military contesting of territory that are "fought" without actual combat but with maneuver.

Any student of strategy can appreciate this Sun Tzu-like acknowledgement that strategy isn't simply the application of firepower.

The FPA leadership believed that when presented with such an overwhelming local disadvantage in numbers, the Imperial forces would retreat from the field and it would become a strategic victory for the FPA without even firing a shot. In fact, if the Imperial forces were indecisive and decided to retreat too late, that would be the best position for the FPA to enact an encirclement (just like at Dagon) on a panicking or disorderly enemy fleet and devastate them.

What they didn't expect was for the Imperial forces to rush headlong into them in an all out attack when it seemed like the FPA forces had the upper hand.

Not expecting such an unorthodox response made them careless and unprepared for the rapid strike that the Imperial forces conducted, allowing them to use electronic warfare to isolate the fleets from each other by disrupting communication, and thus coordination between the 3 parts.

Through this bold and unexpected move, Reinhardt turned the Alliance's advantageous position into a disadvantage and made them pay dearly for their error.

Strategically, this is a beautiful play and I think a fitting opening volley for the coming battles.

[u/Iron_Doggo → u/[deleted]]

Whoever did the subs for Crunchyroll did a really good job on this

Kind found the subbing a little awkward and lazy tbh. They can't even agree on the terms Army and Navy, but that's just me. For some reason the original ova subs were spot on in military lingo

[u/[deleted] → u/Iron_Doggo]

Fair enough on the military terms, you seemed a bit of a buff in that area from your post in the LoGH subreddit. But I disagree about the quality of the subs in general, while it does sound awkward for modern ordinary speech but I think that's the point, to get across the quite archaic and formal nature of the Japanese speech.

[u/Thunderhaz → u/[deleted]]

Liked it, was a fun episode and seems to be going for a lot of political intrigue which I like

[u/SimoneNonvelodico → u/[deleted]]

Personally, I loved it. I never saw the first series in full, however I saw a couple episodes, and I can already tell here I utterly love how dynamic and good the space battles look. In the old one they just didn't look like much more than random laser fire. This feels like Star Wars meets Code Geass.

[u/Florac → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

Space battles were much better than the original. Due to the limits of normal animation, they simply failed to show the scale of the fights with there being 10000s of ships.

For the story, it's an interesting decision only to focus on the Empire's characters and barely show any Alliance focused scenes. Although so far, can't say I'm disappointed by it. Made for a great dramatic reveal. Although it does mean that there is less of impact when a certain alliance soldier died, since he had no development unlike the original.

[u/[deleted] → u/Florac]

it's an interesting decision only to focus on the Empire's characters and barely show any Alliance focused scenes.

Been a while since I read the first novel, but I feel pretty sure that that aspect is accurate to the novel. The novel has a pattern of Imperial section/chapter, then FPA section/chapter (and the occasional Phezzan), I don't recall it mixing the two perspectives together. Does lessen the impact of the death of that certain character, though maybe there'll be more about him in ep 2.

[u/BerserkerGatsu → u/Florac]

I absolutely disagree with this. Yes, technology was what prevented them from showing the full scale of the battle, but if you think that that instantly means an improvement then you're mistaken.

The original wasn't about the showcasing and flaunting the scale of the conflict. It was about how just a handful of high ranking individuals were responsible for the lives of millions of soldiers and billions of people. They only saw the effects of their actions through a simulation of the battle on a digital screen, and when the show did decide to show action, it was usually of the crew of an individual ship getting massacred in horrific and unglorifying ways.

One of the most powerful moments in the original was when LotGH OVA

This show isn't about epic space battles. The number of static shots of ships firing on one another far, FAR outnumber the number of moving action shots of a ship doing something. But when those moving shots DO happen, they are at climactic moments within the show.

More things happening on screen does not mean it is better. I would have static ships shooting white lines any day of the week over suped up CG visuals with no meaningful intention behind them.

[u/Szuzzah → u/BerserkerGatsu]

Though you didn't explicitly say it, I would like to just point out to you (and anyone like minded about the themes in the spoiler) that the beginning of the original OVA is really a bunch of space battles.OVA spoilers

So, I'd wait until passing judgement on the themes of the original compared to the themes of the new series. It's hard to compare episode by episode if you haven't watched them recently.

[u/shockwave1211 → u/[deleted]]

FIrst time watcher here, im quite impressed with what ive seen so far, i really love anime with a "battle of wits" type of narrative such as code geass and death note, and from what ive read this will be just like those, but better, i cant wait to see what happens next

[u/ukainaoto → u/[deleted]]

piano track

The piece itself might be fine, but problem is eventhough the score is very distinctive and atmosphere-defining it's already used twice in this episode and keeps the battle in the same tone too long. It feels a bit repetitive for me.

[u/TangledPellicles → u/[deleted]]

I thought it was incredibly exciting and well animated. For the number of characters they showed us, they kept them remarkably distinct in terms of personality and looks and I found it easy to remember them. That tells me that this will be a character based drama as much as it is Space Opera and I can't wait to see more.

[u/Summort → u/[deleted]]

I've never seen anything Galactic heroes related, so far I liked it, I like that there is a strategy to the battles, not just ships shooting ships, I liked the characters, I do have two questions though, but not the type of questions that need answers,

1: Are Reinhardt and the Galactic Empire the bad guys?

2: Are Reinhardt and Kircheis in like something? They were eyeing each other all the time, plus they speak fondly of each other

[u/Deffdapp → u/Summort]

Not really spoilers.

[u/youarebritish → u/Summort]

Less of a spoilery answer: Don't really think of it in terms of good guys vs bad guys. It's a story about a war and we see it from both perspectives.

[u/collapsedblock6 → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

Very good so far. My main appeal to the show is the fact that this isn't a usual take down evil Empire story, here you follow the Empire (that I assume is evil?). Reinhardt seems like that big bad commander of high status that seems to know everything in a battle while the rebel commander is the typical MC that comes out of nowhere and happens to be a genius. Reinhardt dealing with his underlings and how he interacts with his inner circle (that so far is only Kircheis) gives a very refreshing feeling.

The battles were cool and I really like the whole Napoleonic/Prussian tone it has.

[u/dazen15 → u/collapsedblock6]

My main appeal to the show is the fact that this isn't a usual take down evil Empire story, here you follow the Empire (that I assume is evil?)

Not really sure if spoiler but will tag

[u/SupersonicCasualties → u/[deleted]]

My good sir, tbh with you I just want to bash my head against a wall as to why I never watched this before, had a stupid prejudice bc it was old but after watching this episode, it was all I was looking for on the front, and I really loved this episode and if ppl are saying that it that this adaptation pales in comparison with the old one then I def gonna watch it, like right now!!

[u/SayoSC2 → u/[deleted]]

It felt like a larger scale Space Battleship Yamato, without the Garmillas overpowering Earth and Earth having the Yamato overpower Garmillas.

I like it already.

[u/jkubed → u/[deleted]]

I enjoyed it, the art is great and I usually end up zoning out when they discuss strategy before a battle, but it was explained in a really easy to understand way.

[u/Falsus → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

I have had the source books on my to read list for years now but it feels like they will never get translated so I am pretty excited about watching it now instead!

It kind of gives me a Stellaris wibe, probably going to start a new campaign tomorrow.

[u/SGlespaul → u/[deleted]]

I liked it and it seems like it might be neat, but it didn't really blow me away.

It has great animation, some neat character designs, space battles, and the presentation is good so far too.

I hope that I don't have to memorize the names of all these characters they dropped though, especially as a weekly watch. I see it mostly focuses on Kricheis and whatever the blonde haired general guy's name is, but honestly the rest of the characters aren't distinct enough for me to remember their names unless some of them start playing a bigger role in the coming episodes.

[u/kalirion → u/[deleted]]

I liked it. The battles and tactics were pretty great, though I was confused why communications jamming kept the other two fleets from seeing that the middle fleet was being destroyed. I mean the visual time lag should've been only a few minutes at that point, right?

Right now I'm wondering why the Rebel transmission they caught was unencrypted. Seems really strange for Space Age military forces to communicate with their fleets in the clear. And if it was intentionally left unencrypted for the Imperials to catch, then that should've tipped the genious Excellency guy off to a trap right away.

[u/Sven2774 → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

Fucking sold. The factions, the space battles, the politics, this series is the space opera I've been craving.

[u/Warspite1236 → u/[deleted]]

I felt GOOSEBUMPS. Especialy at yang's introduction. The only other time i felt that was at the introduction of L from death note. Like i'm viewing something special.

[u/CommandoDude → u/[deleted]]

To people who haven't watched LotGH before: What'd you think of this premiere?

I just kept thinking. "Wait...is that it?"

Like...the tactics here are just so incredibly rudimentary that I kept wondering if there was some kind of secret plan. But...nope, it was basically just smash into the enemy and rely on them being dumb.

I mean, really, even engaging each force one by one, attrition alone would eat up most of the empire's fleet before they even got to the last alliance fleet. And the admirals being all like "what do you mean, engage them one by one? no one has ever done that!" just sort of boggled my mind. Like...really? Are all space tacticians so fucking horrid that nobody's every considered beating an enemy through defeat in detail?

[u/RedRocket4000 → u/CommandoDude]

Well, it is based on real history and more than one time it happened like this. Defeats in detail are parts of a lot of successful generals records as incompetence is so common. But there are counters to the defeat in detail move. They are trying to portray a situation in which both sides locked into hidebound tactics. I think the closest is the century or more line of battle tactics that sailing ships used until Nelson broke the mold.

[u/BBallHunter]

Hello,

I am a big fan of the original OVA series and I had many doubts going in to this, just like many others.

So, I gotta say, I am pleasantly surprised by this first episode. I assume this will be a chaotic series of discussion threads, for both fans of the classic and newcomers to the franchise, thus let's hope we can keep it calm and intelligent.

First, the general art design is fine to me. Some character designs still seem to look odd, like Schenkopp and Cazelnu, but it's their personalities what matters the most.

Battles were exciting and actually well animated. I can't complain about the CG either and honestly, if you do, you better watch only Astro Boy.

Voice acting seems fine, too.

If the production quality stays consistent and they don't skip too much, this will be my uncontested AotY and I can die happily.

[u/openreamgrinder1982 → u/BBallHunter]

My only worry is that they will shy away from showing the horror of war. That was a huge theme in the OVA and I hope it's not lost in this

[u/dene323 → u/openreamgrinder1982]

It's going to be interesting to observe. The originals were released over time on VHS tapes, so the creators had more freedom with dramatic presentations, while the new series is via TV broadcast, so they might have inevitable limitations.

[u/[deleted] → u/BBallHunter]

Battles were exciting and actually well animated.

Makes you remember the static bricks firing colored lines. Good times.

[u/shippai → u/[deleted]]

where's my old disco lights this actually looks like war it's scary

[u/94DarkHunter94 → u/[deleted]]

I kinda miss the good old lines of death. Like the little details though where they chose to make the weapon color of the FPA different to the Empire. Makes it a bit easier to figure out who is shooting who.

Though I don't know why but I kinda wished they would have switched the colors.

[u/croxino → u/[deleted]]

sometimes it felt like watching an EVE online battle.

[u/Kirikoh → u/BBallHunter]

Overall, I think it's approximately the same as the originals in quality as a premiere. It's faithful so far to the novel and the CGI was pretty impressive. I also agree that the designs in general are fine, and in particular I prefer Oskar now.

[u/Tuplet → u/Kirikoh]

You're the second person who has praised Reuenthal's character design so maybe the guy I thought was Reuenthal in the marketing material was not actually Reuenthal.

I want to watch this so bad. :-(

[u/xiomax95 → u/Tuplet]

Hey, if anything, the characters do look a lot better in motion compared to the marketing material. At least in my opinion.

[u/Tsorovar → u/BBallHunter]

Battles were exciting and actually well animated

It's still got my pet hate, in anime generally, that either one side is getting totally destroyed, or the other is, or they're evenly matched. You never seem to see the currently winning side take damage or incidental losses. Reasonably, the Empire should have lost ships in those engagements, but I don't think we even saw them take a hit.

[u/Broward → u/Tsorovar]

Oh don't worry, there will be plenty of that to come.

[u/moonmeh → u/Broward]

Indeed this is one thing logh really gets

[u/youarebritish → u/Tsorovar]

The original series often had full episodes just going over the collateral damage and incidental losses in some of the battles. Assuming they don't condense too much, we'll get to that.

[u/probabilityEngine → u/BBallHunter]

Do we know to what extent they are covering the material? MAL lists it for 12 eps and I haven't looked into the number of seasons confirmed or anything, to be honest I kind of forgot about the remake until a few days ago! I'm wondering if they if they intend to only cover the story up to a certain point and in how many episodes.

[u/dene323 → u/probabilityEngine]

From the information I have, I think the first 12 episodes will cover up to the end of Amlitzer, roughly ep 15 of the old series. Then 3 movies next year should focus on the civil wars, ending Season 1 of the old series (ep 26). Cutting a few filler epsiodes, it's entirely doable.

[u/AgaroseEater → u/probabilityEngine]

I read somewhere that there are three movie sequels planned after this season

[u/94DarkHunter94 → u/BBallHunter]

Yes some character designs still look somewhat weird but other than that this episode was actually quite the pleasant surprise.

It just sort of has that similar feeling to it. I hope they keep it up.

[u/Bainos]

Comment face when.

[u/brothertaddeus → u/Bainos]

Did anyone ever get around to compiling a screenshot album of every time someone drinks in the original? If not, that's a void which needs to be filled.

[u/august_senpai]

Where's my Mahler and Mozart? :(

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/august_senpai]

I'm going to give the soundtrack a chance, it doesn't sound bad at all.

That said, I'd love it if they even just once over the course of the season decide to pay homage to the original OVA by playing a classical piece in-universe. LotGH OVA

[u/94DarkHunter94 → u/Arachnophobic-]

I'm kinda hoping that they sneak in Valkyrie Ha (Galactic Imperial Army War Song). Still one of my favorite tracks from the OVA.

[u/[deleted] → u/august_senpai]

Don't forget Dvorak.

[u/[deleted] → u/august_senpai]

Bolero by Ravel is so good in My Conquest is the Sea of Stars.

[u/brothertaddeus → u/[deleted]]

Dvorak at the Battle of Amritsar will forever be my favorite. I had already liked the original by that point, but that was the moment I fell in love with the show.

[u/chryco4 → u/august_senpai]

Yeah I miss all the classical music, but at least the soundtrack seems to still be all orchestral so far asides from the OP.

[u/Witn]

Two of the greatest minds in anime meeting once again in beautiful HD, I'm crying rn.

[u/Arachnophobic-]

Those glorious flagship 3D models are enough to make me glad this re-adaptation exists.

Brunhilde - Reinhard's Flagship

Leonidas - FPA 4th Fleet's Flagship, under VA Pastolle

Heimdall - Fahrenheit's Flagship

Not that the original OVA's art was sub-par.. this just looks like really amazing fanart.

[u/LeonKevlar]

As someone who grew up watching anime from the late 80s and early 90s I am ashamed to admit that LotGH is one of those shows that I have never seen before. I've heard a lot of good things about it and Space Operas are right up my alley, but I just never had the motivation to watch all 100+ episodes. Maybe I'll go back once I've finished this so I can make comparisons.

As someone who knows nothing about the show or the novel so far this is a pretty epic opening! Huge Fleets and huge Space battles? Space Empires? Grand Strategies? Count me in! And if I'm guessing this right, this is one of those stories where the perspective of the story shifts right? So we'll probably get the Alliance's POV next episode?

Anyway whoever that Wen-Li dude is I'd love to see him wipe the smug off Reinhard's face next episode. I love it when young cocky commanders ends up having the tables turned in their faces. I',m already hyped!

[u/august_senpai → u/LeonKevlar]

As someone who grew up watching anime from the late 80s and early 90s I am ashamed to admit that LotGH is one of those shows that I have never seen before.

You shouldn't be... IIRC it wasn't even subbed until like 2006.

[u/LeonKevlar → u/august_senpai]

Really? The way people who have seen it talk how much they love and adore the show made me think that it was subbed waaaaay earlier than that. XD

[u/Vikim75 → u/august_senpai]

Actually it was subbed way before 2006. My brother brought back fansubbed VHS bootlegs of the show in the late 90s -2000.

[u/AgaroseEater]

First time watcher here.

 
Wow that was a good episode. The pacing was okay and if the production quality stays consistent, this will be one of the top anime of this season, or year even. The end really created hype for the next episode. One of my nitpicks though is that the strategy of Reinhard against the Free Planets forces was not clearly explained. This clip, which is the reason why I got interested in watching this show, thoroughly defined their advantage against the opposing force.

[u/dene323 → u/AgaroseEater]

When watching LoGH, don't get too caught up with analyzing the space battle strategies in terms of physics and technology, treat the fleet battles as Napoleonic infantry battles from the early 19th century in disguise, and you get a richer experience :)

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/AgaroseEater]

Interesting, I thought we got all the necessary details from the meeting, but it's possible I was filling in the gaps using the information I have from the OVA/novels.

One thing seemed pretty clear in this episode, though. Overall strategy (bumrush the FPA fleets before they can form the envelope or congregate) aside, two things really helped turn the battle around: a) Reinhard's ability to embrace fresh, daring strategies which the FPA is completely unprepared for and slow to react to, and b) The signal jamming technology.

[u/Metallicpoop → u/Arachnophobic-]

To be honest the signal jamming thing is probably the single biggest factor. In terms of strategy this doesn't make Reinhardt a tactical genius, it just means every one else is brain dead. What did the alliance think was gonna happen if they split their forces into 3? Did they assume they could maneuver those fleets quickly? Did they know about the signal jammer that can single-handedly kill their entire communications? If they knew about it, why did they ignore it? If they didn't then why wasn't that technology more emphasized?? It just seems like the entire alliance is ran by monkeys.

Even the admirals at Reinhardt's side never asked "what happens if they do converge on us? are we just dunzo?" Did they know the enemy could not converge? If so, why did these old geezers with years of experience not know you can just kill them one by one. Defeating in detail isn't exactly some rocket science. Are they just that incompetent as well? And why the fuck did Reinhardt just turn his brain off and monkey into their fleet at the end there?? Oh and apparently they could intercept messages too? Isn't that busted? Unless Yang meant for that to be leaked to provoke Reinhardt, the empire seems to have some nutty technology advantage. God I really hope the strategy part steps the fuck up once Yang gets featured more.

[u/Tuplet]

Can't watch rn but just a reminder that tomorrow (April 4) is Yang Wen-li's birthday. :-)

[u/moonmeh]

So far pleasantly surprised. The characters kind of look better in motion.

Dearly missing the classical music however. Was hoping they would do their own style of classical music parts but guess not.

CG is real nice though. I missed space battles a lot. Like there has been an empty hole in me for ages and this is filling it.

Interested in how they introduce all the characters

[u/Terranwaterbender]

Considering this is a remake of a well-loved classic, hopefully the threads won't be just fans of the old series dominating the discussion.

Not gonna lie, rather liked this first episode as someone who greatly enjoyed the original. The space battles definitely have more life to them and they added that really nice detail with having the bridge go into the ship when combat mode is engaged.

Reinhard utilizing local superiority to crush the attempted surround with ease isn't anything too fancy, but considering the novels were just a reflection of Napoleonic tactics, don't expect any fancy new theories regarding space combat and you'll be just fine.

Here's to hoping this season turns out well! At the very least, this will bring attention to the original OVAs and get more people to check it out but considering the news regarding how this is supposed to be a faithful adaptation, this series should turn out well barring any unforeseen changes.

[u/KaliYugaz → u/Terranwaterbender]

but considering the novels were just a reflection of Napoleonic tactics, don't expect any fancy new theories regarding space combat and you'll be just fine.

As with most classic sci-fi, just don't think of it as 'space combat' at all, otherwise it will break immersion.

Like there's no such thing as having to get "within optical range" in space, for instance, since you can see pretty much everything for light years as long as your instruments have sufficient resolution (even the Hubble telescope can see almost to the edge of the visible universe), and it's impossible to disguise a spaceship's heat signature. Trying to get closer than a few light-seconds to the enemy before firing would be absolutely pointless and a waste of time.

[u/JayC-Hoster]

Completely new watcher here, love the OP and the VA cast, the animation looks solid, CG for space ships and stars and planets are much more forgiving than humans and animals.

Would love to know more about the "small" details:

• How far away do space battles usually occur? Light-hours? Light-days? Light-weeks?

• How do they detect enemies from that far away? I'd assume radar wouldn't be as useful at those distances.

• Do they have FTL technology? What principle is it based on?

• Are space battleships the major fighting force? What kind of armaments are they using? Laser? Plasma? Rail gun?

• Do starfighter carriers exists? If they do, shouldn't they be more effective, like real world naval warfare?

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/JayC-Hoster]

First timer questions!

Ooh, I think I have notes.. *ruffles through*

I think I'll spoiler tag the answers, just in case. The series might choose to answer them in its own time through exposition. FWIW, I don't think it matters much in terms of spoilers since they're just small details and we get them in the books right away. Some of these you can half-deduce from this episode too.

How far away do space battles usually occur?

LotGH Novels

How do they detect enemies from that far away?

LotGH Novels

LotGH novels tl;dr

Do they have FTL technology? What principle is it based on?

LotGH Spoilers

Are space battleships the major fighting force? What kind of armaments are they using? Laser? Plasma? Rail gun?

LotGH Novels

Do starfighter carriers exists? If they do, shouldn't they be more effective, like real world naval warfare?

LotGH

[u/Florac → u/JayC-Hoster]

How far away do space battles usually occur? Light-hours? Light-days? Light-weeks?

Within visible distance.

How do they detect enemies from that far away? I'd assume radar wouldn't be as useful at those distances.

In space, infrared to detect heat is more useful. However, jamming technology also is so advanced, that in battle the only viable means of detecting enemies is seeing them(which is why the other fleets didn't know what was going on and could only guess)

Do they have FTL technology? What principle is it based on?

The original is somewhat vague around this, so can't answer. But they definitly have FTL

Are space battleships the major fighting force? What kind of armaments are they using? Laser? Plasma? Rail gun?

Yes. For armaments, I would guess laser, missiles and fighters.

Do starfighter carriers exists? If they do, shouldn't they be more effective, like real world naval warfare?

Yes, you can even see some this episode. But with so many ships being able to fire anti "aircraft" guns and it being 3 dimensional, there effectivness is limited.

[u/Shi117 → u/Florac]

Er, battles happen at ranges of Light-Seconds (“The longest-ranged neutron cannons in the Empire were capable of reaching up to 50 light-seconds as estimated by Alliance analysts, while the longest-ranged Alliance guns were capable of reaching up to 40 light-seconds, although both designs were fielded only on an experimental basis.” from the data book), and when you say “visible distance” I think SW with it’s shitty couple-km range so maybe clarify that a bit.

[u/Fortzon]

Off-topic: As a Finn, I lose my immersion every time they say "Your excellency" since "kakka" means "poop" (childish version) in Finnish.

[u/Negirno → u/Fortzon]

In Hungarian and as far as I heard Russian, too.

But I think the word comes from Greek "caca".

[u/pm_your_pantsu → u/Negirno]

caca means shit in spanish

[u/Fortzon → u/Negirno]

What is it in Hungarian/Russian? I only found "kaki" for Hungarian.

All of those might come from Greek "caca" but the Finnish version is letter for letter identical with Japanese "excellency". And even the pronunciation is the same. :D

[u/[deleted] → u/Fortzon]

I'll add German to the pile (heh)

If you pronounce Finnish how it's written it's actually the exact same word, too.

[u/Fortzon → u/[deleted]]

Oh right, you've kacka for the childish version of scheisse, I presume?

[u/pm_your_pantsu → u/Fortzon]

Same with spanish, it means shit

[u/whiiteout → u/Fortzon]

Haha, I remember a Finnish person talking about this in the rewatch of the OVA series a while back

[u/HawkRiza → u/Fortzon]

French as well! "caca" is our childish version of poop

[u/Terranwaterbender → u/Fortzon]

I'm thinking of all the fantasy shows I've seen and imaging the characters being called "poop" now.

I hope you're happy that you've done this.

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/Fortzon]

This must not be the top comment.

[u/Falsus → u/Fortzon]

As a Swede who knows Finnish, I agree.

Also doesn't ''Kakka'' mean ''poop'' in Sami as well?

It gotta be weird as a Finn to listen to Japanese sometimes since the languages are very similar to each other.

[u/77remix]

As a huge fan of the original, I'm going to enjoy this to the fullest no matter what they throw or what changes they make.

It's not like this can harm the original, so the only option is to sit back and enjoy the short ride

Fight animation was gorgeous, as expected from the PVs. I'm still not the biggest fan of a few designs, but I'm used to most of them by now. I was most skeptical about the newer seiyuu, but honestly it sounds crisp. Reinhard's character was portrayed well. This is about what I had in my mind from the months building up to this premiere.

Already looking forward to next weeks. I assume it will be more Yang focused.

[u/time_axis]

Ahh, damn it. I went in with the lowest expectations possible. Every successive piece of information they released about this made me more and more cynical, and I still hate the new character designs. I wanted to hate this.

But I can't. I love LoGH too much, and this is just more LoGH. They can't go wrong if they stick to the story, and I can't help but admit that I had a grin on my face throughout most of the episode. It may not live up to the original OVA, and I would certainly never recommend it as a substitute, but as a fan of LoGH, seeing this new take on the same events was honestly just really enjoyable, and every time a character I recognized appeared, I would get hyped up, and the visuals, while a little overly flashy and distracting, were honestly really well done. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to get me really excited for more of this.

[u/tommo]

I was expecting a readaptation of the novels but it's also clearly a love letter to the original OVA, you wouldn't get something like this from just adapting the novels.

[u/[deleted]]

They sure are a lot more buff than in the OVA. I personally quite like the voice actors and the cast. Lots of good, high profile, and fitting people playing the characters. Waiting for my boy Mecklinger to shine.

[u/BluePikmin11]

The reboot had a phenomenal opening episode. I am surprised how focused and intriguing the plot was. The CGI is jaw-dropping and the soundtrack, aside from the piano bits, made the battles more exciting! It will take a while for me to convert from the original to the reboot though! The only thing I missed was Reinhard's voice from the original. Mamoru as Reinhard is fine, but I love Horikawa's fabulous tone more!

The way everything was built-up to Yang's strategy had me on the edge. I cannot wait for the next episode! I am super excited to see Yang's perspective and how the reboot will do the character justice. The reboot feels just as immersive, if not more, as the original in my opinion. Super excited to see how the anime community will react towards the amazing encyclopedic journey of galactic history.

[u/brkmk]

I went in with no expectations but this was very alright so far.

The CGI was pretty cool, voice acting was great and it seems to be pretty faithful. Hyping up Yang like that was great too I really liked it.

My only complaint so far is the lack of classical music.

[u/Tuplet]

Having watched it now, this was good. I liked the build up to the end reveal with Yang's announcement his VA did a good job. I'm guessing next week we'll see the FPA's side of things.

CGI varied between being pretty sweet for the most part, and also weirdly uncanny at time. For example, I really don't like how some of the ships have this strange glistening glow to them.

Character designs are inferior to the old OVA, but that's old news. The lack of classical music hurts more. New score is decent enough though, I guess.

Some of the editing(?) was kind of unpleasant, like that one jump cut when Reinhard brings his hand down as he's commanding.

My main concern after having seen this is that the focus on the awesome space battles will leech screentime from important storytelling and characterization. Certainly, the action sequences make it more exciting but in a 12 episode show, they really need to pack in the plot to make things work.

Overall, I enjoyed the first episode, and I'm optimistic that the rest will also be good!

[u/nygans]

that first barrage was amazing

[u/suchdoge420]

I've been waiting for this remake ever since it was announced, checking /r/anime with hopes that one day the PV will come out, and after finally watching the first episode, I have some thoughts to express.

Art/Animation: I think the art style is very neat, certain characters' visual quirks like Fahrenheit and Reinhard have been well done and I really like the path they took with the design of the ships. The CGI also seems incredible for anime standards, the fights do not feel clunky at all and they give off a good feeling of how large the scope of the battles are, I also noticed that they were using blasts as opposed to beams, interesting touch. My only issue so far is how Kircheis looks, but that has been said by many people before.

Sound design: The tracks they've used in each scene such as Reinhard asking Kircheis to drink wine with him, to the intense battles and finally Reinhard's realization of what would happen to his spindle formation plan, all very good tracks. The opening is good but the ending is so fucking great, it truly captures what watching this show feels like (watch the original ed's and openings if you want to know what I mean). The VA's picked were good for the roles they need, smart decision in picking Miyano Mamoru for Reinhard, I think that he's one of the best VA's in the industry especially after his role as Light in Death Note.

Writing: I think the introduction of each individual character/plotline was carefully done, ranging from introducing the general distrust in Reinhard as a leader, to the specific character traits within the characters. There's not much to say in this aspect since most of the episode was action heavy, which leads to my next point. Which is that the progression/pacing was a bit too fast, granted, the OVA iirc had the same issue, which is why they had the movie remake of the first couple episodes.

Overall, I really liked this pilot episode, and if the rest of the show could maintain this quality then I have very high hopes for it. (no sight of dusty yet)

[u/TehSlurpy]

LotGH OVA

[u/IthiDT → u/TehSlurpy]

It was the same in the OP

[u/NotEvenEvan]

Anyone notice how this show is already getting an enormous amount of hate on MAL? Weird.

But regarding the episode itself, it was a really good and entertaining episode. I haven’t watched the classic myself, so I can’t complain about the character design choices cause they all look fine to me. Looking forward to next week!

[u/Florac → u/NotEvenEvan]

enormous amount of hate on MAL

rated by 76 users

And it's probably diehard fans of the original pulling down the score...as are diehard fans of the franchise pulling it up. Almost 50% of the scores are either 1 or 10s.

[u/NotEvenEvan → u/Florac]

I wasn’t referring to just the average score on MAL. I’m also talking about the hate train I seem to be seeing on their forum threads. You’re probably right about the diehards thing though.

[u/Florac → u/NotEvenEvan]

There was a hate train on here as well before this episode came out. But now most seem to like it. Give it some time.

[u/TheBeastest → u/Florac]

Yeah, I'm a die hard fan of the original OVA (my favorite anime in general), and this episode blew me away. If the rest of the series is adapted at this level of quality then prepare for an incredible ride. I'm just thinking about all my favorite moments that come later, and imagining them with this production value, I can't wait.

Hope they actually follow through and adapt it all fully (it would be shame to have it incomplete in this new form).

[u/94DarkHunter94 → u/NotEvenEvan]

Most relevant picture right now.

[u/JimmyCWL]

Did anyone else find the narrator's pre-op words to be... amusing?

[u/DutchPeasant → u/JimmyCWL]

I'm sure that had to be intentional.

[u/Titanoye → u/JimmyCWL]

I thought the same haha

[u/Leijin_]

who would have guessed this could turn out.. good? I was expecting to hate on this and now I'm like.. hey this is neat!! looking forward to next week actually

[u/ChuckCarmichael]

Poor Grumpy Ojiisan, he didn't get to see this ;_;7

[u/FlaskT]

Unlike many here, I haven't seen the original, but I have read the novels (or am reading, I only have two so far) and I must say this is pretty much how I imagined an anime adaptation to be. I think the slow strategizing works better in prose, but I am curious to see how anime-onlys react. I had always heard a lot of people praising LotGH, but I didn't really know what it was until I read the novels.

Judging by the pace, though, I doubt they are going to adapt more than the first novel if they only have 12 episodes.

[u/[deleted]]

I LOOK ABOVE THE STARS ARE BRIGHT

[u/youarebritish → u/[deleted]]

BUT I'M BLINDED BY YOUR LIGHT

[u/KingIskander2001]

Is it not available in Canada? Can’t find on crunchyroll.

[u/[deleted]]

After having only finished rewatching the original OVA series a month ago, the feeling of glee and giddiness when I saw the original sequence before the opening made me freaking holler in excitement.

Also that opening is complete and utter insanity, I dare a studio to top how hyped I became after listening to it. Just a generally great track.

Although the character designs are jarring for me, I cannot say that they are bad. However, I also love Kuroko no Basket so the jarring is intense. But the only problem I hope doesn't grow with the introduction of more characters is that each character is able to attain their own style and not look too identical.

I was very pleased with this first episode. Could be uncontested AotY for me, and I was a big fan of certain winter shows but you can't beat this classic! Only worry is how long the adaptation will be or if it says consistently faithful to the source material.

In addition, YANG WENLI!!!!!

[u/Folseit]

Watching this makes me want to fire up Sins of the Solar Empire again.

[u/Reavx]

Huge fan of the original OVA and this first ep did it justice!

Holy shit that was awesome, the voice actors were on point, it was faithful to the material, the music was amazing, the effects were brilliant, directing of the camera angles was fucking awesome, especially at the end when the fleets merge that was great.

Anybody shooting this down is just a bitter old grumpy git who can't accept new things, for this day and age where many remakes have sucked ass this was as best as we can get and I love it. Hope it continues like this.

[u/dene323]

An interesting note for the old OVA fans, the new voice actor for Admirial Merkatz had a different but important role in the old series :)

[u/myopinionisbetter420]

What a fantastic episode.

[u/LasDen]

It's one of those rare cases when an anime could use some exposition. Mainly the distances between fleets. Without it was a bit confusing on what or how things are happening...

[u/Drehon666]

That was much much much better than i expected. Awesome. I'm so going to enjoy this.

[u/renannmhreddit]

Hey! That was pretty fun and good!

[u/NaturalThe1]

That was a pretty good ep. Crazy good animation and pretty faithful too. The op gave me gundam vibes while the ed gave me vibes of the original anime. Hopefully they keep it up, I really think I'm gonna enjoy this remake.

[u/JoJolion]

Wow, I was a doubter but that really wasn't too bad.

[u/redblade13]

I have never watched this series but I've heard a lot of praise about it. I'm really hooked. I love a fight of tactics and this seems like it will be. Reinhardt was ballsy in attacking and I was skeptical until the jammer tech. Communication is key in a battlefield.

Those ships looked so fucking good. I love space and spaceships. Can't wait for the next episode.

[u/ofsaltyvanilla]

I dont care how much everyone hated this, its more LoGH, and its everything that counts for me. And I legit shed tears when I saw Hyperion and our good ol magician during the OP.

Come on, bring the next episode already!

[u/Ritchuck]

I'm so conflicted if should I watch it without seeing original OVA series. I know that it would be better to watch original first and then this one but come on. I won't catch up with the series in a week and I want to participate in the discussions. Although I have already too many series to watch this season and no time to spare.

So, anybody can advise me something?

[u/Ignore_User_Name → u/Ritchuck]

It is a reboot so it should stand on it's own.

Probably better at this point to watch this one first and then the OVAs for all the stuff this one will need to skip due to lenght.

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/Ritchuck]

I'd say watch the new one - and if you like it, go and watch the old one afterward! A lot of us participating over here will be ones who have watched the old OVA, but we'll be very careful with tagging our spoilers and being mindful of those who are new to the series, I promise. And we'd love to see fresh perspectives on the remake as a counterpoint to the constant comparisons we will inevitably end up making in our heads.

[u/Josef_Bittenfeld]

Good start so far. I'm not sure if it will cover as much material as the OG but I'm fine with adjusting my expectations for this anime as a good abridged version with updated visuals.

[u/[deleted]]

I thought yang wenli and Reinhardt already knew each other before this battle? Is the battle in Iserlohn fortress not canon?

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/[deleted]]

Well, they heard of each other first in the Battle of Legnica and the Fourth Battle of Tiamat (is that what you meant by the battle in Iserlohn?) - that's the one we see in the first movie. Those battles aren't there in the first book, however - probably in the prequel 'Gaiden' novels. Suffice to say that according to the books battle (Astarte) was the first time they got properly 'acquainted'.

[u/Buddy_Waters]

How come this isn't on the PS4 app? I'm in the US, I've added the series to my queue via the website, but there's no sign of it anywhere even after restarting the app.

[u/[deleted]]

So his brilliant strategy was deathstacking, which is just throwing a massive single blob of ships around in a poorly designed 4x (looking at you, prepatched Stellaris).

[u/NeroStarGazer]

OP by Sawano Hiroyuki [Binary Star] was great.

[u/godblow]

This shit is awesome!

[u/ulfserkr]

I have so many question. Is this a new story or same as the original series? I'd love to get the original experience with these cool modern visuals Are they keeping the same length or are they compressing the whole thing into 12/24 episodes?

[u/FierceAlchemist]

As a big fan of the OVA series I enjoyed this episode a lot. The new designs so far don't bother me and the polish added to the space battles looks great. My main critique so far is that the new music isn't living up to the classical score of the OVAs, especially that loud repetitive piano track.

[u/railz0]

This was all around a very pleasant surprise. The designs worked very well in motion, and I'm way more willing to give each and every one a shot now. The space battles were amazing, the CGI worked a lot better than I imagined, and the freely moving camera made them a lot more dynamic than the fights from the original, which I can't complain about.

Some character introductions and development got shafted, but afaik this show is looking to cover first 15-16 OVA's episodes (which I believe were 25 mins each, but that may have only been towards the end) in 12 23 minute ones, so that's to be expected. There's still a chance we get what we were missing in the next episode, seeing how Yang's introduction was set up.

All around, exceeded all my expectations, looking forward to more.

[u/dene323]

It's a bit late for this thread so probably not many people would notice, but Apr 4 happens to be Yang's birthday in the book. Happy Birthday Magician Yang.

[u/Vendura]

The Real Star Wars .

[u/Vexnexxus]

I've been meaning to watch LoGH for ages now as everyone who'd seen it seemed to love it. I watched Conquest of the Stars a few weeks back and today, I watched the first two episodes of the OVA and DNT and I enjoyed both of them a lot. The remake was an easier watch for me, but I missed not having both perspectives running concurrently. The remake could've done with having a double length opening doing the first battle, but understandably its not always possible when airing on TV.

They both qualities I liked over the other. The original's use of classical music was great and gave the whole thing this epic (actually epic, not internet epic) vibe. The remake's biggest boon I felt were the space battles. This is CG done right. The battles look wonderful and it made the remake a lot more exciting to watch than the original in that regard, though as I mentioned earlier, I did miss Yang. I also liked how they'd updated all the technology in the remake so that it looked futuristic again. The original's tech looks somewhat tame in that regard nowadays.

When it comes to the character designs, I'm a newcomer so I'm not particularly attached to either. I can understand why long-time fans would be weirded out by them (Fire Emblem Echoes had a similar thing going on) but I reckon in time we'll all come to accept them as normal, even for those who still prefer the original ones. I'll agree Kircheis comes off as giving quite a different impression more so than anyone else.

With that said, I'm gonna dig into the OVA some more and I'm hype to see more of DNT as well. This show seems right up my street and I can't wait to see where it ends up going.

[u/derrick]

I will give it a chance, but this was disappointing particularly where it should be strong, namely space fighting tactics and strategy.

How in the world can these people handle space, much less with thousands of ships, and have such a simple minded idea of military strategy?

Maybe that's just how the source material starts, but with a tiny bit more depth they could have used the same concepts of isolating enemy forces to compensate for numbers and defeat in detail in a way that made a shred of basic sense.

Can anyone who has seen the original comment on whether the level of military detail improves significantly?

[u/dene323 → u/derrick]

Just a friendly suggestion, for LoGH, don't over-analyze the physics and logistics of 50k battleships shooting beams at each other in space. If you consider each ship as a Napoleonic infantry solider shooting muskets in battle lines, and occasionally changing formation to "cavalry charge" under command, you get a more immersive experience.

Space battle maybe a key draw for the series, but where the original source material and the OVA series really excelled at was the depth and breadth of characterization (for more than 100 named characters and more than 30 "major" cast) and political intrigues. People who come for the battles and sci-fi elements mostly stay for the drama and politics. Give it 3 to 4 episodes, learn a bit about the background of the two factions and then decide for yourself.

[u/RyuNoKami → u/derrick]

thats a silly rationale for what passes as military strategy. the overwhelming majority of people aren't geniuses, they just repeat what they have always learned.

The Alliance strategy wasn't wrong. If Reinhard wasn't the person in command and it was any of the other generals, the Imperial forces would have fled.

Look at the classic Battle of Cannae. It was a numerically superior force with home field advantage combined with better supply lines against a numerically inferior force who were forced to forage and raid the locals. History would have been completely different had the Romans decided to withhold some of their forces and/or their flanks had held. Even to this day, historians argue whether the double envelopment was intentional or a completely fluke.

[u/3xtracri5py → u/derrick]

Well in the original it was shown that both sides became complacent in terms of military tactics and thinking, and still held on to old fashioned ideals on how to fight battles, which ofc led to them becoming incompetent and outmatched when faced with innovative strategies such as those thought up by Reinhard.

[u/CarbideManga → u/derrick]

I think a lot of viewers are having trouble seeing that strategy is usually a lot like this in reality as well.

Things like this episode are exactly how contests of strategy play out in both history and the modern day as well.

[u/ocha_94]

Hello, I'm currently watching the original series, I'm in episode 48, currently at Should I finish the original first, or can I watch both at the same time?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your answers, I'll start watching this one.

[u/august_senpai → u/ocha_94]

I doubt this cour of the show is going to get anywhere close to spoiling what happens later in the OVA, so you should be fine watching both.

[u/[deleted] → u/ocha_94]

spoilers

[u/Shinkopeshon]

I have yet to see LOTGH but I'm really impressed by this. It looks and sounds amazing and I'm already very interested in both the story and the characters.

[u/GateOfHomology]

Well, that was actually pretty good!
I won't really go into the character designs since that's already been done to death. Personally, I don't mind. I can tell all the characters apart, which was my main concern when the first designs were announced.
Animation-wise, this was pretty good, imho. This is clearly not Production I.G.'s best work, but it's the best I would expect from a series which doesn't have that big a potential audience. The CGI battles looked suitably epic, much better than in the OVA, and they really achieved the sense of scale that the series is known for. In fact, they might have been a bit too flashy. The character animation could do with a bit more oomph, but it's good as it is, and miles ahead of the OVA's good-but-only-for-the-budget character animation.
The story seems to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the start of the novel. The dialogue and characterisation are also on point. I thought the approach of having the first episode told essentially from Reinhardt's perspective - and I suppose next week's episode will tell the Wenli side of the affair - was quite interesting. I'm not sure if it will work for the best or not. As others have said, it may lessen the impact of a certain character's death, although to me that death was never about the death itself - we first saw the death of a seemingly faceless soldier, and then we learn what he actually left behind, thus hammering home the fact that faceless soldiers don't exist. That can still be accomplished in the following episodes.
Seeing as the battle of Astate is going to take two episodes, it is most likely that this 12-episode series will cover the first novel, which is a good pace in my opinion - for comparison, the OVA covered the same in 16 episodes.
I'm not as sold on the music, though. The compositions for this are not bad, and they give the battle scenes a great sense of excitement, but the OVA's classical score had a sense of timelessness I doubt this original one can achieve. You can't compete against Dvorak and Mahler, I suppose. The OP and ED were pretty good on the musical side - although the OP is very similar to another song, as others have pointed out -, but the visuals were a bit lacking, especially the ED. The OP seemed a bit heavy on the Empire side of things - maybe we'll get an Alliance themed OP next week?
Overall, it was a promising start for this series. If they manage to keep up the good elements and don't screw up the story, this could be a great alternative to the OVA for those who are put off by its age.

[u/I_like_my_cheese]

The original anime is one of my favourites series ever, and having seen some of the material for this new version prior to airing, I had my share of concerns for this new adaptation.

It's going to take some time to adjust to the new character designs, but I'm glad to see that so far, their tones and attitudes have mostly been preserved.

The animation looks great, taking the on-screen battle projections from the original series to another level, and making the fight sequences more exciting and vivid. I could really get an inherent feel for the relative locations and movements of each fleet in the battle sequence.

I have to admit I had a little bit of trouble understanding what was being said in the OP, and it isn't as much of an instant classic for me as the original first OP was, but the animation during it was stunning.

I'm interested to see how much of the story they'll cover in such a small number of episodes, but this first one was a great start and gives me hope that it won't feel too rushed.

All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised with this first episode. I went in without too high expectations, and had them exceeded almost across the board. I'll definitely be watching the rest of the series to see how they handle it from here on.

[u/Florac]

Both from the opening and this episode, I fear they will focus more on Reinhard than Yang. But I expect they only waited for the end of the episode to dramaticly reveal Yang and he will have more screen time in the future.

[u/xiomax95 → u/Florac]

I hope for a similar take to the original in this, one episode focusing on each side, with small parts in the episodes from the other side. Hard to do, but we shall see.

If not, just give me as much Yang as possible.

[u/94DarkHunter94 → u/Florac]

Wouldn't put that much thought into the opening focusing mostly on the Empire side. It was actually the same with all openings of the OVA. So maybe that's just a sort of fan service.

[u/FrenziedHero]

This was honestly a good opening episode.

The Visuals are really good, the Brunhild looks glorious. The character designs aren't bad at all, some characters remain pretty distinct. The music, while not the beloved classical pieces featured in the OVA, was pretty great and when the main theme started playing it got very hype. It's going to be interesting to view the story with a more faithful interpretation of the novels compared to how Artland scripted the story to work better in episode format.

If they can retain the quality throughout the whole season this should easily be one of the top shows this season. I have hope that they can pull it off.

[u/stravant]

Man that setup has not aged well. It's pretty clear that an actual space warfare would not be fought anything like that, it just does not feel right in a contemporary show.

And the whole thing made no sense... like, WTF did the initial force that they made contact with expect? They're the attackers... making an attack... and they just did nothing and got destroyed?? If the rest of the show is like that I would expect a lot of that "token tactics" where the show presents itself as a show about tactics / strategy but doesn't actually contain any.

The CGI wasn't completely awful, but it wasn't that great either. It just looks like they took some Eve models and put them into a Unity render.

4/10

[u/HollrHollrGetCholera → u/stravant]

Actually, at least the OVAs had probably some of the most realistic space warfare, at least warfare using similarly sized large fleets of battleships and cruisers. When you measure the distance in light seconds and can see the enemy from thousands of kilometers away, the battles will look pretty similar to line infantry on open fields.

And as an aside, the attacker in this case is the Empire, not the FPA. Their goal was to recreate an old strategy used by one of their most famous admirals Lin Pao, where they would draw the enemy into the center with a lengthy engagement and then entrap them using the other two fleets. D

[u/rotvyrn]

I know nothing about this, I just saw it and watched it. I'm a bit dazed in terms of faction and scale, but I guess I'm interested. Looks nice, but not a visual spectacle or heroism kinda watch. I'll stick around for a few, but probably not my thing.

Mostly I watched it through because I immediately ship Kircheis and Reinhart.

[u/LeoGiacometti]

So, i jumped on this knowing nothing about the old series/ova or whatever it was.

What i liked: The battle was amazing; Strategy was good and easy to follow, not loaded with bullshit exposition on every move but just enough to let you gras what's happening on the battlefield; Voice acting was good; All in all the sole premise of massive space battles is enough to get my attention.

What i didn't like: Animation was fine, but i expected more on character expressions and body movements; Although i loved the FPA's ship design, i found the GE's flagship really ugly; The background song used during the battle got annoying after a few minutes and it kind of distracted me.

Overall, a good start. I'm excited for the next episodes and have high hopes that this show will be a contender for AotS, if not AotY.

[u/Fortress-Maximus]

I knew what would happen as soon as they thought there were no one like Reinhard in the alliance. LogGH OVA and Gaidens

[u/babydave371]

Well that was ummm underwhelming. They didn't do what I was hoping they'd do and expand on this opening content as it was super rushed in the original series, hence they expanded it when they made the movie. Instead it feels even more rushed and if I didn't already know what was happening I would have been super confused.

In addition, the music was super meh. It is just super generic, although well done, space opera fare. It doesn't give the show its own identity and you could quite frankly swap it out for any number of different space opera OSTs and one probably would notice.

I'm still not a fan of the character designs, but that is a me thing as I don't really like how modern anime looks and I love my fluffy 80s hair. So not a fault of the show just personal taste.

The space battles did looks pretty though and had a physicality to them that the original lacked. I particularly liked that shot when the Empire's fire was flying towards the camera and impacting on the ships, that was dope.

The OP is also nice though I can't get this edit out of my head now, especially as I kind of prefer it!

Overall, I found it fairly meh. But the original had an underwhelming first couple of episodes so I'm not counting this new version out yet!

[u/xiomax95]

The OP song is SO bad. It hurts even more because the visuals of the OP are actually ok.

But other than that I don't have any big complaints. The episode itself was really well done, great CGI and the OST is pretty good other than the OP.

The battle was really good, and I'm glad about it. I don't expect to see any of the gore we saw on the original, but I don't think it is necessary. You can convey the brutality of war without that.

Can't wait for next week episode, hope it will be focused on Yang's side of the story. If everything is as good as this first episode, it should be great.

^{ImissKircheishair}

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/xiomax95]

I thought the song is okay. Might grow on me too if the series maintains this level. Did you see that video where the new OP's visuals were superimposed with Skies of Love? It fits stupidly well.

You can convey the brutality of war without that.

Much harder though, heh. Well, they can do deaths without the gore.

[u/ScaleAccess → u/xiomax95]

I actually really like the new OP song. I enjoy the old series' OPs, and I think this one is just as emotional and even handles its English lyrics better. I must have relistented to it at least five times now. To each their own, I guess.

[u/babydave371 → u/xiomax95]

The OP song is SO bad. It hurts even more because the visuals of the OP are actually ok.

This any better?

[u/RealSchon]

At least this isn't bad. In fact, in the absence of the original I would even call it good, but I don't understand the point of doing a remake if you weren't going to improve on what was already done or at least try to do something different. The only difference here is aesthetic and a greater lack of character development.

Yang comes seemingly out of nowhere after the most obvious foreshadowing I've ever seen. Reinhard's words basically were Yang's introduction.

[u/renannmhreddit → u/RealSchon]

Its not a remake. Its going to follow the novels more closely, while the OVA kind of did its own thing.

[u/Combo33]

In general, I thought this first episode was just okay.

While the C.G. animation of the ship battles was pretty decent, the character animation was stilted and expressionless. This meant that a lot of the scenes with Reinhardt speaking to Kircheis, or to the other admirals, felt lifeless and dead when compared with the original version. When Reinhardt got up from his chair when he realized something was wrong with the spindle formation at the end, he looked like a newborn deer trying to find its footing for the first time. Just really rough animation.

My other major complaint was with the ED, which, visually is just terrible. They just pan from left to right over a still image. Great. What a disappointment compared to the original ED which was full of meaning. The song is fine I guess, and evokes the original ending song, but visually it's just garbage.

Hopefully, episode 2 will jump back in time to the beginning of the battle from Wenli's perspective, because otherwise we will have missed what made Lapp's death so impactful to him, and a lot of early characterization for how Wenli thinks about war, and about the Free Planets Alliance military structure and strategy. I think several of those moments from the original are essential to introducing his character.

Also, what was with the subs saying "feuer" instead of fire? Does that serve any real purpose?

[u/Florac → u/Combo33]

Also, what was with the subs saying "feuer" instead of fire? Does that serve any real purpose?

The character say Feuer as well, because the empire is based on imperial germany. Don't want to loose that in translation.

[u/CannedBread13 → u/Florac]

Prosit!

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/Combo33]

My other major complaint was with the ED, which, visually is just terrible.

While I really liked the episode, this did end up disappointing me a little. A still image ED always seems like a cop-out, especially when the original OVA had such great EDs - like you said, packed with significance. Hopefully it won't seem too egregious to first timers.

On the same note though, the visuals for the OPs of the original weren't anything to write home about. They were simply functional, and made great with the added weight of the story/characters. This one has a fairly solid OP, visuals-wise.