The Vision of Escaflowne – 23/24 [Storm Premonition/Fateful Decision] – Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone and welcome to the penultimate post on The Vision of Escaflowne! This is a big week. Escaflowne throws my words back in my face, Hitomi pulls off the unexpected and we finally enter the endgame. So without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

Starting off I need to wipe some egg of my face. Last week I had a lot to say about how Escaflowne handled Folken. That there were a lot of missed opportunities, that he should have had some one-on-one time with Hitomi, etc. I say that we need some time for the ramifications of Folken’s betrayal to run through the cast. That a decision like this warrants more than a quick one-off scene. And what happens? Just that! It’s nice in a way that Escaflowne recognized the same problems I did. That it knew it these things needed to happen and just did them in a different way. It actually gives me a good deal of hope for the finale. Because even if they weren’t done perfectly, they were done. And that means someone is paying attention to their story. Now onto the episodes!

First up we have episode 23, “Storm Premonition”. This episode is the one with all of the ramifications and Folken stuff I talked about above. Personally I was expecting us to jump right into prep and an assault on Zaibach. A big set piece invasion to finish up the series. But now it’s looking like we might not get that as Escaflowne instead dedicates more time to its characters. With Folken for instance, he gets to play politics! Talking with the Asturian nobles, convincing them and their regional allies that yes, Zaibach is evil. Building this grand coalition to fight against him while providing us some much needed insight into the inner workings of the country! All the while he has to deal with Van’s distrust and proving that he meant what he said. Does anything come of it? Not yet. But it’s nice that Escaflowne tried.

And of course this character focus doesn’t stop at just Folken. We also have Allen going on a bit of an overprotective streak. It seems that becoming closer with Hitomi has triggered some old feelings of loss. From his mother to his sister and Millerna, even his father in a way, Allen has had a rough time holding on to people. And we see this in how closely he tries to watch Hitomi. Not wanting her out of the ivory tower/castle, keeping her away from the war etc. I can’t help but think there might be something deeper here though. That without Folken and Zaibach keeping up with the charade, Fate is attempting to reassert itself. To push them apart so Van can have another shot. Maybe that’s just wistful thinking on my part, but I like the thought.

Speaking of Van he is having a very similar problem as Allen. But where Allen is expressing his overprotectiveness in trying to lock Hitomi up, Van seems to be proactively looking to end the war. Eager to thrust himself into any fight he can in the hopes it will bring them one step closer to victory. So much so that he’s even beginning to enjoy it, though whether that’s the contest or the feeling of victory we don’t know. I think this is a pretty interesting route for Van to take! He started the series as a bit of a pampered prince, having to quickly learn how to hold his own. And as he did he started to see what war was really like, rejecting it, before eventually accepting it as a necessity to protect those he cares for. This is, honestly, the best arc Escaflowne has so far.

As if that wasn’t enough though, even the side characters got some much needed attention this week. My favorite being of course Dilandau, and the big revelation we got in these two episodes. In a way this isn’t very surprising. Escaflowne has said multiple times that Dilandau was affected by the Fate Machine, and in all of Allen’s flashbacks his sister had a very similar hair color. I always suspected this was going to be a red herring though. If only because I didn’t think Escaflowne had the balls to actually commit to what is a full on, in every respect, trans character. A non-comedic, non-satirical one at that! I think Escaflowne could do some really interesting things with this in the finale. Something along the lines of… Van moving to kill Dilandau and end the war and Allen standing in his way, bringing their relationship to a violent finale.

As for the mechanics of how this came about, Escaflowne set this up well to. I think the Intensified Luck Soldiers were a bit misused to be frank. But their role in the story of reinforcing how Hitomi and Van, together, effect the machinations of Fate was good. And it’s paying off here through Dilandau. Knowing this, it makes total sense that they would disrupt what Zaibach did to Celena/Dilandau. My only question is why didn’t this happen earlier? Van and Hitomi have been together for large swathes of the show, with Dilandau nearby as well. What was the catalyst that they are only now affecting him? Is it because of what happened in Atlantis? Or because they are just more aware of their powers? It’s a small thing, it doesn’t impact my enjoyment at all. But it is a question I have.

Moving on we come to episode 24, “Fateful Decision”, where I can finally talk about the big twist. That’s right, it’s time to talk about Hitomi going home to Earth. I was 100% not expecting this. Just like with Dilandau, I didn’t think Escaflowne had it in it to send Hitomi home before the finale. I figured we would get some kind of tearful split as she went home after saving Gaea but this is far better. I love how much agency this gives Hitomi. How she now has what is, quite possibly, the most important decision of the show: To return to Gaea, and to war, or to stay safe and ignorant of the results on Earth. She could abandon all the people and responsibilities on Gaea if she wanted to, living in a highschool dream with Amano. Only to turn it down. And I think that’s great.

The presentation of it all was done really well to. I liked how many of Hitomi’s lines were vague, not to the other characters but for us the viewer. How she mentions she “Loves him” and “Can’t let him go”. Yukari, Hitomi’s friend, no doubt thinks she’s talking about Amano. But to us the viewer its clearly Van, or to the denser in the audience Allen. And the way everyone notices these small differences in Hitomi, how she’s changed during her time on Gaea. Or how the subtle way many of the first episode scenes were changed such as Amano playing with the necklace. It was good stuff! A good way to reuse a lot of assets that really were only around for a single episode.

Meanwhile out of everyone else Allen probably has the most focus in this episode. I’ve already talked a bit about Dilandau but I don’t think I talked about Allen’s reaction to it, or Hitomi’s disappearance. Escaflowne did something really interesting by bringing back Allen’s father for this. By having him reconcile his feelings there and, perhaps, understand his father and his actions a bit more. Personally I think this was worth a bit larger of a scene before Dilandau burst through the door. But what we got was nice enough I suppose.

Finally we have to talk about Van and Hitomi. This has been coming for a long time. And while it wasn’t unexpected, Escaflowne did give it the gravitas it deserved. I really liked the parallels to their first meeting in episode 1 for instance. How he first appeared fighting a dragon, unsure of himself and drags Hitomi to another world. But this time he is confident, riding the dragon instead of fighting it and Hitomi goes with him willingly. Effectively keeping the timeline the same in what happened, but completely changing what it means for those 2 characters involved. Suffice to say, I was really surprised and impressed Escaflowne went down this route. After last weeks pair of episodes I was preparing myself for a rather lackluster finale. The kind that’s rushed, clear evidence of compression. But so far it seems like Escaflowne might be able to avoid that.

So yeah all in all this was a good week for Escaflowne. Endings are very important to me, they are the last you see of a series, the final taste left in your mouth after a meal. If it’s bad, the last thing you will remember is that the series was bad. So it’s very heartening to see that Escaflowne might avoid that. Lets hope the last 2 episodes don’t throw it all away.

In the meanwhile, it’s almost time to select a new series! Next week a poll will go up at the end of the post for everyone to vote. If you have a series you think I should watch, drop it in the comments below! I’ll take a look and add it to the poll if I think it looks like an interesting ride. See you then!