The Vision of Escaflowne – 1/2 [Fateful Confession/The Girl From the Mystic Moon] – Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone and welcome to a new season of Throwback Thursday! This time, for those who weren’t already aware, we are watching The Vision of Escaflowne from the late, great Studio Sunrise! I say late, they are still making anime today but how much of it is any good. No seriously, how much, I don’t watch Gundam or Aikatsu. Anyways my bad jokes aside, lets dive into it!

And what better place to start than my old reliable, the visuals! Initial impressions: I quite like how Escaflowne looks. It has all the hallmarks of the cel-era of animation, as it should since it was made in the 90s. I’m talking heavy, saturated colors instead of the more modern pastels and the uneven linework you just don’t find in digital. On top of that it also makes use of heavy blacks in some of its more dramatic moments, a style I’ve loved since I first saw it in late 90’s comic books. And then we have the character designs! These people are long and angular, with sharp edges all over their outlines. I love it! It makes them feel so much older than a lot of modern series where the designs emphasize the softness of youth over the stiffness of age. So yeah, Escaflowne, right up my visual alley.

Moving to the episodes proper we have Episode 1, “Fateful Confession”. Immediately: I had no idea this was an Isekai. Or that it was some kind of fantasy. All I knew going in was that there was Mecha and some Shoujo romance. So far I would say its giving me similar vibes to Twelve Kingdoms. For anyone that hasn’t read that review, this is a good sign. As for the setup and what all is happening I think its fine. Misleading us with the highschool romance before dropping in a battle between a knight and a dragon is an effective way to tell us what this show is about. We know right from the get-go that there will be romance, action and a probable love triangle. The question now, and what will really tell us how good this opening was, is how much of it stays relevant moving forward.

What do I mean by that? Well I’m curious just how much we will see of the real world after this. There was a lot of focus on Hitomo’s relationship with the captain Amano and her friend Yukari. It makes me wonder if, like Twelve Kingdoms, we will jump back and forth to our world at all. If we will get to see their adventures and trials on our side as well as Hitomi’s on Gaea. I think that could be a really interesting character conflict. One where Hitomi has to make the decision to travel back home or to stay and help the new friends she made on Gaea. Of course this won’t happen early, she needs time to be stuck on Gaea and to make connections. But I could see it happening around halfway or so.

Speaking of Gaea and its inhabitants we don’t see much of them this episode. Really only Prince Van and the dragon though both are kinda cool. For Van, he looked a bit dorky in his pot-luck armor. But as it got stripped away and he started fighting in earnest I got behind it. Meanwhile for the dragon… Look, I like the chicken dragon running around on its two hind legs, its only legs! And the way its breast ballooned up every time it was going to breathe fire was a nice detail. However the weird camo fleshy color they used was not appealing. I almost thought it was CGI when I first saw it, so off-putting was the color. The color aside though I do like the dragon design. Hopefully we get to see more of Escaflowne’s creature designs moving forward.

This brings us to Episode 2, “The Girl From the Mystic Moon”! This is where we not only get to truly see Gaea proper but where we learn its name to! And what a world it is. Escaflowne didn’t shy away from the wide establishing shots. We got so many, saw the city from so many different angles, that in just this one episode I got a decent idea of where things were. How the castle say related to the front gates, the almost tiered nature of the city and even that its basically Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings. We also meet not one, not two, but 3 entirely different races this episode, all of them sentient and setting them up for the future. We don’t learn much about their culture of course, no time for that, but we know they are there for when they are needed.

Beyond the basic world building stuff though the big thing I learned is that this isn’t just a Mecha series. Escaflowne is a fantasy mecha series. And this caught me by surprise! I was honestly expecting some kind of spacefaring galactic opera. With the difference races coming from different planets, etc. Don’t take this to mean I’m disappointed, I’m not! I think exploring how Mecha, operating as “ancient relics”, fit into a fantasy world can be fun. I’m looking forward to learning where the invisibility cloaks and tentacle mechs came from! It just means that I didn’t read the synopsis because I like going in blind.

As for the characters of said Kingdom/World, they were cool. We didn’t get to spend much time with any of them but Escaflowne got their core character traits across well enough. Of course we know Van from episode 1 but now we see the weight on his shoulders as well as hear about how his brother abandoned the Kingdom. We meet Merle who is our token cat girl trickster and competition for Van but also seems to legitimately care for him as well. And finally we meet Balgus, or as I like to call him, Chadgus. Sure he was a pretty obvious mentor figure, one we knew would die early. But this guy took down mechs with nothing more than a big ass sword and his balls of steel. I honestly thought he would be a bad guy until he did that! But no, dudes just a chad.

This brings me to the Escaflowne itself, the shows namesake. I wasn’t to surprised at this point to see that it was a giant mech itself, and a special one at that. The whole blood ritual and bonding was curious, as was powering it with the “drag-energist” (what a mouthful). I’m expecting that we will need to get more of those to continue fueling the Escaflowne as we go. But what really stood out to me was that the Escaflowne appears to missing a gem. There’s one on the left side, that’s where the “drag-energist” went. But what about the open slot on its right side? Is there a competing mech with it? The one we saw in Hitomi’s vision perhaps? Or is it just a design choice for the power gem to be off center? I dunno, but I’m hoping to find out.

And that of course leads into: Hitomi can see the future. Why? What gives her this power, how far does it go, etc. We already know she can change the future, she did it in episode 1 with the dragon killing Van. But what is causing it and why is it her? My suspicion is that it’s the necklace and that this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened. After all, Earth is a known planet on Gaea, a holy one if the title “Mystical Moon” is anything to go buy. Add on how unsurprised Hitomi’s mother acted as well as Balgus talking as if they can send her back/this has happened before and it makes me think its a family thing. While I’m not huge on blood inherited powers that would at least make sense. Hopefully Escaflowne has an answer for it.

So yeah if the amount of words written wasn’t an indication, I’m intrigued by Escaflowne. I wouldn’t say I’m sold on it yet, if only because we are 2 episodes in, but I’m interested in where its going. A non-insignificant part of that is how much I enjoy the 90’s aesthetic however. It’s just so different to the modern digital A-1 Pictures Moe blobs that we get nowadays that it immediately catches my eye. That’s that cool thing about cel-animation. It’s like a dividing line these days between old and new, classic and not. That doesn’t guarantee it will be good of course! 90’s had their stinkers to. But it at least makes me want to watch the pretty pictures move around some more. Hopefully, now that Escaflowne is out of its opening act, it can really pull me in. See you next week to find out!