Review for Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Part 1

Introduction

Studio Gonzo makes some pretty anime. The recent Shangri-La is a case in point, combining Range Murata character designs with brilliant world conceptualisations, and quality animation to create something appealing and in terms of the anime medium, pretty original too. It isn’t just a one off with Gonzo. They have a habit of bringing us shows that look absolutely fantastic, and push the boundaries of the medium. All the way from Kiddy Grade through to shows like Gantz, and Gankutsuou, you can be sure that you’ll be getting something from Gonzo that no one else can offer, and they hit their peak back in 2003 with another Range Murata collaboration, the steampunk aviator sci-fi Last Exile, a delicious melding of traditional 2D animation, and 3D CGI to create something ambitious and inventive. It was originally licensed in the US by Geneon, but released here in the UK by ADV, and that’s a collection I always look forward to re-watching. Earlier in 2013, it also saw a re-release from Manga Entertainment, and is well worth picking up, as even after all these years the animation is astounding, and the story compelling.


Yes, Gonzo does pretty, but admittedly their story-telling chops aren’t quite up to scratch. That might be one reason why they suffered a larger collapse than most anime companies at the end of the last boom, culminating in an ignominious exit from the Japanese Stock Exchange. Of course it’s more likely that they overextended themselves, but in recent years they’ve picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and reinvented themselves as a leaner, more efficient, and slimmed down version of their past incarnation. To make an impact with their comeback, what better than to revisit one of their more popular shows, and in the process team up with Range Murata again. Gonzo are back, and with a sequel for Last Exile in Fam, The Silver Wing.


Fam Fan Fan is an eager young Sky Pirate. The Sky Pirates make a living in the distant future Earth by going after and capturing the gargantuan Sky Fish that sail the skies, town sized vessels, both military and civilian of the various nations. The first Sky Pirate to land a harpoon on a target ship gets to choose its disposition, and Fam has dreams of amassing her own pirate fleet with her navigator Giselle, as well as taking part in a Grand Race of vanships. But this future world is not the friendliest of places, especially for returnees. Years ago, when the world faced an ecological crisis, various groups of people left as Exiles, trying to escape the devastation. Those who stayed behind were the ones to rebuild the world. But once peace and prosperity had been restored to the Earth, the Exiles returned and resettled, establishing various nations, and their now vacant Exile ships light up the night skies as artificial moons.


For the Ades Federation, this is an unthinkable state of affairs. The world belongs to those who stayed behind, not the cowardly Exiles that ran, and they launch a campaign to retake the land that was usurped, and return it to those who deserve it. They start by launching a war of annihilation on the kingdom of Turan. Fam and the pirate fleet are looking for targets of opportunity when they fly straight into the middle of a battle. They wind up ‘capturing’ the Turan flagship and with it the two princesses of Turan, Lily and Millia, coincidentally rescuing them from certain death.


This first collection of Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing collects 12 episodes across two discs. It’s also been released on Blu-ray, but I’m examining the DVD release for this review.

Disc 1
1. Open File
2. Fool’s Mate
3. Light Square
4. Dubious Move
5. Touch and Move
6. Over Step

Disc 2
7. Weak Square
8. Distraction
9. Connected Passed Pawn
9.5. First Adjournment
10. Illegal Move
11. Backward Pawn

Picture

The Last Exile sequel gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer on these DVD discs. The image is presented in native PAL format, with the 4% speedup that implies. The image is clear and sharp throughout, and free of ghosting and blended frames. The image up-scales well enough to a large flat panel display, but there are signs of shimmer on fine detail which is indicative of the SD format. Blu-ray will definitely offer some improvement in that regard. It’s as if the intervening years haven’t happened when it comes to Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing’s animation, as it once more mixes traditional 2D animation with 3D CGI to impressive effect for the most part. Having said that, there is a greater prevalence of CGI imagery in this series, and with little attempt to blend the two once more, the distinction can be jarring.

I did find that in the early episodes, characters had a tendency to drift off model, an issue resolved by episode 4, and episode 2 was a bizarre departure in that everything was rendered in CG, including the character art. It looks bizarrely out of place in comparison to the rest of the series, but by itself it reminds me strongly of this year’s Arpeggio of the Blue Steel series.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs (and Russian dialogue translation) only track. That’s a step up from the first series with its stereo only English dub, and the action packed Last Exile universe is well served by the surround upgrade. Not so much the dub itself, as Funimation went the dubious route of giving one major faction in this story ‘English’ accents. The minute I heard the little servant boy put forth his most earnest Dick Van Dyke, I enthusiastically told the dub to go forth and multiply, and switched to the original Japanese audio, which does much better, and has the benefit of retaining the original voice cast for returning cast members, although Junko Noda’s Dio sounds a lot more childish in this version. One thing that I am happy to see return is that familiar soundtrack, which offers that futuristic Celtic sound that made the original Last Exile such a singular experience. I also noticed the telltales of pitch correction, which again make the Blu-ray a preferred option. The subtitles were timed accurately and free of typographical error.

Extras

Courtesy of Funimation in the US, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing gets more than the usual quota of extras for an anime release.

Both discs present their content with static menus, and there are jacket pictures for when the discs are at rest in compatible players.

Disc 1’s sole commentary is the audio commentary on episode 1, in which ADR director Chris Bevins joins Leah Clark (Gisey), and Carrie Savage (Millia), for one of those Funimation name-check commentaries that manage to fill 20 minutes of air with nothing of consequence, although there is a mention of the futility of trying to recall the original English voice cast members for what would amount to little more than cameos in the sequel.


Disc 2 has a forgettable commentary on episode 11 with Jad Saxton (Fam), Jamie Marchi (Lilliana), and Duncan Brennan (Lucinia).

The Anime Expo 2011: Part 1 lasts 7 minutes, and catches up to the director and the producer for a quick interview about the show.

Spinoff Anime CM Series ‘Friday Night’ #01-07 offers 3½ minutes worth of entertaining commercials for the series, starring chibi versions of the characters presented as a motion comic.

Fam Event Opening Movie is a 2 minute promo for the show; chock full of CG fan service.

You get 45 seconds worth of commercials for the show. You also get the textless opening and two textless closings.

Conclusion

Fam the Silver Wing is a sequel to Last Exile, but for the first 9 episodes or so, it plays like a remake. We have the vanships, and the lumbering sky fortresses, we have two sides fighting for supremacy; in the original it was Anatoray and Disith with the added complication of the Guild, here it’s The Ades Federation and the Returnees, with the added complication of the Guild, and we have a bunch of little guys caught up in the middle, the Sky Pirates instead of the couriers. We also have a third party hero ship in the form of the Silvius, as opposed to the Silvana, and we have a princess that needs rescuing. The differences all appear to be cosmetic, with the action set on future Earth and the returning Exile ships the cause of the friction between them and the Ades Federation.


So given that it feels like a remake, the question becomes what makes it different enough to the first series to make it worth watching? On the strength of the first nine episodes, there isn’t a lot. For one thing, the characterisations are so much more wafer thin and uninteresting, conforming to the current anime clichés. Fam is the eager young space cadet with so much get up and go, it’s on a bungee cord. Her navigator Giselle is a loyal friend, but cautious and restrained, while Princess Millia starts off with the requisite portion of tsundere, before thawing out and becoming just as energetic as Fam in pursuit of her goals. The three have just enough of a ‘girls in love’ subtext to keep the fan boys interested. They’re fuelled by the insipid and flavourless writing that results in dozens of identikit anime. The same is true for many of the supporting cast as well, dull and forgettable.


They even have to manufacture the same sort of conflict that threatened Claus and Lavie’s partnership in the original series. In that show it was a matter of philosophy, about Claus’s increasingly militaristic mindset in his obsession with protecting Alvis, versus Lavie’s innate pacifism. It came naturally from the story, and it continued and developed through the series. In Fam the Silver Wing, it’s brought about by Giselle getting jealous of Fam and Millia’s growing friendship, and is resolved by the end of the next episode by a birthday party...


The original cast members fare little better. There just is no explanation for why Dio is in this show, given what happened to the character at the end of the original series, while Tatiana Wisla is unrecognisable from the original series character. There is a point in episode 10, where Vincent Alzay and the Urbanus show up, and you get a little colour from the character, and an explanation of what is going on with regards to the original series characters. It turns out that the Disith-Anatoray Exile is in the process of returning, and Tatiana Wisla and the Silvius have been sent ahead to scout the way, running into the Ades Federation’s reactionary fervour against the Exiles at the worst possible time. But there’s still no reason why Dio’s in the show.


Episode 10 is where it gets interesting, and it distances itself from the original story, not only by clarifying what happened to the Disith-Anatoray Exile, but by sowing a seed of conflict between sisters Lily and Millia which turns the story on its head. That’s after a filler recap episode, and 9 episodes in which this show was merely aping what had come before, albeit with a moe makeover. Episode 10 is indeed where my attention focused, and that it was followed by a flashback episode which filled in much of this world’s back-story did it no harm. Unfortunately that’s where the story pauses until part 2 is released. Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing isn’t a patch on the original series, and it’s missing the complex characterisations and intriguing enigmatic storyline. This show really could do with an Alex Row or Claus and Lavie to give it depth. Instead we have clichéd shallowness in the form of the title character and her friends. Hopefully the story will get better in the second half, as I doubt the characterisations can be redeemed at this point.