Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Editors Note: Work in progress. This entry may contain story spoilers. View it with your own discretion.

Promotional poster for the 1988 movie My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, a prequel for the main OVA series.

About

Legend of the Galactic Heroes, often abbreviated to LOGH, is a Japanese science-fiction novel series, written by Yoshika Tanaka. Since its release in 1982, it has been adapted into multiple forms of media, ranging from the main OVA series, gaiden OVA’s, prequel movies, a real-time strategy game and a theater adaption.

Premise

Set in the late 36th century, the corrupted democratic Free Planets Alliance, and the autocratic Galactic Empire, ran by a crumbling dynasty, who have been in a never ending, 150 year war. LOGH follows the rise of the two central protagonists, Reinhard von Lohengramm, an admiral in the Galactic Empire, who joined the military in order overthrow the falling Goldenbaum Dynasty, and free his sister from her concubine status. Meanwhile, Yang Wenli is a commodore in the Free Planets Alliance who originally wanted to be a historian, but joined the military due to financial woes, and has become a renowned, but reluctant strategist. Each leader attracts other brilliant leaders, and strategists, and with this, a new war has begin to unfold.

History

Legend of the Galactic Heroes was written by Yoshiki Tanaka, and illustrated by Naoyuki Kato for the first five volumes, and later Yukihisa Kamoshita for the last five. The first volume was published in November 30, 1982, and the tenth, and final volume was released in November 15, 1987. The side stories were published in September 1, 1984, lasting up to July 31, 1989. Three manga spinoffs were later released as well: the first was Golden Wings, a prequel telling the story of Reinhard and his best friend, later confidant, Siegfried Kircheis in a shoujo way. The last two were published from 1989 to 1994, and the third in 2007, and is still ongoing. On February 6, 1988, studios Madhouse, and Artland released the first installment of the LOGH anime series, My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, a prequel that lead up to the main OVA series. In January 8, 1988, the first episode of the OVA series was released. The main OVA covered the entire, original novel series, and ended on March 17, 1997, with a total of 110 OVA episodes. Later, in 1992, the prequel movie, based on the prequel manga, Golden Wings was released, though it was to mixed reception. One year later, the film, Overture to a New War, was released as way to connect the first film, My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, and the first two episodes of the OVA in a narrative sense. The final animated installment of the series were released as two separate OVA“seasons”: A Hundred Billion Stars, A Hundred Billion Lights, and Spiral Labyrinth, with the former being released in October 21, 1998, and the latter in Dec 24, 1999, and each ending in 2000,and 2001 respectively for a total of 52 episodes. On February 12, 2014, it was announced that there is a new series in the works, though no new information has been released since.^[1]

Reception

The main OVA for Legend of the Galactic Heroes, is wide acclaimed by the anime community for it’s maturity, every character that is introduced getting developed, the grey morality, and the themes it explores. It is on many anime databases top anime lists, with it being number nine of all anime on Myanimelist^[2], the top OVA for Myanimelist’s OVA section^[3], a rating of 9.45 on AnidDb^[4], 30th on Hummingbird^[5], 53rd on Anime Planet^[6], and 14th on Anime News Network.^[7] Its many prequel movies, and gaiden OVA’s have gotten praise for expanding on every characters’ background. The movie, Golden Wings, is the most panned of the entire series, due to the uncanny character designs, and a plot that does not resemble what LOGH is known for.

Online Relevance

On July 3, 2015, Sentai Filmworks acquired the license and plan to release the OVA in America^[8], while VIZ acquired the novels series.^[9] On tumblr, the series is tagged under it’s English name^[10], Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (Japanese title)^[11], and LOGH.^[12] On Youtube, the most popular video is a mod of Super Robot Wars, using LOGH characters instead.

Fandom

Related Memes

Are You Frustrated?

A Photoshop meme, its origin is based around a an image of character Siegfried Kircheis.

If Only Kircheis was Here

This meme is based around characters reflecting on Kircheis’s death and if he was still around, he would’ve known what to do.

External Reference