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Review: Last Exile
Updated: 10/29/03

Anime/Music/Fandom

Reviewed by: Bad Jew

Title rating: PG-13; good fun for the whole family. Except for your dog. No dogs allowed

-26-episode anime episodes (2003), complete.

Last Exile is a show about small German kids, Aryan super children if you will, who deliver packages in their van ship (a small, 2-person plane) when not plotting land war in Europe. That's apparently what the cool kids in Prestale, the world that they live in, do. They're pretty much normal couriers except way cuter ... oh yah, except that they also fight to destroy the evil empire which rules their world with an iron fist of metal. It's like that job I had in high school--the one with all the demons.

But all joking aside, this show is good. Very good. In the 2003 anime season that gave us titles that could have been better (Wolf’s Rain) and titles that were so bad they could be construed as war crimes under some interpretations of International Law (Texhnolyze and Human Scrabble), Last Exile is a beacon of quality. It's definitely the best show of 2003, so stop reading this article now and watch it. I can wait. I brought a book and a case of Dr. Pepper.

What's scary is this show is done by Studio Gonzo. They're not supposed to make good shows, they're supposed to make mediocre shows like Real Bout High School (known around here as the show whose DVD menu is better than the episodes), good but one-dimensional shows like Vandread, and the one flawless gem that is Full Metal Panic. Gonzo did have a reason to make Last Exile good (it's their 10th anniversary piece), but it's still weird. Though I guess two good titles out of ten years ain't bad; CLAMP's been around longer than that, and they're still working on their first.

Anime

Last Exile is steampunk, meaning that it's set in a quasi-Victorian future. If you read Neal "Jesus Christ" Stephenson, his book Diamond Age features a land very reminiscent of Last Exile's Prestale, except that his setting lacks the giant airships of doom. Prestale is a world of classy nobles in big hats and monocles filing formal complaints when an enemy commits an un-chivalrous action in battle--like using a big gun on a battleship rather than legions of troops armed with pea shooters. It's also filled with dirty peasants drinking dirty water from even dirtier cups. The main characters in the show, Claus and Lavie, are of the second, mud-drinking class. Claus is the pilot and Lavie the navigator of their van ship, which they use to deliver messages to various nobles. It's sort of like UPS sans the short-shorts.

One day, when racing their ship (something else they do with great acme), Clause and Lavie happen upon another van ship pilot who was shot down. He's carrying an 11-star package: a little girl named Alvis destined for the Sylvana, a badass airship fighting the Guild (who I'll get to later). 11 stars is pretty high priority, since your letter to Grandma for Christmas is about 3 stars, Kennedy's communications with Krushtev during the Cuban Missile Crisis would have been about 9, and 11 stars is saved for packages like the cure for a disease that needs to get around the world in 15 minutes or half the human race will die and the other half will become blind, sterile, and insane. Claus and Lavie meet Alex, the brooding bishounen and captain of the Sylvana. Alex is out to get the Guild for killing his wife many a year ago. While he does angst about that whole dead-wife thing a lot, he also carries a big, big, bigass gun sword with him, so he's not all bad. He convinces Claus and Lavie that their piloting skills are being wasted flying bills between nobles, and convinces them to fight the Guild.

This show also features Russian girls without noses.

Claus and Lavie learn that Alvis has some sort of mystical connection to the Last Exile, which is hidden in the Grand Stream, the Bermuda Triangle of the sky. What the Last Exile is I'll leave for you to decide for yourself, but it's the key to not only defeating the Guild, but to making your whites whiter and your brights brighter.

What makes this show great is not just the plot--which, by the way, is excellent and leaves you begging for more at the end of each episode--it's the characters. Claus and Lavie may be orphans, but for once I don't hold that against them (stupid orphans). They go through huge amounts of development with little angst, which is far too often the handmaiden of development. In addition, the side characters are well-designed, which is the sign of a great show (just look at One Piece). Dio Elaclaire, the defector from the Guild, has his own nice little arc where he learns that Delphine is a jerk. Sophia Forrester of the Sylvana is the newest Lady Une, badass when in a uniform and nice when in a dress. Even the scary repair guy who's in the running for this year's "Sleep is for the Weak Worst Pedophile of the Year" award is beautifully designed.

Since this is a Gonzo show, there's a lot of CG (computer generated) animation. It's not bad, nothing as bad as Blue Submarine # 6, but sometimes it just feels out of place. I'm of the school that thinks that you shouldn't be able to tell when they switch from cell to digital animation, like in Cowboy Bebop, so big CG scenes just don't sit well with me. However, the CGs are well-done in themselves; you can tell Gonzo spent a lot of time to make them more than eye candy. The big battle and race episodes are almost entirely CG, and they aren't that bad unless you're a complete Luddite.

There are also a lot of new voice actors in this show--those for Alvis and Lavie are new to the voice acting game--as well as some Gonzo regulars. Asano Mayui, who plays Claus, also plays tough-but-lovable munitions officer Rheingau from Vandread, for example. No huge names nor amazing acting here, but the voices still suffice.

Music

Right now there are 2 OSTs out for Last Exile. The music isn't bad; in fact, I really like the intro song "Cloud Age Symphony." But most of the rest of the music is sufficient while not spectacular. You can pick up the OSTs from CDJapan, but don't buy plane tickets to Nippon for Last Exile's sound.

Fandom

Let's see...as I write this review, Last Exile has been done in Japan for all of 2 weeks, so there's not a lot of fandom right now. An amazing page is Halo Productions, which already has all the info you'll ever need (the designer didn't waste any time with that). A quick search of Fanfiction.net turns up no fanfics for the show, and most google results are for places selling the DVDs being put out by Geneon (Pioneer), so give this fandom some time yet.

Overall

This show is good. You should be watching it right now; do it, do it now! Bottom line, if you liked Escaflowne, you'll like this, and if you didn't like Escaflowne, how dare you be human?

I give it 4.3 stars out of 5, -.1 for the occasional annoying CG, -.1 for a vague ending that smacked too much of "End of Eva," and -.5 for having too much between each episode and because people tailgate. Go watch already.

Lavie has the magic power to get hit on by guys twice her age.