Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 17

It has been a while. Since I watched an episode that left me with such conflicted feelings.

This episode. There was no Fam in it whatsoever. Seriously, she had no scenes at all. But, Gonzo. Are you serious with this? Did you seriously just air a recap episode of the first season?

I mean just… what the hell. This episode even had the OP of the first season. Alvis basically narrated what happened to her in that season. Most of the episode was taken up by this. It was annoying, and I skipped through most of it. And then the new material came and suddenly explained what happened at the end of the First Last Exile, and it FINALLY showed the grown up versions of Claus and Lavie. My inner Last Exile fanboy rejoiced here and started jumping up and down with excitement, much more than I thought it would at the eventual revelation of this. On top of that, it all just looked so completely gorgeous and imaginative. As strange as it was, this episode definitely highlighted all of the character development that went on.

Okay, Gonzo. I’m game. I won’t judge this episode badly until the entire series is over. Last week I said that the final third of this series will be its worst. This episode instead did something I completely did not expect. If you’ve got a plan to just go completely against conventions, then I’d love to see it. If this recap was necessary for that, then I won’t mind. Right now though, it’s too early to tell.
Rating: #!&% (???)

31 thoughts on “Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 17

  1. Haven’t seen the episode yet but I figured it was supposed to show people who haven’t seen the original (since it aired what, 8 years ago in Japan?) what they needed to know/a good way to (re)introduce Claus and Lavie. Bit odd but I think it was probably the best way to bring in some of the original cast without making it too confusing for the first time viewers.

  2. OHMYGODDDD!
    I haven’t watch the previous episode yet but WHATTT? Nevermind the recap (which may be a good thing for people who just watched Last exile Fam), but LAVI AND CLAuS?!?! It will make my day!!

    1. It’s weird to see the season 1 OP, but I felt so nostalgic! The recap was really rushed, at least they chose the best scenes and didn’t cut one of my favorite scene (Luciora’s final scene)! I like the little Claus and Lavi scene we had but I don’t think we’ll ever see them again… After this episode, it makes me realize how much better Last Exile is compared to Last Exile Fam.

  3. I hope I won’t be too confused since I didn’t watched the first series :s It will be hard for me to be as excited about it as much as you.

  4. I don’t FUCKING CARE. I prefer an recap and Claus and Lavie than more Fam.

    My rating: A+, 100/10, 100%. Thank you, Gonzo.

  5. Hope is rekindled.(?)

    This recap was useful. The original Last Exile is a bit fuzzy for me now after all these years. And I missed too many of the new Last Exile – so much so that I completely missed the real Alvis. The new intro confused me with a crying little girl that really resembles Alvis growing up into Liliana – and with Alvis’s powers over Exile too. Now how does that work? Plus, it looks like Liliana’s Exile is different from Alvis’. Do Liliana and Alvis (and maybe others like them) have their own Exile? Is each one of those half-moons up there some other civilization’s Exile? Is that the nature of that facility Luc just recovered? Maybe a central Exile control system or something? I wonder if Luc won’t need Lil anymore, now that he has his own superweapon.

    I wonder where Sophia is?

    1. That was a beautiful recap and it was awesome seeing Claus and Lavie again and making their first appearance in the new show in the new animation at the end where they looked great and Lavie looks even nicer than ever. 🙂

      @meow: Yup Liliana and Al have different Exiles and each moon up there is likely an Exile just like Turan’s, the first couple of episodes confirmed the existence of multiple Exiles that have returned to Earth over the years.

      Ours from S1 was the most recent, Anatoray-Disith’s nation has only existed for about 2 years on Earth as this is around the time the Silvius was first documented.

      Each Prester seemingly had a Guild family’s DNA keyed to their Exile and Dio explained a number of episodes back that the key passes to the eldest female relative (so if Liliana died it would pass to Millia for example).

      Sophia’s probably in Earth’s new Anatoray and still Queen since Dio said she and the King of Turan had come to an agreement during the operation to rescue Liliana and Millia. I think we’ll see her soon with things moving into Anatoray next.

  6. Ah yeah!! … I don’t care whether I have no clue of what’s going on in FAM (I dropped it after ep 5), but I AM GONNA WATCH THIS EP, just for Claus and Lavie!!

  7. Oh my god!!
    I just saw the final scene. Lavie was pushing a wheelchair, wasn’t she?
    Does that mean Claus lost his legs or something? T_T

  8. Exactly felt the same way you did, Psgels.

    My inner fanboy somewhat rejoiced, but I was really disgusted by the fact that they just tried to sell the first season, relying on its glory, and not focusing on Fam.

    Gonzo has gone low

      1. He probably means that Gonzo can’t produce new, better characters and have to rely on characters from the old LE instead.

        1. Not necessarily just the characters.

          Those creators had to rely on the first Last Exile’s glory, even showing us the recap and Claus & Lavie. To me… That move, while somewhat effective(?), is very cheap. It’s kinda something I didn’t think Gonzo would do.

          Maybe I just give Gonzo too much credit

    1. If you had seen the first season when you were supposed to – that is, when it aired or when the DVDs released, then the memory of that first season should have been fuzzy. Unless it’s your favorite series or something, of course.

      I saw it a lot later than that but even so I can barely remember anything from it, nevermind to compare it to the sequel. This recap was useful.

      1. But it’s up to YOU to go back and refresh your memory, not the studio. You don’t have an entire chapter of a book dedicated to summarizing the last book in the series — you just a few lines here and there in case you’ve forgotten a character, etc.

        This was lazy, and a cheap grab at pulling in the old (and pretty disappointed) fans.

        1. How about going one step further and just be disappointed at Gonzo at not making a totally original story instead of “rehashing” an old success story? Or a sequel in a totally different age from the original so there’s no reasonable chance that old favorite characters like Dio would reappear?

          I get that people are frustrated with Fam but I don’t see Lavi and Claus as characters called back in to save the show. Dio and Tatiana are practically fixtures in the OP. This is the setting of this series. It’s actually weird that it took this long for Claus and Lavie to even show up somewhere. The producers were probably worried Claus and Lavie would steal the protagonist limelight from Fam. And I for one haven’t given up on Fam altogether. She has been making a difference, considering her personality and very minor role in the grand scheme. I consider her something of a miracle peacemaker, with an honest and disarming innocence that builds trust and bonds between a variety of people, even isolationists like the Gracies. It takes quite a bit of idiocy to be immune to cynicism, especially the kind that sets in if you have your whole world blown up in your face. On the other hand, you can kind of trust the idiot not to go off the edge like Luc. It seems a small and dismissible thing, set against the backdrop of all the bloodshed and tragedy but it may be the key to this story somehow pulling off a successful, epic happy ending that saves as many people as possible. And don’t forget her vanship skills, which might just put Claus to shame. It may come down to the fate of the world hanging on the result of a vanship race between Fam and Luc. Just my two cents.

  9. I haven’t watched this yet, but I knew when I saw the words “Second Adjournment” in the ED last week that this would not only be a recap, but a recap involving the first Last Exile. I’m looking forward to the fanboy moment of seeing Claus and Lavie again, but like the first recap, I can’t shake the feeling Gonzo either couldn’t afford or couldn’t be bothered to make a full 26-episode series, even though they had enough material for more than 13.

    1. I seem to remember some years ago that they were having some serious problems. They were in serious debt and I think there was an exodus of staff too. It’s why the 2nd season of Strike Witches got produced by another studio. Well, for me it’s a relief that they’re still alive and able to produce a quality series like Fam. I’ve enjoyed their works since Blue Sub No. 6.

      1. Yup, this is their first full production after reorganizing from that (fortunately they still have the director and main animator from the original series too to work on this, and obviously the music composer returned too). I agree I’ve also been greatly enjoying their shows since Blue Sub and am really glad they’re still around and making this come back and able to do another awesome show like Fam, which I’ve been really enjoying. And this series looks utterly incredible visually, it’s hard to imagine it’s coming from a studio that’s just starting to come back.

        Hmmm, I don’t really agree with any negative sentiment about this particular recap (unlike the first one which wasn’t overly necessary but still decently executed), I really enjoyed this one and thought it was executed perfectly, and to me the reason for the first season recap is obvious, it’s been 8+ years even for us old viewers and we are going into Anatoray next and new viewers could use at least a brief look at who these people really are outside of Dio and Tatiana whom they’ve seen in action, especially if Claus and Lavie are going to join the cast again in an ep or so, they now know who they were, plus a brief look at Anatoray’s history and the real Guild, also the recap also gave them the entire past of Dio who’s been a very prominent character in the new show to new viewers so I’m sure they appreciate getting to know of his past (and since most of it is covered in S1 there’s no real other way to tell it unless we just wanted him to tell it verbally to new viewers). I think the episode along with the two excellently executed Dio and Al parts at the two ends also gave new viewers further reason to be emotionally attached to Al by experiencing her hardships and seeing her as a child, who will no doubt play a bigger role if Anatoray’s Exile is needed. Since it’s been so long I can understand the need for it as partially a refresher but more a way to get new viewers at least somewhat up to speed. Now that new viewers have an idea about these people I think they’ll be able to do them better justice for us old viewers in the remaining eps since they won’t have to start introducing them from scratch.

  10. I definitely think you’ll be fanboying throughout like I was. 🙂

    “I can’t shake the feeling Gonzo either couldn’t afford or couldn’t be bothered to make a full 26-episode series, even though they had enough material for more than 13.”

    As a Gonzo fan I’ll take it the more positive way, I seriously doubt it was that they couldn’t be bothered, given how good the show looks I guess it’s possible that they couldn’t quite afford to animate a full 26 episodes yet but who knows, if so I’m glad they at least found a highly creative way around that by rather than a Fam recap from another POV they still use this ep to create an even bigger story for new viewers and the story has always been about the returnees so getting new viewers to see how huge and challenging Anatoray’s return to Earth was I think expands the entire setting beyond Earth for new viewers just like us old-timers already are quite familiar with by giving them a taste of what came before as part of the new story while simultaneously further introducing Anatoray’s characters to new viewers before they presumably play an even bigger role.

    It may not be ideal but I think it’s a worthy compromise to allow our Anatoray characters a bigger role than cameos while not having to spend too much time reintroducing them which old viewers would have likely been bored by (kind of like the issue FMA: Brotherhood had with some viewers, having to fast-forward retell the whole first half to get to the new stuff, and that show has 60+ eps) while still not keeping new viewers out of the loop as much as possible and not just using the old show as a crutch since the original is now 8 years old.

    1. fix: given how great the show looks IMO I guess it’s possible that they couldn’t quite afford to animate a full 26 episodes yet at this excellent quality and with this incredible-looking CG work but who knows

      I’m very glad they indeed had enough material for way more than 13 though, I would have been disappointed with a half-length 12/13 ep show and the pacing has been excellent.

  11. I ended up skipping most of the episode, I didn’t want to get spoiled on the old series (I still haven’t watched it) but from what I saw it looked amazing!

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