With Van now in the hands of the enemy, Hitomi offers her
fortune telling gifts to Allen to help him plan a rescue attempt. But even after they save him, is there any
place safe for Van, Hitomi, Allen and the crew of the Crusade with all of
Zaibach after them and countries ready to sell them out for safety? Also, troubling revelations from being behind
enemy lines make Van question the path he is walking. Amidst plots, romance, and knights of varying
degrees of honor and insanity, the war across Gaea is starting to heat up…and
Van Hitomi and the Escaflowne are caught in the middle of it.
Escaflowne kept up the momentum left at the end of last
week pretty nicely. The series is still
a bit early so some nitpicks from last week are also present but they’re
working themselves out mostly. Van does
still need some work in the luck department.
Not just finding out that his brother is the Darth Vader of the series,
but also almost dying TWICE if not for Hitomi’s intervention…come on dude, use
your sixth sense so Hitomi doesn’t have to bail you out. That being said, Van did step up his game
after his second (or third I guess at this point) near death prevention by
Hitomi. His practice scenes with Allen
in regular swordsmanship were awesome and his three on one gladiatorial match
up with three Guymelef’s was impressive as well. Good to know he’s not just going to whine
about everything like last week.
Allen got to show off this week not just fighting
alongside his men, leading the impressive and successful rescue of Van, (the
crew of the Crusade is an awesome bunch of bad asses) but also in the romance
department as well. We met his long time
fan/crush, Millerna, who is all set to be Hitomi’s rival for the handsome
knights affections. Millerna’s got room
to grow like everyone else on this show.
She did seem a bit superior and snobbish if only to get Allen but she
did have the sense to break him out of prison when her father sold their side
of the country to Zaibach. Allen’s not
so mysterious connection to Millerna’s deceased older sister is a nice added
bit to the will they/wont they as it’s clear Allen has some feelings for
Millerna. If romantic entanglements are
your thing, Escaflowne seems set to treat those as much as it does it’s action.
Zaibach’s plan continues to be shrouded in mystery. Folken seems to be with them in order to create
“a world without war”. But is there more
to the grand scheme of things with terms like “Destiny Alteration Machines”
being thrown around? I get the feeling
this is going to be a very drawn out mystery that gets revealed bit by bit…in
the very annoying sense that answers would be better than more questions. Though if more of Zaibach is anything like
torch and burn cause you scrapped my cheek with a sword Dilandau, then I think
the goals of this Empire are going to be pretty disorganized and in need of
serious clarification. It could just end
up being world domination but then again in Dilandau’s case as Michael Caine
once said, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
The nitpicks for this week pretty much echo last weeks in
terms of animation and character development though the later did seem to level
out by the latter half of this set. The
animation, however, is still jumping back and forth between digital and hand
drawn often, especially in the big dream sequences and it just feels
unnecessary. I don’t think this is going
to sort itself out and will continue to bounce back and forth between art
styles…guess I’ll just have to deal with it.
Oh and Hitomi’s, “Was it all just a dream?” opening recaps…yeah gonna
have to get used to those as well even though they are really unnecessary and
just begging for the mute button to be used on them
Oh and Van and Folken also have wings? Cue Sephiroth
music? And will Hitomi be crushed that Allen didn’t save her twice as it turned
out to be Van in her visions? Sigh, why
am I wondering about that second bit, let me just have my mecha battles cause
those continue to be awesome.
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