Much of Li’s brilliance, by his own admission, is simply learning the lessons of history and using them against his enemies. His greatest desire is to leave the military and become a historian, but events increasingly make that impossible as he finds his career skyrocketing in spite of himself. Li is an accidental military commander, who joined the military academy primarily to fund his education in history. He then proceeds to use brilliant tactics to save a substantial portion of the Alliance fleet, frustrating Lohengramm from having a complete victory. When in the course of battle, that leadership is killed or injured, Li finds himself in charge. In the initial battle, he’s a Commodore that urges the Alliance leadership to use different tactics, but is ignored. The other is Yang Wen Li, an officer in the Alliance fleet. Lohengramm sees the corruption in the empire and dreams of replacing it with something better, with himself on top. In the opening episodes, we see his capabilities as he devastates an Alliance fleet in battle. Reinhard von Lohengramm is a noble in the empire who, in the beginning, is a rising star in the imperial fleet.

The story focuses around two military geniuses, one in the Empire and the other in the Alliance. This last faction plays a relatively minor role in the first two seasons, but that role appears to be expanding. Some members of that society also appear to be associated with a religious movement to return humanity back to Earth. There is a third power, the Phezzan Dominion, a merchant society that trades with both the Empire and the Alliance, as well as manipulating the politics in both to preserve the war for their own profit. It resembles our modern day society, including many its problems: corruption, blinkered politicians, and a military which isn’t always competent. The second is the Free Planets Alliance, a society formed from a rebellion in the empire whose members migrated out and established their own government. In fact, the names of characters and institutions appear to be German. The society resembles 19th century Germany. One is the Galactic Empire, a 500 year old aristocratic institution that considers itself the only legitimate government of humanity. Humanity has become divided into three interstellar societies. This series is a remake of an older anime series which itself was an adaptation of a series of novels and short stories by Yoshiki Tanaka. The second part of the title means “The New Thesis”. I just recently finished the second season of Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These.

Legends of the galactic heroes remake