Escaflowne
Alternate Titles: The Vision of Escaflowne, Escaflowne of the Heavens, 天空のエスカフローネ
Original Japanese Release Date: 1996
Episode Length/Run-time: 26
Summary:
Hitomi is your normal high school student, decent grades, sports-interested, crushes on high school heart throbs, and an innocent fascination with the occult divination (tarot cards and pendulums). One night she is transported from earth to the world of Gaea where she meets Van Fanel, the prince of the city of Fanela. He is currently working on uniting the cities of Gaea against the forces of the malicious Zaibach empire. As Gaea slips further into chaos as Zaibach launches their attacks Van takes up the strange and powerful mecha-like Escaflowne and Hitomi must realize her own powers and inner strength to save this new world.
Review:
Where to start with an anime such as Escaflowne?
Despite being over a decade old Escaflowne rivals even new anime with it’s appearance and animation (and it was done before mostly everything could be done in computers kids). With the average episode production budget being an astounding ¥30,000,000, PER EPISODE! This creates a rich atmosphere with interesting designs and still crisp looking animation.
The music is fantastic, comparatively to any other anime this soundtrack would be high ranking against even the work of Joe Hisaishi with Studio Ghibli. Yoko Kanno, who is known among the A.A.A. for producing fantastic work lended the score. But even for her this is a step above the rest. Full orchestral pieces produce timeless music which evoke strong emotions from powerful racing pieces to soft vocals.
The best thing about this anime, and part of what makes it so rare and special, is that it’s a 26 episode series with literally NO FILLER. Every episode is beautifully paced and designed to progress the story and the characters in an effortless way. The con could be argued that as a result it does take some time to set up the world, I found myself only mildly interested for the first six or so episodes as they were presenting the characters and establishing the culture. But after I gained a full appreciation for what was going on I was swooned by the characters and touched by the story.
And, you want to talk about an anime that has everything, this is it. Larger than life mech battles, mysticism, romance, some small cliches like catgirls for the fans, sword fights, family feuds, coming of age, old-school fantasy mixed with a slight sci-fy element, there’s little that people won’t like. The best is that it’s all done well and despite there being so much nothing feels awkard, out of place, or conflicts.
This is an anime for just about everyone and anyone. It starts with a bang, takes its time without being slow, and makes good on all it’s promises. This is a good example of what every anime should aim to be and is a well-known classic.
[starrater]