The second episode of “Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~” starts with a cinematic cold open, where we find Princess Milia on a mission to the Holy City of Iglasia, the Turan capital. Princess Liliana has sent Milia to deliver an important message to their father the King. Milia initially refuses, wanting to fight alongside her sister in the upcoming battle versus the Ades Federation — however, she eventually relents and flies back to Iglasia on Fam and Giselle’s Vespa.
With Milia safe, Liliana starts discussing the terms of their alliance with the people of Kartoffel — the Sky Pirates. In exchange for grain and fuel, the Sky Pirates will aid the beleaguered Lasas in one final strike against Premiere Luskinia, who is aboard the Ades Federation battleship the Impetuous. Meanwhile in Inglasias Milia delivers the message to her very ill father, who then implores Fam and Giselle to help his youngest daughter survive, even if he and the rest of the nation perish in the Ades Federation onslaught.
Premiere Luskinia’s suspicions that the Turan flagship survived the crash are proven correct when the Lasas attempts to ram into the Impetuous head-on. With the Sky Pirates rallying to Liliana’s side, they are close to victory — until the Lasas veers to one side and widely misses the Impetuous. Dio — aloft in his vanship, pulls alongside the Lases to investigate, and makes a horrible discovery: Alauda had infiltrated the Lasas, murdered its crew, and kidnapped the elder Turan princess.
Dio quickly relays the news of Liliana’s kidnapping to Fam and Giselle, who are on their way to deliver Milia to one of the Turan Royal Family’s distant estates. Milia begs Fam to rescue their sister, and Fam decides to throw caution to the winds and break through the Impetuous’ iron-clad defenses. Giselle comes to the fore with her expert navigation skills and photographic memory for ship schematics, and she helps Fam fly past armed guards and directly to the Impetuous’ bridge and Premiere Luskinia.
Milia threatens Luskinia at gunpoint and demands the return of her sister. However, Luskinia has other plans with Liliana: he uses her to activate the legendary Exile. Unbeknownst to many, Liliana is one of the Keys to Exile, and Luskinia uses her to summon the floating fortress and attack Iglasia. The entire city of Iglasia is destroyed, and Milia is left to deal with the loss of her father, her sister, and her kingdom.
I’m not going to lie: I was completely blown away by this episode. Considering that this is just the second show of what could turn out to be a two-season series, “Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~” certainly ups the ante on the plot pacing. Milia’s journey from spoiled brat to Royal Princess in the space of twenty minutes was grave and thought-provoking — I now feel more sympathy than ambivalence with her and her current circumstances.
I really enjoyed the aerial battle sequences in “Fam” — especially the ones showing the Lasas and the Impetuous (btw, am I the only person who noticed that the Impetuous looked a lot like the airships in Trinity Blood?). I’m also a really big fan of Macross, so the giant barrage of gunfire from the Ades Federation and Kartoffel ships in this episode made me giddy with glee. Not filling me with joy though was the way Alauda snuck into the Lasas to kidnap Liliana — you’d think that after Dio nonchalantly strolled into the Lasas bridge in the previous episode, the Turan guards would’ve figured out a way to stop that from happening again 😐
The high points for me in this episode of “Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~” basically boil down to two things: Giselle and her awesome co-pilot skills, and Liliana pulling an Alvis on all of us. That ending honestly took me by surprise, and after everything that happened I have to say the opening credits make much more sense now! Aside from the Aluada bit the low points were mostly technical — I noticed a significant drop in animation quality compared to the pilot episode. A little consistency wouldn’t hurt Gonzo — really~
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With same-day broadcasts in Japan and Asia through Animax, “Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~” is the must-see sequel to the original “Last Exile” aired over eight years ago. Featuring most of the original staff members in their previous roles — including director Chigira Koichi, character designer Range Murata, and mechanical designer Kobayashi Makoto, “Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~” is on every Saturday at 8PM starting 15th October.
JPOP Manila 