「Distraction」

I certainly hope Gonzo has those little financial issues worked out, because they dropped a whole lot of yen on CGI with this episode.

I’ll leave it to the military history buffs and technogeeks to dissect the relative merits of The Slivius’ armaments and defenses vs. The Silvana’s, etc. That stuff is interesting but not especially interesting for me to write about, so have at it. From my perspective it was truly impressive visually, and that’s my primary concern with that aspect of the show. Better than half the episode was consumed with air combat, and other than a few jitters here and there the CGI was top-notch. Old show or new this is something Last Exile has always been good at, and it’s plain to see that the Gonzo team haven’t forgotten how to choreograph aerial combat on a large scale gloriously well. It was impressive stuff.

As regards the story itself, I remain more impressed with the outline than with the details. I confess to being surprised to hear the fighter pilots from Glacies (all female, shockingly), led by their commander, Dian (Yukana) speaking Russian. Glacies looked a lot like Northern Russia on the map last week, but that was a very nice touch by Gonzo (I can’t speak to how good the seiyuu were with the language, of course). We still don’t know a whole lot about them except that they’re extremely xenophobic, and in that light it’s no surprise the presence of The Silvius and several Ades fleets on their border would have gotten their attention. The testing of their neutrality is clearly going to be a major plot point for quite some time, as Tatiana (and perhaps Vincent) do their best to ingratiate themselves with the Glacians (?) to form an alliance against the Ades.

In that light, the little act of rescue that Fam and Millia (more on that in a minute) pulled with the doomed Glacies pilot Primura (Hara Sayuri) and her navi Magnoriya (Omigawa Chiaki) might just help engender some goodwill. Given that the pilots are girls have brand-name seiyuu and have a presence in the OP, it’s a good bet that they’re going to be important players in the rest of the series and perhaps they’ll be the voice arguing for peace with Anatoray (Tatiana overtly stated at last that The Silvius is indeed fighting for Anatoray). With things now pretty explicitly Anatoray vs. Ades – with Glacies in the middle – that contextualizes Dio’s role and brings all sorts of possibilities for Guild connections and characters like Sophia to become involved. For the nonce, Tatiana proved herself more than capable of leading The Silvius in a hopeless battle – “Bad news everyone – the Captain is smiling" sums up he resolve in the face of fire pretty well.

But that wasn’t the only good Fam and Millia (more on that in 30 seconds) did in their sortie. They also managed to bring down the Ades flagship with a single shot. It must be said, what I’ve seen so far really leads me to question how the Ades managed to conquer half the planet. I understand that the first 14 skyfish Fam captured were mostly from outlying territories and merchant-marine types, but this is presumably the best Ades has to offer, under the command of their most experienced commander, Sadri (Hashi Takaya) – and a little girl with virtually no flight and no combat experience brought it down with a hand-held anti-Claudia weapon. I give props – no pun intended – to the Sky Pirates for their ingenuity and street sense when it comes to fighting larger, better-armed foes – but it’s hard to take Ades seriously as a world threat given that we’ve seen their best ships are virtually helpless against vanship-based resistance. Wouldn’t they have come up with some sort of counter-measures by now, assuming these small combat vanships have been around a while? Do they even have a flexible fighting force of small craft they can deploy in aerial combat situations?

Of course, the episode can’t be discussed without answering the question of Gisey’s role. The dissolution or even weakening of a pilot-navigator partnership is a traumatic thing, as we saw in the first series. We’ve definitely seen signs that Gisey feels Fam is slipping away from her, but I thought it odd that there was no conversation between the two of them prior to Fam’s entering the battle with Millia in the navigator’s seat. While it was pretty clear what was happening with the three of them, I thought it somewhat clumsily handled, and the build-up to that moment was perhaps a casualty to the amount of time the ep spent on the big set pieces. As a result, Gisey’s breakdown at the end – while understandable and very sad – didn’t have the impact it might have if there’d been more build-up in the episode. As for the future, I can’t imagine their breakup will be permanent and I don’t think Millia is going to usurp her as Fam’s sidekick, but it’s not immediately obvious how that’s going to be resolved. With the contract fulfilled I suspect Gisey will want to go home for a while (assuming Glacies allows it) so I wouldn’t rule out a brief separation for the leading pair.

Lastly we have a new ed sequence, with a sort of smooth jazz rendition of “Starboard” set to a montage of the 14 ships Fam procured for Tatiana. Interesting that they elected not to show any preview stills – perhaps there’s something or someone they don’t want to show just yet?

 

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「Starboard [Silky Wind ver.]」 by Hitomi
Watch the 2nd ED!: Streaming ▼

140 Comments

  1. next episode should be quite the sight to see if they aren’t going to show any previews. the possibilities of why there’s no previews is making the wait for episode 9 to come out pretty hard to do D:

    i think millia got a lucky shot in, but considering the way they had their fuel line showing like that, the ship may be an older model compared to the newer ones since the ones we’ve seen have turrets on the bottom of the ship as well

    Xziled
    1. Some suggest that the lacking of preview is because the next is a re-colleciton episode(the sorts of episodes which sum up whatever that happened till now).

      LX 1 did it quite brilliantly by mixing it with Claus & Lavie’s childhood memory (though the reason of a re-collection episode is because you can just re-cycle old footages to fill in and you can catch up on new stuffs. What Gonzo did was kind of deifying the point .)

      hoh
  2. This fight was so epic. Kind of unrealistic how many Stormtroopers are aiming the cannons for the Ades ships, but still epic nonetheless. Also, the Daredevil-like echolocation was quite a stretch.

    The sheer odds against the Silvius was greater than anything Alex had to command through (only the 1v4 Urobanus ships). The incorporation of the Anatoray patented vanship versus (Guild) warship tactics was great too.

    Ptolemaios00
    1. Keep in mind though that the Silvana had about half the firepower and one-quarter the vanship complement of the Silvius, so in Alex’s case, it was about doing more with “less” (which, incidentally, was still far more than most Anatoray or Disith ships had). If Alex had been in command of the Silvius, the Ades Federation’s entire First Fleet would have been sent to the briny deep.

      Allanx
  3. Ades too conceited, or just one of Last Exile’s flaws? I mean, they never — if they had one — bothered to send out the vanship squadrons to take out the opposing vanships.
    Were their pilots incompetent? Did the smokescreen make it hard for them to launch? or do Ades really don’t prioritze their vanships, which is evident in the show so far?

    In the old Last Exile, we see good vanship dog fights ; in the new one, we’ve yet to see one.

    Still… The CGs were eye candy, and I love the fact that Last Exile is slowly going back on track. Hope they can maintain this and avoid the moe crap, which they pulled 3-4 episode ago

    Alec
    1. Its fairly evident that unlike the Anatoray/Disith Prester, the others (except Glacies…) never pioneered Vanship combat, or at least never raised it to the height that Anatoray did.

      This is not, particularly, surprising.

      Fencedude
      1. Now that I think about it… I’m pretty sure it was just the Guild who had all the good vanships and technology while acting as mere spectators during a battle, and that vanships had little meaning to Anatoray & Disith

        Alec
      2. Even if they are conceited, it seems such a lame excuse to me that the vastly experienced Ades soldiers would overlook such a gaping weakness. I do think that Millia’s shot owed more to beginners luck than any skill, and it may not be that easy to fly around through the hailstorm of artillery fire to strike those Claudia engines at close range, yet the lack of any solid protection that specifically covers that weakness really boggles the mind. I think the Sky Pirates have caught many Ades federation ships using this tactic through the years judging by their merciless trap in the last episode to annihilate Fam and Giselle’s band of Sky Pirates, so the argument that it is a new tactic doesn’t hold much merit.

        gandalf8
    2. @Alec

      yes…but what does that have to do with what I said? O_o?

      pre-WW2 naval doctrines heavily favored battleships over carriers with its air assets, much to the chagrin of strategist when the battleships proved to be ineffective while dive bombers pwn’d them. Which is something that’s paralleled in LE.

      Without any background info as to the evolution of warfare on Earth in LE2, you can’t really say that the Federation is conceited for not considering vespas a legitimate thread, even though this one did have lol-pistols that were obviously loaded with Plot-Piercing Guided ammunition.

      Mike
    3. I would not call Ades conceited, it is basically a difference in military philosophy. Just like how others have pointed out that in pre-WWII era, it was all about SHIPS SHIPS SHIPS. I don’t think Ades has fought other nations that deploy carriers/fighters so it makes sense that they have little to no countermeasure for that kind of warfare. I for one am excited to see Ades losing to the carrier/fighter combination because I hope it will spell the end of battleship centric warfare and transition to carrier/fighter centric warfare. Just imagine the vanship dogfights we will get hehe XD.

      darkkodiak@hotmail.com
  4. So apparently, according to the official blog or somesuch, Glacies is…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway, Glacies clearly has more advanced technology than everyone else, which would explain how they’ve maintained their isolation.

    As for Gisey, she’s getting NTRd hard, but its at least partially her own fault because she won’t speak up for herself and her true feelings. Being the Osananajimi is suffering ;_;

    Fencedude
      1. Easy, IPS. The same source mentions their more advanced technology, up to and including Show Spoiler ▼

        Now, this is interesting because consider that Fam is very likely royalty, perhaps of that country (uhhh…Ades general lady I mentioned last time, wherever she’s from) that may be planning things from within Ades.

        So what if…Show Spoiler ▼

        Ya know?

        (boy I hope these tags work right…)

        Fencedude
      2. interesting. Didn’t think of that. But it is plausible xD I mean those things happen in animes all the time. Wouldn’t be surprising if Gonzo does the typical trick that would seem to make things more interesting

        Alec
      3. If I remember correctly, didn’t Tatiana mention that Vincent was sent to Glacies to negotiate a strategic alliance or something.
        Show Spoiler ▼

        gandalf8
    1. Show Spoiler ▼

      WHAT THE F*CK AM I READING?!

      O_O

      It reminds of some anime which I’m not gonna say what since it may spoil whomever is reading this.

      megalith
  5. This would have been a very, very good episode…
    However, there are many things that made it off. For example, Fam’s sudden Skyfish hunting, as well as being able to pull off the sinking of the Anshar… There are also some quality issues in this episode…

    Still, there are many good highlights in this episode… Gracies seems to have badass firepower and cool technology, not to mention that they Russian! I also liked that the Silvius had to really struggle to be able to breakthrough the siege… I find it kinda annoying though that Fam herself doesn’t need to struggle as much. I’m also wondering why Millia, who has very little skyfish hunting experience, was able to make a clean shot at the Anshar, when Gisey, who is more experienced has jitters at trying to do so?

    And what pains me in this episode is about Giselle! Poor girl! T_T How can Fam just leave her like that?!?

    Still, this is really a good episode, especially on world building of the Exileverse…

  6. I certainly hope Gonzo has those little financial issues worked out, because they dropped a whole lot of yen on CGI with this episode.

    Last weeks was even more amazing. It felt like something made by those who handled Appleseed.

    megalith
  7. The launch of multi jet-propelled shells + accompanying wanton destruction + Sadri’s cane drop gave me a strong sense of deja vu… reminded me of Alex Rowe’s own gambit with Vincent’s ships + Vincent’s coffee drop.

    lftwgr
  8. I remember the very first thought I had was that after all this time (now known to be about two years, if I remember correctly) since the last exile returned from Prestor, fighter Vanships have not become the norm rather than the exception. [Yes, I assuming that you know, people travel and talk and perhaps the occasional war was fought with the Prestor immigrants, like the one that I assumed happened to displaced the Ades residents.]. Capital ships are nice and all but they really do need escorts. Seeing as how this type of combat has been around for a while now, I find it very difficult to believe they haven’t come up with better anti-fighter weapons (although they appeared to have showcased some last week against the sky pirate ‘fleet’ which they did not use this week), especially considering that the fighters clearly have anti-capital weapons. Also, the Ades ship designers clearly had something other that effectiveness in mind when they were made. They might want to put a bit of armor on their claudia unit/fuel tank/pipeline next time, since a good hit from another capital ship cannon looks like it would be able to take out the entire claudia unit, not something you really want to happen during a fight. If this is the best the Ades empire has to offer, no wonder they ‘lost their lands’ to the returning exiles. I’m surprised they even have the power now to muscle these lands back now.

    Switching topics, I really don’t know what to say about Gisey. Fam is just plain clueless, and her relationships don’t have the type of convolutions and dependencies Gisey is thinking in terms of, which is probably all the worse for Gisey, but really, Gisey needs to say something if it really does bother her. Ultimately, it’s just Gisey’s own insecurity getting to her. Gisey and Fam will be fine; Gisey just hasn’t realized it yet.

    I see the Silvius has that touch the Slyvanas had in getting out of those tight little spots (assuming that they aren’t the exact same ship, which I don’t believe they are, though I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong).

    I still don’t really feel as connected with the characters as I did from the previous last exile, and that just makes me sad. Still an entertaining run though, it’ll be good, but simply doesn’t have the presence of character the original did.

    Delwack
      1. Er…if you equate Gundams to Vanships, then the analogy makes perfect sense. Last Exile has ALWAYS prioritized the Vanships and their pilots.
        Ptolemy/Silvius wades through the bulletstorm through evasion, smokescreens and occasional suppressive fire.
        Gundams/vanships deal the real damage with fast approach and demolish tactics, and then regroup with the main ship after retreating from the battle area.
        That really does kind of sum up the battle in this episode. Think of the battle against Momento Mori where Lockon/Miria’s last shot sunk the main target. Granted: Miria did it with her eyes closed.

        Ptolemaios00
      2. This new series started out with the Sky Pirates taking out warships with their fleet of skilled vanship pilots. How is that not a more important role? The only warships that have been given focus was that Turan ship and the Silvius. Ades may have huge fleets of warships, but we all know that is just fodder to be destroyed by the main characters.

        Ptolemaios00
  9. I loved the huge fight, even the all-girl-piloted Russian rocket ships, (which doesn’t run on claudia I presume) what I don’t like is how Fam and milia brought down the ship. yes they can bring it down but I’d be damn on how they did it. it’s like death star bad engineering all over again. I mean come on, it you don’t expose power sources that easy! if Fam went through some highly complicated hole like Luke did I’d be more satisfied. But no she let a person who closed her eyes shoot. WHO SHOOTS WITH THEIR EYES CLOSED!!!

    Jack Vojack
    1. It’s an anti Claudia engine weapon. I remember hearing Sky Pirates had to train shooting and Giselle isn’t really much of a shooter.

      And while others are shooting at the bridges and bodies of ships and using different firearms and arsenals, only sky pirates uses hookshots to anchor ships, paint to blind them, bubbles to render the ship deaf and balloons to slow ships down.

      Smoke? Smoke you say? Well Sky Pirates use them, but Silvius’ vanships do too so it might be common to all vanship-using army.

      The Moondoggie
      1. Don’t mind me it was just a blurt, the wonders of the net right? Anyways I was just thinking full fledged soldier being taken in by the Silvana’s crew vs. royal page as to the part of the story they occupy in comparison.

        Ronin09
    1. I dunno, I’ve actually been pretty impressed by Teddy. He was there manning the fire brigade with the other crew members, and just in general has bucked up and dealt with pretty shitty situation his princess got him into. No complaints, no whining, just dealing with it as best he can.

      He’s the last remaining Turan Royal Attendant, and BY GOD he’s going to fucking attend!

      Fencedude
      1. Don’t mind me, just not thinking before I speak. I guess what I was trying to say was the starting material was a bit more impressive in my opinion. I’ll give him this much, he’s far more involved in being a member of the crew then I can remember Mullin being.

        Ronin09
    2. Heh, I never even thought of him as a Mullin analogue until now. If that’s the case, then you’re absolutely right. On his own however, I enjoy him as a peripheral character. I’m sure they won’t kick him out of the supporting cast entirely, but I liked the two shots of him helping the fire brigade a hell of a lot better than the speaking scenes he had earlier in the series.

      Actene
    3. While Mullin remains a cowardly git until he met the love of his life, Teddy was the image of the loyal attendant. Last of his ranks, of course he will continue his duty to the royalty of Turan.

      Sorry replacement? I beg to differ….

      The Moondoggie
  10. “Bad news everyone – the Captain is smiling” was an awesome quote. although considering how infrequently she smiles.. IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE (cowers in fear until she stops smiling… make it stop… please… … … )

    Also forgive me for a moment: Ades, who the FSK designed your capital ships with their chain-reactionable exhaust port sitting right there on the surface unguarded. … Ok it was something related to their Claudia system >>;;. I got my Star Wars and My Last Exile mixed up there… But the point stands, Hnnng Ghhhk!? It felt a wee bit dues ex’d to me and obviously they’d all be screwed if it hadn’t worked, but SERIOUSLY!? who designs a ship with such a critical flaw in the wide.freaking.open =A=…

    Gise looks like she could use some time with wise old Claudia Engine Engineer Dude. (Whose name I clearly forget and Dio was playing chess against ^^;.) A little perspective from him goes a long way.

    Kumakaori
    1. Yeah the quote is brilliant,as to Ades, they are coming off as a slightly more sympathetic version of the Empire, so what do you expect? and well Gise is filling the Lavie plot role after all.

      Ronin09
  11. Such a great episode until the end, and then Fam and Milia had to ruin it all with a lucky shot against a plot induced weakness in the Ades ship design.

    This was one of the few times where the episode felt very much like the first LE, the ship to sip battle was awesome, it seems a little strange that at the start of the battle nobody in the Ades fleet could shoot straight, but I can accept that since things got more serious later.

    Glacies’ being all Show Spoiler ▼

    seems a bit convenient considering what the cast all ready looks like, but they make up for it with some impressive professionalism…plus it’s cool that they have the whole russian thing. I might be wrong about this, but the Last Exile universe uses a Cyrillic alphabet so it fits in very well.

    Overall I’m encouraged by the events of this episode, it seems to advance things nicely. As much as I would like to see everything focus more on things such as the Guild role in all this, Tatiana and perhaps Vincent match wits with various Ades commanders who seem fairly competent at times, as well as the whole Galcies-Anatoray alliance, it will ultimately come down to Fam, Milia, and Gisey saving the day.

    This anime makes me so frustrated, I love the world, I love the design of the cruisers and vanships, the battles can be breathtaking, their is a lot political intrigue, and yet everything is brought down by the main characters. Fam and a completely green Millia coming in to save the day is such a cop out, it ruins all the effort put into saving the Silvius, you can’t tell me that nobody else knew about this design flaw, so why didn’t we see all the other vanships going straight for the Claudia fuel line? Fam gets so fucking lucky all the time, it simply gets annoying.

    bluth
    1. might be wrong about this, but the Last Exile universe uses a Cyrillic alphabet so it fits in very well.

      Last Exile universe uses Greek alphabet. Cyrillic alphabet originates from Greek and Glagolic alphabets, therefore majority of Cyrillic capital letters looks like Greek ones, but lower-case letters look completely different.

      Lazy Ranma
    2. Agreed. It says a lot that I actually like Lucinia better than Fam at this point. I especially hate how the whole crew turned out to cheer her and Millia for their last minute sortie; if I were one of the regular vanship pilots who had risked my life to kick so much ass at the beginning of the fight, I’d be seriously pissed off right now.

      Actene
    1. For about the first half of the fight, they couldn’t even hit the Silvius, it didn’t even look like they were trying, of course on the other side, the Silvius had dead on aim, makes me question the technology of Ades, especially when you look at Glacies’ jet like ships, which also appear to have superior firepower as well.

      bluth
  12. Fam still isn’t taken very seriously by many even in light of her accomplishments
    (winning the race, getting the ships, etc.) and it was made clear in this episode,
    too, with comments like “leave it to the professionals”, etc. So, I feel for Fam
    and her frustration as being seen as nothing more than a fluke or novelty.

    It might explain her attention-grabbing behaviour.

    As far as taking the Ades out with a single shot, I thought about that…

    Consider that pirates are normally trying to capture their prey, not sink it. So we
    wouldn’t normally see this type of activity of sinking a ship on their part.

    Fam is no dummy; the pirates scrap their prey so in light of that, I can see how she
    would know of vulnerabilities about those ships that they wouldn’t know themselves.
    So it makes sense that there wouldn’t necessarily be counter-measures for this
    attack, since they’ve probably not seen anything like this before.

    This wasn’t a lucky shot, nor was it an artificial plot device, IMHO.

    With all of that, Fam’s actions are more calculated than whimsical and I respect that –
    she’s consistent and in-character.

    Gisey’s behaviour is interesting and I’m happy everything wasn’t answered in this
    episode about her relationship with Fam: both professionally and personally.
    I think sometimes we (as viewers) steal away from our experience because our
    cultural expectations override that which the author intends. So, in this case,
    are Gisey’s actions inconsistent with her surroundings?

    Right now, I don’t believe so. We really don’t know why Gisey broke down:
    she’s away from her family, she’s overwhelmed with Fam’s safe return or she
    believes she’s lost her navigator position to Millia, stress of almost witnessing
    her father die in combat, or some other not yet revealed reasons.

    Fam has never openly displayed affection towards Gisey, nor said
    anything discouraging to Gisey; she thinks highly of Gisey, in fact.

    Could Gisey be reading more into their friendship than is there? IMHO, it’s not a
    problem that there wasn’t more of a lead up to her break-down if it’s mostly her
    perception of Fam’s treatment of Millia.

    I’m really liking this series…

    mac65
    1. It is a bloody plot device and luckier shoot. The sky pirates had been going around awhile steeling ships and using this kind of shot to to stop Claudia unit seems common tactic. Actually the raid had been constant enough that Ades actually devised a trap to take them all out.

      What is funny is that the old Ades ship they captured in the first episode seems better protected against such measures. They needed to shoot special torpedoes at the engine and that only lowered the unit output.

      Speaking of comparison with real world, the bombs pre-WW2 planes drop still needs to penetrate that thick armour to do any decent damage. So they are more an equivalent to the torpedoes Anatoray van-ships used this episode.

      What Millia did was literately brought down a main battle ship with a “signal round”.

      hoh
    2. I wouldn’t mind the single-shot business if an experienced shooter like Fam or Gissey had pulled it off. But as far as I know, Millie has only fired a weapon like that once before (back in episode two), and that was at a close-range, stationary target. I’ve fired weapons at firing ranges before, and it was damn hard for an amateur like me to hit a stationary target at range with scopes and laser sights. Millie’s gun didn’t even have that much, and she was firing from a moving vehicle at a target that was presumably moving as well. I’d be fine with chalking it up to beginner’s luck if it hadn’t taken out the flagship, but it did and thus made the whole thing seem really contrived.

      Actene
      1. It is a pretty big target; about the size of a tennis court. They were about fifty yards away, too. At that distance, it’s more of a problem to miss it than to hit it.

        The Claudia Unit on the Silvius is even more exposed than the ones on those Ades Federation ships. Those five oval-shaped looping coils on the underside are the main engine.

        This is in line with the tactics they use; Anatoray ships typically attack from underneath, necessitating more guns and more armor on top. Ades Federation ships – like Disith ships – typically attack from above, necessitating more guns and armor on the underside.

        Allanx
  13. For a battleship, the Silvius presents an incredibly small, difficult target. It is about four times smaller than an Ades Federation ship to begin with. Its frontal profile is tiny; not quite as small of a profile as the Urbanus, but small. I predicted that the outcome of any battle between the Silvius and the Ades Federation’s fleets would end in favor of the Silvius. The Silvius is a cutting-edge, one-of-a-kind prototype vessel, crewed by Anatoray’s best and brightest. It is also a dedicated aircraft carrier, capable of launching sixteen vanships simultaneously. The vanships not only destroy enemy ships with torpedoes, but they also lay down smoke screens and relay valuable intelligence data to the Silvius. And, as I had surmised in my previous analyses of the vessel’s capabilities, it does indeed have the jet-propelled shell launcher from the Silvana, in addition to two massive cannons in the bow section.

    Just because it’s small and fast, that doesn’t mean that it’s weak. The thing is a monster. It cut right through a freakin’ mountain range with a volley of ramjet-powered ground-penetrating shells.

    Keep in mind that the Ades Federation doesn’t have any integrated circuits; like Anatoray and Disith, their technology is entirely mechanical. Everyone uses speaking tubes, signal flares and signal lights to communicate. There are no electronics, no radar, and no radio communications. All gunnery is done optically or with all-mechanical rangefinders/gun computers. Their fire control systems are exceedingly primitive, comparable to that of a WWI-era dreadnought minus the radio. Glacies is different. Their vanships clearly have electronics and radio systems, so they’re leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else already. They are indeed Claudia engine-powered, using rocket boosters only for launch and initial propulsion so they can intercept enemy fleets crossing the border almost instantly.

    The reason why there aren’t many effective countermeasures against vespas is simply because they’re too small, too agile and too unpredictable to hit with standard anti-aircraft artillery. You may as well be trying to hit a moving house fly with a .22 target rifle. The volley guns on Orand’s ships in the previous episode were the closest thing to an effective countermeasure against vanships and vespas, because they saturate an entire area with high-explosive ordnance. If you look at the scenes in Episode 7 where they’re being used, you can see vespas being blown to smithereens.

    In fact, the Sky Pirates got stomped very badly. If you count their numbers at the start of the battle, you end up with 6 large ships, 12 vanships and 111 vespas. After the battle, they’re down to 2 large ships, 2 vanships and 15 vespas. That means they lost 4 large ships, 10 vanships and 96 vespas. Assuming the large vessels are crewed by about thirty people, that comes out to over 330 Sky Pirates missing or dead after that battle.

    The Ades Federation does indeed have relatively poor technology; they try and make up for it by building huge fleets of incredibly imposing, well-armored ships with lots of heavy guns all over them, but vanships are clearly their achilles heel. Ultimately, the loss of a few dozen of these ships does little to quell their momentum; they’ve got hundreds more anyway, and their shipyards will probably replace those numbers by the year’s end.

    Besides that, the Anshar was not actually destroyed. Merely sunk. It can still be salvaged. Heh, the weak spot on its Claudia Unit actually reminds me of the radiators on Ragnite-powered stuff from Valkyria Chronicles. LOL, good memories. Use Demolition Boost on Alicia, and have her go kill like half a dozen tanks in a single turn with her rifle.

    Allanx
      1. You know, I swept a good majority of enemies just by using Marida alone with the top tier royal sniper rifle. And big bad didn’t exactly had a chance when I placed three shocktroopers in front of him and Zaka in autocannon configuration.

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
      2. Lol. Though it’s only been a year since I re-played the game. I still remember the times where I had to throw ragnite bombs infront of my character to propell him/her over the fence to finish the round in the least possible turn (Took a lot of effort xD)

        Alec
  14. Looks like the Ades Flagship has the same fate as the Yamato/Bismarck Battleship on WW2. A Gun Fortress of the See, a Nightmare for those how Attack her, but Helpless against Air Attacks

    Germanguy
  15. The main issue with Ades is that up to now, they have fought against weaker nations (or in the case of the Millia’s, deceiving it with false peace). They’re the bullies of the Earth so to say, but facing an equal, they’re clearly overwhelmed, at the point of being clearly amateurs. Maybe that’s the reason why up to now they haven’t ventured in a fleet to fleet battle against the Anatoray/Disith alliance, and with the Silvius owning the Ades fleet by itself, the poor fools are just suckers against the veterans of the first LE.
    As for the “one lucky shot to sink a bigger ship”, WW2 references like the Bismark (lucky torp to the rudder sentenced it) or the Yamato (lucky dive-bomb to the armory crippled it from the inside) are applied here.

    andohbytheway, Yukana’s characters are always sex.

    SeedStriker
    1. well, the Bismark thing was luck that they hit the rudder. Yet Bismark didn’t sink as a result, it only rendered Bismark un-pilotable. Actually some theory says that Alliance Ships wasn’t able to sink it at all, the Germans opened the flood gate.

      As to the Yamato case, how long have the Alliance Planes been bombing it? Days if I recalled correctly. Tons of bombs (mostly armor piercing) and torpedoes were dropped onto it until the thing finally bulked.

      So if there were any references to these events, they are referenced poorly.

      hoh
  16. Some observations on the Glacies forces:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    – Even though they’re speaking Russian, their ships are covered in what appears to be Runic script rather than the Greek lettering we’re used to.

    – Like the Guild, they have electronics! Radios, heads-up displays, windowless cockpits, FLIR pods, etc.

    – Their vanships are rocket-propelled (and rocket-boosted along ramps when they’re launched), but also have Claudia Engines for lift and propulsion. You can see these engines mounted radially behind the cockpit, and the single thruster coil at the rear. In Anatoray vanships, the lift coils are hidden under the front cowling.

    – The gun mounted to their vanships reminds me of the General Atomics Blitzer. Could it be a railgun, or am I way off-base? In any case, it sure tears through Ades Federation ships like they aren’t even there.

    – There was a Glacies vanship on fire and drifting out of control at 16:49. They’re a serious threat, but not invincible.

    Allanx
      1. Huh, I didn’t think it was a spoiler. My bad.

        Show Spoiler ▼

        Secondly, it’s kind of a world setting feature that is tangential to the plot itself. It’s like saying that describing Tatooine from Star Wars as “crime-ridden” is a spoiler. That’s not a spoiler; that’s just self-evident side fluff. Luke and Leia being related, on the other hand, is a spoiler.

        Thirdly, I hate the spoiler tags on here, because they break up the text formatting and make posts difficult to read. I wish they were the kind where you click and drag to highlight them.

        Allanx
      2. Now that thing over there should’ve been put in spoiler tags. But I know your first post did not spoil anything.

        First of all, it’s not obvious that they’re all ******. Just because the pilots were are all ****** does not mean that everyone in Glacies are all ******

        Alec
      3. It’s not “self-evident” unless it’s shown in the anime. The only thing we know from the anime is that Show Spoiler ▼

        Simply put, if it hasn’t been shown in the anime, it’s a spoiler. Incidental or crucial, a spoiler is still a spoiler. And this one isn’t even all that incidental.

  17. A recap of what happened in Episode 8, in detail:

    Glacies launches 12 of their rocket-propelled vanships to intercept the Ades Federation fleet that’s about to enter their airspace. The Ades Federation First Fleet issues its ultimatum to the Silvius; hand over Millia or die. Even after Millia expresses her desire not to get the crew of the Silvius involved in a battle she fears they cannot win, Tatiana refuses, and the Silvius enters combat with a numerically-superior Ades Federation force.

    Fam wants to take part in the battle too, but the crew of the Silvius tell her to stand down on account of her inexperience and her vespa’s lack of firepower. The Silvius’s fighter wing prepares their vanships, loading torpedoes into their ventral pylons.

    Seeing as the time for negotiations are clearly over, Sadri orders the First Fleet to open fire on the Silvius. The Silvius charges into the fray at full speed, firing its cannons at the ships directly in its path. The maneuver seems suicidal, but the Ades Federation ships have trouble hitting the small, agile battleship due to their lack of precision gunnery.

    The flight deck of the Silvius opens, and we see that the entire hangar deck is both a lift and a launch deck, while the deck above it is simply a retractable roof over the hangar. The Silvana could lift and deploy its vanships to the flight deck only one at a time, while the Silvius launches (to correct my earlier figure; damn, I need new glasses) twenty all at once. Quite impressive, when you consider that each vanship carries enough firepower to cripple or destroy one large vessel.

    Within seconds, the vanship squadron disables or destroys two Ades Federation battleships. When the Silvius flies over an Ades Federation battleship, its gunners train two of the ships large turrets on its underside. The Silvius’s vanships lay down a smokescreen, and Cecily uses the sound-gathering ability of the Silvius’s intelligence equipment to direct accurate fire that disables the Ades battleship’s guns right through the smokescreen. Two more Ades Federation ships are destroyed or damaged, bringing the count to five in total.

    When the Silvius exits the smokescreen, the Anshar is waiting for them with a large portion of the First Fleet. Tatiana orders the Silvius to ascend and reverse course immediately, but they suffer a few hits.

    Meanwhile, the Glacies vanships are approaching the battle. Sadri’s XO makes an observation that the Silvius is trying to retreat across the border, which would obviously attract the ire of Glacies and force them to intervene. Sadri wants to either capture or destroy the Silvius before that can happen. The Silvius retrieves its vanship squadron, which, like the Silvius, have sustained considerable battle damage. The Ades Federation fleet attempts to blockade the Silvius, maneuvering between it and the border.

    Fam makes an offer to Tatiana, saying that she can fulfill the remainder of the contract by doing what Sky Pirates do best; Skyfish Hunting. Tatiana accepts, but with the caveat that they can’t go back for Fam’s vespa. She would have to return on her own.

    The Ades Federation fleet attempts to intercept the Silvius with a wave of torpedoes, but Tatiana orders her navigator to have the Silvius dive beneath the clouds, countermanding Alister’s decision to ascend to avoid the torpedoes. The torpedoes pass harmlessly overhead. The Ades Federation fleet had not expected the Silvius to dive into the clouds; like its predecessor, it can easily navigate with zero visibility. The Ades Federation ships cannot.

    The Ades Federation ships begin using depth charges to try and draw the Silvius out of cloud cover. This tactic proves marginally effective, causing damage to some of the Silvius’s systems.

    Fam’s vespa launches under the cloud cover, heading straight towards the Ades Federation fleet.

    Tatiana issues a rousing speech to her crew. Afterward, she has Cecily look for a weak point in the mountain range that straddles the border; the latter uses her almost supernatural hearing in conjunction with the Silvius’s sound-gathering equipment to find it. Once she does, Tatiana has the Silvius ascend, leaving its cover in the clouds. Sadri’s XO notes that the Silvius appears to be giving no signal for surrender.

    Millia shows her clear inexperience as a navi; Fam is forced to walk her through the process of simply controlling the Vespa’s throttle (it’s interesting to note that it was this way in the first series as well; the pilot controls the joystick and the navi controls the throttle, splitting these two crucial functions between two people).

    The Silvius opens the armor covering its jet-propelled shell launchers. A small number of Ades ships turn to intercept the charging Silvius, under orders to try and capture it. Tatiana has the Silvius plow straight through them, scraping the ballast unit against an Ades Federation ship’s hull.

    The Silvius opens fire on the mountain range, causing a rockslide and collapsing part of the mountain(!). Eighteen Ades Federation battleships are engulfed in the debris plume and either damaged or destroyed. Sadri and his XO are shocked at this.

    The Glacies ships get a visual of the Silvius slamming right through the mountainside. They do a fly-by of the Silvius, and Tatiana orders her crew not to shoot at them. We see why in a few seconds; the extremely high-performance Glacies ships open fire on the Ades Federation fleet, destroying or crippling several more ships.

    One of the Glacies ships attaches a towline to the Silvius, ordering them to leave their airspace at once or be fired upon. A massive piece of rocky debris slams into the Silvius’s port side wing, sending the Glacies vanship attached to the Silvius spinning out of control and destroying two of the gun turrets in the port side wing. The Silvius’s engines are also damaged, reducing its thrust output considerably.

    Returning to the fight between the Glacies vanships and the Ades Federation fleet, the Glacies fighters are having trouble maintaining communications in the chaos. We see one Glacies ship on fire and drifting out of control. Now that the Ades Federation fleet is sufficiently occupied fighting the Glacies forces, the Silvius turns back from the Glacies border and heads towards the Grand Lake.

    Sadri orders his XO to send up the signal for a cease-fire, clearly no longer wishing to engage the superior Glacies forces in direct combat. The Glacies vanships and Ades Federation fleet begin to withdraw from combat.

    Fam and Millia encounter the Silvius in the clouds, noting that it has suffered extensive damage. They also see the Glacies vanship still attached to the Silvius. They attempt to use the Vespa and their hands to support the Glacies vanship and prevent it from breaking up, but it takes a skilled shot from the leader of the Glacies squadron to cut the towline connecting the vanship to the Silvius.

    The Silvius, its engines damaged during the battle, is still descending due to the decrease in lift power output. Tatiana has the Silvius extend and fire its two forward cannons, using the recoil from the guns and plume of water from the lake to reduce its rate of descent.

    Fam’s vespa intercepts the Anshar in the clouds, and Millia uses a lucky shot from the signal flare gun to disable an exposed coil in the Anshar’s Claudia Unit, forcing the crew to abandon ship as it plummets into the lake. Fam returns to the Silvius, where she is greeted with applause. Meanwhile, Giselle is unhappy, either due to being left out or due to the stress of the past few days.

    In all, about 25 to 30 Ades Federation ships were disabled or destroyed, one Glacies vanship was disabled/destroyed, and the Silvius and its fighter wing sustained extremely heavy damage, necessitating a visit to drydock and a full overhaul. A major tactical victory for Anatoray, nonetheless.

    In conclusion, Anatoray should definitely build more Silvius-class ships.

    Allanx
    1. I wouldn’t be surprised actually. To keep the old Claimh-Solais and Glorie class ships of Anatoray and Disith in an environment ill suited for what they were designed for is idiotic. That said, the key here is not the ship. While important, what is needed is the crew.

      I hope the Naval officers and enlisted rates of the now combined Anatorayean Nation isn’t as…stupid as Captain Knowles’ Goliath.

      Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
      1. I was thinking the exact same thing. Sure, they can build more Silvius-class ships, but who would they crew them with? It takes a particularly elite bunch to get the most out of that vessel’s features.

        Allanx
      2. But we have seen a possible change. Since it only took two years for the Silvius to be built and it’s more in line to Earth’s ships, maybe many of the surviving Claimh Solais ships were overhauled. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Claimh Solais were to appear but made to conform to Earth’s style of warfare. That or we see the Silvana come in. It was seen in the end anyways.

        But I’m thinking something along the lines of dumbed down Silvius types. I dunno, I’m kinda wanting to see an Aeronef-style flying battleship. XD

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
      3. Actually rereading…

        Huh…I can see something here:

        Vespas = 1920s/30s Barnstormer type biplanes, personal planes, etc…
        Anatoary Vanships = Equiv to WWII Fighters
        Glaces Vanships = Me262 and above.

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
  18. “except that they’re extremely xenophobic”

    And they’re right. In a world like that, with war and pirates all over the place, I don’t blame them for being xenophobic. LOL.

    André
  19. Probably my favorite episode overall. I think the Turan/Ades battle back in episode two is still my favorite fight scene yet, but I loved the tactics the Silvius pulled out finally established it as a worthy successor to the Silvanus and Tatiana was really at the top of her game the whole way through; I’ll go out on a limb and say that this is the best I’ve seen of her in either series, which is saying a lot considering she was one of my favorite characters back in the original. I do love how they pull out so much music from the original series as well. The “Silvanus” theme, “Chivalry Spirits”, and “Fleet of Littleships” are all great pieces that really bring back memories.

    I’ll admit to being a bit fed up at every new female addition to the cast. The Glaces’s all-female squadron was really the last straw in that regard and I’m dangerously close to classifying this as some sort of toned-down harem show by now. So far, the only truly important male character is Lucinia, the clear-cut antagonist. Last Exile was never a testosterone-fueled affair, but there was a balance in the first series with male/female supporting characters (the underlying assumption of both series is that if women can’t make themselves important in some way then they don’t join militaries at all, but that’s true of just about every anime I’ve ever watched). I’m not looking for romantic subplots or anything like that, but it’s still rather annoying all the same.

    That aside, my only real grip with the series so far is that Fam really sucks as a main character. The chemistry Claus and Lavi shared just isn’t there with her and Gissey and it really bothers me that all she has to do is deliver the coup’de grace to be hailed as a conquering hero by the crew who spent the whole episode fighting for their lives. The exuberance at the end really undercut the beating the Silvius took and even detracted from Gissey’s little scene at the end. I suppose it’s unfair for me to make Claus comparisons, but the growth he underwent over the course of the first series made him a hell of a lot more likable and relatable than Fam who, as my brother put it back when we watched the first couple episodes, is basically a female Naruto. It’s really disappointing, especially amongst a supporting cast of worthy successors to the original show.

    Actene
    1. As far as this geek is concerned, Fam is Yui (from K-ON) and I therefor love here to pieces. Liking the character, however, I agree is hard. And your points in toward the end of your post mirror my own. I can only add the ‘scrapbook’ presentation made it that much more unpalatable. Great start to an episode, weak ending.
      What I am hoping is that they develop from here, giving them more of a Claus and Lavi vibe at some point, which will be a copy of the original, but it works, especially if they can give it their own dynamic.

      theskylion
    2. Harem Genre = one male protagonist surrounded by potential suitresses.

      Amazon Brigade/Pink Bishoujo Ghetto/Improbably Female Cast = lots of girls where you would expect guys.

      Clearly, LE:GnF belongs to the latter of those two categories.

      Neither of those tropes bother me at all. In fact, you could say I’m the sort to welcome such a gender role reversal with open arms. Because, seriously, who doesn’t want to see girls kicking ass and taking names, aside from chauvinistic jerks?

      As for Fam, I wonder how much of her headstrong, upbeat behavior is real and how much is feigned. For all we know, she’s on her way to a stress-induced mental breakdown. To hear everyone else tell it, you’d expect her to be wangsting 24/7 instead of maintaining such a positive attitude.

      In a way, the sinking of the Anshar tells us more about Millia’s growth and development than it does about Fam’s. Millia clearly has some interest in being a vanship navigator. Fam, on the other hand, is the same as always. It’s Giselle’s perception of her and Millia that’s changing.

      Allanx
  20. CGI is cheap after you have the initial models done. After that its just slap and paste them all over. Actually if you look closely you will find out those flags on the capital ships dont abide physics or wind lol when they turn they move the exact same way. Also the battleships dont really have much animation besides the repeating gear thingies on the sides and u just slap explosion particles on them. Much cheaper than drawing!

    nymbryxion
    1. As a 3D modeler myself, I can confirm this. 3D animation of this type can be done by amateurs on a very limited budget with very tight time constraints. In fact, their use of CGI is brilliant; the ships themselves have very little animation and only need to be moved from place to place throughout the scene, with the turrets being “posed” to align with their targets every once in a while. This is extremely easy to do. You barely even need to rig the meshes; standard pivot joints will do the trick.

      The money saved by using CGI can be used to make the 2D animation and backgrounds more detailed and vivid.

      Allanx
      1. Yeah, I agree. That’s exactly why they use CG.

        Not only Last Exile, but all anime that utilizes CG, they do that because it’s cheaper and faster than working with traditional animation, which requires a lot of extremely talented people, a lot of time and a lot of material. Yeah, by material I mean paper, pencils, ink, etc. They may color everything on a computer, but the drawings are still done in the old way, with dozens of people drawing every frame on a table.

        With CG, they just need to work on a model (of a robot, a car, a ship, etc) once, and then they can use this model during the whole series with very little effort (and they can work on variations of the basic models). This cheap, fast and if done right, it will look good. And this kind of big ships are big and highly detailed. It would be extremely annoying to draw them. LOL.

        André
      2. The CGI in LE:GnF is vastly superior to that of the original. The first LE had a couple spots done in 3D that actually looked quite ugly. For example, in the very first scene in the first episode where the Silvana fires upon several Disith ships in the Grand Stream, we can see the cloud effects clipping through the gun barrels.

        LE:GnF has some amazing effects. I like the condensation trails around ships and their various hull protrusions, etc.

        Allanx
  21. Episode 8 is eventful. It’s like watching the original again. Beautiful 3D-2D combination, plot drive is perfect, and Tatiana is smiling now.

    But amidst this beautiful episode, the Gisey-Fam problem had reached the point where Gisey starts crying. In my eyes, the fact that Fam had Millia as Navi just proves that the stability of partnership Gisey and Fam had in the manga and in the early episodes is now gone. Fam’s goals now is to help Milla reclaim Turan, Gisey just wants to go home. I won’t be surprised if Millia became Fam’s new official Navi.

    This might be a nod to the original as Claus wanted to be with Alvis and protect her rather than go home with Lavie. Fam just jumped the call and helped Millia simply because she feels that she could understand Millia’s pain.

    Also now that the contract is fulfilled, Gisey had no reason to stay in the Silvius, other than being Fam’s navi. Either she leaves or she stays, for now, nobody knows.

    In other news, now we know that the guild-like pilots in the OP were from the country of Glaces, that seems to emulate Russia. According to a blog:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Why, though, I don’t know. But they do shoot down trespassers who comes into their borders too, like how Russians are with their MiGs. The group who launched this episode gave Ades a run for their money(they deserve it, LOL). It’s still a mystery though: why is Glaces so secluded? Is it, like Anatoray, a country that wants to be anonymous?

    Closing my remarks, I just hope that they straighten out the Fam-Gisey problem. Whatever happens though will be an important detail in this series. As the Silvius being damaged, it might limp back to Anatoray, which is an important part in the series, and a very good experience to the courageous princess, the sensitive navi and the idiot pilot.

    The Moondoggie
  22. The quality of the spoken Russian in this episode wasn’t good: some of the conjugations are weird, and I think some wrong prepositions were used (e.g., запуск подготовлен should have been подготовлены к запуску, and Dian couldn’t command her units to launch with just the noun “запуск” — that’s like saying “Rocket launch!”). The voice actors’ pronunciation showed that they at least knew about vowel reduction, though, and considering that this was most likely their first time speaking Russian, they didn’t do too badly at all.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Momoism
    1. You’re tempting me to get addicted to FPS games. My lil bro has Battlefield 3, and I certainly find it better compared to CoD.

      Also, it’s normal to reply to yourselves. There is no such rule stating that one should not reply to his own comment

      Alec
  23. Can anyone give me a reason for why Fam took Millia instead of Gisey? I can’t catch even the slightest hint of the reasoning behind that move. I remember the few hints of Gisey feeling somewhat of a break in her relationship with Fam, but what happened here just came completely out of left field.

    It was far worse than clumsily handled. The whole thing just made no damn sense to me. It didn’t just feel as if a few scenes were missing, but entire episodes. I just couldn’t feel anything for Gisey at the end because of this.

    Tre
      1. Fam might be that type of person who grabs the first thing she sees when what she was actually looking for is nowhere to be found. On the other hand, Millia might have insisted to tag along.

        Fam x Millia… Giselle’s is getting NTR’ed

        The Moondoggie
  24. watchin the battle scenes was like watching star wars. battle of endor anyone? and where’s adm ackbar?????

    i must say, the anatorian vanship attack seemed like the textbook dive bomber attack. would be interesting to see them doing a torpedo run or in a fighter-bomber role.

    and to those guys who keep on whining on why ades fedration dpnt have any effective anti-air armaments or air units, im guessing that their war ministry saw the rolw of vespas and vanships as nothing more than for recon and/or they’re staunchy followers of the all big gun ship doctorine. would be interesting to see what mods anatory do to the captured ships. possibly gut out the unneccessary stuffs to make space for hangers?

    and there’s one more thing that i have to say. this’s the 2nd anime i’ve watch that has a foreign dialogue in it (first was soranowoto where the other nation spoke exclusively german but has allied vehicles). i was trying to figure out what language that the glacians were talking in. oh and anybody noticed the japanese characters on printed on their ships while the other nations write using cyrillic??

    c2710
    1. oh and anybody noticed the japanese characters on printed on their ships while the other nations write using cyrillic??

      Not Japanese characters. Runic Script. Also, everyone else uses Greek lettering, not Cyrillic, though the two have similarities.

      As I said before, I find it highly amusing that they’re speaking Russian and yet have Germanic runes on their ships.

      Allanx
  25. I’m really enjoying the political side of things too, and am
    Intrigued in how all that will pan out. I was like “f*ck yea!” when Glacies helped out, nothing like rallying together if not through the enemy of my enemy is my friend thing. Loved it.

    Relic

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