gamekingchris Review of Saga of Tanya the Evil

Saga of Tanya the Evil (2017– )

Saga of Tanya the Evil - A little girl to spite god creates the best historical military anime ever

[10/10 · 10 March 2021]

"In a world with advanced Science where one's needs are met, there will be no faith". The existence of god and faith in our creator, or the lack of, is the underlying foundation of the anime. Tanya Degurechaff fundamentally rejects the idea of god, originally living as a salaryman in 2013, who is a rationalist, putting rules and personal prosperity over morals and empathy, was killed by a man who he had laid of. Just before he would die, time was stopped and he was confronted by god, or as Tanya would call him Being X. Being X decided, that because of the statement he made during the encounter (The quote at the beginning), that by putting him in a world, that is engulfed by the flames of war, where a peaceful life seems impossible, he would start believing. And so he was reincarnated as a little girl called Tanya von Degurechaff, abandoned by her mother and growing up in an orphanage, without any options to live a peaceful life. The world she was placed in, is an alternate version of early 1900's europe, just in the time before the great war would break out, where some people are able to use magic. Tanya had no options other than going to the military, there it was determined, that she had a high magic aptitude, and so Tanya would join the military at the young age of 9 years old. Tanya is very intelligent and is a good schemer, that's efficient at what she was doing and was ruthless in achieving her goals, so it was easy for her to climb the ranks all the way to second Lieutenant, as well as attaining the silver wings medal. But soon she had her first encounter with Being X in this new world. He made it so in order to fight, she would be forced to pray, allowing her to receive great power from the experimental computation jewel, that was blessed by Being X. That way Being X hoped, she would eventually start believing. After that Tanya transferred to the Rhine front, a brutal front, where like WW1, people would be consumed as resources. There she would receive the title of "The Devil of the Rhine". The first episode immediately jumps into a scene, where Tanya is fighting at the Rhine front. This is to serve for world building as well as a character exposition, the best one i have seen in my life. Tanya's powers are put on display right of the bat, where we see her absolutely destroying an enemy company of mages. Here we can also see the horrible and brutal conditions on the Rhine front. The second episode meanwhile serves to give us the backstory of her life as a salaryman, as well as introducing her twisted and ruthless personality. Out of any anime i've watched, this has to be the best introduction of the protagonist. It gives us an amazing understanding of her abilities and personality, on top of that we are given a great introduction into this new world, as well as the reason for her reincarnation into it. Tanya's character is of course the definition of gap moe, whilst looking like a sweet and innocent child, she has a personality, that even the devil would be afraid of. Over the entirety of the series, this character is built up on, there never are any moments, when she seems out of character, it's incredibly well executed. Aside from the characters, this is one, if not the best, military anime i've seen. The level of realism in command structure and engagements, as well as the amazing job they've done, capturing the madness of war, is exceptional. As a person, who loves military anime, this is an amazing experience. There are so many anime, where the logic just doesn't make sense, this is especially bad with military anime, but in here, none of that is the case. The story is so well executed it's scary, pretty much all logic used by Tanya and strategic HQ, makes sense. The way characters act is pretty much life like. And if that isn't enough, the visuals of this anime are stunning, they really make the story immersive. The soundtrack is also used perfectly to add on the atmosphere of the show, it gives you chills whenever major is happening. Saga of Tanya the evil is rightfully one of my favourite shows ever, i would never regret watching it 3 times already, and now that i wrote this review, i really want to watch it again. I can only recommend this anime, especially if you love military or historical anime, this is probably the best one you can watch.