Last Exile

This anime could be classed under several different genres; adventure, action, science fiction and drama. The quality of the animation itself was absolutely excellent with its display of brilliant colours, vivid characters and scenery. The anime comprised of twenty six (26) episodes taking it to a full season. STORY 8/10 The story centred around two young children, Lavi and Claus, who are orphans living together and making a living flying their plane which they believed belonged to their fathers. They do jobs taking important documents to various people when the need arises. It is during one of their assignments that they encounter another plane under attack and go to investigate. This action will change the rest of their lives. The pilot was transporting a package, in the form of a little girl and was ambushed by the enemy who wanted the child for their own reasons. He begs them to take care of the child and dies. They now have to drop off the child to the rendezvous point and they will get their reward. It is here that they meet the mysterious captain of the infamous ship named Alex who relieves them of the child. Believing that foul play is involved, they decide to go after the ship in order to save the child. By doing this, they get caught up in a series of events that have the future of the world at stake, which they inevitably take part in to return the place to the peace and stability which it has once known and enjoyed. ART 8/10 It was a joy watching this anime because of so many different things, the animation being one of them. The colour combinations made for an incredible setting and excellent character drawings created beautiful scenery that was captivating. SOUND 8/10 The opening song was techno based but suited the rhythm of the series which was fast paced throughout. The musical scores throughout the series that highlighted vital parts were more classical based but the speed of the pieces were either fast or slow depending on the action of the scene. CHARACTER 9/10 The characters in the series were well rounded and fully developed which added to the advancement of the story and made it worth watching. The main characters, Lavi and Claus went through the most changes but it was because each of the characters in the series was given time to interact with each other and the audience could have identified with what each of them were going through, made them all the more real and excellent to watch. ENJOYMENT 9/10 The series was well written and the characters were also very well developed. There were plenty of pleasant surprises which added to the enjoyable experience of watching the anime. This anime illustrated that even in times of crisis, the smallest person has a very huge impact on the outcome of any battle; no one should be taken for granted. OVERALL 8/10 An excellent series, worthy of re-watching and action packed with wonderful twists. A thrilling adventure richly blended with those sentimental moments to give the series a humane touch.

Last Exile starts with the main characters doing courier jobs using vanship—A small two-seater plane vehicle in a distorted world. Where there are wars over water that are examined and judged by "The Guild'' a superpower nation of elites. The story focuses on the development and goal of the main characters and how they get entangled with the most infamous ship. The build-up of the story at times seems slow but it is worth the while. The characters are well written but still have a little room for improvement. The character interaction was the most concerning part of the anime. Sometimes things between characters happened too fast and in other instances, they left the relational development on a halt without a proper reason. The plot was very rich to the point the story felt like not justifying the work done on the plot. As mentioned earlier the plot pacing at the start of the story feels slow—for myself, I don't think it was really a problem but once the story build-up is done the pacing gets pretty well. The anime had good art for that time and the animation in the battles sometimes felt undercooked but was done well enough to keep you hooked. The biggest problem I had with the anime was not showcasing the true potential of the Steampunk theme. The sound direction was good and everything was pretty nice. The anime could have been a masterpiece if the above-mentioned things were dealt with nicely and if the story was as rich as the plot was. I would highly recommend everyone to give it a try. In the end, all the build-up at the start is worth the wait.

I’ve never been all that into steampunk personally, not that it doesn’t interest me, but merely that I haven’t had much opportunity to watch or read it. From what I’ve seen, steampunk isn’t exactly a common genre in anime either, so this was rather surprising. And you know what? I really liked it. Despite the fact that they did use pretty much entirely CG for the ships, which now looks fairly dated, it still looks a heck of a lot better than a lot of CG I’ve seen used in currently airing shows, and the shots that they get with it are brilliant. Using overlays and effects, as well as some smart shots and with the animation of the ships themselves, they manage to make it so that half the time you’re not even thinking about the fact that it’s not 2D. We get some really amazing panning and flowing shots through it, and the dogfights are just a lot of fun to witness. But what would all that be without the sense of atmosphere, which it manages to accomplish equally well through the great aesthetic. The backgrounds portray the scale and height of the vast skies with stretching landscapes below, and the animation is great in design and flow. It’s just really fluid and consistent, though on a rare occasion it can be a bit off. The character designs are incredibly well done, each being unique and suiting their respective characters perfectly and really my only significant complaint is that when the characters are facing directly toward the screen their noses practically disappear and it looks really weird. But how does the story hold up? Pretty well, I’d say. It throws you right into the world in all it’s entirety with little explanation at the start, and gradually reveals more information to you as it progresses and as the mystery of the Exile is unraveled. While I do appreciate this means of conveying the world and using “show, don’t tell” rather than just giving massive exposition dumps, I personally had a little trouble following the story on occasion, particularly when I had taken breaks between the episodes, though that might just be me. Last Exile set sup this great premise and world, but it is far from perfect. We get the sense of a vast world around us, begging for exploration, and then the main characters sit around on a ship for what felt like an innumerable amount of episodes. It’s not that all these episodes were poor, but a fair amount of them felt like the time could’ve been better spent elsewhere. That’s a pretty large problem in Last Exile itself. A lot of things are either under explained or overcovered, leading to a somewhat unbalanced feel to the entirety of the show. For instance, we’re given this really pleasant dynamic with Lavie and Claus, and Lavie from a few scenes is hinted to have a lot of depth. And then she is quickly pushed to the role of the super-dependent supporting character. Not only that, but it really annoys me that their backstory got so little coverage. Not that they didn’t get to it, but they took their sweet time before revealing it and even when they did it was a rather short sequence. I feel a lot of moments would have had significantly more impact if their backstory had been focused on much earlier and given a lot more screentime. So yeah, I’m kind of bitter about Lavie being so quickly pushed to the side, but what about our Main Character, Claus? Well…he’s…alright. Not much more. While he isn’t nearly as dull as some…*cough*other characters, he really wasn’t all that interesting. Your typical “I want to protect my friends and do the right thing” archetype who for some reason is so much better than trained professionals at everything despite being less than half the age of most of them. This isn’t to say that every character in the show is similarly meh-worthy, for instance the entire backstory with Lucciola and Dio was incredibly interesting, and Alex Row while being somewhat of a stereotype still managed to enthrall me. Delphine was chillingly creepy and eccentric, capturing every scene she was in, and I couldn’t help but smile at the interactions of the Silvana mechanics crew, despite their dark introduction that was strangely kind of quickly glossed over and forgotten about. While a lot of them are certainly not the most original or unique, I really enjoyed watching their interactions and development over the course of the series. The characters aside, my main issue beyond all others was how the show gets even further sidetracked about 3 quarters of the way in and turns into this incredibly stupid Misunderstanding-Romance-Drama anime for a few episodes. It wasn’t an exceptionally long time, but it sure felt like ages and it was enough for me to put it on hold for a while in favor of watching other shows. When I finally did get myself to resume watching it though, I actually kind of regretted putting it on hold, because I found myself loving it once more. Yeah it had it’s flaws, but the epic conclusion was handled fantastically. Not to say there weren’t some loose ends and odd parts when you start to really think about it, but it left me happy and satisfied, which is really my main requirement above all else. Speaking of happy and satisfied, this soundtrack is pretty sweet. That Opening is amazing. I wasn’t too big a fan of it at first, but as I watched the show more and more I began to get really into it, and it’s easily one of the best Openings I’ve seen from a visual standpoint. The Ending as well is great, and practically instantaneously became one of my favorite EDs. The OST on a whole is pretty well-done, contributing solidly to the atmosphere with some good themes and instrument choices. It never stood out to me as particularly exceptional, but it did it’s job well. The one flaw I found with it was that there were a few times where the music became a little to predominant, actually distracting from the show, but that wasn’t very common. I give Last Exile an 8/10, with it’s enjoyably large cast, unique setting and many mysteries it was overall an incredibly compelling and fun experience. (Originally Written December 7th, 2014) https://writtenandwriting.wordpress.com/

Aw, man... I really wanted to like Last Exile. There is a lot going for it; great graphics, a fascinating steampunk world, and an epic script. But sadly it all gets all but ruined by bad editing and directing. Dialogue is often stiff and riddled with awkward and pointless pauses. Events get little to no buildup, making the dramaturgical curve way too straight and even. In a story as epic as this, you need buildups and climaxes, but the dynamics get lost in a mess of wierd cuts and directing choices. And voice acting is far from consistantly great. On the plus side, the graphics are really cool with awesome backgrounds that really gives life to the world. And the dogfighting scenes are mostly great. Sometimes the CGI clashes a bit with the traditional art style, but it didn't bother me all that much. Sound effects and background music works well with setting the mood and enhance the immersion (an immersion that rarely lasts longer than to the next cut due to the awful editing). Opening track was not my cup of coke, but the ending theme went straight into my "good shit" folder. The story is really complex, with lots of characters, political factions and side arcs that do a good job of obscuring most of the cliches that might arise. Best of all, the story is perfectly intertwined with the world in which it takes place. And what a world, by the way! All was set for this to get at least an 8 in my book, and I'm really sad it crashed in on itself the way it did. I can't give it less than a 6 overall because I could kind of brain-edit it myself in real time, but you should not have to do that to enjoy a show. Maybe we can look forward to a total remake for an upcoming anniversary? Maybeprettyplease?

This anime will always carry a special place in my heart. It got me really into the anime scene and it made me appreciate J-pop and J-rock as well. I always liked steampunk so this anime was really suitable for me. And I wasn't disappointed, a lot of action and I liked the world of Last Exile, really nice graphics. Story: It's about a flight race and there's some politics involved too, but outside the Guild, the politics are sketchy and actually don't make that much sense. But the rivalry of Dio/Delphine vs Claus/Alexander is the main plot theme. Unfortunately the deus ex machina ending leaves a bit to be desired. Art: By today's standards the CGI looks clunky but at the time it was quite well executed. However, the CGI and regular anime scenes don't really mix well together. This is no longer the case for its successor "Last Exile Fam". But overall the ships, world and cities are a stunning sight. Sound: I really love "Cloud Age Symphony", the first J-pop song and it stuck with me ever since. The other music manages to get you into the right mood. A minor gripe would be the "cute" tunes which signal some funny or cute scene, but most of the themes make the anime even more exciting than they actually are. So it supports the episodes really well. Character: The ship captains (except the Sylvana) are really stupid and serve more to provide comic relief. Girls are mostly fit into a cute role.The Guild characters are the ones that are fleshed out and they all have two sides, like a coin. But we'll have to put up with many side characters like an annoying sergeant that only serves to... annoy the viewer. Enjoyment: Most of the time you don't need to watch it with your full attention. But the end of each episode left me wanting more, I enjoyed the series a great deal. Overall: There are some minor sticking points such as being too cute and without any blood to realistically portray a war. But overall the series score high on visuals and sound, as well as a plot that keeps the viewer watching. Definitely a series to put on your watch list.

It took me awhile to finally finish the series for Last Exile, but that's because I kept losing interest. Nevertheless, I can say that the concept for this storyline is mind blowing. My favorite part of the series was the characters and their character development. When you are given a specific person and as the story progresses, you will eventually grow to enjoy or dislike the personalities of each character as each episode goes by, providing you with a very detailed expression of what you think of a specific person, their relationships with others, and their overall attitude towards the plot. The one feature that I had a huge problem with, and has overall affected the severely low score for this series that I have given it, is plot development. Like the character development, it expands the plot to include intricate details about the scenario that a person is currently watching at. However, the development is taken far too excessively and severely hinders the attention to key details by distracting it with too many medial details. Each episode is painfully expanded to its limits on one specific skit; such as, the vanship race takes up an episode and a half and is nowhere near important to the overall plot, except for specific points, like the introduction of another character. However, you end up missing these points until the very end when it causes a hindrance with the friction between characters. Had they reduced the series to a legitimately smaller series, or even a movie, to the point where it's more "to the point" and less excess, I would have fallen in love with this anime. But, because the presentation is terrible compared to the concept, I have to give my overall score as is. Last Exile is an example of good concept, terrible presentation.

Last Exile is one of my favorite animes of all time. The story is awesome and catchy, but not the point where its confusing and hard to understand. The sound is good, i like a lot of the music (especially the opening theme.) The characters are all very interesting and there's a lot of development with most of them. I enjoyed this to the point where this is probably my favorite or second favorite anime. Overall, this anime is awesome and i think its very entertaining and you'll enjoy it. The story was catchy to me and i could never wait until the next episode.

Viele Animeserien habe ich jetzt schon hinter mir doch Last Exile wurde von mir bisher immer fleißig aufgeschoben. "Schlechte Story, es bleiben viele Fragen offen..." -nicht mein Ding, dachte ich doch: Falsch gedacht! Im Nachhinein betrachtet bereue ich es, den Anime erst JETZT zu Gesicht bekommen zu haben denn er ist meiner Meinung nach echt ein absolutes Meisterwerk, welches in keiner Anime-Sammlung fehlen sollte! Sound: Das Opening hat am Anfang, genauso wie das Ending, für mich doch schon einen abschreckenden Charakter gehabt. Nicht so das Ware, wenn man es mit anderen Serien vergleicht? -aufs erste Hinhören vielleicht. Wie bei vielen Animeserien stellt sich, besonders das Ending, für mich als absoluter Ohrwurm heraus, welchen ich mittlerweile sehr genial und passend finde. Ein wundervoll passendes, stimmungsvolles Lied, welches sich perfekt an das Ende einer Episode anschließt, welche ebenso durchweg mit hochwertigen und gut passender Soundunterstüptzung unterlegt ist. Soundtechnisch steht Last Exile also mit vielen Animeserien an erster Spitze und es gibt nichts zu bemängeln Animation: Dazu fällt mir spontan nur eins ein: ATEMBERAUBEND! Wem diese nicht gefällt, der sollte wohl schleunigst aus dem Animegebiet verschwinden denn die Animationen in Last Exile sind absolute Oberklasse. Ob es nun bei den gigantisch aussehenden Vanships oder bei den extrem hochwertig animierten Schlachten anfängt, spielt dabei keine Rolle! Die Animationen bieten alle 26 Episoden durchweg höchsten Anime-Standard und die, zugegeben wohl recht oft auch PC-Animierten Szenen, lassen sich perfekt in das Gesamtbild einfügen. Alles in allem machen schon allein diese gigantischen Animationen diesen Anime zu einem Top-Anime, bei dem man einfach nur genießerisch zuschauen kann wie beispielsweise gerade eine erstklassige Schlacht auf dem Bildschirm tobt. Story: Von vielen ist die Story wohl der Hauptkritikpunkt -diese Ansicht teile ich absolut gar nicht! Sicher wird man mal eben in eine Welt hereingeschmissen, wo scheinbar Krieg herrscht und komische Zustände vorhanden sind, doch im Laufe der Serie kann man sich als aufmerksamer Zuschauer doch schon allerhand zusammenreimen und der Fakt, dass keine weiteren Informationen über die gesamte Weld geliefert wird, lässt genügend Platz für jedermanns eigene Interpretation. Außerdem finde ich das gesamte Konzept, dieser fiktiven Welt mehr als beeindruckend und es spricht mich in ganzer Linie an, was sich die Macher dieses Anime dabei gedacht haben. Der Fakt, dass weder moralische Aspekte hier großen Anklang finden und der Anime nicht die ganze Zeit probiert, dem Zuschauer zu zeigen wie schlecht doch die Welt ist empfinde ich ebenso positiv wie die Tatsache, dass der Anime klar bei seiner Story und Sache bleibt und nicht etwa noch tausend Liebesszenen als Fanservice oder sonstigen Genreschnickschnack einbaut. Fazit: In Punkto Story und Welt bietet Last Exile endlich mal etwas Neues und begeistert mich somit mit einem gigantisch faszinierendem Konzept, in welches man langsam zum Anfang hin eingeführt wird und welches dann immer schneller klarer wird. Dabei begleitet man die doch schnell sympathischen Hauptcharaktere Klaus und Lavie und erlebt mit wie die beiden doch auf die eine oder andere, harte Probe gestellt werden. Charaktere: Das Thema Charaktere in Last Exile ist wohl der einzige Schwachpunkt der Serie. Man erfährt sowohl am Anfang nicht viel über die Charaktere und dies ändert sich auch im weiteren Verlauf nicht groß. Fragen, wovon die Hauptperson beispielsweise "angetrieben" wird kann man sich zwar noch zusammenreimen aber dennoch ermöglicht Last Exile nicht mal annähernd einen tieferen Einblick in die Gefühls- bzw. Denkwelt der Charaktere und lässt auch in Sachen Entwicklung der Personen so manchen Wunsch unerfüllt. Ein Nachteil, welcher jedoch durch die restlichen genialen Elemente durchaus zu verschmerzen ist. Es kann ja nicht ALLES stimmen ;) Fazit: Last Exile bietet mit der überwältigenden Grafik und dem beindruckendem Sound ein wahrlich gigantisches Schauspiel, welches jeder Animeliebhaber mal gesehen haben sollte. Die Story bietet dabei endlich mal etwas Abwechslung, was wohl größtenteils an der wundervoll ausgearbeiteten Welt in Last Exile liegt, welche mich persönlich durchweg begeistert. Einziges Manko wäre wohl die recht oberflächliche Charakterbehandlung wobei ich finde, dass es schon mehr als genug "Gefühls-Geplänkel-Animes" gibt. Wer also etwas Aktion in einer neuen Welt sucht und sich von gigantischen Animationen bezaubern lassen will ist hier genau richtig. Wer tiefgründige Gefühle sucht sollte sich besser nach etwas anderem umschauen.

I won't repeat what other people have said since I have disagreed with half of it and agreed with the other half, so I'll add something new, something that no one that watches anime ever seems to care about, which is sad. What are they teaching people or expecting people to believe when they write this stuff. I would have given this show a 9 if I wasn't so annoyed with the piss poor moral calculus of the writers and some of the characters that we are clearly lead to believe are cool. Alex Row numerous times tries to kill the two kids who are main characters. In the beginning he tries to shoot them out of the sky even though he knows they are kids, they are civilians, they are heroes who saved a child he calls 'cargo', and he knows that they are the the children of his mentors. He tries to murder them anyway. No apology either. Then after surviving through no fault of his own Alex, the supposedly coolest guy in the show who we are meant to look up to, bullies the kids, and puts them in extreme danger. Alex is a psychopath scumbag. In any just world he would endure long torture before dying. The fate any child murderer and torturer deserves. Yet everyone just accepts this as normal, rational, moral behavior. I'm not sorry to say it isn't. I am sorry that the morally bankrupt fans of many similarly morally bankrupt anime franchises do think it's fine. So this review is for you anime fans out there with no morals that find no problem with these kind of messages. You and your "Normal" can eat my @ss ho!e.

Extremely good opening and ending song. The latter is something most anime at its time lack even the good ones. Massive scenery pornography. While there is not much character development, the story was good enough to explain the problems that were encountered in the word. To top it off, the animation was done by a animation industry known for good picture production. Story revolves around poverty and how characters strive to pilot the sky in search of freedom and redemption. The anime itself is extremely underrated as it has no connection to any famous authors or correlate to mainstream anime. However it is definitely worth one's curious eyes to see

I happened upon this show by chance, and I was very glad that I did. It quickly became one of my very favorite anime. It's the type of anime that I would recommend watching a second time, too, because you will have more of an understanding and can enjoy the show in more depth. That is not to say that it is too complicated to watch the first time, just that you will get more from it if you watch it again. It won't be boring the second time. The colors are very muted, which is something untypical of the anime I normally watch, but it works really well for this anime. The thing that really makes this show wonderful is the characters, and the depth they have. They aren't merely stereotypes, and you really get the sense that they could be real people. The villain is especially well-done. I have watched this anime both subtitled and dubbed, and both are good.

From time to time there are anime in which you could dive into another world. That fairy feeling of a world with a different rules than our own is one of the reasons movies and books like Lord of the Rings become famous. The only anime I had the same feeling from was the "Made in Abyss". Of course no fantasy world would be interesting without a dark part. Unfortunately, this is also the weak part of the story. You start the story of two people in this world, with like zero explanation what are the rules. There was initial battle of flying and some talk for "chivalry" and people fighting and some guild observe them? In fact I did not know the pre-story until the second recap from the "Fam the silver wing", which explains everything. It is good to dive into a new fantasy world, it is bad to drawn in it, not knowing what to feel and what is important. Well, the good part of the story is the flying. That fantasy world focuses on that. The settings are quite interesting. It feels like the world is in the start of industrial era, but it is in the future. And flying is made possible by a "magic" substance, so it is no different from biking. Unfortunately, it is used for war. A topics like revenge, patriotism and struggle for (more) power are involved in a way that completely contrast the desire of freedom to fly of our main characters. And then there is the villain faction - the guild. There are many stories about bad people attempting to take over the world, but here in this anime we can see what will happen if someone succeed. The villain possessing all advanced technology acts as a mediator of the ongoing war between two nations. The war feels very fantasy-like and no so brutal, because of the rules imposed by the guild and the natural barrier between the two nations. Until the guild decided to have more power and went after a girl controlling a powerful "weapon". And our main characters gets mixed in into all that. And the one thing that reduces the quality of this anime are the characters. Initially, the main characters has very clear goal and resolve, they stick together throughout their adventure. However, as the story progress and more characters gets mixed in, the feelings and the development between characters becomes a big mess. People fall apart and start fighting each other for no clear reason. There is enough tension on the outside under the threat of superior enemy, but there is like artificially created tension on board of the ship Sylvana. Thankfully, the art and the sound compensate for the story. The music will really make you feel like you are in some kind of fantasy world and all you need is Claudia to fly. However, the music is quite integral to the anime and it is not an OST that make sense to listen without watching the anime. The art is essential to dive into a world of clanking metal and roaring Claudia motors as well as war with ships. The amazing part is the detail to writings. The text on documents and markings on the planes are not just gibberish, they are English written with Greek letters. It is quite interesting challenge to read it (and remember all the characters name from my math classes). The anime is quite enjoyable. It is not something that provoke you to watch it full time without stopping, but it has sufficient amount of tension, action and adventurous feeling, allowing you to escape from the reality for a little bit.

Airships are awesome. Characters are pretty legit. Animation is solid. Adventurous. I enjoyed this anime quite a bit. It kind of reminded me of some of the early snes final fantasy games with Cid, Cecil, etc etc. Also there is a sequel and I'm about to jump into that right about now... I must write a longer review... ughhh. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW. NOT EVERY ONE WANTS A LONG REVIEW.

No stereotypical stuff in here. This is one of the first anime I had ever watched and I have yet to find anything quite like it. The story is completely unique and interesting. The art is beautiful and unique to the show. This is a fantastic show that is really quite underrated. The opening is really good as well and I listened to it every episode. The only thing I thought could improve is the character development for the main characters, I would have liked more background on them. There is a sequel to this show but I wouldn't bother watching it... it's really bad. BTW I recommend watching this dubbed. It has a really good dub.

I gave a 6 to this serie because I think is too long for the simple story that it has, there were some episodes that I just fell asleep or gave up watching. It has some high points, but it´s exhaustive. The artistic conception is well conceived and the soundtrack is outstandig (I think it´s the better thing in the serie, specially the steampunk overture "Cloud Age Symphonie" just brilliant and the wonderful romantic Over the Sky by the graceful Hitomi Kuroishi) I still recommend it. =)

A beautifully realised world and a gripping plot. PLOT: Oh where to start! Last Exile is set in a highly original and engaging world were two huge empires are at war with each other, following strict rules of chivalry and overseen by a mysterious organisation named the Guild. The thing that sets Last Exile apart is the fact that the majority of the action takes place in the air. The armies of Anatoray and Disith engage in battles using massive (and I mean massive) floating battleships with lots of cannon fire, lines of regimented musketeers (with steam powered muskets!) and just plain ramming into each other – its all quite pseudo 19th century navel battle-esq. In addition to these massive floating battleships there are also much smaller two-man vessels named vanships, mostly used by couriers and for racing. Our protagonists Claus and Lavie are two childhood friends who form a pilot and navi team and fly in their deceased fathers vanship on various courier jobs and occasional races. Claus is an exceptional pilot, stubborn and impulsive (yet extremely likeable) and Lavie is somewhat hot-headed but a bit more logical than Claus (although she got on my nerves every now and then)…………anyway I’m rambling, its way too easy to get caught up describing the world setting – its really wonderfully realised. The plot really kicks off when Claus and Lavie meet Alvis Hamilton and transport her to the rouge battleship Silvana which is captained by the mysterious Alex Rowe (who is just cool) and get sucked into the massive political upheaval their world is going through and the war with the technologically superior Guild led by the extremely creepy Maestro Delphine. The story is definitely made up of two halves. The 1st is really all about building up the characters, establishing the world and getting all the basic groundwork laid – much of the early episodes are centred on the characters (and everyone is given a distinct and well developed personality) and the odd stunning airborne battle. The latter half of the story is where the major plot starts to come to the forefront and the focus shifts from Claus and Lavie’s personal issues to the bigger issues their world is dealing with. I normally moan about GONZO and their problems with pacing, but Last Exile has no such issues – its measured and absorbing storytelling was just perfectly done, and reaches a natural and satisfying conclusions (although there are some mysteries left unsolved its nothing major really). Much as I would love to wax lyrical about the subtleties of the plot that would be spolierific and I would not want to deprive anyone of the Last Exile experience. But I can safely say that its been a while since I watched a series that captured my imagination so much. ANIMATION: In a word – stunning. The character designs are very simple, but eyecatching (Range Murata’s designs are quite distinctive). The battle-ships and vanships are extremely well thought out pieces of technical design and the way the landscapes are drawn are very simplistic but somehow extremely real feeling. It’s just a really gorgeous piece of work. Of course it does suffer from conspicuous CGI (well it is GONZO) but its not completely off-putting and makes the aerial action scenes so much smoother and jaw dropping. MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: Ah the music!! I’ve downloaded the soundtrack because I loved it so much! The OP “Cloud Age Symphony” really sets the tone for the show. With its odd mix of bagpipes, electro and great vocals I never skipped over it in 26 episodes! The ED was a beautiful haunting ballad that I also never skipped over as it was just perfect for easing you out of the tense drama filled atmosphere many episodes created. Background music didn’t disappoint either – fitting perfectly and enhancing the visuals effortlessly. The soundscape of the action scenes also needs to be mentioned – such attention to detail!! The whine of artillery shells, the trembling whirr of vanship engines and the various different sounds of the wind all added up to a wonderful sense of realism – I was completely sucked into the world acoustically. The voice acting was pretty damn good too. An impressive ensemble cast, everyone seemed well cast and put great effort into their roles. I particularly liked Dio and Delphine…..mainly because I quite like their type of yandere personality. The english for the episode title eyecatches was also quite impressive. So yeah I adored Last Exile – I’m aware that I’ve wrote a lot more than I usually do and yet don’t seem to have said very much! Its the type of series that you have to see for yourself as there isn’t much anyone can really tell you about it, other than the obvious “its fantastic”. So yeah – go watch!!

The wonderful worlds of clouds and deserts awaits ladies and gentlemen, in the wonderful affair that is the world of "Last Exile" ahead of you. From the very beginning, you are greeted by the luscious cloudy landscapes of the world to a unique piece of music that is accurately titled "Cloud Age Symphony" and will greet you at the beginning of every episode. This wonderful piece sets up another twenty-six episodes of amazing tracks which are by vast majority orchestral pieces with several unique sounds ranging from the mischievousness of "Hello, Kitty Girl" to the almost regal trumpet parts of "Silverna". Of course, there is more to this intriguing tale than the beautiful art and the amazing music; and taking you through the experience are pilot and navigator of Vanships Claus Valca (Pilot) and Lavie Head (Navigator). Together they stumble upon the mysteries surrounding the Guild and the Grand Stream. Along the wall they will encounter a myriad of characters including a favorite character of this writer's own, Alex Rowe, the captain of the infamous Silvana. Throughout "Last Exile" each recurring character gets plenty of screen time, and although they may miss out on getting a flushed out back story they all have plenty of time to exhibit their beliefs and personality. Along with this there is no shortage of intriguing characters whether they be assisting the protagonist duo, or antagonizing their efforts. In the end, the only thing that even remotely holds back this ensemble of top-notch elements is the story which can at times be somewhat hard to follow. Even so, it lends itself to be rather easily replayed which benefits its mildly confusing story. In the end, every little part of "Last Exile" comes together to make a beautiful ensemble of visuals, sounds, and characters, with every piece guiding you down the path of its enjoyable Steampunk story.

Although I find the steampunk genre interesting, I haven't had many opportunities to watch or read it. Steampunk anime isn't particularly common either, so I was surprised to find myself liking it. The story in Last Exile holds up pretty well, in my opinion. It starts off by immersing you in the world with little explanation and gradually reveals more information as the mystery of the Exile unfolds. While I appreciate this method of world-building through "show, don't tell" rather than exposition, I personally had some difficulty following the story at times, especially when I took breaks between episodes. It sets up a great premise and world but has flaws. The vast world around us begs for exploration, but the main characters spend too much time sitting on a ship in a fair number of episodes. Although not all of these episodes were poor, many felt like wasted time. This is a significant issue with Last Exile itself. Many things are either under-explained or over-explained, resulting in an unbalanced feel to the show as a whole. For example, we get a pleasant dynamic between Lavie and Claus, and Lavie is hinted to have a lot of depth. However, she is quickly relegated to the role of a super-dependent supporting character. Additionally, their backstory received little coverage, and while they eventually got to it, they took too long to reveal it, and it was a short sequence. If their backstory had been focused on earlier and given more screen time, many moments would have had a lot more impact. I also found it bothersome that the story got sidetracked three-quarters of the way in and turned into a silly Misunderstanding-Romance-Drama anime for a few episodes. Although the time it lasted wasn't particularly long, it felt like an eternity. Despite its flaws, the epic conclusion was handled exceptionally well. There were some loose ends and strange parts that didn't make sense upon further reflection, but ultimately, I was left feeling content, which is the most important thing to me. I also have issues with the main character, Claus. While he isn't as dull as some other characters, he isn't particularly interesting either. He's your typical "I want to protect my friends and do the right thing" archetype, somehow better than trained professionals at everything despite being younger than most of them. This isn't to say that every character in the show is similarly meh-worthy. For instance, the entire backstory with Lucciola and Dio was incredibly interesting, and while being somewhat of a stereotype, Alex Row still managed to enthrall me. Delphine was chillingly creepy and eccentric, capturing every scene she was in, and I couldn't help but smile at the interactions of the Silvana mechanics crew despite their dark introduction that was strangely kind of quickly glossed over and forgotten about. While many of them are certainly not the most original or unique, I enjoyed watching their interactions and development throughout the series. The ships' excellent animation makes them feel like they're part of the 2D world. The panning and flowing shots through the vast skies are breathtaking, and the dogfights are a lot of fun. The great aesthetic design adds to the atmosphere, portraying the scale and height of the skies and landscapes below. The animation is fluid and consistent, with unique character designs that perfectly suit their respective characters. My only significant complaint is that when the characters face directly toward the screen, their noses practically disappear, which looks weird. The OST as a whole is well-executed, providing solid contributions to the atmosphere with some well-crafted themes and instrument choices. Although it never really stood out to me as exceptionally exceptional, it did its job well. The only flaw I noticed was that there were a few instances where the music became too dominant, detracting from the show, but that was a rare occurrence. Last Exile boasts a large cast, a unique setting, and an intriguing storyline. The only downside is that the slower portions of the show prevented me from giving it a higher score.

Without a doubt, the strong point of this series is the construction of its universe. While the character development isn't bad, it's not really a standout point either. That's why some people might find it boring. But I still enjoyed it quite a bit, even though, as I mentioned, it can get boring at times. But what it does have, it does well. I think this series never really reached its full potential, which is a shame. Either way, I recommend that everyone should give this series a chance, especially people who are a bit older. I wouldn't recommend it to very young people due to the lack of action and comedy.

I love this show, it is my top 1 fave show of all time and one of the few trye anime epics out there. It has an amazing world building, good lore, great designs, an amazing soundtrack, characters that range from great and enjoyable to medioclre and bland, good action, a lot of mystery explained through small details up until the end that reward the keen eyed viewer and a lot of very touching moments. BUT There are some cons: Claus is a fairly stock and bland main character Lavie being pushed to supporting cast The forced love triangle Pace problems one-dimensional villain rushed ending unexplained golden face in the intro of the first 13 episodes that later get removed. But apart from that i think that this is an amazing show and a true to heart epic unlike most other anime shows i've seen that don't tend to have that "lord of the rings" scale world building and integrated lore. When i recommend this show i do it to fans of epics, adventure mystery/exploration and steampunk/dieselpunk fans. It is not for everyone, but for fans of those it should provide an enthrilling and great watch.