「不敗の魔術師」 (Fuhai no majutsu-shi)
“The Unbeatable Magician”

With the veritable hell that is known as university exam period now over (finally) for yours truly, kick back and relax is the name of game, and there’s no better vicarious way than through the likes of Yang Wenli. With Reinhardt’s past largely revealed, LotGH turns to its other easygoing half this week, fleshing out the backstory of our lazy historian and showing in more than one way how deep the philosophical rabbit holes here goes. It may have only scratched the surface of some important prior events (ex. El Facil), but the information we got more than did the trick.

Although arguably evident before, Yang Wenli is about as far removed from Reinhardt’s personality as you can get. He’s soft spoken, has no real care in the world, and sees any extra duty as painful trouble best left alone. He is, as Jessica Edwards so succinctly describes, a man glued firmly to the rear view mirror, loving history for its sake alone and determined to make a career out of that passion. Funny how life (as it usually does) has other plans in mind, turning the wannabe academic into one of the FPA’s rising military stars—even if Yang cannot fully see it himself yet. The guy is simply one to roll with the punches, and it is this attitude that in part makes him so damn lovable. There’s no apparent fear, no worry in Yang, he simply does what he does (and does it very well mind you) and sees what life brings next. For his life of late, that usually means nothing entirely expected, as the death of one close friend in the first two episodes poignantly highlights.

Beyond simple attitude though Yang’s unique presence stems from his philosophical mindset. We got a lot of snippets to showcase the fact, from the remarks on social responsibility and blame to his belief about the dangers of rigid opinions, and even the unvoiced indications of thinking outside the box by attacking enemy supply lines. These comments, whether you agree or disagree with them—and they are all open for debate—do more than simply set up Yang as the egalitarian foil to Reinhardt, they also develop one half of the ideals which will soon clash spectacularly in this story. Much like Reinhardt, Yang is at the mercy of incompetent leaders and ossified institutions, he knows what’s needed or what he wants, but is thwarted by superiors selfishly looking out for their own interests. How both these titular characters come to deal with their respective systems and these leaders will show how government and social contract can be approached in many different ways, each (depending on circumstances) just as viable as the next—the key takeaway from LotGH as a whole. We know how Reinhardt intends on doing away with the corrupted detritus ruling the Empire for example (by seizing power), but Yang’s future way of dealing with the FPA and its own intricacies involves something different. What it is will be seen in good time, but right now just remember the mention of the FPA’s military orphan program. Yang might have seemed unfazed by its suggestion, but as one person will quickly prove, it’s going to have a bigger impact on his life than he originally thought possible.

LotGH may have only fleshed out the past thus far, but with the gears now all properly aligned, it’s time for some serious fireworks. Don’t go far boys and girls, the real fun (and war) begins now.

 

Preview

19 Comments

  1. Very satisfied with this episode. While i’m glad they went into Yang’s history, i’m just said they didn’t add the part of why he and his father went into space after his mother died and about his father’s collections, which is why he didn’t have anything when he signed up for military.

    Anyway, they did a great job introducing Jessica, Alex, Jean and even Show Spoiler ▼

    plus Julian whose story will probably continue in the next episode.

    I’m glad they put El Facil in this episode as well.

    Well, looks like next episode is Yang as well, unless they decide to switch between the POVs.

    ephemeralred
    1. They’re doing a fantastic job with all the relevant backstories IMO, everything is expedited (as to be expected), but enough of the info is preserved to get the intent and message across. Next episode should prove interesting for this too as there’s a good deal of FPA politics that has to be talked about for the upcoming battles to make sense—I’m really curious seeing how well that’s handled. Unless they switch POV as you mention of course 😛

      1. yes, they are doing it so well. Most likely they are gonna finish with Julian’s flashback around the half of the episode and then just go fast forward to the point with 13th fleet.
        I do hope they adapt how Julian ended up with no one in his family (as was told in Gaiden books)

        ephemeralred
  2. The episode was very good, almost excelent but I have a few issues:

    -> How many time did pass between the El Facil Battle and the arrive of Show Spoiler ▼

    ? Because I thought that Show Spoiler ▼

    was too too too young.
    -> After the facile Yang was promoted two ranks. From lieutenant junior to rearadmiral!!?? X( What type of ranks have the Alliance? I watched it from Horriblesubs, so it could be a problem with the translation.

    The only thing that I can complain about the episode quality, is the strange face that Yang Wen-li when he is talking with her father. By the way, I think that they didn’t show him in the old OVAs.
    I love Show Spoiler ▼

    design. Show Spoiler ▼

    look better and younger than in the OVAs.

    BUT, and it’s a big but, that wasn’t supposed to be a remake… And it seems that it’s going to be.

    Kinai
    1. Allow me clarify your questions.

      Firstly, 6 years should have elapsed between the Evacuation of El Facil and the arrival of [spoiler] (specifically, 788 UC to 794 UC).

      Secondly, it was a subtitle error. Yang was promoted from Sub-lieutenant to Lieutenant, then Lieutenant Commander shortly afterwards. The mistake was probably made because Lieutenant Commander (少佐, shousa) sounds like Rear Admiral (少将, shoushou) in Japanese.

      Thirdly, I think you have mistaken the character Yang was talking to in El Facil. Show Spoiler ▼

      Glacierfairy
  3. They kinda handwave what he did in El Facil, which gets a full episode in the OVA prequel, but get the gist of having the fleeing Garrison Fleet being the decoy which allows for the civilian vessels to get away from.

    The Crunchyroll translation did a major screw up in the ranks in this week’s episode. Yang got promoted from Lt Jr. (O2) to Lt (O3) in the morning and onto Lt Cmdr (O4) in the afternoon. It’s easy to confused the Japanese rank for Lt. Cmdr and Rear Admiral (O8), so they accidentally mention that’s the rank Yang got promoted to in the afternoon.

    BigFire
    1. Yeah. I said that in my post, but it is waiting for moderation. I don’t know why… ¬¬

      Anyway:
      Lieutenant junior grade (OF-1) -> 海軍中尉 Kaigun-chūi
      Lieutenant (OF-2) -> 海軍大尉 Kaigun-daii
      Lieutenant-commander (OF-3) -> 海軍少佐 Kaigun-shōsa
      and:
      Rear-admiral (OF-7) -> 海軍少将 Kaigun-shōshō

      By the way, Kaigun (海軍) is navy.

      Kinai
  4. note that both his defeat of academys top student and Reinhard when they used space equivalent of the wedge formation – and in both cases his actions were variants of Hannibal great tactics at Cannae!

    ewok40k
    1. You’re not the only one, that’s where the show went from interesting to awesome for me as well. Does make me wonder how much of that part we’ll see though, especially in terms of the battleaxe bloodshed 😛

      1. I was introduced to the original about 6 years ago. A friend had already seen it and had me and a few others watch the first 10 episodes during a weekend get-together. One guy and his wife had fallen asleep on the couch by episode 3, but I was still a little interested since I liked reading space opera style books. “Wait until the Rosen Ritter show up” was what kept me watching, and boy was I rewarded. Even the two sleepy heads woke up and binge-watched the rest of the series on their own over the course of the following week.

        anon234
  5. SO i had a little fun on tumblr and made character age sheet based on battle of Astarte (796) with multiply refences as sources and ended up with this, mostly because people keep complaining everyone looks around the same age. Fact is, the only ones that looked 40+ in the previous OVA and were 32 and bellow were Reuenthal, Mittermeier and Schönkopf.

    ALLIANCE: BIRTHDAYS
    Yang Wen-li: 29 – 04.04.767
    Julian Mintz: 14 – 25.03.782
    Frederica Greenhill: 22 – 19.02.774 (in 788 she was 14)
    Katerose von Kreutzer: 12 – 784 (point of appearance, 15 years old)
    Oliver Poplin: <=26(younger than 29 in 799)
    Walter von Schönkopf: 32 – 28.07.764 – (770 he was 6)
    Dusty Attenborough: 27 – 23.11.769
    Alex Caselnes: 35 – 01.05.761
    GALACTIC EMPIRE: BIRTHDAYS
    Reinhard von Lohengramm: 20 – 14.03.776
    Siegfried Kircheis: 21 – 14.01.776
    Annerose von Grunewald: 25 – 26.06.771 (five years older than Reinhard)
    Hildegard von Mariendorf: 19 – 777 (was 20 in 797)
    Neithardt Muller: 25
    Oskar von Reuenthal: 29 – 26.10.767
    Paul von Oberstein: 35 – 05.05.761
    Wolfgang Mittermeier: 27 – 30.08.769

    ephemeralred
    1. Okay, maybe not Mittermeier & Reuentahl, but they certainly did look as if they had 35+
      my opinion of course

      if anyone thinks i made a mistake somewhere, please tell me 😛

      ephemeralred

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