So I've spent a lot of brain power over the last few days on Last Exile because it is that good. That said it isn't perfect.
One of the most constant complaints about the show is that it's second protagonist kind of drops out of significance in the middle after deciding to no longer be the other protagonist's copilot.
And I sort of get it. But...
One of the major themes of Last Exile is the tragic militarization of the Sky and the Lavi-Claus-Titania love triangle is a big giant metaphor for it.
Titania is a combat pilot born and bred. It's one of the reasons why those two bug her so damn much early on. She's worked all her life to become the best damn combat pilot in the world and then all of a sudden here comes Claus who got that damn good just by goofing around for fun.
They devote an entire episode to her realizing that there is more to flight, to the skies than just combat and that maybe it isn't such a good thing that Claus is starting to turn into an a real ace. He's starting to abandon his wide eyed wonderment at the sky.
For Lavi's part, and Claus share this backstory she flies to memorialize the devil-may-care adventurous spirit of her deceased father and senses that there is something wrong with that being succeeded by combat oriented pragmatism.
The choice between the two really is about Claus choosing whether he wants to be an aviator or an airman. And the fact that Lavi won't fly with him while he's the latter, while Titania won't fly with him while he's the former brings that choice to the fore.
Also it's not like Lavi left the series she hung around with the flight crew and continued to work on the physical symbol of all of that.
Their fathers', the two know each other because their dads were copilots, damaged plane.
My point is that while the choice to take Lavi out of the cockpit gave her less screen time it may have made her more thematically important.
I can't shake it. I love Last Exile. There is a lot to talk about but for right now I want to talk about one of the most fascinating character's in a cast of fascinating characters. Sophia Forester, Empress-First Officer of the "Kill 'em all" Silvana.
The one of the great things about Last Exile are the character designs. Characters generally fit within families and the design of those families are relatively consistent. Courier pilots all look like interwar aviators, because they are. The flight deck crew all look like mechanics because they are. The bridge staff all look like naval officers, because they are.
And that consistency allows the story to visually communicate the gist of who these characters are without a lot of spending a lot of time. It can then focus smaller less obvious aspects of their personalities. In Sophia's case she's the team mom. Apart from the technical proficiency her uniform informs the audience of her establishing character moment is that she's the first member of the crew to really comfort Alvis, who looks to be about 4, has transitioned from everything she's ever known. And to do so she utters the words that sum up her character.
"The Silvana (her ship) is the Safest Place in the World."
It took me a while to realize it but her role as the executive office is an outward manifestation of that personality. Everybody on that ship save her captain perhaps are her adult children, and she will do everything in her power to make that ship safe for them both physically and emotionally. It's ironically enough the home she's made.
And that's really interesting. In a lot of military and even non military dramas the feminine is something that detracts from strength but here Sophia's strength as a military officer is portrayed as an extension of a traditional feminine role, the home maker.
That's why it's all the more heart breaking when for a time she has to leave the home she built for herself.
But the change in design allows for her more matronly personality traits to be made more visually explicit as she rocks a Lady Capulet gown as her regalia when she takes up her country's throne. And the show makes implicit that this is the same woman. That behind the trim is still the Vice Captain of the "Kill-em all" Silvana.
That coronation wasn't some sort of transformation into a new role but a confirmation of all the old ones as the show rockets into it's third act where she's leading a war council.
They are the same coin. All of that skill and silent ferocity is there to protect who and what she cares about and what she cares about is the Silvana and her crew.
I've done it before. I'll do it again. Let's talk about Last Exile and its sequel Fam, The Silver Wing.
Oddly enough it started because I was trying to defend Battlefield Earth on Twitter. I actually like the idea of the resistance having to rediscover and relearn how to use some long lost technology to overthrow their oppressors and that is basically what Last Exile is, with the eponymous Exile being said long lost piece of technology.
To prove my point I posted a couple of episodes from Funimation's YouTube channel and immediately (after hemming and hawing over it for half the day) thought please sirs I want some more dogfights.
Last Exile is one of those forgotten classics of a bygone era. The shortcut to making any anime top 10 list for that time is to look at what Cartoon Network was airing. Sure a lot of other networks had an anime block but CN had made a covenant with viewers and transformed itself into the place to watch anime, airing everything from Astro-boy to Ghost in the Shell.
But.
Okay they didn't air everything. Last Exile is one of the shows that didn't get a proper Adult Swim airing until much later and it's why I feel it gets over looked. Things are changing, with the advent of streaming and while I'm glad Toonami is back I'm also glad it isn't the anime monopoly it was in my teenage years. Viz's stuff is on Hulu and both Crunchy Roll and Funimation simulcast subtitled stuff.
I'm kind of starting feel the inverse with all of Disney's acquisitions. Seriously Marvel and Lucus Films. Does The Mouse really need all that, though Jessica Jones was pretty good.
But anyway back to Last Exile. I love it. Even I occasionally forget how much I love it but I do. It has an epic scope and almost immediately gives the sensation that we're watching an age coming to an end, in more ways than one.
The immediate metaphor from the get go is that we're watching a transitional period in the world's version of aviation. Transitioning from the golden age of exploration and innovation to one of militarization where the primary reason to fly is to defend the homeland.
Going in spirit from backyard bi-planes to spitfires over London. We're watching a world in an ever escalating war and it's starting to finally feel it as the skies start to turn crimson.
By the way, lots of WWII metaphors. The vast majority show takes place in a steam punk aircraft carrier, The Silvana, a prototype vessel for a new type of warfare where rather than ship to ship combat ships house planes that can cripple enemy craft before they reach firing range. Though we still get loving shots of rotating turrets. There's more to it than that but that the least complicated version.
There is this on going feeling that what is happening in the series is important because the events we see are shaping a new world that will be something wholly different from the old order even if they can't see what that might be.
Okay while my twitter feed has probably spoiled every damn thing in Last Exile. I don't want to so let me move on. Show is beautiful. The colors are muted to give this sort of pastoral look most of the time, evoking a sense of Hudson River School romanticism again highlighting that we're in an age of transition with something lost.
Beyond that if they get a name and dialogue you'll remember, Vince, Godwin, Frank, Anthony, Claus, Lavi, Luciolla, Alex, Sophia, Titiana, Alvis, Dio, Mulin, Dunya, Delphine, Cicada, Walker, Ralph Wednesday, Duke Mad-thane, Holly Mad-thane, Alister, and even Fat Chicken.
Which is why I can't stand Fam, the Silver Wing. It's got no characters. Okay It has characters just none I really care about.
It even makes me care less about all the characters in the original. Every time I got bored with it it would dole out Dio, or Vince, or Titiana and hint they were going to do something cool with them only for them to not show up for another three episodes or so.
At first I wanted to excuse it. "Hey this is a new installment. It's not about them." But every time they pulled that move I would just get madder and madder and madder until some revelations occurred to me.
First off. Nope. No longer giving it a pass. For the past month or so I've been heavily invested in Star Wars Rebels. And that show got me to care about it's new cast of immigrants in about 3 minutes flat.
And then I couldn't get my head out of the stars and I realized if you rip out all the original cameos Fam, the Silver Wing is nothing more than a run of the mill low budget space opera anime.
All the same every season there are some slow, monotonous clunky ones.
That drone on like the most boring history teacher in the world. And to a degree I get it. They're trying to tap into that relational aspect of history where big moments are the result of small decisions made for even smaller reasons.
But their characters always sound more like textbooks written a century or two after the fact rather than living breathing human beings with personalities and relationships.
I love the small moments of Last Exile. Lavi waking up Claus and yelling at him that his oversleeping keeps them from getting the best cuts at the deli. It explains everything you need to know about the relationship between these two. They take care of each other and are practically a married couple in all but name.
And don't get me started on all the moments between Sophia, Alex and Vince, or what Dio's death scene says about him and his relationship to Luciolla. I'll call the man in Fam DINO. Screw it Fam itself is LEINO. Last Exile in Name Only.
