ラストエグザイル-銀翼のファム-/Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam Episode 15.5
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing – 15.5

Dio and Alvis take a break in the rubble while fleeing the Guild, where Alvis laments the fact that the Glacies’ Exile is no more, and that once again, she’s being pursued in an attempt to make the Exile craft do what they weren’t designed for — fight.  Dio recalls how recent wars have all been centered around Exile. The two recall their time on the colony “world” Prester, including Dio’s involvement with the Guild, the Guild’s pursuit of Alvis, her subsequent travels with Claus and Lavie, Dio’s attempt to leave the Guild and subsequent re-education at the hands of his older sister, and ultimately, the defeat of the Guild, followed by Alvis reactivating Exile so that the people on Prester can return to Earth. Dio senses danger, and takes Alvis and flees to keep his promise with Claus.

Well, I didn’t expect a flashback/recap episode for Last Exile, but it was awesome hearing the Last Exile OP and ED theme music, as well as seeing the OP sequence. ^_^

One thing this episode revealed to me is how much I’d forgotten about the Last Exile story. Well, it has been a very long time since I watched my DVD’s, so I suppose it is not surprising.

That said, one of the things I’d forgotten was how Claus, Lavie, and Alvis had befriended Dio in that series.  I remembered Dio being interested in Claus as a fellow flier, but I hadn’t remembered him palling around with them. It does explain how Alvis is OK with Dio though.

The recap scenes from Last Exile did point out a couple of flaws though. First is Dio’s apparent death in Last Exile.  That was something I remembered pretty clearly, but as the Japanese are wont to do, additional canonical information was put out in a Last Exile art book, explaining that Dio in fact survived. I’m still not sure how this was done.

The other flaw is the destruction of Vincent’s ship, Urbanus. In Last Exile, Urbanus is destroyed by Exile, but then is back in perfect working order for Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing. Again, not sure how this squares, other than the writers went, “Let’s pretend these things didn’t happen.” ^_^;

I recall back when Last Exile came out, that the CGI and everything were just so amazing.  For 2003, things certainly were.  However, nine years later, advances in animation reveal how much more impressive things are today via this flashback episode. Plus, I think the character designs are better now than they were back then.

One other thing I noticed is that having read a few chapters of the canon manga that bridges Last Exile with Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing, this episode included very brief scenes of the house Claus, Lavie, and Alvis went to live at on Earth, as well as a cameo of Claus and Lavie today.  Not sure why they aren’t more involved in trying to protect Alvis (other than they’d possibly steal the spotlight from Fam and company), but I suppose they’ll play a larger role soon enough.

In the end, unlike the previous recap episode, where it was clearly created to buy time for the production team to continue their work, this episode, while accomplishing the same thing, is much better, mainly for the refresher it gives on the previous series. So, its a win as far as I’m concerned.