Vision of Escaflowne Anime Review

Vision of Escaflowne, like Star Wars, is a fairytale filtered through modern sensibilities. The story begins on an ordinary day in a Japanese high school. Hitomi Kanzaki arrives at track practice just in time to see Amano, the object of her desire, beat 11 seconds in the hundred meter dash. When Hitomi runs in her heat at the time trial she is beset by a strange vision of another world. Just as her body is pushing past the limit of endurance she sees a young warrior in armor and brandishing a sword standing before her and seems to run right through him. She passes out and her visions or dreams of a strange world continue as she sees castles, men in armor, and combat between giant sword wielding robots. A central feature of her vision is the brash Prince Van promising that unlike his brother, he will never turn his back on an enemy. After that she Hitomi finds herself outside watching a castle crumble into dust as the ground around her begins to break apart. She is saved by an "angel" that turns out to be her crush, Amano, captain of the track team. He's been sitting with her in the school's infirmary and gently brings her back to reality. Hitomi and Amano strike up a conversation and begin to connect on a personal level. Amano praises Hitomi's perfect form and gives her advice on improving her time. Hitomi shows Amano a pendant handed down from her grandmother; it actually functions as a perfect pendulum, counting the seconds without ever slowing down. Afterward, Amano seems to be on the verge of expressing some deep feeling to Hitomi when they are interrupted by the untimely arrival of Yukari, Hitomi's best friend and the track team's manager.

As Hitomi and Yukari walk home, Yukari tells Hitomi the rumors she has heard about Amano: according to his fellow upperclassmen, Amano is moving out of the country, if Hitomi ever wants to let Amano how she feels about him, she will have to do it quickly. At home Hitomi consults her tarot cards for a clue to how to proceed – drawing the Tower (a symbol of separation) and the Serpent (a symbol of courage) she formulates a plan of action. The next day she meets Amano at the track, dressed in her sprinter's outfit, she hands him her pendant and tells him that if she can break 13 seconds, she wants him to give her, her first kiss. Amano agrees and with Amano and Yukari cheering her on, Hitomi begins to run the hundred meter dash. Suddenly there is burst of light and a discharge of energy and a young warrior in armor appears on the track. Hitomi realizes, to her great astonishment, that this is the same Prince Van she had seen in her earlier vision. Van is in the middle of slaying a dragon as rite of passage and he angrily tells Hitomi and her friends to get out of the way before the dragon kills them all. A terrific battle ensues and Hitomi and friends retreat to a nearby Shinto shrine – the dragon hot on their tails.

During the course of the battle, Hitomi is plagued by a psychic vision of what she fears will be Van's untimely demise. She interferes with the battle and saves Van's life. After he manages to slay the dragon, Van tells her off for her interference. Hitomi argues that she was only trying to save his life and that he ought to be a little grateful. Before their argument can be resolved, there is another discharge of energy and Hitomi and Van are spirited away to Van's home world of Gaea.

As the second episode begins, Hitomi actually seems rather calm and collected for someone who has been transported to another planet by apparently supernatural forces. Most people would likely spend several minutes screaming; Hitomi seems to take it all in stride that she is thousands of miles away from home on a planet where creatures such as dragons and wolf people that we consider pure fantasy exist as naturally on Gaea as lions and elephants exist on Earth. Shortly after arriving on Gaea, Hitomi and Van find themselves surrounded by wolf people – they turn out to be friendly towards Van's people and lead him and Hitomi to the kingdom of Fanelia – a feudal state that bears some resemblance to both Japan and Europe. On the journey, Van tells the leader of the wolf people about his experience on Earth, what the inhabitants of Gaea refer to as the Mystic Moon. He is so blasé about the whole thing and reports it in such a matter-of-fact manner that it would seem that bizarre experiences such as being transported through a trans-dimensional portal while battling a dragon must happen to Van on a daily or weekly basis. Hitomi in the meantime has begun to have psychic visions that alert her to impending doom for various characters.

When Van enters the city he is welcomed as a hero by the entire populace as we learn about one of their customs: in order to prove himself a worthy successor, the heir of Fanelia's throne must slay a dragon in single combat and return with the creature's organ known as an energist. Van's elder brother apparently failed to achieve this goal. When Fanelia's generals confirm that Van has brought home an authentic energist, preparations for Van's coronation move into high gear including plans for a tournament amongst the elite pilots of the giant robots known as "Guymelefs". Meanwhile, Hitomi makes the acquaintance of Merle one of Van's servants and admirers. She is a cute but jealous cat girl who warns Hitomi not to get too close to the Prince. She doesn't like foreigners getting to familiar with Van. Merle steals Hitomi's pendant and Hitomi chases after her. She is momentarily distracted from the chase when she passes a gym where Van practicing his swordsmanship with Balgus, one of his generals. She overhears Van admit that although he faithfully carried out his duty he doesn't really wish to be King. Balgus notices Hitomi's presence, thanks her for saving Van's life and promises that Fanelia will find a way to return her home.

Later as Van's coronation commences, the city comes under attack by enemy troops from the Zaibach Empire using "Guymelefs" hidden by invisibility cloaks. Vision of Escaflowne, like many other fantasy anime series and films, suffers from what film critic Roger Ebert referred to as John Carter Syndrome (JCS). Created by Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter Warlord of Mars was a Civil War era Southern gentleman transported by supernatural means to the planet Mars (Sound familiar?), John Carter would thunder across the plains of Mars on the back of his Martian steed, slaughtering hordes of evil Martian swordsmen with his Martian sword and then suddenly, halfway to rescuing the princess he would suddenly remember his trusty Martian death ray and fry the rest of the evil bastards with a laser beam. The people of the planet Gaea have the technological wherewithal to build the "Guymelefs" but still practice swordsmanship, travel on a variety of beasts of burden, and carry out productive tasks with machines no more sophisticated than a windmill. Some science fiction writers have created clever explanations for situations like this. For example, the denizens of the empire depicted in Frank Herbert's Dune novels have developed a religious bias against certain technologies such as computers and reverted to fencing and other forms of hand-to-hand combat due to the discovery that the interaction between laser beams and force fields is as deadly to the attacker with the laser as it is too the target using the force field. In the Star Wars Saga the Jedi Knights' use of light sabers in a culture dependant on blasters, developed from Jedi meditation and exercise. The appearance of the mecha-esque Guymelefs in the otherwise feudal world depicted in Vision of Escaflowne; while providing visual interest to what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill fantasy adventure, are a distraction. If the people of Gaea can build Guymelefs; why can't they build guns, cannons, or automobiles?

The second episode ends with the newly made King Van performing a ritual to bond with Escaflowne – an advanced type of melef that can only be used by the King of Fanelia. He manages to defeat a few of the attackers and once again Hitomi saves his life by alerting him to danger, however, most of Fanelia's military has fallen and the few remaining defenders are quickly overwhelmed. Balgus, Van's mentor is killed in a heroic last stand and Van and Hitomi find themselves surrounded. Clearly this is the end of Fanelia; overwhelmed by emotions Hitomi begins screaming. Her pendant glows, and a stream of energy shoots into the night sky.

As episode three begins, Hitomi and Van find themselves briefly separated in the woods some distance from the burning remains of Fanelia. Hitomi nearly falls prey to a tubby thief eyeing her with bad intent but she is saved from a fate worse than death by an elegant and gallant knight named Allen (That's right Allen…On a planet of wolf men, cat people, giant robots, and dragons, the gallant knight's name is Allen.). Allen bears more than a passing resemblance to handsome track star Amano and in her delirium; Hitomi calls him by this name. Alerted by Hitomi's screaming, Van arrives on the scene just in time to see Hitomi faint into Allen's arms and of course assumes the worst. Allen and Van fight but the skirmish is brief – Allen dodges Van's blows and knocks Van out with a blow to the stomach. As Van passes out, Allen admonishes him with the same advice Balgus had previously given – Van's technique is excellent he just isn't aggressive enough.

Meanwhile onboard some sort of flying fortress, Dilandau Albatou, the leader of the attack on Fanelia is dressing down his men because the total destruction of Fanelia wasn't carried out with total precision – some of the elite battle suits were slightly damaged in the fighting. We know Dilandau Albatou is a villain because he screams and slaps his men around like bitches. Later the incredibly pretty and androgynous Dilandau meets with Folken a handsome top tactician. Folken we learn, is a former citizen of Fanelia who has betrayed his nation, he expresses regret that the kingdom was razed. In a scene that viewers who have seen The Empire Strikes Back will find familiar Folken and Dilandau use a super advanced communications device to contact the creepy Emperor of Zaibach who outlines his creepy, overly-complicated plan for world domination which includes the use of a destiny prognostication engine (fortune telling machine) and unlocking the secrets of Atlantis. The Emperor orders Folken and Dilandau to hunt down Van and seek out the source of the recent energy bursts that have disturbed their world in recent days.

At the same time, Allen has given Hitomi and Van refuge in his castle. Allen is a dashing, heroic and smooth talking ladies man. He also looks exactly like Amano with blond hair, which would be confusing enough if he also didn't give her a kiss as a way of explaining her presence at his castle when Dilandau and his men show up demanding re-supply. Allen acquiesces to Dilandau's demands and Dilandau and his men seemingly depart. Later that day, Hitomi and Van are in the guest room. Van is sulking and Hitomi is trying to liven his mood with her tarot deck when they are visited by the Mole – the thief who earlier accosted Hitomi in the woods. Mole apologizes for the encounter and explains that his interest was not in Hitomi but rather her pendant, he returns her lost gym bag as a form of apology. He then leads Van and Hitomi to the "Guymelef" storage room where Van is reunited with Escaflowne. Determined to return to Fanelia, Van suits up and prepares to depart. However, his exit is blocked by Allen in his own "Guymelef". Allen tells Van that Van may leave if he wishes but he will have to get through him first. Allen knows that Fanelia has been totally destroyed and returning would be futile. They fight, and Van holds his own for a while until Allen informs him that they have martial tutelage in common. Allen knocks Van down and Van surrenders. At that very moment Dilandau launches a surprise attack on Allen's castle drawing him into the ever widening conflict.

As each following episode unfolds, the story grows more complicated with enough plot twists, revelations, and interpersonal conflicts to make even the most seasoned soap opera writer blush. As with many anime series if you miss even one episode you'll be hard set to catch up as the series is tightly woven with plots and subplots. At the center of all this are the parallel stories of the love triangle consisting of Hitomi, Van, and Allen and Zaibach's Emperor Dornkirk and his search for the secrets of Atlantis. Of the two central storylines the love triangle is the more interesting. Unlike most Hollywood love triangles where one of the rivals is clearly right for the protagonist and one is clearly wrong, Allen and Van both positive and negative qualities. Van is faithful and courageous but also brash and headstrong while Allen is gallant and handsome but also has a reputation as a womanizer. Hitomi is infatuated with Allen but through course of the series comes to realize that she loves Van. In contrast Emperor Dornkirk's attempt to create an ideal future for Gaea through his quest for the secrets of Atlantis is the usual over-the-top nonsense. All of this is of course played out against the backdrop of political machinations, magical experimentation and epic battle leading to startling confrontations and a mind boggling conclusion.

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