Forum - View topicEscaflowne! (attempt #2)
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wikstaa
Posts: 7 |
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This is a new escaflowne post as apparently my previous post didn't warrant enough detail to spark a discussion! even though I was simply showing my appreciation for a great anime series that i enjoyed and loved!
It is simply Wow. It's been awhile since I've seen a good, epic fantasy anime, and was actually miffed that anime like Record of Lodoss War were small in number. However, after watching The Vision of Escaflowne, a new standard has been set. As of writing this, this epic series is one of my all-time favorite anime. Everything about it, from the down-to-earth characters, the exciting action, to the extensive story line, Escaflowne does it *right*. Nothing feels contrived, nothing is out-of-place, nothing goes wrong. And it's simply immense. The story line, while not the best I've seen, is still a good piece of fantasy fiction. Hitomi is just your average high-school student, trying to excel on the track team. However, one night while she is practicing running the 100-meter dash, a mysterious portal opens, and young knight named Van appears before her. Hitomi is then taken with Van into the mysterious world of Gaea, which is only the beginning of her epic adventure. There's a good balance between plot and action, with some episodes focusing on developing the characters, and others simply depicting epic battles. A lot of mystery regarding Gaea and the evil forces of Zaibach is developed early on, and there are quite a few plot elements which don't get fully resolved until the end. This certainly helped in holding my interest throughout the entire series. And I must say, the ending was one of the better and more fulfilling endings I've seen in an anime. While the story is good, the characters really make this series come alive. Hitomi is so incredibly unlike anyone else in the series that she truly feels like she was plucked from Earth and placed in the magical world of Gaea. Van, the young king of Fanelia, is driven by anger and revenge, and he makes a truly fearsome pilot of Escaflowne. Allen is a more typical medieval fantasy character, fulfilling the role of the gallant knight. Merle is the utterly adorable cat-girl, who provides the comic relief. If I had a list of cutest anime characters, she'd easily make the top five. The villains are truly excellent, as well. Dilandau and Folken are the two main adversaries, and both are as different as night and day. Dilandau is a bloodthirsty psycho with a hidden past, while Folken is quite somber, cold and calculating. Of course, there are many other characters as well, and all are fully developed and believable. And you if you happen to think things like plot and character development are secondary to white-knuckle action, don't worry. Escaflowne has plenty of exciting, adrenaline-filled battles to satisfy you. The action combines standard medieval warfare, giant mecha duels, and even a few aerial ballets. The battle choreography is quite good, and the attention to mechanical details on the mecha made them seem almost real. Is that detailed enough 
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Vision of Escaflowne is one of my most favourite shows. It deftly merges Fantasy and Mecha into one production, and it has the right balance of awesome action, heartwarming romance and carefully crafted intrigue. The characters are memorable and likable (even if you love to hate them...coughDilandaucough), and the writers should be given credit for making Hitomi one of the best female leads in Anime. She is realistically flawed yet she also possesses an amazing strength of genuine will, as opposed to being obnoxious like many female leads. The plot is well constructed; varied enough to never get boring yet it all makes sense. Both dub tracks are high-quality, even the vastly under-appreciated English one. The artwork is very beautiful (I love the way my boxset looks), and the music is top-notch.
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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Escaflowne is technically the first anime I watched( not counting Pokemon and all that stuff). Its among one of my favorites and one of the several series I classify as "must watches if you're an anime fan" and I still pop in the DVDs to watch from time to time. I do however felt that some parts of the show are a bit weak, spoiler[as they never clearly explain why Hitomi was sent to Gaea and I found the controlling destiny thing a bit underwhelming.] I gave the show an "excellent" rating for being extremely enjoyable and would have given it a "masterpiece" if those parts were fixed up better.
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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i agree that it is a very fine show, for all the reasons stated already.
i have a question: is there anyone who likes the show who doesn't feel totally shortchanged by the movie? i was so excited to see the film, and by the opening animation (sequence in the air-ship), where the art is so elegant and dramatic. but the speed with which everything had to unfold had me feeling before long that neither the story nor the characters were making much sense. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18571 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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<moderator>ailblentyn, you need to discover the wonder that is capital letters. Really, it's expected around here. </moderator> Whether or not you appreciate the movie seems to depend largely on whether or not you view it as a stand-alone entity. Many of the people who don't like it seem to be getting hung up on how the movie does an alternate interpretation of the characters and spins a significantly different storyline rather than just remaking the original. And, frankly, I thought the movie version stripped out the most ridiculous elements of the original and transformed the whole into a shorter, more rigidly self-contained story. In fact, I consider it to be one of the best fantasy-centric anime movies. I do still like the TV series, too, although its technical merits hadn't aged well the last time I watched it. And I must agree with dtm42 about the soundtrack; I think it's one of the two or three best from any anime series, and the CD version has long been in my regular circulation. |
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zaphdash
 Posts: 620 Location: Brooklyn |
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I haven't watched it in years and don't really have it handy to watch again right now, so I'm kind of curious, in what ways hasn't it aged well? I have very fond memories of Escaflowne, now wondering if I'm gonna be disappointed if I try to rewatch it sometime. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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The only things which didn't age well in the show were the character designs, which will mostly be a bother only to newcomers. Those who've watched it before should be vaccinated already against those noses. Well, perhaps the animation style might also be a turnoff, but if a person is going to dismiss every Anime made before computer graphics were introduced then that is their loss. The CG dragon in the first episode is probably the worst offender visually, but I would hope that people would cut the show some slack. |
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zaphdash
Posts: 620 Location: Brooklyn |
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I don't even remember there being CG in Escaflowne, which I guess goes to show how long it's been since I watched it. I remember the animation overall being pretty good, but it makes sense that CG from 1996 wouldn't have aged particularly well.
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Well, I personally loved the animation and the characters design. And even older animation does not put me off. I like the first vamire Hunter D (although admittedly it could do better if it were done in the nineties lets say), and some of the other older shows. And since most of my favourite shows were done in the late '90s and early 2000, Iam used to it, I even almost didn't pa y attention to the characters spiky noses:D The plot is still as interesting as it was back when I first saw it. And definitely more complex than some of the stuff that is coming out right now... |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Vision of Escaflowne is a great series. I saw it way back during it's hacked up and ill-fated run on FOX and loved it. So when I graduated from high school and finally had some spending cash from gifts it was one of the things I invested in. This was back in 2001 and I bought the really nice Limited edition set that came with the Escaflowne figure. It was actually one of the first anime series I own on DVD.
I finally got to see the whole thing then. I ended up marathoning it with one of my friends who also was pissed at it's cancelation, and both of us had a great time. |
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AnimeFreakOtakuFace
 Posts: 7 |
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I thought it was a pretty good show. I wouldn't quite put it up there with fushigi yuugi but maybe inuyasha caliber. But I really liked the movie. It was nothing like the show but than neither was the manga.
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wormraper
 Posts: 427 |
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putting Inuyasha even in the same category as Escaflowne and Fushigi Yuugi is horrifying. Inuyasha is dragonball Z for girls (aka an abomination) |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18571 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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No, putting Escaflowne and Inuyasha in the same category is actually fairly apt, as both series are rare examples of series which freely mix shonen and shojo elements.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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I wonder if I am the only one who was horribly nonplussed when Hitomi decided to spoiler[go back home to Japan in the end?] I mean, what was she thinking? spoiler[I can stay with Van, whom I (think) I am in love with and help rebuild his kingdom, or I can, uh... go back to high school.]
Mindboggling. P.S. I'm not sure if I needed to put spoiler tags on this considering the thread seems to assume we've all seen it, but I figured it was better safe than sorry. If they're really not needed, I'll be happy to remove them. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Some points to consider (many are related): * spoiler[She has friends and a family back on Earth. Wouldn't you want to go back and spend time with them, after all that ordeal in the end? I would.] * spoiler[She can go back to Gaea anytime. So it means she doesn't have to make a life-changing decision right there and then.] * spoiler[After being so manipulated by love, after being so fickle with her emotions, she probably needs time to think her feelings through.] * spoiler[There's still Amano to deal with. She was crushing on him before she ever met Van.] * spoiler[She and Van didn't even kiss. And now you're just expecting her to stay with him.] * spoiler[She's only fifteen or sixteen; wait till she's an adult before demanding a fairytale ending.] * spoiler[She may be looking to finish her schooling and gaining a decent job so that she has her independence. Then she can go back to Gaea and not worry that she'll be sponging off Van (it wouldn't have been the case otherwise, but she might have felt like it was).] |
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