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Meanderings
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 12 December 2005 17:00 |
Finished two high-profile series over the weekend - Last Exile and Stellvia. One had a fairly conclusive and satisfying ending, while the other left so much hanging & unexplained I was ready to scream....
Last Exile first. Visually beautiful, as usual, and in some ways a heartwarming happy ending - but wasn't Mullin dead? Why did Alis, Tatiana, Mullin and the others seem to settle down together, Little House on the Prairie-style? What happened to the Guild - they surely can't have all been destroyed by Exile? What exactly did Exile do to the world? There are little hints at most of those, but no real explanations. I'm also somewhat annoyed by the way a lot of characters were introduced throughout the series, built up, then almost forgotten about (mainly Lavie, Tatiana and Alis). Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the series, but there's so much there that could have been done better.
Stellvia managed a lot better. Most, if not all, of the inter-character wranglings are resolved before the Genesis Mission gets underway - even Kouta and Shipon put their differences aside - and there are some touching confessions before the end of the final episode. All the challenges the gang had to face were faced down & dealt with, and there's even the groundwork set for a second generation to take over (although sadly the second season never got past the planning stages). Shipon and friends grew and matured - what more could you ask of them? Before anyone mentions Stellvia's dodgy science - it's a fiction series, I'm prepared to overlook that! :)
So many anime series are ruined by endings that don't cover everything or that suddenly wander off and try to turn a series into something else entirely (i.e., anything by GAINAX) - and it's probably the most important part of a series, as it's meant to be the payoff for the time and (sometimes) emotion you've put into watching. I really wish more care & though was put into them...
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