Saga of Tanya the Evil

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Saga of Tanya the Evil is a light novel written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki. The work has with manga and anime adaptations. In Japan it's called “Yōjo Senki”, which translates to "The Military Chronicles of a Little Girl". The anime is dubbed by FUNimation. Subtitled is available on Crunchyroll.

Degurechaff's frustration is directed against "World War". She is presupposing and angry with the projection of the future where the Empire fights the world…
Oh God… Is this what you will?

God is annoyed an atheist japanese salary man refuses to admit “Being X's” divinity. So, how do you make an atheist faithful? With a (proverbial) fox hole!... in a world with magic, going through it's first World War. A world war, by the way that has many obvious similarities with our first World War. Also as a little girl. Dues lo Vult![1]

Tropes used in Saga of Tanya the Evil include:
  • Badass Boast: Eager to put some easy experience into his new unit against an enemy antiquated army, Tanya seeks the approval from von Rerugen thusly:
  • Deicide:Tanya isn’t fond of Being X, and aspires to kill him.
  • Even the Rats Won't Touch It: The manga tells us that birds won't eat K-Brot.
  • Exact Eavesdropping: Inverted in chapter 26 of the manga. The United Kingdom was confident that the Empire knew everything about their highly classified plan, based on the actions of the 203rd mage wing. During the operation in question United Kingdom hacked into Visha's Operation Orb. They stole an audio recording that was from part of an unimportant conversation.

I know about that.

They took that quote as not only a confirmation that the enemy (well, the UK is technically "neutral" with the Empire, but they UK and the Empire aren't on good terms) knew what they were up to, but left that message to taunt them if the UK managed to hack into the operation orb.

  • Finger Gun: While riding his bike in the empire, some kids 'shoot' at White Silver (Tanya) using brooms. Tanya 'shoots' back using his hands. Considering there was no scheming thought bubbles about PR he could have just been nice purely for it's own sake.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Tanya proposed the formation of a special military unit to impress the higher ups and get promoted. They decided to make that military unit, and put his in charge of it, of course. He wasn't actually high enough rank to lead such a unit when he proposed it, so he got promoted so he could lead it.

How did this happen? How did this all go so well?

  • Hat Damage:
    • In chapter 16 of the manga, Viktoriya's helmet is destroyed.
    • On another occasion (in the manga) Tanya destroyed a subordinate's helmet as a means of intimidation.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted in the Manga. Played straight in the Anime.
  • Hollywood Tactics: In the manga Tanya sometimes has his head out of the trenches for presumably more than a couple seconds (which you shouldn't do [1]) and at times even leaves his body outside of it without apparent in-universe purpose. Admittedly mages do have defensive spells, so if those spells could handle a sniper attack, then this might not be a problem.
  • Magic Wand: Generally mages use guns that have spells in the bullets. More skilled mages can cast offensive spells using the gun like a magic wand. Even more skilled mages can forgo the gun entirely.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Averted. Tanya still identifies as a man. Not that he tells anyone.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: After Tanya found out Dacia invaded the empire with a large yet anachronistic army, thereby giving him a chance to test his troops in real, yet harmless (on his end) combat, as well as boost his reputation by demolishing a vastly larger yet vastly weaker foe, he was so happy that he thanked god.
  • Insert Grenade Here: In episode 6, Tanya lands on a plane and tosses a stick grenade into the cockpit.
  • Instant Runes: Some spells involve this. Other spells seem to not involve runes at all.
  • Irony: One of things the Americans call the mysterious thing in the war (Tanya), ~40 years after the war, is "Being X".
  • Oddly Visible Eyebrows: In the anime at least.
  • Readings Are Off the Scale: The recording of Tanya had a mana level passing the maximum measurement.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: In episode 1, Tanya assigns a couple of soldiers he wasn't happy with to garrison a cramped pillbox not right up on the front lines.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: In Chapter 16, we see some nameless lieutenant that survived an encounter with The Devil of the Rhine wake up in a medical tent. Hearing the words 'minced' and 'destroyed' he starts freaking out and claims 'the devil is coming'.
  • Super Prototype: Tanya's Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb is the first multi-core orb. It can't be mass produced and admittedly it's full use is only accessible to Tanya due too a curse by god (without said curse it would be hazardous enough that likely only a skilled mage would be able to use it without it immediately blowing up, and even then they'd only be able to partially use it). The model type 97 is based off it.
  • Uriah Gambit:In episode 1, Tanya assigns a couple of soldiers he wasn't happy with to be garrisoned in an exposed pillbox a little bit behind the front lines. As he expected, a large, immobile exposed pillbox makes an easy artillery target, and his men were killed.
  • War Is Hell: Occasionally war is portrayed as at least a bit on the hellish side of things. Like Victoria's first combat experience. Or a mook remembering his encounter with Tanya's wing.
  1. God wills it!
  2. Tanya's unit consists of himself and 47 subordinate soldiers