The Vision of Escaflowne – 11/12 [Prophecy of Death/The Secret Door] – Throwback Thursday

Note: This was supposed to go up Friday morning but the auto-scheduler didn’t work. So this time I have a legitimate excuse and know not to use it again!

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Escaflowne! I’m writing this opening blurb on Wednesday and I can already tell its going to be late because I feel sick. So if you’re reading this on Thursday, go me! Anyways on with the show.

Starting off as usual, since I need to leave the spoilers for after the break, we have production. This was a pretty standard week for Escaflowne. Nothing terribly wrong with it, some reused liquid animation in both of Zongi’s big scenes but it looked good both times and the coloring differentiated them enough that I didn’t mind. Van’s fight at the end of episode 11 had some jank to it to of course. From sliding still frames to the rainbow distortion effect anytime they come out of invisibility. But these are only really an issue when you’re going back through looking for nice frames for screenshots, like I do. In the moment it’s totally serviceable and only minorly effected my enjoyment.

Now with production out of the way, lets head into the episodes proper!

First up we have episode 11, “Prophecy of Death”, and this one kicked off quickly doing exactly what I wanted: It addressed my concerns about how quickly everyone bought their “treason”. As not only did they have Plaktu, a trusted advisors, word they also had news from Asturia naming Allen a traitor and putting a price on their head. Coming from a sworn ally, relations of the Duke, it makes total sense why they would act so quickly! Of course some might see this as a bit ret-conny, adding it in after the fact. But I don’t really care because in my mind it fits the events of a show. Asturia would send this missive out. Chid would react to that. And all in all it makes everyone involved feel so much more competent after last weeks cliffhanger. Good job Escaflowne.

Speaking of Plaktu/Zongi, let’s talk about him and his big scene with Hitomi this week. I found this to be pretty interesting because this is, for all intents and purposes, the first time Hitomi has directly fought someone. Until now she’s only ever been support for Van and Allen, aiding or saving them in fights. But now she has to face someone in the only battlefield she apparently can, the mind. Now the setup for this was a bit odd, I still don’t quite get how her dousing/necklace caused this. I suspect it’s a reaction to the Doppleganger’s ability specifically, forcing them both to look into his past and future together, thus showing his death and dragging Hitomi along for the ride. Maybe Escaflowne will explore this more as we go! Hitomi definitely reacted to this strongly after all. Whatever the case though Zongi was used well.

Following this we see Zongi escape, as his identity has been revealed, and go to report to Dilandau. A lot happened here so lets first start with Van’s side: This was Van’s big moment, proving he can grow and “see the unseen”. It was cool! Van can fight Dilandau on equal footing now, forcing Dilandau to grow as well or fall behind. I’m hoping this spurs some growth in him but at the same time his attention has shifted to Hitomi, we will get to that. About the only issue I had with all of this was how easily Chid and co let Van just… fly away with the Escaflowne. Sure, they had Allen, Merle and Millerna. But they agreed to this awfully quickly. I suppose we can wave it away as a convenience of the story, which I’m fine with if we keep them to a minimum.

As for Dilandau, he had a bad week this week. Not only was he defeated by Van but one of his men was killed and he learns Hitomi has been foiling him all this time! Poor guy. Personally I find all of this very interesting. Having been bested by Van, Dilandau now has two choices: Continue their contest and grow as a person to beat him or switch targets entirely to Hitomi, a “lesser” opponent, and most likely be faced with more introspection. I suspect bouncing between these two is what’s going to cause a change in him. That Van will give him reason to grow and Hitomi, probably after a face to face meeting, will be the catalyst. That or he will die horribly as a sort of tragic villain. Who knows! Whatever happens though I’m still enjoying Dilandau and I look forward to his antics every episode.

Finally though we have Allen, who did something unexpected this week. Though remembering his actions in Asturia it probably shouldn’t be unexpected. After all, he has a history of sacrificing his honor for what he considers his “duty” and threatening the life of a young child, even as a bluff, fits right into that. Whatever the case I liked what we got from him. Escaflowne keeps finding ways to include him in the story, even when he’s injured and unable to move. It allows him to proactively solve problems rather than reactively dealing with them as they come his way. Maybe I’m over reacting a bit to the scene, I don’t know. I just enjoy how much interaction and screen time he is getting compared to our leading man Van.

This brings us to episode 12, “The Secret Door”, and I have just one thing to say here: I WAS RIGHT. I CALLED IT. Last week I posited that Chid was actually Allen’s kid with Marlene, Millerna’s older sister. They just had way to much of a thing going on, way to much history, and it made perfect sense as to why he kept turning Millerna down. And you know what? This makes me happy. I’m happy that Escaflowne didn’t try to pull a fast one here. That it presented the clues and that for those paying attention, you could figure it out. Sure, the diary was a bit convenient and maybe a bit much on top of Hitomi’s vision with Chid. But that’s fine, they really wanted to make sure we figured it out, so whatever.

Of course not everyone agrees with this! Indeed, Duke Freid especially takes issue with this, claiming Chid has his son. This is pretty cool! I like that not only was he clearly aware of their relation, but that he doesn’t give a damn. It doesn’t matter who Chid’s biological father is because Freid is the one who raised him. Allen my be Chid’s father. But he isn’t his dad. I love this kind of chosen family stuff, especially when the character’s are fully aware of it. Indeed, it makes me wonder where Escaflowne is going to take it from here. Will Freid demand Allen not tell Chid? That he has no rights to Freid’s son? Or will he want him to be part of his life regardless? I’m really curious and I think there is a lot of potential here for Allen’s character.

Speaking of character growth and potential, Hitomi had a pretty big week this week. After not only witnessing firsthand but arguably causing the death of Zongi, along with everything else that has happened up until now, Hitomi has gotten fed up with war. She doesn’t like the blood, the death, the violence, she’s done. Hitomi refuses to be complicit in it anymore, to be used as a tool and to possibly cause someone’s death. I really wasn’t expecting her to go down this road! I figured that Escaflowne would make her confront this at some point sure, maybe with the death of one of the companions. But I didn’t think Hitomi would go full PTSD and reject the war all together. I think it’s an interesting path and one with a lot of potential, especially when done side-by-side with Chid’s own similar one.

Finally we come to Zaibach and Dornkirk in particular. And to be honest? This was probably my favorite reveal of the episode. Dornkirk coming from Earth explains so much. Are there other living earthlings on Gaea? Yes, at least one! The technological disparity between Zaibach and the rest of the world? Dornkirk brought and reverse engineered Earth’s technology, using it to found a nation. The reason Zaibach hasn’t conquered the world? It’s relatively recent in the grand scheme, what with Dornkirk not being able to be that old since he still has to have a normal human lifespan. Or at least… I think he does. He is sitting in a Golden Throne like the fucking Emperor afterall so who knows. My point is, Dornkirk being from Earth answers a lot of questions I had and I’m glad to see that Escaflowne is starting to answer them.

So yeah, all in all I would call this a good week for Escaflowne. Production issues notwithstanding, the narrative is starting to go somewhere. No longer are we constantly setting up new things, “Van has wings now”, “The Escaflowne can fly”, “It interacts with Energists” etc etc. Instead we are starting to answer questions. Who is Dornkirk? What are his plans? What happened in Allen’s past? I can only hope that we continue into the second half Escaflowne continues this trend and that the story wraps everything up with a nice little bow on it. Since it’s an original work, I’m expecting a complete story here. No big cliffhangers, no “God read the manga”, I want an honest to god complete work. Lets hope Escaflowne delivers.