After rescuing Van from the despair of his soul, Hitomi and the crew of the Crusade are on a race against time to find the Mystic Valley, lost land of the descendants of Atlantis. Here, Van must confront his own greatest fears while Allen confronts his past and the father who left him. But it is Hitomi who may receive the darkest revelation of all. And when Zaibach catches up and Van, Hitomi, Allen and Escaflowne are all tossed into the hands of Emperor Dornkirk himself, the endgame of Zaibach may finally be revealed.
After such a big and bloody chain of events last week,
this weeks set of Escaflowne episodes takes it back a few notches. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a fair
bit of action but this time around it was all about backstory…lots and lots and
lots of backstory as we got the history of the birth of Gaea and Zaibach. It was a lot to process and some ideas will
either grab you or, if youre like me, you just have to accept and run with
cause we’ve only got one week of episodes left.
It was also a week for characters to contemplate what has
gone before and how best they should proceed on their new paths. Van was at the forefront for a bit as he
dealt with his Escaflowne bloodrage and how horrible it made him feel to take a
life. This gave us a welcome return as
Van and Allen’s mutual bad ass mentor Valgus appeared to his troubled king and
gave him the straight lesson: Take it in and fight so that no one has to
experience that kind of horror again.
Well it was a better outcome than Allen’s stuff. I watched the Mystic Valley two parter a couple
of times and I still cant really deduce what drove Allen’s father so stir crazy
for his own girl from the Mystic Moon (Hitomi’s Grandmother) and made him leave
his family behind. I guess you could
sync it up with the depressing message that Hitomi got from Van’s mother, that
Hitomi’s uncertain heart is making everyones life a living hell, so Allens’
fathers uncertain wants and needs caused his own demise and pain for his
family? I really cant piece that
together, sorry folks. BTW was it just
me or did Hitomi’s grandmother not seem the least bit interested or shocked to
be transported to another world for a short while…much less being hit on by
someone she knew for maybe a few minutes?
It just seemed…like another day at the office for her.
But it would seem that fate and destiny are not just
roads for people to follow, they are also roads to be diverted with
science. Yes, Emperor Dornkirk finally
revealed his own Earth origins and the existence of his Fate Alteration Engine. So Dornkirk’s love for the mystery of destiny
is driving him to change the destiny of Gaea so that it will be what he wants
it to be, perfect. I’ve heard more
farfetched ideas but I will give him credit for creativity. I did like seeing the FAE (yeah ill run with
that acronym for now) in action as we saw Dornkirk acknowledge that Van and
Hitomi’s growing closeness is screwing with his engines capabilities. To this end he had Folken and one of his sexy
cat girl ninjas, more on them in a moment, act out a scene that played out in
real time, pushing Hitomi and Allen together and breaking Van’s heart in the
process. It was cheesy and neat at the
same time and fans of Anime romantic imagery will be satisfied.
The characters all around were a bit frustrating at times
this week. Just when it seemed like they
were making some real headway in their stories, they take one idiotic step
backwards. Van seemed ready to tell
Hitomi how he really feels about her…only to say he wants her power to help him
in battle…resulting in a much deserved slap.
Hitomi’s uncertain wants and needs got her in a lot of trouble as
well. Just when it seems she knows she
needs to get her stuff together, not only does she make herself vulnerable to
the FAE by pushing Van away (sort of rightfully so, the douche) but she also
goes and tries to give Millerna a purposefully false reading on her tarot card
destiny just so she can be with Allen…what…a…bitch. This resulted in Naria and Eryia, the two
sexy hot for each other and Folken cat sisters (yes you read that right) taking
full advantage of their luck blood (yes you read that right too) to wreck
Millerna and Dryden’s wedding and kick the crap out of Van. I will give Hitomi some credit for
surrendering herself rather than wallow in self pity. But come on at the rate Hitomi’s bs-ery is
going, Gaea’s pretty screwed.
With one week left to go in this series, I’ll admit,
Escaflowne needs to both clear a few things up and force it’s cast to get it’s
s*** in order cause this was sometimes frustrating to watch. Some explanations made no sense and Hitomi
and Van’s being idiots causing potentially the end of the world makes you
wonder why they’re worth rooting for. Hell
even Merle got some cheer worthy moments standing up to Naria and Eryia to
defend Van…how is it she’s more worthy to cheer for than the main characters?
Sigh, I guess it was just piling on a bit this week. Was there anything good? Well, Van learning he can remote pilot
Escaflowne due to his body link with the armor was neat, as was Escaflowe’s new
super speed jet form, making the escape from Zaibach a lot of fun. Naria and Eryia were fun to watch not just
because they were hot but also because they got some decent backstory with
Folken and their ability to spice up the Mecha fights. And while we didn’t get a lot of screen time
with him, Dilandau’s developments from last week got touched on. Seeing him mourn the loss of his soldiers at
Van’s hands was a different side to the monstrous villain and im curious what
Dornkirk’s sorcerers are going to do to supposedly correct this. Could Dilandau return deadlier than ever for
the finale?
Escaflowne concludes next week and…yeah it’s going to
have to pull out all the stops to impress me.
Cause with the romance all over the place does anyone in the cast still
realize that the power of Atlantis has the power to end the world as they know
it? I don’t know but if I were me that
would kind of trump the now UGHness of Hitomi and Allen’s will they wont they
anymore.
See ya next week.
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