(L) Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing-

[azarhal]

Originally Posted by creb

While this series may be set on Earth, it's an Earth that is likely so far in our future that trying to recognize landmarks would be pointless.

Turn the map up side down.

The Grand Lake is the Mediterranean sea joining the Black sea. You can see the Italian peninsula and the Red sea. Turan is somewhere around where Ukraine is. There was definitively landscape changes, but some landmark are recognizable.

As for the Guild, from the look of thing Turan have heavy Guild influence in their technology. We can actually see a LED display in the Lassas and the two princess have the eye colors and pointy ears that usually mark a Guilder.

From the special preview we can also see the Guild hourglass symbol in the Ades Fed "flag". It's hidden in the background, but it's there. I actually find it strange, they seem so "low" tech when you see how they operate their battleship, yet their "Premier" wore guild clothing when he was young...

The Sky pirate use Guild Unit on their "scrappers", but they are scavengers, so...

I also agree that saying Fam wasn't a princess was foreshadowing. My anime sense is tingling.

[MrTerrorist]

^Wait, "President"?
Were you watching fansubs or the Funi stream? Cause in the Animax Asia subs, Luscinia is called the Premier of the Ades Federation which even his english bio on Animax's official Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing website said so.

[azarhal]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

^Wait, "President"?
Were you watching fansubs or the Funi stream? Cause in the Animax Asia subs, Luscinia is called the Premier of the Ades Federation which even his english bio on Animax's official Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing said so.

Late day typo.

[octoberasian]

Originally Posted by creb

Oh well, more Fam for the rest of us! (If only it worked that way... )

Spoiler:

Now that the subs have been out for a while, here are my more detailed thoughts:

While this series may be set on Earth, it's an Earth that is likely so far in our future that trying to recognize landmarks would be pointless.

Spoiler for Map of Earth:

However bad the Earth must have been back when humanity built the Exiles and the colony-worlds that would become known as Presters, it seems most-if not all-the environmental problems have been fixed. I guess a lot can happen in 600 years.

With the Earth seemingly looking good, can we assume there is no Guild here? It seems telling that we see two Guild-like people in positions of power in a non-Guild entity: The Ades Federation. Yet, in Liliana's flashback to when she was a child, we see a Guild member in the Guild uniform (possibly Luskinia), which would hint there was a Guild presence recently. I guess it remains to be seen if the Guild disbanded, or if Luskinia and Alauda left it and struck out on their own.

The shot of Iglasia would seem to indicate the Turan Kingdom has been around a while (you don't build a city like that overnight). Since humanity was supposed to all have been evacuated to let the Earth heal, it would seem one of the other Presters must have had a Guild that did not go corrupt and remained true to their mission, thus they migrated back to the Earth well before Claus, Alvis, and crew got the Exile working on their own Prester (or maybe it was multiple Presters that have done so independently already). I hope we learn more about the history of things as they stand now.

I wonder how much Fam and her fellow Sky Pirates make by pirating those huge ships? I assume they re-sell them? At least they didn't take the crew for ransom or anything. Poor guys just have to walk home. I know, I know, we're not supposed to overthink the economic and moral aspects of Sky Piratry.

The Exile has presumably been making constant trips between Earth and the Prester of the last series, and we see it coming in for a landing in this episode (at least, I think it's the same Exile as from the last series). Though how neat would it be if a number of the other Presters had working Exiles traveling to and forth from the Earth? I mean, I don't think we can go 26? 24? episodes with a war between Ades and Turan as the only plot. Anyways, with two years of passage between the last series and this one, I imagine there must be fairly robust communication and trade between the two worlds. Curious to see how that all plays into the story.

For that matter, I wonder where on the Earth it calls its port of landing, as I imagine that could be point of contention if one was a warlike country like the Ades Federation.

We don't see/hear anything about Fam's parents. She seems to live with Gisele, who's father and siblings we do see. Now, I may be a huge cynic from watching anime over the course of two decades, but I couldn't help but feel huge foreshadowing vibes from the interplay between Gisele and Fam that culminates with Gisele says Fam is the last person who would ever be thought of as a princess.

I wonder what the trophy is for. It must mean a lot to Fam to polish it immediately after coming home from a job.

I wonder why they want the Princesses alive. The OP seemed quite foreboding in that regard.

Lastly, you have to have some balls of steel to fly one of those Vespas. I've been a passenger in a gyroplane, which is probably the closest real-life equivalent to a Vanship, and that was... exhilarating at a fraction of the speed these Vanships are flying at.

Anyways, I thought it was a great episode, and can't wait for more. No, it's not the same as Last Exile, but I can re-watch that if I want the same.

Yup, I've seen that map before.

Spoiler:

Here is it with a relief map overlaid onto it:
http://overthesky.livejournal.com/122488.html

If that image is correct, this should be on a very much altered Mediterranean Sea. I guess 600 years of leaving Mother Nature to do what it wants to fix the planet (along with nanomachines) can do that to the area.

I do agree, Adess and Turan seem to have been there for quite a long time. Definitely was not created in the two year span between the previous LE and the current one. Kingdoms don't build and rise that fast if going by my own world history lessons.

That tells me that LE's Prestor wasn't the first or only one returning to Earth. Claus and Lavie, along with Alvis, just restored/fixed its original functionality and purpose.

* Start Speculation *

If going by the six "moons," could they refer to the following?
- Europe (West/Northern Europe = Anatoray; Eastern Europe/Russia = Disith)
- North and South America
- Asia
- Australia
- Middle East
- Africa

You could change that to:
- Europe
- North America (including Central America)
- South America
- Australia
- West and East Asia (From the Middle East onward towards Japan)
- Africa

Definitely a lot of foreshadowing from the first episode alone or just my over-active brain. But, I love thinking about it! Lol. Especially for an anime that I don't mind watching over and over again, and there very few anime shows that I do that for.

OP Sequence:
- Princess Lilianna crucified with rose petals flying by is reminiscent of how Vincent died towards the end of the first LE. Eerie.
- The words of the OP song seem almost similar to Cloud Age Symphony with similar meanings about traveling together into the unknown.

Gisey and Fam:
- Could there be more to their relationship?
- Gisey joking that Fam will never be a princess. Hint at something in the past? Like you said, we have no indication on who are Fam's parents. This draws parallels to Claus and Lavie who both lost their fathers for peace, but we never found out until later in the series what their last mission was.

Too early to say now what and who Fam is though.

We got 25 to 26 episodes to figure this out. It's going to be a fun ride!
* End Speculation *

I'm keeping my hopes high on this series. It's one of those anime shows I'm a big fan of and have been waiting on a proper sequel to it.

[Friday]

ok!!!!
saw the subs and it was brilliant!!!!!
all I can say is......
roll on next episode.

[creb]

Originally Posted by azarhal

Turn the map up side down.

The Grand Lake is the Mediterranean sea joining the Black sea. You can see the Italian peninsula and the Red sea. Turan is somewhere around where Ukraine is. There was definitively landscape changes, but some landmark are recognizable.

Awesome.

Originally Posted by octoberasian

Spoiler:

Here is it with a relief map overlaid onto it:
http://overthesky.livejournal.com/122488.html

If that image is correct, this should be on a very much altered Mediterranean Sea. I guess 600 years of leaving Mother Nature to do what it wants to fix the planet (along with nanomachines) can do that to the area.

I do agree, Adess and Turan seem to have been there for quite a long time. Definitely was not created in the two year span between the previous LE and the current one. Kingdoms don't build and rise that fast if going by my own world history lessons.

That tells me that LE's Prestor wasn't the first or only one returning to Earth. Claus and Lavie, along with Alvis, just restored/fixed its original functionality and purpose.

* Start Speculation *

If going by the six "moons," could they refer to the following?
- Europe (West/Northern Europe = Anatoray; Eastern Europe/Russia = Disith)
- North and South America
- Asia
- Australia
- Middle East
- Africa

You could change that to:
- Europe
- North America (including Central America)
- South America
- Australia
- West and East Asia (From the Middle East onward towards Japan)
- Africa

Definitely a lot of foreshadowing from the first episode alone or just my over-active brain. But, I love thinking about it! Lol. Especially for an anime that I don't mind watching over and over again, and there very few anime shows that I do that for.

OP Sequence:
- Princess Lilianna crucified with rose petals flying by is reminiscent of how Vincent died towards the end of the first LE. Eerie.
- The words of the OP song seem almost similar to Cloud Age Symphony with similar meanings about traveling together into the unknown.

Gisey and Fam:
- Could there be more to their relationship?
- Gisey joking that Fam will never be a princess. Hint at something in the past? Like you said, we have no indication on who are Fam's parents. This draws parallels to Claus and Lavie who both lost their fathers for peace, but we never found out until later in the series what their last mission was.

Too early to say now what and who Fam is though.

We got 25 to 26 episodes to figure this out. It's going to be a fun ride!
* End Speculation *

I'm all on board the idea that the Presters were specific to a geographic location since the inhabitants of the Prester of the first series were descendants of Europeans and Russians.

But, as for how they may relate to the six moons, my immediate thought is that the Presters are hourglass shaped, which doesn't seem to jive with the images we saw in the sky, unless the hourglass shaped designs were made in such a way that their tops were facing the Earth directly, and thus you would only see a circle, which can then be viewed as a crescent as we saw in this episode.

So...I guess it's possible, but that's a big "unless" that it would hinge upon. Then again, this is anime. Big "unlesses" are hardly a stumbling block.

Another part of the OP that got me thinking was the shot of Tatiana and crew on the bridge of a ship. Are they on the Silvana? I guess the Exile had cargo holds large enough to carry battle-ships?

Also, anyone else think the really large er...thing sticking up on the nose of the Lasas is a canon? We get a pretty sweet shot of it angled down (anyone want to try to translate all the Greek letters on it? ) in the preview of the next episode.

[vansonbee]

Just watched the first episode and I have to say it was super flashy, compared to "Last Exile". A irritation popped up, when most of the new cast are generic cliches, like a tsundere, clumsy, shy, tomboy etc... I hope further episodes, does not disappoint, I really enjoy the prequel.

Good to see Dio, but I hope these people give him some respect, the man is a prince after all and I miss his older sister

Can anyone explain me about the guild and the relationship to these new armies and countries? Major confused

[DangerMouse]

Awesome, Funi finally got the ep up

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I must confess, the hostility towards LE among otaku is something I find rather puzzling. It was a terrific series - maybe it didn't pander to what we think of today as the hot-buttons, but it had great production values and a compelling story. Even given the general love/hate relationship within the community towards Gonzo, it still never made sense to me that it never made more of an impact.

I suspect there was a general resentment that the series became popular with casual fans and even some non-anime fans, and that was unforgivable for some. It's really too bad.

I totally agree, I thought it came off as quite popular but should have been even more so, I would not surprised if it's lack of pandering did limit it's spread a bit even though it shouldn't have, not to mention that was one of it's best features along with as you already said it's stunning production values, meticulously built world and compelling story, and unique flight-based steampunk setting/artstyle.

Originally Posted by JediNight

Spoiler for Ep1 comments:

Nice first episode so far, albeit leaving me with a number of questions related to how we arrive here from the original series.

I don't know if I would call Fam a tomboy, but she definitely has a lot of spunk. It's 2am so I didn't listen super carefully, but it appears they are a mercenary group of sorts. Dio is with them, although he sounds different to me. Could just be that I haven't watched the series in like 5+ years.

So we have the totally-not-Nazis Adess Federation attacking the peaceful Dunan Kingdom when they were supposed to merely have diplomatic discussions. Their fleet is destroyed and Fam comes by offering a contract to rescue the Princess of Dunan from the pursuing fleet. In a scene reminiscent of the Millenium Falcon nearly causing ISDs to collide in Empire Strikes Back -- they lay down a thick smoke screen and cause the enemy ships to broadside each other. In the ensuing chaos they make it seem like the Princess ship was "suiciding", but they merely jettisoned their wings and hid amongst the rocks as the fleet left.

I'm left confused as to why some of Dio's people would be in charge of the Adess Federation, as I thought they kept out of siding with specific nations on the planet. And their ships weren't nearly advanced enough to assume it's actually the nation Dio comes from. Aftermath of the events of the original season maybe? Hopefully they explain.

Some big VA names for this. Aki Toyosaki, Aoi Yuuki, and the next apparently hot VA after Kana Hanazawa -- Ai Kayano all voice the main cast. Eri Kitamura also returns as Tatiana.

Range Murata obviously is providing character designs once again, Director and Sound are also the same from the original Last Exile.

Originally Posted by vansonbee

Just watched the first episode and I have to say it was super flashy, compared to "Last Exile". A irritation popped up, when most of the new cast are generic cliches, like a tsundere, clumsy, shy, tomboy etc... I hope further episodes, does not disappoint, I really enjoy the prequel.

Good to see Dio, but I hope these people give him some respect, the man is a prince after all and I miss his older sister

Can anyone explain me about the guild and the relationship to these new armies and countries? Major confused

Yup so glad they are back, and it is instantly recognizable that they are there.

As for some of the key power players in Adess who look like Guild members or former Guild members like Dio I'd imagine they will explain how they were integrated into the general countries on Earth versus how the Guild stood apart in the original on Prestale, perhaps they'll probably explain this when we get a little more world history/politics into the conversation first hand with royalty once Fam the Sky Pirates really talk to the princesses.

[Master_Yoma]

Well the main character is more crazy then the last one

[DangerMouse]

Claus was pretty crazy on a few occasions lol, though he was definitely more reserved since Lavie was usually the one pushing him, while it looks to be opposite with Fam and Giselle.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Thanks - I only wish I could have posted it earlier. No one is rooting harder for this show than me - LE is one of my absolute favorites. But when I look at the other shows the writer has done - ugh. I can't help but worry.

Nice job on the review, as a huge fan of the first series I can totally follow some of those concerns.

I'm not overly worried about that writer's track record yet (it's currently a question mark for me, as credit wise she only really wrote two of those and Legend of the Legendary Heroes was quite improved and yet hard to judge since they had to leave it incomplete, and the other was a mech show directed by the director of Pokemon of all things and it showed so I'm not sure who to blame there), ofcourse I wish they got the original writer back as I loved how it was written (it's basically my favorite anime of my many years of watching) and how it was willing to take large risks like the scale of it's story/characters/world/style (one of my favorite aspects of Gonzo originals) and the extremely rare even back then let alone these days general lack of pandering outside of a few scenes sprinkled around the 26 eps. The first Last Exile seemed to be very much a full collaboration between this director and the writer and the artists like Murata and Maeda involved in all aspects together so I think that firstly she's probably not writing alone anyway and even being cautious of her skills since she doesn't have a particularly large resume yet I could see how the collaboration could help her as a writer since I'd imagine Chigira will be highly involved in the story development and how the drama/politics plays out and not just direction and if need be he'll keep the progression on point and the mood accurate to Last Exile with some modernization like the more colorful visuals, as this episode IMO still captured the same feel of the sky-based culture as the first series even with the new world powers and personalities and somewhat cuter more vibrant but still completely Last Exile "look".

Also while I personally absolutely loved the benefits of how it took it's time to really immerse you before things started in the first Last Exile (even using three full episodes to do so with race) I remember there was a lot of nagging that the story took too long to start with the event that happened at the end of the race, and nowadays shows that don't start fast do get left behind even more (I don't care about the show but just look at the varying opinions on Fate/Zero's almost dialogue/setup filled first episode between fans of the franchise and those who were expecting action) so I can kind of understand that they had to speed up the pacing of the first episode as long as they intend to continue to develop the strong character relationships and immersion we got from the first series and that there were some nice bits of in this first episode particularly with Fam, Giselle and the Sky Pirates both during the bit of down time and their pirating, before the invasion started, while ofcourse not yet to the comradery of Claus and Lavie after and episode or two. I believe they even discussed this exact issue and viewer behavior in one of the interviews or asked about it in one of the Q&A's prior to the show airing or at one of those premieres reported on like the Anime Expo one.

[wandering-dreamer]

I know that it takes about 200 years for areas in a nuclear accident zone to go back to normal so assuming that all the other Prestars left the same time LE's did (around 670 years ago) that seems like plenty of time. Heck, people could have started emigrating back probably after 300, that would give them long enough to get resettled (and apparently Exile could hold 100,000 people so that sounds like enough room for the new ship The Silvanus if they didn't just make it on Earth). I'm also wondering if some of the new moons are the Prestars (although you guys keep forgetting that there could only be five of them, the real Moon is probably still up there, it's HARD to destroy objects that big) but I think one of the interviews said that would be explained.
And I've been thinking as well that Fam might be a princess/something important as soon as I saw that line in the manga adaptation. Speaking of royalty, Dio mentioned Sophia so I wonder where she is in all of this....

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

I totally agree, I thought it came off as quite popular but should have been even more so, I would not surprised if it's lack of pandering did limit it's spread a bit even though it shouldn't have, not to mention that was one of it's best features along with as you already said it's stunning production values, meticulously built world and compelling story, and unique flight-based steampunk setting/artstyle.

Well, they seem to be trying to make up for lost time in the pandering department!

[octoberasian]

Originally Posted by azarhal

I actually find it strange, they seem so "low" tech when you see how they operate their battleship, yet their "Premier" wore guild clothing when he was young...

The Sky pirate use Guild Unit on their "scrappers", but they are scavengers, so...

I also agree that saying Fam wasn't a princess was foreshadowing. My anime sense is tingling.

Forgot to mention, but the story and lore of Last Exile is starting to remind me a lot like this series of science-fiction books I read as a child.

Spoiler:

In that story, the very first book talks about discovering these "foreign structures." Eventually later in the book you find out these are the ruined structures of cities that were destroyed in a World War several centuries earlier.

It seems that over time, society and people's technology regressed to an earlier period-- pre-Industrial Revolution. At the same time, the Earth itself changed. Terrains and familiar places are different (or in different places) due to the shifting and moving tectonic plates.

The book ends with them discovering more technology that they don't even recognize and these alien-like structures called "tripods."

I wish I knew the title of the book again, I would love to read them again.

I highly doubt they'll show the "old world" structures if any of it still exists after 600 years. Nature can definitely take over man-made structures pretty quickly especially after a certain amount of undisturbed time.

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Well, they seem to be trying to make up for lost time in the pandering department!

Hmm, I dunno, it's possible but realistically speaking for all the talk there really only was one actual pandering scene, aside from having more girls in the cast, in the first ep (and the bit of slight nudity at the beginning of the OP), while Lavie did wake up and start the day in sort of a sports-bra like top with her flight clothes wrapped around her waist at the very beginning of the first show even though it was muted and less forced than Fam's underwear moment but still a bit of mild service and then there's the rare bit of pandering like Tatiana's wet shot in her tight pilot uniform after they crash landed where Claus then lent her some of his clothes. Not to say that it won't end up a little more prominent this time since pandering's even more common these days but I think it's a bit early to say that Fam will have too much of it where it really gets in the way. Also, the first show was rare in that they also ofcourse did a fantastic job making such scenes very incidental and muted so we'll see if now that that first little scene is done, so far it really wasn't that big of a deal and I felt it quickly tone down after the opening moment and the couple of shots in the op.

Personally I still successfully felt the awesome wave of "Last Exile" nostalgia and excitement all the way through as I watched that same unique steampunk aerial world, style, music and epic world powers conflict story come to life again and started getting into Fam, Dio and the Sky Pirates team.

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

And I've been thinking as well that Fam might be a princess/something important as soon as I saw that line in the manga adaptation. Speaking of royalty, Dio mentioned Sophia so I wonder where she is in all of this....

And it was flagged in the show too making it harder to ignore heh. Good question, now I'm wondering about how and where Sophia's going to fit in too. Plus the picture we have of the Silvius shows it's ofcourse got Anatoray's insignia so if Sophia actually returned to her position after the Silvana's last mission in season 1 I could see her having something to do with Silvius showing up, makes me wonder how Dio's going to play into that since he mentioned her and he now knows both groups (Dio, always gotta be the focal point of everything don't you, lol).

[germanturkey]

amazing. just amazing. i don't really remember much of the first series, (its been what? 8 years?) but i remember i loved it. a huge wave of nostalgia hit me as soon as i saw the vehicles they used, and Dio!!!! I don't remember much of the plot or the politics of the world though. I may have to dig up LE and rewatch it. Music was typical Last Exile stuff. I'm very happy with it.

Half way watching it, i was like, "i want to watch that scene with Dio's servant from the first series" but i can't remember his name or anything. can anyone point me in the right direction?

[creb]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

Half way watching it, i was like, "i want to watch that scene with Dio's servant from the first series" but i can't remember his name or anything. can anyone point me in the right direction?

Do you mean Luciola?

Spoiler for Luciola:

[MeoTwister5]

Well in my (sort of) review I stated that I think I do understand why the episode has a little more style than substance for a first episode considering we went straight to war in skies rather than say the more mundane everyday activities that the first few episodes of the original series gave us.

In retrospect for me Fam the Silver Wing doesn't have to follow it's predecessor in every way possible. Who knows perhaps this series has a different goal, a different center, in mind that makes it a different entity than the first series. That doesn't make it any worse, or any better for that matter.

Taken in a vacuum, I find the first episode a truly a blast. In context to it's predecessor, yes it is wanting in more than a few areas. At the end of the day however, I intend to watch and rate the show based on it's own merits, and not based on how it lives up to it's pedigree. It would be great if it does, but I won't take it against the show if it doesn't.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Well that was really good and yet another series I can add to the growing list of ones that I find refreshing this season.

Art and Music kind of go without saying, among the best of an already pretty extraordinary season. I especially liked the track that played immediately after the credits. Immediately gave me flashbacks to the first series and makes me think of Pink Floyd. The episode also weaves an interesting tale to start us off with Fam leading a sky pirate operation to rescue a princess from a scheming military state that has just betrayed the promise of meeting to sign a peace treaty. This Premier Luscinia seems like a pretty sneaky type with ulterior motives and definitely has that Guild feel to his design.

Dio as so far the only returning character (I thought he was dead so that will need some explaining) from Last Exile doesn't seem to have missed a beat when it comes to piloting Vanship type craft. His character always amused me in making everything look so easy while always being so care free.

Looking forward to seeing the counterattack on Luscinia, which will almost certainly fail but probably lead to a bit more back story on what just transpired this episode. It's an unlikely pairing between some royal types and pirates, but it seems like it could be an interesting one. If I had any misgivings with this episode it's that Giselle seems a little too cutesy and useless, so hopefully she ends up having a more interesting role going forward.

That said this sequel doesn't officially start until they role out the steam-powered rifles.

edit: The song I was thinking of is indeed in the original

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Well that was really good and yet another series I can add to the growing list of ones that I find refreshing this season.

Art and Music kind of go without saying, among the best of an already pretty extraordinary season. I especially liked the track that played immediately after the credits. Immediately gave me flashbacks to the first series and makes me think of Pink Floyd. The episode also weaves an interesting tale to start us off with Fam leading a sky pirate operation to rescue a princess from a scheming military state that has just betrayed the promise of meeting to sign a peace treaty. This Premier Luscinia seems like a pretty sneaky type with ulterior motives and definitely has that Guild feel to his design.

Dio as so far the only returning character (I thought he was dead so that will need some explaining) from Last Exile doesn't seem to have missed a beat when it comes to piloting Vanship type craft. His character always amused me in making everything look so easy while always being so care free.

Looking forward to seeing the counterattack on Luscinia, which will almost certainly fail but probably lead to a bit more back story on what just transpired this episode. It's an unlikely pairing between some royal types and pirates, but it seems like it could be an interesting one. If I had any misgivings with this episode it's that Giselle seems a little too cutesy and useless, so hopefully she ends up having a more interesting role going forward.

That said this sequel doesn't officially start until they role out the steam-powered rifles.

edit: The song I was thinking of is indeed in the original

Good thoughts Ah, the steam-powered rifles, too true, too true heh

Ah, beautiful, I just checked the end credits and they did confirm that insert song after the opening was indeed ofcourse a Shuntaro Okino piece, it's called "Head in the Clouds", so good

Agreed on Giselle, I liked her but she'll need some growth as I would have liked to see her doing a little more telling Fam where to go or some other teamwork or something right off the bat during the end battle like she did during the sky pirate mission, but she's pretty likeable as long as she and her role become more interesting going forward.

It'll be interesting to see how they'll address it or just hint at it (which would at least be nice so that it's fully part of the story) since it ties so closely to previous events and we'll see how they handle Dio's reunion with old characters and balance those for both new and old audiences but

Spoiler for Artbook Spoiler for Dio:

Dio was apparently rescued during his fall by another Guild ship, and there is also an old Last Exile picture of Dio's shadow with a waving hand walking towards everyone as they are turned towards the coming figure with one foot in frame clearly wearing a Guild uniform in the final art piece of Claus and the others in that field/farm shot, at least in Range Murata's official art for the series. I can't remember which book offhand was the source but I remember someone posting a translation of an interview where it was detailed how he survived. [Edit: Apparently it's the Aerial Log artbook]

[TJR]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

ofcourse I wish they got the original writer back as I loved how it was written

Series composition credit went to Koichi Chigira (who wrote select episodes at the start, middle, and end of the series) and Gonzo. Naturally, Chigira's back for the sequel, but I'm not sure if he's involved with scripts.

Anyway, assigned writers for upcoming episodes are as folows:
Ep. 2 - Shuichi Kamiyama (worked on the original)
Ep. 3 - Kyoko Yoshimura (a long-time scriptwriter for Gonzo, BTW)
Ep. 4 - Yuniko Ayana (young writer who rapidly moved up the ranks. Seems to be in the same circle as Seishi Minakami and Hiroshi Ohnogi)