Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Review — B

The sky pirates join in a world war.

The part I liked most about Last Exile was the setting: a fantastic steampunk world, with lovingly detailed places and ships. Its sequel ups the ante with an amazing array of vivid details, including foods, costumes, and cultures (and even hints at yuri!). The scenery is more detailed and lush. The world feels even bigger than that of the original Last Exile, and the show is truly international in scope. 

The story carefully crafts international relationship and portrays large-scale fleet battles. The characters are people you can care about.

I do have a couple complaints though. First is Fam, the main character. She is obnoxiously naive, and can be annoying at times.  The other characters are great, it’s only her that’s this annoying. If she wasn’t the main character I wouldn’t even be mentioning this, but she can and likely will get on your nerves.

The second issue is that the big villain’s motivations never really make sense. You won’t even notice this until the last episode, since you’ll just assume you don’t know the whole story, but it did leave the ending with a bitter taste.

But overall the show is worth watching for the fantastic world building.

  • Storytelling – B – Interesting politics, but Fam’s role can be annoying.
  • Voice – A – Excellent setting development.
  • Characters – B – Superb, except for Fam.
  • Attention Grab – B – Generally good, although there were a few episodes in the beginning and middle of the second half that were boring.
  • Production – A – Beautiful backgrounds.
  • Overall – B

Recommendations – Simoun, Xam’d: Lost Memories

16 thoughts on “Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Review — B

  1. One thing that this show left me is that I kept on saying Gloria Augusta! every now and then it has become part of daily habits O_O” and sometimes i cant suppress my urge and unfortunately today i shouted that in a train station pretty dumb huh? but that’s what happened hahaha!!!

    1. GLORIA AUGUSTA! I can sympathize, I say dumb things like that too when I think no one is listening.

  2. I found myself extremely lost with the first few episodes, but I found this series to be quite dull during the middle all the way to the point of not really caring anymore…then things suddenly got amazing with the final five or six episodes at last! However I am glad this is over because honestly it felt like it was going to last forever.

    I really loved Fam at the start, but boy are you right about her! She can quickly become so damn annoying you just want to punch her or something…and another thing did anyone actually die? I mean I can only count three “important” characters kicking the bucket.

    Good moments! Seeing characters from season one make random appearances as in the FINAL EPISODE…but I knew the main dude wouldn’t come saving the day. Also the artwork! The backgrounds omg they are amazing, CGI however…yeah…very…bad in some moments I will say some of the CGI work was nice during the battle scenes.

    GLORIA AUGUSTA! That phrase is going to be a finishing move in some fighting game! If not it needs to be <3

    1. Yeah I’ve even modded my Napoleon total war naval battles to say GLORIA AUGUSTA every time i command them hahaha..
      Click: GLORIA!
      Clicking an enemy ship to attack: GLORIA AUGUSTA!

    2. For me there was a series of great episodes towards the middle, and then it picked up again at the end… but yeah, the rest was disappointing. And only old people died. 🙁

      I am glad that Claus and Lavi didn’t save the day in the final episode, I was half afraid they would actually do that, thank goodness they didn’t. I actually liked the CGI, but the backgrounds were definitely better…

  3. As a fan of the first Last Exile series, it wasn’t that bad, Fam was likeable in the first episode but she got annoying every now and then especially when I hear the word “Grand Race” form her, but the designs and variety of ship (particularly the Ades ships, I mean, CATERPILLARS!) are just spectacular, the sceneries were very… scenic. The world was also cool showcasing the differences between other nationalities and the music is just stuck in my head, like Hitomi’s “Starboard Silky Wind Ver.” And like the other commenters above the phrase GLORIA AUGUSTA is also stuck in my head.

    I do have a feeling that there will be another extra episode or more coming soon, because they left off with Fam realizing that Sadri (old guy) was her grandfather.
    Sorry for the long comment, GLORIA AUGUSTA!

    1. I liked Fam at first as well. (well, after the first episode, when I thought this would be about cute girls running around in their undergarments). The ships, scenery and music were amazing. They did tell Fam about her grandfather toward the end, she broke down crying but that was all that happened. Who knows, there could be an extra episode though.

  4. I liked the first half much better than the second half as the focus was more on Fam’s harem and her small subplot instead of the great political machinations. These were also really fascinating, though. Only the last eps were a bit of a letdown for me as it has too many dei ex machina for my taste (the Silvius, the Grand Exile etc.).

    The eye candy and the level of inventiveness were indeed great. Usually I despise CGI in anime, but this show was an exception (the other one is the awesome ED of Suite Precure by the way): The scenes with Fam’s Vespa were gorgeous. The battleships usually looked good, as well, although the Exile tentacles made them look a bit like toys.

    My final list of favourite characters: Giselle > Millia > Dian > Dian’s female sidekick > Fam > Alvis > Augusta. Fam was a bit annoying but her enthusiasm and spirit was infectuous. That’s why everyone in the show liked her, I guess.

    By the way, thank you so much for covering this series – your post on ep. 04 pretty much opened my eyes for this show!

    1. The CGI was nice. It fit together well with the animation.

      I’d put my favorite characters in pretty much the same order, except I’d add Teddy in front of Dian’s sidekick and Fam’s grandfather in front of Fam. 🙂

      Glad you enjoyed the posts! Thanks as always for commenting!

  5. It Wasn’t nearly as bad as the way the show was described by some people who told me about it. I found the show very well played. Although, you have to be able to put 2 and 2 together to not get lost is the confusion. Alot of people complain about Fam. Fam didn’t annoy me as much as you’d think. Although the constant reference to the Grand Race, which don’t get me wrong, is fine for her character, but some were out of place, but i think that was an attempt to recreate the way many children are. Other than that, I agree, that the Villans motive wasn’t very clear, they don’t cover it very much. other than that, you will find this show very fun to watch. It was also nice to see the good old Silvana. Don’t know why, that ship always gave me a crazy vibe that the Reaper didn’t match.

    1. I agree, it wasn’t that bad. Fam only really started to annoy me in the second half, at first I was fine with her, but as the scale and scope of the show increased, Fam’s vision and actions didn’t increase proportionately and she became relegated to teenage whining.

      I would definitely not complain if a third season happened…

  6. Oh, before i forget. It’s possible we are getting a Season 3. With the Last Exile – Travelers from the Hourglass Manga currently going, that may become season 3.

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