Just like the prequel, this anime is for those people who like to dive into another fantasy world, ruled by planes flying on the strange fuel of Claudia. This world is different from the one you saw in the prequel. In fact the second summary clears any unknowns in the story of the "Last Exile". If you did not watch the prequel, go do it, otherwise this review might contain spoilers for it.
Apparently, the story of the "Last Exile" ends by obtaining the big ship, that allows you to travel between the worlds (or planets). It seems that the people in the "Last Exile" have long forgotten, but they came into the world on that ship and now they have the ship to go back to their home land. Apparently, the home land does not welcome them. That's was the best part of the beginning of this sequel. We have two sides and their reasons for the fight is completely justified.
And then it comes the Villain - Luscinia. And here is what I despise most. His reasons for turning into what he is, is completely justified. The "Grand Race" flashback episode explains everything. It introduces the best topic there, when hatred is introduced when everyone is happy, it creates a circle of revenge, which creates more hatred. Terrorism is bad, because people on which you avenge your family and friends could be just an innocent people. And what is expected of them is to avenge their victims back. And that leads to war. With that good premise introduced in the middle of the anime, earlier episodes do not make sense. Luscinia wants to achieve piece by forcing everyone to surrender. While this is logical, it is not logical to attack a nation that is neutral and does not fight. What he did is no different from what happened to him on the Grand Race. But what makes me really despise the characters with power, is that they support him. It seems perfectly okay to turn against family and friends, in order to help a man to achieve piece by killing people who never attacked you? Just like killing innocent people will never bring peace, preserving the life and/or the freedom of people like Luscinia is a big mistake. Siding with them is just pathetic.
And there is the ending. A big disappointment. No matter how much we hated Luscinia, I waited patiently hoping for some explanation of why he finds his method justified. Instead, in the end no explanation is given and the feeling towards him at the end is completely unjustified. Apparently, after the war is over, people can feel sympathetic to the person who was single-handendly responsible for annihilation of most of the population of entire countries... I do not, I find such a person to be tumor of the world and people that prefer sympathy over consequence and justice to be despicable. But that's the good part of this anime, it makes you think about all those topics.
And then there is art and sound as expected from "Last Exile". English in Greek letters everywhere. It was a funny challenge to pause on frames with a text and to read it. And it all makes sense, nothing written on paper is gibberish. If a person says the document is a message about newly established provisional government, that's exactly what is written. And there is the sound. I always had a great experience with Japanese animes that use to show territories, languages and speech from other countries. And this is no exception, the people for Glacias speak Russian. I suppose this would be quite problematic, since Funimation translation do not include subtitles for the Russian speech. However, when they speak Russian they speak slowly and clearly, using only simple words and phrases and thanks to the fact that Bulgarian (my native language) and Russian are similar, I got like 70% of what they say. This makes really feel the Glacians are different nation, but unfortunately the rest 30% I did not understand could be quite a hindrance and cause confusion sometimes. I suppose for people whose native language is not Slavic, this could quite a problem... But you know it is never too late to learn some Russian alongside some Japanese :)
The OST adds to the overall adventurous feeling, but it is not something noticeable. This means it is good enough to fulfill its role in the series, but nothing more. The only problem is that the music was a little bit too loud for a background and it interfered with the English translation.
Overall, the series achieve their goal to be an enjoyable fantasy adventure in an futuristic world. Unfortunately, the end is basically lost potential. Although, I did not find a story masterpiece, a good ending justifying everything that happened, could turn an enjoyable anime into a masterpiece. But they failed.
