So I watched the anime last week and honestly didnt see why people liked the anime so much. Tanya felt like she was just evil for the sake of being evil, the character designs were kinda unappealing and weird (duck lips), and it just felt like a "this is cool but all im gonna remember in a month is Evil Hitler Loli."

I was listening to the Youjo Senki ED 1 on YouTube (I love the artwork (why couldnt they have tried to make Tanya look like what she looks like in the artwork) and the song is catchy and kinda hypes me up to haha) and I happened to scroll down into the comments and in a thread, someone mentioned how the novels were a million times better. So I decided what the heck, I have nothing to do after catching up on the No Game No Life and Classroom of the Elite novels. I'm currently about to begin volume 3 of Youjo Senki.

The. Anime. Was. Wasted. Potential.

The main problems I had with the anime were how the only memorable aspect of it was Tanya being evil (sHeS a NaZI!!!1!) and being a loli. Besides that, I didn't really care. However, the novels were an entirely different beast. References to economics, philosophy, society, etc. All the monologues and internal dialogue. The author clearly knows his shit when it comes to history related to wars and battle tactics. The anime basically cut all that out and all that was left was BOOM BOOM EXPLOSION insert Tanya making evil grin BOOM BOOM FLYING BOOM. Not to mention how her powers in the anime (when her eyes turn gold and she gains a boost) arent explained and it doesnt make any sense why she doesnt just permanently pray and blow everything up in battle. They also dont explain how she essentially gets herself high and shit and so the anime just feeds that really dumb CRAZY PSYCHO LOLI HITLER XD!!1!? thing that I honestly dislike since its just... dumb. And I think the novels are really intelligent and well made, so that disappoints me.

I'd also like to mention how her character design kinda was... ugly? I understand the director did that so people wouldnt "waifu" her, but she was supposed to look like an innocent cute girl (which puts people in the novel off and theres the whole thing about some people feeling uncomfortable with putting a young cute child in battle) and making her look like a duck kinda just ruins that entire thing and feeds into the HAHA LOLI HITLER ANIME!!!1! and removes any thinking on the morality and greyness (and the contrast of a young girl and a violent war) of the situation they are in.

I would honestly love if they just remade the anime and added in what makes the series unique and interesting instead of making it a mindless LOLI HITLER BLOWS SHIT UP!!!?1! show, but of course the odds of that occurring are extremely low.

So in the end, I'm just here to express my sorrow. Opinions?