Can beautiful but empty be worth the time and effort?
What They Say:
Connected Passed Pawn
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Suffice to say, this incarnation of Last Exile has been a chore outside of the first episode or two. Much of what had drawn me to the first series is here with the big scale, the lushness of it all and the character designs. The mechanical designs are once again spectacular and thrilling to watch as the massive air battles are detailed in loving care. But it’s been an empty show as I haven’t found much to like with Fam or Millia and the only one I have a sprinkling of interest in is Gisey if only because she’s so loyal and strong in her own quiet way. But that’s not enough to hold interest not with the overall storyline at hand that hasn’t felt like it’s come together well. With this series having some twenty-one episodes, I figure I’ll give it a couple more to see if it can shake things up enough to hold my attention longer, but no more than that.
Unfortunately, this episode is mostly fluff so it didn’t really do all that much to re-engage me in the series. With no big moments to be had for the bulk of it, it focuses on simple character interactions with the crew and with Fam and Gisey in particular as they go about their chores, talk about simple things and just do what needs to be done. Everyone knows their place and what to do since it’s a pretty ship shape operation, but it was nice to see some time spent just playing around as well as a bit of hockey playing goes on during a clean-up of the deck at one point. But when your highlight of an episode is something like this, and it lasts just a couple of minutes at best, that’s not exactly a sterling recommendation. Some of the flashback scenes here are cute, showing us a much younger Fam and Gisey, but it isn’t the kind of character building that really needs to be done with them. They’re such empty characters in the present that doing a few childhood clips doesn’t solve the inherent problem at all.
In Summary:
Last Exile: Fam The Silver Wing went from probably the most anticipated show of the season for me to the one that I practically dread because of how it operates. It gets about fifty percent of things right, but the fifty percent that it doesn’t is the part that should have the heart of the show, the characters and who they really are. Episodes like this try to change that a bit, but it’s almost a case of too little too late, but more so because it’s not adding to anything much as there’s been little to really make Fam all that engaging. And with this episode in particular, where it doesn’t have the fifty percent that works in any good amount, it feels even weaker than it has recently. Which I just keep finding more and more unfortunate considering how excited I was to revisit the world of Last Exile.
Grade: C
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
