Youjo Senki - Anime - AniDB (2024)

When Youjo Senki (from hereon-YS) came out, I got disinterested pretty quickly, but after watching it now I think that this is a good anime provided you don't try to deviate your attention from the setting and the animation. It is probably among the better military-fantasy animes that should be binge watched.

This series is rich with symbolism. I spotted St.George and the dragon quite a few times (an allegory to the defeat of the "Empire", since it has a dragon as its coat of arms), the water fountain with statues of children in a circle that resembles the same one from Stalingrad, and a painting of Napoleon among others. This is definitely a high point. It does not remedy problems, but not many anime series go to that level of reference, even if it is a bit out of place at times in YS. Apart from that, the series' strong point is its pathos and theme. This pathos mostly comes from the epic nature and the sleekness of the theme and characters. Generally, not many series touch the Great War, and this series does portray it pretty well as well as to portray the mage battles. The theme of religion and religious philosophy is very unclear in the series. "Being X" resembles a deity (seems to be a christian one), but the monuments of god in the series do not look christian. The theme of religion is not expanded beyond the struggle between the MC and "Being X" and possibly the antagonist, but that seems also unclear. This is theme is not expanded enough in this anime so far and unfortunately it is meant to be its main overarching theme.

In terms of characters, this series falls short of the hype from the pathos. The main character I find is in most cases unlikable, but the MC also made a norm of saying platitudes that come in conflict with surrounding events and the situation they are in and act accordingly. The MC displays patriotism and willingness to defend her land, and then she calls the people defending their land patriotic fanatics. The MC wants a peaceful life in the military, but has no qualms about going beyond the call of duty to defeat entire nations, for instance. These contradictions in the very least do not seem to be a character trait, but rather an objective reality according to the author. Were it not for the pathos and the apparent mad/salaryman nature of the MC, constantly preaching about his company management, these would be unbearable to most people. Thankfully, this is not shown in the longer dialogues in this series. The MC also has some weird aversion to people hating her, and is willing to apparently kill those who would have a grudge against her or the Empire as a result of her actions even if they were indirectly harmed and then claim that "emotions should not be brought into the battlefield", yet another completely unrealistic platitude. The Imperial High Command (the three officers) are relatively strong characters, but all they do is to just support the pathos the series exerts. The feelings for the main "antagonist" can only be described as pity.

He fought with the MC 3 times and on the third time, all the feelings that he should get revenge were for naught. He was a spent character no matter how you look at it, which is a shame considering how he was well developed beforehand and yet he amounted to nothing.

Most other characters are of negligible importance. I think it is fair to say that the characters are the main weight bearing down this series. We follow a rather shrewd soldier and the viewer is expected to have some connection to the MC when she is against people best compared to helpless insects. The surrounding characters seem equally distanced from anything involving fighting and seem to be equally invincible. The characters just don't catch up with the pathos.

This leads on to a somewhat separate but very noticeable element of this series, in that it reads a lot like a power fantasy. I understand that this is an isekai, but even for an isekai the enemies faced by the MC are underpowered and the MC knows full well where the course of history goes, unlike in most other isekai. Combine that with some of the platitudes said by the MC and you can almost imagine the author wishing that he went back in time to do all of this, minus any real history. Or at least that is what I can imagine happened. This would normally be a bad thing, but this element is not obvious at first, which saves the series somewhat for some people. However, once you notice it, you can't unsee it and it becomes harder and harder to see the plot as good. Power fantasies are normally taboo in writing and for good reason.

Separately, I have to say that while the two EDs and the general soundtrack were alright, the OP is actually deafening. It may even fit the theme and it is definitely powerful, but the intro is ridiculous because of this OP, even if the OP does have some charm. The rest of the soundtrack is alright. The best parts are probably the more timid tracks.

Also this is not necessarily a criticism of the series, but I do not understand series like YS having the need to put us in an alternate history world to the point that there are few differences between real world events and the setting (granted magic and stuff) and yet change country names, borders, uniforms among other things, although then it may not be an isekai. YS does not provide nearly enough information on the pre-war situation (although this is not necessary to the story) for the viewer to follow the earlier politics and battles, so this could have been remedied if they did an alternate history of early 20th century as opposed to one of the whole world. I wondered if there was a legal issue with this, but animes like Evangelion did reference real life political organisations, and more recently Schwarzesmarken referenced late 1980s politics quite often, even going as far as showcasing contemporary character opinions like "Hello soldiers of a terrorist state" being said to soldiers of the GDR by an FRG equivalent. In YS they avoided this probably because it would be controversial, but it does break the lore if there is nothing to back it up. If this is an attempt to show an alternate world, then the viewer does not know in what way is it different and how did it happen. What was also confusing is that later on, the anime introduced Pz.IIIs as well as other vehicles used by the Third Reich as apparently existing in 1924 in this world and being used by the equivalent of Imperial Germany. This was quite hard to accept. Apparently in a world which deviates from our contemporary in politics and history, we still have the same war machinery, except that theirs came 15 years earlier.

The character design is a bit odd, but the animation pulls it off and is standard, although the CGI at times fails to keep pace. Still, the character design is not one you get used to and is weirdly very different from the source materials.

Overall, the Youjo Senki is alright. Its weakest point is in character development and perhaps some vagueness in the plot or plot holes. Once you get past that, it is rather nice to enjoy as a ride. The symbolism is a rare treat. So if you are into this military-fantasy, and don't want to actually devote yourself to a massive epic, then you should kick back, turn on a large TV, pour yourself a nice beverage, and binge watch the whole thing. But if you want a good strategy type anime, then there are better candidates apart from Legeond of the Galactic Heroes, though there are fewer anime that even emulate a historical narrative let alone being set in an actual historical time, and they are normally not very well made.

After watching this, go straight for the movie for even larger battles and commies.

Youjo Senki - Anime - AniDB (2024)

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