Since when did a bittersweet ending make an anime great?

The post contains major spoilers for multiple anime; you have been warned.

Series Review: Last Exile: Fam of the Silver Wing (5/10)

Instant summary: Three little girls got horribly mixed up in events that would change the world.

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam goes from an interesting tribute to a snoozer and ends in a failure.

Throughout the early episodes of the series, I remember having favorable opinions for the show; it reminds me of the brilliance of the first season, the vast world, and even one of the first reasons I started liking anime, because Last Exile was one of the earliest shows I've watched. I hated Millia, but I liked Fam, and that Toyosaki Aki did a pretty good job on her. As long they keep this up and moving on to the real story, it would turn out really good.

It didn't have a good story. After the first, say, 1/3 of the story, one of the most prominent problems began to show up: the lead character Fam. There are many, many things said about her character, I think I can sum it up as having no depth, no variance in personality, and no character development. She wasn't unique in any way, and she doesn't have any kind of background except for being really good at piloting. She has a one-dimensional personality and only one approach to every single problem in the story. And she learned nothing and changed nothing throughout the entire story. As you would expect, things becomes really boring, fast.

Then... when it comes down to the important moments, the storytelling was pure shit. When did the primary enemy change from Sera to Luscinia? All that screentime on Orang just for his 10 seconds of fame? A single message from Sera to end all conflict, instantly? A single ship shows out of nowhere and starts shooting everything, and the battle ends right there? The pacing is also terrible. Episode 19 contain one of the most important battles in the story, yet they rushed through it so as to begin the next part.

And finally, the story, which also disappoints. The ending left me confused about Luscinia's real objective in the end. Was he trying a Lelouch here? If so, it was terribly executed, because both Liliana's and his actions were really unjustified. I found it so un-agreeable that I'm still hesitant to believe that was supposed to be the conclusion to the story. The final impression of the story almost always rests on the ending, and such an unsatisfying ending is pretty much the worst you can do.

Oh wait, just one more. Of the two most important, and most anticipated weapons our main characters can wield, one never showed up, and one blew up on a whim. What a good idea, right?

I could talk more about the things that this series did wrong, but I don't want to turn this more into a list more than it already does. The most enjoyable episode turns out to be a recap of the previous season. So, is this a complete waste of time? Well, the show does have several good points. The production values are excellent, being Gonzo's supposed flagship material after all. I never think that they quite captured the "steampunk" feel as compared to the previous season, but I supposed that's subjective. Since the animation quality often matters a lot more to me than other people, I must say that this isn't a complete waste of time; I did enjoy it a fair bit. If you would have me recommend this to people, I can only say that this is a huge disappointment; especially if you've watched the first season.

Plot/Concept: Bad
Story Style: Really, really bad
Audio/Visual: Excellent!
Value: 5

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam ep17 (ep15.5), First season recap

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam hasn't been very exciting lately. The charm that came with the famous title wore off long ago, and I find myself lacking the enthusiasm to follow up on the latest episodes. But just as I was anticipating another mildly depressing 23 mins, Cloud Age Symphony played as the OP of that episode. Immediately, my eyes lit up. For the unenlightened, Cloud Age Symphony is the signature opening theme for the original Last Exile. That's Claus in the screenshot above all right, yet the title reads Ginyoku no Fam. What the hell?

It turns out to be a recap of the first season. Of course, what did I expect? It should have been really obvious, but the part of me that longs for the glory of the original Last Exile made me wanted something more.

I usually find recap episodes, like the shitty Gundam ones, a waste of time and a lousy way to sell off an episode. But this was not the case. I found this recap episode way more interesting than every episode after the trio left the Sylvius. It reminds me, with a touch of nostalgia, of how awesome the original Last Exile was. Now that I look back, I think I never fully understood how good it was when I watched it many years ago, but this episode made me see all that so much better.

They reused the ED Over the Sky to end the episode too. It sure brings back memories... shit, I think I'm crying.

The recent events of Last Exile: Fam really pales in what the original has to offer. It so happens that the story is moving along rather quickly, but why is so much of it happening off screen? The betrayal against Luscinia, the joined forces from many countries, the fall of Glacies, liberation of the Turan people, and Millia regaining her position as head of the Turan people... all of these happened off screen! All of these event "happened" because someone talks about it! What the hell? It might have been a good idea to tell the story from the important characters' perspective, but all of these huge event that could have been used to create many exciting scenes was reduced to mere talk. All of a sudden, the storytelling went all the way to hell.

And focusing the screen time on the main three girls turned out to be a pretty bad idea. While I've always been fond of "genki" girls and Fam was one of the reasons I liked Last Exile: Fam in the early episodes, she's really getting on my nerves now. Being energetic and cheerful is one thing; but there's nothing I hate more than her senseless and inappropriate actions that led to huge awkward moments, and blind optimism that somehow manages to affect people around her. It not only makes her look dumb (which is kinda true, anyway), but it also paints her as a very shallow character (which is kinda true, if you think about it).

Finally, what we've all been waiting for; Claus and Lavie to enter the story. Hopefully, things would get a lot more interesting around here. I'm not too optimistic, but getting these two in the story is a good start.

Her eyes have gotten much bigger, no?

December and Fall '11 Roundup

This only make sense because I'm only able to catch up with these titles in the past couple of days. (Sorry)

AniBlogger Choice Anime Awards: My Top 12 Favourites of 2011

Unrelated pic... needs to be longer.

Getting my top 12 out is easy. It's true that the more anime you watch, the more picky you are when choosing the anime you rather watch then... you know, doing constructive stuff. I've only completed 30 series this year (including series I intend to complete, but have not finished airing), not counting the 19 series that I've dropped. After striking off the bad ones and voila! 15 series. I only need to remove 3. Here we go.

November Roundup

The Good

I'm about to go Takanashi on Mini-Ika.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

I guess it's a good thing that I pick back up this series. I hated how literally they translate the manga into the anime, unlike the more elaborate Working, but I guess I just got numb to it. Perhaps this is the best way to animate the extremely simple comedy of Ika Musume.

The ~de geso thing always irks me, but it's funny that Kanemoto Hisako's almost naturally saying it by now. Again, this might just be me getting used to that, but whatever; Ika-Musume is good, almost mindless fun, and that's that. And it's damn awesome that they brought back more mini Ika-chan. The one in episode 5 seems to be an anime original, and if that's true, kudos to them, and keep 'em coming.

Friend zoned. I feel you, Sato.

Working'!!

Opposite of Ika-Musume, it turns out that Working translates very well from manga to anime. I've talked about the problem with the comedic timing of the show, and in the recent episodes they seemed to have made it work by blending multiple jokes together. Their new love for extended pauses helps as well. I mentioned this before, but the repeated jokes are used to setup towards a different one, so don't fault them for that, although it's much less obvious in the manga. On the downside, Taneshima's over-the-top actions is still pretty irritating.

The next err... "storyline" might just be my favourite one so far, so look forward to the next episode.

Carnival Phantasm

I'm not sure if this one counts, but I really just want to put this pic here.
This parody OVA is fucking awesome.

The Above Average

I thought Vespas of that size are meant for little girls!

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam

To be honest, I'm quite disappointed in Fam's character. Unlike Gizelle and Millia, it feels like her character never really grew at all since the first episode. Her personality drives the story and vice versa, but her development is lacking. This is quite unlike the first LE where the characters are the primary focus, and a lot of that show had us emphasize with how the characters would react in the chaos of the world. This season feels more like the characters being dragged along with the events of the world, and they are simply adapting to it.

Maybe Gonzo really isn't up to par anymore. The recent episodes lulled and hints of Shangri-la, a terrible series they created years ago that tried too hard to mimic the first LE. The last few episodes pretty much only talks about the progress of their heist and the movements within the Ades government. The plot seems to move along and forgot about the character development.

However, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing is still my favourite series this season. Reasons being that the show never really lost the sense of adventure the first LE brought, and while the world in the story isn't quite as elaborate as I hoped it would be, it still gave you a good feel of how vast it is. And I don't have to remind you that the animation quality is superb.

It looks like things are going to get a lot more exciting from here onwards. The Ades war on refugees is escalating, and Giselle's insecurity/stress/doubt might take a toll on their teamwork. This should be fun to watch.

What do you know about making Okonomiyaki?

Tamayura ~Hitotose~ 

It's hard to "think" about an anime you're supposed to "feel", but I'll try. Tamayura seems to be a step back from Sato Junichi's Aria, because it's lack in the "other element". Slice-of-life series often needs to be paired with a secondary genre for it to work, and Tamayura being very pure slice-of-life... seems to have some problems. But I still enjoy it a lot as compared to the OVA, as the little ways that Potte grew as a character makes the show lovely. I admit that there are always snooze periods in every episode, but the series has succeeds in the overall feel that makes it a SoL genre. And I'm surprised that I really liked those shots that Potte or the other photographers in the story took; even though those moments didn't really take place in the anime at all.

And what do you know about poetry in motion? (this scene is fucking epic)

Ben-To

I've dropped this and picked it back up twice. While the series has been incredibly unique and well-presented for how absurd the storyline is, I can't seem to find myself caring about the show. It is entertaining and mildly amusing, but it doesn't make me want to catch the next episode. For all I know, they'll be fighting for another special lunch box with another special fighting style that's uniquely trained in some way. It's like a sports anime for me, a genre which I don't watch.

The problem is, though, I simply have too much free time now and there really isn't enough (good) shows for me. So Ben-To would help me kill time... and make me extremely hungry.

The Below Average

I forgot what he said here, but it's likely along the lines of MUHAHAHAHAHA

Shakugan no Shana III (Final)

Shana 3, much like Horizon, seems to be filled with jargon I couldn't grasp or care about. I know that it might not be a problem if you followed up after the second season (or the novel), but I didn't like it enough to rewatch that (I never rewatch anime series anyway). The story so far has been incredibly slow. They've spent the last 4 or 5 episodes merely setting up the stage for the epic battle that we got a glimpse of in the first few minutes of episode 1, but how long do you plan to entertain me with people simply moving around the world and preparing for the war? Most of them are new characters we barely knew about too. On the bright side, we're spared the Shana tsundere crap and Yoshida stopped looking like she got dumped every two hours.

I can't believe he wore the fucking bikini.

Boku ha Tomodachi wa Sukunai

It pisses me off to see Kodaka not helping Yukimura get a clue about Yozora's bullshit.
It pisses me off to see Rika and her sick fetishes.
It pisses me off to see Yozora.

It wasn't as bad as before, but the animation quality has taken quite a dip since the first episode.

At least there's still Sena. She's supposed to be bitch #2, but I can't help but like her.

The Bad

Couldn't be more obvious what kind of character they're trying to paint Inori as.

Guilty Crown

I'm still waiting (or hoping) for the good part to start. Maybe I'm in denial, but a part of me refuses to believe that Hiroyuki Yoshino (of Code Geass, Mai-HiME, Gundam SEED and Macross Frontier) could pen something like this. I'll like to think that they wrote this with an epic plot twist or ending in mind, and they're just doing whatever they want before they got there. "Epic" as in Madoka-level epic, enough for them to not care about what's really going on in the final product.

I get the feeling I'll be disappointed in the end anyway. They've reached new heights on not giving a shit about what the audience thinks. I haven't seen anything so bad since Tayutama. And the characters are way too bland and inconsistent to make a plot twist work, much less an ending.

I wish I picked another show to blog. Damn you Guilty Crown, for making me feel guilty if I dropped this.

Others

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (On-Hold at episode 4)
Mawaru Penguindrum (On-Hold at episode 8)
Mashiro-Iro Symphony (Dropped at episode 3)

Anime-Source.com First Impressions (and my early october roundup)

 

The first impressions I've co-written at Anime-Source.com is out! Thanks to fellow writers Himitsu, Chikage_Shampoo, eisenmeteor and AJtheFourth from Altair & Vega. Disclaimer: Most of my contributions are rehashed opinions I've written on this blog, and probably aren't too useful for well-informed readers of the blogosphere. Still, go check it out.

Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing Ep1: Gonzo is back!

Even though I'll never ask for this to be as good as the original, I didn't set the bar any lower because it's Gonzo. And by Haruhi, I think they've done it. I wasn't exactly "impressed", but I was pleasantly surprised by what they had achieved after they got their act together. Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam had instantly jumped to the top of my list for this season.