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

[Master_Yoma]

Finely got to the last episode they should of made the last ep the race its kind of a waste it being 23ep only

7/10 now waiting tell funi releases in 2 years

[pagan poor]

Originally Posted by Esukaresu

QFT

Poor Luscinia...if I lived in a world with idiots like those, I'd want to kill them all too

He knew they were going to live. That's why he walked the other way.

[MeisterBabylon]

Its over! Now for the final part of the trilogy, 10 years from now, with another set of new characters!

[Kaioshin Sama]

Just finished this last night. I'd still say I enjoyed most of the parts of this series that didn't focus on Fam and that I still think Millia's character really saved this show from total disaster. If they didn't have her to fall back on as another main character who actually grew and evolved as time went on from a spoiled princess living in her sisters shadow to a mature political leader who had the respect of her peers I don't even know how this would have turned out. What a contrast those two make with Millia always coming off as seeing things for what they are and Fam always coming through with the idealism right up until the very end where she was finally forced to admit to Millia and Dian that she was basically forcing her beliefs onto them without considering the burdens they carried and how it motivated them to certain extreme acts at times.

What else....Luscinia basically offed himself at the end by saying fuck it when the Grand Exile started to fall apart and decided that Fam and co. would make a worthy guardian for Sara, they just happened to time it in such a way that it more or less resulted in him looking as if he'd been talked down by Fam's whole grand race spiel. I choose to interpret his actions as the former though cause the latter is just incredibly stupid and trite in the extreme.

I didn't expect the world from this sequel and never expected it to be as good as the first Last Exile, but merely to provide me with a few months of quality entertainment and sci-fi/fantasy/political intrigue and it mostly achieved that goal, but I hope Japan eventually learns it's lesson that super moe moe girls make about as good leads for large scope sci-fi/fantasy series as the wussy male lead who constantly refuses to fight but does so anyway for 95% of the series. If they're going to have more cute girls as main characters in shows like this again I hope they'll be more like Millia in terms of character arc, really can't stress that enough.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Julio C

Eri Kitamura's (Tatiana) music video Happy Girl is too kawaii for my taste! You guys should watch it.

And where might we find that particular gem?

EDIT: Just saw it. I think I have diabetes now... :|

Originally Posted by creb

As for my overall view of the series, I do wish this season's energy was combined with the first season's characters, to spawn a bastard third season that's low on moe while also being faster paced than the sometimes glacial movement of the plot in season one. Not that the plot was better in season two (the opposite really). For all the energy of season two, it's amazing at how little actual plot there was. I kept expecting there to be huge twists in Lusciana's ambitions and what he really wanted, but...nope.

You know what: I agree with this. I for one wouldn't mind another season of last exile that took part in the world we have at the end of Fam. Maybe something smaller focusing on Claus recovery or something. After all I think fam has some nice qualities to it: the setting is amazing and there are some truly interesting characters but the writers seem to have lost sense of the plot about halfway through the show sadly.

[Julio C]

Damm, just listened to OST 2! Well the entire OST for this series has surpassed the original, and it's the best anime OST I ever heard.

[Myssa Rei]

OST 2 is very nice indeed. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll be enough to salvage the reputation of the show for the watchers that disliked it for one reason or another.

[vansonbee]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

Its over! Now for the final part of the trilogy, 10 years from now, with another set of new characters!

Nty. Still awaiting "Last Exile: Sunadokei no Tabibito" to be finish and hopefully made into a series (or even OVA's).

Still can't nudge the feeling between the original vs. Fam. One was more down to earth and the other had a cartoon feeling.

So the biggest Exile is in the original series right? Hope someone have a diagram and picture samples.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Best thing from the last two eps




Luscinia's entire half-assed plan just screams "INSUFFICIENT FUNDS"

Sums up everything about how conveniently everything turned out in the end. Just like the incomplete Grand Exile


Race was lol though....Dio kill stealing the first place from Dian and Tatiana and then losing it later...


Hitomi's singing saves the whole show hands down

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

Its over! Now for the final part of the trilogy, 10 years from now, with another set of new characters!

Please, no - let the franchise die with what little of its shattered reputation this series left it with.

[Myssa Rei]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Please, no - let the franchise die with what little of its shattered reputation this series left it with.

The thing is, you're dooming the Hourglass manga when you're wishing this as well. The only reason why we even have it was to tie the two series together. If there's a perceived lack of interest, they could very well pull the series from the magazine at any time, and then we'll NEVER know what happened in the two years between the two shows.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Myssa Rei

The thing is, you're dooming the Hourglass manga when you're wishing this as well. The only reason why we even have it was to tie the two series together. If there's a perceived lack of interest, they could very well pull the series from the magazine at any time, and then we'll NEVER know what happened in the two years between the two shows.

Honestly? I'm happier leaving things were they were at the end of the first series. Hourglass is fine for what it is - certainly far better than Fam - but I don't feel any compelling need to draw a connection to the universe as Fam depicts it. That's just my feeling on the matter, obviously, and I certainly wish no ill on the Hourglass manga.

[arkxkra]

Spoiler for hide:

too bad the Grand Exile is incomplete exile, that mean Luscinia plan also incomplete, but well, it able to achieve the goal, but kind of too easy to achieve this goal, so lack of something.

And no wonder the last exile is call Last Exile, the only one that successfully built and send into the space.

then the Fam grandpa plot is kind of force onto it, if not enough time to show better drop it. and Sadri , you know that is ur granddaughter how come still go and die urself...

Now finally know why Claus not fly at all in the entire show, the injure very high chance cause by saving Al in the Hourglass, too bad.

lol at the Grand Race, Dio steal the show, too bad disqualify at the end, I wonder why, because of lack of navi or the vanship too powerful?

btw, Sophia is so cool & hot ^^, although the screen time is not much, but look at the personality, the impression is quite different from the 1st series.

I quite like the show, just some plot screw it, but still overall not that bad to me. The OST of the series is very nice too.

[Guido]

Grand Master
The epilogue with the restarting of the Grand Race was epic to LE proportions but, honestly, this sequel doesn't deserve it to pull it off given how bad and shambles the execution to solve the plot points is handled.

At first, I felt the Zero Requiem from Code Geass scattered over Luscinia explaining the dream of the Grand Exile, and I didn't figure out if he planned to used the GE as a weapon or for him to carry on all the people's hatred so as to change the world where people could finally communicate with each other, as it was Augusta Farahnäzs' original ideal.

Fams' words this time carried weight, because she finally understood that the real world cannot work out ideal miracles with just desiring and longing for it, since there's still too much hatred and grief for people to truly accept it.
I can only think that her words might or not awoken for a brief time Luscinia's inner child from 10 years ago so as to acknowledge her resolve and hand Sara peacefully to the better world to be borned; maybe that's what Sadri meant that their old era ("them") was meant to end.

As for Fam's background and her family, I do agree it is forced, because there isn't enough time to go back and give more details, or, better yet, what Fam's family did to have a more sustainable impact on the story besides Sadri supporting Luscinia's campaign all the way to the very end?
At least both Claus and Lavies' parents carried on something that made impact on the storyline and were partially connected to one of the main characters from the previous LE besides being respective parents to their children.

The ending and epilogue are worthy of this sequel overall, but it doesn't deserve it because how pretty bad the storyline is executed.

This Last Exile felt that they tried to cram too much moé characters in the likes of making both Fam and Gisellé cute amidst an Earth that is constantly plagued with both war and misunderstanding amongst world supernations; it doesn't carry the same spark that I felt from the original.

Though I like both Claus and Lavi reintroduction into the storyline by the time the epilogue is rolling and meeting again with both Dio and Alvis, I just feel bad and sorry for Claus that he and Lavi couldn't join in this ride given Claus injury, which from what I read in previous posts.....

Spoiler:

I have to read the LE - Hourglass manga to find out.

I came to watch the first series at the start of 2004, and it took about 7 and one-half years to wait for the sequel. If you ask for recommendations, then I strongly suggest to watch and enjoy the original series and read the interquel manga that takes place between Last Exile and this one.

Overall, other few commendable things about the sequel are the soundtrack and the OP & ED songs.

This was the fifth anime that I picked-up for the autumn anime 2011 season and finished.

[Julio C]

Rather weak blog entry at RC regarding the last two episodes.

[Ami-chan]

Well, the last succession of episodes kind of lost me. Finally got around to finishing this show. I think they tried too hard to make the ending "epic", when it was unnecessary. The thing is, there wasn't enough depth to any of the characters for this, and that was fine.

I was enjoying this season as an action anime with some characters carried over from the first season. The story itself didn't matter too much as long as the ride was enjoyable. And enjoyable it was...until the very end. It's really hard to pinpoint it on any one thing. I feel like there was forced tragedy here when there didn't need to be.

Eh. Also, Grand Race my ass. Nobody can beat Dio, it was obvious he would win before the race even started :P

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Ami-chan

Eh. Also, Grand Race my ass. Nobody can beat Dio, it was obvious he would win before the race even started :P

Originally Posted by Julio C

Rather weak blog entry at RC regarding the last two episodes.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

Well I watched the end of LE: Fam, so here are my thoughts (I guess I'll spoiler protect them for anyone who's watching it later than the norm

Spoiler for Impressions of this episode:

First, this ending didn't come off so much as the end of the series but more like the end of a seasons. I'm not sure what the production team is thinking here (hopeful they'll get more episodes?) but dragging out Claus in a wheelchair for the last five minutes feels like a set up for another season verse the closure of this one (really, how did he end up like that? I know it probably does have to do with the manga but I can't imagine the Japanese viewers being any more happy with this than the fans at this forum are. Still, as flat as I found this ending to be, I'm not sure it was really any worse than Last Exiles ending. One of the original series problems was the end of it and at least this one wasn't quite as confusing as LE's was (I remember trying to figure out if anyone was really alive or just what was going on the last five minutes of that one when I first saw it on G4 (I managed to see it but not the complete series at that time, for the record, which didn't help at all) ).

Spoiler for Top moments and one thing that I really didn't like:

The top moments for me in this episode: The battles were very nice and we saw more of Alvis than the early spoilers made me think we'd see of her. I thought the picture the Sky Pirate kids drew was funny. The ending with Dio and the race and Fam saying what I think many viewers were thinking (I know I was thinking it) to Luscinia - "Aren't you going to take responsibility for this like a man?" (paraphrase). Really, he was such a wuss and this plan sucked d*nk*y balls In is the main thing that brought down the series for me - the entire plot line was way to predestined /fate oriented. From the beginning Luscuina's plan was always going to happen and work out for him and that's just nuts. I hate plotlines like this, where we're suppose to root for one side but the other is really the right one and they win even if they all end up dead . I think the problem I have specifically with LE Fam is that nothing really happens in the end. There was a journey but other than Fam finding out who her Grandfather was, and a whole lot of destruction, nothing really changed. It would have happened anyway no matter how it all came about.

Spoiler for more Positives:

The positives of this series, for me, where the new characters and seeing many of the old ones. It was nice to see Earth and my gut feeling is this really is some sort of back door set up to try and get a third season, probably with more Claus, Lavie, Dio and Fam and Gissy and maybe even Dyan tossed in (I think if they did another season they'd put Millia more in the back ground - btw, it does look like she and Orang are being set up as a couple). I didn't hate Fam at all but if they did do another season and brought her back I think she'd work much better with Claus or Dio as a lead and not as a lead herself. Which she really wasn't - she's more of a perspective character than a true lead. The show seems to really be named after her because we really follow her.

Spoiler for negatives:

Here are some of the series negatives. Writing - this shows writing is just mediocre most of the time, flat out bad at others. The "bad guys" are also seriously uninteresting in the end. Lucsinia and Lilliana motivations make no sense at all and are out right stupid at times. Alueda was actually not half bad but we never learn enough about him to really understand what he's doing in this show. Soursh should have stayed dead. He's a total slacker but I think he might just be popular in Japan from that last scene we see him in (he was missing Vasant? Since when did those two even like each other??). IMO it came off as a totally bishi for the fangirls moment and it seemed to indicate to me that he's alive because he's popular in Japan with the ladies Oh well, we N. American fangirls can be just as wonky at times and that type of thinking did save Dio for this series .

As for Kayvan, I said I didn't think he was dead and it seems I was correct. No body and they are almost never dead. Personally I think Kayvan being alive makes more sense than Soursh because even to the end Soursh couldn't decided what side he was on . Still, I'm not sure I saw Kayvan in this last episode. Could someone remind me what scene(s) we saw him in? I think Sadri may be one of the big exceptions here (as well as with Delphine from the first series). Which means if they do want a second season and could get one green lit (I'm not really sure they can or will do it - I've not seen anything to indicate the show did that well in Japan) Alueda might return from the grave. Back to Sadri for a moment. Of all of the "baddies" he had to be the one I thought was the most interesting and not just because he was Fam's Grandfather. Sadri seem to have an attempted backstory to him and he came off as a real person at times. Maybe not someone I'd want to know in real life but someone I could see existing in the real world. It's too bad he decided to go down with his ship and personally I think the handling of the last two episodes and him was a mess. Sadri didn't seem to think he was going to end that way two episodes ago but suddenly that was the plan? What the ???? What was this fr*cking plan anyway?

Spoiler for Overall Thoughts and random stuff:

So what was my overall thoughts on the show? It could have been a lot better. It wasn't at total waste of time because I really loved the Dio parts and still think he and Fam should get together Even if that didn't happen I could do with a 13 (maybe more) season LE with Dio as the lead. I don't know but one idea I would have for another season would be to have the characters try and find out more about the past? I think they missed the boat not doing a "find the historical library" plot and while Luscinia knew a lot he didn't share where he found it all out at or even if he really knew everything he should have on the subject of the past. They also haven't explored the world all that well either.

I just realized something about Luscinia's history lesson. Luscinia basically admitted that Ades's story about the Prester people coming back was a big lie and there was a lot more to what happened. I still don't think Luscinia really knew everything about what happened though. More like he knew more fact that were based in reality but that he may not have known all the back story to how it all went down.

Anyway, i just remembered another issue I wanted to comment on. The Grand Exile rejuvenating Glacias stuff that's been discussed in the thread and whether there was more than one Grand Exile. I don't think that's what happened at the end did anything to Glacias's weather. It simply turned Spring there after the events (the real Russia isn't snowed in 24/7). As to another Grand Exile having been used before. Whether is was really a "Grand Exile" or maybe the ship the original Guild people came in, I don't know but I do think there were two similar ships that crashed. The wing we had seen throughout the show is simply not in the right place to be off of the ship we see in this one, IMO. Also, as someone pointed out, something caused a big hole in the Grand Lake. That would make sense if it was another ship that did that (as well the set up of the Ades capital seems to be off of a similar type of ship and that could be exactly what it is - off of another crashed ship).

Last thought - the picture the Sky Pirate kids drew on the ground toward the middle of the episode. No one had mentioned it but after looking at it I think that was Dio they had Fam and Gissy pulling along, and not Millia. I'm not sure anyone thought it might be Millia other than me (both Dio and Millia do have similar hair so I wasn't sure who it was) but after pausing the picture that looks like Dio's goggles, not Millia's .

I think you're pretty fair with these positives and negatives.

I agree with your thoughts on how this also could double as a setting up for a potential future season potentially with Claus, Lavie, Dio and Fam and Gisey all working together like you said.

Also, now without there being a ten year gap between series I think they'd feel far more comfortable using both part of the new cast and the S1 cast along side each other more prominently and sets of leads and perhaps re-using key others like the Silvius, now that it's not been ten years and worries over it being so long since the last series that likely was by necessity a concious focus of how to balance the focus towards the new cast while working our old characters and the first season's story back in for the future while still giving us old fans a great view of some of our returning favorites like Tatiana and her Silvius and Dio, now, for the most part, the Fam audience knows most of the key players from both season including generally what to expect in terms of "generally" what the key players from season 1 are like, that they had never seen before coming into the new show due to the unavoidable issue of such a long gap of years since the last production. Like now they know Dio extremely well and they've gotten a good enough look at Tatiana and the Silvius, as well as even a general introduction to Claus and Lavie with the big recap to be able to use them more up front if there were to be a third season without waiting another ten years.

My thoughts:

I quite enjoyed the new season, I loved the world and the always imaginative LE setting and cultures, there were a lot of likeable new characters on both sides, I loved seeing my old characters back kicking ass when they got the chance, the story was good (but as others have said it was a bit thin as it never expanded beyond the war and initial storyline while based on the first show I guess I expected some kind of "second story" to kick off in the second half with a more prevalent Guild, like in the first series when the Guild became more up front) and loved the scifi and Exiles and awesome airship fleet battles (and vanship action) as almost only LE does them, and how they totally successfully recaptured the audio-visual unique setting, atmosphere, characters, military fleet combat style, music and "feel" etc. of the franchise and of the airships and awesome vanships and flight visuals etc. that makes LE feel so unique with totally awesome visuals, animation, character designs, gorgeous background art and CG and, extremely important, sound, with the return of LE's composer and another awesome soundtrack with so many great new tracks and important returning ones, even after 10 years since the first show.

The first season is hard to surpass but I love both seasons and as mentioned Fam had really nice pacing overall and I loved most of the characters and action and thought the story was pretty good, the one thing that I agree it missed from fully reaching it's fullest potential, since I loved her character quite a bit, was the unfortunate decision to lack a more substantial Fam growth arc running through the storyline. I imagine the following point is one of the reasons she didn't grow so much until she did a bit towards the end (I liked how they at least tried to make something positive about it and had Fam herself acknowledge that she realized everything too late), but looking back I think they should have just bit the bullet and given in and retreaded Claus' "naive --> fighter pilot" path even if it'd been a "repeat" as it's the most visibly straightforward way to make a pilot in a war-based story "feel like they've grown". I did like that she was a fighter though and never "weak" or "wishy-washy" always willing to get out there and do her part in the battle or take responsibility even if she never really faced having to truly kill with weapons. Plus plenty of other lead characters get away with far worse and don't get called out on it for whatever reason and Millia had a fantastic growth arc.

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

I've not seen anything to indicate the show did that well in Japan.

Spoiler:

I think it's possible, I don't think we'll know for a while but since it shares a lot in common with the first series and like the first series it's scifi/international/niche rather than moe/mainstream/etc., commercially it's probably "just" selling decently as I expect it's done about as well as the first show in terms of reception in Japan since like the first show it's a big scifi show and not in the least a mainstream/moe show despite it's cute Range Murata female characters so I think it'll be successful and make good money but likely not be a "slice-of-life moe cash cow" and as such I think it'll do well enough to justify a third show but not "gangbusters" where it'd be "forced" and as such mostly come down to if the staff wants to work together again and do a third season it'll probably happen a couple of seasons from now, plus seeing how it does for Funi when they see how the Funi streams did and how Funi's upcoming physical releases do and if they hopefully do as decently as I'd expect.

Yeah I wouldn't mind a Hourglass OVA series too depending on how long that story's going to be. I haven't thought about what I'd want to see in a third season but briefly reading your idea I think could make for a promising potential third season idea, following both seasons's casts working together as they uncover the real truths behind the past and more about Earth, I think that would make for a great mystery first half of two cours since I agree with your take on Luscinia's history lesson, I'm sure he's got more facts than most anyone but even then it seems likely he only knows parts of it, also I'm sure some of his deductions from those facts are likely grounded in Guild interpretation/manipulation from even before his time, as you said there's plenty of space for him not to have known everything. And there are multiple options for where conflict could come from ofcourse.

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

I didn't hate Fam at all but if they did do another season and brought her back I think she'd work much better with Claus or Dio as a lead and not as a lead herself. Which she really wasn't - she's more of a perspective character than a true lead. The show seems to really be named after her because we really follow her.

I really loved the Dio parts and still think he and Fam should get together Even if that didn't happen I could do with a 13 (maybe more) season LE with Dio as the lead. I don't know but one idea I would have for another season would be to have the characters try and find out more about the past? I think they missed the boat not doing a "find the historical library" plot and while Luscinia knew a lot he didn't share where he found it all out at or even if he really knew everything he should have on the subject of the past. They also haven't explored the world all that well either.

Heh, Dio and Fam could totally work in the future, they definitely do have chemistry.

I'm curious what I'll think of later for possible third season ideas but I agree that would be a rather cool possibility for a third season, bringing both casts fully together as I really love the casts of both series and joining them in learning the bigger secrets of the past and what else may be buried under the surface after so many hundreds of years could be potentially quite intriguing. Such a starting point for say the first half before whatever they find ends up causing something bigger could even support both casts having equal billing with no actual lead or even if Claus or Dio were to take the lead as I also think if it were based on Dio, Claus, Fam, Lavie, Giselle, Tatiana, Alister, etc. on the Silvius making these discoveries and ultimately getting into a dangerous spot that requires the fleets for the second half it also wouldn't necessarily matter who the lead was as it would have the advantage of starting out tighter with characters we all know working together almost all of the time as a full crew so most of the crew would be together most of the time hence it wouldn't even matter so much who the lead would be.

Speaking of the booklet that came with volume 3 (and the previous 2 volumes) stormwaltzing mentioned, it appears Cecily's name is officially revealed to be Cecily Lightning in the booklet

I absolutely loved the epilogue in the final episode. So many great little moments for Fam and co. before getting to the race and then I thought they handled the race fantastically with the build up of everyone getting ready/arriving and Claus and Lavie suddenly making their way in and then Fam running by them and Al happily reuniting with Claus and Lavie and Dio commenting on Fam and co. being an interesting bunch to Claus (just like he did to Tatiana) and Lavie reassuring Claus he'll be flying again when he sees Fam and co.'s love of flying and Dio almost tearing up looking forward to flying with them again as well as during the race the cuts to all the characters watching and the perfect music, they even didn't pander and didn't have Fam win, loved that the final cuts were the race results (the Dio winning, show the podium moment, then Dio's expression when getting disqualified and then Tatiana getting the win was a GREAT little surprise moment and gave me an unexpected big laugh/smile feeling to end on since I love both Dio and Tatiana) and ending with two perfect cuts, first to Claus, Lavie and Al and then Fam and Giselle, felt great with the music and singing soaring.

And Vincent getting "hugged" by Sophia while they were watching the race gave me a smile, I'm sure that got some shippers talking Loved seeing the awesome old Silvana (and Silvius) mechanics doing well and not being forgotten and getting in there too! Speaking of them, I wouldn't have minded them joining earlier as I expected (given how early Vincent showed up I thought we'd fully go to the new Anatoray and they'd fully join in the second half) so they could have played a bigger role but given when they arrived in the story I think Chigira maximized their arrival pretty successfully as I fully enjoyed their scenes in the last two eps arriving as reinforcements and the surprise (but was hopefully expecting of Sophia) of the Silvana truly being Sophia's flagship and Sophia and Vincent leading the last charge of the fleet towards the Grand Exile's weapons once the Silvius fell behind inside, man seeing the Silvana, Silvius and Urbanus lined up blasting away with the Silvana/Silvius music playing was so damned good.

Glad they mentioned that Claus should be able to fly again in the future, I always viewed that kind of wheelchair as the really simplistic mass-produced type you'd probably get during recovery rather than a "showy" permanent/personal one.

I thought they handled the Luscinia and Fam confrontation extremely well for something that's always extremely tricky, I was quite surprised that I really liked it.

Even if the first season was better in some ways I thought this season was totally worth it and would love for Gonzo to do another if they can come up with a good story, maybe using both sets of characters to their full potential together now that it won't have been 10 years between series so perhaps they'll feel more comfortable using both casts fully integrated right from the start.

[Chiaki_chan]

I liked this season "2" it's good to see Dio and also the last episode ...

[wandering-dreamer]

It appears that someone on the internet has been scanning in all the booklets that came in with the DVDs, you can find the scans in the comments of these two journal posts (waaaaay too many links for me to repost all of them).

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Chiaki_chan

I liked this season "2" it's good to see Dio and also the last episode ...

Yeah, Dio's was great to watch throughout.

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

It appears that someone on the internet has been scanning in all the booklets that came in with the DVDs, you can find the scans in the comments of these two journal posts (waaaaay too many links for me to repost all of them).

Awesome, thanks.