"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.