The Vision of Escaflowne – 7/8 [Unexpected Partings/The Day the Angel Flew] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone to another week of Escaflowne! These episodes see our time in Asturia come to an abrupt but eventful end. Once again a king flees a burning city! Knights are thrown in prison, then broken out! And all the while a Princess just cannot seem to get some poon. Sad days indeed. So without further ado lets dive into it!

To start, I’ve come to a realization with these two episodes. A reason for why I like Dilandau way more than I should: He gets all the best faces and lighting. His particular brand of insanity is just so… expressive. From faces of anguish and rage to cruel delight, all of it cast in stark lighting. You know, the kind with heavy contrast between light and shadow? I love that shit and he gets a lot of it. Dilandaou may be comically extreme at times, just look at how he treats his soldiers. And we may not yet know the reason behind his insanity, making it feel like a bit much. But by god does he have great faces. Escaflowne please, I’ll take as much Dilandau as you can give me if this is how he is presented.

Getting into the narrative lets pick up with episode 7, ‘Unexpected Partings’. This opening fight was a lot briefer than I expected. I really thought we would get something more here but I understand why we didn’t. It serves as a way to re-establish Van’s power relative to everyone else. He has taken quite a few losses up until now after all. Whether it be to Allen or the Zaibach mechs, our leading man has only won a single fight against a dragon. So this fight serves to remind us that, even with these losses, Van is near the top of the power skill. He hasn’t been losing because he’s weak. Rather his opponents are just that strong, or outnumbered him that harshly. I think its a good thing to do before Escaflowne breaks him away from Allen so his future victories feel a tad more justified.

Another thing this fight taught me though is that Guymelefs are cheap! Ok maybe that’s hyperbole, but these things are way more common than I thought! These are just random, regular mercenaries and yet they have their own? Under private ownership? And then we see in episode 8 that there are also Guymelefs meant for mining and general work as well. So I have to ask… where do these things come from? Are they all ancient relics of a time long past and destroying a single one like Dilandau is a grave loss? Or are they are common as cars or tanks in the modern era? If its the latter, who is making them? Zaibach? Or can everyone make them? I have so many questions about the Guymelefs and I’m hoping Escaflowne has an answer for me down the road, if only just a small one.

Moving past Van’s fight its time to talk Shojo Love Triangle! I thought the battle against the “Evil” Zaibach Empire would be heavy but this is getting extreme. Part of it is Millerna purposefully egging things on and taking shots at her supposed rival, Hitomi. I wasn’t expecting her to be so petty but I shouldn’t be surprised. You have to have some tension before they can get over the boys and become fast friends. The other part of it though is Hitomi is starting to get… not necessarily desperate but clingy? She’s begun likening Allen to Captain Amano, latching onto him hard. Escaflowne can do some interesting things with this as it explores Hitomi’s fading connection to Earth and growing place in Gaea. Especially if Allen ever realizes what is happening and confronts Hitomi on it. This is all a what-if so far but the potential is there.

Speaking of Allen, he doesn’t seem keen on this whole love triangle. Of emotionally he is starting to connect to Hitomi and Millerna’s older sister, Eries, comments on this to him. But based on their dialogue is this a true connection? Or is he just seeing someone else in her? Previously I thought it was his lost sister, and thus a more familial love. However this whole Marlene thing says otherwise. Meanwhile intellectually he seems to be against all romance. As if he loves Marlene and no one else, still in love with and grieving for her. He doesn’t seem to be in a good place for a relationship and is well aware of this, pushing Millerna away whenever he can. It makes me wonder just how far Escaflowne will explore this. Will we get a tragic one-way romance as Hitomi gets over Allen? Or is this the true ship?

With that we come to the second half of the episode and Hitomi being kidnapped! This is also where we start to get to my problems with the episode. Not the kidnapping! That was fine though I wish we knew more about the political situation in Asturia to allow this. Sure we had the dinner with the King and his Nobles but this still kind of came out of nowhere. No, my problem is with the pacing.

I can understand if this confuses some of you! After all Escaflowne is moving at a good click here. Things are happening, we aren’t getting bogged down in random shit, that’s good right? I would generally agree, I’m all for good pacing. I would rather this than Escaflowne sit on its hand for 6 episodes as nothing happens. But there is such a thing as to fast. It felt like the episode should have ended on a cliffhanger with Hitomi’s kidnapping. Instead we burned through a lot of content and could have easily spent more time exploring Asturia and what life on Gaea is like. I understand that this may seem pedantic, and that striking this balanced pacing is difficult. And I would rather we move at this pace rather than that of a glacier. It just felt a tad fast here for me.

As for the content we could have gotten instead, I feel like we had plenty of options! Let us see more of Allen’s home life or some intrigue with the King. Maybe let Hitomi meet Folken in a “safe” space since she hasn’t gotten the opportunity yet. Start building that relationship now so it can bloom in the future. Or maybe take this opportunity to let Hitomi share some of what her home is like with Allen and Van via the market and the Discman. You know, small character moments in what little breathing room a war against an evil Empire will allow. And if Escaflowne does all of these things later? Fantastic, complaint withdrawn! But I don’t know what is to come. And so all I see right now is a missed opportunity.

To end this episode on a positive note though the fight with in the streets with Dilandau was good. Van’s PTSD regarding Fanelia and once again being forced to flee from a burning city, along with the short fight, is good stuff. I also look forward to the political ramifications of Dilandau burning down part of an allied nations capital as well as Allen for stepping in. As far as endings go this does just as good a job as if Escaflowne had ended on the kidnapping. The gecko people were kinda weird, and Guymelefs just being open to the air rather than water-tight makes a bit of sense I suppose, but I digress. All in all a fine episode where my only major complaint is that I wanted more of the good shit.

With that we come to episode 8, “The Day the Angel Flew”. This is a much slower episode compared to 7 and it does a bit of what I asked for before. IE exploring Hitomi’s place in Gaea as well as her feelings about home. There’s some interesting stuff in here! Lots of minor details that may come into play later. For instance: Amano can contact Hitomi through her pager via a public phone. Does that mean the communication goes both ways? If we she finds a phone either out in the world or in the technologically advanced Zaibach Empire can she call Earth? It also answers a question I had last week, showing us that time runs roughly equal between the two worlds. Or at least not different enough that she’s missing years of her life on Gaea.

That said the opening dream sequence was… weird? Don’t get me wrong, It does a decent job of putting us in Hitomi’s headspace. Showing us just how far this infatuation with Allen is going as well as both how homesick she is and how she has come to view her time on Gaea. But it was still weird to see Allen playing with a claw machine and wondering around a mall in full knightly garb. As far as confirmation on her feelings and look into her head goes though I suppose it was fine.

Moving on we come to the Energist mine! As far as character stuff goes there isn’t much to find here. This honestly comes off as a sort of “Monster of the week” style episode. Not that I think we are transitioning to that, just that the characters we meet here ultimately aren’t very important. Just look at the eccentric commander! This guy doesn’t even have a name, unlike his pet snake, but he has a garish outfit and bright pink hair. Ultimately this is fine? It once again lets Van show his place in the hierarchy of the show while also showing how much of a liability Hitomi and Merle have become in the wilds. Suffice to say that the dragon graveyard and energist parts of this location are far more interesting.

For example: The Escaflowne is able to resonate with them. What does this mean? I have no idea! Maybe it can control or empower them, or it acts as some kind of EMP. Maybe all it can do is make them blow up! Whatever this case this seems like a good reason for Dornkirk to fear the Escaflowne. The technology of this world is built upon Energists, they are their core energy source. And if you’re running the most technologically advanced Empire in the world thats pretty important for you. Imagine for a moment that the Escaflowne is fighting a horde of Zaibach Guymelefs, or Fortresses, or anything else and then Van just… turns them off. They fall from the sky, your entire fleet, your air superiority grounded. That’s a pretty effective anti-Empire weapon if I do say so myself.

Of course I can’t not also mention Hitomi’s necklace. This thing has always been a bit of a MacGuffin, what with the whole “Perfect second interval” and using it to try and find Van when he was kidnapped. Luckily for us Escaflowne remembers that and is starting to talk about it. Showing us how it interacts with the Escaflowne and its similarities to Energists. My current guess is that it’s some kind of purified or concentrated Energist. Maybe some kind of relic or creation of the Zaibach Empire that her mother brought back after her stint in Gaea. And that because of this Hitomi will eventually be able to use it to empower the Escaflowne, possibly at the cost of her ability to return home. Whatever happens with it though I’m just happy that Escaflowne remembered its a thing.

Finally before I close out this post I need to get something off my chest: Van has fuckings wings bro?! What? I mean… we saw that Folken did via his shadow I suppose, and Hitomi saw Allen with some in a vision as well. But I assumed those were just the results of experimentation and daydreaming respectively. So the obviously the question becomes: What’s up here? Where did these come from because he clearly didn’t have them before! Are these important? Probably. To be frank it kind of feels like Escaflowne is adding to much to fast. We haven’t really resolved… well any plot points yet we are still adding more and more. For now I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and reserve judgement, maybe it all comes together with a nice bow by the end. But it’s something I’m keeping an eye on.

All in all despite some pacing and slight narrative concerns these were episodes were good. Escaflowne has a lot going on, maybe a bit to much but that’s better than to little, and what’s there is engaging. Dilandau is proving entertaining and Folken interesting. Meanwhile the world is expanding and the Escaflowne is showing why Dornkirk considers it a threat. We have a lot of gears moving and balls in the air, I’m enjoying it. Now that we are a third in though Escaflowne needs to start juggling them, to start answering some questions and get us into the story proper. I’m not asking to burn through it, I don’t want to move even faster. I just want the focus to be on giving us some answers vs asking more questions.

So yeah, Escaflowne is fun. Not my favorite from the era, part of that is I’m not the biggest mecha fan, but I do look forward to it every week. And that’s more than I can say for most seasonals right now.