Overall I'd say this is a great series, a solid 8 out of 10.The biggest strength for the series is by far the amazing artwork and animation. Reminiscent of Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky", the steam punk airship technology are all interestingly designed and are beautifully translated onto the screen. Character animation is very solid, the studio clearly didn't try to cut corners, which provides expression and life to the characters. Top notch stuff all aroundThe first half of the series had me completely hooked, particularly the first two episodes. I totally bought into the steam punk tech especially. The characters that were introduced were likable and their motivations (or lack thereof in some cases) were clear. The scene was set for some epic reveals and an exciting ride. However, I felt that the pacing of the second half of the story was sorely lacking. I found myself begin to lose interest at times, even as things began to unfold. Not to say it wasn't competently done, but from the expectations I had from the first half, it didn't pay off the way I wanted it to. The art and animation is incredible and the story is well above most others, give it a watch.

'Last exile' is no extraordinary story. It a good story. The anime has well thought characters and some good episodes. If I were to rate the series in three parts and out of 10 -The first few episodes would be - 8/10 | The episodes in the middle - 6/10 | The last few episodes - 4.5/10So basically, the anime has a great start. An average middle and a sloppy ending. It felt to me like the makers were in some kind of an hurry to finish off the story. There are many, many loose ends. Too many important characters dying and too many unnecessary love connections made. Whereas the main romances are left high and dry. As a viewer I felt empty in the end. Like some major part of the story was 'missing'. This series will, for sure, not be 'remembered'.So, watch it but don't expect satisfaction.

I'm an animator and I was initially drawn to the series after seeing the artwork, which by the way is beautiful. Nice clean lines, good use of color to enhance scenes, and the standard Japanese affinity for attention to detail. For a series, I was rather impressed as I am choosy about what I watch, some series have such terrible animation that not even a good story can redeem it. There needs to be a fairly strong marriage between animation and story for it to be a success, and Last Exile has it. As far as animation goes, it was very good. I'd have to say that it looked as though GONZO was pushing to show off the use of new 3D technology with this one and at times the 3D and 2D elements collided in odd ways. As you see, in animation when using 2D and 3D together generally we try to mesh them together so as to make a unified style and no one can tell the difference. As is sometimes problematic with series (deadlines deadlines deadline!!!) some of the animation looked a little stiff, but hey, you clearly get the idea of what is going on and it's the story that really gets you.The plot, which everyone else has kindly outlined, is rather intriguing. The writers don't spoon-feed you the entire story so you must do some thinking and imagining on your own. Characters definitely have appeal, whether you love them or hate them, they are evoking emotion and opinion from you as a viewer. My personal favorite character is Dio.As far as the dubbed version goes, the English voice actors were well selected (unlike some of Disney's choices for the English dubs of Ghibli films *cough cough*). Whether you listen to the Japanese or English audio, both versions use good vocal dynamics (re: none of that monotone "I'm just reading the lines off a paper" stuff) The voice acting gave you a sense of each character's personality (although Lavie's English voice acting got irritating at times).Overall, if steam-punk is your genre you will enjoy this series. The fantasy world is quite like something that Studio Ghibli would have created and I found myself seeing similarities between this and Laputa (dubbed Castle in the Sky). This is definitely one of the more enjoyable series to watch in English or Japanese.

I will skip the talk about how good the animation is. I am not an expert in animation, nor do I let it get in the way if the story is good. Enough said, it is very good. What pushed my buttons is the way the series constructs a world, adds interesting lead characters and then ends the story. Yes, this is not one of those animes that drag the story, no matter how nice, and then end the series with no closure because the ran out of steam before finishing the plot. This is a good all fashioned circular story with build-up and release.Then there is the world, reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Pandora mixed with a little Dune, both in storyline and socio-ecological meaning. I would say that there are no great surprises in this anime. This is a bad thing, but also a good one. If you build things up too much they quickly become unmanageable. There is hope for a sequel, I guess, but no pressure for it. All the goals set in the beginning are met in the end, either in success or disaster.It is a nice anime series. It is worth watching, but I've seen better. I guess what really is missing is a way to truly connect with the characters. Even in the most tensioned moments, the levels of emotion don't get too high. I would say the starting theme song (complete with worthless karaoke style translation) is also a bad thing. The rest, though, is just visual and comfortable beauty.