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Last Exile

type	tv series
title	Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing
director	Yukio Takahashi (Chief) Koichi Chigira
producer	Hiroyuki Birukawa Tadashi Hoshino Masami Abe
writer	Kiyoko Yoshimura
music	Hitomi Kuroishi
studio	Gonzo
licensee	Crunchyroll
network	CBC
first	October 15, 2011
last	March 24, 2012
episodes	21
episode list	List of Last Exile episodes#Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (2011)

Last Exile (ラストエグザイル) is a Japanese anime television series created by Gonzo. It featured a production team led by director Koichi Chigira, character designer Range Murata, and production designer Mahiro Maeda. The three had previously worked together in Blue Submarine No. 6, one of the first CG anime series. It aired on TV Tokyo from April to September 2003. A sequel series, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (ラストエグザイル～銀翼のファム～), aired from October 2011 to March 2012. A film adaptation of the series, Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing: Over the Wishes, was released in February 2016.

The story is set on the fictional world of Prester, where its inhabitants use aerial vehicles known as vanships as a means of transportation. On this world, which is divided in eternal conflict between the nations of Anatoray and Disith, sky couriers Claus Valca and Lavie Head must deliver a girl who holds the key to uniting the two factions. Although Prester itself is not a representation of Earth, it features technology reminiscent of nineteenth century Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Many of its designs were also inspired by Germany's technological advances during the interwar period.

The series was licensed in North America by Geneon Entertainment in June 2003, two months after the first episode aired in Japan. Funimation

Production

Last Exile was created by Gonzo in celebration of the company's 10th anniversary.[19] It featured a production team led by director Koichi Chigira, character designer Range Murata, and production designer Mahiro Maeda. The three had previously worked together to create Blue Submarine No. 6, one of the first CG anime series.[20]

Art design

Conceptual designs were created by Range Murata, who was given complete freedom to create the setting. He began drawing detailed sketches of machines and everyday objects from a daily newspaper. His research was given no constraints with the exception of production deadlines.[4] Gonzo initially intended for Last Exile to be shown in a space setting, but producers did not want the characters to wear sterile space suits. Murata believed the design took "the course the story had laid out".[22] His character conceptualization included a great amount of time spent on costume design. Wanting to portray each character's personality more fully, he "tried to draw in the kind of material that would have been used in creating their clothes and try to represent the stitches connecting the fabric." In contrast to crewmembers of the battleship Silvana who wear modern and utilitarian uniforms, other characters wear traditionally aristocratic attire.[23] High amount of attention was given to character animation. Animators especially experienced difficulties with Alex Row's hair and flowing cape.[24]

Production of Last Exile relied heavily on 3D computer animation. Of the 350 shots used in the first episode, more than 200 included computer-generated animation. In comparison, Gonzo's previous work, Vandread, used an average of 40 to 50 computer-generated shots per episode.[25] Animation was also supplemented with Victorian era flourishes.[8] In order to combine hand-drawn animation with computer-generated ones, the production team used a technique for non-photorealistic rendering, which could not be used for Blue Submarine No. 6 because of a stylistic conflict.[22] At the 2003 Anime Expo, Maeda, who also worked with Studio Ghibli's production of Castle in the Sky, commented that "[Last Exile] is very advanced in how it will incorporate the two mediums".[26]

Historical references

Real-world historical designs were also adapted for the fictional world. Flying battleships of the Anatoray and Disith nations included components of Japanese dreadnoughts in commission at the turn of the twentieth century. Uniform designs for Anatoray's musketeers were based on Napoleon Bonaparte's army and American Civil War soldiers. On the other hand, Soviet Red Army fur coats provided the basis for Disith uniforms. Another inspiration for creators came from a silent film of the airship Hindenburg, which depicted the aircraft's UFO-like silver-plated design in contrast to the traditional buildings below. This imagery was reproduced in the series.[4]

Producers selected a specific historical time frame to serve as a point of reference. "We had this image of Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. We thought that Germany of the interwar period had very interesting characteristics. People think of something of dark and negative because of the rise of the Nazism. But so much of things appeared at that time, like a rapid growth of the cities and richness. Industrial technology, chemistry, scientific discoveries, much of inventions also in the design. Bauhaus appears there, for example. [...] I think that all that Germany produced at that time was extreme and unique."

Several characters were also named after historical figures. The name of Claus Valca's father was derived from Hamilcar Barca, the leading commander of Carthaginian forces during the First Punic War and father of the talented tactician Hannibal