I really enjoyed Escaflowne the Movie. It's one of the movies that tries to squish a 26 epsiode series into an hour and a half movie. While doing this leaves the storyline a bit flat with gaps and unanswered questions at the end and little character development, the work itself is beautiful. A stunning style of animation is done with intricate detail and gorgeous colors. There are scenes of beautiful green fields with snow capped mountains in the distance along side scenes of battle next to the gigantic caravan. The first thing that caught my attention, even before the stunning animation, is the music. Yet again we here masterpieces by Yoko Kanno along side Hajime Mizoguchi. Full orchestral pieces accompany these scenes are indescribable. My favorite being the piece during the Escaflowne battle of the armors. Ok, now that my likes are done perhaps a bit of a story overview? Hitomi Kanzaki pretty much suffers from depression and near suicidal tendancies. Until one day she is "called" to Gaia. This pretty much happens within the first 10 - 15 minutes of the movie and is pretty much the confusing, "what the hell is happening?" part, but afterwards, storywise, it does get better. She appears inside the Escaflowne armor while Van is raiding the ship it's being transported on. Hitomi is now believed to be the Wing Goddess who has the power to determine Gaia's fate to either destroy or save. She also has the "power" to summon the Escaflowne. And pretty much the rest is Folken wanting to destroy his sorrow by destroying the world. Van doomed to stop his brother is quite moody and tempermental, in the beginning, wanting to stay the "loner" until Hitomi worms her way into his heart. awwwww! That's pretty much how the story goes with the focus on Van, Folken, and Hitmoi. There is very little of Allen, Dryden, Millerna, and Merle. On a sidenote, the voice acting is very well done. If you have watched Inuyasha in English, you will recognize many of these voices. Kirby Morrow - Van/ Miroku, Kelly Sheridan - Hitomi/ Sango, Paul Dobson - Folken/ Naraku, Scott Mcneil - Jajuka/ Kouga. Though the story falls a bit with not enough development, it is very appealing to the senses. In the least if you have not seen the series this will make you want to for sake of answers and more in depth story coverage. If you have already seen the series you will probably be disappointed. I enjoyed it through it's faults and would recommend it no matter where you stand with the series. But just remember that the first 10 minutes or so are going to be in there own world, let's just say she is taken to Gaia and don't worry about the "how" part of the equation. In the end 8.5 out of 10.
Boma at 1:51 PM
