The Vision of Escaflowne

Young Kanzaki Hitomi is an energetic high school student on the school track team. One day however while getting timed on the 100 m dash, she sees a vision of an oddly dressed, young man standing in the middle of the track. As she runs through the image, she faints and sees a vision of huge mecha and a city in flames. Could it have all been a dream? Unfortunately for young Hitomi, however, the next day, the young man from her vision somehow ends up being transported to her world along with a dragon from his world of Gaia. After defeating the dragon, Van Fanel claims the dragon's energist crystal and the crystal somehow creates a link between the two worlds transporting Van back to his world. Only he is not alone in his return, for Hitomi is also somehow caught up in the beam of light and is transported to Gaia. And so the adventure begins...

Parental Guidance Advised - Borderline mature rating. Adult themes as well as one character who is insane and switches gender. Lots of violence and blood during scenes of battle and war.

Kanzaki Hitomi is your typical high school student and member of the girl's track team. Hitomi has one slightly unusual skill however, she is extremely accurate at telling fortunes using her tarot cards. During practise, Hitomi has a vision of a strangely dressed young man standing in the midst of the track. As she runs through the illusionary boy however, she faints and finds herself facing visions of huge mecha and mass destruction. What are these visions and what do they have to do with Kanzaki?

However, Hitomi has more pressing matters when she finds out that Amano-sempai, a member of the boys track team will be leaving to go abroad. Despite her skill with fortune telling, she's never looked at her possible future with Amano-senpai. However, as she reads into what her tarot cards tell her, she finds that the two are indeed to be separated…

What is it about being young and having so much energy? Hitomi's mad dash through the school grounds to get to practise is just one example of such; I wish I had the energy to take stairs three at a time. In any case, the opening to this first episode quickly grabs the viewer both with some well detailed animation as well as with a solid music score. More than anything, the music is what attracts the viewers at first as Hitomi races through the school to get to practise.

The vocal piece as Hitomi sees her first vision of a strange young man is one of the more prominent melodies in the series. Unfortunately, because it is sung a capella, in this first vision, the vocalists were somewhat unsure of their starting note. A shame since it really is a beautiful melody. However, despite this one slip in the music, the rest of the music is beautiful and does a wonderful job of enhancing the viewing experience.

As a first episode, character introductions are handled in an easy and logical manner. Indeed just before Van is transported to Earth, we see him running in a parallel scene to Hitomi's race against the clock for her first kiss. While the story itself is neither particularly deep nor extensive, it sets up the idea of the story for the next while effectively. It's a standard time slip/transportation to a strange dimension style story. Why is it that it's almost always girls who are transported to alternative realities??

Overall the animation quality is strong for a TV series with good detail although there is also noticeable use of CGI as well. The dragon would be one point where CGI wasn't entirely smoothly joined into the production as a whole. However, the detail seen even in quieter scenes is strong for a TV series.

Perhaps the most noteable area in this episode with respect to inconsistency would be the voice acting. While the voice actors are all solidly into character, Hitomi's character as well as her lines after the battle were a bit odd. Perhaps because they were meant to show the effects of her fear that Van would die I found that the lines themselves were awkward, rather like having a handful of lines with the meaning you want to impart but no real idea on how to string them all together in a way to make them sound natural or normal. Despite good inflection and intonation by the seiyuu, the lack of coherency to the lines makes for a slightly awkward scene.

Despite that one scene however, the overall impression left by this first episode is one of some very interesting action to come given the foretellling from Hitomi's vision, as well as a beautiful viewing and listening experience to come. Lots of promise is being seen here...

Hitomi finds herself transported to a strange land along with the young fighter who slew the dragon back on Earth. What is this strange land that Hitomi finds herself in? Gaia an undetected and unseen land not on the earth is home to a number of unusual creatures including the dragons which attacked Van. Having found themselves near Van's land of Fanelia, Hitomi finds herself exposed to a number of unusual creatures including trader wolfmen who travel from market to market.

Much to Hitomi's surprise, Van is no other than Fanelia's new king having slain a dragon and retrieving the drag-energist within the dragon's body. However, Van's coronation does not go according to plan when Fanelia is suddenly attacked by an unseen enemy. Who is the hidden enemy and what do they seek.

This second episode builds on the initial impressions from the first episode. The music especially continues to astound viewers as the range of melodies grows and does a beautiful job of enhancing the viewing experience. Likewise, the animation continues to be solidly detailed although it becomes clear that much of it is computer generated / enhanced. Even so, the combination of the stronger music with good animation makes for a truly enjoyable episode.

The story in the first half of this episode moves rather slowly as Hitomi finds herself in an unusual land, and as such the boredom that she feels as she has no idea what to do with herself in Fanelia is keenly felt by the viewer. Even so, things don't stay slow or serious for long as we have some comic relief coming from Merle as she confronts Hitomi about being too familiar or close with Van. However, even with this bit of humour, action builds soon thereafter ensuring that viewers are not lost due to lack of movement in the story.

The voice acting in this second episode is a touch weaker than in the first. While the main characters are still solidly portrayed, some of the minor characters, particularly the wolf-man, are a bit weaker. Merle, the little cat-girl however is solidly portrayed by Ootani Ikue and shows good flexibility in portraying a wide range of emotions from jealous annoyance, to smugness, to relieved happiness.

I have to admit that watching Van slice his thumb to make his pact with Escaflowne still makes me cringe. The idea of deliberately slicing my thumb, especially in the meat of the digit just does not sit well. Not that it's exceptionally painful or anything; it's the idea of it, much like the idea of deliberately giving oneself a papercut.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this episode is the play between the story as it unfolds before us and the music. Truly the two play off each other incredibly. Indeed the final scene in this episode is one such example where the voice acting, music and animation work together to make a strong scene.


	S.O.T.A. Revolution \| home Anime Reviews \| Ah! Megamisama! \| Aono Rokugo \| Arcadia of my youth \| Arislan Senki \| Armitage III \| Ayashi no Ceres \| BAOH \| Battle Angel \| Birdy the Mighty \| Black Jack \| Bubblegum Crisis \| Card Captor Sakura \| Cowboy Bebop \| Crystania no Densetsu \| DBZ Review \| Earthian \| Fake \| Fatal Fury III: The Motion Picture \| Hono Tripper \| Fushigi Yuugi \| Galaxy Express 999 \| Koukaku Kidoutai \| Hotaru No Haka \| Umi Ga Kikoeru \| Juiichinin Iru \| Kaze no Namae wa Amnesia \| Laputa, Castle in the Sky \| Mei Tantei Conan \| Mermaid's Scar \| Ninja Scroll \| Only Yesterday \| Princess Mononoke \| Queen Emeraldas \| Rail of the Star \| Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie \| Tekken Review \| Ultimate Fighter: Grappler Baki \| The Vision of Escaflowne \| Warriors of the Wind \| X: The Movie The Vision of Escaflowne genre: fantasy / adventure "Are wa yume? Soretomo maboroshi? Iie are wa magiremonai genjitsu. So subetewa ano hi, tarot card ni koi no yukue wo kiita toki kara hajimatta". Young Kanzaki Hitomi is an energetic high school student on the school track team. One day however while getting timed on the 100 m dash, she sees a vision of an oddly dressed, young man standing in the middle of the track. As she runs through the image, she faints and sees a vision of huge mecha and a city in flames. Could it have all been a dream? Unfortunately for young Hitomi, however, the next day, the young man from her vision somehow ends up being transported to her world along with a dragon from his world of Gaia. After defeating the dragon, Van Fanel claims the dragon's energist crystal and the crystal somehow creates a link between the two worlds transporting Van back to his world. Only he is not alone in his return, for Hitomi is also somehow caught up in the beam of light and is transported to Gaia. And so the adventure begins... Parental Guidance Advised - Borderline mature rating. Adult themes as well as one character who is insane and switches gender. Lots of violence and blood during scenes of battle and war. While the Fox Kids edit removes most of the objectionable material, it also affects the overall flow of the story being told. (Fate's Confession) Distributed by: Bandai (Japan), AnimeVillage.com (North America) Length: 25 minutes Rating: NR, parental guidance suggested Format: Original Japanese, Subtitled, Dubbed (VHS/LD/DVD) Kanzaki Hitomi is your typical high school student and member of the girl's track team. Hitomi has one slightly unusual skill however, she is extremely accurate at telling fortunes using her tarot cards. During practise, Hitomi has a vision of a strangely dressed young man standing in the midst of the track. As she runs through the illusionary boy however, she faints and finds herself facing visions of huge mecha and mass destruction. What are these visions and what do they have to do with Kanzaki? However, Hitomi has more pressing matters when she finds out that Amano-sempai, a member of the boys track team will be leaving to go abroad. Despite her skill with fortune telling, she's never looked at her possible future with Amano-senpai. However, as she reads into what her tarot cards tell her, she finds that the two are indeed to be separated… What is it about being young and having so much energy? Hitomi's mad dash through the school grounds to get to practise is just one example of such; I wish I had the energy to take stairs three at a time. In any case, the opening to this first episode quickly grabs the viewer both with some well detailed animation as well as with a solid music score. More than anything, the music is what attracts the viewers at first as Hitomi races through the school to get to practise. The vocal piece as Hitomi sees her first vision of a strange young man is one of the more prominent melodies in the series. Unfortunately, because it is sung a capella, in this first vision, the vocalists were somewhat unsure of their starting note. A shame since it really is a beautiful melody. However, despite this one slip in the music, the rest of the music is beautiful and does a wonderful job of enhancing the viewing experience. As a first episode, character introductions are handled in an easy and logical manner. Indeed just before Van is transported to Earth, we see him running in a parallel scene to Hitomi's race against the clock for her first kiss. While the story itself is neither particularly deep nor extensive, it sets up the idea of the story for the next while effectively. It's a standard time slip/transportation to a strange dimension style story. Why is it that it's almost always girls who are transported to alternative realities?? Overall the animation quality is strong for a TV series with good detail although there is also noticeable use of CGI as well. The dragon would be one point where CGI wasn't entirely smoothly joined into the production as a whole. However, the detail seen even in quieter scenes is strong for a TV series. Perhaps the most noteable area in this episode with respect to inconsistency would be the voice acting. While the voice actors are all solidly into character, Hitomi's character as well as her lines after the battle were a bit odd. Perhaps because they were meant to show the effects of her fear that Van would die I found that the lines themselves were awkward, rather like having a handful of lines with the meaning you want to impart but no real idea on how to string them all together in a way to make them sound natural or normal. Despite good inflection and intonation by the seiyuu, the lack of coherency to the lines makes for a slightly awkward scene. Despite that one scene however, the overall impression left by this first episode is one of some very interesting action to come given the foretellling from Hitomi's vision, as well as a beautiful viewing and listening experience to come. Lots of promise is being seen here... - JYN 00.10.16 (The Girl from the Mystic Moon) Distributed by: Bandai (Japan), AnimeVillage.com (North America) Length: 25 minutes Rating: NR, parental guidance suggested Format: Original Japanese, Subtitled, Dubbed (VHS/LD/DVD) Hitomi finds herself transported to a strange land along with the young fighter who slew the dragon back on Earth. What is this strange land that Hitomi finds herself in? Gaia an undetected and unseen land not on the earth is home to a number of unusual creatures including the dragons which attacked Van. Having found themselves near Van's land of Fanelia, Hitomi finds herself exposed to a number of unusual creatures including trader wolfmen who travel from market to market. Much to Hitomi's surprise, Van is no other than Fanelia's new king having slain a dragon and retrieving the drag-energist within the dragon's body. However, Van's coronation does not go according to plan when Fanelia is suddenly attacked by an unseen enemy. Who is the hidden enemy and what do they seek. This second episode builds on the initial impressions from the first episode. The music especially continues to astound viewers as the range of melodies grows and does a beautiful job of enhancing the viewing experience. Likewise, the animation continues to be solidly detailed although it becomes clear that much of it is computer generated / enhanced. Even so, the combination of the stronger music with good animation makes for a truly enjoyable episode. The story in the first half of this episode moves rather slowly as Hitomi finds herself in an unusual land, and as such the boredom that she feels as she has no idea what to do with herself in Fanelia is keenly felt by the viewer. Even so, things don't stay slow or serious for long as we have some comic relief coming from Merle as she confronts Hitomi about being too familiar or close with Van. However, even with this bit of humour, action builds soon thereafter ensuring that viewers are not lost due to lack of movement in the story. The voice acting in this second episode is a touch weaker than in the first. While the main characters are still solidly portrayed, some of the minor characters, particularly the wolf-man, are a bit weaker. Merle, the little cat-girl however is solidly portrayed by Ootani Ikue and shows good flexibility in portraying a wide range of emotions from jealous annoyance, to smugness, to relieved happiness. I have to admit that watching Van slice his thumb to make his pact with Escaflowne still makes me cringe. The idea of deliberately slicing my thumb, especially in the meat of the digit just does not sit well. Not that it's exceptionally painful or anything; it's the idea of it, much like the idea of deliberately giving oneself a papercut. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this episode is the play between the story as it unfolds before us and the music. Truly the two play off each other incredibly. Indeed the final scene in this episode is one such example where the voice acting, music and animation work together to make a strong scene. - JYN 00.10.16