Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam – 13

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[SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_04.19_[2012.01.21_16.10.51] [SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_16.21_[2012.01.21_16.22.53] [SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_22.13_[2012.01.21_16.28.46]

That was the best episode of “Fam” for a while, because it was focused squarely on what the show is best at, by far – the machinations of Luscinia and the Ades Federation, lots of big space battles, and the ugly side of global power politics.  When the series uses the wide-angle lens, in can be solidly good as it was this week – and, happily, it still looks darn good for the most part.

What all the above means is less focus on dialogue and on the nominal trio of lead characters, which is a very good thing.  Luscinia has probably been the most interesting person in the cast from day one, especially in the context of the complex power structure inside his Federation.  What looked obvious last week indeed turned out to be true – he was sacrificing the provincial fleets to test the Glacien defenses, and to soften them up.  And indeed he succeeded at that – while the provincial fleets were wiped out, the main Ades fleets moved in afterwards and virtually destroyed the Winged Priestesses of Glacies.

But there’s more to Glacies than bishoujo pilots, as it turns out – and Glacies proves “no country for old men” doesn’t apply here.  The ones pulling the strings are a bunch of bearded octogenarians who look suspiciously like Russian Orthodox priests, and they have a powerful contingency plan at their disposal – their very own Exile.  Problem is, of course, that Luscinia has one too, and in Lilliana also the trigger – and she seems to have pretty well jumped the shark when it comes to morality (“My hands are already dirty, so screw it”).  So the result is we’re set for some red-hot Exile-on-Exile action, with the Glacien ground-based Exile “fortress” technology against Ades’ air-based “WMD” technology.  I don’t know who wins this, but lots more people are going to die – and a lot have died already.  There’s more to the story, of course, with Ades possessing a “secret” weapon that can attack in high-enough altitudes to wipe out Sky Pirate bases, as the trio find out when they are forced to refuel at a bombed-out encampment.  This means Kartoffel is in danger too, of course, and the trio are headed back there when they encounter Lilliana’s Exile en route to Glacies – which I suspect is going to lead to a tough choice about where to go next. 

I sincerely hope the focus stays on the war and that wide-angle lens stays on the camera, because this show doesn’t do nearly so well with close-ups.    The chessboard is the interesting part of “Fam”, both as reflects the nations and the people within them – especially the corridors of power within Ades.  And we really haven’t done more than skim the surface of what Anatory-Disith – potentially the most interesting nation of all, especially for fans of the original series – is really like.  With Glacies and Ades likely to be decimated pretty badly by their coming clash, it’s only a matter of time before Anatoray takes a more active role at the center of the story.

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[SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_18.49_[2012.01.21_16.25.21] [SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_19.27_[2012.01.21_16.59.07] [SFWhine]_Last_Exile_-Fam,_The_Silver_Wing-_-_13_[720p][493E752A].mkv_snapshot_20.01_[2012.01.21_16.26.33]
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8 comments

  1. M
    Myssa Rei
    January 22, 2012 at 5:46 am
    Reply

    I think it was this episode that truly shown just how out of touch Fam is with regards to the raging war that Ades is perpetrating against its close neighbors. Instead on musing on the violence, bloodshed, and whatnot, what does she think of? The Grand Race, and how people should be smiling like they were at the time instead of killing each other. This shows that she has a VERY rose-tinted recollection of events, and whats worse, likely doesn't even know the history behind the Grand Race itself (whose peace it was celebrating was ALSO bought through the hardship of countless people).

    That said, I suppose that blind optimism and idealism is what draws people to her (their world is a crappy place to live in, and she's technically a ray of sunshine in a dark place), but for viewers, it's hard not to think that she's an idiot who can't appreciate the bigger picture.

  2. l
    leokiko
    January 22, 2012 at 6:11 am
    Reply

    ^Well said.

  3. A
    Anonymous
    January 22, 2012 at 7:22 am
    Reply

    Here's something interesting. While fansubs call Dian and her fighter squadron "The Winged Priestesses", the official Animax sub called them "The Winged Witches".

  4. H
    Hitokiri
    January 22, 2012 at 6:55 pm
    Reply

    http://www.jisho.org/words?jap=%E5%B7%AB&eng=&dict=edict&tag=&sortorder=relevance

    The kanji used in the subtitles in the episode are the first two. If you can't read hiragana, the pronunciation of the second one is "miko", which should be familiar to most people watching reading this blog.

    "Sorceress" is listed as one of the secondary meanings, and I guess "witch" is somewhat close to that, but "miko" is pretty much never used or translated as either of those. It's almost always translated as "priestess" and when its not, its something similar.

    Japanese has a word for witches already, one that unambiguously translates as such. "Majo" (http://www.jisho.org/words?jap=%E9%AD%94&eng=&dict=edict) That's the word used in Madoka Magica, for example.

    So you could maybe argue that Animax's version is kind of, sort of, technically not wrong…. but it basically is wrong. "Priestesses" is the correct one. Episode 12 showed how they are highly respected and treated as holy figures of a sort. "Priestess(es)" fits that, "witch(es)" most definitely does not.

  5. E
    ELX
    January 22, 2012 at 10:07 pm
    Reply

    Welp I've pretty much been soured on Fam (the character) since the 'gisey mutiny' arc so seeing her continue to bask in her naive rose coloured idiocy isn't as annoying as it could be. I liked this episode though, I'd love to know where the heck the Silvius crew is and also is it just me … or does it REALLY seem like there's some er … funny business going on between Luscinia and Princess Lilliana??

  6. M
    Morg
    January 23, 2012 at 4:14 pm
    Reply

    I think your numbering is slightly off. Previous to this post the last two Last Exile entries were numbered 12. Also just a question about the site. Am I the only one who gets taken directly to the comments when I hit read more? I keep having to scroll back up to the top.

    I love the posts. Keep up the great work!

  7. admin
    January 23, 2012 at 5:40 pm
    Reply

    This issue with "read more" jumping straight to comments is a result of the new threaded commenting on Blogger. I can turn that off and it will jump to the top of the post – but then we lose the ability to reply to specific posts. I'm not sure which way is better, TBH – I like threaded commenting, but I hate that it jumps the screen straight to comments.

  8. m
    miruki
    January 23, 2012 at 6:05 pm
    Reply

    It never jumps to the comments for me. So it might also be browser related? I'm using Chrome. ^^;

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