What this show does well is nuanced views. It treats the audience as adults and doesn't try to "dumb down" the narrative to make it more approachable. As far as nuance goes I like how the show gives examples that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses.
Still missing the read. Both sides are awful morally small mass murderers who will sacrifice millions of lives in space for political concerns that basically don't affect the everyday life of citizens on either side. They can't see outside the need to fight itself, often only Yang wants to reduce general death and even he is willing to throw away millions for minor plans/feints. The core is that military and politically minded individuals are not to be trusted regardless while practical humanists like Yang are better in any situation.
So true, i mean the documentary they play in the show, is like old 90s documentary, they dont hold down, they talk and compare they show, there is no moment you feel they are talking to a child the show i watch until episode 72, because for me the show should have end there, and i get bore after that. But until that they talk and act as people no dumb anime things
Very good commentary. I would also point out that the story which told the original battle between Alliance and Empire - the battle of Dagon - shows that the early leadership of the Alliance Fleet was made up of men that are far more like Yang than most of the present-day Alliance commanders. Their supreme commander and chief of staff dislike each other and bicker all the time, its squadron commanders make comments about the battle and their tactics, and they seem to lack the rigid filter of current Alliance commanders. At the same time, they put their all into the battle plans, don't let dogma cloud their judgement, and adapt quickly to sudden situations. A parallel is when an Imperial Fleet from Dagon accidentally passed right in front of an Alliance Fleet, the Alliance commander (one Oersted) immediately saw the opportunity, acted on his own to attack and decimate the enemy, and clearly received no complaints from Alliance HQ. Compare this to Reinhard pulling the same move - this time in a calculated gamble - in front of Admiral Paeta. Paeta was baffled, dithered, angrily told off Yang when the young officer pointed he should attack, and let him pass unmolested. What I'm getting at is that the early Alliance Fleet went out of its way to select Yang-like, younger commanders to fight this crucial battle. Meaning that, in those days, Yang might not have been an unusual sight as a commander. It shows the slow degradation of Alliance military quality over the 150+ years of conflict that Yang is considered annoying in questioning dogma by the beginning of the series.
I was really surprised by the grounded and nuancedand story and worldbuilding of this show. Feels in a way much much more mature than any anime i've seen thus far. Seemed like your typical black and white, good guys 'murica democracy versus evil (Nazi?) empire at first. I am like 12 episodes in and boy was i wrong. By the way, only 72 subs? Thats top tier quality stuff.
Indeed, these and gundam, at least the original gundam is not so cliche, in good guys vs bad guys, no anime dumb things, the protagonist die in legend, how many animes we have now that they are not good vs bad
@@Krysnha except Gundam started off by portraying the Zeon like Nazis in not only their imagery but their actions as well. Only good Zeon we see are named Zeon soldiers.
@@livelife4928 yes i know i start like hat and the soldiers design is clearly nazi and the Zacko is clearid signal bad guy, only in later they start to try to appart the cliche wich serve the serie well
One institutional advantage the Free Planets Alliance has over the Galactic Empire is one which is never directly mentioned, but I think there are enough context clues to justify assuming it exists, is that of "Mass Mobilization". The FPA appears to draw heavily from French history (such as the Alliance government's structure being suspiciously similar that of the notoriously corrupt and ineffective Directory of the late 1700's) and one of France's greatest military advantages during the Wars of the French Revolution was not weapons or commanders, but its organizational ability to "levee en masse"- conscript and deploy a huge percentage of its population relative to what the monarchies which surrounded it were capable of. Despite facing coalitions of nations which on paper had far more combined manpower and resources at their disposal, France was usually able to field armies of at least relatively similar size. Eventually, however, this led to a France that was exhausted and bled white after 25 years of near-constant warfare. The FPA has a smaller population than the Empire and occupies an area of space that is much more recently developed, it makes sense that it will have less to work with. It is also shown to be suffering from severe manpower shortages in non-military sectors of its economy even very early on in the series, leading me to think it adopts a method similar to "levee en masse". The Empire, on the other hand, is clearly an "Ancien Regime" in space. The key military disadvantage those governments faced in their wars against Revolutionary France was that their governments could only mobilize small portions of their population for a variety of reasons, ranging from inefficient administration by hereditary nobles, to a fear of arming too many peasants, to the fact when your officers can only come from a small segment of the population there is a limit to the size of the military you can effectively manage.. As the Goldenbaum Empire is the older and larger of the two nations with much more time to have developed, it should be able to field much large forces than the Alliance, but it can't. That's part of what I think makes Reinhard such a dangerous threat to the Alliance, his destruction of the old nobility and their privileges gives the Lohengram Empire both the legitimacy and the organizational capability to conduct a mass mobilization of its own (remember the run-up to Operation Ragnarok, when the Empire's recruiting offices are shown to be swarmed by men eager to enlist for his campaign against the FPA). By the midpoint of the series, an Alliance which has exhausted its resources through the use of an organizational method that is incredibly effective in the short term but becomes exponentially more costly in the long term is going up against an Empire which is just beginning to deploy its true military potential. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to ramble about something which I haven't seen discussed elsewhere.
Very good point! I think because the empire is much larger we generally see them having more troops to work with, but I didn't think about the politics of how much each could field for those reasons. Reinhard definitely did increase the number of people signing up because of his charisma as a leader but also because of how fairly he treated people and how adamant he was against noble society, so that's a good point. I don't know much about French history and that time period you mention is one of the bigger gaps in my knowledge for world history, so this was interesting to read. Thanks!
There’s also the theme of responsibility and power of ambition found in the series. A major reason the Alliance failed is because of the people’s overall lack of responsibility in holding their nation together and living up to their ideals. Rather than have more idealist and more capable people serving as politicians, they decided to let people who were worthless as human beings obtain power as a means of having jobs and income. Even Yang Wenli is responsible for the Alliance’s downfall because he refused to go against the laws even when they’re making the worst mistakes, being too afraid to being like Rudolph, the founder of the Galactic Empire. Reinhard, on the other hand, saved the Empire. But in this case, it was due to the power of ambition, something that Yang never had that contributed him letting the Alliance fall. Ambition is often depicted as malevolent and a driving force of classical villains in even grounded political series. Reinhard shows it in a more different light that allowed him provide more good than harm, and it’s due to him having far more ambition than anyone in the Alliance that he managed to win against them. At the same time, he’s willing to take responsibility for his actions but not torture himself with it, hence why he always surrounds him with the brightest minds he can find to serve as his advisors. With this being the case it’s a demonstration as to how an authoritarian state can win against a democratic government, someone we fail to see even today. If only due to the right circumstances and time. If only Western countries take heed of these forewarnings.
@@sevennights6377 Absolutely that commenter is right. In fact I see a lot of Napoleon in both Reinhard and Yang. And real Napoleon is not the caricature from propaganda that survives to this day, he had a dark side but also a good side that in many ways he was the bullet through the head of the old world that advanced history. 18th century and the enlightenment history is essential to understand modern western institutions, not only form Europe but the US as well. Any good biography from napoleon ( i recommend Andrew Roberts ) will leave you with a much better idea of LOGH.
@@Atrahasis7 Thanks for the recommendation! I understand a good bit about the enlightenment from one of my old political theory classes, but I'll have to read this.
You could paint the historical parallels in a lot of different directions, but I like your thinking here. Though I feel like Yang is ironically the Duke of Wellington or the Archduke Charles, and Reinhard is Napoleon. Either way, the series is meant to be 18th-and-19th-ish century European warfare in space, so take your pick. P.S. Random fun fact, but (the character of) Claude von Riegan of Fire Emblem: Three Houses (and now Three Hopes as well) was heavily inspired by Yang, as well as Rajendra from The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Which probably goes to show that someone(s) on the dev team were Yoshiki Tanaka fans.
An interesting video about one of the best anime of all time. Politics, military strategy, combat, characters, story ... it is excellent in almost every aspect.
Oh wow man such an comprehensive review, this show is best suited if u took International Relations major cuz in real life everything is gray, and even geography can had major impact on your life too.
@@sevennights6377 well as someone who study IR major I enjoy your review, and personally I think you'll fit well in this major, but nevertheless keep up the good work 👌🏼
I couldn't recommend a better individual that has both the knowledge and the authoritative wisdom of geopolitical strategies than Jeffrey Sachs and I would also add in addition the incomparable Alastair Crooke as well
Definitely you should! I really like the general look of this one better, but if for no other reason I think you should watch it since it adapts the whole story. It's absolutely worth checking out.
Despite the older graphics, the previous version is excellent in almost every aspect. I'm glad I watched it before the newer one came out (which I really like so far, as well).
One of the shortcomings of Tanaka's writing is that he very incorrectly conflated monarchism with dictatorship. th-cam.com/video/_joDpaOjLx8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=y4MsXPJK-SnuTPS6
Calling nationalists terrorists and saying populism leads to fascism is the same as saying that the majority of the voter base should vote for policies you dictate since the rabble doesn't know what is good for them.
The nationalists in the series are literally terrorists though, they commit violence constantly on citizens. I wouldn't commit to as broad of a statement as "populism leads to fascism", it's simply the case here and something that can happen and does in this case.
@@sevennights6377 In the series they are basically thugs doing the bidding of certain politicians that they are in the pocket of kind of like the FBI in modern America. This just makes them like the Gestapo disguised as some other organization. As for populism leading to fascism that is just a poor argument against democracy itself. When the 1% try to buy policy people will naturally elect politicians that oppose it provided that enough people are pissed off (provided that the elections aren't "fortified" as Nancy Pelosi put it). Take for example the recent Italian election where the lady that everyone calls a far right fascist was elected (can't find any part of her platform that can actually be classified as far right but oh well). The only reason she was elected was the "refugee" crisis where economic migrants were shipped into Italy by NGO's. This pissed of an entire nation so now you have a politician advocating for stronger borders.
@@sevennights6377 honestly its one of the things that I don't think the series portrayed well, that and religion. It partly shows how healthy patriotism is good but then bashes nationalism. Uses religion as a bad example of controlling masses without discussing its virtues as a community builder. Other than that though the show is a timeless classic
I know I'm in the distinct minority in this opinion, but I actually think the new show, Die Neue These, is better. It's easier to follow, and it's more true to the books (or at least the first book, which is the only one I've finished). Yes, Reinhard and Kircheis look like pretty boys, and yes it's missing the classical music of the old series. But in terms of plot, politics and battle strategies, I just felt like it was more clear what was going on and why. You may now proceed to eviscerate me ;)
How in the world did you think this was about comparing the two series?! I don't CARE which series you prefer, why is there always someone making this an issue?!
What plays more importance in the development of countries: Geography or institutions ? Lmao - Aren't people forgetting something very big there ? (mirthless laughter)
At least in the series, there are only visible the corruption of the democracy, the corruption in the empire and the use of religion and fanatism. There isn't any military complex mentioned; it could be, but it isn't mentioned and there hasn't any impact in the story. So I think that the author of the video is mixing their own ideas after minute 5'.
One of the first things we learn about the Alliance is that Job Trunicht is pushing forward a war that's been in stalemate for years on end in order to keep his position of power and make more money. That is a military complex.
You barely scratched the surface here. Your liberal, Western inspired summary of this series is so cliche it doesn't do the show justice at all. The creators of this show did an oustanding job at discussing the virtues and vices of monarchy and democracy while you ignore the most important point of why the Goldebaum dynasty even came to be in the first place. You can't even begin to comprehend traditionalist perspectives if you stare disgustingly at them through a modern lense.
Personally, I didn't think that aspect needed talked about nearly as much. The idea of a traditionalist and authoritarian return to form in the wake of rampant degeneracy and loss of social norms is something that has been talked to death. The show goes plenty far in saying why people believed in this idea and that Goldenbaum would be a healthy ruler. Then immediately it becomes obvious that this is rhetoric as he usurps power and uses it to do nothing productive but maintain his status. I think to call attention to this aspect of the series as "virtues of monarchy" is rather silly in the face of the above circumstances. It feels less like "this kind of social decline leads inevitably to this outcome" and more "this is one of many outcomes of social problems", the same with how the show portrays growing nationalist and fascist rhetoric in the Alliance. Although certainly that one has more buildup and explanation. I used a primarily Western analysis here, as I was basing my criteria for judging institutions on a very Western-centric lens which I sourced. I even acknowledged that it was a rather simple lens that I find simple and don't fully agree with. I don't know why you feel the need to point that out as if it's some incredible bias of mine rather than analyzing something through a viewpoint. I'm sorry I didn't focus on the traditionalist perspective as much but to be honest I think people have heard plenty of that rhetoric and it wasn't especially relevant to the video, especially given that it largely talks about the current events in the series based on how these institutions form rather than why those older institutions originally formed - their stated intent and reasons for existing a quite explicitly stated and understandable.
What this show does well is nuanced views. It treats the audience as adults and doesn't try to "dumb down" the narrative to make it more approachable. As far as nuance goes I like how the show gives examples that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses.
Still missing the read. Both sides are awful morally small mass murderers who will sacrifice millions of lives in space for political concerns that basically don't affect the everyday life of citizens on either side. They can't see outside the need to fight itself, often only Yang wants to reduce general death and even he is willing to throw away millions for minor plans/feints.
The core is that military and politically minded individuals are not to be trusted regardless while practical humanists like Yang are better in any situation.
So true, i mean the documentary they play in the show, is like old 90s documentary, they dont hold down, they talk and compare they show, there is no moment you feel they are talking to a child the show i watch until episode 72, because for me the show should have end there, and i get bore after that.
But until that they talk and act as people no dumb anime things
Very good commentary. I would also point out that the story which told the original battle between Alliance and Empire - the battle of Dagon - shows that the early leadership of the Alliance Fleet was made up of men that are far more like Yang than most of the present-day Alliance commanders. Their supreme commander and chief of staff dislike each other and bicker all the time, its squadron commanders make comments about the battle and their tactics, and they seem to lack the rigid filter of current Alliance commanders.
At the same time, they put their all into the battle plans, don't let dogma cloud their judgement, and adapt quickly to sudden situations. A parallel is when an Imperial Fleet from Dagon accidentally passed right in front of an Alliance Fleet, the Alliance commander (one Oersted) immediately saw the opportunity, acted on his own to attack and decimate the enemy, and clearly received no complaints from Alliance HQ. Compare this to Reinhard pulling the same move - this time in a calculated gamble - in front of Admiral Paeta. Paeta was baffled, dithered, angrily told off Yang when the young officer pointed he should attack, and let him pass unmolested.
What I'm getting at is that the early Alliance Fleet went out of its way to select Yang-like, younger commanders to fight this crucial battle. Meaning that, in those days, Yang might not have been an unusual sight as a commander. It shows the slow degradation of Alliance military quality over the 150+ years of conflict that Yang is considered annoying in questioning dogma by the beginning of the series.
I was really surprised by the grounded and nuancedand story and worldbuilding of this show. Feels in a way much much more mature than any anime i've seen thus far. Seemed like your typical black and white, good guys 'murica democracy versus evil (Nazi?) empire at first. I am like 12 episodes in and boy was i wrong.
By the way, only 72 subs? Thats top tier quality stuff.
Yeah, the series is great. Glad you're enjoying it so far! And thanks for the kind words, trying my best haha.
Indeed, these and gundam, at least the original gundam is not so cliche, in good guys vs bad guys, no anime dumb things, the protagonist die in legend, how many animes we have now that they are not good vs bad
@@Krysnha except
Gundam started off by portraying the Zeon like Nazis in not only their imagery but their actions as well. Only good Zeon we see are named Zeon soldiers.
@@livelife4928 yes i know i start like hat and the soldiers design is clearly nazi and the Zacko is clearid signal bad guy, only in later they start to try to appart the cliche wich serve the serie well
@@Krysnha They tried to blur the lines in Zeta but Char's Counterattack completely ruined that
One institutional advantage the Free Planets Alliance has over the Galactic Empire is one which is never directly mentioned, but I think there are enough context clues to justify assuming it exists, is that of "Mass Mobilization". The FPA appears to draw heavily from French history (such as the Alliance government's structure being suspiciously similar that of the notoriously corrupt and ineffective Directory of the late 1700's) and one of France's greatest military advantages during the Wars of the French Revolution was not weapons or commanders, but its organizational ability to "levee en masse"- conscript and deploy a huge percentage of its population relative to what the monarchies which surrounded it were capable of. Despite facing coalitions of nations which on paper had far more combined manpower and resources at their disposal, France was usually able to field armies of at least relatively similar size. Eventually, however, this led to a France that was exhausted and bled white after 25 years of near-constant warfare. The FPA has a smaller population than the Empire and occupies an area of space that is much more recently developed, it makes sense that it will have less to work with. It is also shown to be suffering from severe manpower shortages in non-military sectors of its economy even very early on in the series, leading me to think it adopts a method similar to "levee en masse".
The Empire, on the other hand, is clearly an "Ancien Regime" in space. The key military disadvantage those governments faced in their wars against Revolutionary France was that their governments could only mobilize small portions of their population for a variety of reasons, ranging from inefficient administration by hereditary nobles, to a fear of arming too many peasants, to the fact when your officers can only come from a small segment of the population there is a limit to the size of the military you can effectively manage.. As the Goldenbaum Empire is the older and larger of the two nations with much more time to have developed, it should be able to field much large forces than the Alliance, but it can't. That's part of what I think makes Reinhard such a dangerous threat to the Alliance, his destruction of the old nobility and their privileges gives the Lohengram Empire both the legitimacy and the organizational capability to conduct a mass mobilization of its own (remember the run-up to Operation Ragnarok, when the Empire's recruiting offices are shown to be swarmed by men eager to enlist for his campaign against the FPA). By the midpoint of the series, an Alliance which has exhausted its resources through the use of an organizational method that is incredibly effective in the short term but becomes exponentially more costly in the long term is going up against an Empire which is just beginning to deploy its true military potential.
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to ramble about something which I haven't seen discussed elsewhere.
Very good point! I think because the empire is much larger we generally see them having more troops to work with, but I didn't think about the politics of how much each could field for those reasons. Reinhard definitely did increase the number of people signing up because of his charisma as a leader but also because of how fairly he treated people and how adamant he was against noble society, so that's a good point.
I don't know much about French history and that time period you mention is one of the bigger gaps in my knowledge for world history, so this was interesting to read. Thanks!
There’s also the theme of responsibility and power of ambition found in the series. A major reason the Alliance failed is because of the people’s overall lack of responsibility in holding their nation together and living up to their ideals. Rather than have more idealist and more capable people serving as politicians, they decided to let people who were worthless as human beings obtain power as a means of having jobs and income. Even Yang Wenli is responsible for the Alliance’s downfall because he refused to go against the laws even when they’re making the worst mistakes, being too afraid to being like Rudolph, the founder of the Galactic Empire.
Reinhard, on the other hand, saved the Empire. But in this case, it was due to the power of ambition, something that Yang never had that contributed him letting the Alliance fall. Ambition is often depicted as malevolent and a driving force of classical villains in even grounded political series. Reinhard shows it in a more different light that allowed him provide more good than harm, and it’s due to him having far more ambition than anyone in the Alliance that he managed to win against them. At the same time, he’s willing to take responsibility for his actions but not torture himself with it, hence why he always surrounds him with the brightest minds he can find to serve as his advisors.
With this being the case it’s a demonstration as to how an authoritarian state can win against a democratic government, someone we fail to see even today. If only due to the right circumstances and time. If only Western countries take heed of these forewarnings.
@@sevennights6377 Absolutely that commenter is right. In fact I see a lot of Napoleon in both Reinhard and Yang. And real Napoleon is not the caricature from propaganda that survives to this day, he had a dark side but also a good side that in many ways he was the bullet through the head of the old world that advanced history. 18th century and the enlightenment history is essential to understand modern western institutions, not only form Europe but the US as well. Any good biography from napoleon ( i recommend Andrew Roberts ) will leave you with a much better idea of LOGH.
@@Atrahasis7 Thanks for the recommendation! I understand a good bit about the enlightenment from one of my old political theory classes, but I'll have to read this.
You could paint the historical parallels in a lot of different directions, but I like your thinking here. Though I feel like Yang is ironically the Duke of Wellington or the Archduke Charles, and Reinhard is Napoleon.
Either way, the series is meant to be 18th-and-19th-ish century European warfare in space, so take your pick.
P.S. Random fun fact, but (the character of) Claude von Riegan of Fire Emblem: Three Houses (and now Three Hopes as well) was heavily inspired by Yang, as well as Rajendra from The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Which probably goes to show that someone(s) on the dev team were Yoshiki Tanaka fans.
An interesting video about one of the best anime of all time. Politics, military strategy, combat, characters, story ... it is excellent in almost every aspect.
Thank you for making content on this show.
Such a great video for a small chanel. Good job
This is a great video. I loved this anime as I felt that it was one of the only anime’s that were more explicit in the area of politics.
New subscriber, loved the format
Great video. My favorite anime series being discussed in a very well thought out video. Thanks for the content. I subscribed!
Thank you! It's a fantastic show.
Oh wow man such an comprehensive review, this show is best suited if u took International Relations major cuz in real life everything is gray, and even geography can had major impact on your life too.
I didn't major in IR but I did minor in Political Science so I definitely get where you're coming from.
@@sevennights6377 well as someone who study IR major I enjoy your review, and personally I think you'll fit well in this major, but nevertheless keep up the good work 👌🏼
bru this is a high quality video why so unpopular
What an analysis! 10/10
And people sleeps on this anime
I couldn't recommend a better individual that has both the knowledge and the authoritative wisdom of geopolitical strategies than Jeffrey Sachs and I would also add in addition the incomparable Alastair Crooke as well
Good video on a great series. New sub
I did not know there was a 1988 version of this show. Should I watch it? The current one has not ended yet.
Definitely you should! I really like the general look of this one better, but if for no other reason I think you should watch it since it adapts the whole story. It's absolutely worth checking out.
Despite the older graphics, the previous version is excellent in almost every aspect. I'm glad I watched it before the newer one came out (which I really like so far, as well).
The 1988 is voiced by many seiyuu legends.
Did you know, that the installed puppet prince is based on a real world example of the last century 😊 BALKANS in SPAAAAACE
One of the shortcomings of Tanaka's writing is that he very incorrectly conflated monarchism with dictatorship.
th-cam.com/video/_joDpaOjLx8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=y4MsXPJK-SnuTPS6
Calling nationalists terrorists and saying populism leads to fascism is the same as saying that the majority of the voter base should vote for policies you dictate since the rabble doesn't know what is good for them.
The nationalists in the series are literally terrorists though, they commit violence constantly on citizens. I wouldn't commit to as broad of a statement as "populism leads to fascism", it's simply the case here and something that can happen and does in this case.
The people who do the terrorism is more akin to ultra-nationalists, rather than the moderate nationalists if you ask me.
@@sevennights6377 In the series they are basically thugs doing the bidding of certain politicians that they are in the pocket of kind of like the FBI in modern America. This just makes them like the Gestapo disguised as some other organization.
As for populism leading to fascism that is just a poor argument against democracy itself. When the 1% try to buy policy people will naturally elect politicians that oppose it provided that enough people are pissed off (provided that the elections aren't "fortified" as Nancy Pelosi put it).
Take for example the recent Italian election where the lady that everyone calls a far right fascist was elected (can't find any part of her platform that can actually be classified as far right but oh well). The only reason she was elected was the "refugee" crisis where economic migrants were shipped into Italy by NGO's. This pissed of an entire nation so now you have a politician advocating for stronger borders.
@@sevennights6377 honestly its one of the things that I don't think the series portrayed well, that and religion. It partly shows how healthy patriotism is good but then bashes nationalism. Uses religion as a bad example of controlling masses without discussing its virtues as a community builder.
Other than that though the show is a timeless classic
Btw Terra is earth, it's just a language change.
I know I'm in the distinct minority in this opinion, but I actually think the new show, Die Neue These, is better. It's easier to follow, and it's more true to the books (or at least the first book, which is the only one I've finished). Yes, Reinhard and Kircheis look like pretty boys, and yes it's missing the classical music of the old series. But in terms of plot, politics and battle strategies, I just felt like it was more clear what was going on and why.
You may now proceed to eviscerate me ;)
How in the world did you think this was about comparing the two series?! I don't CARE which series you prefer, why is there always someone making this an issue?!
@@Ares99999 Okay.
What plays more importance in the development of countries: Geography or institutions ?
Lmao - Aren't people forgetting something very big there ?
(mirthless laughter)
At least in the series, there are only visible the corruption of the democracy, the corruption in the empire and the use of religion and fanatism. There isn't any military complex mentioned; it could be, but it isn't mentioned and there hasn't any impact in the story. So I think that the author of the video is mixing their own ideas after minute 5'.
One of the first things we learn about the Alliance is that Job Trunicht is pushing forward a war that's been in stalemate for years on end in order to keep his position of power and make more money. That is a military complex.
You barely scratched the surface here. Your liberal, Western inspired summary of this series is so cliche it doesn't do the show justice at all. The creators of this show did an oustanding job at discussing the virtues and vices of monarchy and democracy while you ignore the most important point of why the Goldebaum dynasty even came to be in the first place. You can't even begin to comprehend traditionalist perspectives if you stare disgustingly at them through a modern lense.
Personally, I didn't think that aspect needed talked about nearly as much. The idea of a traditionalist and authoritarian return to form in the wake of rampant degeneracy and loss of social norms is something that has been talked to death. The show goes plenty far in saying why people believed in this idea and that Goldenbaum would be a healthy ruler. Then immediately it becomes obvious that this is rhetoric as he usurps power and uses it to do nothing productive but maintain his status.
I think to call attention to this aspect of the series as "virtues of monarchy" is rather silly in the face of the above circumstances. It feels less like "this kind of social decline leads inevitably to this outcome" and more "this is one of many outcomes of social problems", the same with how the show portrays growing nationalist and fascist rhetoric in the Alliance. Although certainly that one has more buildup and explanation.
I used a primarily Western analysis here, as I was basing my criteria for judging institutions on a very Western-centric lens which I sourced. I even acknowledged that it was a rather simple lens that I find simple and don't fully agree with. I don't know why you feel the need to point that out as if it's some incredible bias of mine rather than analyzing something through a viewpoint. I'm sorry I didn't focus on the traditionalist perspective as much but to be honest I think people have heard plenty of that rhetoric and it wasn't especially relevant to the video, especially given that it largely talks about the current events in the series based on how these institutions form rather than why those older institutions originally formed - their stated intent and reasons for existing a quite explicitly stated and understandable.