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This post is about the series Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam. I decided I liked this series enough to blog about it, although I will say I probably overall liked the first Last Exile (LE1 in this post) better. This series is a sequel to the original. It takes place on the homeworld where the peoples from the LE1 world actually originated. Apparently many centuries before the current story, people from this world emigrated to the LE1 world because this original world was too small to support the population, and the Guild led that emigration.
Like LE1, this series centers around airships and battles and the exploits of a young pilot. In this series that young pilot is Fam Fan Fan and she is accompanied by her friend and navigator, Giselle or Gisey for short. Fam was an orphan raised by Gisey's family who are members of a group referred to as the Sky Pirates. These folks live mainly by scavenging other air ships, until Fam involves them in worldwide politics. Fam and Gisey fly a small vanship called a Vespa. If you've seen LE1, a Vespa compares to a vanship from that series as a motorcycle would compare to an SUV. Vespas are small! One day going about their pirating business, Fam and Gisey rescue a princess named Millia when a treaty effort is betrayed and her older sister is kidnapped. They begin to help her and become involved in affairs of the wider world.
The back story here, which you don't get until late in the series, is that the previous Empress of one of the major nations tried to unite the whole world in friendship, and held a vanship race to commemorate the unification. Things went wrong and she was killed by assassins, despite the presence of her Guild guards who were unable to protect her. The role of Empress devolves to her baby daughter, and at the time of the series, young Empress Sara is guided in her rule by a number of generals of different nationalities. She intends to follow her mother's wish of a united world. Sara's main general is Luscinia who also happens to be one of the two Guild guards who couldn't protect her mother. Luscinia also wishes to unite the world for his former Empress, however he plans to do it by slaughtering all the nations that don't agree with him.
As it turns out, the Guild on this world is almost gone, many of them having immigrated to the LE1 world, however as a remaining Guild member, Luscinia believes the world is too small to support its current population plus the returning peoples from the emigration. His way to deal with that is to slaughter whole races, and he's pretty good at it, using Millia's older sister to control pieces of this world's Exile, and drop them from space onto resisting populations.
Like LE1, this series has a small battle ship which holds itself separate from the affairs of the other nations. This battleship is called the Sylvius (instead of Silvana) and it is captained by Tatiana Wisla, a vanship pilot in the first series. The Sylvius and her crew aid Princess Millia and try to stop some of Luscinia's excesses.
Dio Eraclea from LE1 is also a main character in this series. It feels great to see him, not only sane but really useful in this series, especially since at the end of LE1 he was insane, lost in the Grand Stream and assumed dead (at least by me). In this series he first appears as a friend of Fam among the Sky Pirates, but later proves to be involved with and perhaps of member of the Sylvius crew. He brings a pre-teen Alvis Hamilton with him to help deal with the Exile on this world and acts as her guardian, demonstrating that the fighting training he received previously stands him in good stead against this world's Guild.
Little Empress Sara has only good intentions, but her generals begin fighting each other and siding with the various nations when Luscinia wipes out 4 different races, including one that is the nation of one of the generals. Sara tries to bring peace and stop people from fighting, but nothing works. Eventually, after much destruction and killing, Sara is taken by Luscinia and the rest of the world unites against him and his plots. The 'rest of the world' includes the Sky Pirates, the Sylvius and crew, all Sara's remaining generals, Empress Sophia and Vincent from LE1, representing the nations of the new world, Millia's remaining people, and others. In the end Fam and Gisey rescue Sara, Luscinia dies, and the world has peace.
I liked this series for a number of reasons. Foremost was probably Dio being alive and well, and surviving this series too! It also has wonderful music and although I waited a long time to figure out the back story, I did figure out that they hadn't just taken characters from LE1 and dropped them into this series. They mostly explained or gave you a sense of how they could be there. Plus most of the characters survived the series. Along with Luscinia, two other generals die, as does Millia's sister. And of course the four races Luscinia effectively wipes out. Overall, it was worth watching, even if I do still like LE1 better.
If you watch much anime, you know what it means to 'level up'. I imagine the term comes from the gaming world originally, where it means you clear a level and get to the next one. But "level up" is used far outside the gaming world now. Anyone who in any way clears an obstacle and moves forward can be said to have leveled up.
A LOT of anime series contain plot lines which require their characters to achieve new levels of battle abilities. Some of these plot lines involve continuous leveling up and continuous growth of the character's abilities thoughout the series, and some of them only have the main characters level up one major time, or perhaps a couple of times
Bleach is a series that has its main character, Kurosaki Ichigo, undergo the most continuous level ups of any series I've watched. Ichigo achieves his first level up when he takes Rukia's powers in the first episode and begins to use shinigami powers. From there the process is continuous. His major level ups include: regaining his powers after his soul chain is cut, attaining bankai, mastering his hollow side and fighting masked, achieving the state necessary to bring Aizen down, and then regaining his powers using Fullbring. He also has a multitude of lesser level ups along the way, including each one he achieves as he fights Renji, Kenpachi, Byakuya, GrimJoe and Ulquiorra. The entire series follows Ichigo as he struggles to attain new levels of fighting skills in order to protect the people he cares about.
Inuyasha is another series that follows the relatively continuous growth of a single character's battle abilities. Inuyasha, the series main character, is a half human, half youkai who inherits a sword early in the series. Throughout the series the sword's abilities and his ability to use the sword continuously level up. He learns to use the sword's true ability along the way, gains the ultimate technique with it, gains an ability of the sword to break barriers when in a red-bladed form and eventually gains two more higher level abilities with the sword. Like Ichigo in Bleach, at each level he is faced with characters or circumstances beyond his current abilities and must level up to 'clear' the difficulty and move forward.
Some series have essentially a single major level up event, and examples of this type would include Rurouni Kenshin, D.Gray-Man and Nurarihyon no Mago. In Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin must work to attain the ultimate technique of his Hiten Mitsurugi sword style before being able to face his main enemy, Shishio Makoto. Achieving the technique is the major level up he does in the series.
Allen Walker in D.Gray-Man is left for dead by his enemies after losing his Innocence, and he must strive to regain his ability to use Innocence before he can resume his battles against the forces of evil. And no, that's not what it sounds like. If you haven't watched D.Gray-man, Innocence is a mystical power which occurs in a different form in different people and can be used by them to battle the evil Millennium Earl and his minions. Allen spends multiple episodes in this struggle before coming to terms with his Innocence and regaining its use. This is his major level up of the series.
In Nurarihyon no Mago, Nura Rikuo is a half human, half youkai middle school student who find himself as heir to his grandfather's and father's Night Parade of 100 Demons. Although initially he only wants to live as a human with his human friends, when his clan is attacked by other demon clans he eventually must do a major level up that allows him to learn his clan's secret technique and use it to win the battles against the other clans. Although Rikuo has a few smaller level ups along the way, the ability to use the clans secret technique is the one that saves him and his clan and his friends.
Level ups are also used in sport-based or game-based anime. A good example is Hikaru no Go. As Hikaru learns to play the game of Go and plays ever stronger opponents, he has to increase his own skills to move forward. Obviously this type of leveling up isn't quite as intense as the gaining of new skills just ahead of being destroyed that is seen in series like Bleach or D.Gray-man, but pretty much in all anime where this plot device is used, I still find myself thinking, come on, come on, level up!
A new anime season has started, but since I haven't watched enough of anything to talk about them yet, I thought I'd talk about an older series, Macross Frontier. I have to admit up front that Macross Frontier is the only one of the Macross-related series that I've ever watched, so I won't be comparing it to other Macross series. I'll just be talking about this series, and of course laying out the plot line as I go.
Macross Frontier is an awesome series, with only one flaw. I'll come back to that flaw later. The "Frontier" is a colony ship fleet containing people who are living their lives out in the colony as it moves through space to find a new planetary home. The main ship of the fleet is a huge city-dome. The story centers around a young man named Saotome Alto and his friends. Alto wants to be a pilot, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else, and he gave up a career in acting to follow that dream. As the story proceeds he also finds himself the center of a love triangle between a young, out-going, green-haired girl named Ranka Lee and a sophisticated, worldly beauty named Sheryl Nome. Sheryl is a famous singer visiting the colony and Ranka is an aspiring singer who worships Sheryl as well as vying with her for Alto's interest.
At the beginning of the story, Sheryl comes from another colony fleet to visit the Frontier and give a performance, and while she's there the colony ship is attacked by their enemies, the Vajra. The Vajra do some damage, and during their attack Alto takes over a downed Valkyrie fighter and rescues Ranka. He is subsequently recruited by a mercenary organization called the SMS which is run by Ranka's brother, Ozma. He joins his two schoolmates, Michel and Luca, who already belong to the SMS, and as SMS members they fly fighters and generally help protect the colony fleet.
The story follows these people as they struggle to live normal lives amidst attacks by the Vajra. As the story progresses, Ranka is found to be part Vajra and Sheryl is found to be dying of a vajra-related virus. Ranka's singing alternately calms or enrages the attacking Vajra, depending on the machinations of another group of people, including Sheryl's manager, Grace, and Ranka's estranged brother, Brera Stern.
In the end, this series has a happy ending with the Vajra becoming not-enemies, Sheryl being rescued from death by Ranka's abilities, and Alto getting his wish of flying his Valkyrie in the atmosphere of the new planet that they discover and begin to colonize. The only flaw in the series is that Michel dies (yes, of course he was my favorite character). His death is a true token death in the worse sense. There was NO reason for him to die - it wasn't necessary for the plot, or to motivate one of the other characters. There was no reason at all, just a token death. It seriously pissed me off, which may be why I haven't blogged about this series before.
Other than the flaw, this series was an excellent series all around. Even for a mecha series, they kept the mecha to a reasonable level, focusing on the characters and plot development instead. The music . . . the music from this series is waaaaaay beyond outstanding. Thank you, Yoko Kanno! The music and the singers who do Sheryl and Ranka's songs are so amazing, it really just make this series. Along with that, there was enough plot to keep it interesting and lots of action, and of course it never hurts to have pretty characters. Overall, I highly recommend watching it, even if you are not a fan of mecha series. This one is more than worth it. You may have to alter reality to keep Michel alive though.
Yes, I know all things must come to an end, but somehow I never expected Bleach to end. I kind of considered it a perpetual anime series that would just keep going. Nope. 366 episodes and it's over. Owari. Can you tell I'm still coming to grips with that?
What can I say about Bleach? I consider it one of the all time great anime series, even despite my dislike of a filler arc or two. It had an absolutely unique plot, a totally massive cast of characters with a minimal body count, and decent music. Of course, one of my favorite characters did die (Ulquiorrra), but the main cast all survived.
Spoilers ahead for the final arc, and assumptions that if you're reading this you know enough about what Bleach is about that I can talk about the ending arc only. I started out not liking the final arc, mainly for two reasons. First of all, they switched character styles. I had a hard time getting used to the new character styles. Ichigo's sisters looked like they had aged about 5 years, and the rest of the gang was just different. On top of that, add the loss of Ichigo's remaining reiatsu resulting in a totally powerless Ichigo, and the new arc was tough to take at first. When he loses his final bit of reiatsu, he can no longer see and interact with Rukia and the other shinigami, along with being totally powerless against Hollows. Enter the FullBringers. Certain people (usually people whose mothers were touched by Hollows while carrying them) have the ability to manipulate the "reiatsu" of inanimate objects, and these people are called FullBringers. They approach Ichigo and tell him they can help him regain his lost powers in exchange for his help freeing them from their abilities. Although Ichigo has accepted his loss of power on the surface, he is desperate to regain enough power to protect the people he cares about. Thus much of the arc revolves around Ichigo working with the various FullBringers to regain and control his power.
While this is going on, one of the FullBringers has been attacking Ichigo's family and friends. This FullBringer, Tsukishima, has the ability to insert himself into a person's past once he cuts that person with his sword. So Tsukishima is becoming a part of the past of all Ichigo's friends and family. When Ichigo gains enough power to try to stop him, all his friends and family work against Ichigo and think he has lost his mind for fighting their long time, dear friend.
Once Ichigo regains all his FullBring and Shinigami powers, the true reason for the FullBringer's help comes to light. Ginjo, the head FullBringer, has the ability to take the power from another and he takes all of Ichigo's newly won power from him, leaving Ichigo powerless once more. This causes Ichigo to lose it briefly, but being Ichigo, he stands up to fight again, even with not a scrap of power to do it with.
At this juncture he is pierced from behind by a sword, and as he turns in shock, he finds the sword held by Rukia (who he can now see) and Ichigo regains all his shinigami powers and then some. It turns out everyone in Soul Society who he has ever interacted with contributed reiatsu to the sword to return Ichigo's powers to him. Rukia and 5 of them (Byakuya, Hitsugaya, Kenpachi, Renji and Ikkaku) bring the sword to deliver it, and fight the 5 FullBringers other than Ginjo, who is being fought by Ichigo. The results of these battles are foregone conclusions.
One other interesting plot element at the end of the series is that the 5 shinigami who came to return Ichigo's reiatsu are also there to act as observers to see what Ichigo will do. Ginjo was a former subsititute shinigami who turned against Soul Society, and during his battles with Ichigo he tries to turn Ichigo against them also. Ichigo makes a different decision, and the 5 shinigami witness it.
The final episodes are very satisfying. Not only does Ichigo end up more powerful than ever, but he has had an amazing influence on everyone whose life he has touched, including the members of Soul Society. Once complete outcasts under a death sentence, the members of the Visored who wish to, return to Soul Society, many of them regaining their positions as Captains in the places left empty by Aizen-tachi. Soul Society has changed many of it's most rigid laws due to Ichigo's actions. So the series ends up with a happily ever after ending that's really nice. Overall, it's a really amazing series. I'm glad I watched it all the way through.
It's been a long time since I watched this series so I suppose it's past time that I posted about it.
Death Note is a unique series in quite a few ways, but the biggest way is this: the main character is the bad guy. This is the only series I've ever watched that that was true, and you'd think with my tendency to like bad guys, that would make this series for me, but it turns out it doesn't. Anyway, Yagami Light doesn't start as as a bad guy. Light is a bored, apathetic honor student who thinks the world is going to hell. One day while gazing out the window of his classroom, he sees a notebook fall past the window. That afternoon he retrieves the notebook, and discovers that it is a Death Note. This black Death Note notebook contains pages of 'rules', the first of which is that if you write a person's name in the Death Note, that person will die.
Light of course thinks it's a practical joke, but when he sees a news story about a kidnapper holding grade school children hostage, he tries it out. He thinks of the guy's face as he's writing his name and the guy drops dead. To ensure it wasn't a fluke, he tries it again on a motorcycle gang member giving a woman a hard time and it works again. Light realizes what he has, and sets himself up to redeem the rotten world by killing all the evil people with the Death Note. He meets the owner of the Death Note, a shinigami named Ryuk, and goes on a killing spree of epic proportions.
And that easily, Light becomes the ultimate bad guy, and gains a nickname around the world of "Kira" (killer).
Another young man, who goes by the name of "L", becomes involved at this point. L is a more-than-genius-level master detective who everyone in the world goes to to solve unsolvable crimes. L is also reclusive and eccentric. He has become aware that criminals in custody are dying, realizes that somehow someone is killing them and goes on the hunt.
The first half of this series is simply awesome. The give and take between Light and L, even before they meet, is outstanding. The swings back and forth as one gets the upper hand and the other fights for his survival are edge-of-your-seat stuff that makes you hungry for more. Light goes to unbelievably complex lengths to outwit L and L goes to incredible lengths to catch him. It's really amazing. Light is nearly brought down by another Death Note user named Misa, but ends up using Misa and her Death Note's shinigami to help his cause.
Here's another unique thing about the series. It's probably the first one that I wish they had made shorter, rather than wishing it were longer. They could have stopped at 24 episodes instead of going to 37. And the reason for that is this:
Midway through the series, Light wins. He kills L. I was so shocked, and pissed off, that I almost decided not to finish the series. To me the strength of this series was the interactions between Light and L (besides the fact that L was my favorite character - so I guess I should have known he would die!). After L's death, I watched other people, including L's replacements Near and Mello, struggle against Light and watched him manipulate people and it wasn't the same. I think I probably only watched the rest of the series to see Light die in the end.
So did I like the series? I liked the premise, which was unique. I like the characters and the outstanding music. I would like to have changed the plot, which had the moral: even if you're a good guy and you're right, you still die when someone else is stronger. I also learned something about myself. Although I have a tendency to like the bad guys, I only like them when they don't kill off my favorite character. Plus I like the good guys to win in the end, preferably before the body count is too high. I liked the series well enough to buy it on DVD, but I still prefer to watch only the first 2/3rds.
I've posted about Natsume Yuujinchou before, but that was quite some time ago, after the first series. I just finished watching the fourth season, and I think the series overall is worth another post. This post will cover elements of the entire four seasons.
Natsume Yuujinchou is a story about a boy named Natsume Takashi. Natsume was born being able to see and interact with youkai, which are supernatural beings or demons. The story takes place when Natsume is in high school and he has inherited a Book of Friends from his grandmother, Natsume Reiko. This book contains the names of hundreds of youkai that Reiko fought during her lifetime. When she beat them, she required them to write their name in her Book of Friends. Natsume now owns this book, and a variety of powerful youkai want to possess it.
One of the youkai wishing to possess the book is a powerful youkai who generally goes around in the shape of an exceedingly fat cat. This is Nyanko-sensei, who is called Madara when is his powerful youkai form. The picture above shows both Nyanko-sensei's forms, Reiko when she was Natsume's age, and Natsume releasing a name from the Book of Friends. Nyanko-sensei decides to be patient since humans are so short-lived, and wait for Natsume's death before taking possession of the book. In the meantime he protects Natsume from harm, both from other powerful youkai and from a few humans also. Ostensibly he does this to protect the book that will come to him, but in reality he probably genuinely cares for Natsume. Natsume goes around returning the name of any youkai who is in the book and asks for its name back. Nyanko-sensei complains about this, but doesn't do anything about it.
Natsume had a difficult childhood, both because his parents died when he was very young and because he could see and interact with beings that no one else could see. He was thought to be strange and a liar, and was passed around to various relatives until a pair of very distant relatives, Fujiwara Touko and Shigeru, asked to take him. From that time he had a true home, but only slowly during the series does he grow to accept and trust other people. He learns the value of friendship, and that being a friend means allowing his friends to help him and worry about him, instead of protecting them always from what he is. His friends include his best friend Tanuma Kaname, a student in his school who also has some ability to sense youkai. Tanuma is the dark-haired boy wearing the cap in the picture above, which along with Natsume and Nyanko-sensei also includes Natori, tipping his hat, and a small youkai chewing on his.
Natsume is a very kind person, which tends to get him into lots of trouble. He is kind to people and he is kind to youkai who ask for his help. His kindness to youkai runs him afoul of a powerful clan of exorcists, the Matoba clan, who feel that youkai must be captured and used as tools. If they are too powerful to be captured, they must be sealed away. If they are not powerful enough to be used as tools, they must be destroyed. This philosophy doesn't work for Natsume who has more youkai friends than human friends by the time he runs across the Matoba. Another exorcist, Natori Shuuichi, also has issues with Natsume's tendency to befriend youkai, but Natori is more willing to let Natsume go his own way. Natori ends up being Natsume's friend and taking his side in issues involving youkai, although Natsume also helps Natori when it's necessary to exorcise a bad youkai. Natori and his youkai servant, Hiiragi, are back to back in this picture above and to the left. Two of Natsume's youkai friends are also shown.
Natsume Yuujinchou may end up being one of my all time favorite series. The underlying story about Natsume growing up, getting past his fear of youkai and fear of trust that were instilled in his early years, and learning about friendship is wonderful. The series started out early on as just episodic, with Natsume dealing with various youkai and their problems each episode. Even this wasn't bad, with small mini-arcs occurring and enough tension in the episodes to keep the series from being boring. But the real beauty of the series, other than the character style, which is gorgeous, is the slowly developed underlying story. This last picture shows all Natsume's human friends from school at his house with Fujiwara Touko and Nyanko-sensei and some youkai friends on the roof. The music from the series was so-so, but the rest of the elements of the series made it very worthwhile. I highly recommend it.
I said I'd post about this one when it was finished, so here I am. As usual, I'll be telling the story, so if you haven't seen it and plan to . . . SPOILERS AHEAD.
Guilty Crown is the story of a boy named Ouma Shu. Shu is a high school student in a Japan that has been devastated by a virus known as the Apocalypse Virus. This virus causes a type of cancer that kills people by turning them into crystal. The virus arrived on a meteor and spread across Japan on a day now called Lost Christmas. From that day, Japan has been ruled under martial law by a multi-national organization called GHQ which keeps Japan quarantined and runs its government. Opposing the multi-national government is a rebellious group variously translated by subbers as Funeral Parlor or Undertakers.
Shu is as oblivious and apathetic to the world around him as is possible for a teenage boy, spending his time floating through school and mooning over his favorite idol, Yuzuriha Inori. Shu and Inori are in the top picture. Inori uses being an idol as a cover. She is a member of Funeral Parlor and at the start of the series has stolen an item called the Void Genome from the government, with the intention of giving it to the leader of Funeral Parlor, Tsutsugami Gai, shown sitting in the picture to the left. A "void" is a tool that is created from a person's basic personality or heart or substance. The Void Genome allows one to extract the "void" of anyone around and use it for your own purposes. On the run after the theft, fate leads Inori to Shu. Through a series of events that really can only be attributed to fate, Shu ends up with the Void Genome and it's abilities, and he can extract everyone's voids with his right hand.
Gai, Inori and the gang at Funeral Parlor then spend episodes more or less successfully recruiting Shu into Funeral Parlor, and using him to achieve their ends. At the same time, forces within the government are working to re-activate the Apocalypse Virus and spread it across the whole world to speed the evolution of humans by destroying all existing humans - or something like that. Midway through the series, battles come to a head. During them Shu remembers his past - that his older sister Mana was infected by the meteor virus and was the source of the virus that erupted on Lost Christmas, and that Gai and Shu and Mana had spend time growing up together. He remembers that Mana died on Lost Christmas and Gai left to follow his own destiny. At this point in the story, the battles result in the deaths of Gai and Mana, who had been re-incarnated from the crystals. The remains of Funeral Parlor are scattered and some of them and the students from Shu's school gather at the school. Shu leads them and they attempt to survive the GHQ's drive to eradicate the virus by wiping out everyone left in an area which includes the school. Shu, Inori and some of the students ruthlessly classify and use people's void and Shu discovers that if a void is damaged, it's owner dies.
Because of Shu's ruthlessness, the student's rebel, and at a critical juncture, a re-incarnated Gai reappears, cuts off Shu's right hand and takes his Void Genome power, leaving him for dead. Inori sticks with Shu but is eventually captured by Gai-tachi to be used to re-incarnate Mana again. With Inori taken, Shu regains his will to fight destiny, and through another series of events, gains the last copy of the Void Genome. He reconciles with his friends and goes to recover Inori and stop Gai and the people trying to destroy the world.
Massive battles ensue and Shu arrives where Inori is just after Mana takes over Inori completely. Shu and Gai battle with various voids, and in the end Shu wins and survives, but Gai, Mana and Inori are ultimately lost.
As usual, this is pretty much the bare bones of the plot line. In the interest of space I didn't go into any of the interactions between the characters, nor even talk about the lesser characters, including the important members of Funeral Parlor, like Ayase and Tsugumi, the important students, particularly Hare and Yahiro, and Ouma Haruka, Shu's step-mother and a virus researcher. So much of the plot involves these people that it's almost a crime not to include them in the plot line, however this post is already long enough.
Did I like this series? Sort of. The body count was too high. If Inori at least had survived I would have liked it better. If Inori and Gai had survived, I would have liked it a lot better. On the other hand, I would have hated it if Shu had died also, so there's that. The music from the series is really exceptional, especially Inori's songs. The plot is fairly unique, especially the plot devices with the voids and the Void Genome. Wackos trying to destroy the world to allow it to evolve is not that unique, nor is the reluctant hero, but there is enough new here to be interesting. Character styles are good and the animation is good.
Overall I would recommend watching this series. If the body count were lower I would like it better, but I'd say it's worth seeing.
Like LE1, this series centers around airships and battles and the exploits of a young pilot. In this series that young pilot is Fam Fan Fan and she is accompanied by her friend and navigator, Giselle or Gisey for short. Fam was an orphan raised by Gisey's family who are members of a group referred to as the Sky Pirates. These folks live mainly by scavenging other air ships, until Fam involves them in worldwide politics. Fam and Gisey fly a small vanship called a Vespa. If you've seen LE1, a Vespa compares to a vanship from that series as a motorcycle would compare to an SUV. Vespas are small! One day going about their pirating business, Fam and Gisey rescue a princess named Millia when a treaty effort is betrayed and her older sister is kidnapped. They begin to help her and become involved in affairs of the wider world.
The back story here, which you don't get until late in the series, is that the previous Empress of one of the major nations tried to unite the whole world in friendship, and held a vanship race to commemorate the unification. Things went wrong and she was killed by assassins, despite the presence of her Guild guards who were unable to protect her. The role of Empress devolves to her baby daughter, and at the time of the series, young Empress Sara is guided in her rule by a number of generals of different nationalities. She intends to follow her mother's wish of a united world. Sara's main general is Luscinia who also happens to be one of the two Guild guards who couldn't protect her mother. Luscinia also wishes to unite the world for his former Empress, however he plans to do it by slaughtering all the nations that don't agree with him. 
Dio Eraclea from LE1 is also a main character in this series. It feels great to see him, not only sane but really useful in this series, especially since at the end of LE1 he was insane, lost in the Grand Stream and assumed dead (at least by me). In this series he first appears as a friend of Fam among the Sky Pirates, but later proves to be involved with and perhaps of member of the Sylvius crew. He brings a pre-teen Alvis Hamilton with him to help deal with the Exile on this world and acts as her guardian, demonstrating that the fighting training he received previously stands him in good stead against this world's Guild.
Little Empress Sara has only good intentions, but her generals begin fighting each other and siding with the various nations when Luscinia wipes out 4 different races, including one that is the nation of one of the generals. Sara tries to bring peace and stop people from fighting, but nothing works. Eventually, after much destruction and killing, Sara is taken by Luscinia and the rest of the world unites against him and his plots. The 'rest of the world' includes the Sky Pirates, the Sylvius and crew, all Sara's remaining generals, Empress Sophia and Vincent from LE1, representing the nations of the new world, Millia's remaining people, and others. In the end Fam and Gisey rescue Sara, Luscinia dies, and the world has peace.
I liked this series for a number of reasons. Foremost was probably Dio being alive and well, and surviving this series too! It also has wonderful music and although I waited a long time to figure out the back story, I did figure out that they hadn't just taken characters from LE1 and dropped them into this series. They mostly explained or gave you a sense of how they could be there. Plus most of the characters survived the series. Along with Luscinia, two other generals die, as does Millia's sister. And of course the four races Luscinia effectively wipes out. Overall, it was worth watching, even if I do still like LE1 better.
