The Vision of Escaflowne
The Vision of Escaflowne, also known as Tenkuu no Escaflowne, is an anime falling under Adventure, Psychological, Romance, Fantasy, and Mecha. These are the types of anime that fall under “You've seen it once, you've seen it a thousand times over.” So for a series of this type to be noteworthy, there must definitely be a catch. Escaflowne has one than one positive catch as well.
The Vision of Escaflowne is a TV anime series with 26 episodes. This is a very old anime, and by that, it's over 20 years old now. It started airing on April 2nd, 1996, until September 24th, 1996. This Spring 1996 anime was produced by an iconic duo, TV Tokyo and Bandai Visual. The series was licensed by Funimation and Bandai Entertainment and brought to fans by none other than Studio Sunrise. This original source anime is Rated PG-13 for Teenagers 13 years of age or older.
The series is an adaptation of the Vision of Escaflowne Manga which comprised eight volumes, Hitomi: The Vision of Escaflowne manga (HITOMI Tenkuu no Escaflowne or Messiah Knight: The Vision of Escaflowne) containing two volumes, Escaflowne: Ishi no Kioku manga (Energist's Memories, Energyst or The Vision of Escaflowne Comic Anthology) comprising 1 volume and the Escaflowne Light Novel comprising six volumes.
An alternative version of the series exists in the form of the Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea movie, also known as Escaflowne: The Movie. A Summary Special series comprising four episodes titled Tenkuu no Escaflowne Recaps (The Vision of Escaflowne Recaps, Escaflowne BD-BOX Tokubetsu Henshuu-ban or Escaflowne Episode 2 & 3 Digest) was also released in 2012.
The Escaflowne series was initially planned to go on until 39 episodes, but due to cuts in its budget and an extensive reworking of the plot, the show ended up being reduced to its 26 episode run. Additionally, due to some time constraints, specific footage included in earlier episodes was cut out during its broadcast, but these were later restored on the Japanese home video releases.
These were referred to as the Director's Cut. Regardless, the North American Bandai Entertainment releases of the series utilized the TV masters. In turn, their English dubbing does not adequately sync with the Japanese home video masters on those certain specific episodes. This ended up being remedied in 2016, so many years after the original airing, FUNimation licensed the series and launched a successful Kickstarter to redub the entire Director's Cut edition.
The main character Hitomi Kanzaki is a typical 15-year-old schoolgirl with an unusual interest in tarot cards and fortune-telling. Her life is just as every day as she is, but fate had an unexpected twist in store for her. One fateful night, a definitely-not-normal boy named Van Fanel abruptly appears before her, from the sky along with a vicious dragon too. Hitomi had a premonition, and thanks to that, Van manages to quell the dragon triumphantly. But that was not the end of it; a pillar of light appears and envelopes the two, transporting them to the world of Gaea. Hitomi now finds herself in a mysterious land where the earth hangs in the sky.
In this alien land, Hitomi soon learns that Van is a prince of the Kingdom of Fanelia, which soon comes under attack by the evil empire of Zaibach. Van makes a valiant attempt to fend the enemies off. For this purpose, he boards his family's ancient guymelef Escaflowne, which is a mechanized battle suit, but ultimately fails to defeat them.
As a result, the Kingdom of Fanelia gets utterly destroyed. With no other choice left but to run, Hitomi and Van flee together. In the midst of it all, the two encounter a handsome Asturian knight named Allen Schezar, who, for some reason, looks precisely like Hitomi’s crush from Earth, to her utter surprise. Making allies along the way, Van and Hitomi embark on a quest to fight back against the forces of the Zaibach Empire, determined to foil the Empire’s evil plans from reviving an ancient and dangerous power.
As The Vision of Escaflowne was adapted from three different manga and one Light Novel, there are many complications. The anime’s premise is mainly explained through the Production procedure. Escaflowne was in development for about five years. Shoji Kawamori, famous for his works on the Macross series and Eureka Seven, came up with the initial idea for this series after a trip to Nepal. He built up the basics of the series alongside Minoru Takanashi at Bandai.
Protagonist Hitomi was originally a curvy, long-haired, air-headed girl with glasses, and the overall series was more shonen-like. Studio Sunrise, famous for their outstanding work on the Gundam series and Cowboy Bebop, was initially selected to do the series.
The 39 episode series is planned, and Noboteru Yuki worked with Kawamori on Escaflowne alongside director Yasuhiro Imagawa. Yasuhiro worked on the series long enough to coin the phrase Escaflowne and then left the project before its production started, and the project was shelved. Two whole years later, Studio Sunrise picked it back up and brought Kazuki Akane into the project. Akane gave the entire series a complete makeover, the most notable changes being; bringing in shoujo elements to balance out the shonen, making the males a bit more into bishonen, and remaking Hitomi into what she is now.
The story of The Vision of Escaflowne was meant to be for 39 episodes, and this is evident. It was supposed to drag on longer, but even after trimming it, the director didn't want to sacrifice any of the characters or plot lines.
Thus, the already elaborately planned plot and character developments were made to fit into 26 episodes. The story and development do seem a bit jerky, initially slow, but it eventually speeds. Despite the slightly bumpy ride, the show still manages to thoroughly and coherently wrap things up within its length; added to this is the fairly extensive cast of characters with promising developments.
As for the characters, they are so well developed. They initially seem like typical Shoujo characters, but they develop at a good pace, in a very realistic manner such that watching their growth is very engaging. Hitomi develops and grows up as she makes her way through new terrain and reacts very realistically to situations. All character relationships develop at a steady pace and aren’t forced onto viewers abruptly; instead, they are slowly brought to light and smoothed out.
This is a Mecha anime, so the mech fights are given much attention to and executed very well on a regular basis. They even developed the mechs to match the level of technology of Gaea. The downsides are that viewers get bombarded with information; some characters are such transient and weak gags. Still, the overall story flow is good, and the significant elements are given in beautiful detail.
The art and animation of Escaflowne are decent for an anime of its time but in no way stunning. The character designs have just the right amount of detail, including all the different races on Gaea, mech designs, and backgrounds. The linework is solid as well. The art has not aged well, though, like facial features tend to be highly exaggerated, like noses which seem too sharp to be on a face. The CG is very obvious and pretty bad, so much so that it can be painful to watch at times.
The music and soundtrack of Escaflowne are also very well done. Yoko Kanno’s handiwork features excellent orchestral scores, beautiful string work, particular emphasis on the cello, and excellent choral arrangements. The opening is "Yakusoku wa Iranai (No Need for Promises)" by Maaya Sakamoto, and the ending theme is "Mystic Eyes" by Hiroki Wada. Yakusoku wa Iranai is sung by Hitomi’s voice actress and is a lovely ballad, which hits hard.
The ending is more of a typical upbeat JPop theme which isn’t unique in any way. The voice acting is just as good. The series is full of experienced voice actors who deliver an outstanding performance. Each voice actor fills their part very well and overall did a good job.
The series feels pressured for screen time due to the 26 episode constraint. The long run would have worked wonders for the series and given the show time to breathe. If it had been cut even one more episode shorter, the show would've been a disaster.
As it stands, Escaflowne has a decent story, characters, a well-built setting, an animated world, proficient voice actors, and beautiful music. Needless to say, it has flaws, stemming mainly from the compressed schedule and the occasional forgetting of characters. One of the main themes is the recurring conflict between fate and free will.
Escaflowne makes some interesting conclusions about how one's free will affects not only oneself but all surrounding them. The show includes some bizarre twists that no one expected, so be sure to watch a few episodes before judging it too harshly. If you like it, you’ll only wish there were more of it, in fact, all 39 episodes. Regardless, it is an excellent series and is highly recommended for fans of the featured genres.
