Editing Last Exile (section)

==Setting==
''Last Exile'' is set on the fictional world of Prester.<ref name="Official story">{{cite web | url = http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/story/index.html | title = Story | publisher = [[JVC]] | language = ja | access-date = May 14, 2008 | archive-date = June 20, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100620133721/http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/story/index.html | url-status = live }}</ref>{{efn|Although not mentioned during the series, the name "Prester" was published in additional materials released by Gonzo and its subsequent licensors Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment.{{cn|date=January 2024}} }} Prester's two nations of Anatoray and Disith are separated by a turbulent region of the sky known as the Grand Stream and are engaged in conflict according to the code of [[Chivalry|chivalric warfare]]. A superior faction known as the Guild enforces these rules. It also provides the two nations with technology but, unknown to them, has dishonorable intentions, to preserve the status quo and enforce its dominance of both sides. Although the story is set in the future, the technology employed differs from that in a typical [[space opera]].<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | last = Gustines | first = George Gene | title = An Anime Marathon, and It's Not Just for Adults | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/tv/for-young-viewers-an-anime-marathon-and-it-s-not-just-for-adults.html | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = March 14, 2004 | access-date = August 1, 2009 | archive-date = September 1, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220901125408/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/tv/for-young-viewers-an-anime-marathon-and-it-s-not-just-for-adults.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Instead, the show's [[Retro-futurism|retro-futuristic]] setting resembles nineteenth-century Europe at the height of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Inhabitants of Prester operate aerial vehicles known as vanships in the world's Golden Age of Aviation; although the technology is primitive, the aerial vehicles use a form of [[antigravity]] (developed by the Guild) and lighter-than-air methods of flight rather than the use of [[wing]]s.<ref name="Star-Bulletin">{{cite news |last=Yadao |first=Jason |date=January 25, 2009 |title=Mysteries multiply in 'Last Exile' anime |work=[[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]] |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090125_mysteries_multiply_in_last_exile_anime |url-status=dead |access-date=August 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715000906/http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090125_mysteries_multiply_in_last_exile_anime |archive-date=July 15, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Vanship concept in Last Exile.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Drawings of a wingless aircraft with lateral and dorsal views as well as ornament and engine details|Designs of the vanship, a type of aerial vehicle, were based on Germany's [[Junkers A 35]] monoplane produced in the 1920s.<ref name="Cycnos">{{cite journal|last=Paquet |first=Olivier |title=A-chronies japonaises: l'histoire comme ''ikebana'' dans les séries de science-fiction (l'exemple de ''Last Exile'') |trans-title=Japanese anachronism: history as ''ikebana'' in science fiction series (the example of ''Last Exile'') |url=http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=596 |journal=Cycnos |volume=22 |issue=1 |publisher=[[University of Nice Sophia Antipolis]] |date=December 2005 |language=fr |access-date=August 1, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090718095352/http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=596 |archive-date=July 18, 2009 }}</ref>]]

Various scenes in the series also show existing tension between the upper and lower classes.<ref name="NYT"/> Anatoray's nobility and military officers generally believe that commoners do not understand their codes of chivalry. On the other hand, the lower class also despise the aristocracy for their monopoly on resources.{{efn|Mad-thane Chief of Staff: "No child or commoner could understand the ways of chivalry, and especially not vanship pilots!" [[List of Last Exile characters#Claus Valca|Claus Valca]]: "That's not true! We understand!" [[List of Last Exile characters#Lavie Head|Lavie Head]]: "Have you ever had a day where you couldn't sleep because you were too hungry? As far as I'm concerned, chivalry can kiss my ass!"<ref> {{cite episode | title = Luft Vanship | episode-link = List of Last Exile episodes#ep02 | series = Last Exile | network = [[TV Tokyo]] | airdate = April 14, 2003 | number = 2}}</ref>}} This tension extends to the accessibility of clean water, which varies in price according to purity grades.{{efn|{{Nihongo|First Water|一番水|Iciban Mizu}} is a high-quality drink sold at [[List of Last Exile characters#Walker|Walker]]'s floating repair station, the ''Casino Royale'', for 80 Claudia. Upon learning of the price, [[List of Last Exile characters#Lavie Head|Lavie Head]], who comes from the rural town of Norkia, reacts with astonishment.<ref> {{cite web | url = http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/entry/words_8.html | title = Words 第8話 | trans-title = Episode 8 Words | publisher = [[JVC]] | language = ja | access-date = August 3, 2009 | archive-date = August 4, 2012 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120804063700/http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/entry/words_8.html | url-status = live }}</ref> {{Nihongo|Third Water|3番水|Sanban Mizu}} is the highest grade of drinking water available at the rural mining town of Norkia and is taken directly from [[groundwater]].<ref> {{cite web | url = http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/entry/words_14.html | title = Words 第14話 | trans-title = Episode 14 Words | publisher = [[JVC]] | language = ja | access-date = August 3, 2009 | archive-date = September 1, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220901125409/https://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/flyingdog/-/Discographylist2/Z0785.html | url-status = live }}</ref>}} In the larger story, the advanced Guild society is portrayed as degenerate and lazy, while the people of Anatoray and Disith are creative and industrious.

The series introduces viewers to a wide range of naval and military vocabulary.<ref name="Detroit News">{{cite news | last = Henrickson | first = Eric | title = 'Last Exile' provides eye candy that's sweet | work = [[The Detroit News]] | page = 6E | date = November 4, 2003}}</ref>{{efn|A [[glossary]] defining unfamiliar terms and technology [http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/entry/mb_words_index.html is provided] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231201333/http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/entry/mb_words_index.html |date=December 31, 2008 }}) on the Japanese-language website published by [[JVC]]. The English-language version of this glossary was made available on Geneon Entertainment's former Flash-based website under the "Story" section in the menu. }} More primitive navigational methods such as [[dead reckoning]] and instruments such as the [[sextant]] are also used in the series.{{efn|[[List of Last Exile characters#Alister Agrew|Alister Agrew]]: ''(Peering through a sextant)'' "The stars are becoming unreliable. You can't get a correct bearing even if you look at the stars."<ref> {{cite episode | title = Develop | episode-link = List of Last Exile episodes#ep11 | series = Last Exile | network = [[TV Tokyo]] | airdate = June 16, 2003 | number = 11}}</ref> }}