Legend of the galactic heroes blu-ray box set

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This is an astonishing and much overdue release for 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes'.

There are few anime as epic and involved as the Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Animated over the course of a decade, it was long regarded as the ultimate unreleased anime work outside of Japan. Well, we now have all of it on Blu-ray and it is thoroughly magnificent.

Starting as a series of novels by Yoshiki Tanaka at the beginning of the 80s, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes told the story of a galactic war far off in the future between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.

The layout of the galaxy is also a complex one, as the Empire and Alliance are split into two halves, with only two navigable corridors through space linking the two. One of the corridors is effectively run by the Dominion of Fezzan, which is technically part of the Empire, but actually has other motives and plays both sides off one another. The second corridor is owned by the Empire and protected by the giant Iserlohn Fortress.

This sprawling conflict has engulfed the galaxy and already lasted for centuries, but when the story starts things are beginning to shift. This is in part because of the brilliant strategists on either side of the conflict, that of Reinhard von Müsel from the Empire and Yang Wen Li from the Alliance.

With battles between the sides comprising of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of battleships, there are no means for a simple singular protagonist to resolve the war. The result is an incredibly complex and nuanced narrative populated by an actual army of varying characters and their political as well as personal allegiances.

The result is probably one of the most engaging anime ever made and makes for fascinating viewing.

This is where we get onto the length of the series and the how it came about. In that, back in the 80s, it was uncommon for anime to be based on novels. So while this was originally planned as TV series, they couldn’t get the backing to make it, so they produced an OVA instead.

Taking them nearly a decade to animate in its entirety, the original OVA covering the main novel series clocks in at an impressive 110 episodes. This may sound like nothing compared to some TV series, but this is an OVA, so has an entirely different business model, quality bar and other complexities of production.

The production itself was overseen by veteran director Noboru Ishiguro and featured mechanical designs for the spaceships by Naoyuki Kato, of Studio Nue fame, who also worked on the novels in terms of their illustration.

Not to mention, the daunting complexity of the narrative’s content meant that the Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA took forever to come Westward, but now it has and in quite a fair bit of style.

This particular boxset contains the 110 OVA series, 3 movies and the 52 episodes of the Gaiden OVA series across 26 Blu-ray discs. In short, that’s everything from the original release, though it obviously omits the newer Die Neue These remake.

Following that, you have two lenticular cards, two limited edition coins, a very helpful book that breaks down the whole anime and a huge box.

This boxset is nothing if not comprehensive and suitably hefty with it.

The book is also worth mentioning because it not only contains episode summaries, including musical credits, but also a very useful timeline. However, I had wished this set had come with a galactic map, as that would have been very useful to help newer viewers follow the scope of the conflict.

When it comes to the visual quality, while it is definitely better than the DVDs, it’s not as good as it could have been. This is partly because of the additional footage that was made later on, messing things up but generally, it’s not a shining example of what anime on Blu-ray has to offer.

That said, the movies and the Gaiden series are better on the visual front but the main series is what it is.

This is still a huge improvement over the original fansubs I saw all those years ago and again much better than the DVDs I picked up but considering the quality of other anime releases on Blu-ray, the main series could be better in a visual sense.

The aural side of things is much better though and does an incredible job of bringing this world to life. Moreover, the use of classical music throughout the series and movies is handled brilliantly in this regard.

As for the translation, the subtitles are definitely better than the fansubs of old and consistent with it, so this is thankfully covered well considering the complexity of the plot.

All of this brings me on to the price tag and whether it’s actually worth it.

While I will also disclose this at the end of the review, it’s fair to know that Sentai Filmworks sent me this boxset for the purposes of this review. However, I was already planning to buy this boxset at some point because I love the series so much.

Furthermore, I have already bought far more expensive Blu-ray boxsets in Japan with my own money on several occasions, so I know what that expenditure feels like.

With that in mind, I would still pick this set up, if only for the fact it covers the entirety of the original series, movies and spin-offs (except the newer remake, as I explained earlier).

Overall then, this is a remarkable anime and one that I can thoroughly recommend. The price tag for this boxset is certainly not for the faint of heart, but it is worth it. This is a rare series in how it was made and what it brings to life. That alone makes it special and something you should pick up if you can. If only to see enormous space battles accompanied by music such as Maurice Ravel’s Boléro.

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Limited Edition Blu-ray boxset is available from Sentai Filmworks.

Disclosure: Sentai Filmworks sent me this boxset for the purposes of this review.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.

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