Line #46 Anime/LastExile


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lastexile.png]]
6	->''"What lies beyond the furthest reaches of the sky?"''
7
8	A 2003 anime series from {{Creator/GONZO}}.
9
10	Claus and Lavie are "vanship" pilots who work as air mail couriers using the vanship that their respective parents left to them. It's a hard, dangerous living, and they must risk their lives to earn enough to soup up their vanship enough to be a contender in the air races. One day, however, just as they're finally about to win a race, a crippled vanship crashes right in front of them. When they go to its aid, the dying pilot begs them to take over his delivery job: safely deliver a mysterious young girl to the legendary pirate ship ''Silvana''.
11
12	Naturally, the same force that was pursuing the girl- The Guild, an organization ruled by the power-hungry [[BigBad Maestro Delphine Eraclea]]- now turns their sights on Claus and Lavie, who find themselves at the center of a conflict that threatens to tear their world apart.
13
14	[[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-02-01/gonzo-lists-last-exile-fam-the-silver-wing-for-2011 A sequel series]] titled ''Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing'' aired in the fall of 2011.
15
16	A manga on the series was also serialized in Newtype Ace. Entitled ''Sunadokei no Tabibito'' (literally ''Travelers from the Hourglass''), it serves as a bridge between ''Last Exile'' and its sequel, explaining what happened to the original cast and how they figure in the conflict engulfing the world in the new series.
17
18	----
19	!!''Last Exile'' provides examples of:
20
21	* TwoDSpace: Addressed in the first episode -- while there is the entirety of the upper sky left empty during war, it's a breach of the chivalry which regulates war to use it.
22	* AceCustom: the ''Silvana''. Equipped with the heaviest and strongest armor around, loaded for bear with highly destructive artillery, and with a spacious belly full of combat Vanships --a novel concept in aerial warfare-- and at the same time, smaller and more maneuverable than standard airships. And, unlike the ''Urbanus'' class, there is only one ''Silvana'' around, and it's under Alex Rowe's control. Oh, and it's the only one with an unregistered Claudia Unit; every other ship has a bunch of Guilders hitching a ride inside its Unit, waiting to yank a switch and drop the rest of the ship out of the sky at the Guild's orders.
23	** SuperPrototype: The ''Silvana'' is so powerful because it is essentially a testbed for a variety of experimental systems, several of which would later be integrated into the new ''Urbanus'' class vessels.
24	* AchillesInHisTent: Lavie. She's an ace vanship navigator, racer, and courier, but becomes a mechanic after she realizes she's just not cut out for combat. She steps back into the fray when the heroes need a pair of ace couriers to save the day.
25	* AirborneAircraftCarrier: the ''Silvana'', among others
26	* AirstrikeImpossible: Basically, what any Vanship assault on a battlecruiser boils down to, but especially notable in the endgame battles.
27	* AllThereInTheManual:
28	** While it is mostly explained by the time of the final episode, almost all aspects of the political situation at the start of the series is unknown to the viewer bordering on being LostInMediasRes. Only the timeline in the Aerial Log book fully explains things.
29	** [[spoiler:Dio survives the final episode, as implied by his voice echoing through the ''Silvana'''s engine room, and by a lone page out of the ''Last Exile'' artbook that shows him reuniting with Claus, Lavie and Alvis on Earth]]. This is confirmed by the sequel series, ''Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing''.
30	* AlmightyJanitor: Sophia. [[spoiler:She's already the heir to the Anatoray throne while serving as the ''Silvana'''s executive officer. After her father dies and she becomes the Empress, she remains aboard the ''Silvana'' as its XO, and expects the crew to treat her only as their superior officer, not their sovereign. (As far a the rest of the fleet is concerned, however, she's still their sovereign and the Silvana is her flagship)]]
31	* AncientConspiracy: The Guild. It was originally an organization entrusted to oversee both the Exile program and an ambitious geo-engineering plan to undo the disastrous aftermath of climate change, which also sent some of its members to oversee the colonists. Over the centuries however, they've turned into a secretive order [[MotiveDecay more interested]] in maintaining their power and manipulating the rest of mankind than fulfilling their original objective. In some cases, they seemed to have forgotten why they even came to be in the first place.
32	* ArcWords The questions and answers which are key to opening Exile.
33	* AristocratsAreEvil: There are aversions, but is mostly played straight, especially with The Guild. On the heroic side, only those aristocrats directly associated with the heroes subvert it.
34	%%* {{Auction}}
35	* AwesomeButImpractical: The Disith warships, looking very futuristic next to the Anatoray armada (and vaguely reminiscent of [[spoiler:Exile's cocoon form]], with batteries of revolving cannons on their bellies. Which means they can't target ''anything'' that isn't directly beneath them without tilting the whole ship on its side.
36	** This is justified in the supplemental materials, which explained that the invading Disith expected to engage in combat primarily while descending from the Grand Stream, so their ships are designed with the expectation that their enemies will usually be at a lower altitude. For the same reason, Anatoray battleships are designed with the majority of their weapons on the topside of the ship with expectation of fighting Disith who would be descending from above.
37	** Musketeers on both sides are armed with cool-looking, but heinously impractical steam muskets as well as fancy uniforms wholly pointless given the use of Musketeers (uniforms traditionally are brightly colored to distinguish faction, something unneeded when everyone is volleying from ship to ship with no intention of boarding). Then again, everything about Musketeers is just cool-looking, cruel fluff dictated by the guild.
38	** The method of giving out vanship pilot jobs in the first episode. Taping them to the side of a cliff and having pilots fly by and read them and signal which one they want looks awesome, but... with all the effort it would take to set that all up each morning, wouldn't it be much more efficient to just have them, you know, stop by an office and grab the assignment?
39	%%* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Sophia
40	%%* BadassLongcoat: Alex's mantle.
41	* BangingPotsAndPans: Lavie wakes Claus every morning by banging a hammer against a sheet of metal.
42	* BattleButler: Lucciola to Dio, Cicada to Delphine.
43	* BestServedCold: Alex's motivation for captaining the ''Silvana'' and hunting down ''Exile''.
44	* {{BFG}} Pretty much any hand-held weapon in the series.
45	* BigBad: [[EvilOverlord Maestro Delphine Eraclea]] is the leader of the Guild who oppresses her people and seeks to capture [[MysteriousWaif Alvis]] to use her to activate the titular Last Exile and gain even more power.
46	* BilingualBonus: All the text in the series is English written in the Greek alphabet. The real Greek alphabet mind you, none of that mucking about using capital sigmas for E's and the such. There are some pragmatic changes ("h" doesn't have an easy equivalent in Greek, and so gets transcribed into η, which would be the letter for é), and some outright mistakes (''δικαίος, ᾱ, ον'' would be translated as "fair one, the", as in what you'd find in a dictionary), but the translation is overall pretty good.
47	* BlingOfWar: Mullin's medals in specific, but every fleet has its own more or less elaborate uniform, with even gaudier uniforms for the officers.
48	%%* BrotherSisterIncest: Delphine seems a little too interested in Dio.
49	* ButtMonkey: Mullin Shetland during his time on the ''Silvana;'' he didn't get ANY breaks.
50	%%* ByronicHero: Alex Rowe
51	%%* TheCaligula: Delphine
52	* CantArgueWithElves: The Guild. Aloof, fair-featured and pointy-eared, agile and graceful, with otherworldly technology, with an outlook of the entire world being their playthings? Definitely elf.
53	* CaptainErsatz: WordOfGod says that Alex Row is based on Anime/CaptainHarlock.
54	* ChainsawGood: The ''Urbanus'' class ships.
55	* ChessMotifs: Alex talking about [[spoiler: taking his enemy's ''queen'' to win the game in a chess match.]] And most if not all of the episodes are named after chess moves or gambits, e.g. "Castling Lucciola" and "Sicilian Defense".
56	* CliffHanger: Episode 12, "Discovered Attack" The ''Silvana'' is sinking, Claus and Tatiana have been shot down, Lavie lies unconscious on the hangar deck... is this the end? (Of course not, it's episode 12)
57	* CloneDegeneration: ''Travelers from the Hourglass'' reveals that the Earth Guild replenishes its numbers via cloning, but have hit the limit of reproductive cloning due to degraded DNA telomeres.
58	%%* CloudCuckoolander: Dio
59	* CombatTentacles: [[spoiler: Exile's while in cocoon mode]].
60	* CoolAirship: Many, but the ''Silvana'' rules the skies through an innovative design, a competent crew, a [[{{Determinator}} determined commander]] and, of course, [[BiggerStick overwhelming firepower]].
61	%%* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler: Alex.]]
62	%%* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The Guild falls partly under this trope.
63	* CurbStompBattle: Silvana's duel against Goliath, which serves primarily as the first operational test of Silvana's secret [[MacrossMissileMassacre multi-barrelled armor piercing rocket launchers.]]
64	* DanceBattler: This seems to be a common fighting style among the Guild, at least if [[spoiler: Lucciola and Cicada's]] battle is anything to go by. Also accompanied by very appropriate background music.
65	%%* Dangerous16thBirthday: For Dio.
66	* DefrostingIceQueen: Tatiana.
67	* DemotedToExtra: After being a major character for the first third of the series, Lavie starts to play an increasingly minor role compared to Claus after she withdraws from combat to become a mechanic. She starts to make it back up the ladder towards the end.
68	%%* DirtyCoward: Captain Knowles.
69	* DistantFinale: The series ends with a glimpse of the main characters (Claus, Lavie, and Alvis) and some of their friends (Mullin, Dunya and her siblings) living peacefully on a farm on Earth for at least a year, with others (Tatiana and Alister) dropping by for a visit. However as ''Travelers from the Hourglass'' and ''Fam: The Silver Wing'' [[{{Retcon}} soon reveals that this peace never happens]], as Claus and his friends are attacked by the Earth Guild less than a month after they arrived. Whats worse, [[CrapsackWorld Earth is apparently in the middle of a war that's already at least a decade old]] by the time the Prester immigrants return.
70	%%* DoABarrelRoll: The Immelmann turn among others.
71	%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
72	%%* EarthThatUsedToBeBetter
73	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Earth Guild has a ''very'' impressive and intensive one built inside a mountain range, as revealed by chapter 7 of the ''Hourglass'' manga.
74	* TheEmpire: Both Anatoray and Disith qualify, though we see far more of the former.
75	%%* EnforcedColdWar
76	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Alex saving Claus, Lavie, and Alvis from a Guild drone with a single, well-placed shot from his gun-cane. Especially since the entire maintenance crew could barely dent a drone's armor with ''their'' {{BFG}}.
77	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: ''[[UnwantedHarem Everyone]]'' wants Claus. Gale the mechanic admits it, and Dio is essentially walking, talking HoYay whenever Claus is around.
78	* EvilTastesGood: Maestro Delphine indulges gluttony on every level.
79	* EvolvingCredits: Minor, but after episode 18 there's a noticeable change.
80	* ExactTimeToFailure: When the Guild first attacks the Silvana, it's stated they can operate for 20 minutes at full power. After ''exactly'' twenty minutes, they all break off and leave (including Dio and Luciola, who entered the battle later on).
81	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange:
82	** Sophia's hair-down-to-there upon [[spoiler:taking the Imperial Throne]].
83	** Dio's braid is unwrapped, and his bangs re-brushed [[spoiler: to show off his Mark of the Covenant, after being brainwashed for the Rite and turned into a remorseless killing machine.]].
84	** Lavie bobs her hair after she and Claus lose their parents, probably to make it easier to manage as a vanship pilot.
85	%%* Expy: Alex Row is ''clearly'' an homage to Captain Harlock.
86	* ExtremeDoormat: Lucciola, but he eventually becomes an Extreme Badass.
87	** And by extension, he is also Dio's BattleButler.
88	** Lucciola does have a mind of his own, however -- and often uses it to keep Dio alive and out of trouble.
89	* ExtremeSpeculativeStratification: The Guild are the ruling class of the planet who live in spectacular structures above the clouds and jealously preserve their advanced technology for their own use alone. The people living on the actual planet, on the continents of Anatoray and Disith, are forced to war with one another for control of the small (and thanks to the Guild's carelessness, shrinking) habitable areas. The Guild occasionally lends them weaponry to keep the war going, as they regard it as a source of entertainment.
90	%%* FacialMarkings: All members of the Guild.
91	* FailureMontage: A flashback showing how the duo learned to fly plays out like this.
92	%%* FingerLickinEvil:
93	* ForegoneConclusion: The Earth Guild [[spoiler:will go extinct]], if their lack of presence in Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing is anything to go by.
94	* {{Foreshadowing}} Lavie's mid-battle "Screw Chivalry" rant in which she screams that chivalry only matters to nobles who have never gone hungry presages the reason the Disith have abandoned the traditional rules of engagement: [[spoiler: they're desperate because their lands are rapidly becoming uninhabitable.]]
95	* ForTheEvulz: Seems to be Delphine's motivation for most of her actions, such as not intervening when Disith ships disregard the rules of engagement in the first fight, and sometimes she seems to enjoy watching people suffer and/or die. [[spoiler: It's even implied that she deliberately allowed the climate to become unbalanced in order to pit Disith and Anatoray against each other.]]
96	* FreudianExcuse: Dio comes off as a thoroughly unsympathetic creep until we meet his sister.
97	* FridgeBrilliance: From the first episode, the favored way to begin engagements by both the Disith and Anatoray fleets is to deploy ranks of musketeers to exchange volley-fire, count the casualties, and potentially secure a favorable ceasefire. For an airborne fleet of ships bristling with large-caliber guns capable of firing at distances of many kilometers, this seems stupidly wasteful and pointless...until you remember the actual objective of the war: invading Anatoray with the intention of securing and occupying livable territory, or repulsing an invasion, respectively, something both sides need armies of infantry do feasibly. Allowing a fleet to withdraw peaceably after losing its infantry component then makes good sense from the standpoint of the fleet commanders, while remaining brutally cruel to the infantry sacrificed for the meat grinder.
98	%%* GirlInTheTower: Sophia, briefly.
99	* TheGlomp: Dio is exceedingly fond of this. Not only will he get touchy-feely with his [[HoYay faithful companion Lucciola]], he also has a thing for glomping Claus, who is pretty freaked out by it.
100	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Delphine, just Delphine...
101	* GreenRocks: The water-soluble, luminescent crystal Claudia powers the airship's antigravity units and serves as the basis of currency.
102	* GuyInBack: Quite a few as most vanships required a navigator. Lavie Head, Alister Agrew, and Lucciola were the most noticeable examples.
103	* HappyEnding For most of the cast, if you take just ''this'' series into consideration. If you count the bridge manga ''Travelers from the Hourglass'' and Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing? [[TheAdventureContinues Not so much]].
104	* HerBoyfriendsJacket: After Claus and Tatiana crash land in the desert, at one point he offers her some spare coveralls as a change of clothes. When they get back to the Silvana, Claus' old friend Lavie sees Tatiana wearing his clothes and she begins to fear this is happening.
105	* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Tatiana experiences a brief one after she watches the ''Silvana'' go down in battle, primarily because she's convinced she just lost her best friend Alister, with whom she'd been fighting.]]
106	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Lucciola does this to give Claus, Al, and Dio time to escape. Delphine "rewards" him with a ring that disintegrates him even as she repeatedly asks her to free Dio from his mental state.]]
107	** Potentially Alex as well, [[spoiler: as he's busy choking Delphine to death so that she can't give any commands, and allowing the ''Silvana'' time to fire on her ship, while he's still aboard it.]]
108	** Claus and Lavie's fathers' attempt to cross the Grand Stream turned out to have been a heroic sacrifice as well.
109	* HonorBeforeReason: Mad-Thane's subordinate officer would rather fight to the death for honor rather than retreat sensibly. Mad-Thane himself appears to agree with him until he hears Lavie's "Screw Chivalry!" rant
110	** The entire Guild-approved chivalry system, which requires - among other nonsensicalities - the routine sacrifice of musketeers in an initial rifle battle ''as a formal beginning of an engagement''. To clarify, neither side can hurt the other's ships in any way with rifle fire, so they just target the other musketeers; the whole thing is merely done so the arbitrary Guild requirement for chivalry is fulfilled (if a certain percentage of musketeers on one side die, they have the right to withdraw from battle without any loss of honor) and the ships can begin exchanging cannon fire, which is what ''actually'' determines the course of a battle.
111	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Most episodes are named after chess terms.
112	* IdiotBall: A few, but when Mullin starts getting wistful for his "glory days" as a cannon-fodder rifleman, ''every'' viewer is required by law to perform a FacePalm and quietly tell him to take his Website/{{Darwin Award\|s}} and get out of here... redeemed, somewhat, by TheAlliance's plan to convert their musketeers from CannonFodder to an elite assault force in order to capture their Claudia units from the guild.
113	* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: The vanship pilot at the beginning.
114	* ImprovisedWeapon: Alex uses an area with jagged, overhanging rocks to kill two ships by dropping one of the arches on them.
115	* InitiationCeremony: According to WordOfGod, Mullin being stripped naked and roughed up a bit by the Silvana's crew is a standard hazing ritual they put all new members through.
116	%%** The Rite of Covenant, of the horrific type.
117	* InvadingRefugees: Disith.
118	* JabbaTableManners: The Guild, enough to make Jabba himself look like a gentleman. Guild connoisseurs take ''pride'' at how a tiny morsel of succulent meat took the lives of dozens of men to acquire and how a slice of fish is washed with enough water to slake a family's thirst. After all, so they reason, the sacrifice makes the food all the more tasty. Claus, an ''orphan'' of the Guild's endless war, is increasingly horrified by each dish, poignantly reminiscing about Lavie's sandwiches just to keep from screaming.
119	%%* JigsawPuzzlePlot
120	* KickTheDog: Delphine recalls the engine of a ship bringing water to some thirsty folks just [[ForTheEvulz fo' funzies.]]
121	* LadyOfWar: Sophia is respected, beautiful, competent, and SheCleansUpNicely when regal needs arise.
122	%%* TheLastTitle: The title.
123	* LightIsNotGood: The Guild. Aside from the customary white clothing, Guild ships are very bright and full of sunlight, particularly in contrast to the ''Silvana''.
124	* LiveActionAdaptation: This may be happening for the series, but it's currently rotting somewhere in DevelopmentHell.
125	* LostColony: [[spoiler:Prester is not a natural planet at all, but rather is an artificial colony overseen by the Guild.]] ''Travelers from the Hourglass'' and Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing later reveal that it's just one of at ''least'' seven others.
126	* LostTechnology: [[spoiler:Exile]] and [[spoiler:Prester itself]], where the latter is an [[spoiler:artificial planet with an inhabitable interior surface, much like an hourglass, with the Grand Stream barring the way across the connection. Everything inside the closed system (weather, projections of the sun and moon) is monitored by Exile and the Guild.]]
127	* LowCultureHighTech: The nations of Disith and Anatoray have to ''rent'' the anti-gravity engines of their AirborneAircraftCarrier fleets from the Guild; complete with engineers to maintain them. If the ship takes too much damage, the engineers yank a few levers, tear the engine free and let everyone else aboard crash and burn. Sometimes the Guild recalls engines out of ''[[KickTheDog spite]].''
128	* MacGuffinSuperPerson: The first half of the anime concerns Claus and Lavie (and later, the entire crew of the Silvana) trying to keep Alvis out of the clutches of the Guild. Why they're hunting her isn't revealed until the last episode. [[spoiler: Turns out she's a living "ignition key" for the eponymous space ship.]]
129	%%* MacrossMissileMassacre
130	* MagneticHero: Claus displays that uncanny ability to win people over to respect him with his sincerity and vanship skills, though falls a bit short on the all-loving personality that would push him over the line to be The Messiah.
131	%%* ManipulativeBitch: Delphine.
132	* MeaningfulName:
133	** The eponymous Last Exile, though its significance will only come to the fore in the sequel Anime/LastExileFamTheSilverWing.
134	** Alex's wife Eurys, is probably a reference to the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
135	* MilitaryMashupMachine: Battleship-Aircraftcarrier-[[{{ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld}} Zeppelins.]]
136	* MindRape: [[spoiler: Dio's Rite of the Covenant sure qualifies.]]
137	* MiracleRally: More than one of them.
138	* MoodWhiplash: Surprisingly enough it's NOT in the exact middle of the series as is common for Gonzo shows, but closer to the end.
139	* MoreDakka: The main weapon of most of the ships. The vanships can utilize this, or torpedoes in the second half of the series.
140	%%* MysteriousWaif: Alvis.
141	* NeckSnap: [[spoiler: Apparently, Alex considers this too good for Delphine at the end as he forgoes a simple neck snap in favor of strangling her to death as he stares into her eyes.]]
142	* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Tatiana almost gives up after she's convinced her best friend Alister, with whom she'd been fighting, went down with the ''Silvana''. Claus' never-say-die attitude pulls her out of it.
143	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: the ''Silvana'' was assembled with [[spoiler:experimental Guild machinery by a group of renegades who fled the Guild with stolen technology]]. Being that the source of its technology will never want to part with any more of it, it will always be a one-off -- any plans or backups would be useless without the hardware to build another. For the next experimental vessels [[spoiler:capable of going against the Guild]] its creators instead employ vastly-improved [[spoiler:non-Guild]] technology and come up with completely different designs.
144	* NoSell: During the duel, the Goliath [[spoiler:shoots before the signal is given]] and actually hits the Silvana. Not only is no actual damage dealt -- nobody on board is so much as slightly bothered that the enemy has hit them. Sophia is almost giddy when she proposes using an experimental weapon, and throughout the event captain Alex is utterly ''bored''. During the series the Silvana similarly shrugs off attacks by other vessels, only suffering actual damage at the hands of the Guild [[spoiler:which makes sense since it effectively ''is'' a Guild ship]] or concentrated attacks by several new and experimental capital ships.
145	* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Dio with pretty much everyone, but especially Claus.
146	* NotSoAboveItAll: Tatiana, who annoys everyone with her hardass attitude until she freezes in the face of losing the one person she cares about most and realizes that everyone has their limits.
147	* OhCrap:
148	** Dio has that look when his sister shows up at Sophia's crowning ceremony.
149	** Delphine when Alex suddenly springs back to life and grabs her neck in the last episode.
150	* OrphansPlotTrinket: in a fairly subtle example, Alvis' toy goat was a present ''from Alex'' when Lavie was a little girl. Lavie doesn't make the connection, but Alex probably does.
151	* OutOfCharacterMoment: Mullin gets one in "Sunadokei no Tabibito". In the manga, when everyone is wondering why [[spoiler: Claus hasn't come back yet from meeting Tatiana, he says that Claus is such a sly dog and that he doesn't think he will be coming back that night, saying that something must have happened between them in the desert,]] he does this ''in front'' of Lavie, and after she walks away, he thinks he did nothing wrong, since she was "smiling". To put things into perspective, in the anime, when the crew of Silvana where going on about how "something" must have happened [[spoiler: between Claus and Tatiana while they were stranded in the desert, he tells them to stop making assumptions like that, Since he felt sorry for Lavie,]] this conversation happens in the gym...
152	* ParentalAbandonment: Played straight, although we get to see what happened to Claus and Lavie's parents and why they aren't around when the story starts.
153	* PerpetualStorm: The [[http://lastexile.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Stream Grand Stream]], a powerful, stable and deadly storm.
154	%%* PimpedOutDress: The upper class ladies.
155	%%* PrettyInMink: Alvis's cape with the white fur hood and puff balls.
156	%%* PreviouslyOn: Cold openings with a recap of the previous episode are common.
157	* TheQuietOne: Alex. Sophia comments that he seems strangely talkative after he utters a single sentence that is not an order.
158	* RagnarokProofing: In the centuries leading up to the Exile's return to Earth, very little of our civilization survived.
159	* RammingAlwaysWorks: In a surprising instance, where Claus uses his vanship to ram Aranea's starfish fighter.
160	* RedshirtArmy: In this case, a {{Red Shirt}} Navy.
161	* TheRemnant: The Earth Guild, as of ''Travelers from the Hourglass'', is dying, and they know this. This seems to be the main motivating factor for them [[spoiler:to kidnap Alvis]], so they can gain new genetic material to keep on existing.
162	** The Guild are also shown to be pretty much all that's left of pre-Exile Earth.
163	%%* {{Retcon}}:
164	%%* {{Retirony}}
165	%%* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Alex Row.
166	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The dead little copilot was what broke Alex and sent him on his path of revenge.
167	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Sophia. She refuses to abandon her position as the ''Silvana'''s first officer to assume [[spoiler:her father's throne ... So she's crowned Empress]] anyway and is back on the bridge issuing order within five minutes.
168	* RuinsForRuinsSake: There's a vast and elaborate abandoned city deep beneath Claus and Lavie's hometown of Norkia, with vaults and arches large enough for Vanships to fly through. Even though Norkia is built on levels, the ruins make very little sense [[spoiler:since Prester is an artificial world and abandoning such a large volume of its habitable space seems awfully wasteful]].
169	* RuleOfCool: Flying battleships?
170	** Not to mention the Vanships which are for all intents and purposes, planes without most of the wings.
171	* SayItWithHearts: Lavie blows a heart kiss to Fat Chicken during the race.
172	* SayMyName: Dio casually calls Claus by name - finally, after it had always been "Immelmann" - when [[spoiler: they are searching a seemingly abandoned Silvana together -- just before he is taken away by the Guild.]]
173	* SceneryPorn
174	* ShoutOut:
175	** The Guild is a [[Franchise/{{Dune}} powerful, self-indulgent, 'neutral' force with complete control over the main mode of transport]].
176	** The [[spoiler:space colony Prester]] is shaped quite similar to the [[spoiler:PLANT colonies]] in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''.
177	** While the Horizon Race pilot raffle is being held, blue vanship number 6 is [[Anime/BlueSubmarineNo6 suspiciously specifically]] mentioned before all others.
178	* TheSkyIsAnOcean: To the point that shooting down a ship is referred to as "sinking" it, and getting a downed ship airborne again is referred to as "surfacing."
179	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The two countries in conflict, Anatoray and Disith in the dub, are named for the Greek "Anatolé" "Rising (Sun)" and "Dysis" "Setting (Sun)". Also:
180	** Claus/Klaus Valca/Valka/Balka/Barka/Barca
181	** Lavi/Lavie/Ravey/Robbie Head
182	** Dio/Deo Eraclea/Elaclair/Elacrea
183	** Lucciola/Luciola
184	** Mullin/Moran Shetland
185	** Dunya Scheer/Shear
186	** Tatiana Wisla/Visla/Visura/Visula
187	** Alister/Alistia/Alista/Arista Agrew/Agroo/Agleu
188	*** But for the record, WordOfGod says it's Claus Valca, Lavie Head, Dio Eraclea, Lucciola, Mullin Shetland, Dunya Scheer, Tatiana Wisla, and Alister Agrew.
189	*** It doesn't help that Lucciola's name is technically said incorrectly, going by the WordOfGod spelling. Lucciola is an Italian word meaning firefly; double C followed by i and o is said like "cho" (listen to [[http://www.forvo.com/word/ghiaccio/]] for an example of this sound). This was shifted to "shi" in the Japanese version, presumably because they were judging sound from spelling, making him "Rushiora." This change takes on the (Engrish) pronunciation of Lucciola's root word: luciola, which is Latin.
190	*** The mid-episode 'splash' panels (before and after the commercial break) in some of the early episodes clearly spell the name of the 'Silvana' as "Silverna".
191	*** Given the snakes painted all over its hull, the Urbanas may more be correctly called the Uroboros. It could also be derived from the Latin word [[https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/urbanus#Latin urbanus]], which has several meanings.
192	* SpiderTank: Or are they aircraft that walk on spider legs?
193	* SpoilerTitle: Some of the chess metaphors used, such as in [[spoiler:"Castling" Lucciola]], are dead giveaways.
194	* StealthPun: Vanships and airships use a fuel source named ''Claudia'' to go into the ''clouds''.
195	* SteamPunk: With steam-powered ''muskets''. Unusually, it's not portrayed as remotely practical.
196	* StraightGay: Gale, one of the mechanics. He eyes Claus appreciatively once or twice, to the amusement of his fellow crew-members, but if not for that you wouldn't realize he swings that way.
197	* SuperStrength: While the series showcased how members of the Guild are much more graceful and faster than the normal baseline human, ''Travelers from the Hourglass's'' Earth Guild reveals how a Guildsman is supernaturally strong as well, after one picks up Lavie with ''one arm'' and throws her bodily several feet from where she was seated in Claus' vanship.
198	* SupportingLeader: Vincent plays this, at separate times, to both his friend and colleague Alex and [[spoiler:his Empress]] Sophia.
199	* SurvivalMantra: "Disith bullets will avoid Mullin Shetland's body."
200	** Averted in his last fight, although he survives, because he's fighting alongside the Disith this time.
201	** He makes a new mantra: "Guild bullets will avoid Mullin Shetland's body" and one for his girlfriend: "Guild bullets will avoid Dunya Sheer's body".
202	* SwordCane: Henry Knowles has a sword cane and Alex Row uses a gun cane.
203	* ThemeNaming: Several instances.
204	** Guild bodyguards, both in the man series (Lucciola, Cicada) and the bridge manga (Uroctea, Aranea) are named after animals, with insects in the former, and arachnids in the latter.
205	** All the Urbanus-class warships (Martinus, Julianus, Georgius, Sebastianus, Eustatius) are named after Roman Catholic popes.
206	* TokenMiniMoe: Al.
207	* TomboyishName: Alister and Alvis.
208	* UnwantedHarem: Many females on the ship, from the {{Shorttank}} to the {{Tsundere}} Bruiser, seem to have a thing for main man Claus. [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Not to mention the (male) mechanic and... Dio]].
209	* WaifProphet
210	* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Think about it, the only reason ships carry [[{{Mook}} Musketmen]] is to [[{{AMillionIsAStatistic}} kill another ship's]] [[{{WeHaveReserves}} Musketmen]]. [[{{WhatMeasureIsAMook}} It's a meaningless duel of death.]]
211	* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler: Mullin Shetland]] and, according to an [[WordOfGod interview with the creators in the supplemental artbook]], [[spoiler: Dio Eraclea]].
212	* WorldHalfFull: Figuratively and literally, as the Guild is allowing Disith to glaciate while Anatoray suffers from drought.
213	* WorldShapes [[spoiler: Prester is shaped like an hourglass, which also happens to be the Guild's emblem. It appears that it's also a hollow world and the events take place inside it -- presumably "gravity" is produced by the hourglass spinning rapidly.]]
214	* WrenchWench: Quite a few, though Lavie certainly qualifies.
215	* YouShallNotPass: Performed by [[spoiler: Lucciola]] in order to allow the protagonists to escape from [[spoiler: Delphine's ship with Dio.]]

Context Anime / LastExile