Last Exile

I saw this show mentioned in passing online; like Index it just happened to look like something I'd enjoy – in this case, a steampunk setting and large airships duking it out.

Claus and Lavie are two orphans from Norkia, part of the kingdom of Anatoray which is engaged in a perpetual war of attrition with neighbouring Disith, largely consisting of gigantic air battles. Overseeing the war is a mysterious, highly advanced group called the Guild, who also maintain the 'Claudia units' that enable flight for registered ships and can revoke these units at will. Claus and Lavie are, respectively, the pilot and navigator of a vanship, a small aeroplane-like flying vehicle they use to carry out errands for the townspeople.

As they are competing in a vanship race, another pilot is killed nearby by the Guild while transporting a young girl to an unregistered ship named the Silvana, revered as the 'unsinkable battleship'. The teenagers complete this mission and decide to stay on the Silvana to make sure the girl is okay; they quickly become caught up in the mission of the Silvana's captain, Alex Row, to defeat the Guild. This takes them further and further from home, but closer to their long-time dream of piloting a vanship through the Grand Stream – a notorious, turbulent section of sky that separates Anatoray from Disith.

The visual design is great. Understated colouring lends an old-timey feel which complements the steampunk designs nicely. Locations, ships and characters are detailed and refined. The extensive use of CGI imagery for exterior shots doesn't clash at all with the cel animation, and in fact gives the ships and air battles a realistic sense of bulk and fluidity. The sound design is also of a high standard, again quite realistic and effective, often sounding more like a big-budget American sci-fi series than an anime. If there is a weak point in the whole aesthetic package, one might point to the soundtrack, which certainly has great moments of fanfare and excitement but isn't particularly memorable. If anything, in quieter scenes the lack of music is probably an advantage for the show's atmosphere, given the overall style.

Last Exile is one of those shows that feels like it could easily be condensed into a longish movie without really sacrificing much of the story. Considering its 26-episode length, it's absolutely something that should be watched in a relatively short period of time. It's quite slow-paced; battles can last for a couple of episodes at a time, and there are plenty of supporting characters that get a fair amount of development. But it's far from boring – it's a patient, well-structured show that sets up plenty of mysteries as its protagonists encounter the wider skies around their homeland, and answers them at just the right pace up until the finale. The protagonists' unfamiliar situations are never used as an excuse to spoonfeed background on characters or politics to the viewer, so we do learn everything along with them. Other than the two leads perhaps spending a little too much time in emo mode, said characters are likeable and interesting enough, especially the two Guild members who allow themselves to be captured and eventually befriend Claus and Lavie.

I will say that the ending is a little loopy, and more overblown than I was expecting; it reminded me somewhat of a certain [edited out due to potential spoileriness] movie. Certainly satisfying, and appropriate to the show's epic story, though I might have preferred something a little more restrained and realistic, perhaps focusing more on individual characters and their stories. I was happy to learn that there is a second series on the way, with all new characters in the same world. Until then, I heartily recommend Last Exile. It's a unique breath of fresh anime air.