Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden (1999)

Both of these Gaiden series are basically just the author wanking himself off by having his ultra smart MCs repeatedly go up against and humiliate braindead troglodytes who are also evil and beat their wives and all want to kill him. It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. The only one that’s somewhat interesting is the Yang one and the “Retriever” story because there are parts of it that don’t follow this formula. All of the other ones are basically the exact same story told in different ways. This series also exemplifies that explaining everything in a story is not always a good idea. Whilewatching the regular series, one could imagine for himself what Yangs evacuation of El Facil looked like. Instead, this series explains how it happens and it makes Yang seem extremely irresponsible and unfit to be a commander by his escape plan relying on the enemy being total idiots and putting all the civilians in danger. These series somewhat soured my opinion on the original OVA by repeating and thus highlighting the issues which were sometimes noticeable in it many, many times and for that reason alone I don’t recommend watching them.

The fascinating Legend of the Galactic Heroes lore gets expanded upon in this first Gaiden, with five new arcs narrating events not only preceding the events of the main series but also showcasing the history of the conflict between the Free Planets Alliance and the Empire with an in universe historical war chronicle. This Gaiden is divided into five arcs: a long arc centered on Yang Wenli conducting historical research and giving insight on his early career and four shorter arcs dedicated to Reinhard and Kircheis and their meteroic rise upon ranks of the Galactic Empire. The Yang focused arc, named Spiral Labyrinth, is a creative narrativemaking use of Yang's deep interest in history in order to showcase an intricate murder conspiracy of a brilliant FPA admiral dating decades prior to the events of this series. The arc follows Yang's personal investigation while attending his military duties, interviewing veterans from both the FPA and Empire alike while slowly unraveling the life stories of admiral Bruce Ashbey and his talented peers. We get to know Yang better during this journey, while also encountering the familiar faces of his old friend and future allies. While Yang's character does not undergo much development during this series, his strong opinions and frequent introspections are as frequent as in the main series. Only giving a glimpse of Yang's talent as an strategist (a recollection of the events of the El Facil evacuation is in the series), Spiral Labyrinth manages to introduce him as a character, giving more basis to his ideals as seen on the main series. The four arcs centered on Reinhard narrate some of his earliest assignments (The Mutineer and The Retrieval), a personal quarry (The Duelist) and one of his first missions as a Vice Admiral (The Third Tiamat Battle). Being on the shorter side, these fairly interesting stories show Reinhard's unmatched leadership skills even as a prodigious teen. While his talents are acknowledged, Reinhard's somehow volatile and prideful personality also comes to light, causing clashes with his older and incompetent superiors while gaining the trust and respect of talented younger personnel. Though no major events occur during these stories, some important developments prior to the main series also take place such as the first usage of directional Seffle particles and the first clash with a dangerous foe of Annerose. On a technical aspect, due to this being the last animated work related to the OVA adaptation, the animation was almost completely made with early digital technology, making some of the character designs look slightly different from the traditional animated OVA. While the characters are expressive and retain their unique feature, the animation is definitely far more unpolished than the OVA and the other Gaiden series. With all of the wonderful original voice cast returning, Yang Wenli's second VA does a great job at emulating his paused speech and vocal quirks, a big improvement from his cameo in the other Gaiden series. On the sound and music aspect, the opening Story of Time by Akemi is a beautiful song fitting for these story arcs, the different ending themes sung by Kei Ogura are a wonderful surprise for OVA viewers. Overall, this Gaiden series is a nice add-on to the main series. While the Spiral Labyrinth arc surpasses the other four in quality due to its longer length and plot, the series as a whole is very entertaining with well thought lore and storylines. I would definitely recommend both Gaiden series to every LoGH fan.

Let me preface this review by stating this is for hardcore fans only. It holds absolute no relevance except to people who want more of the show. To begin with the animation is terrible. The characters are flat and poorly detailed, as are the settings. Some of the faces are so poorly animated they're repulsive, such as the first officer on Reinhard's first ship assignment. And this gaiden seems to have no focus. The first one chronicles Reinhard's and Kircheis' rise to power. This one haphazardly switches from Yang to Reinhard and the time changes seem random. It's actually something I never want to see again while thereare parts of the second gaiden I'd watch again and the main series I could watch for the rest of my life over and over again. It begins with Yang Wenli's military career and shows how he became the hero of El Facil. This part is good but kind of boring and rushed. In the flashbacks of the OVA main series there was a lot more tension and I felt the darker color palette suited it better. Also this gaiden doesn't take itself seriously like the main series and how the first gaiden does. There's an annoying humorous friendly tone in all the episodes and thus there's never ever any tension. The Bruce Ashbey prequels were kind of all right but it all seemed pointless since I don't even think Bruce Ashbey was mentioned once in the main series. And then the conspiracy involving him and Empire defectors and a secret intelligence network that fed him information that led to his victories all seemed boring, pointless, and contrived. When Yang became assistant to the warden of a prisoner of war prison that also seemed pointless. When it switches to Reinhard it gets much worse. Everyone says how awful the Golden Wings OVA is but I thought it was a far better portrayal of Reinhard's first time on a ship than this series was. Then we have the duel arc which was so boring I skipped to The Third Battle of Tiamat arc and watched this only at the very end after I already finished the show.