Last Exile

I’m generally not a watcher of anime, so the story of how I came to know Last Exile is somewhat interesting. It was on a vacation in Italy that I saw the end of a Last Exile episode on TV (and it was dubbed in Italian too!). I was fascinated by the steampunk/retro-futuristic setting and managed to memorize a few of the characters’ names from the credits — no matter that it was anime and I’m not very fond of the anime/manga artform. However, I couldn’t find the anime title from what I remembered, so it was a while later that I saw the setting again and discovered it was Last Exile. Earlier this year I got to watch it all through with a friend.

Last Exile is set in a retro-futuristic world, where the two nations of this world are at perpetual war. Airborne warships wage orchestrated war under strict codes and regulations, and each battle is umpired by the mysterious Guild. Meanwhile, civilians endure perpetual wartime livelihood. Teenagers Claus Valca and Lavie Head fly a messenger vanship, essentially a small and versatile two-person airship. In a strange turn of events they are charged with taking a young girl to the itinerant warship Silvana. Meanwhile, the Silvana, captained by the intense, brooding Alex Rowe, searches for a legendary entity called the Exile. The saga is all about the people: Claus and Lavie, the Silvana’s crew, and their relationships, histories and secrets, whilst they quest for the Exile, uncover the true motives of the Guild, and strive to end this perpetual war and bring peace to the world.

Last Exile is the first anime series I watched, and I think it’s quite good. I was beguiled by the setting — steampunk and retro-futuristic anachronism never cease to fascinate me — and world-building that went into the warring nations and the Guild. (I especially liked the science-fiction-esque look of the Guild’s architecture and clothing.) The animation itself is spectacular, the 3-D modelling and 2-D drawings melding seamlessly together. Apart from having a fascinating world and aesthetic, the story contains a fine mix of interesting and varied characters, action, plot twists, contemplation and reminiscing, relationship and character development, and mystery — everything that a well-fleshed series ought to have. I was happy with the characters — like the cast of Firefly, the Last Exile characters make a good team, complete with varied personalities and relationship dynamics. They are all well-rounded chars, and although some stereotypes prevail, they have sufficient depth beyond mere one-dimensional team tropes. Furthermore, we also learn why and how they became who they were, but not completely — so one can have fun speculating on the unspoken thoughts and unexplained activities of the chars. Favourite character? I really can’t choose, since the Silvana’s crew was a great team!

The story has many sub-plots, half of which were about relationships — these revealed the backstory and motives of the characters, and never got bogged down or murky. The other half drove the main plot and added little surprises to an otherwise straightforward story. On the whole, everything hung together and made good sense, and whilst I thought there were too many coincidences to be realistic, I was happy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the coincidences as part of the story. Perhaps the only downfall was the finale and climax: it happened all too quickly, wasn’t well explained, and ended like a dream and a deus ex machina. I had to read up on the Net about the backstory before I understood the meaning of the ending.

Nevertheless, that’s not a big quibble, and I enjoyed Last Exile very much and thought it was a good series to ease me into anime. (My friend, who watches more than I do, says it’s superior to many other anime series.) I also liked the titles of the episodes, which all reference chess moves and concepts — very clever and befitting to the strict martial setting and intricate, calculated, purposeful storyline. In all, it was definitely worth watching and thoroughly enjoyable.