Vision Of Escaflowne





Vision Of Escaflowne
Vision of Escaflowne

Hitomi Kanzaki is just your normal Japanese schoolgirl with a rather normal life. But one day that all changes as she is transpoted to the country of Fanellia on the planet of Gaea. It is here in this dark ages inspired land that she meets two men; Van Fanell and Allen Schaezar, both men of power and mystery, and both who's lives are destined to be intertwined with Hitomi's. It all begins when Van's kingdom is demolished by the army of Donkirk, ruler of the kingdom of Zaibach, who invade and conqure Van's land in search of his Guymelif Escaflowne. After narrowly escaping the Zaibach Guymelifs, Van and Hitomi meet Allan Schaezar - knight of the kingdom Asturia. From that meeting the adventure truly begins as the three learn of Donkirk's plan to destroy Gaea using an ancient machine of Atlantis, a plan which Van, Allen, and Hitomi intend to stop.

Escaflowne, another story of a schoolgirl transported to another land, is just that. Except this story is very serious and very enjoyable, not your average throw away anime. The story is full of complex twists and turns, and is full of romance, action, and mecha all contained within a massive storyline filled with suprises. Watching the first nine episodes (especialy episodes 5-9) you begin to feel a sense of epicness bordering on that which surrounds Evangelion. In fact, you could almost consider Escaflowne as an Evangelion set in a technological-medievil time, albeit with less religion and more action.

Too many highlights to mention - The great battles, the touching emotional scenes, go buy or rent Esca and you'll see what I mean.

The animation in this series is simply superb, especialy during the fight scenes and the transformations of the Guymelifs. There are a few minor problems however in that, sometimes there are strange computer generated scenes melded with the cel animation that don't always look quite right, although they look much better than most others I've seen.

All the designs are superbly done. Whether it be the medievil/victorian mixed with advanced technology settings or the many different inhabitans of Gaea (ranging from human to cat-woman to lizard-man and many more) everything matches and creates the perfect fantasy world. And the Guymelif designs . . . well lets just say if you love mecha then you'll love these knights in shining ten story tall fossil powered armor.

Esca is filled with an incredible mix of gothic classical, love song, and strange bopiing music in each episode. The creepy classical music used mainly during battle scenes is probably some of the best use of music I've yet seen in anime.

Simply incredible. This series is recommended highly to just about any and everyone. No matter what you're into this series probably has it so go get it today.

Ryujin Tendo