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REVIEW: Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Episodes 1-12 Streaming

I have not started this series but was a fan of the original Last Exile. I heard that Dio is also in this series so looking forward to it as he's my favorite character.

Anyways, interesting review by Carl. I'm expecting just as much as fun and action in the original series when I marathon this when it finishes airing.

With an overall grade of: B+, I will certainly give this series a try soon

This was a really nice and actually better praised opinion towards the show than what I've seen elsewhere in certain anime sites.

When I heard the announcement about the sequel to this show, I was super-excited. Then I saw the character designs for the new characters on the Japanese website for the show and my thoughts were "huh....?" And then I saw the trailer for the show and regained some excitement again, but still couldn't shake off the observation at how moe as a "theme" seemed to take an influence on this show moreso than the first series. Every time there's a criticism towards moe, someone says, "there aren't that many pure moe shows, it's all in your head", or "you just want anime for Americans only like Cowboy Bebop" or other counter-arguments like that.

To simply put my point of view on moe, all I want is a compelling story and compelling characters. I want the characters who know they either want, care about, or are passionate something and have developed a certain skill that helps reach them towards their goal in the story. They go through conflicts and emotional doubts, but they get back on their feet and attain a certain growth. That's all I want out of a character and it doesn't have to be in a plot-heavy show either. From my experience with a couple dozen shows I've either seen or have been aware of, the problem I have with moe in a show whether there's a lot of it or some of it based on what fans in anime blogs or forums point out is that it tends to more often than not distracts from the idea of making a female character compelling. There's more of a focus on finding various subtle ways to add innocence, insecurity, or being cute that add up to the moe element being more noticable, and less of expressing signs of strength and confidence based on that character's passion.

I've seen that often enough in a good number of shows I've seen that around the time Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing premiered and I was waiting for Funimation to simulcast it, I couldn't help but browse the comments of the show on ANN and Bamboo's thoughts on The Stream column and on some other parts of the internet and thought, "uh oh! It seemed that everyone is getting bored of this show and are finding the characters cute and nothing else." That actually made me avoid the show for a little while. Then 3 weeks ago, something (I wasn't sure what) made me want to see the first episode just to see if this was really as bad as something people were saying. I watched the first episode, then watched the second and I got caught up to episode 18 earlier this week.

This show is REALLY amazing and if this show was suppose to have traits of moe in it, then this as well as Idolmaster are the best shows with moe in it that I've seen yet. And that's saying a LOT! I'm having a hard time understanding why this show was getting so much flack at all unless people were being so attached to the first season by expecting Lavie and Claus to appear or Dio, Tatiana, Alvis and Alister to get more significant roles than they really do. The first season was definitely awesome, don't get me wrong. But I feel that people are not giving the main characters this season much of a fair chance at all to let them grow on them. Fam Fan Fan is just about EXACTLY what I've been wanting out of a female anime character. And it's not necessarily due to her being tomboyish or a thrill-seeker. It's just that she's passionate about what she does, which is being a sky pirate. She knows what she cares about and is willing to pursue her goal which is hoping for the revival of the Grand Race. And she expresses moments of self-doubt between the opposing war factions and the heavy antagonzing towards Princess Lillia. And Giselle while not as compelling as Fam, she knows what she wants too which is supporting Fam who's her best friend and what-not. She also sometimes prevents Fam from getting into trouble which those moments I find hilarious. And I'm not sure if anyone else has thought this, but I keep finding Millia to be very similar to Princess Vivi from One Piece. Heck even their situations are practically the same.

I mean yeah, I would like to see more of Claus and Lavie than in the 2nd recap episode, but it's not like the main characters in the sequel don't capture my interest either. So again, I don't see where the lack of interest towards the characters is actually coming from. Also regarding what Carl said about the plot pinballing instead of going from one point to another, maybe it's because I'm further ahead in watching the show, but I'm honestly finding the point behind what the characters do to be more clear. I will admit that some of the war-strategic details from minor characters I don't know well-enough distracted me from fully figuring out what was going on in certain episodes. But ultimately I felt that as long as I prioirtized paying attention to what Fam, Giselle and Millia want out of all of this, I wouldn't feel too confused.

And one more thing. while I do feel that the animation isn't the most expressive and the CG isn't ideal, I find to be a vast VAST improvement from season 1. In fact in the 2nd recap episode spoiler[we briefly see some of the vanship manuveuring in seaosn 1 and then towards the last couple of minutes in the recap episode after we briefly see Lavie and Claus and then Dio and Alvie talking, the way they piloted the vanship manuveuring seemed faster and more intense. It made the vanshiping piloting in Last Exile seem somewhat slower in comparion.]

This was a really nice and actually better praised opinion towards the show than what I've seen elsewhere in certain anime sites.

When I heard the announcement about the sequel to this show, I was super-excited. Then I saw the character designs for the new characters on the Japanese website for the show and my thoughts were "huh....?" And then I saw the trailer for the show and regained some excitement again, but still couldn't shake off the observation at how moe as a "theme" seemed to take an influence on this show moreso than the first series. Every time there's a criticism towards moe, someone says, "there aren't that many pure moe shows, it's all in your head", or "you just want anime for Americans only like Cowboy Bebop" or other counter-arguments like that.

To simply put my point of view on moe, all I want is a compelling story and compelling characters. I want the characters who know they either want, care about, or are passionate something and have developed a certain skill that helps reach them towards their goal in the story. They go through conflicts and emotional doubts, but they get back on their feet and attain a certain growth. That's all I want out of a character and it doesn't have to be in a plot-heavy show either. From my experience with a couple dozen shows I've either seen or have been aware of, the problem I have with moe in a show whether there's a lot of it or some of it based on what fans in anime blogs or forums point out is that it tends to more often than not distracts from the idea of making a female character compelling. There's more of a focus on finding various subtle ways to add innocence, insecurity, or being cute that add up to the moe element being more noticable, and less of expressing signs of strength and confidence based on that character's passion.

I've seen that often enough in a good number of shows I've seen that around the time Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing premiered and I was waiting for Funimation to simulcast it, I couldn't help but browse the comments of the show on ANN and Bamboo's thoughts on The Stream column and on some other parts of the internet and thought, "uh oh! It seemed that everyone is getting bored of this show and are finding the characters cute and nothing else." That actually made me avoid the show for a little while. Then 3 weeks ago, something (I wasn't sure what) made me want to see the first episode just to see if this was really as bad as something people were saying. I watched the first episode, then watched the second and I got caught up to episode 18 earlier this week.

This show is REALLY amazing and if this show was suppose to have traits of moe in it, then this as well as Idolmaster are the best shows with moe in it that I've seen yet. And that's saying a LOT! I'm having a hard time understanding why this show was getting so much flack at all unless people were being so attached to the first season by expecting Lavie and Claus to appear or Dio, Tatiana, Alvis and Alister to get more significant roles than they really do. The first season was definitely awesome, don't get me wrong. But I feel that people are not giving the main characters this season much of a fair chance at all to let them grow on them. Fam Fan Fan is just about EXACTLY what I've been wanting out of a female anime character. And it's not necessarily due to her being tomboyish or a thrill-seeker. It's just that she's passionate about what she does, which is being a sky pirate. She knows what she cares about and is willing to pursue her goal which is hoping for the revival of the Grand Race. And she expresses moments of self-doubt between the opposing war factions and the heavy antagonzing towards Princess Lillia. And Giselle while not as compelling as Fam, she knows what she wants too which is supporting Fam who's her best friend and what-not. She also sometimes prevents Fam from getting into trouble which those moments I find hilarious. And I'm not sure if anyone else has thought this, but I keep finding Millia to be very similar to Princess Vivi from One Piece. Heck even their situations are practically the same.

I mean yeah, I would like to see more of Claus and Lavie than in the 2nd recap episode, but it's not like the main characters in the sequel don't capture my interest either. So again, I don't see where the lack of interest towards the characters is actually coming from. Also regarding what Carl said about the plot pinballing instead of going from one point to another, maybe it's because I'm further ahead in watching the show, but I'm honestly finding the point behind what the characters do to be more clear. I will admit that some of the war-strategic details from minor characters I don't know well-enough distracted me from fully figuring out what was going on in certain episodes. But ultimately I felt that as long as I prioirtized paying attention to what Fam, Giselle and Millia want out of all of this, I wouldn't feel too confused.

And one more thing. while I do feel that the animation isn't the most expressive and the CG isn't ideal, I find to be a vast VAST improvement from season 1. In fact in the 2nd recap episode spoiler[we briefly see some of the vanship manuveuring in seaosn 1 and then towards the last couple of minutes in the recap episode after we briefly see Lavie and Claus and then Dio and Alvie talking, the way they piloted the vanship manuveuring seemed faster and more intense. It made the vanshiping piloting in Last Exile seem somewhat slower in comparion.]

I have to agree with the person who writes ANN's 'Streaming' feature: this show would work much better as a marathon. I'm looking forward to the dub.

"Fam" actually explains what the Exiles are in a clear and concise manner, which the original never did.