The newest addition to our Great Anime of the last 5 years:
Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil)
Our latest addition to our great anime of the past 5 years is the wildly popular anime, Youjo Senki. Part isekai, part magic, part psycho loli and all entertaining. Youjo Senki was one of our favorite anime of 2017 and warranted a full length movie that keeps the tone and pace of the anime.
Youjo Senki began as a Japanese light novel written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki and was made into an anime for the Winter 2017 season and a movie that was released in 2019 (which we have included with the season).
The story follows an unnamed Japanese salaryman who revels in his ability to fire people for the good of the company, except a former employee doesn't agree with being the one fired. The former employee stalks the salaryman after work until his perfect opportunity arrives on the train platform to exact some revenge. He shoves the salaryman into the path of an oncoming train. God intervenes to question the salaryman about his faith before the train ends his life. The salaryman speaks out in defiance to God, informing that people only have faith with they are faced with dire consequences. Thus begins God's experiment, granting the salaryman reincarnation into a world where he will face these dire consequences and prove his faith to God.
God is also not without a sense of humor, the salaryman is reincarnated as a girl in a country eerily like pre-World War 1 Germany(some fans confuse this with WW2 Nazi Germany). In this world on the brink of war, magic exists and Tanya, as the salaryman is called, possesses more than most people. Tanya, not quite aware of the pending World War, volunteers for the military, who is recruiting those with magic ability, with the hopes of getting on the fast track to a life of comfort and luxury that she was not getting in the orphanage she grew up in.
Throughout the anime, God is putting Tanya in situations to prove her faith, which she keeps denying him with her atheist beliefs and logic, despite constantly having interactions with God. This isn't the omnipotent loving Christian God, but the slightly vindictive, forceful God of this anime. The interactions are comical at times (like Tanya refusing to call God, rather choosing to refer to him as Being X). Soon War is in full effect and and Tanya realizes that it is following a similar path of World War 1 and she begins to use her knowledge of history to her advantage, that is, until God changes things up every now and then.
We liked the humor, the action and interaction of God and Tanya throughout the season and the movie. So grab your snacks, dim the lights and watch Youjo Senki with us here.
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