Description:
Claus and Lavie are a young heroic air pilot duo, whose assignment to
make a special human delivery fails. Before they know it, they become
entangled in an aerial adventure between two countries gripped in an
eternal war of magnificent air battleships, noble generals, and a
mysterious war-mediating Guild.
Packaging:
The first volume of Last Exile comes in a transparent DVD case with
cover art featuring Claus and Lavie in their Vanship. Probably my
least favorite of the covers in the series, the majority of the cover
is taken up by the gunmetal hull of the Vanship. The reverse side
displays the episode list, three images from the series, a summary and
a background shot of a red Vanship flying towards the screen.
Menus:
The menus are very well done, with the central menu being a side of a Vanship. The middle is a window of the ship and it cycles through
clips from the disc. The four menu choices are on either side of the
window, all put to the beautiful opening music. The camera pans over
to another side of the ship for each menu choice.
Audio/Visual:
The visuals in this anime are simply breathtaking. Every shot looks as
if it was carefully painted and colored, almost making the animation
seem more like art than cartoon. Even with the many dark tones of the
series, many details are easily seen. The music is on a grand scale
using many brass and percussion sounds. Much of the music also uses
calming, almost Celtic tunes, making it easy to relax while watching.
Extras:
The single release comes with a limited-edition paper Vanship model.
Or at least that's what they say. Geneon is notorious for their
seemingly random insertion of extras so, unfortunately my copy did not
arrive with a paper model. Buy with caution if you like extras. The
DVD itself contains the clean OP as well as a Japanese credit OP.
There are various promotion trailers from its Japanese run as well as
a brief staff interview with he director Mahiro Maeda. It comes
equipped with a selection of Geneon trailers.
Content
(beware, contains
spoilers):
It's obvious that Last Exile has somewhat of a grand scale from the
first episode. We are introduced to the Vanship pilots Lavie and
Claus, who work as messengers in their hometown. The world they live
in is a vaguely primitive era, late 1800s, I'd say. Though they are
advanced in the area of aviation as the Vanships and gigantic airships
suggest. The first two episodes deal with Claus and Lavie being
entrusted with the task of delivering a message to General Madthane of
the Anatoray fleet. As luck would have it, the duo arrives in the
middle of an aerial Vanship battle with the rival nation of Disith.
This leads to Claus and Lavie joining the battle with a military
Vanship. After delivering their message they return home in time for
the annual race. The third episode deals more with the hometown and
the non-military Vanship pilots. During the race, a chance encounter
with a dying soldier puts Claus and Lavie in charge of delivering a
mysterious young girl to Alex Rowe, the ruthless captain of the
legendary mercenary battleship known as the "Kill 'em All" Silvana…
Conclusion:
A fine first release, though the first set of episodes move relatively
slowly. Though episode four ends on a cliffhanger that I assure you,
will get you interested in the next volume. The art and music are
really the strong point so far, though the story will undoubtedly pick
up in following volumes.
Written
by:
Alex Butschli – "Ace of Spades"