English Dub Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, “Amritsar”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The Alliance musters their little remaining forces and makes their last stand in their invasion of the Empire. Following this battle, big changes begin to occur on both sides.  

Our Take

The end of the first season left us off right in the middle of a pretty important big battle. The first episode of the second season picks right back up and decisively finishes it for us. 

We’re immediately reintroduced to all of the key commanders in this battle. Those who have watched the first season know what this means; a tirade of on-screen subtitles labeling every character. Since we’re coming back from a break it’s probably very helpful here, but this definitely won’t be the last we see of it. The show clearly showed a fetish for it in the first season, as is typical of a lot of anime that feature armies and big weapons. 

The meat of this episode’s content is fairly familiar ground. The incompetence of those in charge in the Alliance has put their navy in a life or death situation, wherein Yang is made to bail them out. But with the presence of the entirety of the Empire’s deployed ships spices things up a little bit. Here we get to see a little bit of what we haven’t seen since the beginning of the show; Yang vs Reinhard.

Unfortunately for Reinhard, one of his commanders becomes impatient, flubs their formation, and allows the Alliance to escape. As a result, we witness something Reinhard has yet to display; real, physical danger. It’s only brief, as Kircheis is the one to discover and quell it, but we get to see a small moment where Reinhard is genuinely upset with himself. This adds another wrinkle to his character arc, small though it may be. Reinhard is one of the more complex characters in the show, as he has the grandest goal to achieve. The road ahead for him is long and hard, and this will most likely not be the last time we see his temper bend.

The last portion of the episode covers a lot very quickly, but it’s very significant. The complete restructuring of the Alliance navy shuffles around and even removes a bunch of the characters we had gotten to know up until now. 

Yang’s relocating to Iserlohn is particularly significant, especially with Julian in tow. This will essentially shift the primary setting for the Alliance perspective to Iserlohn, right in front of the door to the Empire. Yang is placed in a considerably more dangerous location, but also one where he might be able to get what he wants. Now that he’s essentially the gatekeeper between the Alliance and the Empire, perhaps he will find more success in getting the navy to assert the peaceful, defensive position he wants to take.

There are large winds of change blowing on both sides of this war. Anticipation is very high now, and what happens next will likely be formative in how the rest of the second season plays out.