Last Exile: The Complete Series (Anime Classics): Amazon.ca: DVD

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars To the skies, April 30 2011

By

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Last Exile: The Complete Series (Anime Classics) (DVD)

Imagine a world divided into two warring nations, full of airborne warships, political tangles, and a mysterious riddle that will decide all their fates.

"Last Exile: The Complete Series" is full of all these things, filled with glorious CGI, likable characters and some truly brilliant plot twists near the end. The plot becomes kind of knotted up in the last lap of the series, but it's still a beautifully rendered story about love, friendship and occasionally revenge -- and it's rendered in such beautiful animation that it simply sweeps you away.

Vanship pilot Claus Valca and his buddy Lavie Head are in the middle of a race when they encounter a mystery pilot being chased by a Guild star-ship. His cargo: a little girl named Alvis.

Unfortunately, getting Alvis safely to the rendezvous is no easy task -- especially when the ship picking her up turns out to be the legendary, deadly Silvana. But Claus and Lavie don't want their new friend to be alone and frightened, so they manage to make their way onto the Silvana, and end up becoming part of its crew. Of course, the head vanship pilot Tatiana Wisla isn't too happy about that.

And life aboard the Silvana is anything but boring for the two teenagers. Claus and Lavie take part in a vast vanship race, a battle with the overblown Goliath, a rebellion against the Emperor, and a crash landing in the middle of the desert. And Claus has caught the interest of the whimsical Dio of the Guild -- the younger brother of the cold-hearted, calculating Delphine.

What's more, the Silvana's journey is somehow wrapped up in the mysteries of the Grand Stream, a search for revenge by the Silvana's captain, the secrets of the Mysteria, and the very future of their world. What is Exile, and where will it lead?

"Last Exile" is one of those series that blurs the lines of genre and style -- it feels like a more ethereal brand of steampunk, complete with Victorian trappings and advanced airships. It's full of glowing light, vast expanses of cloads and flowing cities, and beautiful mountainous landscapes and clouds that could have come straight from a Hayao Miyazaki movie. Not to mention some brilliant airborne battles.

The many subplots of the series unspool gradually throughout each episode, twining together as the plot goes on -- such as Alex's vendetta, the plans of the villain Delphine, and the mysterious Grand Stream that seems to be central to the mysteries of Prester. The dialogue is rather run-of-the-mill, but the carefully-drawn world (complete with water shortages and a fictional fuel called "claudia") make up for that, as well as the tangled political clashes that stretch from one episode to the next.

The last few episodes are a bit of a mindbender. The plot becomes a bit tangled up, before twisting into a startling revelation about the world of Prester -- which admittedly, while carefully foreshadowed, is quite a surprise when it's revealed.

Claus and Lavie make a likable pair of protagonists -- he's mellow, sweet and rather laid-back, while she's fiery and easily upset ("This is OUR vanship, and YOU can't touch it!"), so they end up playing well off each other. And the supporting cast is a pretty solid one, with a ride range of personalities and plenty of likable minor characters (like the mechanics). Among the standouts: the melancholy and mysterious Alex Rowe, Alvis, the whimsical and tragic Dio, and vanship pilot Tatiana (who develops a crush on Claus).

"Last Exile: The Complete Series" has a few odd twists, but it's a solid and atmospheric anime series that glides slowly to a rather startling conclusion.

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Amazon.com: 4.2 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars top shelf steam punk, Jun 19 2011

By suburban dissident - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Last Exile: The Complete Series (Anime Classics) (DVD)

Last Exile is one of those series that is very hard to rate. To my mind, this is one of the best steam punk series around, though I do have a few issues with some of the plot development.

Range Murata's (Blue Submarine 6) art and character designs are fantastic (if you haven't seen his work, do look for some of his art books) and present a visually stunning setting. Everything from clothing, to ships, to towns, cities, mountains and clouds are visually compelling.

The characters are all memorable from the Silvana's maintenance crew all the way up the Alex the enigmatic and vindictive captain. Klaus and Lavi make for a wonderful duo as Klaus' kind, even-keel nature mixes well with Lavi's rambunctious spunk and insecurity. And Tatiana Wisla may be one of my favorite anime characters ever (be still my heart!). There are too many to list, and each comes across as more than the sum of their 2D parts.

Honestly, the only gripes that I have with the series are that (1) Dio's arc is woefully unsatisfactory given the dramatic way it is built up and developed and (2) the wrap up of the story is just a little too fast. There are so many complex and interesting subplots that this was, to some extent, inevitable. But, that doesn't change the fact of it.

Those caveats aside, this series is a must (what ever form you view it in...I am not good at technical comparisons) for any anime or steam punk fan, and honestly would be enjoyable for just about any viewer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Show, but not so great release, July 25 2011

By Bryce Campbell "just another anime fan" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Last Exile: The Complete Series (Anime Classics) (DVD)

Last Exile is about two orphaned children, Claus Valca and Lavie Head, who have a passion for flying, and they even make a living from it. During a race, a fellow pilot crashes into them and turns his mission over to them. Surprisingly, the mission has a seven star danger rating, which scares Lavie, but Claus goes through with it. However, this one mission brings them into a new kind of life, one of danger, as well as good times.

The story had a very nice start and all the characters were enjoyable. In these adult years of our lives, we rarely live out our dreams, but Claus and Lavie definitely enjoy doing courier missions. Claus can be stubborn, but he always tries to help people, the best he can. Also, I actually liked how the lip syncing was right. Now, let me get this straight, the first time I saw this show was on Netflix and I enjoyed it there, but there was a big problem, which was the fact that the audio did not match what I was seeing. That kind of was a bad impression on me, but thankfully, the dub was not like this on the DVD release. Many anime also seem to only have character movement, but I saw birds flying around and even the waves of strong wind move, not something that is encountered a lot in Japanese animation. The start of the story was interesting, the DVD had better audio timing than the Netflix stream, and the movement of the wind could be seen.

I cannot say that there is a whole lot I dislike, but one thing in particular did stand out as a bit annoying. That particular item is something than comes between the episodes. No, it is not the little things for commerical interruptions, which happen during the episodes. This problem occurs after every few episodes and that is the picture of a girl sitting somewhere and a thing that says, "See You on the Next Flight." This appears on every episode that is divisible by four on the first three discs and every three episodes on the last disc, of the four disc set. Okay, this makes sense for the old individual sets from Pioneer (now Geneon), but there are 6-7 episodes on every disc of this set. This makes absolutely no sense as the end of the DVD has not been reached on any disc, with the exception of the third disc, which contains episode 20. It's like they just took all the individual DVDs and combined them into four without doing work on anything, but making sure that audio was good. Doing this kind of thing makes people think that the end of the DVD has been reached, when it has not. However, this does not take down the quality of the show in my book, just the DVD release of it. There should not be anything that suggest the end of the DVD before the final episode of the disc.

Despite the fact that it makes a person think the end of the DVD has been reached, watching this series on DVD was definitely much better than watching it on Netflix. I would recommend people try this series out. It is not for everyone, but if you like to fly, you will enjoy it more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 5-star series, 2-star transfer, 5-star value, Dec 22 2011

By J. EVERITT - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Last Exile: The Complete Series (Anime Classics) (DVD)

Wow, what a great anime series! Writing is generally excellent except for some awkward dialog. Excellent English-dubbing - much better than some Disney voice-overs of Ghibli movies.

Just fun, fun, fun.

However, the transfer is VHS-quality level. This is so sad, as anime series of this high quality is quite rare. So, best viewed on a computer with about a 9-10" window.

Still worth getting, and this complete set is gives you a great series for a modest price. Jump on it.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 18 reviews 4.2 out of 5 stars