The Saga Of Tanya The Evil Deus Lo Vult Read Online

The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1 (Light Novel): Deus Lo Vult by Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki Overview - High above the blood- and mud-soaked trenches, a young girl pits herself against army mages in high stakes aerial duels with bullets, spells, and bayonets. Well, OK, one human. Pretty much just Visha. But you have to start somewhere. The Saga of Tanya the Evil is a rich and rewarding read, provided you spend the time to plough through it, and don’t mind Tanya’s constant first/third person perspective switches.

• The Saga Of Tanya The Evil Deus Lo Vult Read Online English

The Saga Of Tanya The Evil Deus Lo Vult Read Online English

The Saga of Tanya the Evil, known in Japan as Yōjo Senki (幼女戦記, literally 'The Military Chronicles of a Little Girl'), is a Japanese light novel series written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki. It began serialization online in 2012 on the user-generated novel publishing website Arcadia. Enterbrain acquired the series and since then has published nine volumes since October 31, 2013. A manga adaptation with art by Chika Tōjō began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine from April 26, 2016. An anime television series adaptation by NUT aired from January 6, 2017 to March 31, 2017. A theatrical film taking place after the events of the TV anime series premiered on February 8, 2019.

• 2Characters
• 3Media

Plot[edit]

An unnamed atheist Japanese salaryman, in the moment of being murdered by a disgruntled subordinate who he had fired due to poor performance at work, is confronted by a entity that could stop time which he refers to as 'Being X' or god, who condemns the man for not having 'faith'. He is sentenced to be reborn in a world that is similar to World War I Europe, mixed with early aspects of World War II and magic, in an empire torn apart by countless wars with all nearby countries. The salaryman is reborn as an orphaned girl, Tanya Degurechaff. According to Being X, if Tanya either does not die a natural death or refuses to have faith in Him, her soul will leave the cycle of reincarnation and will be sent to hell for the countless sins that Tanya has committed in her previous life. In search for an escape, Tanya decides to enter into the Empire's Mages Division and fight in the war, hoping to reach a high enough rank as fast as possible to remain far from the battlefield, and in this way avoid the risk of being killed. Even if she's now forced to speak with a young girl's lisp, Tanya soon turns into a ruthless soldier who prioritizes efficiency and her own career over anything else, even the lives of those beneath her, especially those that get on her bad side.

Characters[edit]

Empire[edit]

Tanya von Degurechaff (ターニャ・フォン・デグレチャフTānya fon Degurechafu)

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki^[3] (Japanese); Monica Rial^[4] (English)

Tanya is a young blonde, blue-eyed girl who is the reincarnation of a cold-hearted, atheist and social-darwinistic Japanese salaryman (briefly voiced by Kōsuke Toriumi in Japanese, and Josh Grelle in English). She is a mage with magical powers that enable her to fly and fire explosive bullets from guns. Compared to others, Tanya has a high latent magical ability, and is the only one capable of using an experimental Type-95 operation orb due to Being X's interference. She controls a battalion of elite mages whose main purpose is to overwhelm enemy forces while also remaining highly mobile and relatively small. Tanya is quite ruthless and intolerant of failings in others, much the same as in her previous life, and employs several extreme punishments and training methods. After she graduated from the War College as one of the Twelve Knights, she was granted the title of von. By the end of TV series her rank is Major.

Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov (Visha) (ヴィクトーリヤ・イヴァーノヴナ・セレブリャコーフ (ヴィーシャ)Vīkutōriya Ivuānovuna Sereburyakōfu (Vīsha))

Voiced by: Saori Hayami^[3] (Japanese); Jeannie Tirado^[4] (English)

Viktoriya is a Second Lieutenant in the Imperial Army and serves under Tanya Degurechaff, and later becomes her adjutant. Different from other characters from the Empire, Viktoriya is a refugee from the Revolution of the Rus' Union and her family was originally a member of the Rus aristocracy. Having served under Tanya during the Battle of the Rhine, Viktoriya is more familiar with Tanya's true personality, to which she shows fear, but also respect. As a result of knowing Tanya, Viktoriya is more able to keep up with Tanya compared to her other soldiers. However, despite knowing Tanya's side character, Viktoriya seems to believe that Tanya actually cares for her subordinates and her harsh treatment of them, is to ultimately ensure their survival. In the manga, Viktoriya's 'particular' point of view of Tanya's character, seem to have started when Viktoriya, during her first true battle, is saved by Tanya at the last second, who (to hide her enjoyment in killing the enemy soldiers) quoted General Robert E. Lee, saying to Viktoriya 'It is well that war is so horrible, otherwise men would grow fond of it', starting the misunderstanding.

Erich von Rerugen (エーリッヒ・フォン・レルゲンĒrihhi fon Rerugen) / Erich von Lergen

Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki^[3] (Japanese); J. Michael Tatum^[4] (English)

He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Imperial Army and has known Tanya since she joined the military. He has seen Tanya's true nature during her time in training, and views her as a monster in a little girl's form.

His last name is spelled 'Lergen' in English light novel translation.

Kurt von Rudersdorf (クルト・フォン・ルーデルドルフKuruto fon Rūderudorufu)

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (Japanese); Greg Dulcie^[4] (English)

He is the Deputy Chief of Operations in the Imperial General Staff Office.

Hans von Zettour (ハンス・フォン・ゼートゥーアHansu fon Zētūa)

Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka^[3] (Japanese); Mark Stoddard^[4] (English)

He is the Deputy Chief of Logistics in the Imperial General Staff Office.

Legedonia[edit]

Anson Sue (アンソン・スーAnson Sū)

Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (Japanese); Jarrod Greene (English)

He is the captain of the 5th Aerial Mage Wing. He has a daughter called Mary Sue. He is later promoted to the grade of Colonel after the death of his superior officer. In the anime, he is believed to have been killed in battle by Tanya, during the Battle of the Orse Fjord. Later it is revealed that he actually survived and had vision of God ('Being X') who told him to kill the 'Devil'. In order to achieve his objective, he accepted to be part of an Allied Kingdom mage special force, managing to corner Tanya and her battalion over the sea. However, though in the end, he almost succeed in killing Tanya, even willing to blow himself up to kill her, through Viktoriya's intervention, Anson failed to kill her and eventually died in his own explosion.

Other[edit]

Being X (存在XSonzai Ekkusu)

Voiced by: Hideaki Tezuka (Japanese); Bill Jenkins (English)

An entity that claims itself to be Creator (創造主, Sōzōsha) or God. After a philosophical argument with a Japanese Salaryman, it reincarnates the him into Tanya in hopes that she will come to believe in God. The name 'Being X' is designated by Tanya who does not believe in the existence of God. It is characterized as frustrated with the increasing faithlessness in the modern world. Occasionally it converses with Tanya to taunt her or see if she has come to believe.

Media[edit]

Light novels[edit]

The novels are written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki. It was initially serialized on the web novel hosting website Arcadia,^[5] before Enterbrain's acquisition. The first volume was released on October 31, 2013, and as of September 29, 2018, ten volumes have been released. A drama CD was released with the third volume.^[6]

Manga[edit]

A manga adaptation with art by Chika Tōjō began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine from April 26, 2016, and twelve volumes have been released.^[7][8]

Anime[edit]

An anime television series adaptation by NUT aired from January 6, 2017^[9][10] to March 31, 2017. Crunchyroll has licensed the series in North America.^[11] The opening theme is 'JINGO JUNGLE' by Myth & Roid and the ending theme is 'Los! Los! Los!' by Aoi Yūki as Tanya Degurechaff.^[3]

Film[edit]

An anime film based on the franchise was announced in January 2018.^[12] The film saw a number of the staff and cast of the television series reprise their roles,^[12] and was a direct sequel to the series.^[13] The film premiered on February 8, 2019.^[14] The film received a limited U.S. theater release on May 16, 2019 by Crunchyroll.^[15] Crunchyroll and Anime Limited screened the film at MCM London Comic Con on May 26, 2019.^[16] Crunchyroll will also screen the film at Supanova Expo in Sydney and Perth in Australia on June 23 and June 30, 2019 respectively.^[17]

Reception[edit]

The light novels and manga had a combined 3 million copies in print as of April 2018.^[18]

References[edit]

1. ^Hodgkins, Crystalyn (December 29, 2016). 'Yōjo Senki TV Ad Previews MYTH&ROID's Opening Theme'. Anime News Network. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
2. ^'Crunchyroll Announces Winter 2017 Anime Lineup'. Crunchyroll. January 20, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
3. ^ ^abcde'Yōjo Senki: Saga of Tanya the Evil Anime's Staff, More of Cast Revealed'. Anime News Network. November 24, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
4. ^ ^abcde'Funimation Reveals English Dub Cast For Saga of Tanya the Evil Anime'. Anime News Network. January 22, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
5. ^'幼女戦記'. dic.nicovideo.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved November 14, 2016.
6. ^'『幼女戦記』第3巻の帯に五十嵐裕美さん、後藤ヒロキさん、石塚運昇さん、金元寿子さんが出演するサウンドドラマのURLが記載！'. Animate Times (in Japanese). Retrieved November 14, 2016.
7. ^'The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1 (manga)'. Hachette Book Group. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
8. ^幼女戦記(12) (in Japanese). Kadokawa. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
9. ^'Yōjo Senki Light Novel Series Gets TV Anime'. Anime News Network. January 28, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
10. ^'Yōjo Senki TV Anime's Teaser Video Previews 'Monster' Protagonist'. Anime News Network. September 30, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
11. ^'Crunchyroll, Funimation to Stream Saga of Tanya the Evil, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Hand Shakers, More'. Anime News Network. January 3, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
12. ^ ^ab'Saga of Tanya the Evil Light Novels Get Anime Film'. Anime News Network. January 6, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
13. ^'Saga of Tanya the Evil Film Will Be A New Sequel to TV Anime'. Anime News Network. January 7, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
14. ^Ressler, Karen (October 9, 2018). 'Saga of Tanya the Evil Sequel Film Reveals 2nd Key Visual, February 8 Premiere'. Anime News Network. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
15. ^'Crunchyroll Brings Saga of Tanya the Evil (Youjo Senki) Anime Movie To U.S. Theaters'. Gojinshi. 2019-04-13. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
16. ^Graves, Jeremy (May 20, 2019). 'UK Premiere of Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie at MCM London'. Anime Limited. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
17. ^'Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie'. Supanova Expo. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
18. ^Hodgkins, Crystalyn (May 7, 2018). 'Roundup of Newly Revealed Print Counts for Manga, Light Novel Series (March - May 2018)'. Anime News Network. Retrieved May 18, 2018.

External links[edit]

• Official website‹See Tfd›(in Japanese)
• The Saga of Tanya the Evil (light novel) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/YoujoSenki

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A preteen girl stands on the battlefield. With blond hair, azure eyes, and small stature, her presence seems like a mockery.. but she's anything but that. Her name is Tanya Degurechaff and she's an Imperial Aerial Sorceress, and one of the best. Despite her innocent looks, do not expect any mercy from her at all; cold and calculating, she is a force to be reckoned with.

How could a child become a hardened soldier like that? Was that the result of her fatherland's imperialistic doctrines, which robbed her of her childhood? Or is she a tragic victim of the horrors of war?

No, the truth is much stranger and far more terrifying. For she was.. a male HR manager in modern Japan. Rational and utilitarian, he would restructure his company and fire employees as needed without remorse. That came to an end when one of the people he let off, in anger, pushed him in front of an oncoming train. After his untimely demise, he came face to face with a being calling itself God.. with the salaryman finding it impossible, as what kind of god would allow such a world of absurdities? Calling him 'Being X', he went into an argument with it on the lack of faith in humanity, or rather that it needs no faith. This angered Being X, who decided to impart an ironic fate on the recently deceased – for he, a man who values logic and stability over all else, was reincarnated in a world of magic and constant warfare. And in the body of a cute girl, to twist the knife in, all to teach him a lesson in piety.

Now, Tanya finds herself with the memories of her previous life intact, in service of an imperialistic country that is surrounded by hostile neighbors on all sides. On the front lines filled with trenches, mud and corpses not unlike those of World War I, but with the addition of magic, the young sorceress does not despair. In fact, she sees perfect opportunities in her new 'career', which she plans to use without question. With efficiency as her top priority, she flies into the battlefield with a wicked smile.

Youjo Senki (War Chronicles of A Little Girl) is a Light Novel series created by an author under the pseudonym Carlo Zen in 2013. In 2016 it received a manga adaptation by Toujou Chika, whose previous work consist of the Code Geass: Oz the Reflection spin-off series. It has also received an Animated Adaptation under the title Youjo Senki: Saga of Tanya the Evil, premiering on January 6th, 2017. It is the first show produced by studio NUT, which is mostly compromised of talents from Gainax and Madhouse. It is available for worldwide streaming on Crunchyroll. Funimation's Simuldub began on Jan 23, 2017, and a new dubbed episode is released every Monday, here. A spinoff manga Youjo Senki Restaurant came out in December 2017. In the same month, Yen Press began publishing an American localization of both the manga and the light novel under the title The Saga of Tanya The Evil through its Yen On imprint.

For another series that also combines sorcery with 20th-Century-eque warfare, see Izetta: The Last Witch.

The main characters are part of the crossover Isekai Quartet, alongside the casts of Konosuba, Re:Zero and Overlord (2012).

• Absurd Cutting Power: A Mage's magic-powered blade is capable of mutilating bodies effortlessly. In the manga, Tanya is shown cutting a plane apart with hers.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Everyone in Tanya's group looks prettier in the manga version.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 8 focuses on 2nd Lieutenant Warren Grantz in Tanya's battalion. In addition to seeing the war through his eyes and the kind of intense moral conflict his superior seems apathetic to, zero insight is provided regarding what Tanya is thinking throughout the entire episode – especially significant, considering almost all the rest of the story is given alongside her internal monologue.
  • Half a chapter in the manga and a section in the light novel is focused on a Perspective Flip of Captain Ugar, Tanya's classmate and competitor in Military College. As the father of a newborn daughter, he confronts Tanya on the issue of her status as a Child Soldier. Ugar's perspective represents the thoughts of many soldier-parents in regards to Tanya in both the light novel and the manga.
• Adult Fear: Aside from the sheer circumstances of sending a nine-year-old girl to the trenches of World War I, Tanya invokes this in people heavily by her actions. Her outwardly cherubic appearance, apparent Patriotic Fervor, and calm resolve make her an apparently model soldier, but many people around her note uncomfortably that they have daughters or sisters around her age, and Tanya actively exploits it for her career. The idea that your child could turn out the same is chilling to any parent.
  Lehrgen had no intention of blaming OCS, but he still wanted to question them whether they were grooming Mages or creating killer dolls.
• Alternate Universe: Being X purposely reincarnates the main character in such a world. Tanya herself notes that its almost an exact copy of her original world at the time of the early 20th century, but with a heavy dose of Fantasy Counterpart Culture and magic.
• Arc Number: The number 11 is prevalent in the chapters that take place 40 years after the war. Everything from the Justice major arcana in tarot to certain words that contain 11 letters to justify the eleven x's used to censor out words.
• Arc Words: The phrase Deus lo vult ('God Wills It') tends to appear whenever Being X directly interferes with Tanya's life.
• Artistic License – Religion: The way 'Being X' is described, at least in the animated adaptation, is very similar to the Abrahamic God, but the whole concept of reincarnation is something common in East Asian religions such as Buddhism. This is especially relevant, as Tanya in her previous life was a atheistic Japanese man. ^note
  • The manga all but outright states it's the Abrahamic God, and helpfully brings up the Ten Commandments. Later, it also introduces deities from other major religions of earth and they co-operate in a council, but whether they are of equal rank to Being X or not isn't quite clear.
• Art Shift: To Mood Whiplash levels in the manga. It ranges from normal artwork one would expect in the story's genre, to Shoujo style, a South Park parody, and the use of Petting Zoo People to refer to the Empire and the other nation's military forces.
  • The special BD Omake chapters have the manga artist use the anime's art style instead.
• Art-Style Dissonance: Considering how grim and cynical war is portrayed in this series (not much different from the real World War I and World War II), the covers of the Light Novel and most art in the manga may be a little too far on the cute side (especially Tanya herself). The anime subverts this, by making the characters look decidedly more psychotic.
• Badass Crew: The 203rd Imperial Aerial Mage Wing/Battalion is quickly gaining this reputation. Their exploits include:
  • Completing a training course that left every higher level officer who learned about it chilled to the bone.
  • Routing 3 infantry divisions (50,000 troops) all by themselves (48 mages), capturing the enemy HQ, and then raiding the enemy's capital city, all in the same day.
  • Driving off 3 wings of mage troops, 2 further reinforcing mage squadrons, and a bomber squadron, again all by themselves.
  • Neutralizing the defenses of the Oslo Fjord, despite intervention by an opposing mage wing, within 30 minutes with no other support from friendly forces.
  • Serving as part of the rear guard of the entire Rhine Front as they withdraw.
  • Being the first human beings to be inserted into enemy territory via ballistic missile.
  • Successfully destroying the Rhine Front's communication's HQ in a Suicide Mission and returning with all their deployed manpower.
  • Lampshaded by the Northern Front command center. Their performance parameters are so good, they render other Mage units obsolete.
• Batman Gambit: Tanya, when reaching the Dacian weapons factory, is aware that she must broadcast a warning to the workers below in order to avoid violating international treaties, but she doesn't want them to leave or set up defenses. So she uses her most cutesy, ridiculously girly voice in a mocking message to the Dacians, ensuring she won't be taken seriously, while still rigorously adhering to the treaty's wording.
• Birthday Episode: While not a traditional birthday episode, Episode 6 takes place during September 24th, which Tanya offhandedly notes to her men is her birthday, with the enemy sending her live targets as a birthday gift.
• Book-Ends: How season 1 of the anime ends, with the last scene of episode 12 mirroring the first episode with Lehrgen expressing his opinion to the brass that Tanya is a monster in the form of a little girl. However, in contrast to the first episode where Lehrgen is worried about entrusting a vicious sociopath with too much power, it becomes an Ironic Echo as Lehrgen is now using it as a compliment, showing that he can't think of a better person than the cold, calculating Tanya to serve as their spearhead for achieving victory against difficult odds.
• Brand X: Ama-san, which shows up in Tanya's memories whenever the practicality of standardizing delivery packages comes up.
• Brick Joke: In episode 9, a warrant officer named Teyanen is seen in a medic tent clutching his stomach and crying in pain. In The Stinger, Tanya writes a letter to Teyanen's family informing them of his incapacitation and transferal to a hospital, finding it humiliating to have lost her subordinate to a spoiled potato of all things.
• Bullying a Dragon: Surrounded by potential enemy nations or not, there's little question that the militaristic Empire is the strongest among its neighbors. Most attempts to invade it are met with little success, and it can easily crush any single opposing country in a war without external interference as well as holding its own against multiple nations at once.. though none of this stops the horribly outdated Grand Duchy of Dacia from declaring war on the Empire and getting promptly steamrolled for it.
• Canon Foreigner: The two corporals under Tanya in the first episode, Harald and Kurst, are canon characters, however their role is expanded in the anime in order to establish Tanya's character. In other media, not only were their faces shadowed, but their deaths are merely mentioned from Viktoriya's perspective in a casual manner. It was also implied that they didn't even survive for as long as their anime counterparts did on the front, as Tanya immediately gave them up the moment they show signs of insubordination. Due to the delicate situation of their overtaxed squadron and Tanya's skill, the two's transfer to the rear was done for the sake of keeping order, and there's no concern when they died in ignominy, as shown in the anime.
• Cassandra Truth: The Republic in the manga and light novels, when they spread intel about the Devil of the Rhine to their allies because Tanya's war exploits are far beyond any standard Aerial Mage they've ever known. Neither the Entente nor the Allied Kingdom say anything, out of respect for the Republic's status as one of the Great Powers – while they didn't refute the Republic's claim, inwardly they think the Republican army is hallucinating from stress.
• Cast from Calories: Mages in general are obligated to eat high-calorie foods, comparable to overeating even in an age of abundance, because of their high energy consumption.
• Casting Gag:
  • While it could be a coincidence, it's not the first time we hear Aoi Yuuki (Tanya) voicing a no-nonsense sword-welding flying girl with a very deep voice, except this time she's more insane than ever. It's also not the first time she's voiced someone wise beyond her years^note if not much older than she appears.
  • The same goes in the Latin American Spanish dub, when Tanya's Mexican voice actress (Jocelyn Robles) already voiced another Ax-Crazy girl before.
• Child Soldiers: The Empire is not above enlisting children in their army, especially if they possess high magical aptitude like Tanya does. However, there are various individuals who are disturbed by her presence in the military, such as Tanya's academic rival in the Military College due to his wife having recently given birth to a daughter.
• Clothing Damage: In the manga, Tanya seems to suffer this both times she encounters Anson Sioux, once in Norden during her border patrol-turned-skirmish which started the war, and during the Battle of Orse Fjord; both times she's left nearly naked. Both times, Barbie Doll Anatomy was in effect.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the anime, visual effects of active mage spells are colored. Depending on which side the mage is allied to, they may be yellow/green (Empire), blue (Entente), fuchsia (Allied Kingdom), or purple (the Republic).
• Conscription: Tanya's extreme magical aptitude meant her only options were either this or volunteering anyway – and at least the latter means she can be sent to officer school almost immediately. On the other hand, Viktoriya was a magically-talented refugee who was conscripted into the army.
• Contrived Coincidence: The ultimate result of the Albion attempt to aid the Legadonians. Due to a string of genuinely unrelated coincidences, they are convinced that the Empire sees them as their enemy even despite their neutrality, that the Empire is basically mocking them by telling them they have access to their entire intelligence network and deploying their elites to train them against Albion targets. In fact, so many unconnected events give them such an utterly nightmarish vision of the Empire, that the Albion brass immediately pushes their allies in the Unified States to create an elite wing of their own.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: The Allied Kingdom, desperate to get their hands on anything to pin on the Empire after the failure of Arene, begins a big spying operation just as the Empire starts a big counterspy operation to lure Republic forces into a different battlefield.
• Cosmic Plaything: Being X reincarnates Tanya into her current life and is implied to be responsible for her magical aptitude, which in turn forces her into joining the military. When she doesn't crack under pressure and offer her faith to Being X, it simply manipulates the people around her and forces her to pray to it in order to survive and battle, and it's heavily suggested (in the anime, stated outright) that it's also deliberately going out of its way to spark a World War against her country.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tanya's mage battalion sees its first combat action against an outdated army that might as well have walked out of the previous century. The 203rd Wing winds up devastating three whole infantry divisions, sacking their command post, and blowing up an armaments factory in the enemy capital with zero support and minimal effort.
  Tanya's monologue:Modern warfare can be summed up as the brutality of a nation's power above all. I'll shatter the Army of Grand Duchy of Dacia like a Conquistador!
  • This is also how most solo fights against the Devil of the Rhine post-Elenium 95 go.
• Cycle of Revenge: The blind spot that the pragmatic and rational folks at the Empire's Strategy HQ painfully realize by the end of the anime's first season. Which Tanya points out is also what brought her demise in previous life, an extreme reaction against rationalism. Their surrounding countries suffer from Revenge Myopia and forget the Empire only expanded their territory at all as a direct result of provocation from their neighbors, rightfully defending their own territory and suffering just as much throughout the war if not more.
  • And we still see it continue, with Anson Sioux's daughter Mary joining the Unified States Military in order to fight against Tanya to avenge her father.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The Empire as a whole seems to slowly following Tanya's cynical outlook as they are pitted against the world for protecting their rightful territory and come to a bitter realization they really will have to crush their enemies completely without mercy or else suffer the consequence as Tanya said.
• Dare to Be Badass: Tanya writes her recruiting notice to emphasize how dangerous a rapid-response battalion would be in the hopes of discouraging recruits and lessening her workload (or better yet, preventing the battalion from ever forming). Instead, her high reputation and the War Is Glorious attitude of the time results in every mage in the army taking it as a challenge and burying her in applications.
• Depending on the Writer: The male salaryman from whom Tanya was reincarnated was considerably more sympathetic in the light novel, than in the manga or anime; the man he had fired was terminated only after rejecting numerous drug rehabilitation programs, despite the fact that his severe drug addiction was affecting both his work and his lifespan.
  • Being X also varies wildly in personality: an incompetent Beleaguered BureaucratClueless Boss in the original light novel, an Evil Is PettyJerkass God in the manga, or a highly unsympathetic Obstructive Bureaucrat with hints of serious Sanity Slippage in the anime.
  • The manga suggests Tanya's prayers during her use of the Elenium Type-95 are involuntary or subconscious, whereas she seems much more aware of what she's saying in the anime (aside from the first time she successfully activates it). Additionally, the manga portrays Tanya as relying mainly on spells cast without a weapon to fight, while the anime portrays her as always using a rifle in combat like other mages.
• Despite the Plan: The original plan to engage the remnant of the Entente's navy called for the Empire's subs to hit them first with torpedoes, allowing the mages to swoop in and finish the ships. However, the shoddy torpedoes detonated long before making contact with the enemy ships, allowing the Entente's marine mages to sortie with anti-sub charges. However, at that moment the Empire's mages flew in as intended, slaughtering the Entente's marines and taking on the ships themselves. Ironically, the Albion intelligence saw this as if this was the plan all along, as the sudden explosion of the failed torpedoes allowed all the forces to focus on the Imperial subs, allowing for the 203rd Squadron to swoop in completely undetected, making it easier for the 203rd to do their mission. In fact, had it not been for the failed torpedoes exploding, Tanya and her squadron would have likely missed the Entente ships due to the weather conditions at the time.
• Deus ex Machina: Deliberately invoked in-story by Being X whenever it takes a direct hand in messing with Tanya.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When the salaryman is contacted by a deity-like being that claims to be God in his last moments, he says he rejects the existence of God to its face, instead addressing it as 'Being X', takes shots at the business model it uses to oversee the entire human population, and tells it that only weak people in desperate times would pray to a god. He gets reincarnated into what's effectively World War I Germany as a child soldier for his troubles.
• 'Do It Yourself' Theme Tune: The first ending theme is performed by Aoi Yuuki, the voice of Tanya.
• 'Double, Double' Title: The first ending theme, Los! Los! Los!, German for 'Go! Go! Go!'.
• Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: The anime shows mages of different nations using very distinctive flying gear: a pair of skis (Entente), a metallic horse (the Republic), a broom (Allied Kingdom), and a wired boot (the Empire).
• Emergency Cargo Dump: Played with by Entente's bombers, as what they threw away are their bombs rather than cargo, and they didn't do it to slow a crash landing but instead to increase their speed in order to flee from Tanya. Subverted in the end, though, as Tanya shot most of them down anyway.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: The underlying philosophical conflict of Youjo Senki in regards to its application to war. The main character of this story, Tanya von Degurechaff, is the embodiment of ruthless logic and pragmatism who finds herself opposed by those who are more inclined to let their selfish emotions rationalize war.
  • Tanya's first incarnation was murdered by a person ruled by emotions. This same person was fired by Tanya for logical, ethical reasons and, in the heat of the moment, never considered how committing murder would ruin his life in the long term.
  • Most of the countries opposing the Empire are motivated by honor and patriotism while the Empire itself places more value (compared to them) on reason and pragmatism. Despite the Empire being the Designated Villain of their world, its enemies are more likely to display undesirable traits such as Irrational Hatred, Moral Myopia, Revenge Myopia, making these countries look petty, hateful and selfish compared to the Empire.
  • Being X relies on emotions, especially Blind Obedience to itself, to manipulate humans faithful to it in any form. Tanya's belief in logic and pragmatism is a stark opposition of what Being X believes humans should focus on - emotions and faith. Being X reincarnated Tanya in a Crapsack World with the goal of eventually making her lose faith in pragmatism and embrace it as her beloved savior.
• Enemy Mine: The Empire is without a doubt the strongest country on the continent, and no other country wants to bear the full might of that on their own. Which is the whole reason why Entente lasted for as long as they did, with help from Great Powers at the cost of their dignity. Even the far weaker Dacia declared war on the Empire, all in the name of international cooperation.
• Epic Fail: The Allied Kingdom forces collect the operational orb from the Republic commander in charge of the defense of Arene, hoping to pull either propaganda data showing the Empire initiated the massacre unprovoked and/or hard data on the Devil of the Rhine's magical signature. Unfortunately, the thing's busted, so no combat data can be retrieved, and the few remaining images paint a damning image.. of the Republic forces, showing the Empire attempted to present a ceasefire and a call for civilians to evacuate, only for the partisans to kill their captive Empire soldiers, signaling that there were no remaining 'civilians' in Arene.
• Evil vs. Evil: The underlying conflict in the story is between Tanya, a sadistic, self-serving soldier with no empathy for other humans, and Being X, a manipulative, uncaring, deity-like being. Tanya does everything she can to defy and spite Being X, who in return is determined to break her resolve and make her worship it completely.
• Eye Color Change: When mages invoke powerful magic, their irises change to shining yellow or blue. Also, when Tanya was overloading her computational jewel to self-destruct, her eyes became red.
  • Episode 5 gives several close shots of Tanya officer with various darker eye colors. The post-ending episode gives as a shot of them working on a long-range artillery spell with their eyes of shining yellow and blue. Tanya's eye color swings between blue and green both under normal circumstances and when using her core, but when she uses its full power, her eyes become shining yellow. In Episode 7, we again have close-shots of Tanya's officers, but with slightly different eye colors (and without the shining effect). It isn't clear if there is any real convention here, or if the studio just messed up.
  • The anime shows Anson's normally brown eyes changing to the same golden shade as Tanya's after he survives his second meeting with her. When he tries to self-destruct in their third meeting, his eyes also glow red. And finally in the 12th episode, when Anson's daughter declares her intent to enlist and fight the empire, her eyes glow gold as well, hinting that Being X has now chosen her as its latest pawn.
• Exact Words: With Tanya's help, the Empire comes up with a justification to shell cities during wartime, by interpreting partisan actions against them as a sign all civilians have been evacuated and only fighters and soldiers remain.
• Faceless Goons: Mostly averted in the anime, but in the manga most unnamed characters are merely shown as figures with shadowed faces.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: It's hard to believe such a cute little girl is actually one of the Empire's most accomplished soldiers, let alone that she tried to ram a bayonet through a cadet's face for disobedienceor wrote a thesis on how to exploit wartime lawsand legally use artillery against cities.
• Fantastic Nuke: In the battle that earned her the moniker of the 'Devil of the Rhine', Tanya casts a 'defusive magical explosion' upon enemy soldiers. If the massive explosion didn't kill her enemies, then either the oxygen deprivation from the resultant vacuum or else carbon monoxide poisoning would.
• Fantasy Conflict Counterpart: With the way the tactics are employed, it clearly evokes World War I, but with an addition of flying sorcerers. Interestingly, Tanya is completely aware that she lives in a world extremely similar to her own in the early 1900s; she not only compares situations with battles she studied in her previous life to make decisions, but proposes a thesis drawing directly on her own knowledge of World War I.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Of early 20th century / early 1920's / World War I Europe. The Empire is clearly Imperial Germany, while the Republic is clearly France, the Triple Entente is the countries of the Scandinavian peninsula, the Grand Duchy of Dacia is Romania, the Allied Kingdom is the United Kingdom, and the Rus Union is Russia, more specifically the Tsarist one which recently underwent the 'transition' to the Soviet version.
• Fate Worse than Death: What awaits Tanya, if she fails to survive her current reincarnation.
  • Also how Tanya's subordinates think of her when she gave them Training from Hell, especially after Tanya revives Grantz by slamming him in the torso to clear his airways and get him breathing again. So they jump to the conclusion that Tanya won't let them get peace in death and will give them this trope if they dare to drop out. Unbeknownst to them, Tanya is just making sure no one died just because Zettour ordered her to be a bit rough^note and leaves it open to them to quit the training.
• Food Porn: Every now and then, the manga shows a particularly lavish illustration of the food Tanya's eating.
• Foregone Conclusion: Chapter 9 of the manga and the end of Volume 1 in the light novel show that the Empire did suffer a similar fate as its Real Life-counterpart did: defeat and post-war chaos. However, the characters shown make no reference to any World War II, suggesting that the chaos was either less severe or else handled differently in some manner.
• Forever War: The anime implies this ending, suggesting that despite winning battle after battle, the Empire's growing influence and power scares the other remaining world powers. Consequently, they all declare war on the Empire, and Tanya's hope of a peaceful life is shattered as Being X continues to screw her over.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: When showing him a What Could Have Been future had he not been murdered, Being X shows Tanya's previous life married to a woman who looks a lot like Viktoriya, with their daughter looking like Tanya's current form.
• Framing Device: A group of investigators trying to uncover the truth of the war forty years after its end zero on the history of Tanya, and start digging through the heavily censored and lost history to find the truth behind the war's events.
• Funny Background Event: In the manga's depiction of the Battle of Oslo Fjord, there is a panel where Visha is shown to be reporting in to Tanya after apparently decapitating an enemy soldier with her ever-trusty shovel. She keeps it as her primary weapon for the remainder of the battle.
• Future Copter: The battlefield role of Aerial Mages isn't that far off of helicopter gunships, albeit with the firepower and speed of a dedicated CAWS aircraft (Close Air Weapon Support) like the A-10. They possess hover capability long before technology had advanced enough to provide the same, are capable of aerial acrobatics that no real life helicopter can match, and pack quite a wallop between spells and conventional explosives like grenades.
• Gender Is No Object: Downplayed, The Imperial Military is a meritocracy that allows females in combat and on-site support roles alongside their male counterparts; however, most females are mage officers and Tanya is the only female officer onscreen that holds a rank above First Lieutenant.
• Geo Effects: Tanya and her squad's basic strategy when fighting against enemy mages, exploiting their superior flying altitude. Their computational orbs and high level of skill set a new standard for aerial mage operation altitude – where the safe standard is usually 6,000 ft above sea level, they can reach 10,000 ft, where mages with inferior orbs and skill have to deal with air pressure, lack of oxygen, and mana swelling needed to maintain the altitude. Thus giving them partial air superiority over their enemies, while their opponents have to fight with severe handicaps just to aim at them.
  • Tanya's record is 12,000 ft at the Rhine, but according to the creator of the Elenium-95, DoktorAdelheid von Schugel, Tanya could theoretically reach as high as 18,000 ft.
• God Needs Prayer Badly: Being X is upset that humanity has reached a point that much of it no longer has any faith in a higher power, and that some of it actively rejects the notion of its existence. It's decided to correct this, starting with a particular salaryman as its test run.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: Averted so far, in that the Empire, while militaristic and expansionist, doesn't seem to be particularly nasty by the standards of the time period and is a meritocracy, while very little is known of the Republic's inner workings.
  • The Entente is also a democratic country, and like the Republic they have inverted this trope. How did the war begin? By an unprovoked, armed invasion by the Entente against The Empire, sending their unprepared infantries into the far stronger Empire, all for the sake of a demonstration. Which is the same as sending them to their death. Their soldiers also have no problem hunting a 9-year-old little girl that was ordered to stand her ground, alone, against an entire wing of mages. All of these solely for the sake of fanning Patriotic Fervor, appealing to their people by making a show of taking back the disputed territory of Norden. Even their own soldiers despise their government for starting this whole mess with the Empire.
    • Tanya herself remarks that the Entente is a nefarious enemy of the Empire. While they could rationalize the Republic invading as an action to protect their own country, the Entente's provocation serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, in the eyes of a rationalistic Imperial army.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In first episode of the anime, Tanya cut a Republican Mage protecting his leader apart. We only see splashes of blood and the silhouette of his head being messily torn from his body, right before the explosion of his vehicle.
  • Averted in the manga, which clearly shows the resulting mutilation by Tanya's magic-powered bayonet.
• Government in Exile: Legadonia tries to set one up within Albion when it becomes clear the Empire is going to win. They elect Councillor Urbansole of Cultural Affairs to manage it, though the submarine he's transported in is damaged by Tanya's wing. Fearing the worst, the Albion marines kill and dispose of him, destroying any possibility of resurgence for Legadonia.
• Gratuitous German: The first ending theme contains this.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Despite operating at speeds and altitudes comparable to helicopters or light aircraft, not a single mage wears protective headgear or even goggles to keep the wind (or their own hair) out of their eyes in the anime. On the other hand, headgear is present for everyone in the manga; in particular, Tanya and later her battalion use both helmets and goggles in battle.
  • Justified, as combat mages already use their magic shield spells to protect themselves from gunfire and flight hazards, as well as enemy spells.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Several cases of in this series, either from the protagonist or else by a group or a country and their governing body.
  • Entente's previous Council of Ten, the governing body, had the misfortune of beginning their rule with their country's economy in bad shape. So they decide to divert their people's attentions to disputed territory (Norden) with domestic propaganda, marching their army over the border as a demonstration. But since this is the militaristic Empire they're up against, we all know how well this work out for them.
    • Not mentioned in the anime, but to save face after the mess in Norden, the Council sent an ultimatum to the Empire, utterly destroying any possible chance for negotiation. Their successors not only have to clean up their mess, but also have to bow their heads to both the Republic and the Allied Kingdom in order to keep their country from being steamrolled by the Empire.
  • In the Light Novel and manga, the group of volunteers from the Allied Kingdom participated in the Battle of Norden, in the hopes of gaining live battle experience and collecting intel in secret. Considering their intention and the delicate nature of their objective due to their country's neutral position, they really should have been more careful. Not only did they take the intel about the Devil of the Rhein lightly, they're also badly overconfident for soldiers who came for the sake of live experience.They're also conspicuously using powerful observation waves on said Devil, which is the same as sending a flare to alert her of their location. Finally, they're only twenty kilometers away, a distance not so far even for a regular aerial mage. Tanya is so annoyed, she just shoots them with an artillery spell, blowing them up along with their HQ. Which means that not only are their volunteers who came for live battle KIA, but even the data they had gathered has been destroyed.
• Hologram: A mage's optical decoy spell works closer to this than the usual illusion.
  • Lampshaded in Tanya's Secret Test with the fake officer, which is just a refraction of light.
• Hope Spot: The last of the Legadonian high command is moved to an Albion submarine with the intention of setting up a government in exile in Albion. However, by sheer chance Tanya's wing finds the sub, and inflicts minor damage, stopping it from immersing again. The presence of a military vessel in contested territory gives Tanya the excuse to justify searching the sub; the Albion crew, believing they've been found out, kill and dispose of the Legadonian officer, destroying any hope for any eventual resurgence of the original Legadonia.
• Humans Are Flawed: Tanya's Take That, Us speech to Lt. Col. Lehrgen centers around this, how humanity's Fatal Flaw is that despite rational thought and logic telling them otherwise, they will prize their emotions over it and seek out immediate yet unfulfilling, blind, and continuous thirst for vengeance. And that it will always happen, despite modernization and changing social norms.
• Ignored Aesop: The anime ends with Tanya discussing how an arrogant attitude towards the loser will only sow ideological hatred. Cue the movie and Tanya completely trolls Moskova in such a way that the Empire cannot sue for peace because the Federation is just that incensed. Of course, it could be argued that her hatred of commies just got in the way.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Type-97 Elinium Orb. While still superior to the standard Imperial mage orb, it's still a downgrade from the much more powerful Type-95. Tanya still prefers it because unlike its stronger counterpart, it carries no risk of mental contamination while still being excellent equipment. Her superiors, on the other hand, are convinced she deliberately handicaps herself as to not reveal the existence or capabilities of the Type-95.. considering her even more of a patriot for it.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Type-95 Elinium Orb. It's a monstrously powerful piece of equipment that channels Being X's power to create true miracles. However, for Tanya, it's an Artifact of Doom that brainwashes her by forcing a Jeanne d'ArchétypeSplit Personality fully loyal to Being X upon her.
• Insane Troll Logic: The 'Devil's Plan', which functions on extremely vague interpretations of the rule of law to get away with basically decimating a town full of civilians.
• Irony: When the Empire launches its pincer attack against the Republic, Tanya mentions how it's much like the Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal had performed a similar attack against the much larger Roman armies and wiped out much of the city. And much like the aftermath of Cannae not affecting the Roman's resolve to defeat Hannibal and the Carthaginians, this doesn't deter the Republic too long, as their remnants swear to continue fighting on, in addition to the remaining world superpowers all declaring war on the Empire. Thus, Being X continues to screw over Tanya's hopes of living a quiet and peaceful life.
  • One of the post-war chapters shows that a few of the investigators researching the truth of Tanya's wing call the mysterious leader 'Being X', since her name is always replaced by a string of capital X's.
• Kaiserreich: the Empire is presented as an alternate history version of pre-World War I Germany.
  • The manga seems to weirdly avert this, however, instead turning the conflict into an allegory of WWII rather than WWI, up to redesigning the Empire's military to look like the Wehrmacht and seemingly turning the Empire into a Nazi Germany allegory without the racism.
• Last Stand: It is strongly implied that the actions meriting a Silver Wing Assault Medal tends to involve one of these. In the novel, it is elaborated that the vast majority of recipients receive this award posthumously, which is why Tanya is so remarkable as a living recipient of the decoration.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Being X states that He will interfere in Tanya's life as little as possible, and remains true to His word. The other people in Tanya's life, however? Fair game.
  • In keeping with the rules of engagement, Tanya has to warn the workers of an enemy munitions plant of their impending attack so the workers could be afforded a chance to evacuate. She proceeds to give the warning in the cutesiest, most innocent-sounding voice she can muster, tricking the workers into thinking it was a joke and ignoring it. To be fair, her warning speech for the first part is shamelessly copied from the sportsmanship vow from Japanese school sport festivals, so it's rather hard to take such a broadcast seriously.
  • Tanya even wrote a thesis based on creatively interpreting wartime laws in order to allow the shelling of cities (warn the city to evacuate beforehand, allowing you to treat anyone inside as 'unlawful combatants'). This is later used in the battle of Arene. Oh, did we mention that there were unlawful combatants in the city, making the bombardment completely legal?
• Mage Marksman: In the setting, most mages fire devastating explosive blasts through their rifles – though in the manga, Tanya demonstrates she can cast spells without a rifle as well.
• Military Academy: There are several shown in the series: cadet schools that train new recruits like Viktoriya pre-Rhine, the officer school that Tanya graduated from as a volunteer, and Military College where the entry is decided through strict selection for future military leaders.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Episode 9 of the anime ends grimly. Tanya and her handpicked team speeds off on a Suicide Mission to lay down a decapitating strike on the enemy. The Stinger starts with Tanya writing a letter to the family of one of her men who needs to retire from the military due to requiring long term care. It contains the standard compassionate words, an apology, and a note that he has received recommendations for medals. The Stingerends with what actually did in one of Tanya's vaunted 203rd Imperial Aerial Mage Wing: a rotten potato.
  • Episode 10 of the anime seems to continue this perverse tradition. The episode ends with 2LT Grantz being shot down, presumably killed, as the command element of the 203rd return back from their mission in high spirits. The Stinger is a cutesy vignette about 2LT Grantz and Vicktoriya as the latter thrashes about the bunk sleep talking.
• Nay-Theist: Regardless of exactly what Being X is, it's undeniably a powerful entity that exists beyond the ordinary scope of humans with control over reincarnation and power spanning alternate universes. Even so, Tanya doesn't just refuse to worship it, she actually takes the time to go down to a nearby church during her stay at the Military College – not to pray, but to fill her mind with curses against Being X on a daily basis.
• Never Live It Down: In-universe example. The international view on Entente prior to their fall, for kick-starting the war with Empire, even after they replace the politicians responsible for the border violation. They're also well aware that all assistance given to their country comes with contempt, and even then only because they have a common enemy in the Empire.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Tanya's attack on Moskova, which was meant to be a diversion, ends up being so crushing and insulting towards the Politburo and its pride, that Zettour points out that peace talks are useless for the time being. It doesn't help that the Russie Union was already preparing for war out of fear that Tanya would show up and wreck them first.
• Non-Standard Character Design: In a series filled with warfare and fictional military officers all around that are portrayed fairly realistically, if not at least a little exaggerated for anime styling, Tanya and Viktoriya as well as Mary Sue stand out big time as much more modern Moe designs in comparison, almost like they're from a completely different series altogether; this is probably the point. The effect is still there in the manga and light novel artwork, but those go for more of a Shoujo look that isn't quite as drastic and balance out more evenly with other characters. At least, whenever Tanya isn't either intentionally or accidentally being cutesy anyway.
• Non-Verbal Miscommunication: A Running Gag in this series, commonly happening whenever Tanya tries to hint at how suitable she is to be a rear officer to her superior. She is either mistaken as a war maniac or an eager patriot.
• Obligatory War-Crime Scene: The battle of Arene. Rather than waste time and effort fighting in the streets to retake the city, the Empire simply shells the city with artillery, killing enemy soldiers, rebels, and civilians alike. This, by the way, is done after the rebels murdered captured Imperial soldiers in cold blood. As a result, the shelling of Arene isn't a war crime in and of itself but a response to a war crime committed by terrorists who used innocents as human shields.
• Oh, Crap!: The Francois officer tasked with destroying the Devil of the Rhine glories in how the Empire's morale will shatter when she's killed, mentally fawning over his men's skill and equipment, and how he's figured out a perfect plan to complete his mission. Then an aide interrupts his reverie to inform him the trap was an absolute disaster and they've lost a whole wing of experienced mages, including an Ace of Aces.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: During Schwarzkopf's explanation of the Rhine theater, he says that the 205th will be a counterattack force. Tanya takes it to meaning that they're reserves stationed in the back, whereas Schwarzkopf says they're in the front.
• Perspective Flip: In one chapter of the manga, it shows the Franc Republic finally having a glimpse of the infamous Devil of the Rhine, Tanya, herself. Unlike the previous episode which shows Tanya's insane rant against the Republic, the orb instead shows the Jeanne d'Archétype personality that is developing within Tanya, the more she is forced to pray to Being X. The republicans are begging the recording for mercy by the end of the scene.
• Poor Communication Kills: Tanya insists on using the Talking Through Technique or other oblique means to convey her feelings, which unfailingly results in the older brass interpreting her words as the exact opposite of what she wanted. To make it worse, the few times she goes and talks clearly, the result is exactly the same.
• Punch a Wall: Tanya does this to her locker door upon realizing that the Armistice order has gone into effect long before she could prevent the Franc Republic's maneuver out to sea, and the sheer grief and anger is enough to crack the wooden door. This serves as a reminder that Tanya is actually a Technical Pacifist who is all too aware that War Is Hell, and that her actions prior were merely to end the war as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Quantity vs. Quality: A trope played back and forth between Quality over Quantity and vice versa. While the Empire as a militaristic country has both in spades, due to fighting on two fronts, they depend more on mobility and strategy. This is especially true with their mage force, as both the Republic and the Entente are noted as relying on teamwork and numbers in order to deal with Imperial Mages. While on the Empire's side, their mages emphasize heavily on quality and tend to deploy in smaller numbers.
  • Tanya is regarded as disaster incarnate by the Republic, because numbers don't work against her; worse, they backfire horribly because Tanya has amassed a high kill count of their mages. Due to the scarce number of mages without exception in each country, losing over seventy Aerial mages to one girl is enough disrupt the overall battle plan laid out by the Republican military.
• Rare Guns: The anime has really Shown Their Work regarding the various firearms used by the combatants.
  • The Tanya's Weapon of Choice, as well as the rest of the Empire's mages use the Mondragón Modelo 1908 self-loading rifle, a real life semi-auto rifle that wasn't issued to frontline troops due to problems with the mud and dirt, but worked perfectly fine with the clean air environment as experienced by airmen and balloon observers, similar to the combat conditions encountered by the mages. To put it into further perspective, only 4000 of these rifles were made, with 1000 being sold to the Mexican Army and the rest sold to Imperial Germany. Doubling down on this trope is that the Empire mages use the Swiss Flieger Gewehr Model 1917 or M1917 variant, which were M1908 rifles modified for air use, with the primary change being the switchover to loading from 12-round detachable magazines rather than the original fixed 10-round magazine, and only FIFTY such rifles ever existed.
  • Later on, Anson Sioux shows up with an M97 Trench Gun which, according to Tanya, is against an international treaty. May qualify as a Historical In-Joke since real life Germany did actually lobby (unsuccessfully) for the banning of the use of shotguns in WWI due to how brutally effective U.S. troops were at clearing trenches with them.
  • Other obscure guns shown in the anime include the SIG MKMS, the Roth-Steyr M1907, and the R.S.C. Mle 1917, all of which has their appearances based on some historical truth.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: The Empire frequently is on receiving end of this trope, due to their rationalistic and pragmatic nature. As Tanya lampshades, reality is stranger than fiction in their world.
  • The Entente Federation's border violation is this to the Empire, due to the vast difference in military power between them, and how even after the near-annihilation of their army in Norden, the Federation still has the gall to provoke the Empire further with their domestic propaganda to fan patriotism. If not for the Republic's timely declaration of war, the Empire would have wiped Entente out entirely.
  • How the war keeps going, even after the fall of the Republic by their hands, and suddenly the Empire find themselves as the Designated Villain for the world.
• Realpolitik: During her discussion with Zettour, Tanya asserts this is the reason why the other Great Powers would intervene in the war; although victory by either side does not directly threaten their interests, nonetheless they cannot allow a hegemon to appear.
• Reincarnation: Tanya is the reincarnation of a heartless Japanese salaryman murdered by an employee he had fired. The so-called Creator she dubs 'Being X' threw her into this world of war in an attempt to force her to develop 'faith'.
• Revenge Myopia: Not only does Anson Sioux want to kill Tanya at all costs for the death of his men, despite the fact that she only killed them in self-defense after they invaded her home country and tried to kill her (and who knows how many people, had they not been stopped), but the entire Republic wants to avenge the shelling of Arene, despite the fact that the shelling only occurred in direct response to the Republic using the 'civilians' as unlawful enemy combatants, who attacked, beat, tortured, and abused unarmed and bound Imperial soldiers, even shooting and killing one In the Back as he was trying to run away when offered terms of surrender that were more than reasonable.
• Running Gag:
  • Most people who encounter Tanya for the first time will comment that they have a daughter or a sister around her age.
  • Tanya's habit of Tempting Fate. She never seems to learn that if you've had a run-in with a god, maybe you shouldn't be thinking variations of 'this will be easy'.
  • While present in every medium to some degree, it's extremely prominent in the manga that Tanya will analyze a situation and draw a conclusion on what she should do and what others would think of it.. while everyone else around her is thinking something completely different.
    Viktoriya: Should I really do it? (If we issue a warning to the enemy capital, the point of the surprise attack is..)
    Tanya: Hm.. (Compared to Lieutenant Weiss' deeper voice, Second Lieutenant Serebryakova's voice is more likely to keep the enemy off-guard. But then couldn't she protest that being even younger, I ought to do it instead?)
• Secret Test: When Tanya's initial plan at stalling the formation of the V601st is foiled, she plans on making it a Badass Crew by making an elite fighting force. To flush out unworthy applicants, they're sent to see an illusory officer who directs them back to their units; in the process, Tanya also demonstrates how woefully under-trained the Eastern and Southern forces at detecting optical decoys, compared to the Central forces (a 93% fail rate, compared to an even 50-50 split).
  • To drive the point home, both anime and manga portray the office used for the test as a suspiciously narrow room, the windows also suspiciously missing. In which the optical illusion spell is masking one (anime) or two (manga) sides of the room, in order to hide the real officers overseeing the test. It's no wonder that while Tanya expected to fail a lot of people, she didn't expect to get not even one out of fourteen pairs that she had tested.
• Shout-Out:
  • The subway in Episode 2 has a poster for Overlord.
  • In the light novel, Tanya brings up Vermouth's 'A secret makes a woman more beautiful' quote and comments on how untruthful it is in her situation.
  • In the manga, during the assessment for Military College entry, Rudersdorf muses, 'To laugh or not to laugh, that's the question,' when they reveal that the talented soldier they were all going to unanimously approve is a nine-year-old girl.
  • During the commissioning of her V601st Training Wing as the 203rd Aerial Mage Wing, Tanya quotes Sergeant Hartman's speech almost word for word.
  • The Empire flamethrowers◊ in the anime look exactly like the Flame Trooper◊ from Battlefield 1, with their combination a hooded gas mask, a large trenchcoat with gloves, and the flamethrower being the Wechselapparat M1917 being clear signs of inspiration. (for comparison, here's how real soldiers◊ used the Wechselapparat.)
  • The In-Universe version of Guernica was instead painted in memory of the massacre at Arene.
• Shrouded in Myth: By the time of the chapters set 40 years after the war, the 203rd, later hidden behind their organizational number V600, have become this, with Tanya gaining the title of 'the Eleventh Goddess'.
• The Sociopath: Tanya is definitely this. She has virtually zero empathy for others, and makes no acts of kindness that aren't meant to further her own career in some way; what few moral conflicts she has in the light novel have minimal impact on her actions, and are cut entirely from both the manga and anime. She casually sends upstart soldiers under her command to their death without a second thought, and tries using her own childish demeanor to guilt-trip and manipulate a captain into retiring early in order to eliminate him as a competitor. Everything she does comes back to her goal of climbing the ranks and landing herself in a safe rear-echelon position, and she never looks back on her actions with remorse. Interestingly, this and the fact that her mindset effectively comes from almost a century ahead of the setting, also result in constant miscommunications and misinterpreting the actions of others.
• Super Prototype: Tanya's Elenium Type-95 is a highly unstable magic core formed by synchronizing four others that has killed everyone else who has attempted to control it, and is only used by a 'protagonist' with exceptional magical potential.. except the truth is, nothing but blind luck and literal divine intervention prevent it from blowing Tanya and everything around her to pieces every time she uses it. Tanya is less than pleased at having to use it from both a practical and philosophical standpoint. Not only she is under orders to continue to test the orb out in the field, she also can't afford to pass up the incredible advantage that it offers her in a fight.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the light novel, Anson Sioux is killed by Tanya during the Battle of the Fjord. The anime reveals that he miraculously survives, heavily implying that Being X was responsible.. only for him to go after Tanya for revenge two episodes later, where he gets Killed Off for Real.
• The Spartan Way: How the 601st Aerial Mage Wing is trained. Their initial month-long training regimen includes Hell Week, SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training, defending a static location against over 36 hours of artillery fire, counter-interrogation training, and endurance hikes. It's enough to give even hardened special forces veterans pause.
• Spell My Name with an 'S': Depending on who you ask, the man who knows Tanya's true nature and wants to stop her from climbing the ranks might be named 'Rerugen' or 'Lehrgen.' The man whose submachine gun was looted by Tanya is either Anson 'Sioux' or 'Sue'. Did Tanya discuss the prospect of World War with 'Zettour' or 'Zettois?'
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Aside from having their brains fossilized with battle tactics and formations that have been obsolete for over a century, the entire populace of the Duchy of Dacia grossly overestimates their own battle potential. When Tanya, heavily armed and armored, strolls right in to the feeble, yet highly decorated, tent serving as the mobile HQ, completely unharmed, after passing through three divisions of Dacia infantry, numbering 50,000, and makes it crystal clear that the weapons, tactics, and composition of the Dacia army are so woefully outclassed, that Tanya's single battalion (48 mages) can annihilate them with ease, the commanders outright refuse the option of surrender that Tanya offers them (as Tanya hoped they would, considering the nightmarish logistics of imprisoning, housing, and feeding 50,000 men). Then, after killing all of them save the generals, who were handed over to Imperial High Command as POW's, she takes most of her battalion to Dacia's capital city to find them.. engaging in a victory celebration long before their troops could even reasonably try for any kind of war accomplishment. So of course, she set off some fireworks of her own, at the Dacia primary weapons factory, wiping out not just the weapons Dacia was building, but all the people building those weapons as well. Only time will tell if Dacia learned their lesson.
  • What started the war from Entente's side, they called their border violation a 'highly organized and tense hike'. Even their own soldiers are stunned by the outright stupidity. While they do have a decent army, unlike Dacia, even their own men think their politicians had a death wish.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Whenever Tanya prays to God in battle, her eyes glow bright yellow as she harnesses the power of her otherwise unstable magic gem. Anson Sioux's remaining eye also glows yellow when he fights Tanya for the final time.
• The Scapegoat: While they're the one who crossed the Empire's border first, the surrounding countries keeping the Empire in check largely put the blame on the Entente Federation. Which include Dacia, and both the Republic and Dacia ignored diplomatic pleas from Entente until late into the game when the Republic realizes they need Entente to keep the Empire fighting a two-front war. Even then, the Entente is aware the help comes only grudgingly and they will never recover their international relationship until the Empire falls.
• Stealth Parody: Youjo Senki is a fairly typical 'military' light novel, which does not interfere with the author quite wittily parodying typical clichés of such works.
• Surprise Creepy: A macho response in episode 7 has some unsettling implications in context. Tanya “I feel like a canary in a coal mine.” Teammate #1 “I wonder how a canary sings.” Teammate #2 “Like a choir of angels, I bet.” Viewer “GUYS! She’s 10!”
• There Are No Coincidences: Mocked. A very long string of unconnected events by Tanya winds up convincing the Albion brass the Empire owns their intelligence agencies, that it is preparing to attack Albion, and that it's mocking them for even trying to come up with a resistance. Everyone fully believes there are too many coincidences to be anything short of a declaration of war, when actually there is really no such conspiracy.
• Too Dumb to Live: The Grand Duchy of Dacia. While declaring war on the Empire when they're tied up in two sides war against the Republic and the Entente Alliance was the best possible timing, the method by which they do so is both careless and utterly idiotic. The Duchy launches an armed invasion composed entirely of infantry, in brightly colored uniforms, during the day, with absolutely nothing in the form of aerial defenses, and broadcasts its orders over completely unsecured and unencrypted radio channels. Tanya suspects Schmuck Bait until she sees the situation with her own eyes, and lampshades how utterly incompetent the High Command of the Duchy is. What's worse is that the munitions factory in the capital treats Tanya's warning like a childhood prank, despite knowing that the Empire employs Child Soldiers. They also left the vital factory defenseless with light security, much to Tanya and her subordinates' disbelief.
  • The anime manages to invoke this trope on Dacia even more than in the manga and light novel, showing the work in progress inside their factory^note , where something suspiciously looks like artillery shells are being made. Yet their invading force is made up only of infantry. Yes, Dacia dared to invade Empire while their factory is still working on those weapons that could have saved them from complete annihilation.
  • How the current war started could be blamed to the Entente Federation. They are just slightly better than Dacia, and while it's not emphasized as much in the anime, the Light Novel highlights that Entente broke the Longidium Treaty under the assumption that the Empire would act upon their border violation and start a war. Instead, the pragmatic Empire responded promptly with a barrage of shells, while as a whole in complete disbelief that the Federation would even attack them to begin with.
• Training from Hell: In an attempt to scare off any potential recruits and prevent her wing from forming, Tanya's 'training' amounts to little more than doing everything she can think of to torment her potential soldiers severely enough that they'll drop out. Unfortunately, she misjudged the amount of abuse they'd be willing to take, and she just ends up with a battalion of Badass mages instead.
• War Is Glorious: One of the reasons that Tanya's recruitment poster, which was deliberately designed to make people balk at joining the 601st, fails is that soldiers still have this belief and instead see the poster as a challenge which is exactly what most propaganda was aiming for during this period.
• War Is Hell: Magic or no, it's still trench warfare at its worst. Hell, magic probably just makes it worse. Episode 8 plays this up heavily as well, focusing on one of Tanya's subordinates as his wing participates in shelling a city and everyone in it, soldiers and civilians alike.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: One of Tanya's subordinates, aptly named Tweet Nika Teyanen, who is the first mage from the 203rd Wing who is named after the three squadron commanders plus Grantz. We never see his face, just his stomach and his pained moan in the foreground while Viktoriya and Grantz are laughing in the background. By the end of the episode, Tanya is writing a letter of condolence to his family, suggesting that he is out of action. Later it revealed by Tanya that Teyanen had to retire from service from food poisoning by rotten potatoes, of all things. Not only will fans remember him as that one guy who got done in by rotten potatoes, but even in-universe, Tanya in a mini episode specifically lectures Viktoriya on the danger of rotten potatoes.
• Wingdinglish: The alphabet used in this alternate universe is vaguely readable, as it looks like modified Latin letters. The Empire is set up as an Expy of Germany, but for some reason the words are all in English.
• World Gone Mad: Forty years later, the journalist aptly refer to period when the series take place as an age of madness.
• Written by the Winners: Downplayed regarding the Arene incident. In a report about the incident, the Allied Kingdom's correspondent talking about the incident, while agreeing that the Empire broke no law and showing some sympathy towards the Imperial soldiers that were forced to do the act, still shows some outrage and even claims that they stained the Empire's name by commiting such cruel act. In this report there are no mentions whatsoever about the evacuation order the Empire gave one day before the fight started, that there were Republican troops in the city supporting the militia (this omission makes the Empire's response to the revolt seem quite disproportionate) and the fact that these Republican soldiers refused to comply to the evacuation order, simply to use civilians as pretty much shields for last resort. Also, when detailing the events that led to the bombardment of the city, the correspondent says that some prisoners attempted to escape and were shot by the militia and the Empire used this as an excuse to bombard the whole city. In truth, as seen in the Light Novel and manga chapters detailing the actual event, the prisoners were executed by the militia mostly out of rage and spite after the Empire ordered them to release all prisoners and unrelated civilians, which is not just a clear war crime, but a clear declaration, according to the laws of war at least, that there were no noncombatant civilians in the city.
• Wrong Assumption: The Grand Duchy of Dacia's only accomplishment when trying to invade the Empire is intimidating their land force soldiers on the Southern border with their superior numbers. The soldiers even go as far as thinking that Tanya's wing was going on a Suicide Mission to delay Dacia's vanguard troop. In the end they're fretting for nothing; superior numbers or not, with nonexistent anti-air forces, Tanya ended up using Dacia as a live-fire exercise for her wing instead of real battle.
  • Lampshaded by Tanya that because her current world is experiencing the beginning of their first global war, all countries including the Empire often fall to this trope and the concepts of modern warfare as Tanya knows are still in development.