Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Last Exile

July 20, 2006 on 12:58 am | In Last Exile | 16 Comments

Imagine a world in which the people on the ground are in a state of ecological turmoil, one half in danger of freezing, one in danger of melting. In the sky of this world lives a faction that governs the battles of the cold and the hot, and doles out technology as it sees fit so that the groundlings may themselves, to a limited extent, take to the skies … if only to wage war in it.

Next, imagine going to a casino and winning a million dollars. Then imagine leaving that casino without remembering to cash in your chips. What you’ve got there is something that represents one million dollars, but most definitely is not one million dollars.

Last Exile is a million dollars worth of chips: uncashed potential that never let me underneath its skin despite its best efforts to forge a sense of community among its characters. It’s a mixed case of simply not disclosing enough of the situation to the audience, and then compounding the problem by holding the characters at arm’s length.

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