Tanya Pilgrim vs. The World! Saga of Tanya The Evil Season 1 Review

So to be honest, I almost want to split this into articles just so that it outpaces Fuuka as our most reviewed anime on the blog. If I did, you’d have this one which encompasses a review of the last half of the season post my last review, and a review of it as a whole. The second would simply be this GIF over and over again:

But in all seriousness its hard to do an adequate play by play of this second half. Things escalated from that psychotic little girl into full blown world war where pseudo-Germany (the Empire) takes on and curb stomps pseudo-Scandinavia (Entente Alliance) and pseudo-France (the Republic) through the use of some rather genius feints and tactical maneuvers. These are highly focused around Tanya’s battalion pretty much going in and doing their thing while supported by a more traditional army force, typical to how Marine Force Recon works irl, and is actually referenced as being the mandate of the 203rd Mage Battalion.

In the Entente Alliance the 203rd are airdropped into a northern port to surprise bomb the fething gak out of their main naval port, allowing the Empire’s naval forces to enter the fjord unmolested and in this, Tanya once again encounters Colonel Sioux (who was the commander of the force she met on her first mission) and takes his machine gun after bayonetting him in the face and dropping him into the freezing ocean, a mortal wound that would take an act of god to recover from.

The next encounter had the 203rd acting in a rather dark toned manner. Being called upon to suppress resistance forces in a main hub of train stations, we are brought to a scenario very reminiscent of our limited war policies in the middle east for today’s military. Very serious and real tones are brought up weighing irregular forces violating international law and executing prisoners vs collateral damage and treating what could be a standard civilian as a valid combatant. This even has one of the officers under Tanya bringing up issue with the orders to open fire on fleeing civilians. Needless to say this episode really took us in a serious direction that left me realizing this show had some serious depth to it.

After this encounter, we are shown that lo and behold, an act of god Being X occurred and Colonel Mary Sioux not only survived his wounds but was imbued with the same blessings as our dear Tanya. Needless to say he becomes obsessed with the thought of killing Tanya to the point he doesn’t even tell his damn family that he’s alive. (Seriously, the hell man?) But he basically goes about tracking down Tanya while she goes off and continues beating down the enemies of the Empire.

So onto the coup de grace, where Tanya and her battalion perform the pivotal strike to decapitate the HQ of the Republic. Through the use of literally strapping themselves to V1 rockets, they pass well beyond the battlefield lines to the deep area of enemy held territory while the army supposedly retreated. After this decapitation strike pulls off, the ground that was given is then subsequently blown up with a metric fethton of explosives, allowing the mechanized infantry of the empire to circle around and engage the remaining forces of the now leaderless Republic forces. Its here at the pinnacle of success that Tanya again encounters Colonel Sioux and his bitching trench gun (which for some reason is banned by international law but oh well). A beautifully done fight scene later, we are given a mirror of Tanya’s tactic of using Self-Destruct but unfortunately for Colonel Sioux, its not very effective…

At this, we see the end of the war supposedly with the Republic forces withdrawing and retreating, leaving the capital of Parise unguarded and ripe for the taking. Tanya realized however that she could end the war opposed to simply stopping it by taking out the last of the Republican forces under General Ludo. She is stopped however when an armistice is signed and spends an episode basically trying to prove she’s right and finally being sent on deployment when she’s proven not a crazy person. However instead of being all “I told you so.” Tanya takes the new assignment to harass and attack the “Free Republic” forces with gusto.

So once again, I can’t emphasize how in a season of sequels, comedy, and serious shows Tanya is my favorite and might even be my bid for Anime of the Year. The art, sound, and most of all Voice Acting is just spectacular. I know for one I am going to be diving into the light novels and seeing where this story is going to be going and the anime’s changes against the source material and I hope that this can convince you to give the show a shot. So leave a comment and/or a like or these guy’s will conquer your country and steal your beaches.