| We want information! |
[May. 16th, 2011|09:51 pm] |
Last Exile was original anime: it was not based on an existing manga or novel to give it a ready-made audience. It ran only half a year, a short time to build a following, and it ran late at night, not a prime time slot. All of which meant that it could not command a high price for advertising sponsorship.
The studio meant to make its money by marketing to their niche audience. One doesn’t have the whole story until one has every item they marketed. The individual DVDs each came with a booklet of background information not available anywhere else. If one collected the whole set, one could send away for an additional booklet. When the boxed set of DVDs came out, it included a large book of yet more background information, as well as a novel with further insights and explanations of the characters’ thoughts and actions. That was in addition to a two-volume novel sold separately. There was also an artbook that contained background information and interviews with the staff. Even the character designer published booklets with his own notes on the characters. All of these probably overlapped considerably, but each of them also had unique information; there is no one complete reference. Very little is available online. The Japanese fans, who had to pay the equivalent of well over $1000 to collect everything, are not about to share it all for free.
Sometimes they will cite information to prove a point or settle a dispute, however, and I keep alert for those. Because I’m a Guild fan (I won’t pretend to be neutral), I pay more attention to that information. I will try to distinguish such secondhand information from my personal speculations, but if I’m ever unclear, just point it out and I’ll try to clarify.
For example, I’ve read that the highly stylized chivalric combat we see early in the series, with its recommended percentage of casualties, is the Guild’s method of population control, which is necessary given the colony’s limited resources. I’ve also read that the house of Eraclea was traditionally in charge of medicine. But it’s merely my personal speculation that medicine may have included population control, and that’s the reason they’re known as the “bloody Eracleas”. I could be wrong. |
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| Discussion post! |
[Apr. 6th, 2011|12:10 am] |
Let's get things started by stirring up some controversy! Here's a repost of my initial impressions of the series:
My budget edition of Last Exile arrived, and I just played through the whole series in a weekend marathon. I'm surprised at how engaging I found it; even if I like a show, it usually doesn't hold up to more than four episodes per sitting. But I kept watching Last Exile for hours, even though I wound up not liking the protagonists very much.
(Warning: the following review greatly exaggerates the negatives. If I really disliked the show this much, I wouldn't bother writing about it. Precisely because I mostly enjoyed it, I can't resist pointing out how it could have been even better.)
The main character is a bland sort of clod. He's not particularly annoying to start with, and I assumed that the story would show his personal growth into someone more admirable, but he stays a bland sort of clod. Yet the other characters are all inexplicably attracted to him, and the last few episodes consist of everyone else being useless and just calling his name adoringly. For some reason this makes him more annoying to me, even though he hasn't changed.
And the person he admires -- a tall, dark, and taciturn maverick airship captain modeled on Harlock -- is worse. We're told early on that he lost the woman he loved ten years ago, and has been on a campaign of revenge against the evil queen ever since. But it turns out that the evil queen had nothing to do with it. She didn't shoot them down, she didn't sabotage the engine (although she could have). He was simply trying to fly in conditions that were too difficult for him, and she witnessed his failure. He's not a righteous avenger at all; he has a misplaced grudge that he is childishly taking out on an innocent bystander. (Let me clarify that she is evil in many other ways, but this is the one case in which she's actually innocent.)
The clod and the captain are presented as if they are heroic characters, but I find them annoying and immature. There's a white-haired bishounen supporting character who's also annoying and immature, but he's presented that way, so at least he's honest about it, which is kind of endearing in a way. Actually he has a misleading scene early on: we see him on a high throne playing chess, and it looks as though he will be the cool beauty, calculating adversary type of character. But he turns out to be playful and bouncy and likes to hug people. So what was that chess scene all about?! Did someone give him tranquilizers to get him to sit still that long?!
Finally, the resolution of the story is far too facile. The characters have been seeking a means of escaping their war-torn homelands and reaching a world without conflict. No world will be without conflict if they are on it! They take conflict with them!
Maybe I wasn't listening closely enough, but I don't think we're ever told why the colony ship is called "Exile". I take it literally. My personal speculation: I think these people are the descendants of a prison colony for the useless and violent.
The budget edition I have contains no extras at all, but I understand that the deluxe Japanese boxed edition included a big book of background information, which I'm now very curious about (日本語が読めるよ!). I wonder if I can find it anywhere.
Does anyone care to defend Claus or Alex's honor? Am I the only Delphine fan in the west? Seriously, who wouldn't want to lick Dio? What were your first impressions of the series? Let's hear it! |
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nerdy
curious