Youjo Senki
The Saga of Tanya the Evil

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Youjo Senki, the "🤔" manga!

I think this work as a whole is very good. I watched the anime and I'm eagerly awaiting its continuation. However, there's something that bothered me about the manga version. It's not something that's bad for the work as a whole, but the amount of explanations about concepts and war-related matters makes the reading more drawn-out than it should be. What I said before serves to show us readers how the protagonist thinks. HOWEVER, I think the way it was done in the manga is a bit off. Again, it's not horrible, but I think it could have been done better. ... This case with the manga, in my opinion, is the same as the case with the Hunter X Hunter manga, where in the 2011 anime, we have much more immersion in the universe thanks to the narrator. The same is true here. In the anime, this narration works very well in conjunction with the protagonist's thoughts.

Anyway, my rating of 6 is due to this problem. It may not happen again or it may improve in the future in the manga, but currently my rating is this. I think the manga is worth reading, but I can't help but think the anime is superior in every aspect. I recommend reading it and will read it someday.

=================================================================================================================Versão em Português=====================================

Youjo Senki, o mangá meio "🤔" !

Acho essa obra como um todo muito boa, assisti o anime e afirmo estar ansioso para a sua continuação, porem tem algo que me incomodou nessa sua versão mangá, não é algo que seja ruim para a obra como um todo porem esse tanto de explicações que tem sobre conceitos e coisas da guerra torna a leitura mais arrastada do que deveria ser. Isso que falei antes serve para mostrar para nós leitores como o/a protagonista pensa, POREM acho meio ruim a forma com que foi feita no mangá, repito, não é algo que seja horrível mas acho que poderia ser feito de um jeito melhor. Esse caso do mangá ao meu ver é o mesmo caso sobre o mangá de Hunter X Hunter onde no anime de 2011 temos muito mais imersão no universo por conta do narrador, o mesmo se repete aqui, no anime funciona muito bem essa narração em conjunto com o pensamento do/da prota.

De todo modo, minha nota 6 se deve por conta desse problema, pode ser que isso não se repita ou que melhore daqui pra frente no mangá porem atualmente minha nota é essa, acho que vale sim ler o mangá mas não consigo deixar de achar o anime superior em todos os quesitos. Recomendo a leitura e lerei em algum dia.

[More info about my review style can be found on my profile]

â–¶Summary and recommendation: -----------------------------------------------------------------
âš  This manga contains Nazi adjacent imagery. The author appears to be what is known as a "Wehraboo". Someone who likes the aesthetic of the Wehrmacht. The German military in WW2. [Saga of Tanya the evil] is set in an alternate universe where Germany is not the aggressor.

[Saga of Tanya the Evil] is a very unusual isekai. Summarizing it is difficult, but my attempt is as follows. 'Saga of Tanya the Evil is the story of an HR manager. A libertarian psychopath with a near religious faith in the Free ... Market Economy facing god, and as punishment for their hubris they are reborn as a child soldier in Alternate universe magical earth that is at the cusp of World War 2, and they are fighting for Germany.'

âš  There is a single scene of partial nudity of the protagonist. It is not sexualized, but I think it warrants a small warning.

With a sm­all child as the protagonist, I went into this expecting the worst. Manga does not exactly have a good track record with children!
I do not know if the author wanted to showcase the horrors of war by making the protagonist a child soldier, or if they simply wanted the protagonist to look cute. Regardless of the reason, my worries were unfounded.


It is a manga with some flaws and issues (that I touch upon later in the review), but it makes up for it with plenty of novel ideas that are well executed. It took some time before it fully resonated with me but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it once it clicked.

I recommend [Saga of Tanya the Evil] if the premise and setting is something that interests you.


â–¶Story: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The protagonist Tanya is unusually well defined for an Isekai. Not a blank slate, and living up to the name of the manga; not a good person. An HR manager whose job it was to fire underperforming employees.

They hold strong beliefs about how the world should work. Many of those beliefs paint the protagonist as a psychopath. In particular those concerning the value of human life. It is these strongly held beliefs that causes the protagonist to be reborn as a girl in Germany, in a world at the cusp of war.

The story relies a lot on Tanya being misunderstood by those around them. Operating on an entirely different logic than those around her, she will express her distaste for conflict, yet be interpreted as a bloodthirsty warmongerer. The people around her will likewise express distain or disgust at Tanya's "love" of war, which Tanya in turn will misinterpret.


At first the manga did not resonate with me for taking place in a setting I am less interested in, following a character that is hard to like, and having a story that relies on misunderstandings at every turn.

However, once I realised that it is Tanya's messed up world view that is the catalyst for all the misunderstandings, it clicked with me. Tanya is a HR manager who sees humans as expendable resources. Their world view is so twisted that it is incompatible with the people around them. Tanya is so caught up in her world view, that she makes critical and dangerous mistakes that often propel her into further danger.

Perhaps I am giving the author too much credit, but it is almost like they are trying to demonstrate how a modern day libertarian with a world view shaped by the Chicago school of economics can, with a callous mind, create a horrific theatre of war. Worse than a nationalist with waning ideas of honour and chivalry could from the given time period.


In addition to the constant use of misunderstandings to further the story, I found that the story felt a bit rushed in places. There are two main storylines. That of the conflict between the protagonist and the god who sent him to this world, and that of the military campaigns of fantasy Germany vs fantasy The Allies.

The majority of chapters are dedicated to the latter, but sometimes crucial moments in the military campaign are glossed over. It sometimes felt like the author was so eager about the next story arc, that they rushed through the current one.
This manga is an adaptation of a novel, so it could be that this is the result of the adaptation into a manga, rather than a choice by the author.

Despite these shortcomings, the story is extremely gripping, there are a lot of parallels to real world history that I enjoyed spotting, and I even found myself rooting for the protagonist after a couple dozen chapters. Despite their dubious ethics.


â–¶Setting: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Saga of Tanya the evil] is set in an alternative universe Earth during World War II. Geographically identical to Earth, it features similar nations and political alliances. With one of the biggest difference being the existence of magic.

The author has amazing knowledge of the time period, and showcases it well with time appropriate knowledge, tactics and equipment. Though a lot of the equipment is ripped straight from our world. Such as the tanks used by Fantasy Germany being panzers identical to the ones used by real world Germany during the war.

The most significant difference between this fictional universe and our own, is of course Germany.
Nazi Germany in [Saga of Tanya the evil] is simply called "The Empire", and it does not (so far) commit any of tne atrocities that real world Germany did. While it is militaristic, it is not far right, and is portrayed as a bastion of equality in the manga.

It was probably a wise decision by the author that the protagonist is not fighting for actual nazis.


â–¶Characters: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the manga is how little character development the protagonist goes through. Despite all the troubles and misunderstandings that befalls the protagonist due to their strongly held beliefs, they never once question their faith. Much of the story is spent on Tanya interacting with other soldiers, yet they never influence her in any way.
As of the latest chapter (chapter 73 as of writing) Tanya has not seen any significant character development or changes in world view.

The protagonist is a soldier and is surrounded by her comrades. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the members of her group are faceless and nameless. Only a few have a name and face, and even fewer are given enough pages for the reader to get to know them. Something I think would have benefitted the manga a great deal.

Other notable figures in the story are fortunately given a lot more pages. Generals, politicians and the adversaries are well fleshed out.


â–¶Artwork: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The artwork is quite gorgeous. Chapter pages, and epic battles are very detailed, and the action scenes are spectacular, albeit sometimes a bit difficult to track. The artist also sometimes uses clever shortcuts, such as edited real life photographies as backgrounds, which fits very well with the style of the manga.
The characters are well designed, and fit the gritty setting well. The artist does an excellent job communicating emotions through extreme and exaggerated expressions on the character's faces.

It is in black and white, and not coloured. As is the norm with Manga from Japan

I enjoyed Youjo Senki's LN series, but the manga is just as good. What did the LN do really well in? It depicted a lot more of Tanya's monologuing which is lost in the manga, and there's also a lot more focus on Zettour, Rudersdorf, and a lot of different military personnel to really figure out why some military operation happened.
However, honestly, other than the monologuing, I really did not care much for the worldbuilding. The manga focuses more on the details of battles, the characters close to Tanya, and dialogue. The manga essentially focuses on the good parts of the novel, while cutting ... out the longwinded worldbuilding. All the criticism I had on the novel for having extremely lacking descriptions of many battles, whether it be the Rhine, Arene, Norden, etc, they're all fleshed out and actually are depicted in the manga. Visha, Grantz, Weiss, etc. All of the mages in 203 Flight augmented batallion get to shine a lot more brightly in the manga due to the focus on the battles, and even the slice of life content that's outside of the battles. In the end, the manga does choose to show different perspectives that were not shown in the LN, basically allowing us, the readers, to get a better understanding of the whole picture (good example is Erya).
Art looks great, at least character wise. Combat scenes are nice, but it's extremely obvious when real life photos are scanned in and heavily filtered to make it look like manga, and juxtaposing that background with more anime hand-drawn characters. It was really jarring to see anime/manga style soldiers fight real life looking planes placed under heavy filters to make it look like a drawing.
I did not like the Anime very much. Perhaps a 7, just because I like the source material. It rushes through all the events, completely just getting rid of any characterization or monologuing that Tanya had. The difference between the manga and anime is that the manga still explains and retains a lot of Tanya's original character while also fleshing out the side characters, details, and battles while the anime just flies through everything without giving enough explanation. The manga just explains the worldbuilding as little as it needs to and focuses on the juicy parts of the series, which is extremely smart. Overall, a good adaptation that deviates direction from the source material by a decent margin.