Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw Review: Misunderstandings Before the Battle.

I have been enjoying the Second Season for Saga of Tanya the Evil.
That being said, the last few episodes have been focusing more on the logistics of war, rather than the actual combat, so I have not found much to talk about (which was why I skipped talking about Episode Four).
Well, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw, brought back the promise of action, along with the funniest scene of the series up to this point.
Picking up in the aftermath of Rudersdorf caving to the high leadership’s demands to continue the war, Zettour has been transferred to the front lines, while Rudersdorf remains.
I am surprised the two still seem to be on good terms, given how angered Zettour was by Rudesdorf’s decision at the end of the previous episode, but Zettour could just be pretending and now playing the long game.
No matter his plans, he is not the only one dealt an unlucky draw this episode, because it is upon his arrival that Tanya first learns that the war will not be ending soon, and then unintentionally talks Zettour into using her as bait for their next operation.
This is the scene I said was the funniest of the show yet.
Tanya’s constant exaggerated expressions and absurd obliviousness to the obvious never failed to get a laugh out of me.
“I don’t know who he’s referring to, but I feel sorry for them.”
Seriously, Tanya, how do you not know after all that has happened that you are Zettour’s trump card?
It gets even worse for Tanya because what she and Zettour do not know is that there is a spy in the Empire, passing on information about the Andromeda mission.
My money is currently on the not-Italian officer who has been observing Tanya.
And it would not be a Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two episode if we did not get one scene reminding us of Loria’s disgusting lust for our protaganist, right?
He orders Tanya captured alive and we once again get a gross close-up of him licking his lips.
I have to wonder why they decided, of all shots, they chose that one to be animated so well?
I certainly would have rather seen that animation effort put into the charging soldiers, rather than the use of CGI, although its current state is far from bad.
Once the battle begins, Tanya sends Weiss to deal with the artillery, resulting in an explosion which hilariously sends Tanya flying.
It is not all laughs though because, right before the credits roll, Weiss is struck and severely injured (potentially even killed) by Mikel.
Looks like we will be getting the fight between him and Tanya teased in the trailer and OP next episode.
Speaking of, the promo for that episode promises a lot of action, with even Zettour getting involved, so I am quite hyped for that.
Back to Unlucky Draw itself, the episode ends after the credits with a brief gag of Uger telling Rerugen a dirty joke (which we do not hear) only to be coldly rebuffed.
It is a nice bit of humor which will probably be our last for a few episodes, given the action promised for the next one.
Unlucky Draw is another solid episode which delivers on laughs and a gripping cliffhanger.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Three, Well-Intentioned Mediator Review: Logic vs Emotion.

Episode Three of Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two begins with narration from our titular anti-hero.
Tanya begins the episode, titled “Well-Intentioned Mediator,” by describing a minor skirmish in the war.
The way this incident was just brushed over so quickly makes me wonder if it was a storyline from the Light Novel that was skipped over.
If it is, though, I am not too bothered by it, considering I still understood the story.
The “Well-Intentioned Mediator” of the episode is the kingdom of Ildoa (alternate universe Italy), which attempts to bring a peaceful end to the war, for their own benefit of course, since ending the war will net them a lot of praise.
We get some foreshadowing to how this plan will fail with the following meeting of the Empire’s General Staff.
Zetour is open to Ildoa, although cautious, while Rudesdorf is hostile, sending Rerugen to observe their supposed ally.
Ildoan Virginio Calandro extends his country’s offer as negotiator, to which Rerugen repays by sending him to observe Tanya.
Ah, yes, the perfect way to make a man regret his life decisions.
Rerugen has his own concerns, however, because he is now taking credit for Tanya’s military success.
He need not worry though because now Tanya has someone who can take the fall for her actions while still owing her.
As for Calandro, Tanya makes a good first impression on him, joking about her small size making her harder to hit.
This impression expectedly does not last, however, because it is soon Calandro’s turn to witness Tanya master the art of technically-not-a-war-crime strategy.
Tanya’s cutesy acting turns terrifying when she has a residential area, including a church, bombed with artillery.
The haunting music playing over the scene adds to this impression.
Typical Tanya misunderstandings follow, as she attempts to assure Calandro that she will accept the generals ending the war, only for Calandro to interpret this as her and the rest of the soldiers prioritizing national interests.
Hearing Tanya’s following inner monologue got a big chuckle out of me.
“I got the war observer to understand that we Imperial soldiers are normal people,” she says, right after we got a scene of said observer giving a terrified report to his commanding officer.
The constant misunderstanding field Tanya emits will never stop being funny.
As per usual, Tanya thinking the war is about to end practically jinxes her, as proven by the arrival of Ugar.
It is here that we see the return of the logic vs emotion theme.
Back in Season One, we saw emotion win over logic, with the Empire logically viewing their enemies beaten, never suspecting they would give in to the emotional motive of revenge.
Now, faced with the logic of ending the war before more are sacrificed, Ugar, Weiss and other soldiers are struck by the emotional drive to keep fighting in the face of a peace they view as no better than surrender.
Even Rudesdorf feels this way, going against Zettour and continuing the war, starting Operation Iron Hammer.
I expect we will learn what this operation is next episode.
Overall, “Well-Intentioned Mediator” was another solid episode.
The highlights for me were expectedly the Tanya scenes, which had plenty of humor, while also showing why she is to be feared.
Season Two’s quality is still good and hopefully that will continue with Episode Four.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Two, A Strange Friendship Review: Communists vs Nationalists.

The first episode of Saga of Tanya the Evil‘s Second Season set a solid foundation for the rest, with its action, sound design, and funny misunderstandings.
The second episode “A Strange Friendship” follows this up well with more setup for the future, and some especially humorous moments by the end.
Before discussing the events of the episode, I want to talk about the new opening and outro.
The OP is titled Why? RED Induction and is performed by Myth & Royd, the group who did the OP for Season One.
This may just be recency bias, but I think their new OP easily tops the old, starting loud, before going quiet and sinister, and then going full bombastic with the chorus.
The visuals of the OP also give us plenty to look forward to, especially with the teased two vs one of Tanya facing off against Mary Sue again, along with the mage Mikel.
As for the ED Weiter! Weiter! it is performed once again by Aoi Yuki, who continues to show off her vocal talents.
I also prefer this ED because it actually has visuals, rather than a showcase of light novel covers and illustrations.
Back to the episode, it starts off by once again showing us issues the Empire is having with the war effort.
We see this through talks between Tanya and Visha, and Zettour and Rudersdorf.
The combat units are only receiving weapons rather than basic necessities, and the Empire has to halt its progress due to winter.
Worse still are the partisans in occupied territory, along with the fact that, unknown to the Empire, the Russy Federation is now allowing mages back into its ranks.
We see this with the arrival of Political Commissar Liliya and mage Colonel Mikel at Mary Sue’s unit.
Liliya immediately sets about making friends with Mary, which is absolutely a ploy to manipulate her.
We know Liliya was chosen for being, “loyal to the party and idealistic.”
I expect we will see her push Mary to more extreme ends this season.
As for Mikel, he has been described as “charismatic,” and he will certainly lead by example, as seen by his fight with Tanya in the OP and trailer.
However, I do have to wonder how loyal he really is to the Federation, considering the mages were all put in internment camps.
Perhaps he has a similar mindset to the common soldiers, who believe fighting for the Federation will make them listen and improve the country.
Tanya is horrified to hear this viewpoint from a captive, realizing that she is not fighting communists but nationalists.
This makes the enemy a bigger threat, considering they view themselves as fighting for their country rather than an ideology, which she later explains to Zettour.
Zettour, being described as a “conman” by Tanya, is able to find a work around for this problem with Tanya’s advice.
In a speech to various nationalists from occupied territories, he drives a wedge between them and the communists by turning the territories over to civilian rule.
Given the haunting images of Zettour on a skeletal horse, I doubt this is entirely truthful, but his speech gets the job done, halting most partisan attacks and allowing Tanya’s combat unit to get the supplies they need.
In a humorous final scene before the credits, Visha delights in her new socks, and Tanya lights up in cartoonish exaggeration at the offer of coffee.
Tany’s joy ends when she notices a Being X nutcracker in the house, demanding Visha get rid of it.
The final, funny moment after the ED shows Visha offering Tanya a highchair so she can interrogate prisoners without being looked down on, much to her disdain.
After such a logistical episode, it was good to get a few chuckles at the end.
We will have to see how long the laughter lasts though, as the war continues to evolve over the season.
“A Strange Friendship” is a good follow-up episode to Season Two’s pilot, and I am excited to see what is next in store for Tanya the Evil.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode One, Salamander Combat Team Review: Welcome Back to the Front Lines.

After nearly a decade long absence, Saga of Tanya the Evil has finally returned with its Second Season.
I quite enjoyed the first season, with its solid action, fantastic sound design, and titular character’s constant hilarious misunderstandings.
Going into the first episode of this Second Season, “Salamander Combat Team”, I had my fingers crossed it would live up to the first.
If this premiere is any indication, Season Two should be just as enjoyable as the original and movie.
The episode begins by setting up our cast of characters.
Front and center, of course, is Tanya, whose personality and goals are spelled out by her intro.
We see her praying to Being X due to brainwashing, before she violently lashes out, shooting the statue representing her enemy.
As Tayna stands before the massive combat unit she was gifted at the end of the movie (much to her horror), we see various characters’ perspectives of her.
Loria views her as his “little fairy”, wanting her captured for depraved reasons.
I am all for seeing great animation, but witnessing Loria suck on his finger in such detail was not something any of us wanted.
I hope Loria gets the same pathetic end the real person he is based off received.
After Loria, we see Mary Sue, who seems not to have learned anything from her fight with Tanya in the movie.
Sure, she admits to acting recklessly, but she immediately justifies it by saying God is on her side.
Finally, we see Lergen, Rudersdorf and Zettour, the former of whom is, as per usual, concerned about Tanya, calling her “a monster in the form of a little girl,” just as he did all the way in Season One.
Zettour wants a monster for the war however, and he finishes Lergen’s sentence as Tanya’s theme kicks in and she addresses her new combat team, welcoming them and us to the front lines.
Unfortunately for Tanya, her Salamander Team prove to be wildly incompetent.
This forces Tanya to step in and hopefully the level of animation and sound design we see here will remain consistent throughout the season because what we got was a fantastic continuation of Season One’s.
To the tune of her theme, Tanya flies through storms and swerves to avoid fire, eventually even destroying one of the planes with her knife.
Over the top?
Definitely.
Cool?
Also, definitely.
There is time for humor as well in this battle, because Tanya’s allies almost kill her with friendly fire, causing her to throw out her fists like child because, well, she is one.
This does not save the last pilot, however, and neither do his prayers to God.
It must have been pretty confusing for him to hear Tanya denouncing God one moment and then praising him the next, due to brainwashing.
The pilot does not have time to ponder this contradiction, though, for he is quickly obliterated by a magic blast from Tanya.
Her job done, Tanya naturally follows this up by chewing her new troops out, before we get a look at what the other nations are up to.
We see Mary lost her friend from the movie sometime offscreen, so I wonder if we will get a flashback to how that happened?
More importantly, Loria seemingly convinces alternate universe Stalin to allow mages back into the army to up their chances of defeating the Empire.
We know this will be a big deal, considering we saw one of these Federation Mages wreck Tanya’s men in one of the trailers.
Not long after Tanya gives her men a dressing down, Visha arrives with news that two Federation infantry brigades are on the attack.
What follows is a tense scene, which constantly makes it feel like Tanya’s forces are about to fall into a trap.
I was half expecting the Federation mage from the trailers to ambush them.
Instead, we got a classic Youjo Senki rug pull, where it is revealed that the enemy forces have been just as poorly trained as Tanya’s and they are easily defeated.
Tanya’s surprised “Eh!?” upon learning this gave me my biggest laugh of the episode, closely followed by everyone’s terrified reactions when she falsely praises them with a childish voice and expression.
She does this in the hopes of building a good reputation with her new troops, just in case the Empire loses and she has to rely on their testimony to stay alive.
In typical Tanya fashion, however, this has pretty much the opposite effect, because everyone is left absolutely terrified of her.
Tanya saying she will have a missing captain executed if he deserted certainly does not help her case.
The final scene of the episode then shows the new captains looking at a propaganda poster of Tanya, freaked out by how much it diverges from their reality.
Overall, “Salamander Combat Team” is a great return for Saga of Tanya the Evil after so many years.
It brought back the classic Tanya misunderstandings, as well as a greatly animated action scene with terrific sound design.
I look forward to reviewing the rest of the season as it releases.
It is good to be back on the front lines… which is something I am sure no soldier would ever say.
Certainly not Tanya.

The Saga of Tanya The Evil Review: The Monster in the Form of a Little Girl.

Before I begin the review, I will say that this contains spoilers for a reveal that happens early on, which will work a lot better if you do not know what it is going in. So, if you have not yet watched The Saga of Tanya the Evil, then it’s probably best to avoid this review until you have.

When it comes to picking an anime to watch, there are two features which, if present, will usually make me avoid the show I hear they are in.
These two things are the genre of isekais and character trope of lolis.
I don’t have anything against isekais, it’s just that I have found that they usually do not appeal to me.
Then there are lolis, which I don’t think I even need to explain why I find them to be an automatic avoid requirement for an anime.
However, despite The Saga of Tanya the Evil both being an isekai and having a loli as the main character, I heard great things about it, so I decided to give it a chance and was surprised to find that I loved it.
The isekai aspects of the show only make its premise way more interesting and the loli Tanya (Aoi Yuki) is not sexualised in any way (thank god).

Tanya being a child is wisely used as an often comedic or unnerving juxtaposition with her status as a military leader.

Directed by Yutaku Uemura, and based off the light novels by Carlo Zen, The Saga of Tanya the Evil tells the story of a salaryman in Japan, whose job it is to fire unproductive people at the company he works.
However, he is particularly ruthless and uncaring in his treatment of others, and this leads to a man he fired murderering him by pushing him in front of a train.
Just as he is about to die, the salaryman is confronted by a being who claims to be God, who is dissatisfied with the lack of faith in him.
It is at this time that the salaryman makes the unfortunate decision to declare that he is an atheist and does not believe he is talking to God, dubbing him Being X (Hideaki Tezuka) instead.
This leads to the first of many funny cases of miscommunication where the salaryman’s mocking comments cause Being X to believe that if the salaryman is reincarnated in a harsh situation then he will find faith in God.

And so the salaryman’s isekai journey begins.

Thus, the salaryman is reincarnated as the girl Tanya Degurechaff in an alternate version of Germany, known as the Empire, during a World War One where magic exists.
Wanting to secure a good life for herself, Tanya enters the military at nine-years-old with the hope of using her experiences from her past life to earn a comfy position safe away from the battlefield.
Only problem is that her constant miscommunication with people, and Being X’s interference keeps pushing her to the front lines.
And it is here the good usage of the isekai genre and loli elements come in, with the isekai storyline creating Tanya’s rivalry with Being X during the conflict, and the loli stature of Tanya creating the amusing display of a little girl as a military leader.
Or, as Erich Rerugen (Shinichiro Miki) would call her, “a monster in the form of a little girl!”

Tanya’s creepy faces get a lot of animation. Looking at this it’s not hard to understand why Rerugen is so unnerved by her.

It is this “monster” who is by far the most interesting character in the show.
The other characters are good but it’s Tanya who carries the whole thing, with her military genius, often crazy personality, and struggle for her own human autonomy against what is essentially God.
Speaking of that crazy personality though, it does lead to a few technically-not-a-war-crime-because-of-loophole scenarios and, oh, boy, are those dark.
A lot of the military strategy surrounding these events are also quite interesting to sit through, and when it comes to the actual combat of the series, it does not disappoint.
However, the thing I want to praise most about the action is not the animation but the sound design.
Seriously, the sound of the explosions and gunfire is top notch and makes the world of this horrible war feel tangible.

I found myself often replaying the action scenes just to listen to the glorious sound design.

It is not all action though because the comedy is also well done.
I have already mentioned that Tanya gets into a lot of difficult situations due to miscommunication with her superiors, and it gets funnier every time.
So, with an intriguing story which is lead by an interesting, morally grey character, featuring great action with terrific sound design, some comedic moments and engaging instances of military strategy, it is easy to recommend The Saga of Tanya the Evil.
It has certainly made me more likely to check out other Isekais in the future… not other animes with lolis though because I’m pretty sure most of those are going to be just as creepy as they appear on the surface.

Deca-Dence Review: Like Attack on Titan, if the Twist was Revealed Early.

I really have to thank the YouTuber Mother’s Basement for informing us about this little gem.
His video on Deca-Dence really intrigued me, enough so to make me pause the video and watch all the episodes that were out until that point before going back to watch the rest of his review.
Good thing I did too because I stopped watching the video literally seconds before the big twist of Deca-Dence was revealed and it is definitely best for you to see that twist for yourself.
Directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and developed by Studio Nut, the anime is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been hunted to the brink of extinction by the mysterious Gadoll.
Humanity’s only hope is the Deca-Dence, a massive robotic fist that can punch the lights out of these giant monsters.
Our heroine is Natsuame (Tomori Kusunoki), a young girl who lost her father and her arm years ago.
Upon being relegated to cleaning duty, Natsumae finds herself working alongside without a doubt the best character in the show Kaburagi (Katsuyuki Konishi).

Kaburagi is a fantastic character and his bond with Natsumae is the heart of the anime.

After an accident causes the two to fall into the midst of a battlefield, Natsumae sees Kaburagi’s skills with the weapons used by humans to kill minor Gadoll, which is most certainly nothing like the weaponry in Attack on Titan (note the sarcasm).
Natsumae then insists that Kaburagi teach her how to fight, unaware that he knows much more about their situation than he is letting on.
To say anything else would be too much of a spoiler, given the big twist in episode two.
However, I can guess from my description of this show that the first thing that came to your mind was Attack on Titan.
Not only did I purposefully point out how the weapons in this anime are similar to Attack on Titan’s ODM Gear, but I’m also sure that the whole humanity being driven to the brink of extinction thing and being forced to hide out sounded like a dead ringer too.
Indeed, the best way that I can describe Deca-Dence is like Attack on Titan if the world changing twist had happened in the second episode.
Still, despite these similarities, there are a lot of differences between the two animes and the features shared with Attack on Titan feels more like a way to draw the audience in before the show delves into the really interesting stuff.
By far the best aspect of Deca-Dence is the growing father daughter bond between Natsumae and Kaburagi.
This culminates in the fifth episode “Differential Gear”, which is definitely the best episode of the series.

The fifth episode takes the story to another level, ending on an amazing cliffhanger

Along with Natsumae and Kaburagi, there are other great characters like the adorable Pipe (Eri Kitamura), the intuitive Jill (Michio Murase), and the fighting addicted Donatello (Rikiya Koyama).
Although, I will say that, while the characters on Kaburagi’s side of the story are all interesting, for the most part, the characters on Natsumae’s side of the story are, unfortunately, pretty bland and not very interesting.
Another issue I have is with the epilogue in the final episode.
No spoilers here but I found it to be a little unsatisfying because I feel that it glossed over a lot of important details and potential character development for Natsumae’s friends, which, again, was sorely needed.

Even though Natsumae is a great character, her friends needed way more development and this ties into why I think the epilogue didn’t entirely work.

Despite these problems, the anime is still a lot of fun with great visuals, a fantastic score, and some laugh out loud moments, all with the fantastic bond between Natsumae and Kaburagi keeping it together.
Deca-Dence is a solid anime that feels like a complete story, without the need for a season two.