Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya The Evil): Season 1/ Episode 2 "Prologue" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U8xDqmKZu4

Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

I had to double check if I was watching the right show when the episode started. The style looked different, we were in a different era and focusing on a different person. However, lo and behold (shout out to a commenter who said I was using it wrong), the person we meet in this episode is the true Tanya. Well, when she was a man in 2013.

Topic 1: Being X (Tanya)

We aren’t told who Tanya was in 2013 Tokyo, but we do know like George Clooney’s character in Up in The Air, his job is to fire people. Something he is fine with, perhaps even enjoys. However, he fires someone who has bills, a child, and more and does it in his usual callous manner. Thus leading to that person stalking him and pushing him in front of a train.

Thus revealing Tanya’s goals in life. Of which is to defy Being X, some sort of god or representative of god, which deals with reincarnation. Tanya has no faith and makes it seem with modern conveniences, what purpose is there in god unless in dire straits? So, to try to force Tanya to have faith he is sent to 1913, made an orphan, and to really push things to the brink, made into a girl during that time.

Commentary

I don’t know what the hell is going on but I strangely like it. When I read something, before the show started, about Tanya being reincarnated or reborn, I figured she was a shogun or something in a past life. Learning she is some butt hole who wanted to disown the idea of god in front of an otherworldly figure, moments before death? That’s original to me. Absurd, weird, kind of confusing in the long run, but it tickles the hell out of me and helps us to understand Tanya’s resolve and madness. She is trying to be powerful and accomplished to spite god, in spite of putting so many barriers in his, now her, way. Which, in a twisted way, I like and sort of want to applaud.

Topic 2: Rising Through The Ranks (Tanya)

Despite technically being punished and seemingly setup for a life which would require faith to make it through, Tanya is put into a world where magic exists. On top of that, even at a young age, she is quite powerful. Making it so the man we know decides to take advantage, he still has all his memories and old personality by the way, of this power. Leading to him rising through the ranks and even as death stares him down, he remembers what Being X said and so he decides to do whatever it takes to live without faith and still survive and thrive.

Commentary

Honestly, I’m left questioning why this wasn’t the first episode? It just would have made more sense. I don’t think there is much else to say.

Things to Note | Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Tanya is 9 years old.