Last Exile: Positional Play 
(Geneon/Pioneer DVD)
(2004)
review by Big McLargehuge

Star Trek? Bollocks! Babylon 5? Amateur hour! Any other science fiction series live action or anime? Bah! Last Exile has them all beat, and soundly.

Gonzo studios responsible for some of the best anime series to date including “Blue Submarine Number Six”, and the incredible “Hellsing”, present the best series anime to hit the west in the history of imported animation.

Last Exile combines traditional cell animation and CGI. Animation house Gonzo brings life to the tale of delivery team Claus and Lavie’s unintentional involvement in a catastrophic war between antagonistic countries. We pick up with no back-story so I was a little confused having not seen the preceding two episodes from disk one…

However, I’ll try and make this as coherent as possible.

Claus and Lavie are dispatched to deliver Admiral Madthane’s daughter Alvin to Captain Rowe of the mysterious vessel Silvana. When Rowe leaves the pair stranded with their damaged vanship (think a two seater, open cockpit JU-52 with stub wings) they chase the massive cruiser and board.

After a beating by the flight-deck crew, Claus and Lavie are allowed to deliver Alvin’s stuffed cow to her. Rowe is a mysterious character cut from the same sort of cloth as Anime favorite Captain Herlock. He’s brooding and mysterious and concerned with things much greater than his own person wealth or fame.

When the guild unleashes a massive attack on the Silvana, Claus and Levi volunteer to fight. This draws the attention of a Guild prince who engages Claus in a “flying lesson”.

Admittedly, this second disk isn’t big on plot, but Last Exile establishes a whole load of story in the first four shows. So these four episodes simply move the characters closer to the conclusion. We do learn a few specific things; that Claus and Lavie have some connection to the war, only they don’t know what it is yet. Their persistence gets them into each conflict as if they were strangely predestined to be there. Mind you, this is only what I perceived and may not even be part of the story, but it seemed like that as I was watching.

Claus is not a military pilot, but what he lacks in skill he makes up for in daring, AND both Claus and Lavie are extremely loyal. They tend to fall back on the “I am an authorized messenger” routine a couple of times, and without more exposition as to why this gets them access to pretty much anywhere in any battle is a little confusing. But I am fully ready not to care because the show is so goddamn good.

What follows is a sequence of incredible action sequences. Controlling the military and politics are a mysterious Guild. They seem to serve only one function so far; sanctioning and then refereeing massive fleet battles. When the Guild sets their sights on the Silvana Claus and Lavie are again drawn into the conflict they have no hope of understanding.

Once the Silvana pulls into dry dock for repairs Lavie reunites with Mullen (the musketeer from the first episode) at the casino that serves sailors in port. Mullen wants to join the ship Goliath, also in port because the captain is a coward and serving aboard the Goliath would decrease his chances of being killed. The Goliath, in the first couple of episodes, fled the battle leaving Madthane to face his enemies alone.

It’s kind of nice to see Lavie unwind a little, she takes to Mullen immediately, and since she isn’t wrapped up in the military and nobility structure she provides a welcome contrast to the rules and regulations that such a society engenders.

But I am getting mired in the details.

Last Exile deserves accolades for more than visuals.

What Gonzo offers us is a fully realized world drawing visual elements from the First World War, the Franco/Prussian war, The American Civil War, 1920’s aviation, the 1930’s Art Deco movement, and combines them into a visual feast of truly breathtaking proportions. Imagine a battle fought among the clouds by floating ships modeled on WW1 era dreadnaughts but using the same tactics, initially, as middle 19th century ships of the line.

I was mesmerized. Gonzo’s work on Last Exile rivals animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli for sheer excellence.

Character design falls into a very minimalist and very realistic style providing a 180-degree contrast to the depth and detail of the machinery surrounding those characters. Such visual cues allow for extremely fluid animation and serve to illustrate the place of humanity in a world torn by war. The humans are indistinct insects compared to the machines they create.

Also, the humans are instantly believable which is a stretch in most anime titles, but I forgot I was watching an animated presentation about one minute into this. No one by Myazaki has ever had that effect on me, well, until now.

Last Exile hits the street on November 18th, 2003. The DVD comes in two styles, normal, or special edition (containing a mouse pad and Lavie figurine). Both versions offer anamorphic widescreen, original Japanese and dubbed English language tracks, English subs, and probably a whole mess of other cool stuff (as yet unavailable to me). The dubbed voice acting is great, which is a compliment I can rarely offer, but it really shines in Last Exile. Careful listeners will notice that Lavie’s voice comes via Kari Wahlgren who provided the perfect voice for lunatic, alien, maid Haruko in Studio IG’s bizarre Furi Kuri.

Geneon releases Last Exile: Positional Play with four episodes in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, Japanes and English language tracks and English subs. It also includes the Japanese credit ending, a non-credit opening, TV spots for the show, and a kick ass art gallery along with the usual Geneon promos.

Beg, borrow, steal, but no matter how you do it, get Last Exile: Positional Play, and be prepared for the best science fiction series in decades.