Hello everyone! Apologies for being late on this, Thanksgiving will kinda do that to a man. Food coma’s are dangerous don’t ya know? This week we finish up our conflict with the Zaibach Empire and make our way to Allen’s home of Asturia. We have a lot to talk about so lets dive in!
This week picks up where we left off, with Van leading Dilandau and co away from everyone else. And you know what? He gets caught! I should have expected this but I really didn’t. I was prepared for a half episode long chase sequence where we get to see what the dragon can do. Something that culminated in Van proving himself superior to Dilandau and flying off into the sunset! Instead he gets captured almost immediately and has to be rescued. And I’m into that for a lot of reasons. Not only does this curb Van’s power, giving him something to grow into, it also gives the rest of the cast room to flex. From Hitomi and Allen all the way to the individual soldiers, everyone get’s a small moment to shine. And the best part? The villains get to have personalities!
One of the biggest issues these kind of anime have, and fantasy stories in general, are the villains. They are so often these dark, malevolent forces in the background of the story. The evil force we have to topple! And yet our characters often don’t meet them until the final arc. By allowing Van to be captured here, Escaflowne avoids this. It lets us spend time with and get to know Folken and Dilandau. Allows Van to interact and build a rapport with them, a back and forth, connecting them beyond “Hero and Villain”. Take Dilandau for instance! Previously he was just “That crazy guy”, and he still is to some extent. But Escaflowne has also given him a personal reason to hate Van. A vendetta that will inform his actions moving forward, allowing him to be “crazy” and ignore plans without feeling contrived for the heroes.
And then of course we have Folken, Van’s brother! These two episodes were huge for him. We learn not only that he almost died to the dragon on his quest, losing an arm in the process, but that Zaibach saved and rebuilt him. Of course the question remains as to why he attacked Fanelia but we can infer some kind of father/son or savior/saved relationship with Dornkirk. What makes this interesting though is how this extends to Van. That Folken, for all he has changed, still seems to care for him and wants to invite Van to join him. Going out of his way to visit him, try to save and protect him, making the offer multiple times. It’s simple for now but its a good hook to pull us further, to get us interested in the character. And it worked! I want to explore Folken’s character more.
Moving on we come to Asturia, the land of politics! And you know what? It’s about what I expected, at least politically. So far the people in charge appear to be old fogies’ more interested in keeping the status quo than acting on any major threat. And this is fine! It gives Allen a good reason to stick with the group for the rest of the journey instead of just staying in Asturia and it adds a bit more conflict to his character. Forcing him to choose between his chivalry and his duty to Asturia. It’s early days yet but if Escaflowne can pull this off I think Allen could become a favorite of mine. At least as long as it doesn’t lean to hard into his playboy attitude.
Getting back to Asturia, soon after we arrive we are introduced to another new character: Princess Millerna. And my initial impressions are… unsure. She seems to exist as another member of the romance web, competition for Allen the same way Merle is competition for Van. And her early interactions with Hitomi come across as very antagonistic and a tad pretentious, calling her a handmaid, insulting her clothing and generally sizing her up as a rival. But there’s also a sense of… naivete within her. As if isn’t doing this intentionally. After all we also see her act kind to Hitomi, lending her clothes, advice and generally welcoming her to the city. I’m expecting that she will work past this jealousy, this antagonism, to become a close friend kind of like how Merle is slowly doing. But thats assuming she even stays relevant after we leave Asturia.
Finally lets talk about Hitomi! There’s a lot going on here from the agency Escaflowne is giving her to discovering a CD in Asturia. For the first, I like it! I’ve already talked about it a bit before when discussing Van’s rescue but I can do it again: I like that Hitomi got to take a proactive part in that. How she’s starting to try and take control of her visions, how Escaflowne remembered she’s a track star and capable of more than sitting and waiting to be saved. I doubt I need to say this but it’s a good sign when the lead character gets to take a proactive role in events.
And then there’s the discovery of the CD in Asturia’s market and what this means for Hitomi. I suspected it before, and the way characters describe people from the Mystic Moon all but confirmed it, that Hitomi wasn’t the first person from Earth to visit Gaea. What this CD does though is point us towards one of two options. Either A) there was a visitor from Earth recent enough to have a CD and they might still be around or B) Earth and Gaea move in two different time frames. And what’s cool about this is I don’t know which I would prefer. A means we could feasibly bring Amano and co over or that we have another, older cast member out there ready to be added to the crew. But B brings this whole question of would Hitomi even want to return home if so much time passed.
Either way I think it has potential. That or there’s a C option I’m not even thinking of.
All in all it was a decent 2 episodes with a lot more than what I got into here. I definitely skimmed over or skipped a number of interesting topics this week purely out of time constraints. Stuff like Folken appearing in Asturia, once again giving us more time with him in a non-combat setting and showing Zaibach’s political power in the region. Or Van’s duel that’s starting at the end of episode 6 and the generally shady attitude of the King. There’s also the “Show don’t tell” on how the flying technology works in regards to heating the levistones or Dilandau melting his Guymelef. Escaflowne has a good amount going on and is moving at a good click, I’m interested in seeing where it goes. But I took so long getting around to the post this week that I couldn’t wait any longer to get it out.
So yeah, apologies for the lateness and brevity of the post. I promise next week will be back to my normal quality since I can watch the episodes over the weekend like I usually do instead of… Wednesday evening before this is due. Blame New York and Thanksgiving, thats my excuse.
