Vision of Escaflowne

A Mishmash of Anime

Nick — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 01:57:27 -0500

I've been watching a few different animes over the past few days. For one, I've been rewatching Vision of Escaflowne (currently finished episode 17) while I was working at home. On Mushishi, I'm up to episode 20 and loving it. I've enjoyed Ghost Hunt so far up to episode 11. And I've watched and mostly enjoyed the Animatrix, despite not being a fan of the Matrix universe itself.

I consider Vision of Escaflowne to be one of the greatest classic fantasy animes. Coming out in the same year as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Escaflowne became one of my all time favorite series in a quick hurry with its "just-one-more-episode" style cliffhanger endings and a great execution of several cliched elements; as this Anime News Network review of the VHS box set says:

Vision of Escaflowne is kind of a cross between Never Ending Story, Super Dimension Century Orguss 02, and Record of Loduss[sic] War.

There isn't anything specific about this series that I love. There's Hitomi's anxieties and uncertainties that never quite fall into angst. There's Van's rush to vengeance after his homeland was destroyed, followed by his struggle after he just ruthlessly killed several enemies that have been dogging him. There's Allen's womanizing and his issues with his father. You also have the perfectly insane and over-the-top Dilandau. And there also is the contemplative and tragic villain, Folken. You also have the myth of Atlantis, fortune telling, mecha, knights, nuclear bombs, and fate mixed into a well done epic storyline. Geez, it's hard to pick...

Mushishi has pretty much earned the title of Best Anime of 2006 for me, though I really haven't seen many animes from that year. Its patient and zen-like atmosphere fits perfectly with my tastes, with a touch of horror here and there to mix things up a bit. The show does require you to be contemplative for maximum effect, which may not suit some potential viewers. Though the series is based in an alternate old-Japan style world (with the protagonist, Ginko, being a bit different with some modern looking clothing) and it seems to have a strong environmentalist vibe with the Mushi, I found it to quite subtle and awesome in how it actually talks about human nature and their relationships with each other and their environments. I seem to spot some of the metaphors, strangely enough, though, like when watching Serial Experiments Lain, I seem to forget what they are soon after watching each episode...

Ghost Hunt has been quite enjoyable up to the 11th episode. It is not in the same league as the anime adaptation Fuyumi Ono's other work The Twelve Kingdoms, but from what of the manga that I've read, the anime of Ghost Hunt is not as intense as the manga, which, from what I hear, is quite watered down compared to Ono's original novel. It would be nice if the novels were translated and officially released in the U.S. like her other series. She was known as a horror fiction writer to begin with; horror is essentially about normal people being placed into exceptional situations. If she was a good horror fiction writer, that would explain why I found the fantasy series Twelve Kingdoms to be so great!

To lead off into a different animation, I'm truthfully not a fan of the Matrix movies. I watched the first one and thought it was a fun watch, but there's a fundamental problem I have with the Matrix universe. This was the idea that humans became an "infinite" energy source for the machines in a world that was blocked off from the sun; this is something that completely lacked any kind of plausibility to me and made it difficult to take the movies with any amount of seriousness.

But my attention was peaked by the Animatrix DVD because four of the shorts were made by Studio 4

Escaflowne - Hitomi

Nick — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:46:39 -0500

A shot from behind Hitomi during one of her visions.

See the Unseen, Know the Past and the Future

Nick — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:29:36 -0500

Merle, Van, and HitomiWhat the heck happened last night? It was supposed to be an entry of the anime series and films I'm looking forward to see, but that should be pretty predictable. I'll just do that in a future entry, though I should wait to title them until after I filled in the entry (but I never do. Even for this entry, I had the title in mind!).

As for Vision of Escaflowne, I finished the third DVD and wanted to comment on a couple of things. Beware of spoilers beyond this point if you haven't seen the series yet. You can also click on the image to the left to read some of my comments of that particular scene and the image quality of the DVDs in general.

My first observation is of Allen's reaction to Millerna believing that he deserted Asturia to Freid because he "knew that Zaibach will attack Asturia next" in Episode 10. He simply looks away, probably because he had a different reason for coming to Freid.

My second comment is that one my favorite scenes in this series occurs in Episode 11, when Hitomi roots out the doppelganger, Zongi, while he has her in a hypnotic trance. When she's under the doppelganger's spell, he touches her pendant and gets drawn into this dream-like evironment. What's pretty creapy is her spaced out, uncaring look while under hypnosis as her clairvoyant and precognition abilities take full form as she tells him the truth of his present, his past, and reveals his terrifying future. Unfortunately for Hitomi, she gains consciousness in this dream and lives this gruesome future, and when we're snapped into the real world, we see Hitomi lying on the ground with a still heart. This whole scene is one of the highlights for me, as it shows how far Hitomi's abilities progressed and is presented quite in an eerie way.

Merle, Van, and Hitomi

Nick — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:20:32 -0500

Merle making fun of Hitomi while Van stands there with a dumb look on his face. This is one of the more problematic areas of the animation in Vision of Escaflowne as Van is completely still during this whole exchange, which I find a bit distracting.

Also, you should be able to notice the "rainbow effect" going on in the image. This affects all of the DVDs of the Escaflowne TV Series that I have. It's probably a case of a poor transfer process when the R1 DVDs were made. On myOppo OPDV97IH upscaling DVD player outputting to my housemate's 42" DLP TV the effect looks much less pronounced compared to it playing on PowerDVD on my computer (which is where the screenshot was taken), but it could just be a case of color saturation.

Anime to see

Nick — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:44:00 -0500

For some reason, my anime watching right now lacks focus. Instead of watching what I have, such as Mushishi (I'm at episode 16), Ghost Hunt (At episode 6), Saiunkoku Monogatari (Stalled at episode 20 or so a couple of months ago due to slow fansub release), Death note (Stalled at episode 11, lack of interest), Honey & Clover 2 (Stalled at episode 10 many months ago) Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (not started yet), or Yomigeru Sora -Rescue Wings- (Not started yet), I've instead watched through the second DVD of Vision of Escaflowne.

Though Mushishi is the only series that I've seen from the last year that approaches (and possibly surpasses) the classic hybrid anime from Sunrise, I guess I just want to watch the Van-Hitomi-Allen, Millerna-Allen-Hitomi, Allen-Millerna-Dryden, and (minor) Hitomi-Van-Merle love triangle wackiness again... All kidding aside, Vision of Escaflowne was probably the series that really got me looking for epic storylines in anime. I did manage to hold my top spot for best fantasy series for a very long time until The Twelve Kingdoms supplanted it.

Why am I watching a series I've already watched around 11 times in its entirety for? I really don't know. Maybe I just want to relive watching it for the first time. Again. Maybe I'm just crazy. Ok, I'm a 27-year-old male watching foreign cartoons. A cartoon filled with pretty-boys and love triangles galore, though it has its moments of action and blood. And heck, it even has mecha; I tend to despise mecha in anime. They really don't make much sense to me. For some reason, Vision of Escaflowne gets me to accept the concept of Guymelefs. The same could be argued for Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon, though both animes don't really feature mechanical mecha.

Ok, enough with the blabbering. I need to go to bed so I can go to work in the morning...

A Space Opera, A Suspense-Thriller, And Ski-Ramp Noses

Nick — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:42:20 -0500

A couple of days ago, I decided to subject myself to the English dub of Crest of the Stars, gave up and started rewatching Monster. The night afterwards, I put in the first DVD of Vision of Escaflowne and watched the first couple of episodes in Japanese with English dubs. A few things came to mind at the time concerning each of these shows.

I do want to talk more about Mushishi also, but I'll do that later. Probably after I rewatch the episodes I've seen already again.

At first, the Crest of the Stars English dub didn't seem all that bad to me. I managed to go all the way through the first episode without cringing. It's when it got to the preview for the second episode that what people complained about struck me: Lafiel's English voice was just awful. I mean "wanting to hurl the DVD player out the window" awful. Maybe it was just those short scenes that the Preview highlights, but her voice just did not match what I had thought of her personality at all! I dunno, "bubbly" came to mind. Too bad, as the Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars series are some of the best examples of space operas in anime. It would be one I'd like to show to non-anime fans that don't want to deal with subtitles, but alas, I'm too horrified to even attempt to watch the second episode. Maybe I'll risk it later.

So I started rewatching my Monster fansubs instead. The first four episodes, to be exact. Frankly, these four episodes are what I practically call the prologue of the series as that's when the series really starts, when Tenzo finds out the truth of what he did ten years before. These first episodes really show Tenzo to be a highly skilled neurosurgeon with a gentle demeanor, and he discovers his naivety about the German medical system here. Heck, the first episode alone pull off a ethical and moral conflict that take many other animes an entire season to talk about, yet I know that Monster goes much further. I plan on showing this series to a few friends that would enjoy a psychological suspense thriller. I do hope it's licensed soon, though, and I would love to snatch up some official DVDs. Serious props if they decide to include a German dub, as that would be very appropriate for the setting.

As for Vision of Escaflowne, it ranks as one of my top favorite fantasy animes. Watching the first couple of episodes, I tried to pay close attention to Hitomi and how she acts and reacts in these early episodes. I do like that track is an integral part of her character; how she runs to warn someone of danger, how she long-jumps from one floating aircraft to another, or how she uses running as a way to cope with stress. Her clairvoyance ability doesn't fully show itself until the second episode, but we do get glimpses of it in the first episode. The problem with Vision of Escaflowne is those damn cliff-hanger endings; they make me want to keep watching the next episode! One of my previous roommates marathoned through the first 16 episodes over a night because he couldn't stop watching! Quite amusing as I woke up to get ready for work and I see him in the living room still watching with eyes peeled open.

I do love Hajime Mizoguchi's music in Vision of Escaflowne though. Nothing screams fantasy than powerful orchestral scores (though the "Esca-flowne!" chants do get annoying!).