June reviews: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars

-In Every Age, in Every Place...

 Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a lot of thing; a 100 episode long saga about a war between two superpowers, an exploration of the merits of the conflict between autocracy and democracy, a meditation on the importance of history, it is one of the few Anime that i can confidently call an epic in the classic sense of the word. but the one thing LOTGH isn't is "easy to talk about", precisely because of everything listed above, LOTGH has roughly the thematic density of a Neutron star, making any analysis of it in a timely manner downright impossible, lets be thankful then than its prologue film, My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, is a good enough microcosm of the Series proper while, for better or worse, lacking a lot of the absurd thematic depth that makes the rest of it so difficult to talk about.

 Based on a series of science fiction novels by Yoshiki Tanaka, LOTGH depicts the closing days of the 150-year-long war between Alliance of Free Planets, a democratic republic built on the principles of individual freedom, and the Galactic Empire, an absolute monarchy ruled since its inception  by the Goldenbaum dynasty. serving as a prologue for the main Series, Sea of Stars depicts the first encounter between the two main protagonists; Yang Wen-li, a lazy yet brilliant commodore of the Alliance forces, and Reinhard von Musel, an ambitious young admiral of the Imperial army.

 

 Sea of Stars' plot is relatively simple, especially when compared to the rest of LOTGH, however, being essentially the prologue of the story, it makes sense that it would be less interested in telling a complete standalone story than it would be in setting up the characters and the central conflict the main Series revolves around. And in that respect, I'd say it does a rather excellent job, Yang and Reinhard in particular are instantly likable and intriguing, respectively, and by the end you are left with an immense desire to see how their stories will play out from this point.

 

 From a visual standpoint, the first word that comes to mind regarding Sea of Stars is "breathtaking". a space opera in truest sense of the word, LOTGH's depiction of space warfare is on a scale hard to even properly process, as millions of ships are depicted as points of light in the vast emptiness of space, only distinguishable from the surrounding stars by the volleys of artillery shooting off in every direction its is an absolutely awe-inspiring feast for the eyes.

 

 While i would be hard pressed to truly recommend Sea of Stars to anyone who has no interest in LOTGH proper (which, as a 110 episode long political drama, is admittedly a hard sell) for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the series, i would say that Sea of Stars is nothing less than required viewing, not just for it's relevance to the main story, but also for what an amazing job it does in setting up the characters and their conflicts.

          RATING: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED