In the anime of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and presumably its 80's source material, the Kaiser of the Galactic Empire is saluted "Sieg --name--!" similar to "sieg heil". Since everyone speaks Japanese in the anime, whenever the character Reinhard is hailed by his soldiers it sounds like they're saying "Siegu Reinhardo! Siegu das Reichu!" as they are trying to say these things in German rather than in Japanaese (which would be "Reinhard Heika Banzai! Tenkoku Banzai", both historical Japanese salutes that roughly mean "Reinhard, Majesty, Victory!" and "Heavenly Country/Empire, Victory!" and--technically-- "sieg" means "victory" in German and "reich" means "realm"--which is roughly what the koku part of tenkoku means--so... see the connection?). Basically, it's Germlish. Japanese people saying Germans words in the style Japanese words would be used in (but sounding silly in German or English) and also with very thick accents that add vowels. A Japanese expression ("Tenno Heika Banzai! Tenkoku Banzai!") translated directly into German ("Sieg Kaiser! Sieg das Reich!") and then being mispronounced in Kaiser Reinhard's case ("Siegu Reinhardo! Siegu das Reichu!"). Perhaps I should have started with this last sentence, as it's the most direct answer.
Wow what an interesting thing to do to cross languages like that . Thank you for taking to explain the expression. Are you familiar with both Japanese and German?
About as much as a middle schooler is with French (very little). I know these sayings/salutes well enough and know how Japanese is essentially a series of compound words and... well, I can connect some dots. Amusingly, the English moments are actually much better translated even though English only features in the national anthem of the "Free Planets Alliance" in the anime (it's sung in English at a tune similar to Star-Spangled Banner mixed with Risen From Ruins). The four opening themes are also sung natively in English (and not Engrish) and this is amusing because, written, German is the predominant language of the Empire and it's mostly gibberish that is essentially the period-equivalent to Google-Translated Japanese to German and also the show's title is prominently marketed (in Japan) in German as "Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsal" and that literally means "Heroic saga from the comsos island"--and yet, in spite of it being an embarrassing example of Germanese (at least to someone who knows the German), it's the first thing viewers see for 110 episodes and also on 90's commercials in Japan. It's a wonderful anime, as they actually recorded two rival anthems to portray the ideals of the Republics in the West and the Empire in the East (basically liberty versus accountability; "Free Flag, Free Land, Revolution of the Heart" is the West's anthem while the East's is loosely translated as "Valkyries Love Thine Bravery") and made extensive use of Western classical music as well. However that doesn't mean the Germanese isn't funny, nor the (surprisngly rare) Engrish (which is surprisingly because all four opening themes are in English while all four ending themes are in Japanese and all eight were carefully constructed and sung by singers famous in the period to represent the Empire/Reinhard in the OPs and the Republics/Yang Wenli in the endings). Oh, and my train of thought? "Hail Caesar"-> "Hail Hitler"-> "Sieg Heil"-> "Siegu Reinhardo" because this one's funnier than the previous two. I might as well link the songs I mentioned: "Revolution of the Heart": "Valkyries Love Thine Bravery":