ラストエグザイル-銀翼のファム-/Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam Episode 21 (Final Episode)
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing – 21

The Allied fleets advance within Grand Exile as General Sadri orders his own forces to stop them. Millia gets the Silvius free and distracts Grand Exile‘s tentacle defenses.  Fam and Gisey land and speak with Luscinia, who tells them he won’t stop until all of the world is united by force under Maestro Sārā, despite that not being Sārā’s wish.   Luscinia tells them of why Grand Exile was created, which Gisey notes was an abandoned project.  Because Empress Farahnāz failed at world peace with the Grand Race, Luscinia rejects Fam’s dream. She knows it won’t solve the world’s problems, but Fam is determined to make her dream happen.  Hearing Fam’s words, he gives them the sleeping Sārā as the Allied forces draw closer.

Fam realizes Luscinia is going down with Grand Exile and wants him to take responsibility, not kill himself. Gisey forces Fam to leave so they can get Sārā to safety.  Sadri orders all Ades forces to surrender to the Allied forces, which was part of Luscinia’s plan, and orders the damaged Admirari abandoned, giving his locket to Guzel to be delivered to Fam, his granddaughter. With Grand Exile disintegrating, Millia is forced to order Silvius to safety, along with the other Allied and Ades ships. She is much relieved when she learns Fam and Gisey are safe with Sārā after Grand Exile crashes to Earth. On Fam’s Vespa, Sārā wakes up and wants Vasant and Luscinia, but Fam’s tears tell her the truth.

The war over, Ades is forced to disband much of its military while Empress Sārā participates in a ceremony at Grand Lake with Empress Sophia, Atamora, Millia, and other representatives from various nations. With the peace at hand, Sārā and Millia make Fam’s dream come true with the 2nd Grand Race, which Fam makes sure that Dian participates in. Claus, Lavie, and Alvis come as spectators, since Claus is in a wheelchair.  After they chat with Dio, he enters the race and comes in first, though he is disqualified due to his Vanship. As such, Tatiana and Alister come in first, Dian and Magnolia come in second, while Fam and Gisey come in third.

For some reason, I’d thought there’d be one more episode to end this with twenty-four total episodes, including the two recap episodes.  I guess I was wrong.

So, all this time, Luscinia knew that using Grand Exile was a final, desperate act. Sorry, but it just doesn’t feel right to me.  After showing how cunning he’s been all along, and with there still being several Exile craft he could commandeer, as he did with Turan’s Exile, it feels more like giving up while turning to a scorched earth policy.

As to the Grand Exile, I can appreciate that it was initially designed by the folks left behind when all of the Exile craft left Earth. I’ve no problem with what it was designed for, ferrying the rest of humanity to safety, but I call BS on it having engines that can act as a cannon and destroy an entire country. That’s just one of those, “You’ve got to be joking” things. *_*

I liked how Millia grew into her role as not only the leader of Turan, but as a military commander. No doubt, it was a difficult decision to order Fam and Gisey abandoned, but she had the entire crew of the Silvius to consider.  Those are the tough calls one has to make in war.

What the heck happened to Claus?  I guess we’ll find out in the official manga, but man.  Well, these things happen in anime since the Japanese like spreading an entire story over multiple media platforms in order to get the otaku to buy more goods.

As to the race, well, it would have been nice to have had an entire episode devoted to getting it ready and such, with a lot of humor injected.  Instead, the race is more of an afterthought, letting Fam get her dream and having a brief, humor moment with Dio being disqualified.  I like that Fam didn’t win the race.

Speaking of Fam, in the end, she didn’t turn out to be anything special.  She was just an orphan with a dream who’s only family member, Sadri, allows himself to be killed for his part in the war.  In some ways I’m glad she wasn’t special, but in others, I’m disappointed.  However, the glad outweighs the sad.

I’ll save my final thoughts for a future post, but for now, I kind of have mixed feelings on this final episode of Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing.