Escaflowne

Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea was produced by Sunrise and Bandai Visual, and was directed by Kazuki Amane, same as in the series. It was released in theatres in Japan on June 24th, 2000, was licensed Stateside by Bandai Entertainment and had a limited run in theatres Stateside starting on January 25th, 2002.

Hitomi Kanzaki is depressed and considering killing herself. One day, a man appears before her and calls her the Wing Goddess, summoning her to Gaea, a world at war, where she is the ultimate arbiter of the God of the Heavens and War, Escaflowne, and, accordingly, Gaea's destiny.

As you can probably ... tell, this is a complete retelling of the original series. There are far darker takes on all the characters than you saw in the series, and a completely different plot and world that they're in, which in and of itself has its effects on them. And honestly, even though it's worlds away from the series, it's just as good of a story as the series told, especially in a more limited timeframe to work in. Every character from the series shows up, though some have their involvement changed around somewhat.

For most major characters, there is enough basic similarities between their design (though not necessarily their clothing) in the series and in the movie that you can tell who's who easily. There are some characters that got a complete facelift for this, though, most notably Folken and Millerna, and the overall effect is not all that bad, really. In fact, RAWR.

The art for this is richer and draws some amazing contrasts, especially with color in some of the earlier scenes and a notable scene that goes from watercolors to full cel animation; however, the same basic style from the series is kept and exaggerated in some cases, which, at times, does not produce the greatest effects. CG is also used far more in here, and it's kind of just as obvious as when they used it in the series.

Every character's seiyuu was able to return for this, which adds that more of a sense of familiarity and continuity, especially if you can't recognize them at first glance. Yoko Kanno returned to work on the soundtrack for this, and it's just as beautiful as the series was.

So, overall, while the movie does have a more limited timeframe to work in and lots of info to convey, the new storyline and character designs are more than welcome, especially with the seiyuu returning to provide continuity, and with Yoko Kanno on the soundtrack, and a richer environment to play around in, this adaptation is just as good as the series.

The movie completely twisted the main characters of the Escaflowne series. It is undeniable that changes had to be made to better suit the pace of a movie, yet, the characters must have been kept intact since they were such a strong asset of the story. With the characters dropped out of the story frame, the story itself seems to be inconstant and rather banal compared to the series: Folken's problem with the world starts in ambiguity and ends with totally confusing the audience. However, the animation of the movie is good and the sound/music excellent. It can therefore be a good movie to watch ... for someone who is not interested in the nit-picky details of the story and who hasn't seen Escaflowne before.

Take Vision of Escaflowne, remove all the character development, writing, humor, romance, and action that made the series the classic 90s anime people treat it as, and throw it out the window. Then replace all that with angst and blood. That's the Escaflowne movie.

While I have to admire Sunrise to attempt to condense the series for those unfamiliar with it, as well as breathe new life into old characters, this isn't the way to do it. Hitomi, instead of being a shy, but head-strong girl, is now a whiny brat who contemplates suicide. Van, instead of being a bickering but brave and powerful warrior, is ... now Tarzan with a sword. Allen is now a clone of Sephiroth, and so forth; every character you knew from Escaflowne is ruined, and these character would still suck even to those not very familiar with the franchise (such as myself). The only improved character is Merle, who's a good deal less annoying than she was in the TV series. In fact, she's the best character in the whole movie! Unfortunately, that's not a compliment.

Remember those great mecha battle scenes with Van on the Escaflowne? They're gone now, as Van spends most of the movie slashing at things and watching them bleed. There IS a robot battle, but only one worth mention, and it doesn't come until pretty far in to be of much notice.

Then there's the writing. I suspect Sunrise hired Escaflowne fans in middle school to write this, as the plot and its constant mention of the same things over and over again makes Doraemon look like it was written by Charles Dickens. Not to mention how boring of a formula the movie follows: if you've watched anime for a few years now, you can guess what will happen before it happens.

So is there anything I liked about this movie? Well, it's pretty, with slightly improved character designs and a good sounstrack by the great Yoko Kanno. Annnnnd that's about it. Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea is a pointless retread of something that was good enough the first time around, and it won't win over any new fans in its wake. And Escaflowne fans themselves should stay as far away from this turkey as possible.