'Saga of Tanya the Evil' tells the story of Tanya Degurechaff, an orphan girl in what is very obviously Imperial Germany ("The Empire") during the onset of the First World War. However, Tanya is the reincarnation of a high-ranked business man in modern-day Tokyo, whose faithless atheism brought her/him to the attention of the god-like "Being X". In the alternate universe she has been reincarnated in, Tanya has the ability to use the magical technology the Empire uses to help fight the War. She tries to survive the War and reject Being X, who tries to force her into accepting him as her God.
The spiritual backstory is only used for the premise and to, at times, advance the plot; the main focus of the series is clearly Tanya's role as a military commander. The military side of the anime is indeed very well developed; especially in the later episodes, the strategic considerations of the writers are thoughtfully developed. This is the greatest strength of 'Saga of Tanya the Evil'.
Personally, I found the protagonist difficult to like, however. Usually I'm very much in favour of the more rational and pragmatic characters, yet Tanya has few redeeming qualities, often committing atrocities that are not considered war crimes only because of loopholes in international law. Her fight against 'Being X' may be interesting, but it is pretty much only achievable through subjugating the entire world under Imperial (German) rule. And, well, I find it pretty difficult to root for that.
The other characters are barely worth mentioning. There are a few Generals that feature recurrently, but the characters immediately surrounding Tanya are so thinly characterised that I can't remember the name of even a single one.
She show does a reasonably good job of showcasing the horrors of the First World War without turning it into a moralising and joyless slog (though, honestly, I'm not all that comfortable with how WW1 is glorified at times).
While I'm not a friend of the art style (I believe the developers tried to make their characters look European?), the animations are very well done. Aerial battles are especially gorgeous to look at, and clouds often have that "Renaissance painting" style to them. Similarly, the overall production is well-made, and the (English) voice acting is pretty good.
Nevertheless, personally I liked neither the characters nor the overall story, but I have to admit that I'm not much of a friend of the genre. If you do like media featuring the First World War (or warfare in general) and don't mind the addition of magical technology, you'll probably enjoy the series much more than I did.
What I found quite funny is that the series gives the disclaimer that all characters, places, etc. Are fictional and no parallels to existing places are intended, and then show you a map of what is clearly Europe with a (German) Empire, a (French) Republic, a (British) Kingdom, and a (Russian) Federation. And the capitals of those places are, for example, Berun, Parisee, and Londinium. And there even is a U. S. Army. All perfectly fictional, of course.
The spiritual backstory is only used for the premise and to, at times, advance the plot; the main focus of the series is clearly Tanya's role as a military commander. The military side of the anime is indeed very well developed; especially in the later episodes, the strategic considerations of the writers are thoughtfully developed. This is the greatest strength of 'Saga of Tanya the Evil'.
Personally, I found the protagonist difficult to like, however. Usually I'm very much in favour of the more rational and pragmatic characters, yet Tanya has few redeeming qualities, often committing atrocities that are not considered war crimes only because of loopholes in international law. Her fight against 'Being X' may be interesting, but it is pretty much only achievable through subjugating the entire world under Imperial (German) rule. And, well, I find it pretty difficult to root for that.
The other characters are barely worth mentioning. There are a few Generals that feature recurrently, but the characters immediately surrounding Tanya are so thinly characterised that I can't remember the name of even a single one.
She show does a reasonably good job of showcasing the horrors of the First World War without turning it into a moralising and joyless slog (though, honestly, I'm not all that comfortable with how WW1 is glorified at times).
While I'm not a friend of the art style (I believe the developers tried to make their characters look European?), the animations are very well done. Aerial battles are especially gorgeous to look at, and clouds often have that "Renaissance painting" style to them. Similarly, the overall production is well-made, and the (English) voice acting is pretty good.
Nevertheless, personally I liked neither the characters nor the overall story, but I have to admit that I'm not much of a friend of the genre. If you do like media featuring the First World War (or warfare in general) and don't mind the addition of magical technology, you'll probably enjoy the series much more than I did.
What I found quite funny is that the series gives the disclaimer that all characters, places, etc. Are fictional and no parallels to existing places are intended, and then show you a map of what is clearly Europe with a (German) Empire, a (French) Republic, a (British) Kingdom, and a (Russian) Federation. And the capitals of those places are, for example, Berun, Parisee, and Londinium. And there even is a U. S. Army. All perfectly fictional, of course.