Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie

Spoiler-Free Review! The long-awaited sequel is here and oh boy was it good. The movie was action-packed from start to finish and gave us some solid character development for the new faces. More importantly, it continues the story of Tanya and the Empire right where Season 1 left off — no filler, just straight back into the chaos. We get introduced to a new anti-protagonist, Mary Sue, the daughter of Anson Sioux (aka the guy with the frucking trench shotgun from Season 1). The movie gives a glimpse into her “upbringing” and what kind of person she is, which adds a new layer to the story withoutspoiling anything. She’s clearly set up to be a major piece moving forward. The film also hints at what’s to come in the next season (which is confirmed, by the way), and that alone had me excited. The quality was top-tier as usual — Studio NUT did a fantastic job keeping the same gritty energy and art style from the series. The new battle OSTs go hard, mixing familiar tracks from Season 1 with fresh ones that hit even harder in the theatre. It gave me chills hearing those themes again during the big fights. Yuuki Aoi absolutely nailed Tanya’s performance as always, and the new voice actors — especially Mary’s VA — really brought emotion into their roles. If I had one complaint, it’s that the movie felt short when it came to introducing how the new and old characters connect. It’s not bad, I just wanted more — but that’s probably because it was only an hour and a half, and it’s clearly meant to bridge into the next part of the story.There were a couple of CGI shots here and there, but nothing that ruined the experience. Honestly, that’s becoming standard for most studios now, and it was barely noticeable. Everything else looked great and stayed true to the tone of the anime. Overall, the movie was fire. It scratched that itch for more of our little “loli Nazi” (Tanya, obviously) and got me hyped for what’s coming next. As of this review, it was a one-day premiere, so it might take a bit before it’s widely available, but it’s absolutely worth the wait. Definitely watch it before Season 2 since it’s 100% canon. No spoilers :3. Just pure Tanya energy.

The long awaited sequel to the Youjo Senki series, this movie brings in a new character and antagonist to light. Once again, our sociopathic salaryman loli finds herself in a complex predicament reminiscent of our world’s historical world wars, facing the interference of being x at the worst possible times. Like the original series, Tanya’s squad 203 sets out to face enemies that appears impossible to win against, according to their political and strategic heads, and the battles are reflective of the nature of difficulty. In this movie, we are shown a more emotional side of Tanya. There are some scenes in the movie where sheeven has “human” moments, which is a stark contrast to her original series presentation. You can look forward to some subtle times of hesitation on the battlefield for reasons you’ll have to watch the movie to find out about. If you watch carefully, you may even notice some moments of increased leniency towards her men. This movie seems to prepare for a new season where the anime begins to dissect her as a character. For some reason, Tanya also makes a ton of communist jokes throughout the movie, which made the people in my theater laugh a lot. (Something tells me the plot's writer really dislikes communists) The graphics were pretty much the same as the original series graphics with no real addition in quality that I noticed. Like I said in my original review of the series, they’re pretty good overall and I’d give them an 8/10. The only difference between the characters in the series and the characters in the movie is the new main antagonist who appears to be what the next season will focus on. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it to anybody who enjoyed the first season. This is not a recap and is all fresh material, so you will need to watch the original series in order to understand what is happening in this movie. Watch it!

Just personal scratch. Advised, possible spoilers. Opinion & Informal Art: 8/10 The anatomy and proportions checked out and no noticeable changes in these two points were made between the main series and this movie. There weren't any special panoramics or expanses that were showcased. There were a few environmental and nature elements in this movie but they weren't particularly focused on or given their own scenes for us to admire any sort of artistic skill in that regards. The few instances where there was living foliage and nature that we got looked pretty nice but not something I'd praise; much of what was actually relevant was city-scapes and thefamiliar grey, dull, and war-torn battlefields that were prevalent in the main series. However, the urban art was excellent. I really liked how nicely detailed and styled the backdrops and artwork for the urban areas looked; it felt like the style was more something out of a painting: not clean and crisp, but had an air of vintage if that makes sense. The character details remained fairly close to the main series art-quality-wise. Characters like Tanya and Serebryakova looked very clean and crisp but background fodder like the nameless soldiers were either very basic or just not-too-impressive cgi models. The cgi elements weren't terrible, but were mediocre enough to sometimes pull me away from the impressive art and animation. Overall, what I thought of the art was that other than particular impact moments like action scenes or scenes emphasizing the revelations or expressions of Tanya, the art quality was more or less similar to the main series. Animation: 9/10 This is what I'd expect from a feature length film. While the majority of the general motions and natural movements of the characters such as body language, shifts in motion or stance, or walking had similar quality of that from the main series (I watched the BD releases), the parts that mattered such as the impact sequences during the battles or Tanya's gesugao asides looked great and were what I'd expect from a movie release. In the battle department, this movie did not disappoint. I was wholey satisfied with the animation for the battles. The cgi elements during the "big budget" battles such as Tanya's duel were kept to a minimum or presented in a way that didn't detract from the experience at all. Overall, the animation for everything but the "big budget" scenes are pretty much the same as what you'd see in the main series. However, the reason I gave this area such a good score was how impressive (or, well, how satisfied I was) the impact sequences were. Characters, Plot & Development: 6/10 The characters were the same from the main series. This movie didn't put too much mileage towards developing any of the characters too deeply (or at all) or any of their relationships or dynamics. No backstories or personal development was allotted to any of the characters at all other than what we were already aware of from the main show, not even Tanya or Mary Sue. Moreover, the direction of the development was more of the main show's formula giving me the impression that this movie was just a high-budget OVA. I understand that the nature of the the circumstances that the Empire is in as well as Tanya's place in it all leaves little to deviate from (they can't just ignore the war to introduce some crazy plot just for the movie) but the reason I gave this area a 6 is because of that. It was just more of sending Tanya and her troops to areas that needed help or carrying out decisive missions. Mary Sue, the antagonist in this movie, was just there to serve as the bad guy. There were moments where the story could have touched upon heavier questions or ideas such as the topics of revenge (during Mary Sue's conversation with her superior in the barracks or between Tanya and Mary in the church), human nature, or morality versus following orders. Many of those opportunities were there, but were given the "It's my job, therefore I must do it" or "I am angry or I am fighting because the Empire is evil" explanation. This development direction in my opinion shunted all of my sympathy for Mary Sue. Mary Sue's anger and resentment didn't "feel" heavy and I found it hard to connect with her emotions. I feel that the movie failed to give me any sort of foundation or something to work with to humanize Mary Sue and her anger other than the 5 seconds of flashbacks of animation from the main show. Tanya was just more Tanya. She was still acting in accordance to her goal of finding an easy life and simply trying to survive her circumstances. There weren't any moments of conscientious growth, personal revelations, or shifts in personality for Tanya in this movie which is fine, but there wasn't even any of those wonderful debates with Being X in this movie. Overall, the characters were the same and weren't given any backgrounds or personal growth that we don't already know from the main show. Their inter-personal relationships and dynamics were exactly the same too. The plot development had the same sortie-based + aftermath direction as the main show in which Tanya and her squad would roll out, come back, and we would get the political and wartime aftermath; not much experimentation was done such as trying to at least dive into a bit of Mary Sue's psyche and its relevance to how it stems from a cycle of hate. Music: 7/10 I wasn't too happy with the music and bgm as they were mostly the same as from the main show with no new notable additions. However, I gave this area a 7 because I was really happy with how well the soundboard was used. The battles really popped out and felt alive with how much was going on. The gun sounds, explosions, and battlefield noises sounded good and made those scenes feel good. No sound design to note. The ED credits used the same ED from the anime, but had different showcase art which was a treat since I liked those so much. Conclusion: 6/10 The conclusion was an open-ended conclusion that's like something you'd see from an OVA or special episode which is why I mentioned that this movie felt more like a high-budget OVA than a separate special entity in the universe. While I see the value in being more closely in-tune to the atmosphere of the main anime as well as that the nature of this movie is a sequel, the movie's conclusion left much to be desired and felt a bit anti-climactic. The fact that the "How did it come to this?" gag was used for the conclusion added to the "OVA" feeling. The conclusion setting up the future for 'more of the same' felt underwhelming to me. Overall: 7/10 I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting from this movie coming into it, but I can definitely say that some parts weren't surprising while others were satisfying. The direction decision to stay more true to the formula of the anime and source material was fine by me; it wasn't surprising, but because of that I wasn't "wow'd." However, I was completely and utterly satisfied with the impressive art quality and animation, especially the impact sequences and battles. What I thought of this movie: It's more of the same from the anime, just flashier battles and better animation; this movie doesn't attempt to experiment with the source material and doesn't really try to touch upon any of the intricacies of morality or any tough questions which is why I only thought this movie was just good but not great.

I've got the vague feeling that the author *really* hates Russia, leading to some scenes generously described as "historically insensitive". The animation and aerial battles in particular look better than in the series, though there's also more mediocre CGI. Theres clearly a bigger focus on flashy combat scenes rather than elaborate tactics. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint obcaecat cupiditat nonproident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Word count requirements don't improve the quality of reviews, they just lead to absurdly bloated prose.