Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam – 01-02

Dio: “Look, no hands! XD”

Well the final anime for the fall season has arrived! I was really excited to see another Last Exile series coming out, I did love the original series even thou I originally remember watching it dubbed. Thankfully this is technically a brand new story with a few minor characters returning from the past season. Well it’s time to join my good buddy Ness for a great first impression of Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam, I hope you enjoy it!

Finally finally finally! YESSSSSS~! I am finally caught up on the shows that I’m reviewing. You have no idea how relieved I am because of this. But yeah! Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam finally came and I’ve been looking forward to this since I thought it was going to come out in the summer season. But yeah, let’s just get this rolling…

EPISODE 01

Our main character, Fam, sleepwalks herself off of a flying ship but is saved by the bungee rope tied to her leg that alerts the other sleeping workers. After a pleasant opening song performed by Sakamoto Maaya, it’s still night and a mission seems to be underway.

Fam and Gisey on their vanship are tracking down a ship. Meanwhile we get a glimpse of a happy Dio from the first Last Exile series who’s singing and slacking off on his job. But back to the girls, they catch up to their target ship and begin their attack at the engine and engages in contact. With some insulting remarks to the ship’s captain, the ship fires on the vanship and chases after. The vanship jumps out of the cloud stream above the clouds like a dolphin and the ship follows only to be trapped by harpoons. The girls are successful in capturing the ship.

All the while, Dio is still staring at the skies and talking about something returning as an object in the sky appears and descends. Elsewhere, we see a nekkid girl saying a prayer to the Great Lake. We find out that this girl is Princess Lily and behind is her sister Princess Millia. These two are the rulers of Turan Kingdom in place of their sick father and they’re in the middle of negotiations with the Ades Federation.

Fam and Gisey arrive back at home with some greetings from Gisey’s siblings. Nearby is Dio who gets lectured by Fam for ditching work. Dio mentions that they will have a busy day even though Fam doesn’t have anymore work. While having lunch, Fam reads the newspaper about the Turan Kingdom having a signing ceremony at the Grand Lake with the Ades Federation. The two are interrupted with news that a fleet is headed to the Grand Lake and the girls head out.

Meanwhile, the princesses are on their flagship waiting at the Grand Lake for the Ades Federation and Princess Lily has a flashback of herself as a child being helped by by a boy. Princess Lily is snapped out of her daydream by Millia alerting her of the incoming mass fleet. We are then introduced to the commander of the Ades Federation fleet and battle is underway.

Fam and Gisey arrives at the Grand Lake and catches up with the Turan’s flagship, the Lasas which the Princesses are aboard. Fam excitedly decides that she wants the flagship and begins contact with them that they will take the flagship and rescue them from the battle. Yes, Fam and Gisey are actually sky pirates. Princess Lily agrees to it and the sky pirates begin their operation to stop the Ades Federation ships by smoke screening them and sending false signals that results in friendly fires.

Luscinia: “ALL HAIL BRITANIA ADES”

Look at those stalkers out the window…

During the confusion, Dio appears in the Lasas flagship and takes control of the wheel, driving the ship above the clouds and makes it look like the ship explodes. All the while, the Ades Federation escapes the smoke and witnesses the event and believes that they’re victorious and relays the news to their leader.

Freeeeeeeeeeee Willy~!!!

Back at the Lasas, Princess Lily thanks Dio for their help who relays it to be all thanks to Fam who is actually hanging out on the side of the ship. Princess Lily begins her plan to go after Premier Luscinia Hafez of the Ades Federation.

Fam: “Look look! A real princess!! Can I get your autograph?!”             Dio: “Hah! I got here first”

EPISODE 02

Fam and Gisey are escorting Princess Millia on their vanship to Turan Kingdom. The beautiful scenery is spoiled by Millia’s worries for her sister as she is given the task to deliver a message to their father. Meanwhile, Princess Lily is making negotiations with the sky pirates leader (Gisey’s father) for their help and has a strategy meeting.

The girls arrive at Turan Kingdom and Millia is met by a maid who takes them to the King. Millia gives Lily’s message to her father and figures that it was a message to have Millia sent away to safety while Lily goes to battle. The king gives Fam his ring in payment for escorting Millia taken to their villa. After some tear-jerking words, we later see Fam pondering about the father and wishes that they all could just run away. But such wishful thinking is interrupted by Millia ready for departure.

Meanwhile, the Ades Federation are meeting up with the Lasas’ group and begin battle using the plan that the Ades Federation thinks that the Lasas has crashed and are going to sneak attack them from above. As the Lasas is heading down towards the Impetuous (which Luscinia is on), a ship piloted by Luscinia’s shady follower, Alauda, lands on the Lasas and the flagship just passes by. Dio flies by to check but only to find the crew dead and the Princess being kidnapped by Alauda.

Dio: “My agent says that I have to be carefree cheery in this series… so don’t make me mad!”

Back to the girls, they’re leaving the Turan Kingdom but sees Dio pass by. Dio relays the news and Millia pleads for Fam to help save her sister. Fam agrees and they catch up to the Impetuous. The plan is to enter the ship via the rotary propellers with Dio’s help to distract the ship. We get some awesome piloting through tight spots and cool navigation skills from Gisey. They stop to for Gisey to study the ship’s map so they can find their way and I believe Gisey has photographic memory on seeing the maps.

The vanship makes it to the central control room and lands in front of Luscinia. As Fam is about to talk, Millia gets in with a gun but Luscinia begins to talk about Exile, the immigrant ship that long ago people fled on to get away from the star (the people in this world) and to return later to reclaim the land. Princess Lily appears from behind, held by Alauda and surrenders but Luscinia doesn’t care for surrender because he wants to destroy Turan.

Millia fires the gun and Luscinia says some words which causes a reaction in Lily. The bullet is destroyed and Lily starts to emit a strong light that eventually causes a beam towards Exile and causes it to descend to Earth towards the Turan Kingdom. Dio warns the soldiers not to attack Exile but it’s too late and in response Exile destroys the kingdom along with its king.

In the aftermath, it’s raining and Fam wakes up with Gisey one their vanship crashed on the lake. They see Princess Millia grieving in the water seeing in the distance the red of what probably is the Turan Kingdom on fire.

End Thoughts:

I have to say compared to Guilty crown Last Exile might have the next best animation budget! Even all of those CGI ships look so amazing on screen; even the character designs looked great! Not to mention Funimation already grabbing this series for streaming? Very nice! Hopefully they get a chance to dub it once the series ends. Speaking of animation! That opening video was really great even gave us some action and dramatic CATCH ME BEFORE I FALL event ahahah great! Song was good too for the OP! I wonder if Krizzlybear is watching this series he collects anime cloud shots, this seems perfect for his tumbler.

I remember seeing this actor list for this series! Maaaann there are so many great voice actors! Like the main voice for Fam? I just remember watching the whole thing thinking Yui from Kon is a pilot! She definitely fits the role quite well; she will probably be one of my most favorite characters based off her crazy and hyper personality. NeXt favorite would probably be Dio! I really hated him so much during the first half of season one, but watching him this time sort of changed my mind about him. I guess watching him act a bit weird while piloting made me laugh! And of course we have the royal family cast complete with a tsundere princess type.

Action scenes were amazing, that’s one thing I always loved about this series and how intense things can get really fast. Well who could really hate sky pirates?! They are so fun to watch, I always like watching the interaction between the captains and crew members. I liked that evil guy with the eye patch because you know you always need a guy with an eye patch to scream BAD GUY! Muhahaha!! What else?! I guess the music through the entire episode WOW this anime season is going to have some of the best soundtracks ever. And of course that Code Geass style of music is always pure win to me, overall this was a great first episode and it has me wanting more.

So, I now wish that I re-watched the first series of the Last Exile to brush up on what Exile was and the meaning to it because in knowing that, I’ll probably get an idea of some things in this new series. Though, I see that this is a whole new story but it still takes place in the same world of the first series. I’m glad to see Dio back but his character has changed from what I remember. I believe that Dio was a sort of emotionally disturbed and unstable boy abused from the ‘love’ of his sister that twisted who he became. But with the help of the main characters from the series, Dio became a good person. But seeing this really carefree Dio seems so strange but maybe it makes a little sense considering his changed life. As well, in the end of the series, Dio was sucked into the Grand Stream and never seen again but there was hints that he might have survived in the end with the appearance of a person wearing a Guild uniform. I find that if they’re gonna have Dio in this, I want to actually see other characters from the first series appear because I wonder what happened to them. Especially considering that it feels like the time frame of the first series to this new one doesn’t seem too big and seeing Alvis in the opening theme was pretty cool.

I find this new series to be enjoyable so far. So I guess that this series has two different nations at war. Man whenever I see Princess Lily, I think of Zelda and it’s all thanks to Jesus159159159’s review. But that aside, the actual plot was typical with the two nations at war but lets add in the whole thing about Exile into this to make it cool. Then again, this is Last Exile and I’m sure we’ll learn more about that crescent shaped alien themed spaceship that destroyed a kingdom with its tentacles.

As well, how about that Luscinia? He kinda looks cool with the eye patch and has that whole leader vibe going on. But man, I hope that Princess Lily doesn’t have some kind of hidden love for the guy because he helped her when she was a kid. Also, the big bad guy just so happens to have his bodyguard in the shadows, Alauda. Man they do come in handy in series just like how Dino had Lucciola. I bet Alauda is probably gonna have one of those sacrificing deaths for his… master.

Oh yes, we can’t forget to talk about Fam Fan Fan. Nothing is said yet about her family but she seems to have a longing for one. I hope we find out more about her instead of being plunged into the plot on the war. I find it cool that this series focuses on a female empowered theme of main characters. Fam’s pretty interesting so far with her happy go lucky attitude and she’s a girl who seems to get what she wants. Though, this whole thing about her sleepwalking so much within a month is questioning. As for Gisey, she seems to be the kind smart type and her navi skills are awesome. The flight through the Impetuous to get to the center was actually pretty cool but man I couldn’t get any good quality shots of that.

The actual animation for this is pretty nice. The scenery is way cool but that’s what I expected from a new series to Last Exile. I actually don’t mind the CGI in this but there’s some parts where the CGI isn’t really needed… CGI Dino WTF. As for the character designs, it’s pretty similar to the first series but when you see the actual art designs for the Last Exile series, it’s pretty cool. Range Murata’s artwork of Last Exile is beautifully portrayed.

So yeah, you can probably tell that I’ll be covering this series. So see ya next week~

Preview: What preview? But here, you can see the opening theme. Woo Sakamoto Maaya XD

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.