Tanya von Degurechaff

"If there is a God who rules this world, it is a stern, solemn, and definitely a good being. A being that is far too great. God keeps forcing us to confront these cruel fates. As those were the rules of this world! Thus, I declare once more... Oh, God... I'll slice you to tiny pieces and feed you to the pigs! Our battlefield is no place for that piece of shit, God! I think it's time we took over God's work. We, soldiers will take God's place. Put the arrogant ass, God, out of a job! All right troops... It's time for war!"

- Tanya's Speech to her Battalion Tanya Degurechaff is the main villain protagonist of the light novel/anime series Youjo Senki: Saga of Tanya the Evil. Originally a salaryman murdered in 2013, he was reborn as a girl living in an alternate universe version of Europe during World War I. At just nine years of age, Tanya enters the Empire's Mages Division and is promoted to Second Lieutenant. Her talents, efficiency, and ruthlessness makes her an asset for the Empire and a threat on the battlefield.

She is voiced by Aoi Yūki in the Japanese version and Monica Rial in the English dub.

Original Life (2013)
Not much is known about the protagonist in his original life, including his name. He was a salary man in 2013 Japan who gained a reputation for his ruthlessly utilitarian and career-minded personality. He was murdered buy a former employee who he had fired for valid reasons earlier that day. However, after his death we was confronted by and entity calling itself God. As an atheist, he denied God's existence, choosing to dub it as "Being X/Existance X" (variable by translation). When the two get into an argument about faith and modern humans, Being X became becomes enraged. The salaryman claimed that modern technology and convenience leads to a safe world where gods are not needed. As punishment for his lack of faith, Being X decided to reincarnate him in a world without these benefits in the hopes to crush the salaryman's will and force him to accept Being X as God. He was sent to an alternate World War I Europe, were he was reincarnated as a orphaned baby girl. Before his reincarnation, the salaryman was warned that if he did not die in a peaceful, natural way, or without faith, he will not be reincarnated again and sent to hell.

As Tanya Degurechaff
The protagonist is reborn in an alternate reality of 1913, as an orphan girl named Tanya. Spending the first years of her life in a nunnery, her outlook for a good life initially looked slim. Worse, she was living in the Empire (equivalent of Imperial Germany), a nation beset on all sides by potential enimies. Luckily, Tanya has exceptional magic potential, a rare talent sought after in the Empire. Knowing that with this aptitude she would eventually be conscripted, Tanya volunteered for the army at the age of 8 in order to receive officer training. She intends to rise in the ranks and then live a comfortable life in the rear lines away from danger, both for her sake and in order to spite "Being X". Yet even though Tanya is successful at impressing the leadership it backfires as her talents make her a necessary asset on the front lines. She's heartless, selfish, amoral, and terrifyingly ruthless. Yet at the time of the bloodiest war of this world she might be described as the "ideal soldier". On the outset Tanya is viewed as either a patriotic, caring hero or a bloodthirsty, merciless monster.

Appearance
Tanya has been described as a cute, blonde haired, pale skinned child. Her eyer are bright blue, and they glow visibly when using her magic. When praying to Being X, her eyes turn yellow, and when self destructing they become red. She is short for her age do to malnutrition, and is concerned about her slow growth. She wears a military uniform in the rank of a Warrant Officer and later a lieutenant commander, then a Major after graduating from the military academy.

Personality
Tanya, on the outside, appears to be an ordinary a young girl. But deep inside, she is highly power-hungry, selfish, cruel, ruthless, calculating, sadistic, manipulative, and hot-tempered. Especially when in battle against her enemies, she shows utter ruthlessness and bloodlust. Tanya also strongly disapproves of failure and disobedience from her subordinates. Due to her previous life of strictly following rules, she places immense value on her orders and wartime law. She feels no comradery and doesn't care for the lives of others, unless their deaths would affect her ability to be promoted. This even applies to the soldiers she herself commands. Having previously been an adult man, she hates people treating her as a child.

While she has little to no empathy for her fellow soldiers and her victims, Tanya still have few standards in spite of her ruthlessness: She loathes superiors and peers who endanger her men needlessly and detests wasteful military spending. The sight of enemy nations who had no remorse in attacking another but ironically infuriated when they themselves attacked made her angry. Also, when following the order to destroy Arene City in spite of civilians still present there, Tanya was shown to willing to have the city's fleeing civilians caught in the artillery's crossfire, but she only did so in retaliation of their militia soldiers beat, torture and shoot unarmed and bound Imperial soldiers more for self-righteous "fun" than outright self-defense instead of outright sadism. She doesn't take pleasure in causing death of civilians from enemy nations which includes children and women, and other reasons of her willingness to have them terminated was because she fully aware that should any of them spared, they will eventually grew to become Empire's worst enemies one day.

Powers and Abilities
In spite of her age, Tanya possesses enormous magical powers. These enable her to fly at high speeds, fire explosive bullets, create protective shields, project stationary decoys, magnify distant targets, create magic blades from her hands (in the manga) or imbue the bayonet on her rifle with mana (in the anime), and has even used her jewl core to turn herself into a flying bomb. Compared to others, Tanya has a high latent magical ability. Because of this, she is the only one capable of using an experimental Type-95 Elenium jewel core. However, to use it, she must pray to Being X. This is an arrangement she is not happy with, and extensive use can cause her to lose her free tempratily. Her small size and immense magical powers makes her highly mobile and destructive.