More people should watch Legend of Galactic Heroes

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > More people should watch Legend of Galactic Heroes

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I downloaded four episodes of this about a year and half ago, but I never got around to watching it because I was discouraged to get into it because a). that torrent of four episodes took about a week to complete and b). I would want the rest of the series completed, and I think someone told me then that there were like 500 episodes or something crazy like that. But, at least now I know that CA is the sub group of choice...so I guess I can give it another try.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2005 20:58

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 14:56

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Finally started watching it; very awesome so far (3 episodes or in).

However, the CA 20-24 episode torrent seems to not want to work for me, while all the other CA torrents seem to be working. It's not a problem right now, but when I get up to 20 you can bet I'll be screaming.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2005 00:36

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Can anyone seed the 49-52 batch? 9 leechers, 0 seeds, 95.4% complete :gonk:

I really need to catch up, though a part of me wants to wait until CA is totally finished.

EDIT: Appears 53-56 needs seeding too, but I just jumped on that so maybe some will show up...I love CA but they need to seed their older torrents more :argh:

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Jun 16, 2006

# ¿ Jun 16, 2006 11:53

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I just finished watching 110. I had started episode 1 sometime last week. Needless to say, the ride has been long, tiring, yet fulfilling.

This was probably the best anime I have ever seen.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2007 02:00

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Tir McDohl posted:

Welcome to the club.

Unsure if I'd say it was the best, but definitely one of the best for me.

It's strange. I guess it's just because I have no real precedent to compare LOGH against. The closest equivalent in anime that I can think of is the Crest/Banner of the Stars series, and while I mean no disrespect to it (I happen to be a big "Stars" fan), even it doesn't even begin to scratch the grandeur that was LOGH.

Regardless, a part of me feels guilty for not exploring the series sooner. Maybe it's because of folks like me, who wanted to wait until the series was fully subtitled, that this thread was stagnated. But honestly, I think it was worth it. It would have killed me waiting for new episodes. Although I may have burned through it too fast, the experience felt that much closer. History waits for no one, afterall. In that manner, I think the ending was perfect.

What I give the most credit to LOGH for is how it so skillfully crafted both sides. Whether it was Yang or Reinhard, their trials and tribulations felt so personal. I truly did not want to see either lose, which in of itself was probably one of the lessons the series wished to teach. However, there was of course a need to have some sort of central villain for the two sides, so the existence of the Terraists while necessary felt like the weakest link of the story. But I don't really mean that in a negative manner.

Also, Kesler completely won me over as my favorite character by the end. Even Oberstein I felt a certain sense of sympathy for. You could tell just how self-destructive he was for the sake of the Dynasty. I don't think there was anyone I hated; only those that I loved :patriot:

# ¿ Aug 26, 2007 02:18

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I definitely support a new LOGH thread with banners and poo poo. People need to watch this show. And now that it's finished there's no longer any excuse really.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2007 16:26

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Yeah, after I saw the torrent link float around I was going to go in and post about how dumb it was to encode h.264 in an avi. I love you CA but seriously what?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2007 21:07

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Komrade Hitlerstalin posted:

If there is only one MP3 audio track and hard subs then what's the point of using something else? The video stream data itself is identical. If it offends you just re-mux it to MKV yourself.

The avi container is flawed and archaic, and using newer codecs like h.264 only serve to force players to utilize hacks to get around the format's inability to do certain things like B-Frames.

It's fine for XviD more or less (though, again, for that hacks are still required), but it's just silly if you're encoding from a DVD source in h.264 to throw it in a container like avi.

CA's insistence on using hardsubs is their own prerogative, but it's not like the files originally started out that way. So why should the h.264 counterpart be forced to adhere to the standards they set for their XviD releases? I agree that using a mkv format with no softsubs is silly but there's no reason CA couldn't do that just because they haven't so far in any of their releases.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2007 12:34

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Amante posted:

Heard good things about this series, thinking of picking it up.

Should I just jump right to the 110 episode OVA series? Do any of the movies or other OVAs contribute anything? Are they best watched before the series, after it, not at all?

Lastly, Central Anime does it the best?

Thanks in advance for tolerating the newbish questions.

CA is the only group that's fansubbed the complete series, except maybe some bootleg DVDs or something if I recall.

Watch the 110 episode series, it's the main story. Then follow up with the movies and other OVAs as they are released (so far just the first movie and the first episode of the 52 episode prequel OVA are out).

# ¿ Sep 5, 2007 15:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Yeah, there are basically four seasons with about 25-26 episodes each. You'll see the OP change from time to time.

But I'll tell you right now, if you're watching the series in bunches, your will power to stop at any of this points is going to have to be pretty strong

# ¿ Dec 2, 2007 01:03

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Funny Bunny posted:

The filesizes are a bit larger than usual this time, because, as stated by Heibi2 on their forums, they are messing with the filesizes a bit for better quality.

Still using avi for h.264 though

# ¿ May 9, 2008 18:09

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

That FUCKER Obama posted:

Who cares? Any player worth using will play it back identically.

It's simply a dumb encoding choice. You have to go fairly out of your way to encode h.264 in avi, and by doing so you're only making things difficult on yourself because avi cannot handle just about all of the functionality of h.264 that makes it superior to XviD in the first place, such as B frames. It increases overhead and reduces compressibility, making the resulting file possibly bigger than if it were in a proper container. As forplayback, DirectShow likely wouldn't have any problems, but it's also very possible to get funky results on other players. It's unreliable and not worth the trouble, especially when it's a whole lot easier to start out with mkv or mp4 right from the start.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 08:41 on May 10, 2008

# ¿ May 10, 2008 08:37

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

That FUCKER Obama posted:

Xvid uses B-frames, by the way, in AVI and otherwise. I don't know where you got your talking points.

I was under the impression that XviD suffered from the same problems (E: since both XviD and h.264 are part of the MPEG-4 standard), with the issue more pronounced in h.264. The avi container is pretty outdated for many of the codecs it is often used with.

Regardless, it's just unnecessary, and so easy from the encoding side of things to fix.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 00:57 on May 11, 2008

# ¿ May 11, 2008 00:07

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Reuenthal is the obvious choice, even though he had an end that should not have been.

Was Kesler technically an admiral? I know he was in charge of the Military Police, but I can't recall his actual rank. He won me over during the fire rescue.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2008 06:05

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I approve! We should just make a new thread while we're at it. The first post, while informative, lacks images and such.

SaxPenguin posted:

My school's security software cuts off internet access if you run a BitTorrent client, does Central Anime have their subs on an IRC channel or something? I've seen the first few episodes before and now suddenly have an urge to watch the whole thing.

Pretty sure they don't, unfortunately.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2008 15:01

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

flamechocobo posted:

They DO have a website, and I'm asking them if I can post DDL uploads of their subs for people who can't use torrents. I don't think anyone should miss this show (and I'm not even very far in).

It's up to Zorak, but if you're willing to host them yourself that's mighty generous of you. But, how in the world would you have the bandwidth to host 110+ episodes?

# ¿ Sep 4, 2008 00:36

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Slaryn posted:

Does this show get any better than the first 13 episodes? If not I think I should bow out before watching another 100 episodes... it's cool but not really my thing. I feel like I'm watching Tora Tora Tora

By its nature, LOGH is a story that prides itself on constantly upon its conflicts and developments to give a true "epic" feel to its progression. The pacing, themes, and general makeup of the story however is largely the same. If you haven't grown to like it a few episodes in, then I'm not sure that opinion would change later on. It'd be a shame, though.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2008 19:45

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

You want to watch the original OVA series first, which is the main story. It's 110 episodes long. Everything else essentially complements that story and is meant to be watched afterwards. It's been completely subbed by CA.

After that there are two more OVA series, one of which is 24 episodes while the other is 28 episodes (for a total of 52 episodes). These are prequel stories that take place before the main story. They're the "Gaiden" episodes you'll see in CA's tracker. The first set of Gaiden episodes (which totals 24: Gaiden 1-3 are 4 eps each, and Gaiden 4 is 12 eps) has also been completely subbed by CA. The second OVA set, which is 28 episodes long, is currently being subbed by CA and as of now is incomplete.

You also have a LOGH movie set just about right before the main series. You can actually probably watch this before or after the main series, I don't think it'd really matter. It's literally so close to the first episode timeline-wise that I think it'd all flow together nicely, even though I watched the movie after the series.

In short, I'd watch it all in this order:

Movie 1 - My Conquest is the Sea of Stars (Subbed)
Main OVA Series, 110 episodes (Subbed)
Gaiden OVA Series 1 - Various Gaiden Stories, 24 episodes (Subbed)
Gaiden OVA Series 2 - Spiral Labyrinth, 28 episodes (Partially Subbed)

There's another movie and another single episode OVA, but I think those are recaps of sorts. At any rate, they're currently unsubbed.

E: So while there is currently still a little bit left to be subbed, you're looking at ~140 episodes and a movie that's currently available. I say don't wait on CA (they're going at a decent pace I suppose anyway) and just throw yourself into the fray. It'll be well worth it.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Sep 22, 2008

# ¿ Sep 22, 2008 16:21

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Argon-40 posted:

I'm three episodes into this and I have a question whose answer will determine whether or not I keep watching: do any of the characters in the show become interesting at any point? So far the show's just been a barrage of names and faces with no accompanying personalities or anything at all to make them distinguishable from one another. If I don't care about any of the characters yet, will I have any reason to as the show goes on? And I don't mean "do they do something cool," I mean do they actually become real characters rather than sources of plot-advancing dialog.

Look, 90% of the people in this thread have watched and loved Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Asking "do these characters get interesting?" is like asking in a popular games' thread "does this ever get fun?" YES the characters develop and do all kinds of "interesting" poo poo. Why would we care so much if that were not the case? I'm not going to give you some sort of limit, like "you should watch up until episode X to see if you like that" because 1). I doubt there is really any sort of arbitrary episode where things change in style from the first few episodes and 2). looking back, I don't really remember there being any problems with the first few episodes at all.

I suppose the series does take a few episodes to properly describe the current situation, show where allegiances lie, and lay the foundation for the ensuing conflicts. It's a sci-fi war epic, and I am simply unable to describe the series in any manner short of it in its entirety. And Legend of the Galacitc Heroes in its entirety is loving awesome. Think of it as a well-versed novel series in televised format, in the vein of The Wire; lots of build-up and subtlety that won't pay off until down the road when you really care about everything.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2008 21:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Argon-40 posted:

The Wire is what I was thinking of when I typed the question, because by the end of its first episode (comparable in running time to the first three of LOGH) I actually had a handle on who the main (and some of the minor) characters were and what the main conflict of the show would be, and I wanted to see more. LOGH so far hasn't provided me with much more than a bunch of names and a battle of uncertain significance in a conflict of uncertain origin.

I think Eronarn is right, it may be helpful to watch the movie "My Conquest is the Sea of Stars" before the series. Most people here watched it after the series because it was subbed after the series was subbed, but technically it was released before the main OVA series and chronologically takes place before the first episode as well. It clearly outlines who the main characters are, namely Reinhard and Yang.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2008 03:46

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Affi posted:

Ugh why bother continuing to watch this after Admiral Yang dies

Don't you want to see how they get back at those Terraist fucks :mad:

There are still a lot of compelling stories after that, don't worry.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2008 18:20

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

EX-GAIJIN AT LAST posted:

LOGH - Overture to a New War

Not Central-Anime so I can't vouch for the quality of the subs (and the encode isn't very good, it's interlaced/telecined and wrong aspect ratio, but that can be corrected).

From what I gather this is a remake/expansion of the first two episodes.

From my limited knowledge of Japanese the subs are not particularly accurate on a lot of lines, and overall are pretty half-assed. But the main problem as you said is the encode; god it's like knives in the eyes :psypop:

But, I will definitely be looking forward to CA subbing it sooner or later.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2008 21:26

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Yeah, LOGH never pretends to be something it isn't, and the pacing and style present in episode 1 generally remains constant throughout the series. There won't be one episode or even one season where things suddenly come together. It's one of those things that you might not see anything of particular note in a single episode, but when you look back on the story arc as a whole you can't help but be amazed. It's all about the build up and general scope of the whole thing that really draws in people. I've said this before in the thread, but the best comparison I can think of is something like The Wire which is also very deliberate with its pacing, and can't be evaluated at anything less than the sum of its parts.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2009 16:12

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Honest Thief posted:

Question, I loved the first movie, but the first of 101 episodes don't seem set right after the movie, is there anything I missed?

There's a slight time skip, so no you haven't missed anything.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2009 19:54

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

If I were to venture a guess, it's that by the time of LOGH spacesuits are so sturdy that lasers (and guns?) aren't very effective against them. So an axe might make for the best close quarter weapon.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2009 22:48

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Zorak posted:

Apparently there's two new LOGH OSTs out?

http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=48593
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=48592

Holy poo poo that's a lot of FLAC music. Over 6 GB :psyduck:

# ¿ Feb 1, 2009 18:05

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Miles Vorkosigan posted:

So despite the huge fuckoff size of this series I'm thinking about picking it up, but does the OP still hold true as far as distribution? Like, are all the episodes poor rips from VHS tapes, or did someone get their hands on better quality? Recent shows have really spoiled me in regards to crystal clear video quality.

CA is slowly making DVD rips* which do look slightly better, but the originals are fine, especially considering the source.

*In glorious 29.97 fps

Click here for the full 640x480 image.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2009 06:36

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Honest Thief posted:

Oh, gently caress episode 53, argh freaking copout, just argh...

That was such a weird moment for me, personally. Caught perfectly between "WOO gently caress YEAH YANG" and "Wait wait wait NOOOO REINHARD!"

# ¿ Mar 22, 2009 18:55

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

That's basically the whole point. Yang's absence is so big that all of the characters reach the same conclusion you do, and therein lies much of the drama of the final season. Also keep in mind who the Ending credits have been featuring more and more heavily throughout the series.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2009 01:59

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Indeed. Episode 82 of LOGH is probably the most tragic episode of a series I've seen, anime, live action, or otherwise.. It's not even depressing. It's just...sad.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2009 03:00

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

AzraelNewtype posted:

This is from ages ago, but note that this sort of thing happened even in their LD rips, so it's not like there's a tradeoff in terms of quality here. The first couple episodes looked too bad for me to really deal with, but even with incompetent DVD encoding those versions were better. By the time I ran out of DVD versions they were tolerable, leading to the following: I just finished the series a few hours ago. It owns.

It was just my usual raging against CA's encoders. Before it was them putting h.264 in avi, and now not bothering to IVTC their DVD rips. It's still an overall vastly superior version to their original versions.

# ¿ May 24, 2009 05:38

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I'd like to think he intended to die, because can you imagine a Reinhard-less administration with Oberstein still in such a high position? The very thought of that would send chills down the spines of the remaining Admirals, and would almost certainly lead to internal strife on some level sooner or later. Given that the war with the FPA is over for good at the moment, and the Terraists would be wiped out after this final plan, Oberstein might think there was no longer an immediate need for his Machiavellian methods and at the very least the Imperial court would be more stable without him in the Reinhard-less future.

# ¿ May 25, 2009 06:06

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Code Jockey posted:

And something else - what was your opinion of Julian Minci? I liked him, and thought he was a decent candidate for head of the fleet, though I was kind of hoping for Merkatz to get it, but I can see why people would oppose that.

I like Julian just fine. He doesn't quite have the presence of Yang or some of the other main characters, but his actual role in the story is very interesting; more often than not, it's hard to kill off a main character like Yang so relatively "early" in the story (as in there were still 28 episodes left) because so much of the story is driven through their perspective. But with keeping in mind that the whole theme of the show has been "history in the making", it makes sense that someone had to be there to be the one to chronicle it. Julian was that one-eyed guy from 300. Depressingly enough, they even foreshadow this with the third season ending.

# ¿ May 27, 2009 14:14

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Occultatio posted:

Okay, question. I can tell people are really into this show for the characters and politics and all, but I just watched the first episode and that was seriously the worst loving excuse for military tactics I've ever heard of. It's like, we're supposed to think this Lohengramm guy is brilliant, but the actual battle boiled down to "we have this much smaller fleet in a textbook pincer formation. Let's sit here and NOT SURROUND HIM while he picks us off one by one!"

Is this typical, or do the tactics advance beyond the first-grade level at any point in the series? LoGH sounds cool, but I won't be able to take 100+ episodes of crap like that if I'm expected to take it seriously.

If it wasn't clear, both sides are essentially run by morons with guys like Yang and Reinhard rising through the ranks to eventually buck the trend. There are various reasons they are in such a state, but I think it boils down to "a war lasting 150 years spanning an entire arm of a galaxy and involving billions of deaths with no significant hope of clear victory from either side has led to an acceptance of the status quo with minor victories ebbing back and forth between the two." So officers rise through the ranks less on ability and more on prestige and connections since neither side is really making an effort to "win" the war.

Also make sure you watch the movie "My Conquest is the Sea of Stars" first, since it chronologically occurs before the first episode AND was released before it as well.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2009 05:09

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

AchtungBaby posted:

Really? gently caress, I started watching (only through chapter 15) and I thought the movies were after the 110 episodes. Should I just stop and watch the movie before moving to the next episode? At what point should I watch the second movie? Thanks.

It's not a huge deal if you haven't seen the first movie first, in fact most of us here didn't see it until after the series because that's when it was fansubbed. It basically details an early operation in which Yang and Reinhard meet each other in battle. After all it was a little strange how they seemingly knew each other in episode 1. You can watch it whenever you want at this point I suppose.

Movie 2, "Overture to a New War", is more of a remake/retelling of the first two episodes, so again at this point you can watch it whenever. It hasn't been subbed by CA yet, though.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2009 16:08

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

cooldude2.0 posted:

Watching the movie later as a prequel is also nice because it's like Oh yeah, Kircheis. He was a really cool guy.
Which is a fitting way to wrap up a long series in which his death is the most significant event.

I'd argue that at least one other character's death is way, way more significant. Or at least it had more impact.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2009 15:33

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

cooldude2.0 posted:

I'd disagree because if Kircheis hadn't died he would have been around to keep Reinhard from doing anything questionable and things would have gone much more smoothly. It's been a while since I've seen it so I'm fuzzy on what exactly I'm talking about, but I recall Kircheis' death changing the direction of the show more than Yang's.

I meant more of an impact to the audience. That season 1 death certainly may have done more to alter the course of the potential history of the show, but that other, later one is one that completely sucker punches the viewer.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2009 22:37

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Aliginge posted:

Oh God. Episode 82.

Say it ain't so!

Gonna post the episode 82 preview here:

quote:

At that moment, one star in the galaxy flared and was extinguished.

At that moment, one era declared its end.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2009 18:25

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

What's this Mutineer Gaiden that CA recently released? I thought Spiral Labyrinth was the only other OVA for LOGH.

Gaiden Mutineer 1-4

# ¿ Sep 3, 2009 22:36

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 14:56

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Gary Mitchell posted:

That's about $2338.20 CAD ($2161.40 USD) for the whole series... drat they are serious about their cartoons in Japan.

More like they have no concept of supply and demand.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2009 20:59

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