The plot of Northern War as an anime is pretty simplistic and clear with a poor country girl becoming an excellent fighter to better her family’s name because of her grandfather’s legacy. However, the world setting is as complex as they come with the first few episodes holding a solid ten minutes each for exposition dumps to get you caught up with how important geopolitics is to the narrative. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing as we all love a good political plotline, it does make the viewer feel like they should have some prior understanding even though it does explain all you need in the first few episodes.

This does make it hard to follow for a newcomer, but it is definitely worth it as the politics of the Trails world is fascinating with so many moving parts that are sure to drive the plot forward in Lavi’s story.

Northern War centres around Lavi, who is a cool, calm, and collected character that gets the job done, but the cast around her carries an excellent array of personalities that compliment her steeled demeanour. The squad she is working with is seemingly foolish in how they act but are highly competent in completing their tasks such as the two soldiers she works within the first episode to stop a rogue vehicle blowing up and killing people, as the two seemed to be letting it away before they support Lavi in her rush to collapse a tower in its path.