Let’s Just Face It, Tytania is Crap
Not even the art is all that good.
An exaggerated, sensational post title? Yes. I don’t really think Tytania is crap, but I do think after fifteen episodes, it’s been a major disappointment. There was a lot of hype around this title because it’s source came from the original creator of the almost universally acclaimed Legend of the Galactic Heroes. To echo and paraphrase something Shadowmage said (when and where, I can’t remember), everyone who’s seen it says Legend of the Galactic Heroes is epic, and when I have fifty hours to spare, I intend to find out if they’re right. The 110 OVAs that comprise LotGH is an intimidating prospect to face, and a lot of people, myself included, saw Tytania as a chance to test the waters and get a general flavour of Tanaka Yoshiki‘s writing before committing to the anime adaptation of his more renowned behemoth. Unfortunately, that flavour was bland, dull and, at times, occasionally silly. This post contains minor to moderate spoilers for Tytania up to ep 15.
My biggest problem with this show is the lead character, Fan Hyulick. I know Kaioshin Sama from When Anime Past Meets Present has railed against the role that Lira has played in the story, and to a large extent, I agree with him, but Lira is ultimately a plot device, and the shortcomings in how they’ve written her into the story wouldn’t be quite as apparent if Fan wasn’t such a weak lead character. Needless to say, there are a lot of shortcomings with how Lira has been written into the story: the fact that she serves as Fan’s primary motivation for fighting against Tytania despite the fact that they met twice and barely knew each other really undermines the fight itself. I mean, he’s destroying an empire not because it’s tyrannical or oppressive or responsible for the deaths of thousands, possibly millions, but because they rubbed out his one night stand? I’d have been a little more accepting of this had there been more on-screen chemistry between Fan and Lira, but their approach towards demonstrating his strong feelings for her have been a case of telling, not showing, which has made the whole relationship feel very forced and unnatural, and therefore difficult to swallow.
Fan is a really weakly written character. We’re told he’s a tactical genius (another case of the “telling, not showing” approach to storytelling), but the demonstrations of this genius have been sparse. He had the victory in the Battle of Cerberus. He opted out of the pirate battle, which, while cowardly, made sense since it was a battle that couldn’t be won. More recently, he only defeated Alses (Arses, tee hee) because Idris let him. Now he’s on an angst-ridden trip to a remote planet, escorted by one of two of the pointless loli characters that this show seems to love (never mind Karen, she’s only appeared in a couple of episodes, but could someone please tell me what the point of Lydia’s character in the story is).
The other major problem in this show is that it’s been fifteen episodes and nothing of significance has happened. There have been a few skirmishes here and there, Fan and his crew have flown to various corners of the galaxy to see the impact of Tytania… and what they’ve seen hasn’t laid a compelling argument for regime change; sure, Tytania is tyrannical, but other than a few cases of economic hardship here and there, people generally seem fairly accepting of Pax Tytania rule. Yes, I’m as revolutionary as anyone, but the audience needs to be shown why Tytania’s downfall is a necessity, not just told, as we have been. Again, another example of telling, not showing. There’s been scheming in the upper echelons of the Tytania hierarchy as the four dukes vie for the succession of the clan lord (easily the most interesting aspect of Tytania so far). And they did an episode entirely dedicated to Lydia skipping around Uraniborg (for a comparative analogy, try to imagine what it’d be like if Code Geass spent an episode following Kaguya playfully wandering through the Damocles. I kid you not). And in the recent episodes, we’ve had a conspiracy to usurp the clan lord thwarted and both Lira and Alses have died. The conspiracy turned out to be a massive anticlimax of little importance, while Lira’s and Alses’s deaths were plot devices. Fan still hasn’t confronted any of the four dukes, and there’s been no changing of positions among the upper hierarchy. It took thirteen episodes and a blatant plot device for Fan to even decide he was going to take on Tytania (in fact, he’s still wavering). There’s only ten or eleven episodes left, when is something significant and interesting going to happen?
The only thing that’s really kept this from mediocrity so far has been the scheming of the four dukes, especially Jouslain and Idris. Idris is a true bad guy, he’s ambitious, self-centered, unscrupulous and Machiavellian, while putting up a facade of honour and nobility. Jouslain, on the other hand, is by far the closest character in this anime to someone to root for. He’s complex and painfully aware of the paradoxes he encounters by being part of running an oppressive regime while being sensitive to the responsibilities of ruling for the sake of one’s people. In fact, what Jouslain sees presents a much more compelling case for bringing down Tytania than what Fan has seen. I’m strongly of the opinion that Jouslain should have been the main character, not Fan. Fan’s story may have worked as an aside to the whole Tytania narrative, but Fan isn’t just a viewpoint through which to see Tytania’s downfall (and, let’s face it, it’s not an optimal viewpoint), he’s most likely going to be the key which brings them down. That, in itself, pushes suspension of disbelief, but when you consider what motivates him, from Lira, to the pink haired loli that appears in episode 15, then it almost becomes laughable.
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By the way, ghostlightning from We Remember Love just wrote an article about Tytania for When Anime Past Meets Present and reached pretty much the same conclusions as I did. I actually wrote this article before I read his, but he beat me to the punch.
Well that’s a bummer, because other people whose opinions I also value seem to have similar opinion. I certainly had incredibly high hopes for this for the reasons you’ve mentioned. On the optimistic side, I should be glad that I only watched two episodes of this (such is my viewing habit), because I’m not going to be watching this anytime soon.
On a tangential note, anime in general seems to have an issue with “show not tell.” Now, whether it’s widely symptomatic with just anime or all Japanese media in general is something I can’t comment on, but what I can say is that there are times in which a character will be talking to himself and airing his thoughts out for all to hear even though there’s no one around to listen to him. And it annoys me slightly when this occurs because oftentimes, I find that with the right facial expression, the character can convey his thoughts rather than have him spoon feed it to the audience through a monologue and doing so would have made for a better result.
Anyway, that was a bit of a digression from the topic here. I’m more or less in agreement because I’m watching this series for the Machiavellian scheming than anything else. Fan Hyulick’s actions have not made me sympathetic with his plight.
No kidding. You presented how I feel in a less histrionic way, for which I compliment you. The root of my displeasure is indeed brought upon by my excessive desire to see a ‘spiritual successor’ as Kaioshin says to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which I’ve recently completed.
@ zzeroparticle
Re characters talking to themselves don’t annoy me per se, even LOGH did this copiously. But still, there’s a case for variety and excellence in exposition. I cannot compliment Tytania this way.
Truthfully, each time I view this article and its articulated points, I am reminded of how frustrated and tired I am of being disappointed. Its as if my eyes should be burning from the mediocrity, yet I don’t feel anything.
Anyways, if there is more proof that Tytania is sinking Fan’s new “Genius” plan from the last episode is the nail in the coffin. As if moments such as an episode dedicated to that stupid bitch (Princess Ignorant) in trying to “outwit” people was not insulting enough. Honestly, I don’t know where these outlandish ideas come from at all.
Personally, Idris does not compel me much at all and is just there (imo) for Jouslain to beat down everytime in repetitious fashion. Admittedly, without Idris there would be no real politics or interest to generate since the latter Dukes are lackluster and dumb. I at least want Zarlish to shoot his idiotic and vain mother since she is a huge low point of the series.
Although, I really wanted to see more out of Ajman since I felt he could have been an interesting character himself. Too bad, theh head of Tytania is more of a minor character then anything else. Damn it, I went on a total tangent. (Smacks head.)
Anyways, to sum it up I agree with you Sorrow-Kun since you did hit the nail on the head.
I would agree, which is rather ironic come to think of it since I certainly expected Tytania to be less disappointing, but I am still quite interested in the internal politics side of the story with Jouslain et al, though the time wasted on Fan does drag the pace down and keeps me from rushing to watch each new episode before spoilers come out.
Yes, it would have been a better idea to script the series in such a way as to avoid spending so much time dealing with Fan’s rather thin motivations. Maybe being a little more subtle about it would have worked…say, having Fan already motivated and telling only bits and pieces of his past via flashbacks (in moderation) or just indirectly.
I’m probably in the minority here, because for as flawed as it is, I still am enjoying Tytania. Now I know how Destiny Gundam tends to feel.
Initially, I was interested less by Yoshiki Tanaka and more by Noburo Ishiguro. Hearing that the story was from the same guy who wrote Gineiden (LoGH) was just a bonus. Having watched what amounts to two books work of his masterpiece, I was fully aware that Tytania would have a dry atmosphere. What seems more like the issue here is format. I am perfectly aware what the staff is capable of, especially given Ishiguro’s work on Macross and Gineiden. But whereas Gineiden had 110 episodes of main story, and over 50 eps of side material, Tytania only has 26, and thus should have been treated differently. They seem to be keeping the same pace as the previous work, but are unable to put even half the development into each episode.
Given its length, LoGH was able to have episodes devoted to secondary and teriatry characters while still moving the story forward. The episode about Lydia, which I actually liked, is an example of this. While in a two day commitment, this can be done without hurting the pacing, it can’t be done as effectively with only a half day marathon. A space opera like Tytania isn’t fit for what it is given, and thus cannot emulate the same effect of absolute genius as Gineiden. Tytania seems doomed to fail, though it’s still quite enjoyable, albeit being dry and silly.
I had really high hopes after I watched the first two or three episodes, but this anime quickly became boring with weak plot and character development.
It really anoyed me the way this anime had characters use metaphors and then told you directly what the metaphors meant. Seriously, I’m not that stupid. However, tht also points out that we are probably beng too strict on Tytania. It was probably written for a younger audience and is not meant to have the character and plot development we are expecting.
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE THEME TO TYTANIA WAS!
>.> Yea… I started googling tytania and plot after I finished watching the final episode out of disbelief. I mean, the anime ended without any real plot or character development and alot of loose ends. I have to have missed something. The only themes I can think of are:
Great nations never last forever (not fully developed)
I think theres supposed to be some kind of theme related to Fan. I mean he changes quite abit though I don’t understand why. He goes from a pretty philosophical view that if Tytania falls, another will take it’s place to I want to see a world without Tytania because some girl gets killed…
OR maybe the theme is about omlets. Simple everyday things like omlets can be catalyst for great change. Don’t take them for granted.
Meh. I just wanted moar space battles. Man I seriously stopped watching after ep 14. Where are the explosions? where are the fleet engagement!? Seriously either do Macross [the '80s] type battle scenes or GTFO. Tytania just failed; I had such high hopes too.