Craig Duncan
As a lover of the art of anime and manga, I found Last Exile beautiful. In particular, its use of CGI for realistic perspective and movement, with hand drawn characters for expressiveness impressed me as masterful. I was grateful for its minimal use of manga clichés (exaggerate mouths, slapstick, etc) and moderate cuteness. The composition of scenes, timing, sound affects and music were pleasing to the eye and ear.However, I found a lot to fault in this beautiful series.From a storytelling point of view, there was some disjointedness, especially in the final episode, which IMHO had three of four episodes compressed into a final five minutes, as if planners had expected to have another half or full season to finish the story. There are arguably too many characters and subplots for the limited film minutes to cover. Since anime has a tradition of letting the viewer fill in plot blanks, however, I'm was little bothered by this, deducting at most 1 point out of 10 for it.What bothered me the most about LE is that, like much anime scifi, it's bad science fiction. It's wonderfully realistic look, achieved by its excellent mechanical designs and masterful union of CGI, artwork, makes its bad science even worse by making it less obvious.The worst science of LE is the heart of its fictional technology, claudia engines, AKA claudia boiler, drives, and units. Claudia is a florescent blue crystalline material, mined from underground deposits, that when dissolved in water produces a fluid that provides both thrust and lift for all of LE's flying vehicles, from 2-seat vanships to giant battleships to city-sized ships and citadels. When "boiled" under its own power and circulated through coiled pipes, it renders these vehicles effectively lighter than air. In rotating engines resembling WWI rotary piston airplane engines and tailpipes resembling WWII pulsejets, it drives these vehicles through the air at speeds comparable to late WWI aircraft.No known chemical element or compound behaves in this extraordinary manner. In good science fiction, an explanation must be offered. For example, perhaps claudia is not a natural substance, but was artificially deposited in minable deposits during the colonization of Pretale/Prester, using the same technology that built Exile. Though a weak explanation, this is better than the lack of any explanation offered by the series, and far better than the naïve explanation that a substance like claudia could reasonably occur naturally.One could argue that, like LE's plot holes, a science fiction explanation is left to the imagination of the viewer. However, if it's IMDb reviews and polls are an indication, few viewers have.
dekkar5
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.
slkje22
This show simple as a story goes really does shine against a lot of television from any part of the world. Rescent and old.It's timeless animation that I can see in 15 years time still being rather awe inspiring.The music is amazing. Why do the OST's have to be so hard to get? Dolce TRiade is amazing and for the artist first score I think it's an great achievement.The story is very special. It's full on from the get go and not a second is spared.At first I hesitated to buy this show and got the box on a whim. I was kind of skeptical after the first disc but as I bought them all I was never regretting the purchase.I may be paid to influence people to but but "gto people" buy this because you will not regret it.
scoopernicus@yahoo.com
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.
