Escaflowne

Director
Kazuki Akane
Production
Sunrise, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
1996

Escaflowne

By Annie Hong
28th Apr 04

So right off the bat, I'm a girl. That means I like stories that throw a little romance into the mix. Escaflowne was one of the first series I watched as I began my love affair with anime and it continues to be right up there in terms of the overall story. Don't get me wrong though. Now that my tastes have matured somewhat, I realize that there are basic problems with the series but hey, keep an open mind and I think you'll end up enjoying this one too.

The story revolves around Hitomi. She's your average high school student/runner with some psychic abilities who has a crush on the high school heartthrob. One day, she decides that she's going to make a bet with Amano (the heartthrob). If she can beat her running record, he has to give her her first kiss. Amazing writing here? No. But this is where it gets interesting. As she's running, a guy with a sword shows up in front of her fighting a dragon. As the guy kills the dragon, he gets sucked back to wherever he came from and Hitomi is caught up with him and sent to Gaea, a parallel world where earth is called the blue moon or some such.

The beauty of Escaflowne comes from its blend of mecha (yes, mecha) fight sequences and romance. You start to see the characters as more than just the one dimensional figures you first think them to be. Along with that, the music is probably some of the best you will hear on an anime series, ever.

As for the problems with Escaflowne, the animation isn't my favorite and I couldn't help but laugh (derisively, not funny ha ha) at the attempts to insert "comedic" characters into the troop.

I also saw the Girl in Gaea movie and although the animation there was better, taking a great series like Escaflowne and shortening it into a movie with some differences wasn't what I'd call the best choice for the writers. It also has a great opening song however (Yubiwa) and it's intersting to watch but I think the best bet is still the series.

8/10

-- Annie Hong 28th Apr 04

Escaflowne Images