Last year’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These was a bit of a surprise. The original Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of animes’ most highly praised but also monstrous undertakings. The original OVA series, based on Yoshiki Tanaka’s series of 1970s sci-fi novels, had 110 episodes that released over the span of 9 years. There’s also additional OVA series that ran for 24 and 28 episodes each, not to mention the series 3 films. People who have made it through all of it adore LOGH but it’s daunting to be sure. That’s one reason why the series received the Die Neue These remake; the new series aims to be a more succinct, true to the novel, slightly truncated version of events. Its upcoming season two? A series of three films.
Die Nueue These translates to the new thesis. The first season of the new Legend Of The Galactic Heroes had the subtitle ‘Kaiko’ which means stars crossed. The ‘second season’ of Legend Of The Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These has the subtitle ‘Seiran’ or stellar war. The three films will actually all come out this year, releasing September 27, October 25, and November 29. They’ll roughly be the length of four TV anime episodes each. Why they’re going the theater route? Who knows, but it’ll be fun to see the series’ classic space battles on the big screen.
If you’re unfamiliar with the LOGH as a whole, it’s a lot of space battleships fighting space battleships. The series revolves around two strategists who rise through the ranks of opposing militaries. You have the young and charismatic Reinhold von Lohengramm of the autocratic Galactic Federation. Opposite him, there’s the slightly more mature and composed Yang Wen-li of the budding Free Galaxy Alliance, a democracy. Unlike a Mobile Suit Gundam where character arcs and political minutia are as important as the fighting, fans tend to really get into the minutia of the war games in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I, for one, am a Yang fan.
You can watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These on Crunchyroll and Funimation. The new films will hit Japanese theaters this fall.