| This is what is happening IMO in Silver Wing GONZO is taking its iconic steam punk anime and trying to make it more appealing to the Japanese Otaku market (who are big spenders) whilst hopefully retaining most of its international market (it was oddly big in America), thus making the anime into a mainstream financial success rather than just another cult hit. The reason behind this is GONZO had been experiencing financial difficulties for a few years, and with the the lost of Strike Witches, their only money making series in the recent decade (look at Breakdown by studio,) they are currently financially backed into a corner and desperate. Incidentally, on the same chart, you will notice that Last Exile was not on the list of anime that reached the 10k mark. Assuming that this chart only includes sales in Japan, the original Last Exile did not appeal to the otaku, the main consumers of the anime industry. (And if this chart does include overseas sales, that implies Last Exile did even worst.) Thus the desperate gamble of drawing on the notoriety of a cult hit and making it pander to the otaku fan base so that it will sell. I use the word pander with its negative connotation because I won't hide what GONZO is doing; they are making Silver Wing in order to make money, not in order to produce a classic. So for those of you hard-core steam punk fans that enjoyed the original Last Exile but are completely repulsed by Silver Wing, take this guys advice: Tenchio said: Okay, I've had enough; this is a disgrace to the original series. Dropped. (From Episode 5 discussion) Now for the question of will this actually work? If GONZO wins this gambit and this series achieves Strike Witches sales, then GONZO just might be able to pull themselves out of their hole, especially if they milk an additional season. But if this fails, given the production values which seem to be very high, given the animation and the voice actors, GONZO will probably go up in flames if not take a serious, serious blow. IMO, this entire series' success will depend on the characters and the writing of the plot. As I said, the characters were made more MOE so that the otaku will like them. So if the characters turn out to be unlikable, this show is surely doomed. Their development will have to be done well so that tolerant fans of the original can enjoy this show as well. In my personal opinion, I think this show will be a failure. Since the original series did not sell spectacularly, there will not be many Otaku who will be familiar with the original Last Exile. Since the original Last Exile aired eight and a half years ago, those who only saw the broadcast would probably not remember enough of the details that are needed to catch on to Silver Wing's plot. The producers included many elements from the original Last Exile in order to appeal to the original cult fan base, but not knowing some of those details (looking at you, Exile) will probably turn off new viewers. In conclusion, Last Exile's audience is way too small for it to achieve the level of sales it needs to pull GONZO out of the ground. Tl;dr: Last Exile was never meant to be a classic because the studio needs it to make money. GONZO's existence probably depends on Silver Wing's success. However IMO, I think this will be a failure. Sad times for GONZO. |
ExkalamityNov 20, 2011 5:55 AM
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| Well, who cares really. As long as I get some cool airship battles I'll be content. It's not like the original was a masterpiece or anything either so I didn't have too high expectations from the start. But the obviously cheap moe pandering main character is a bit of a letdown. At least the original had some more interesting ones. Well, the captain anyways. |
Baman said: But the obviously cheap moe pandering main character is a bit of a letdown. At least the original had some more interesting ones. Well, the captain anyways. True point. But they did have the sense to bring back Dio, arguably one of the most enjoyable male characters I have seen in anime, albeit under circumstances requiring a lot of suspension of disbelief. The captain was a good character, but they can't bring him back because he was killed outright >_>. The main characters in the original Last Exile weren't that stellar either. Lavi quit flying and Claus went emo-berserk. It was some of the supporting cast that had interesting portrayals, and it seems that the same could be true of Silver Wing. |
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| I can only partly agree. I SEEN "SHIT." I seen Guilty Crown and dropped it after 3 episodes. I saw C^3 and couldn't make it past the first half. LX Fam is basically trying to be "Strike Witches with airships." And while the lot of the supporting shounens aren't pansies or whimps; they could use a death of one of them to iron out their GANGSTER attitude of theirs. The original Last Exile was... ...well... "Bitter Medicine." It's like that old cartoon movie about the travelling Gnomes; the characters and scenery were miserable and depressing, but it was hopeful and it soldered on. And yeah. I missed the days when the entertainment industry created "epicness" and "history," not just money. (And now, because of money, everything's the same. But that's an argument I started yesterday over at the Geass Crown section.) |
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Tyrenol said: And yeah. I missed the days when the entertainment industry created "epicness" and "history," not just money. (And now, because of money, everything's the same. But that's an argument I started yesterday over at the Geass Crown section.) I may missunderstand you, so sorry in case. But this industry was always set to make money - making epic and memorable series is nice, but if they won't sell than there is no point in it. It won't cover the bills or salaries of employees. Same goes for creating cult movies - it's great if you can get that status AND be popular, but in most cases what works best for studio is appealing to fanbase. And Japanaese is one that only matters - after all it either won't be published or won't give enough sales abroad. |
Tyrenol said: The original Last Exile was... ...well... "Bitter Medicine." It's like that old cartoon movie about the travelling Gnomes; the characters and scenery were miserable and depressing, but it was hopeful and it soldered on. I googled your description of that cartoon movie and came up with this. If this is what you were referring to, then I have no idea how this makes sense in relation to the discussion, nor would I think that anybody here would know of such an obscure series. |
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Exkalamity said: I googled your description of that cartoon movie and came up with this. If this is what you were referring to, then I have no idea how this makes sense in relation to the discussion, nor would I think that anybody here would know of such an obscure series. No. It's called The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. And yeah, that's the wonderful thing about YouTube. Even the obscure is not immune. |
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| Why is this topic shit? |
Monad said: Why is this topic shit? Dunno. I just posted my idea of why Gonzo made this recent Last Exile the way they did, but seems like discussion went off somewhere. |
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| Silver Wing is just heartless, brainless, ugly moe-shit without true spirit. People die, nations are at war, the world is dying but it's so badly directed and developped, plus the characters are so utterly uninteresting that we, spectators, don't care. As a follow-up to a great series it's bad, and as a standalone, well... it's still bad. Honestly, it's more of a SoRaNoWoTo sequel than a Last Exile one. |
 In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
Jacut said: Silver Wing is just heartless, brainless, ugly moe-shit without true spirit. People die, nations are at war, the world is dying but it's so badly directed and developped, plus the characters are so utterly uninteresting that we, spectators, don't care. As a follow-up to a great series it's bad, and as a standalone, well... it's still bad. I cant do other than agree with you |
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| damn was gonna pick up this series b/c I remember the first one being pretty enjoyable.. guess I'll try 1st ep and see how it goes... |
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| Yeah I really wanted to like this series because of my love for the original, but I had to drop. It's not solely the fact its moe, but I don't care for the majority of characters. The series lost what made it special. They should of just left it alone. |
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| I'm starting to like it after reaching episode 9. |
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| I think what this show is missing for me at the moment, is more vanship dog-fights. We've witnessed plenty of fleet vs fleet actions. What made original show special for me was its steampunk theme, its unique world and culture. Furthermore, it's a show about flying, which is a theme that was rarely seen in anime series. Even though, Silver Wing has different story and casts, however I feel that it has not lost its root yet. It is still about people's desire to bring peace to the world, so they can fly freely in the sky once again. |
| I'm a little surprised that the main reason this series is "shit" hasn't been listed; namely Fam herself. There are side characters I can sympathize with such Princess Millia... I even like her half way through the story. She's developed and believable. Fam never develops... just like a classic marry sue. It frustrates me even more that everyone magically agrees with what she says all the time. But LX: Fam has lost its meaning and purpose. In the original, you did have people fighting for various reasons, some for water and some for habitable land while our heroes for free skies in which to fly. But you had a main, psychotic villain who was the identifiable evil in the story. You had a classic story of good vs evil in steam punk world with battles in the skies. LX: Fam only retained the steam punk world. The heroes spend most of their time dialoging about things that don't even ultimately matter to the plot. So the battles are few and far between. And there is no true villain; hence no good vs evil. I've only three episodes to go. And I'm only watching it for Dio. My favorite episode so far has been Second Adjournment. Its pretty pathetic when the recap episode is the only highlight in the entire series. |
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| Ahh..., another peaceful day @ MAL inb4 locked |
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| Up to episode 4 and I wouldn't exactly call it shit. The characters aren't as charming but I don't feel like the characters are that important here, it feels like the whole setting, as a whole, is. Huge airships fighting what seems to be a war torn planet. Both sides fighting for what they see as right. It's more like the main character is a witness rather than an actual actor. For the other characters, some of them are very likeable, Giselle with her amazing genius and photographic memory and Dio and his crazy antics (although I thought he was a chick at first). |
| The chip in my mind, it summons me. I gave my life to your machines. |
| The first Exile wasn't even that great.... wtf is everyone crying about? lol XD Well, Fam is an interesting watch... nothing I'll be archiving, but interesting nontheless. |
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| love this anime because of ship to ship battle~ nothing more, nothing less. |
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| I just finished it. Definitely inferior to its predecessor. It's amazing to me how a series with so much action could be so, well, boring. It makes a a bit sad that this probably is the death knell for the franchise, but I thought that it didn't really need a sequel anyways. |
| not a job creator |
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