Well, here’s a new show to put this column's thumb on the pulse. It’s only just started! Lucky for me that Hulu offered it up in the ol’ automated suggestions section - - I’d actually forgotten all about since seeing its promo at Anime Expo.
This might be an interesting experiment anyway, since I’ve never gotten the chance to get into LAST EXILE after this one ill-fated night freshman year when I was totally turned off of joining my school’s anime club. They were watching this show in a dark basement at the bottom of the College of Arts and Sciences and let’s just say that the gal running the club was taking her LAST EXILE marathon way too seriously for that club to be an appealing way to spend my Friday evenings.
But I digress. As an experiment, it might be worthwhile for me to tune into this every week and experience it on its own merits without prior understanding of the LAST EXILE mythos. We could assess its accessibility, so to speak. Actually, for the most part, it’s pulled that off rather well so far. Yeah, I walked away from this without any recollection of the cast’s names, and there was no recap to fill me on the particulars of this retro-futuristic feudal world, but I got the gist.
These kids are sky-pirates, they’ll harass and sometimes hijack the bad aristocrats’ dirigibles at times. Other times, they'll form shaky allegiances with the good aristocrats.
There. That’s not hard.
Even though Bones made EUREKA SEVEN and Gonzo made this, the two do still share a kind of sweeping, accessible blockbuster quality. This is something you can show your uninitiated pals and be confident in them enjoying it without you ever having to explain any "anime rules" to them - - especially not the kind that'll alienate guys from your anime club.
Watch this episode, “The Shadow Comes Forth” below and decide for yourself.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
Its one of Gonzo's shows that was actually good and well made.
There's not a lot that so far watching Last Exile adds to this so far. You'd know who one of the characters is a bit better, but that's about it. Otherwise, so far, it stands alone quite well.
Please consider watching Gankutsuou!
Agreed on Gankutsuou as it is a great show. You really should watch the first one of these as it does add a lot after the second one..as you understand now that was called last exile, and that the story here is long and thought up way in advance which is always a good sign.
Sounds unappealing to me, not bad, just unappealing. I'll take your word on this and pass Tom. It sounds like you thought it was good, but last thing I want to watch is a Eureka 7/One Piece clone, so pass on my end, glad it is ok but cant get invested in another series of this nature right now... may check it out when it is further along though
Egan...I wouldn't compare this to one piece at all...did you see the first last exile? It was thought provoking and well done. Eureka I would say is closer but leaning more toward the thought provoking nature of eva and beginning of Eureka...not the terrible terrible ending. Watch a few of the first Last exile and see if that catches your attention.
@DocHaus: Actually, they all used the chess motif. Every episode title contained reference to chess terminology, or makes some other reference to specific plays or things related to chess. Wikipedia's list of episodesdoes a good job of making those connections apparent. Granted, one or two of them are a bit of a stretch, but hey, whatever.
As far as this new series goes, I'm baffled. As a fan of the original series, parts of this one don't make any effing sense, and putting aside my knowledge of the previous series, even less makes sense. But maybe I'm getting too caught up in asking questions, rather than trying to figure out the story being told. I dunno, I'm interested to see how it goes.