Overlooked Steampunk Fantasy Anime Helped Make Animation History

I remember catching Last Exile when it aired on TechTV (later G4), and I can still hear the high-pitched shout of “Last Exile” every time the show returned from a commercial break. The cheery noise echos the vibe of the series, which follows a young pilot, Claus Valca, and his navigator, Lavie Head, as they accept a simple courier job that soon puts them in the middle of a war between powerful nations. It turns out that delivering Alvis, a young girl, to Silvana, a floating battleship, kickstarted a race to find the legendary lost ship, Exile.

Part Macguffin hunt, part space opera, Last Exile puts the steampunk aesthetic of its vibrant retro-future world front and center thanks to the massive airships. Gonzo, the animation studio behind the anime, has become famous for its stylized designs in such anime as Afro Samurai and Helsing, pushing the boundaries of early-Aughts animation by combining traditional anime 2D art with CGI.

You can see the work done by CGI in the very first shot of the airships floating high in the sky in Last Exile, but as expected from the studio, it’s done with such a sense of style and design that instead of looking outdated, it looks like they could be from any anime this decade.

Going back to watch Last Exile recently, as I had a yearning for some steampunk content, I was struck by how timeless the series has become, despite how easy it would have been for either the artwork or the characterizations to sour over time.

Claus, Lavie, and Alvis may have moments where they are annoying, but the three kid characters grow and change as the series goes on, and the tone gets darker as war envelops the world.

I wouldn’t say any of the characters are among the best ever, not even Silvana’s officers, but I’ve seen enough anime to be happy over the fact that no one is actively annoying.

That’s both the best part and the worst part of Last Exile, which tells a by-the-numbers story with the type of heroes and villains you’d expect from a steampunk epic. There are no surprises here, which is disappointing, but again, it’s nice to know what to expect, and if the first two episodes don’t hook you, rest assured that none of the rest will either. At only 21 episodes, it’s also an easy binge over a weekend.

REVIEW SCORE

If you plan on watching Last Exile, be aware that the story continues in the sequel series, Last Exile – Fam, Silver Wing, but do yourself a favor and don’t bother, as the original series tells a complete story from beginning to end. The sequel goes too far into explaining the secret behind Exile and what comes next, which robs the original of a little mystery.

Last Exile is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, and though it’s the poster child for “slightly above average anime,” when it comes to steampunk, nothing comes close to the gorgeous world of Prester.