WARNING SPOILERS.
Intro to the series -
Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Galactic-Heroes-These-Season/dp/B07PFY91MZ
Hi. Some time ago I boasted on my fan page that I bought the first 3 volumes (the whole is 10) of books, on the basis of which two anime were created - "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" (+ OAVs, etc. that are part of it) and two seasons of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These". While the first one is outdated, DNT is both one of my favorite fairy tales and the best I have ever seen.
However, I had to wait sometime to feel like starting my books. I was also a little afraid that the English language might be too much for me and I would have to consult the online dictionary too often to understand the meaning of some words. My fears were rather unfounded because most things are quite easy to understand from the context, and while reading Chapter 1 I only had to consult a google translator twice. My English is average, but at the same time good enough to enjoy relatively easy reading. I plan to read 1 chapter a day.
I read the prologue about two weeks ago and spent about an hour in Chapter 1. Both series almost omitted the prologue, which introduces us to cosmic geopolitics and the historical context. I don't want to lie, but they probably spent a few minutes on it, while in the book we have quite a lot of information about the creation of the Galactic Empire, the first Emperor Rudolf von Goldenbaum, and the genesis of the Free Planets Alliance. The author explained in detail how Rudolf achieved his position and won the support of the people, and what his rule looked like.
TL; dr version - The Emperor was a large and ruthless man with a steel character who completely fucked up space pirates. His dictatorial rule looked like an amalgam of the totalitarian regimes known to us - the sterilization of citizens he deemed subhuman, total surveillance of society, catching political opponents and those who dared to criticize his "miraculous regime" for a forced vacation in which they were tortured for all sorts of ways, were broken physically and mentally and killed. Generally, during his reign, it was said that when the police caught you, you didn't come out alive. And he also had his nobility who, in order to emphasize their superiority over commoners, gave themselves names similar to the German aristocracy. Returning to sterilization for a moment, I laughed out loud as Mr. Tanaka sarcastically laughed at the Emperor about his four daughters and a son born with serious defects. The fate of his concubine and medical staff who witnessed his "heritage" was no longer funny, but it summed up his approach well.
There are also a few elements missing, such as the topic of cloning people, robots serving as policemen and other law enforcement agencies. Maybe there are still some larger deviations, but so far Die Neue These very faithfully reflects the atmosphere of the book and the characters of the characters. Reinhard is a brash but eminently gifted commander with giant cojones, so he can be forgiven for being arrogant. His relationship with Kircheis as well as the redhead's character is also very consistent with what is shown in the anime. Yang Wenlie's story is slightly more developed, we learn more about his childhood and the development of his military career. The anime only mentions most of these things with a few sentences, and here we get a broader context and a more detailed description.
The first chapter was very well translated into the movie, almost everything I read was presented the same in the anime.
