User reviews

"Last Exile" was a series I yearned for for a long time, a story focused on characters and subtly engaged within a profound and fantastical world. However out of a need to finish the plot, the character development necessary to bring the story full circle falls short.

I loved this series for really taking the time to show who the characters are and really let them take hold of the story. The tone and pacing of most of the episodes reminded me of the HBO series "The Wire" which also let the story fall together one pebble at a time. The series is brilliant for capturing small moments between characters that hint at their growing bonds and frustrations like a scene in a crowded elevator at a casino, a soldier chanting before a battle and when one character puts on the clothes of another in the desert. The two leads Claus and Lavie's relationship portrays itself as a chameleon jumping from comrades to partners, childhood friends, surrogate siblings and repressed lovers. The central bond though lies with Claus and the shy, mysterious girl Alvis who hold and drive the characters and the story together throughout the series.

"Last Exile" seems quite conventional in terms of plot, but it is only when it supersedes the characters that the series falls flat. For most of the show's running time that does not happen though. It bears a unique sense of drama that I find hard to see in other forms. Nowhere but in anime or Greek tragedy could you a see a person fall in love and heart break in the same moment.

I will skip the talk about how good the animation is. I am not an expert in animation, nor do I let it get in the way if the story is good. Enough said, it is very good. What pushed my buttons is the way the series constructs a world, adds interesting lead characters and then ends the story. Yes, this is not one of those animes that drag the story, no matter how nice, and then end the series with no closure because the ran out of steam before finishing the plot. This is a good all fashioned circular story with build-up and release.

Then there is the world, reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Pandora mixed with a little Dune, both in storyline and socio-ecological meaning. I would say that there are no great surprises in this anime. This is a bad thing, but also a good one. If you build things up too much they quickly become unmanageable. There is hope for a sequel, I guess, but no pressure for it. All the goals set in the beginning are met in the end, either in success or disaster.

It is a nice anime series. It is worth watching, but I've seen better. I guess what really is missing is a way to truly connect with the characters. Even in the most tensioned moments, the levels of emotion don't get too high. I would say the starting theme song (complete with worthless karaoke style translation) is also a bad thing. The rest, though, is just visual and comfortable beauty.

The first thing that strikes you when watching this anime series is that the world of "Last Exile" is much like ours – yet very, very different. That, in essence, is the magic and appeal of the story.

Imagine this world structured like a chess game: two diametrically opposite races – each with its own territory separated by a gulf, both engaged in mortal combat overseen by a race of neutral arbitrators dictating the rules of the game.

Next throw in two teenage orphans, Claus and Lavie, who own a bi-plane sort of rickety flying contraption called a Vanship, and who run a courier service delivering mail. Here's the catch, the Vanship has no wings but uses a chemical called "Cloudia" for levitation and propulsion. In fact, even the flying battleships manned by both of the two races: the Anatoray (who resemble Victorian age West Europeans) and the Disith (dressed much like post revolution Russians), are propelled by the same mechanism. But while powerful, these lumbering behemoths are no match for the seemingly invincible Guild ships that are light years ahead in technology and whose overt purpose is to ensure that both parties play by the rules – or else.

The plot swings into full gear in the second episode when Claus and Lavie, during a Vanship race, pick up a little girl called Alvis from a Vanship crippled by a Guild "star" ship. They are entrusted by the dying Vanship pilot to deliver her safely to her destination and so begins their great adventure and rite of passage. In the process, they are swept up by the politics of this world and the players of this dangerous game of covert interests and hidden agendas.

Almost immediately, the viewer is posed with the following few questions: why are these two races fighting? What is this gulf called the "Grand Stream" that separates the lands of the Anatoray and Disith? Why is the Guild acting as judge and executioner? Why is Alvis so important that the Guild would have her captured – dead or alive? These are (almost too) slowly revealed, one cliffhanger episode at a time.

Produced by Japan's Gonzo animation studios (www.gonzo.co.jp), famous for such breakthrough anime series as "Hellsing" and "Blue Submarine No. 6", "Last Exile" brings together the best in anime storytelling, traditional as well as computer generated 3-D animation, unpredictable plot twists, likable characters, imaginative soundtrack (by Dolce Triade), comedy and tragedy, hope and despair … all in a symphony of flawless execution.

The attention to detail in this series is characteristically Japanese – simply amazing. One such example is that writers (Kouichi Chigira, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Shuichi Kamiyama and Tomohiro Yamashita) have intricately woven in the chess theme into the story: by naming each episode after a different chess move, scenes of intense discussion over chess matches, and a plot twist featuring the promotion of a pawn to a queen.

Like a piece of complex origami that starts out looking like a flower – "Last Exile" – with each plot unfolding reveals its hidden gems and slowly but surely wraps up into a form so unlike its beginning that the viewer is left to marvel at the inventiveness and dedication of its creators … while simply enjoying the ride.

Last Exile is a masterpiece through and through.

The most attention drawing aspect of this series is its incredible animation. It mixes 2d animation with 3d CGI almost perfectly and delivers an explosive, in-your-face presentation that can only be rivaled by feature anime films like Blood: The Last Vampire.

The story behind Last Exile is interesting and emotional. The characters are lovable and their interactions are genuinely enjoyable and surprisingly human. The setting is steampunk inspired and meticulously detailed.

Overall, one hell of a ride, and easily the best anime I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. This is a must see for not just fans of anime, but fans of excellent storytelling and entertainment in general.

"Steampunk", a mix of 1800's and sci-fi, is an interesting genre. It show's people wearing sci-fi equipment that look's like it came from the 1800's. There has'nt been a lot of Steampunk film's but there were two anime's that had something to do with the Steampunk genre:

"Steamboy": An anime film made by Katsuhiro Otomo. The director of one of my favorite movie's, "Akira".

"Last Exile": The anime show that I will be reviewing.

The story is about two kids named, Lavi and Claus, one day they find a guy that tell's them to take a little girl named, Al, to take her to a battleship being controlled by the captain of the ship, Alex Row. They soon find themselves in a battle between Alex and The Guild and learn about a ship known as, Exile.

This is one of my favorite anime show's. The story is interesting, the character's were likable, and the animation was incredible. It's just like the animation in, "Titan A.E." and "Treasure Planet".

The only problem I have with this show is that sometime's it can be very boring at time's.

But overall, "Last Exile", is an anime show worth watching if you're into the Steampunk genre or someone looking for a good anime show to watch.

I've now watched this series twice and it's even better the second time around. I've been an animation nut since I was a child in the late 50's-early 60's. I've been watching Japanese animation since the 1980's. I just turned 70 and I'm still looking for new stuff. I've seen hundreds of anime pieces and this ranks right up there with some of the best. I'm sure it will become a classic. It sure deserves to be.

Overall I'd say this is a great series, a solid 8 out of 10.

The biggest strength for the series is by far the amazing artwork and animation. Reminiscent of Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky", the steam punk airship technology are all interestingly designed and are beautifully translated onto the screen. Character animation is very solid, the studio clearly didn't try to cut corners, which provides expression and life to the characters. Top notch stuff all around

The first half of the series had me completely hooked, particularly the first two episodes. I totally bought into the steam punk tech especially. The characters that were introduced were likable and their motivations (or lack thereof in some cases) were clear. The scene was set for some epic reveals and an exciting ride. However, I felt that the pacing of the second half of the story was sorely lacking. I found myself begin to lose interest at times, even as things began to unfold. Not to say it wasn't competently done, but from the expectations I had from the first half, it didn't pay off the way I wanted it to.

The art and animation is incredible and the story is well above most others, give it a watch.

This is a frustrating series because it had so much promise. The artwork and animation are superbly detailed. I couldn't believe I was watching an anime produced 8-9 years ago. The premise and story are pretty interesting as well, though somewhat disjointed. It felt like a love letter to the art and culture of air flight, but then that line clashes a bit with the whole sci-fi aspect of the series. The ending also feels abrupt and rushed. It felt like the story took an abrupt turn, the way that James Cameron's "The Abyss" did. But the ending wasn't built up the same way, leading to the rushed feeling at the end.

On the bright side, not only does the artwork shine, but there are a few bright dramatic moments where the director builds the scene to an impressive crescendo. And on the dark side, the dialogue also suffers from the same disjointedness that the plot does.

Wo messengers by the name of Claus a fan ship pilot and Lavie a navigator are tasked with a 7 star mission by Ralph Wednesday. To safely deliver a young girl called Alvis to the Silvana, where she would be in care with an organisation called the guild lead by a Harlock like pilot called Alex Row. Which causes them to get dragged into a massive conflict.

I thought the plot of the anime was an amazing ride especially in the final battle with dalphinea. I also enjoyed some of the characters back stories especially with how Claus and Lavie became close and the major plot twist behind Sophia.

The characters are very well written. I really like the relationship with Lavie and Claus, even though there are times were I do think Lavie just overacted like the time when Claus goes on a mission with Tatiana and all he did was lend her his jacket. However, they are both good protagonists overall and have much better chemistry then Fam Fan and Giselle which I will probably get to in another review. Alex Row like mentioned he is like a Harlock especially with his design but over a very likeable character probably my favourite one of the series. Alvis is adorable and must protect... many of the other crew members such as Sophia being a big sister, Mulan and Alister just being there, while Tatiana despise my issues just being a good leader are always good to see in the series. Luciola and Dio (no not JoJo dio) we're excellent rivals to Claus and Dio always calling Claus Emo man is hilarious. Many of the other characters were good too.

It's art style and animation definitely flows with the series. The ost's are fun to listen to.

The dub cast including Johnny Yong Bosch, Kari Wahlgren (even if occasionally her voice could get on my nerves as Lavie), Michelle Ruff (though Tatiana and Alvis probably would have worked better with two different voice actors but still she does a good job making them sound distinctive from each other), Crispin Freeman, Julie Ann Taylor, Steve Blum, Joshua Seth, Mona Marshall, Kirk Thornton, Tony Oliver, Dave Wittenberg, The late Philece Sampler, Karen Strassman, Kate Higgins, the late Bob Papenbrook, Dave Mallow, Michael McConnohie, Mela Lee and many other voice actors all did well.

If you are into stuff like hovercraft etc. You might enjoy this series.

Last Exile has to be one of the best anime series I have ever seen. It's imaginative and inspiring. It's truly worth seeing! Just when it seemed like anime series seemed to be coming from a cookie cutter type mold; Last Exile came and broke it. You can't help, but become involved in such a well written, well directed, and well animated story. The character development is superb. Each character's stories, their ambition's, their reason's being, for doing what they do, living or dying, are deep. It's happy, gloomy, funny, sad, touching, exciting, vengeful, and romantic. There's something for everyone, who watches this series. This series takes you for an adventure you'll never forget! And when you're done, you'll never look at the sky the same again. You'll wish you were flying in it.

I'm an animator and I was initially drawn to the series after seeing the artwork, which by the way is beautiful. Nice clean lines, good use of color to enhance scenes, and the standard Japanese affinity for attention to detail. For a series, I was rather impressed as I am choosy about what I watch, some series have such terrible animation that not even a good story can redeem it. There needs to be a fairly strong marriage between animation and story for it to be a success, and Last Exile has it.

As far as animation goes, it was very good. I'd have to say that it looked as though GONZO was pushing to show off the use of new 3D technology with this one and at times the 3D and 2D elements collided in odd ways. As you see, in animation when using 2D and 3D together generally we try to mesh them together so as to make a unified style and no one can tell the difference. As is sometimes problematic with series (deadlines deadlines deadline!!!) some of the animation looked a little stiff, but hey, you clearly get the idea of what is going on and it's the story that really gets you.

The plot, which everyone else has kindly outlined, is rather intriguing. The writers don't spoon-feed you the entire story so you must do some thinking and imagining on your own. Characters definitely have appeal, whether you love them or hate them, they are evoking emotion and opinion from you as a viewer. My personal favorite character is Dio.

As far as the dubbed version goes, the English voice actors were well selected (unlike some of Disney's choices for the English dubs of Ghibli films *cough cough*). Whether you listen to the Japanese or English audio, both versions use good vocal dynamics (re: none of that monotone "I'm just reading the lines off a paper" stuff) The voice acting gave you a sense of each character's personality (although Lavie's English voice acting got irritating at times).

Overall, if steam-punk is your genre you will enjoy this series. The fantasy world is quite like something that Studio Ghibli would have created and I found myself seeing similarities between this and Laputa (dubbed Castle in the Sky). This is definitely one of the more enjoyable series to watch in English or Japanese.

I recently finished watching this 26 episode TV series,twice,and I will be watching it again soon. Last Exile,is Gonzo Studio's 10 th anniversary Vanity project and their efforts to make it something special shows.Take an epic story,characters you can care about,a fantastic score by Dolce Triad,production design that could teach George Lucas and ILM lessons, and then add some of the finest integration of hand drawn and computer animation through Gonzo's patented Gonzo Digimation that is nothing short of amazing. This is a TV series with Movie Quality Work.Anime fans and critics have been raving about this series for good reason. Last Exile is an Action ,Adventure, Romance, Retro Sci-fi, Fantasy Epic that tells the story of Claus Valca and Lavie Head,two couriers, who are swept in events that change the fate of their world,Prestale.Prestale is a world where two great Kingdoms,Disith and Anatoray, are locked in war fought in the skies by the massive air battleships that are fantastic.The battles are supposed be fought by the rule of Chivalry as supervised by the "neutral" Guild.Clause and Lavie while delivering a message to the Flagship of the Commander of the Anatorey are witness to a change that shows something has changed and not for better.Shortly afterwards , they find themselves taking over a mission from a dying Van ship pilot to deliver a little girl,Alvis Hamilton, to the Rogue Battleship Silvana.Who is Alvis Hamilton, and why is it that people will kill to posess her? What is the Significance of the Interferrance of the Guild in the struggle between Disith and Anatoray? Why is Prestale Dying? Well,you'll just have to watch and find out by yourself.Take it from me this is a journey worth taking.

Tech TV performed an incredible service by running a marathon of this incredible series. I'm taping and watching the first tape as I type.

Words cannot express what an incredible find this show is! I haven't felt this entranced by Anime since the first time I saw Miyazaki's work.

I've never seen anything like the airship designs herein. Rather than airplanes and dirigibles, everything seems to be magnetic repulsion and steam engines. The aerial warships are a wonderful blend of aircraft carrier and battleship.

But all the great design wouldn't mean a thing if there was not an engaging tale. Even briefly seen characters demand our attention, like the musketeer and ship's captain in the first episode.

Well, back to watching more of the show. I've definitely got to get this on DVD!

My girlfriend and I caught this series on 'Tech TV' during a Sunday marathon. We were drawn to the compelling story line, Intelligent characters and fantastic visuals. We were so drawn that we went out and found it on DVD at a good video store so we could watch it again.

It does bear a passing resemblance to "Castle in the Clouds", but with a more 'grown-up' sensibility. It's a shame episodes 14 through 26 will not be available to be shown on TV until next year, it's going to be a long wait.

Tech TV has previews of the various episodes if you want to take a closer look.

Update: Saw the last 13 episodes, and the pace of the series grows more relentless until the tension is almost unbearable for the last four episodes. Excellent story arc, and some very affecting tragedy at the end. Strongly recommended to any interested in a good story, strong characters, and inheritable visuals should check this series out.

It is a rare anime series that requires 26 episodes to tell its story well. Most could do with half that number, as much of the time directors and writers stray too far from the plot line itself into meaningless subplots. However, Last Exile is one of the few, if one of the only, series I have watched that merits more than the allotted number. Last Exile does not find itself bogged down in side-stories - there are no side stories in Last Exile - everything matters, down to the very last second of the show. In a way, this is why the show needed 30 episodes rather the allotted 26. The last episode especially shows that the creative team had so much more to tell, but just didn't have the space. Because of this, the ending may seem rushed and unfulfilling, which it is. However, all of this fails to noticeably detract from GONZO's masterpiece.

As with the majority of anime series, the plot line of Last Exile is simple and, to say the least, predictable. What separates anime from traditional American shows is the level of emphasis put on characters and the emotional connections between them. With its fair share of tragedy, the characters in Last Exile do not disappoint, right down to the very last moment. From the strength of deep ties of friendship to the incredible power of revenge, Last Exile presents the emotions of each character so powerfully it compels the viewer to understand and accept them. These characters are what will, someday when the animation is dated and the audio considered choppy, tie to the viewer to the series and draw them back for more.

First, heads-off for the beautiful graphic scenery proposed by the authors. Regardless of the TV/Video set that you'll use to go through the 26 episodes of "Last Exile" series, you ought to be amazed with the excellent quality of the graphic design, the advanced & thoughtful choices of the universe that has been created here. Honestly, it is worth watching that series just for the graphic sake of it.

Besides, the story, though it might be a bit "already seen before" is pretty easy to follow and won't let you down. It depicts a war times between 2 conflicting races that are indeed both under the control of a 3rd species called "The Guild".

Though the characters are a bit "simples" in their definition (this is where you realized that this series was aimed at young people), it is a 8 out 10 animated series that you want to watch.

This was at first one of the oddest (in a wonderful way) things I had seen in some time, with a cute cast and what is appearing to be a wonderful storyline, thoughtful and yet complex. I guess the action effects are either real video overlaid with drawings or something, or they are more likely computer graphics. The character interaction is good old cel looking stuff, which adds a feeling of warmth to it overall. Seeing wingless planes, and ships "sinking" into the clouds when hit, kinda reminded me of StarBlazers, but that soon gave way to the fact that this is WAY beyond that. With old masters, watching things from above (adds destiny) and people in colonial uniforms, with blasters and such (and old style guns and so on, brings together old and new in a way that has me quite hooked. Looks I am going to be up all night for a few weeks watching this one :)

Last Exile is a unique piece of art. The show showcases the events in a (fantastic and very original) world almost torn apart by fully organized battles gone wrong. The animation is top-notch while the dramatic score really moves you in on the action scenes, which, as intense as they can get, really have more than just an ordinary conclusion to them. I simply loved the way characters were introduced and how they all developed over the episodes. In fact they developed well even over the course of one episode. Plus the dialogue isn't just rubbish to rush the plot along, but rather it is well-crafted and thought provoking during several conversations. Overall this anime series really goes to show what you can achieve by putting together wonderful characters and story to match with its great, almost epic, animation (which is the best I've seen in any anime to date). Score: 10/10

The truly interesting thing with Last Exile is how it has stolen from everything imaginable. So much so that it has to be on purpose. Plot points from Robotech, style from everything by Miyazaki san, ideas coming everywhere from Tenchi Muyo to Speed Racer, and characters from all the venerable old classics. (Could Alex be more Captain Harlock? Could Alvis be more Sasami? I defy you to argue this.) I could go on and on and on about the things this stole. Even a fighter scene right out of Return of the Jedi. Unbelievable!

But it does it all so well.

I couldn't have enjoyed this more. Most of the CGI animation is very seamlessly integrated with the Cell animation in a way that they seem to get better at every year. Even if stolen the story is interesting and draws you in. I truly care about each of the characters and most of them are fairly multi- dimensional (at least as far as Anime standards go.)

I highly recommend this. Particularly if you have an extensive Anime background and can look for all the references. On the down side I think there were way too many female characters, which is about standard for this kind of Anime. Also, there are a few CGI scenes that I don't think look good enough for a series of this high quality. Minor complaints.

Don't rent the first DVD if your video rental place doesn't have the complete set. You will be extremely frustrated when you realize that you simply MUST watch the whole series right away!