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anime: Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing
Dec. 17th, 2013 11:28 pmLast Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing
I'm not sure why it took me so long to watch this series. While Last Exile has its share of problems, I'm pretty fond of it, and knew the sequel had a female pilot as the main character, which is is pretty high up on my list of interests. Then, again, it took me 4 years to get around to watching the new seasons of Slayers, so I guess this is an improvement.
So, as I said, I knew going in that the main character was a female pilot. What I did not know is that one of the secondary leads is her sister and navigator, that they are SKYPIRATES, and that the other secondary lead is a princess who has a very slashy relationship with our Heroine, who is determined to help her reclaim her kingdom. Or that, you know, about 90% of the important characters are women in very active-often leadership-roles.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing is set a few years after Last Exile and in a different country, the setting being a steampunk-ish world similar to early 20th century Europe. The main character, Fam, is a foundling who survives the crash that killed her parents, and is adopted by the captain of the country of Turan's sky pirates. Now 15, Fam (and extreme extrovert who makes friends very very quickly) and her adopted sister, Giselle (an extreme introvert) are part of their father's band, and hunt other ships. On one such mission, they end up meeting Turan's princesses, Liliana and Millia, in the middle of an invasion, and Liliana hires them to take Millia to their father. When Turan falls shortly after, Fam, who has become friends with Millia, vows to help Millia restore it. And to steal Millia a fleet of ships to help out with that.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing is considerably lighter on the relationship drama (or at least, the relationship drama is considerably more interesting and less annoying) and is more concerned with war and people on various sides doing what they think is needed to save the world and none being completely right about it, as opposed to grand (and confusing) mysteries of the world. It's also crammed full of women. There are sets of sisters, lady pilots, female commanders, queens, young girls thrust into positions of authority they aren't ready for, and lady frenemies and friends who end up on opposite sides for very logical but very sad reasons. Pretty much all of these come in duplicates, though there's overlap, and the last episode begins with Fam and Giselle's sister telling her younger siblings not to worry, their sisters will save the world. There's also a woman who is the last surviving member of her race who deals with it by recruiting other women who have lost their homelands to serve the queen of her choosing.
The only character from Last Exile to have a central role throughout is Dio, who I liked more here than in Last Exile (I've become fond of Dio over time, but he had to grow on me, but I found him much more delightful here), though Tatiana, Alister, Alvis and (to a less degree) Vincent also have important roles, with Claus, Lavi and Sophia making brief appearances. I can't really judge whether or not it can be watched without seeing the first series. The plot is very distant and most of the focus is on different characters entirely, but there are also worldbuilding elements that would be confusing without the background. There is an episode that recaps the first series-or at least, the parts pertinent to Alvis and Dio-but I think it was episode 17 or so. It was actually a pretty decent recap episode, as such things go (I'm one of those who skips around recap episodes to catch the bits of new scenes) but it was a bit late in the game. I do need to read the manga that bridges the two series to figure out how certain characters ended up where they are, though.
I'm not sure why it took me so long to watch this series. While Last Exile has its share of problems, I'm pretty fond of it, and knew the sequel had a female pilot as the main character, which is is pretty high up on my list of interests. Then, again, it took me 4 years to get around to watching the new seasons of Slayers, so I guess this is an improvement.
So, as I said, I knew going in that the main character was a female pilot. What I did not know is that one of the secondary leads is her sister and navigator, that they are SKYPIRATES, and that the other secondary lead is a princess who has a very slashy relationship with our Heroine, who is determined to help her reclaim her kingdom. Or that, you know, about 90% of the important characters are women in very active-often leadership-roles.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing is set a few years after Last Exile and in a different country, the setting being a steampunk-ish world similar to early 20th century Europe. The main character, Fam, is a foundling who survives the crash that killed her parents, and is adopted by the captain of the country of Turan's sky pirates. Now 15, Fam (and extreme extrovert who makes friends very very quickly) and her adopted sister, Giselle (an extreme introvert) are part of their father's band, and hunt other ships. On one such mission, they end up meeting Turan's princesses, Liliana and Millia, in the middle of an invasion, and Liliana hires them to take Millia to their father. When Turan falls shortly after, Fam, who has become friends with Millia, vows to help Millia restore it. And to steal Millia a fleet of ships to help out with that.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing is considerably lighter on the relationship drama (or at least, the relationship drama is considerably more interesting and less annoying) and is more concerned with war and people on various sides doing what they think is needed to save the world and none being completely right about it, as opposed to grand (and confusing) mysteries of the world. It's also crammed full of women. There are sets of sisters, lady pilots, female commanders, queens, young girls thrust into positions of authority they aren't ready for, and lady frenemies and friends who end up on opposite sides for very logical but very sad reasons. Pretty much all of these come in duplicates, though there's overlap, and the last episode begins with Fam and Giselle's sister telling her younger siblings not to worry, their sisters will save the world. There's also a woman who is the last surviving member of her race who deals with it by recruiting other women who have lost their homelands to serve the queen of her choosing.
The only character from Last Exile to have a central role throughout is Dio, who I liked more here than in Last Exile (I've become fond of Dio over time, but he had to grow on me, but I found him much more delightful here), though Tatiana, Alister, Alvis and (to a less degree) Vincent also have important roles, with Claus, Lavi and Sophia making brief appearances. I can't really judge whether or not it can be watched without seeing the first series. The plot is very distant and most of the focus is on different characters entirely, but there are also worldbuilding elements that would be confusing without the background. There is an episode that recaps the first series-or at least, the parts pertinent to Alvis and Dio-but I think it was episode 17 or so. It was actually a pretty decent recap episode, as such things go (I'm one of those who skips around recap episodes to catch the bits of new scenes) but it was a bit late in the game. I do need to read the manga that bridges the two series to figure out how certain characters ended up where they are, though.
