Youjo Senki

I won't mince words, this is a deeply irresponsible work. I wanted to see it through, but I dropped it after much deliberation.

Youjo Senki is the tale of an objectivist who is reborn as a child soldier in a imperial nation that is a mix of WWI and WWII era Germany geopolitics and military, but technology is supplanted with magic. The main character, who is renamed Tanya, is the picture of Japanese neoliberalism and the central "punchline" of the story is that her result-oriented pragmatism is instead seen as fierce patriotism and ideal military prowess by her superiors. Tanya has the foresight of extensive knowledge related to military procedure and uses this to amass countless accolades, hoping to secure a cushy desk job position in the rear guard (which is the neoliberal ideal.) Instead, the military brass in their fear and admiration continue to assign her to the front lines where she doesn't want to be. This initial formula was quite entertaining to me.

Unlike a majority of people who have been enamored by the WWII style German military outfits and believe this to be a celebration of the military might of the Nazis, its actually quite clear from interviews with the original LN author that is intended to be two things: 1) a manga that covers WWI history and military procedure, a market relatively untouched in Japan and 2) a satirical critique of war, religion and Tanya's underlying objectivism. The story makes clear that war is a terrible thing and the justifications the "pacifist" Tanya makes for her actions are in fact deeply hypocritical. Tanya believes her actions are simply to maximize efficiency and end the conflict as quickly as possible, when in reality, she becomes seen as a "devil" even by those within her own nation.

The issue, for me, stems with the execution of such a message. Beneath all the dense plot and attention to detail is a fairly stock standard isekai plot. Tanya is an all respects a very generic Mary Sue, with the ability to defeat entire squadrons and forces much more powerful than anyone else can handle by herself. She is armed with knowledge nobody else possesses, power that far eclipses anyone else, and also has divine intervention guiding her. The manga goes out of its way to establish a tense action story in each sortie, with Tanya rushing forward into explosive air battles. It is written almost like a shonen at its core, and as a result, Tanya is presented as the one to be rooting for. Whether inadvertent or not, she is increasingly built to be a sympathetic character which in turn assigns moral ambiguity to her actions. Even though what she is doing is clearly evil. Her actions are sociopathic to their core, and in any actual context she would be considered a war mongerer. All sympathy or moral ambiguity her actions may imply are simply projected onto her from the outside. Her inner monologues make it clear that war is simply an equation of human capital to her, and it doesn't matter as long as she comes out safe and on top. This would be a brilliant satire if the format for it wasn't so weak. Instead, you have people in reddits and on image boards praising the nazi loli for her epic war crimes, and much of the fault does lie in the delivery.

Maybe you think I'd be wrong to state that because Carlo Zen specifically made sure that the world he was building was not a fascist one- the Empire is one supposedly devoted to racial equality. Yet I cannot shake the fact that this is such a weak way to develop an anti-war and ultimately anti-capitalist critique. If you want to develop a satire, you develop a satire. If you want to develop an action adventure story, you develop an action adventure story. If you are going to develop both, you need to find a proper balance. Where Youjou Senki fails in its balance is that so much emphasis is weighed to the isekai action story that it becomes easy to forget what it is critiquing. The message is essentially eclipsed by a bunch of heroic looking figures in Nazi garb committing what are essentially war crimes.

Carlo Zen is admirable in his goals, but his execution is irresponsible. The final nail in the coffin for me was an entire chapter devoted to her committing an obvious war crime, that is followed with her monologuing to another sympathetic character that what they are doing actually saves lives and is justified. The way he goes ahead and presents these realities of war as morally ambiguous is already logically weak to me, but the fact he plays it straight and attempts to humanize the aggressors was borderline insulting. I would've a million times preferred her to just have the usual monologue about human capital. Instead what would be a powerful statement is marred by common isekai tropes and an attempt to present nuance where there doesn't need to be. To cap it off, this brutal war crime was preceded by a very generic anime battle. It robs the message. And its clear that it did because I see plenty of discussion where people attempt to justify this action by Tanya morally and pragmatically. This demonstrates a death of the author issue that I just don't feel comfortable reading.

To reiterate, its irresponsible. But not because of the author's intentions. Its because this medium is so weak for what he wants to accomplish. There is a popular saying: "there is no such thing as an anti-war film." Why is that? The spectacle, the action, the generic emotional arcs rob the central satire. The action in this series and the MC are clearly presented to be "cool." The author becomes so engrossed in telling a war story that he ends up softening his critique of war. In trying to present an anti war message, it fails because the isekai aspect glorifies it. Not my cup of tea.

While the fan-translation effort is fairly slow for this light novel, the pure quality of both the actual content and the translation effort is nothing short of stellar. To get a good idea on how Youjo Senki reads, take a read of the prologue and the first chapter. Those two chapters sum up exactly how it is going to read. The language and concepts used can be a bit difficult to read through which unfortunately makes the fan-translation difficult.

The knowledge of the author shines through and the plot is very well thought out. Normally, in light novels with the 'reincarnation' trope, the character makes the character seem intelligent by simply having them outsmart other characters or makes them flat out overpowered. In this case, the main character shows their intelligence through detailed, well thought out logical plans, interesting philosophy, and incredible application of high level military tactics.
While a bit of the plot leeches on some real world events, it is absolutely justified.

Overall, I absolutely recommend this light novel to anyone. While I am aware the reincarnation genre is very overdone, this one rightfully stands out and is very worth reading.

A very hardcore and concrete story among the vast amount of light novels which are 'sexually-polluted'.

This novel series is noteworthy for readers who have at least some interest in stories of wars and battles. The writer's comprehensive knowledge of war histories can be known through the detailed battle plans explained and the various examples of past battles quoted.

What makes this novel appealing to me is that the story has largely eliminated the popular 'naive' characteristic of most protagonists in other novel series. The realistic inclination of Tanya (Both male/female protagonist of this story) will be giving readers a feeling of fulfillment reading how she/he destroys the enemies without any hesitation.

ALL HAIL TANYA !

Having read all seven currently translated light novel books of Youjo Senki/Saga of Tanya the Evil, I feel confident enough to give you an idea of what you're getting into.

I've watched both the animation and the movie, as well as started reading the manga a few weeks ago.

!! I'll assume that most of you reading this have seen the Anime & Movie, and perhaps read the manga.

THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS ACCORDINGLY !!

Having said that, it'll bring me to the most important part about the novel in case you are interested:

Both the Anime and especially the Manga have a much bigger focus on action and if that is one of your necessities, chances are that you'll be bored by the novel. A large part of it is Tanya's internal monologues and going into detail over her plans, actions and general historical strategy & strategists (obligatory mention of Sun Tzu). You'll even have your fair share of economical concepts talked about. And of course coffee (not even joking, I stopped counting the amount of times Tanya was confessing her love of it, thanks Carlo Zen). Nonetheless the novel doesn't lose its sense of humor, which I really appreciate. For example, Tanya even mentions how she tries to add jokes to her conversations when speaking to her battalion, and sometimes fails miserably at it because they don't catch onto her sarcasm. It shows nicely how little empathy she really has, and how much of her interaction is what she thinks are social norms. Over time, she warms up to her battalion though, and I like to think she's developing some humanity.

A lot of the wickedness/edginess of her character isn't so emphasized in the novel (especially in comparison to the manga), and during the majority of the time, you will be witnessing her cold and opportunistic character over anything else. As mentioned in another review on here, a large part about her "evil" stems from her treating war as a clash of human capital. In her own mind, she is simply being efficient and expects everyone else to think the same way. So while in anime and manga she is portrayed as a maliciously evil (for example the pill bunker at the very beginning of the rhine front & her sadistic smile), the novel makes it quite apparent that she's just doing what she considers efficient. People want to die? Sure, she'll give them opportunity to die in a way so she isn't handicapped by it.

She quickly earns herself the reputation of a cruel warmonger because of the way she prioritizes efficiency over morality. This is motivated by her desire to get off the frontlines as fast as possible, ironically resulting in her being sent there over and over again. So whenever she gets an easy job, she beams with happiness and people around her think that she's thirsty for war, resulting in an even worse reputation. She's pretty much oblivious to this as well. It's why I find it misleading to actually call her a sadist.

Overall, I believe that Carlo Zen sort of lost sight of what he was trying to achieve with this novel. He wanted to make knowledge of WWI more appealing to the japanese, since it's not a well known subject in Japan, which I think he does a fair job of. On the other hand, he was trying to show the flaws of Fascism (with alter-germany), but their success makes this questionnable. And with Tanya, he wanted to have an unlikable main character, by whose suffering you were supposed to be amused. With her unconvential personality and Mary-Sue characteristic, I think he achieved the exact opposite, simply judging by her popularity alone.

tl;dr

the novel has a heavy emphasis on strategy, history and some economics at the cost of being less action oriented. Tanya's character is more fleshed out and less cartoon-ishly evil, as some scenes in the anime and manga might suggest.

Might also be worth mentioning that the novel and the anime have quite some differences in their story, which will be very apparent when reading it.
few examples: Anton Sue's death is during a mission which is not even covered in the anime. Neumann and König basically don't exist in the novel (at least up until book 7), only Grantz, Weiss and Visha are "main characters" of the Battalion. there's a lot more but you get the idea.


Personally, I very much enjoy the novel and am excited about the next book.


If you disagree about anything, or think I'm misrepresenting something, feel free to send me a message

"Kind Mr. Josef was worried.
The expectations of all who believed in him were weighing on his shoulders.
Thinking only of the people’s happiness, he thought it was time to work hard
at developing the Federation.
But…
Its citizens, spoiled by his kindness, only fell into decline.
How awful!
...
What in the world is this job?
The answer:
The environmentally friendly job of counting trees in Sildberia.
It was work that soothed the tired people’s hearts with the power of nature
and would surely protect the environment as well.
People could enjoy forest bathing while gazing up toward the clear starry sky
while spending their days devoted to this noble task.
It was truly labor by the people, for the people."


This is the funniest light novel I have read.
"But how can it be? This seems grim and edgy, not to mention political. It isn't even listed as a comedy."
But that is the point! The comedy is effective precisely because of the dark touch and powerful political satire.

Do you want to commit war crimes but don't want to end up convicted? Looting civilian property? Bombing population centers? Reducing local churches to piles of rubble? Don't worry; Tanya has you covered. She has come up with all kinds of outlandish legal excuses.

So here we are, "waving the flags of ethnicity" or not, witnessing how appealing to patriotism is the first and last resort of crooked politicians. When the protagonist is expressing her patriotism or religious beliefs, it is all lies. The communists have also sold out their beliefs, and God is a cruel tyrant. This is Cynic City, and the mayor is Carlo Zen, one of the wittiest, most sarcastic authors on the light novel scene.

He is also a hard worker, considering the outrageous level of technical, tactical, and conceptual detail in this. He won't settle for anything less than ultra-realistic warfare and relatively detailed philosophical arguments, by the standards of fiction, at least. The volumes in this are actually quite long and densely written. If you have seen the anime adaptation, it is pretty obvious that they had to cut an outrageous amount of content, both in plot events and internal monologue, to fit in the very minimal screen-time they were allotted. I am writing this review after reading 7 volumes, which have already provided a mountain of content.

I have some criticism though. Sometimes the technical details are explained in too much detail and at too great a length. Often I would have understood it with a briefer explanation. Some of the fight scenes also drag on a bit. More generally, sometimes the plot really should move along faster. I appreciate the attention to detail, but let's get the important events done as well. And there should be more tension between the various characters in their interactions. They too often agree with each other for the most part, or their motives are rather similar. This is especially true of the soldiers under Tanya's command. Oh, and Loria's crush on Tanya is unnecessary and does no favors for the narrative, even though it only pops up on rare occasions.

It is worth noting that Tanya often throws around terms like "the free market" and "the ideal market" even when they are not very relevant. For instance, if you support broad social liberties, it is not really a matter of economics, at least if taken literally. The same for opposing authoritarian governments. It is entirely possible to be authoritarian but still support relatively free markets economically. And, besides, Tanya constantly runs her comparisons between all-out communism and unconstrained capitalism. Most economic systems are between those extremes, and I have a hard time discerning which policies Tanya would support or object to in a more realistic situation. I realize that it has probably been done on purpose, to offer satirical critique of the inconsistencies within the protagonist's belief systems, and highlight that she is not alright in the head and not exactly the most virtuous person. After all, the English title is "The Saga of Tanya the Evil," not "The Saga of Tanya the Good."

If you have read isekai light novels, you may have noticed that many of them are borrowing ideas from each other. Where are all the copycats of this one? If you are going to draw inspiration from other authors, might as well go for this one. We need more light novels in which Stalin gets a phone call from heaven.

Story : 8
To be very frank, the story ( or more precise , the plot ) is not the best thing about this amazing masterpiece. If you know even a bit about both World Wars , you can certainly predict what major events will happen. That being said, following the story of Tanya, the author managed to make the dangerous , boring and often very fucked up life of a soldier exciting , or at the very least , interesting to see, which is an amazing achievement. It's even more interesting to see that the main character of this manga has a lot of interesting inner-thoughts and beliefs, plus , seeing things that had happened in the past unfold in front of us and we already knew what would happen, this showed quite a promising premiere that is done brilliantly . (That being said , the manga didn't include quite a lot of expositions from the LN , but the artist still cramped as much as he could , which is also an amazing achievement considering the original novel proves to be very detailed , thorough and comprehensive. ). If you are a history-buff like me, or are interested in warfare in general , this manga is a hidden gem among the saturated, quite honestly pure trash sea of poorly-made light novels . (Me also being very interested in the Axis Powers and wars that has happened in Europe alike in general also helped with coping with the sheer information this novel/manga has). Magic and religion is also playing a huge role in this manga , and the author has made very interesting things regarding those 2 subjects. (If i go any deeper, that would be spoilers but I do intend to keep these spoil-free).
Art : 10
BASED TOUJO CHIKA. This guy is freaking amazing . He has a highly-stylized that you can recognize from first glances , plus memorable facial expressions make his artstyle very noticeable , like a glittering gem at night. The gore-scenes , or fight-scenes in general, are done beautifully in a way that gives off an intense feeling of intimidation and daunt, while remaining extremely stylish and polished. I have nothing but praises for a talent like him.
Character : 10
Tanya (aka Best girl) : The main character stands out to me as exceedingly wonderful. She feels extremely humane and well, possible. It makes senses how her personalities would be forged into what they are now , considering her environment and circumstances. It feels like it could happen to anyone , given the right conditions , and that's frightening. It's frightening how she is so cold , calculating and selfish, yet remains likable, wise and (somewhat) kind to the people around her. The moral-ambiguous nature of her personalities are the products of what happened to her , and that's what makes her so great . War is hell, this manga shows it very well, it's reasonable that the main character, who faces life-and-death situations many times, would be an anti-hero , or at least not innocent. You either die with your moral in-tact , or try and survive with all you have. Tanya carefully controls her fate as a soldier through cunning planning, wisdom and experience of her past-life as a guidance through life. For me personally, the more I read about her , the more I think i know about her, the more less i actually know about her. It's amazing how real Tanya feels , and she's definitely one of my favourite fictional character ever.
Side-characters : There are varied of SCs here and there , and some of them, even with limited screentime, managed to grab my attention and become memorable while remain relevant to the story. It's quite amazing how I still remember about the non-commissioned officer who guarded Tanya's rifle and operation orb than I do about the main characters of most (dropped) light novels I've read, and he wasn't even that relevant to the story ! From the Brigadier , to the First Lieutenant when Tanya was transferred to the Western Front , every plot-relevant side-character have very unique yet realistic personalities that left you wondering if they are based off of real people. Once again , the author has outdone himself.
Enjoyment : 10 (Highly-subjective)
Like i mentioned before, if you are interested in history, especially 20th century European history, and 20th century warfare in general , this manga is the magnum opus of this era's LN , the Citizen Kane of LN and Manga. It takes on a more realistic, exposition-heavy style that not many LN does (or tries to do), and it's heartwarming to know that such a talented writer and artist decided to tackle this project and bring it to life. I'm very pleased with this manga as it turns out , coming from someone who read the novel and had an almost impossible expectation.
Overall : 10
The manga is marvelous, spectacular , and evidently the product of genius minds. Amazing writing , mindbogglingly beautiful art, a group of likable and memorable characters to compliment delightfully this masterpiece. I may sound pretentious now , but this series deserves nothing but praises. A must-read

Story: The story isn't overly amazing but its far from bad. The story is set in an alternate reality in World War 1, but it starts around 10 years after our own WW1 so instead of WW1 happening in the 1910's its in the 1920's. The weaponry and out fits are very WW1 looking with some changes, but the biggest changes is the use of magic. I'm not going into more detail because of spoilers but the first few chapters sum it up.

Art: The art is pretty damn good, its not Berserk or Uzumaki in terms of art but diffidently good.

Characters: Now the only real character you'll like is the MC and maybe Viktoriya but its pretty much a hit or miss depending on if you like the MC. If you like the MC you'll enjoy this Manga but if you dislike the MC you'll dislike this Manga.

Enjoyment: Personally I love this Manga. I love the WW1 theme, art style, and of course the MC.

Fun fact its possible and not unrealistic for the MC to be in the war. They said in the manga the empire is gender equal when it comes to soldiers and in our own history children as young as 13! where soldiers in WW1!So having an 11 year old girl in an gender equal society fighting WW1 isn't that out there.

Do you miss "Fullmetal Alchemist"? If so, I recommend giving "Youjo Senki" a try. Why do I say this? Keep on reading.

Both series' have a very similar vibe where the setting of the story is loosely based off history, and takes place during a time of devastating war. "Youjo Senki" and FMA share almost the same vibes due to the focus and the point of view that its told from; with "Youjo Senki" focusing even more on the events and the historical implication of those events, and FMA focusing more on the "magic". "Youjo Senki" is more like a documentary.

"Youjo Senki" is also a isekai story, but unlike alot of the ones that are coming out nowadays; it's much more enjoyable for a older audience. It has a lot of the classic isekai aspects like an OP MC winning all battles with information from the other world, or having some sort of attribute or ability granted to them for the purpose of making them special in their new world. In addition to being a well told serious story, the author finds appropriate places to inject some humor and it meshes nicely without disrupting the flow of the story.

Just like how FMA became a classic must read/watch, I think "Youjo Senki" will become one too, and I hope that you will give this series a read.