Escaflowne

The Vision of Escaflowne Episode 07 - Hot Messcaflowne

Predictably, the cliffhanger in the last episode is resolved without much fuss by a very effective Van, and thus allows us to delve into the topic of this week’s episode: Fiery passions. Although we’ve seen Hitomi gazing with longing eyes over Allen, it has been left on the backburner for the rather paltry endeavours of rescuing Van and brave escapes. With the inclusion of Princess Millerna to the cast, now comes the complications, and the show goes shoujo on us once again.

I don’t say this as a bad thing, since the first episode did it so well, and Van is too intense on his warrior-ring like so:

The Vision of Escaflowne Episode 05 – The Brothers Fanel

If you’ve been paying attention to the show, the revelation in this episode shouldn’t come as a surprise. After mentions from Episode 1 (Van moments before going off to slay some dragons) and Episode 3 (the conversation before meeting with Emperor Dornkirk), it is finally revealed Van and Folken are brothers. The former’s pretty pissed off that the brother he thought died during the very ritual he went through episodes ago is on the other side, and the latter just likes to be enigmatic as all get out because of some big Gaea-saving Plan the dear Emperor has. It cements all those floating bits of info into one of the major conflicts of the show in a natural way that unveils quite a bit but not TOO much.

The Vision of Escaflowne Episode 02 – Shut Up and Dance With Curse


First off, hard to believe the stupid losers at Saban and Fox would start here when it aired the butchered Escaflowne on Fox Kids. You’d think censorship and it treating you as stupid (what with all the forced flashbacks) is bad, but the worst part is what they did with the music. No they didn’t replace Yoko Kanno’s score; they kept it, but shifted it around so much that it no longer felt right in the very show it was made for. Even worse, they overused the most iconic BGM in the series, and made it legit tiresome to listen to. That’s like… a war crime, man.

The Vision Of Escaflowne Episode 01 – Kiss Kiss Fail in Love

To celebrate 20 Years of Escaflowne, I’ll be following the original schedule of the Japanese run and doing weekly write-ups for its episodes. If you’ve been following my Cross Ange and Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans reviews you know what to expect. Also though, expect with each episode an extra section where I cover a memorable piece of music from the series by the legendary Yoko Kanno. Hope you enjoy.

ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #1) - #6: Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

 

Director(s): Kazuki Akane
Screenplay: Shoji Kawamori
Music: Yoko Kanno
 
Everything comes together so well in Vision of Escaflowne. First of all, there's a great and wonderous new world created on Gaia, a mix of midieval, Renaissance, and steampunk motifs. You really get a good feel for the world and its people (and beast-people). It's a world whose secrets unravel as the story moves. I really like the Guymelefs, the giant combat armors that are like magic machines, and the combat and lore. Themes of fate, love, and loss shine a light on the story and characters. Yoko Kanno's soundtrack is gorgeous, providing sweeping, powerful context to the actions on screen. It really helps to lift the series above similarly well-crafted works into an exciting epic journey.
 

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