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REVIEW: Saga of Tanya the Evil


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Punch Drunk Marc



Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Posts: 1741
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:29 am Reply with quote
Kinda weird that there was no mention of the dub since this was one of Funi's simuldubbed series that season.
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Ajc228



Joined: 29 Dec 2015
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:39 am Reply with quote
Tanya was smarter than expected but it does feel like the writers seem to want have their cake and eat it too. They want to create a commentary about the negative influence of the cutthroat modern salaryman but they also want to pander to people who like loli crap and war fanatics. Their choice of focusing on a Naziesque character is concerning to say the least because I think it can cause audience members to empathize with her. By focusing on a Nazi character the writers simultaneous say, "she's awful but isn't she awesome?!" I am familiar with Japanese people fetishizing the nazi aesthetic( see later entries of Gundam) but focusing on a nazi character feels a bit gross. Yes, I'm aware this is WWI, but it's essentially nazis and I can't abide by how they frame Tanya as this cool character.
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Lord Vaultman



Joined: 03 Mar 2017
Posts: 810
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:48 am Reply with quote
O the simuldub was fantastic. Ddid you not check it out?
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2497
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:01 am Reply with quote
I'm confused by this article. This show has been streaming for months and is already over, plus it had weekly streaming reviews so why another review? I thought this might be a DVD review (which I'm waiting for) based on the main page tagline. Plus, there is no mention of where it is streaming (CR and Funi).

Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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John Thacker



Joined: 28 Oct 2013
Posts: 1006
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:04 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Tanya's actions act as an indictment of our own modern socioeconomic systems, which really do reward those who would manipulate treaty margins to allow for the shelling of noncombatants.


Tanya's actions act as praise of our own modern socioeconomic system, demonstrating that sociopaths who in alternative systems like fascism, communism, nationalistic empires, and imperialism would eagerly murder others have their dangerous urges sublimated to relatively benign ends, even if consumed with useless status games. War crimes certainly predate our modern system, after all. It demonstrates that the problem with totalitarianism is the system, not the individuals. A system must be able to redirect people like Tanya, who do exist everywhere, but not everywhere do they get the power of a Hitler or Stalin.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:31 am Reply with quote
Saga of Tanya The Evil made my best of the winter list which surprised me since I don't like military stuff but this was actually pretty good Aoi Yūki's performance as well was what really made it a great series for me.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:38 am Reply with quote
Didn't much care for it, myself. Felt like one of those stories where the writers become increasingly more in love with the anti-hero protagonist as it progresses, so they shift from challenging to championing Tanya's Machiavellian worldview & indulging in the spectacle of a loli on a broomstick (or rocket boot, as it was) killing people with a manic smile on her face. The world's aesthetics were a horrid clash of gritty trench warfare, weapons & uniforms from multiple different eras & silly wizards shooting magic while flying on metal horses or skis. The "other girl soldier," whose name I can't remember, seems like she's supposed to be the human voice but because of the aforementioned shift in Tanya's depiction mostly is just there for fanservice & cutsyness. A potentially interesting idea became just another disposable light novel adaptation.

edit: Oh & one thing that stuck out to me as unfortunately ironic was the use of V1 rockets as human transports, since Japan used actual human guided suicide rockets (baka bombs) during the latter part of the kamikaze campaign. Japan once again notable by its absence in an alternate WW1/2 story.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:20 am Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
Japan once again notable by its absence in an alternate WW1/2 story.


To be fair on WWI, the parts of the war outside of Europe don't get much attention in Western media either. This was more of a concern for me with Izetta than Tanya, and mostly at the end for the former.
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:23 am Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
.

edit: Oh & one thing that stuck out to me as unfortunately ironic was the use of V1 rockets as human transports, since Japan used actual human guided suicide rockets (baka bombs) during the latter part of the kamikaze campaign. Japan once again notable by its absence in an alternate WW1/2 story.


Well now someone needs to read the source material,Youjo Senki focus is and has always been on Tanya.The "writers"/anime portrayed Tanya as she is in the LN and the manga,a ruthless,amoral being whose goal is to live a peaceful life in comfort.
Only point of contention I have is the changes the adaption made with Anson and Mary Sue.

As far as your anti-Imperial Japan dig,Nazi Germany had developed a manned V1.
The Fi 103 "Reichenberg" an FZG 76 (V1) with a cockpit and manual flight controls.
The first units were used to test the FZG 76's aerodynamics,then plans were made to convert further units into short range fighters.
At the end an estimated 150 units were converted to be used as manned (kamikaze) V1s.A volunteer unit was formed but by the time the unit was operational no worthy targets were left.
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ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
Posts: 1090
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:46 am Reply with quote
This was my number 1 show of the season by far. Great directing, voice acting, ost, and visuals with an insanely entertaining protagonist. Saga of Tanya the evil was the whole package and I'm praying for a second season.
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otagirl



Joined: 26 May 2015
Posts: 111
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:52 am Reply with quote
Ajc228 wrote:
...By focusing on a Nazi character the writers simultaneous say, "she's awful but isn't she awesome?!" I am familiar with Japanese people fetishizing the nazi aesthetic( see later entries of Gundam) but focusing on a nazi character feels a bit gross. Yes, I'm aware this is WWI, but it's essentially nazis and I can't abide by how they frame Tanya as this cool character.


Well Japan was in fact part of the Axis alliance. They were Nazi allies who shared similar ideals in terms of extreme patriotism/fascism and also a desire to prove their military "superiority". Its not surprising if there are feelings of admiration towards the German military
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4064
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:38 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:

Only point of contention I have is the changes the adaption made with Anson and Mary Sue.


Really, Mary Sue? Let me check...
Haruka Tomatsu as Mary Sioux

Wow, that's, uh, wow.

I watched the first episode but I wasn't interested in moving on past that... not because of the violence or the setting but because of what I heard about the real meaning of it all. Or the idea there's a meaning at all.

This series... much like WW1... doesn't need a reason, it just needs to be. It's why it's alternate WW1. If you want to say something, WW2 is a common setting for that. But no, this series has to go beyond that.

Am I against the idea of God, against the idea of an Afterlife or against the idea that a whole universe could be made to qualify the soul of one man, like a bet between one man's closed ideals versus a moral universe or that they even matter in the grand scheme of things in the first place?

Possibly with the first two or at least how you have to accept them offhand such like: There's a God and it cares. There's no evidence for it. In fact, the idea that an act of God consists of going from a crappy world to a really crappy world is more a sign that there's only a Devil who calls himself God.

Mostly it's the third one. After 10 billion years, enjoying the act of firing people ranks below a supernova or mass murder.

Wait, it's all wrong. Tanya should be the guy who was fired and jumped in front of the train himself, yelling how unfair the bad world is and how there is no god. Then he hears a voice "...Oh... You think this is bad?" Honestly, hearing what I heard about this series, I can't tell who's trying to prove what to whom.

Quote:
By the end of the show, it's assumed that you really do enjoy the company of Tanya's irregulars, as monstrous as their actions often are.
But I think that's all just part of the package when it comes to war stories.


Wow. No. Go watch Apocalypse Now, uh, now. It's a war movie about people keeping their humanity in the face of monsters both extreme and casual.
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Ajc228



Joined: 29 Dec 2015
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:08 pm Reply with quote
otagirl wrote:
Ajc228 wrote:
...By focusing on a Nazi character the writers simultaneous say, "she's awful but isn't she awesome?!" I am familiar with Japanese people fetishizing the nazi aesthetic( see later entries of Gundam) but focusing on a nazi character feels a bit gross. Yes, I'm aware this is WWI, but it's essentially nazis and I can't abide by how they frame Tanya as this cool character.


Well Japan was in fact part of the Axis alliance. They were Nazi allies who shared similar ideals in terms of extreme patriotism/fascism and also a desire to prove their military "superiority". Its not surprising if there are feelings of admiration towards the German military

I know Japan was part of the Axis alliance but I don't appreciate sentiments of admiration for nazis. You make a good point about Japan's historical ties to Germany but I don't think it excuses the glorification of a nazi character. I know a bunch of ultra-nationalists still exist in Japan, even the prime minister and his wife, but I'm not fond of the subtext of these types of shows.
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Ragdollomega



Joined: 24 Feb 2017
Posts: 72
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Ajc228 wrote:
Yes, I'm aware this is WWI, but it's essentially nazis and I can't abide by how they frame Tanya as this cool character.


You're aware that this is set in a (somewhat delayed) WWI time period, but of course because it involves essentially Germany, it's Nazi's lol. Cus everything German has to be Nazi's. Good for you man. Rolling Eyes
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:44 pm Reply with quote
I don't care how clever the writing is or if it's intended to be black comedy, anything that tries to make any form of fascism look cool and admirable especially in these times is morally repugnant from my point of view.
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