Battle scenes here is more like the ones in Heroic Age than Legend of Galactic Heroes.
Tytania takes longer than I thought (some unexpected task been given my way without warning and with tight deadlines) but here is the review as promised in the last post. This anime is a 2008 title, so Tytania will challenge Wolf and Spice for the Anime of the Year 2008 title.
Story:-
The noble family of Tytania is a clan that dominates the whole universe for a couple of centuries. But when one of the four Dukes of Tytania loses the Battle of Cerberus against a no-name Admiral called Fan Hyulick, cracks started to show up within the supposedly invincible family as the rebels across the universe started to be encouraged by the result of that battle. Being hunted by the Tytania clan across the universe, Fan Hyulick then started to mass up a rebellion movement of his own as he faced up with the might of the most powerful family in the universe.
Written by the same person who also does Legend of Galactic Heroes (thus comparison will be inevitable), the story as a whole is excellent, but for now I think it wasn’t as complex or intense as Legend of Galactic Heroes (LoGH) is. If you have watched LoGH, Fan Hyulick can be likened to Yang Wen Li while the Four Dukes and the Clan Lord of Tytania can be likened to Kaiser Reinhard, but then again neither sides (Fan Hyulick or the Tytania lords) has the brilliance of the two LoGH main characters as of yet. Even the Battle of Cerberus is not an exception, because if you superimposed the Kaiser Reinhard and Yang Wen Li in that battle, neither one will do or be tricked by such cheap tricks Fan Hyulick uses in that said battle. In other words, the first weakness of this anime is the same one that plagued Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion, which is the usage of lame tactics and mind tricks when compared to other thrillers like LoGH itself, Kaiji or Death Note.
The second weakness this anime has is the usage of romance element as the plot device to advance the story and develop Fan Hyulick’s character at the middle of the series. This is worse than the first weakness mentioned above because this will be hard to mitigate in subsequent seasons of this anime (while the first weakness above can still be fixed later). Using the death of Fan Hyulick’s love interest Lira Florenz to turn him against Tytania seems, well, too ordinary. I can even see that supposed plot-twist coming from several miles ahead. Compared to Yang Wen Li who fought for Free Planet Alliance purely because of his patriotism and idealogy for democracy, this makes Fan Hyulick seems ordinary indeed. Oh, by the way, the paragraph about Lira Florenz is a spoiler. If you haven’t watched the anime, you can always unread this paragraph later.
Character development for the massive amount of characters here are done very well and will prepare them for the future seasons that will come in the future (can I expect 100+ episodes here?). Fan Hyulick, the Four Dukes of Tytania, Tytania Clan Lord Ajman and Princess Lydia are just some outstanding and exciting characters that have been introduced to us first season viewers with plenty of promise in the future. I think there will be more major characters that will be introduced into this epic series in both sides in the future.
The ending is also done well and has smoothly paved the way into the second season (and third season and fourth season if the 26-episode schedule is used). I’ll definitely wait for it, unlike the recently started second season of Hayate no Gotoku that I will never watch (unless of course you pay me to do it).
One of the best voiced characters in this series.
Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is completely different than the one in LoGH, but that isn’t necessarily bad. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is that the characters in this anime are too shounen-like and very colorful. The designs in this anime will be at home in titles like Kyou Kara Maou, La Corda D’oro ~Primo Passo~ (also has second season that I will not watch unless you pay me) and Gravitation. This fact alone is the reason why my yaoi/shounen-ai loving sister likes this series when she will not even touch the more mature-looking LoGH. Lack of black hair in this futuristic anime is forgiven and this factor is definitely a positive point of this anime.
Voice Acting:-
Voice acting quality in this anime is uneven, some voice actors/actresses does their job well while others doesn’t. Fan Hyulick, Duke Idris Tytania and Princess Lydia are outstanding performers in this anime while the other three dukes and the Clan Lord, not so much.
Music:-
This anime excels greatly in this section. Great OST and OP/ED themes too, although it would be nice if we have more classical music like the ones performed in LoGH. Definitely a positive point of this anime.
Animation/Direction:-
For a 2008 anime, the animation in this anime can be atrocious sometimes. I can’t help but notice jerky animations even in normal scenes. CGI animations are done very well and far more fluid, but integration between 2D and 3D scenes is far from seamless, and can easily be seen in the space battles where the CGI is usually used.
The directing is flawless, but not spectacular. I expect improvements in this aspect in the future.
Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Wolf and Spice still reigns as the Anime of the Year 2008. The next installments of this anime should promise better thing though. Now I will proceed to watch this secret anime I have been talking about before…
Silly hologram kissing by one of the characters. No wonder why both of her sons will…
@sanjay
There are many other people who shared Liraa’s desire to see a Tytania-free world. But he listened to her and not others. Wonder why?
You have to take into account that Fan Hyulick himself doesn’t seem to really mind Tytania’s atrocities for a very considerable time after Battle of Cerberus, even when many other people (inclusive Lira too) disagree with him.
Nicely summed up; though I kinda disagree with you on one point. The reason Fan turned against Tytania was not because of Lira’s death but because of the reason she gave up her life for. She desired to see a world “without Tytania” which in short meant a world without the power hungry megalomaniacs.
BTW, looking forward to the next season [hope there is one…]