Imagine a world in which the people on the ground are in a state of ecological turmoil, one half in danger of freezing, one in danger of melting. In the sky of this world lives a faction that governs the battles of the cold and the hot, and doles out technology as it sees fit so that the groundlings may themselves, to a limited extent, take to the skies … if only to wage war in it.<\/p>\n
Next, imagine going to a casino and winning a million dollars. Then imagine leaving that casino without remembering to cash in your chips. What you’ve got there is something that represents<\/i> one million dollars, but most definitely is not<\/I> one million dollars.<\/p>\n
Last Exile<\/i> is a million dollars worth of chips: uncashed potential that never let me underneath its skin despite its best efforts to forge a sense of community among its characters. It’s a mixed case of simply not disclosing enough of the situation to the audience, and then compounding the problem by holding the characters at arm’s length.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Claus and Lavie live in the world of Prester as couriers. They fly in the recovered vanship of their deceased fathers and vow to do what their fathers had failed to achieve ten years previously: cross the Grand Stream, a particularly turbulent air space that separates the perpetually warring countries of Disith and Anatoray.
\nUnfortunately Claus and Lavie’s plans are derailed when they take over a courier job for a dying man: they must take a young girl, Alvis, to the ship Silvana<\/I>. Once aboard, Claus and Lavie find themselves embroiled in a war with the all-governing Guild, and they must reassess their feelings for the sky.<\/p>\n
Last Exile<\/I> begins with the promise of good things to come, but it fails in capitalising on them. Right from the start we’re given the idea of two idealistic young folks, we’re even given a potentially fun cadre of vanship pilots, and then we’re given the ultimate in potential: a girl who holds the key to all of the intrigue, handed over in an impressive rite of passage.<\/p>\n
Then Last Exile<\/i> kind of loses itself in failed attempts to build up the crew of the Silvana<\/i>, a group of ostensibly lovable misfits who are kept at a distance that doesn’t go much further than “this one has an inferiority complex”, “this one is gay for Claus”* and “this one wears glasses”.<\/p>\n
This is not to say I disliked Last Exile<\/i>: wasted potential means more of a disappointment than anything else in this instance. I was not once grabbed by the weight of the situations at hand, but I was admittedly impressed several times in the run of the final six episodes.
\nThe key problem is that Gonzo never really gives us any reason to understand<\/i> what is happening. It may be “insulting” to give us a straightforward overview of the situation in Prester, but you must squeeze a great deal of blood out of Gonzo to realise the most basic of plot details about the war or the Guild, and it’s still not firmly in place.<\/p>\n
The first episode presents a war between Anatoray and Disith, with the battle being watched over by “The Guild”. One gets the idea that wars are kind of like games for these people as they have a governing body watching from on high and they choose to attack each other by way of musketeers firing at each other from parallel airships over using their ships’ actual artillery. The impractical nature of the battles and the presence of the Guild above promises something different to what we get.<\/p>\n
The Guild turns out to be the true evil: this is revealed fairly quickly, but the reason for the people of Disith and Anatoray approving of them beyond the obvious disparities in their technological advancement is forever unclear.
\nThis muddiness is Last Exile<\/I>‘s biggest fault, with entire episodes going by without making any sense. Claus makes an “enemy” but also a best friend in Dio, the brother of Delphine, Queen of the Guild. The circumstances under which Dio comes to stay with the Silvana<\/i> and become a part of their crew can simply not be explained by anyone because he is supposed to be their nemesis and has actually fought them. There is no moral quandary for anyone involved, and Dio’s problems do not even begin to chase him until the one point that the writers make Dio actually fit with the crew.<\/p>\n
It’s the sort of story where secret Princesses turn up partway through and intense political discussions relating to no common thread culminate with double murders. Gonzo even pulls a “Lady Une” on us by having one character behave totally different once she takes her glasses off and puts her hair down.
\nClaus and Lavie become one note characters who have a time release rift based on their different interpretations of using the sky for warfare. After this point Claus becomes incredibly dull and Lavie almost non-existent. I haven’t even mentioned Alvis here because, besides her portrayal by Shiraki Anna, she is just the traditional “girl who holds the key to all secrets”.<\/p>\n
Maybe my experience of Last Exile<\/I> would have changed if I had a higher opinion of Delphine, played with freakishly warm psychosis by Neya Michiko. Some grow a hatred of the character that sustains them through the series but I found her ultimately as unfleshed as the rest of the program and, besides some particularly good scenes with Dio’s friend Luciola and Alex, captain of the Silvana<\/I>, she did not have much to do. My favourite sorts of series are the ones that build a huge story, where the stakes are so high by the end that everything has to soar or crash down. Last Exile<\/i>, despite holding the fate of the world in its hands, seemed like small fries to me.<\/p>\n
Unlike many Gonzo shows that can rely on spectacle to get by where the story fails, Last Exile<\/I> falls rather flat. I like Murata Range’s character designs but they are put to ill use here: the idea of a barren world translates into the colour scheme and so the world is populated by people with washed out skin and faded hair living in corridors of brown and grey. The people and places featured give no sense of life, and there is not even the freedom of the air can escape from the oppressive colour design.
\nThe mechanical designs show the vanships existing as simple silver cannisters, made of admittedly well-integrated CG and absolutely no personality. There is no sense of majesty in the large airships and the whole exercise simply looks dull.
\nRather than distracting from the written content of the show, Last Exile<\/i>‘s aesthetic serves to emphasise it in the worst possible way: the OP picks itself up a little bit but it really sounds like a dirge<\/I> is welcoming you to partake of the whole adventure.<\/p>\n
Last Exile<\/i> tells a story that is supposed to be one of hope and optimism but is ultimately bogged down by its obstinate disregard for helping the audience. All of the characters receive attempts to endear themselves, but it’s never quite enough. Perhaps this would have worked better as an OVA, but barely anyone makes those anymore: the concluding episodes had the right sort of theatrics for that sort of atmosphere, with none of the strength of body to back it up.<\/p>\n
*When I say “Gale is gay for Claus”, I mean “Gale has romantic designs on Claus”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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