Anime Vision of Escaflowne

[Arcadia]

[quote name='Xander Harris']Powerful themes of destiny and free will, playing God, true love versus destined love, the moral quandry of the warrior, guilt, love vs. hate, and the deepest wishes of mankind run throughout the series. If I ever teach a Philosophy Through Anime class, this will be one of my primary sources. [/quote]
[size=1]I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels that way, heh. I've been wanting to write an article about some of these themes for theOtaku for a while now but I have quite a few other responsibilities right now that make it extremely difficult.

What did you think about a lot of the mother characters? [spoiler]Both Allen's and Van's mothers were kind of pivotal to the story because of their influence on their sons. The way they both just kind of gave up and wilted away and died, despite the fact that both sons tried so hard to make them happy.[/spoiler] That's always aggravated me.

I also really like the issues with being the ruler of a country. Between all three sisters Millerna, Eries, and Marlene and their father King Aston, there seems to be a question about what their royal duties should be, and what their responsibilities are to their kingdom.

And then you've got hints about inferiority and racism here and there (especially in the movie), especially when it comes to Jajuka and the other anthro-races. The whole series is just amazingly interesting when you get right down to it.[/size]

[Dagger]

[quote name='Xander Harris']Hm. I'm not quite sure what ya'll are talking about here, but I got a new copy of the full series on DVD from a second party dealer on Amazon.com... I don't think Amazon dealers sell bootlegs, although I think what I have is a version released in Japan and not the U.S., since most of the writing on the box is Japanese... whattya think??[/quote]
Sounds like a bootleg to me. ^_^;; Amazon's marketplace dealers are kind of notorious for this--when it comes to the ratio of legitimate products to bootlegs, they really aren't much more reliable than eBay. If the item you got has the series spread over three DVDs, or is listed as all-region (region-free), it's definitely a bootleg. Japanese anime DVDs are almost always far more expensive than American anime DVDs, and very few come with English subtitles.

~Dagger~

[Xander Harris]

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Sounds like a bootleg to me. ^_^;; Amazon's marketplace dealers are kind of notorious for this--when it comes to the ratio of legitimate products to bootlegs, they really aren't much more reliable than eBay. If the item you got has the series spread over three DVDs, or is listed as all-region (region-free), it's definitely a bootleg. Japanese anime DVDs are almost always far more expensive than American anime DVDs, and very few come with English subtitles.

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

*Xander Harris gets worried...*

So, uh, can I get arrested for buying it then? *hopes there are no government agents reading the boards*

[AzureWolf]

[quote name='Xander Harris']So, uh, can I get arrested for buying it then? *hopes there are no government agents reading the boards*[/quote][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]Haha, no, you can't get arrested. You are considered a victim of bootleg, rather than one guilty of commiting any crime. In any case, you bought it once, no need to buy it again unless you have the urge to have all legitimate/valuable versions of your anime.

Escaflowne was so promising, but at some point in the series, it completely changed in an unwelcomed way and just sucked from that point on.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#B33D79][SIZE=1]Ah yes. [SPOILER]I remember the Intesified Luck Warrior-Catgirls incident just after Millerna's wedding. Dealing with the energist-driven Escaflowne was alright to me but ridiculously lucky fighters (and catgirls, for that matter)?!? And how it was all related to Hitomi's card switching.[/SPOILER] Now [i]that[/i] got some o_O's from me.

Yeah, I never got tired of watching the opening sequence; it's one of those rare instances in anime when the music matches the animation perfectly. I can almost hear the bells at the end of the song...

EDIT:
[quote name='amiboshi']One of the other things I don't really like about the character designs is that Van is just SO skinny. I mean, in the movie he looks kinda chunky, but in the anime he's just kinda.....flat. O.o [/quote]
And he wears that short red shirt. Winnie the Pooh's kindred spirit, ladies and gentlemen. :laugh: Seriously though, Escaflowne's character designs look pretty tight, especially the Melefs'.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Hopealostdream]

Well, I was just wondering how many of you have seen it/what you thought of it.

I have watched the series... is the movie much different?

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656448][SIZE=1]The story couldn't get any farther to the series.

See, [i]The Vision of Escaflowne[/i] (series) has what I'd call an "un-sequel-able" story. The creators pretty much concluded the series with a closed ending so TVE is something that one cannot resurrect easily. Thus, to make a "sequel", one has to incorporate modifications like [spoiler]dragging in a parallel world[/spoiler] or [spoiler] overhauling the characters' personalities completely[/spoiler].

The good thing about the [spoiler]parallel-universe idea[/spoiler] is that you can watch the movie without going through the series. Also, the animation and character designs look much much better (partly because it's a joint project of several animation studios from across the globe).

I guess if you're looking for more of the same and/or a fan of any of the characters ([i]Folken-samaaa![/i]), get ready for completely different retelling of their individual stories.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[kenshinsbabe]

[QUOTE]Originally Posted by Delta
The story couldn't get any farther to the series.[/QUOTE]

[SIZE=2][FONT=Georgia]That's the point. Since the series ended so well, the felt they couldn't make a sequel for it. So they decided to just make something completely different. I thought it was a great idea.

I mean, take Dilandau for example. In the series, [spoiler]Dilandau turned out to be a chick. [/spoiler] But the movie was a breath of fresh air for diehard Dilandau fans (like me! I got made fun of by my sister because it turned out that I liked [spoiler]a girl![/spoiler] ><;; )

The animation was really good, the music was absolutely beautiful, and I, for one, like the changes that they made to the characters and the plot.[/FONT][/SIZE]

[Veritas]

[font=Arial][size=1][color=darkred]I have not seen much of the series, acutally I think much is more than I've seen. I've seen like half an episode of the series so I can't comment on that (plus I was like 7). I have though seen the movie. [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=1][color=darkred][/color][/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=1][color=darkred]I think the movie was done very well, the animation as people have said is beautiful. The opening scene for the movie is probably one of the most memorable scenes out of all the anime's I have watched. At the end of the movie though I was kinda left wanting more, maybe that means I need to go by the series.[/color][/size][/font]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656448][SIZE=1]
[quote name='kenshinsbabe][SIZE=2][FONT=Georgia]I mean, take Dilandau for example. In the series, [spoiler]Dilandau turned out to be a chick. [/spoiler] But the movie was a breath of fresh air for diehard Dilandau fans (like me! I got made fun of by my sister because it turned out that I liked [spoiler]a girl![/spoiler] ><;; )[/FONT'][/SIZE][/quote]
Oh, I forgot about him. Yes, I absolutely adored the movie-version Dilandau! He was nothing like the malicious and vain prat of the series and [spoiler]Miguel and Co. were left alive in the end. (wheee!)[/spoiler] I think the creator/writer/whoever said that he liked Dilandau's charcater so much that [spoiler]he decided not to kill him[/spoiler]. Good move there.
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