Λαστ Εξιλε
As a fan of airships of all shapes, sizes, and types, it was perhaps foreordained that I would like Last Exile. To say this anime features airships is an understatement. The only other transportation seen in the series is a horse and buggy. The story follows a pair of immensely likable air couriers throughout their adventures in a time of war. What's remarkable about the series is that it is extraordinarily unlike many animes I've seen. (This perhaps explains why I like it)
Most animes I've seen have a lot of sex, scanty clothing, etc (called fan service). A few feature over the top violence and gore. Others toss in excessive brooding and angst-filled heroes. Last Exile is almost something I could show to kids - a bit too much violence, certainly not enough to bother adults. The main hero is very upbeat and optimistic for 90% of the show. Music is also a high point, with only the theme song being a disappointment. The entire show strives to capture the era of steam and early biplanes, focusing on the WWI era. The DVDs are available, and it is worth a watch, especially if you would normally pass on anime.
Friday, July 20, 2007
On a lighter (than air) note
Friday, April 6, 2007
Another page in the history of the galaxy!
I'm not a fan of anime in general, especially subtitled anime. However, a few stand out as excellent, or at least a pleasure to watch. One of these is Legend of Galactic Heroes. The most important word for this series is Epic. The story is a classic space opera featuring a noble Empire squaring off against the democratic Free Planets Alliance. The story centers around the heroic admirals and other related personnel for each side, especially the Empire's Admiral Reinhardt and the FPL's Admiral Yang. Reinhardt is a paragon of nobility - far from being a villain, he is a man of honor and courage. Yang, a would-be history professor, is a paragon of democracy. He is loyal to the principle of civilian control of the military almost to a fault, and has no love of the military for its own sake. Both the proud noble and the humble professor are amazingly gifted strategists. They are among the literal thousands of characters, each one having a name and story. The story itself is told in a format similar to a historical documentary, with a continuous narration describing the events and proving background.
What prompted this discussion is my friend Silence over at Fortress Iserlohn has begun a project of identifying all of the flagships from the series. He just started, so there are only a few ships up as of yet. In addition to simply pointing any visitor in that direction, I decided to post a few thoughts on the weapons of LOGH. The predominant weapon is the beam weapon. The laser-like beam from the handheld weapon has been shown to go right through flesh, doing little secondary damage. Any heat effects seem to secondary, as the woulds are not cauterized. The small beams can be stopped with little secondary effect by armor or heavy objects. They also react explosively with zephyr particles, an aerosol mixture, resulting in melee units being rather common for a time the far future. This all leads me to the conclusion that the "blue beams" of LOGH are packets of atomic particles accelerated to a relativistic speed. The packet leave a trail of energetic gas behind them, which creates the beam effect. Then again, this is all conjecture.
