Youjo Senki: The Absurd War Chronicles of a Rationalist

 Youjo Senki: The Absurd War Chronicles of a Rationalist

TL;DR: This is an analytical piece regarding the Japanese series Youjo Senki, also known as Saga of Tanya the Evil in English. I went into this with the attitude of squeezing everything I felt worth mentioning as of my latest run through it into a single post, so it has around 6000 words. It’s interesting, I swear! I’ve put the topics into bite-sized chunks in the Outline section. This piece is focused on analyzing the main character Tanya von Degurechaff and the narrative of the story through multiple different lenses, including Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas, Christianity and The Nutcracker ballet play, with some sprinklings of politics, economics, Adam Smith and biology. The logic for using these lenses and making these comparisons is both explicit implicit authorial intent, as everything mentioned is referenced at least once in the text of the books or elsewhere in its adaptations. Simply said, this is a passionate love letter trying to sell the series on the reader, you! I hope you read it.

Outline; Parts

1. Intro 

2. Tanya vs. The World

1. The Nutcracker, Puppeteering & Dysphoria

2. Mythological Symbolism

3. Anachronistic Perception

4. The Empire vs. The World & Mary Sue

3. Nietzsche & Christianity

1. Slave Morality & Scapegoating the Devil

2. Equality vs. Equity

3. God is Dead

4. Universal Laws

4. Invisible Hand, Visible Tool

1. History Trajectory & Nazism

2. Adam Smith

5. Miscellaneous

1. Otherworld Brain Biology

2. Military Insight & Prose

3. Yuri Silliness

6. Outro

7. Sources

INTRO

abyssus abyssum invocat - Hell Begets Hell

It had crystallized into something pure and tranquil…a madness that had precipitated as a faintly black sediment, then festered and condensed.

Those nightmarish eyes seemed to invite insanity into everything they fell upon. It was all you could do to resist the bewitching gaze if it landed on you.

Colonel von Lergen talking about the one and only, Devil of the Rhine, Rusted Silver, Tanya von Degurechaff. I don’t know about you, but I feel that those couple paragraphs are striking, to say the least. That description was of course from the biased and incomplete perspective of the character describing her, not the objective reality of her character, as will be established as the writing goes on. Quite a lot of focus is put on Tanya von Degurechaff from different perspectives, ranging from enemy forces, military superiors and subordinates to future journalists. She is dubbed the Eleventh Goddess by journalists trying to navigate the secrecy surrounding the Great War in which the story of Youjo Senki takes place. It’s got this shifting mysterious timeline, giving you hints of where the story will go and what might happen. Quite ambitious storytelling, as it is a bit of a tightrope walk, with revealing too much being a cause for concern.

The author is apparently a bit of a coffee addict, which explains Tanya’s affection towards coffee as well. Let me give you some more sense of the writing in this series. You can tell how the war is going based on whether the coffee Tanya gets to drink is ersatz (inferior wartime substitute), average real-deal, or luxury imported arabica coffee. It goes quite into detail with the nitty-gritty of military procedure, and the logical throughline of cause and effect regarding the war is extremely well written. And as you can hopefully see from the quoted paragraph at the start, either the author is very talented at prose or the translator is a god among men. Either way, the English translation of Youjo Senki has superb prose and extremely consistent writing with tons to read into. Detailed military and economic insight, immersive text, satisfying narrative. And perhaps the most thoroughly defined psyche of a main character I have ever seen. I will be speaking on the things I have found out and enjoyed and theorized about the series in this write-up. Perhaps it will change your impression of the series and Tanya as an outsider, or maybe it will make you appreciate it more as someone who’s already experienced it.

“Reality is mad. Which means in this crazy reality, she [...] might be the rational one.”

TANYA VS THE WORLD

Tanya’s story is a tragedy of absurdity

Vol 1: deus lo vult - As God Wills It

The Nutcracker, Puppeteering & Dysphoria

The Nutcracker is a fairy ballet play that could be said to be an important motif in Youjo Senki, with the anime making it quite explicit. The play’s main character is originally named Marie, quite similarly to the character from the novels named Mary Sue. Her doll’s name is Clara/Klärchen, which is German for clarity. This could be seen as a representation of Tanya, who is often portrayed as doll-like and has both bright eyes and a clear sense of purpose in life. The other character that could be connected to Tanya is the boy Fritz. A German meaning for the name can be a description of German soldiers in WWI & II. Marie is friends with the Nutcracker (Being X), while Fritz hates him. The story also involves a war, with Nutcracker and Marie fighting a seven-headed beast at the end. Since Youjo Senki isn’t finished yet we’ll have to see what the rest of the connections will be.

A major motif in The Nutcracker is dolls. Tanya, psychologically male, could be seen as Fritz in the story, as it would parallel Youjo Senki’s story perfectly in regards to the three involved characters (Tanya, Mary, Being X). Tanya’s person is often characterized as doll-like: deadpan, a cog in the machine with a lack of personal agency in a military bureaucracy, inhuman. A theoretical reading could be that the doll is literally Tanya, and Fritz is the male main character controlling the vessel of Tanya’s body. In the text of the books, the main character refers to himself in ‘I’s when monologuing and Tanya in third person when relevant.

Being X’s cursed holy relic, Elinium Arms Type 95 Computation Orb, causes so-called ‘psychological contamination’ by Tanya’s words, forcing her to praise the lord involuntarily and such. It also causes her to occasionally act more feminine than normally. This is completely theoretical, but the activation of the Type 95 Orb could be seen as a battle between the wills of the innocent child Tanya, earnestly praising the lord, and the reincarnated main character shoved inside the vessel of the little girl. The contamination lingers and works a bit like heavy metals in your body, requiring time to leave the system. It is a sort of drug that turns incredible pain that comes from funneling too much mana inside your body into ecstasy with the power of piousness. Think Guts’ Berserker Armor from Berserk, Guts being a fellow Dionysus-type main character.

Mythological Symbolism

Youjo Senki could be seen as a play on words in reference to yousei, which means fairy in Japanese. While the ‘you’ kanji of the two names are different, all the references to fairies and pixies in her military call signs makes the idea of a connection pretty compelling. This feeds into the inhuman, ethereal aesthetic of Tanya. In folklore, fairies are also regarded as evil creatures that collude with the Devil. Tanya herself regards Being X as a devil, so it checks out. The Nutcracker is also categorized as a ‘fairy ballet’.

Later on her army group is named Salamander Kampfgruppe. The salamander represents immortality, rebirth, passion, and the ability to withstand flames. Kampfgruppe were conceived as an ad hoc firefighting unit, so one meaning can be gathered from the Salamander part immediately. This one is a completely open question, but at one point it’s established that Tanya isn’t growing well for her age, and she’s even called a vampire a couple of times, so the immortality part could relate to that at some point… No idea. Sounds wild. Not enough sleep might also be it. Rebirth is quite self-explanatory, as she is a reincarnated person. Passion? Well, she is pretty passionate about work, I suppose.

This part isn’t about Tanya, but her two superiors in the army are called two ravens. Hans von Zettour and Kurt von Rudersdorf, the two ravens of the Imperial Army General Staff. This is of course in reference to the two ravens of Odin, the God of War, Huginn and Muninn.

The Imperial Army being presented as a god of warfare is quite fitting. The two geniuses at the helm of it being presented as the wise ravens whispering in his ears doubly so.

Anachronistic Perception

Tanya as a character is an inherent anachronism, feeling off both in terms of common sense for the era and personality for her apparent age. S(he) is a working adult from the modern age thrown into the early 20th century warring period. Her way of conducting herself as a mature deadpan adult, her calculating enthusiasm and seemingly unflinching earnestness at her job as a soldier, her future knowledge of the reality of total war. This all makes her come off inhuman and unfeeling from an outside perspective. Unemotive, obedient, frighteningly competent, inhuman doll. She does her best with the lot in life she is given, unable to escape conflict and war in the military machine due to the literal Hand of God. 

Her theme as a doll is loss of agency. Killed by an absurd person on the train tracks. Reincarnated due to the absurdity of Being X. Orphaned through the absurdity of war. Forced to enlist due to the absurdity of her happening to have talent for magic. Trapped by causality, her whole story is a fight against the seemingly inevitable. Her personality warping in small ways along the way is a matter of course. The story openly references the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram experiment, basically explaining that the experiments’ conclusions, "how people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play" and "human beings are susceptible to obeying authority", are a major theme. If she is incentivized to play the unempathetic soldier because of the need to survive, so it shall be. Unluckily, she is born in alternate world Germany in the era of WWI & II, instantly being given the losing card deck. The story is a mundane tragedy, a battle for agency against fatalistic determinism, the eternal recurrence of Germany losing the war.

The Empire vs. The World & Mary Sue

Tanya’s character is a microcosm of the military of the country she is born in, the Empire: rational, extremely competent, utilitarian, perhaps somewhat lacking in the diplomacy department. The Empire declares war due to the rationale of wanting to break free from the geopolitical situation they are stuck in, being surrounded by potentially belligerent countries on all sides. This elicits a nationalistic, emotional response from the surrounding countries that fear the Empire. This irrationality is represented in the character of Mary Sue, whose father was dutifully killed by the very rational soldier Tanya in a lawful battle. Mary Sue is a citizen of the country of the Entente Alliance, the country that gave the Empire an excuse to break free from the geological encirclement by ‘starting it first’. As a citizen and a nationalist, she loathes the Empire. As an individual and a daughter, she loathes Tanya. Mary’s motivations and personality are a complete antithesis to Tanya’s. Impulsive, emotional Mary and cold, rational Tanya. A sense of irony from the author can be felt in a character named Mary Sue becoming a blind nationalist and a spiteful avenger.

Both characters are made apostles of Being X  through his meddling, supporting the Nutcracker angle. Mary is blissfully ignorant and a religious believer, a friend of the nutcracker, Tanya is the type to respond to his meddling by ‘throwing the nutcracker on the ground’, like in Fritz in the ballet play.

NIETZSCHE & CHRISTIANITY

Beyond Good & Evil

Vol 2: plus ultra - Further Beyond

Slave Morality & Scapegoating the Devil

One of Friedrich Nietzsche’s popular concepts is master-slave morality. Slave morality is widely applicable to Christian virtues and vices, Christianity being a central theme of Youjo Senki. In this case master-slave morality could be used as a lens to observe belligerent countries on the stage of World War, to juxtapose between the terrifyingly competent and superior Imperial Army, which achieves endless victories on the battlefield, and the underdogs, the allied countries. The Empire is the master and the allied countries, the slave. The point is to vilify the Empire at all cost to encourage nationalism and solidarity to fight back, emotional arguments to prop up calculating raison d’etat. The slaves shall revolt against the master, in a sense. This leads to a propaganda war, and it is represented in the character of Mary Sue, perceiving the Empire as evil when it was in fact their country that started the war. The will of the homeland transcends beyond good and evil, but the leaders, religious or governmental, will use dualistic morals for their ends.

The true cause for the war and story of Youjo Senki is just a case of some idiotic politicians calling for a march in contested territory between the Entente Alliance and the Empire. As anyone reasonable could see, it’s a valid reason for the Empire to declare war and retaliate when an invading force comes marching towards you. Yet, a citizen of the Alliance, Mary Sue, perceives the Empire as evil. Perhaps it’s due to his father dying, but rationally, it would make more sense to blame the politicians, much like his father did. But it is in the interests of the countries involved to vilify the Empire as much as possible, and so propaganda ensues, and Mary is called to action. His father pulled some strings to get his daughter into safety in the Unified States, but propaganda disagreed. Quite ironic that his death would become the deciding factor in her choosing against his dying wishes. Christianity tries to give meaning to suffering, through the idea of Sin. While in reality tragedy is free of illusions, the weak of mind will try to find a scapegoat to justify it. To Tanya, war is a meaningless tragedy for  both sides with no objective good or bad, but for Mary, who is suffering from her father’s death, seeks to find meaning in it.

Tanya is made an apostle of God (Being X) through being bestowed a holy relic, the Elinium Arms Type 95 Computation Orb. Combined with her no meager amounts of talent for warfare and magic capacity as a mage, this relic makes her quite strong as an individual. She gains a reputation as ‘The Devil of the Rhine’ after being put on the battlefield. At that point she is in a way made into a scapegoat, drawing the anger from the allied country soldiers, a microcosm of the world’s perception of the Empire. There is no objective duality of good and evil, but the underdog will try to subvert and vilify the opposition nonetheless.

Incidentally, the Devil, Satan, the Beast of Revelation, is sometimes portrayed as a seven-headed dragon, in the same exact way the Mouse King, opposing Marie and the Nutcracker, is portrayed as seven-headed in the play. I have no empirical data for this, but relating to seven, slave morality is very connected to the Seven Deadly Sins as well, with the have-nots perceiving things like appreciation for good food as Gluttony, and so on. The Devil, Lucifer, aims to rebel against God. As Tanya is a stubborn Nietzschean ‘God is Dead’ atheist who hates her freedoms being infringed on, her being presented as the rebellious Devil is appropriate. Tanya being in a sense ‘bigender’, or more accurately ‘bisex’, with the mind of a male and the body of a female, has parallels to Lucifer’s hermaphroditism. Whether the character identifies as a male or female ebbs and flows based on her psychological contamination.

Equality vs. Equity

Youjo Senki is a series very focused on economics. The topic of equality vs. equity can easily be superimposed on top of Nietzsche’s perspective on Christianity. ‘As the religion of pity, it elevates the weak over the strong’. Tanya herself is a go-getter liberal, not particularly sympathetic to people she perceives as incompetent. From a corporate perspective, the Empire could be seen as a well-performing business at the expense of relatively incompetent smaller ones. This is where the before-mentioned slave mentality comes into play, with the inferior companies (countries) seeking to undermine the masterful one. Christianity is an ideology of equity, while Nietzsche is an advocate for equal opportunity and appreciation for talent and proficiency. This is a major dichotomy between the belligerent countries and character duos like Tanya v Mary.

Tanya could be seen as Nietzche’s concept of the Übermensch in the story of Youjo Senki; she fills most of the boxes. Creator of new values in a changing world at war, futuristic, self-deterministic. Outside of her personality, she is outstanding in basically every way, being one of the most competent and mature fictional characters I have seen. ‘The people who eventually learn to create their lives anew will represent a new stage in human existence, the Übermensch -i.e., the personal archetype who, through the conquest of their own nihilism, themselves become a sort of mythical hero’. ‘Create their lives anew’ is a little bit on the nose, perhaps. Tanya, being shoved in a situation that would breed nihilism in any normal or average person, nonetheless pushes forward, never faltering. Sure, sometimes despairing, but nonetheless, always looking for a way out.

God is Dead

If god was alive he would not stand by as all the atrocities in the world are committed, therefore one must not exist. Only God or the Devil can alter universal laws, so this devil in front of me shall from here on be named as Being X. My own phrasing. It was something like that in the book.

Rationality, the Enlightenment, has killed God. The Enlightenment drove away the notions of dual and master-slave morality, the Seven Deadly Sins, and so on, in favor of reason. The Copernican Revolution, for example. Proving heliocentric theory correct through empirical data, instead of believing in geocentricism because the Bible and religious authorities told you so. This, in the long term, has led to religion losing relevance. Being X’s motivation is to rekindle lost faith in people through irrationality, in this case war. What better way is there to make one pray to God other than raining lead? Tanya’s complete refusal of this in the name of self-determination is a major characteristic worthy of the title of Übermensch. God shall stay dead.

The Nutcracker by the by, is a Christmas-themed play. Christmas is an interesting topic when paired with the themes of Youjo Senki, capitalism and rationality vs. religion and nationalism. The modern Christmas could be seen as a metaphor for capitalism taking over the receding Christianity. No wonder why Tanya, the God-cursing person she is, doesn’t mind the holiday. Incidentally, or perhaps not, Christmas is also the day Tanya bayonets Mary’s dad into the ocean. Perhaps a somewhat interesting connection when you think of all the nutcracker stuff from before. “Now there’s nothing in my way”, she says. Oh, the irony.

Universal Laws

Youjo Senki is set in a mostly non-fantasy 20th century alternate world Europe. The one difference is that there are mages thrown in. Basically, in the era of early 20th century, magic has been made into a science, and through interference created by funneling mana through a computation orb, you can cause reality to temporarily warp. This can then be used to shoot stuff out of guns, the weapons having already been proven an efficient way to dish out violence. But the Elinium Arms Type 95 Computation Orb, which is blessed by the power of God, can transfix mana in a permanent state. This technically makes it possible to warp reality permanently. This orb can only be used by Tanya. Only god or the devil can alter universal laws, as they say. This is another case in point of Tanya being presented as the Devil.

Whether it’s others perceiving Tanya as the Devil or Tanya perceiving Being X as the Devil, there is no objectively correct perception of good and evil. It’s all dictated by personal philosophy, nationalism and raison d’etat. Personally I feel like black and white scapegoating in morally grey scenarios is a particularly nasty type of slave morality, antithetical to the views of the main character at the very least. The minimum requirement of morale makes sense on a national level, of course, but I definitely feel a personal disgust at attitudes on the level of characters like Mary Sue. Blissful, benevolent depravity. Not to say Tanya is a better person as far as personality goes or anything, but I find her honesty and mental strength endearing and inspiring. The aesthetic of edge as well is a big part of why I love her, of course.

INVISIBLE HAND, VISIBLE TOOL

Causality is Supply & Demand, Ideology is the Packaging

Vol 7: ut sementem feceris, ita metes - As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

History Trajectory & Nazism

Now I know this talk of anti-equity and World War Germany and German words and so on might make you think of Nazis, but this story is in fact not about a fascist alternate world Germany, alright? One of the more low-key impressive parts about the writing of Youjo Senki is that the implied trajectory of history gets warped by our lovely fairy with her butterfly wings causing hurricanes on the other side of the world and so on. Yes, chaos theory! Tanya has knowledge of how history went last time around in a very similar world. She’s also an implied history & war buff. One of her first major marks on the world, or the country of the Empire, is publishing a paper on logistics regarding mobile supply depots, a suggestion to replace the older and less flexible system. Boring logistics alone can be enough to tip the scales in a total war where every available resource is being exploited by the military for the sake of victory. Just moving things around more efficiently matters a lot, especially for a country that has to defend against every direction on the country's borders. Being able to go into such depth with the inner workings of the military is a major part of the genius of this book series. 

But anyways. The trajectory of history is changed through Tanya’s battle victories and the few changes to the military she suggests. This is not to say that she can just run the military, of course. A part of why this series is so tense and unpredictable is because despite Tanya’s battle prowess, tactical genius and modern military knowledge, she is still stuck in the military ranking system. As a Lieutenant, a Major, or even a Colonel, she is still unable to fix everything wrong she sees with the military, or even most of it. But either way, she is able to change the course of history enough so that alternate world Germany never loses the simplified World War I. The years are somewhat different and there are less countries involved, but as far as the logical throughline of the story goes, the Empire would have lost at one point without Tanya’s successes in decisive battles or her improvements to the system here and there. Fascism in Germany grew in popularity largely because of their loss in World War I, but what if they never lost? We would have a less unambiguously evil Germany curb stomping countries one after the other, while slowly wearing itself thin economically through attrition of the young male working force and natural resources. History might have changed course, but what does causality have to say? Even if the country keeps winning its battles, what will be left of the home country afterwards?

Even if alternate world Germany is less evil than the Nazis, the countries under threat of it will fight it as if it didn’t matter. Because it doesn’t. Nazism was revealed to be as morally deplorable as it was only after the war. The countries against Germany were fighting out of raison d’etat, not moral high ground.

In effect, the Great War of Youjo Senki is a melding pot of events from WWI and WWII. There is no pause in between, because alternate world Germany never loses the fight. A deciding event in World War I was Germany sinking a civilian ship of the United States, souring the latter’s public consensus on the former and eventually leading to the economical giant declaring war. There is a scene in one of the volumes of Youjo Senki that can be juxtaposed with this. Tanya advises Lieutenant General Hans von Zettour, the Deputy Chief of the Service Corps of the Imperial General Staff regarding strategy on multiple occasions. Zettour is basically one of the leading minds in general military strategy, alongside his friend Kurt von Rudersdorf, Deputy Chief of Operations. She advises Zettour to not anger the citizens of the alternate world US, and it leads to Zettour admonishing Rudersdorf when he suggests they torpedo the courier ships of the Unified States supporting the Russy Federation, the country they are fighting at the time of the volume. Crisis averted, right? But the US is still on the side of the Federation, and would love an excuse to join the fight, as they have already invested on the currently losing side. Raison d’etat does not care who is in the right, you see.

The Empire keeps winning, but their economy turns into progressively more miserable tatters. And countries they’re still managing to keep out of the war are looking for the slightest excuse. It’s almost as if there is some Hand of God trying to guide history in a certain direction. The ultimate enemy of Tanya von Degurechaff is not any individual like Mary Sue or Comrade Loria, it is causality itself. She has to win with the losing deck. Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence, and so on.

In another stroke of irony, Tanya sort of inspires their archenemy, alternate Soviet Russia, the Russy Federation, to make wide-sweeping improvements to their military because of her actions. Alternate world Lavrentiy Beria, head of Internal Affairs and the secret police, basically the chief of the people sending their citizens to the gulag (concentration camps), becomes so horny for Tanya after seeing her raiding the capital that he becomes open-minded enough to make an alliance with alternate Britain, the Commonwealth. The military of the Federation rightly fears saying anything negative about the way the state is run, so their ability to wage war is compromised to say the least, in the beginning anyways. But because of this revolution of Loria’s crotch, the military makes improvements in leaps and bounds as well, leading to a much harder fight for the Empire. Something something fog of war. Incidentally, the reason why the Federation even declared war in this world was because of the nightmares Josef and Loria had about divine retribution from an apostle of God (Tanya). Getting horny for the girl that’s gonna turn you into swiss cheese in the end, the sublime taste for irony of this series is a sight to behold.

This alternate world could be seen as identical to the real world, with the topography and continents of the world map being identical to ours, except with one aspect wrenched in: magic. As chaos theory implies, adding even one element to the cause and effect of history, the slightly altered state and names of the countries could be explained away with this.

Adam Smith

Adam Smith is a key figure of the Enlightenment, and is said to be the father of capitalism. The term ‘Invisible Hand’ was actually first invented by him, and as established, economic incentive is a major driving force of the involved countries’ raison d’etat. In a sense, it could be said that it is more Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand than God’s in many of the cases. For one, it is in the best economic interests for the US to sell their weapons for profit to the Russy Federation and Commonwealth, so supply and demand comes into effect. In terms of causality, in the story of Youjo Senki, this could also be seen as the Hand of God, trying to keep history on its tracks, though it isn’t ever explicitly stated that Being X has any stakes in how history takes its course.

Adam Smith’s claim that ‘markets tend to work best when the government leaves them alone’ is well represented in the Imperial Army General Staff, boasting impressive military strategy and economic efficiency with little to no interference from the government, for better or worse. The Empire’s military is abstractly equated to a company in one sense. It could be even seen as a slight criticism of liberalism, as in the war, the country is letting itself be run by the military with no overall grand strategy. Letting your country be run by the companies, that’s late-stage capitalism. The disconnect between the populace and government and the military is a subject that starts being explored in the later volumes, and it eventually leads to the government interfering with the military. there is a chance the situation will eventually descend into a conflict that may lead to the country steering back towards its real world counterpart in terms of internal politics… Or maybe not. Supreme Command, in a sense, is incompetent, as they are not supplying what the army demands, which is peace through diplomacy. 

TONES UND ERFOLG

More Gushing

 Vol 9: omnes una manet nox - The Same Night Awaits Us All

Spiritual vs. Physical Faculties, Otherworld Brain Biology

There are two kinds of reincarnation types when it comes to character psychology: ones where the body affects the mind and ones where it does not. Even if you are reborn as a baby with memories of a past life, realistically, your brain is still that of a baby’s. What are the implications of that? In some series, the character can think clearly the moment they are born. In some, it’s vague and unclear. In Youjo Senki, it can be seen immediately, in the scene where she is born, and attains consciousness for the first time. She can vaguely think with the ego of an adult, but the limitations of the body’s brain are tangible.

This is delving pretty deep into biology, but bear with me here, I feel that it is quite interesting. A person’s brain’s synapses develop new connections deep into adult life, on top of the brain growing in size normally. Your nature and nurture will decide how the connections are made. But what if your spiritual mind is already the one of an adult? It’s not uncommon for your average reincarnated person who isn’t particularly impressive in their initial life to be considered a genius in their second, but in most cases it’s all mostly related to knowledge, not intuition. In the case of Youjo Senki, knowledge is certainly a large aspect of it, but it doesn’t really explain Tanya’s battle prowess. As far as the story explains you, the main character is a desk job salaryman and a bit of a history nerd, not some combat freak. He’s even said to be quite average in intellect, just a hard worker. The main character mentions ‘Tanya’s instincts’ at least once in the books. Youjo Senki is not a game-y series with RPG stats and cartoonish genius, it could pass off as a story from any country for any demographic if you took out the somewhat low-brow little girl part and the distinctly japanese illustrations. It does not lean on tropes in that sense. So why is Tanya so impressive? Because she’s the main character? Perhaps. Probably. But I love series where you can explain phenomena in the logic of the series itself, not through tropes. And here, with the information you are given, you can do exactly that. Tanya’s brain is special, because the stimulation it gets from an adult mind makes it develop in a way a normal child’s couldn’t. That’s my theory, anyway. She is the Übermensch.

Military Insight & Prose

You could technically say I have some authority on the quality of the writing! I am Finnish, you see, and have gone through mandatory military service, so I know more about the way the military feels than the average person. I’d like to say that the way things like coffee addiction, aggressive NCOs (sergeants etc.) yelling at privates, boot shining, rifle handling, military etiquette, socks for the cold, sleep deprivation, turning actions into automatized routine… and so on, are communicated in the text, feel real as hell. I felt it, because I’ve experienced all that. Now obviously, modern mandatory Finnish army service is probably like 10% as tough as a country at war’s, but that 10% gave me real appreciation for the writing, it’s that tangible.

Even unrelated to my service, researching all the references to historical battles, weaponry and tactics on Google gives me a hint as to how much research and insight went into the writing of the series. The way army ranks are used so proficiently, the way officer conduct is written in such a dry and witty fashion… Combined with the atmospheric and descriptive prose, it creates a very compelling and immersive reading experience. The parts where the text describes how good coffee smells and tastes to Tanya… I feel it, I smell it.

Yuri Silliness

Youjo Senki has some yuri undertones. Tanya isn’t a particularly sensual character, and her misgivings regarding her body makes her quite conflicted about the prospect of romance. So yeah, I don’t see romance happening, sadly. The closest character she is to is Serebryakov, or Visha, and their interactions are very cute. Great dynamic. What’s my point? I want romance, I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense. I want some wholesome Tanya x Visha, mmkay. Sadly, I don’t have any theories of how they’ll get together. It’s a pretty intolerant time period as well… At least their age gap is pretty small? This is the effect of looking at too much fan art. You have been warned.

Eye of the Dead Fish All the images of Tanya you’ve been eyeballing up to this point are drawn by the illustrator of the Youjo Senki light novel series, Shinobu Shinotsuki. While I have some mixed feelings about the way the illustrations fit the tone of the text and the quality of early illustrations, their cover art and design of Tanya are certainly a big contribution to the tone of the series. I certainly doubt that Youjo Senki would have taken off the way it did without the striking eyes of Shinotsuki’s Tanya. Their interpretation of the character as a disgruntled little girl with the eyes of a glassy dead fish, yet with a fierceful powerfulness, is perfect. While the manga and anime have made improvements here and there to the designs of technology and side characters, I can safely say nothing has topped Tanya’s novel design. It captures the series’ tone wonderfully.

OUTRO

Vol 8: in omnia paratus - Ready For All Things

I like writing things about stuff I like. Not just for clout or attention, it’s a great way to concretize and solidify my vague thoughts on the art I adore. Having written this, even if I never posted it, the wall of text has tons of value for me as experience, and whenever this series comes up in discussion, I have all these things I can say about it. Would recommend.

I’ve read 8 volumes of Youjo Senki, and I presume it will continue around until around double that count. Maybe even more, that would be nice. Can never have too much of a good thing, as long as it stays good anyway. I have little reason to think it won’t, with how thoroughly the author has proven themselves. The future looks grim for our tragic little Dionysus girl, but uh, I expect it to stay consistently interesting. Let’s hope she’s alive by the end.

“Let this be a golden era for the Reich… Even if it’s a twilight, we’ve got to show them that the sun will rise again. I’m counting on you, Colonel”

“We shall...make this a golden era for the Reich.”

“Good! Very good! Let us steel our resolve. We don’t seem to have much of a choice.”

“...Yes, let’s prepare ourselves just in case.” Tanya murmurs a reply.

SOURCES

1. Nutcracker: The Nutcracker - Wikipedia

2. Klärchen: Klärchen - English translation in English

3. Fritz: Fritz Definition & Meaning

4. The Devil: Devil - Wikipedia

5. Nietzsche on Christianity: The Antichrist (book)

6. Uber: Übermensch - Wikipedia

7. Transvaluation of values - Wikipedia.

8. Goddo is deed: God is dead - Wikipedia

9. Adam Smith: random googles & What is Adam Smith's Economic Theory? - Robinhood

10. Parts inspired by Jonas Ceika's Berserk/Nietzsche video: https://youtu.be/zxTwYdYzw8c