Hitomi Kanzaki is your average high school girl: she’s a popular track runner, tells fortunes for her friends and crushes on the star of the track team. But life changes when she suddenly finds herself transported to the world of Gaea. Here, the Earth orbits in the sky and is called the Mystic Moon. Animals walk on two feet and talk like ordinary humans. And wars are not just fought with the sword, but with giant walking suits of armor called Guymelefs. With a worldwide invasion from the Empire of Zaibach sweeping Gaea, Hitomi’s only hope to survive and make it home lies in the hands of a handsome but stubborn prince named Van and his suit of armor, the Escaflowne.
Escaflowne, another classic within the Anime
community. If Record of Lodoss War help
set the scale and feel of the fantasy Anime genre, then Escaflowne took it to a
whole other level…by giving us giant robots and a Macross style love story. Not bad things at all…that is if some of the
main characters can get better as the series goes on.
So yeah, Escaflowne can be seen as the Gundam or Macross
of the Fantasy realm. Hard not to think
of it like that when most of the production staff of the mecha epic Macross
Plus, from Director Shoji Kawamori to that Queen of Anime Music, Yoko Kanno,
had a hand in it’s creation. The
Guymelef’s are incredible sights to behold.
Their design and movements feel more natural than that of a Gundam or a
Macross Veritech. They don’t look like
they’re pulling off unbelievable feats of kick ass action with just a couple
jerks of the joystick. No the moves they
pull off are slow and believable and look like they take great effort to pull
off. This is classic knights of the
round table action when swords clash in a duel.
That’s not to say that there aren say some moves don’t look a bit out
there like Alana’s tuck and roll dodge while dueling Dilandau on the Crusade,
but im sure a better master who can make his mecha move like that is perfectly
normal. It gives this Anime an edge and
never comes off as a comical element or a bid to just make this title stand
out. Natural is a good word to use
describing the world and it’s feel, it’s just right.
That’s definitely helped by the animation. This was an Anime from the mid 90’s and yet
it’s animation holds up much better than you’d expect. Now this was also the time when 3D animation
was starting to take a bit of a foot hold in some productions and some of it
feels a bit out of place compared to most of the first four episodes. The first episode especially stands out: the
land dragon looks cool but it just didn’t feel like it gelled well with the
rest of what was going on around it, or at least it didn’t stand out in a good
way. But every other episode keeps in
and about the same animation quality and it’s top notch.
Speaking of the first episode, a bit of history trivia: I
first found out about Escaflowne when it aired on Fox Kids of all places in the
early 2000’s (back when Digimon was a huge hit and the network tried adding
more Anime to their line up). The first
episode was completely scrapped in favor of skipping right to the selling point
mecha action in the second episode. From
a marketing standpoint, I can see why they would go that route. The first half of Episode One plays out like
a high school romance Anime while the second half is a bloody dragon
brawl. I can see how the 9-14
demographic Fox wanted to watch the show might be turned off by that bit of mushiness
early on. That being said, when
Escaflowne was suddenly yanked midway through it’s airing, I was curious as to
why and man now do I know why. Even in
the early episodes, edits had to be made like crazy. It’s brutality at times sometimes rivals that
of Lodoss War and definitely is not for kids.
Maybe Toonami could have gotten away with it years later, and it
wouldn’t shock me if this was considered for that action slot at one point, but
for Fox Kids, above average violence that isn’t a punch or energy blast was a
no no. But ill tackle this subject a bit
more later into the series.
Getting back to the main review, the last thing I want to
touch on are the characters. This is
going to be a cast that has a lot to prove as the series goes on. Van is a character in sore need of a slap to
the face…a great many times. Even when
Hitomi saves his life, he acts like he did just fine on his own without any
sort of help. I do like that he isn’t an
ace right off the bat in his Escaflowne and just because he has it doesn’t mean
victory is always guaranteed. Room for
growth is there and I really hope he shapes up to be the hero this story might
need…unless he’s just pouting that he isn’t the center of attention unlike
Hitomi. Speaking Hitomi, she whines a
bit but it’s not too overbearing just yet.
Her reactions to the world around her are legit and her comically timed
reactions to anything in appropriate give the series a bit of levity. Alan and Van’s teacher Valgus fill out the
bad ass quota: Alan with his smooth charm and skill with a Guymelef and Valgus
with his Obi Wan style wisdom and his ability to go one on one with a Guymelef
WITHOUT A GUYMELEF but instead with a sword that would make Cloud Strife
jealous.
If you can get past the first episode and still be on
board once the scene changes to Gaea, you will be in for a treat with these
first four episodes. The pacing is nice
enough to get you acquainted with things, the action is brilliant and the
music…well it’s Yoko Kanno, you’re impressed before you hear the first note but
ill get to her music more in later reviews, and there’s just enough mystery to
keep you wondering where these characters are going, what the villains plans
might be and if Hitomi will ever get back home.
OR just stick around for the Mecha, it isn’t called Hitomi after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment