#182: Escaflowne: The Movie (2000)

 

Director: Kazuki Akane

Screenplay: Kazuki Akane and Ryota Yamaguchi

Voice Cast: Maaya Sakamoto as Hitomi Kanzaki; Tomokazu Seki as Van of Adom; Jouji Nakata as Dune / Folken; Aki Takeda as Millerna; Chafurin as Mole Man; Ikue Ōtani as Merle; Jūrōta Kosugi as Dryden; Mayumi Iizuka as Sora; Minami Takayama as Dilandau; Shinichiro Miki as Allen

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

I admit I hesitated watching this, a theatrical reinterpretation of a 1996 television series that I am a huge admirer of. The Sunrise produced television series, spearheaded by Shōji Kawamori, was a fantasy series, proto-isekai, where a young teen girl named Hitomi is whisked off to a realm where there are giant robots but the world is entirely high Western fantasy in iconography, with a huge emphasis on romance as much as drama. It is held with high regard to the modern day, with note to the fact that, whilst gendered audiences are an absurd thing to consider, Escaflowne had a lot on its side to appeal to a female audience, which it did, as well as being an excellent show for any viewer to watch. That aspect of a gendered audience though was a huge influence for Kazuki Akane, director of the series, to take a huge leap in an opposite direction for his theatrical version¹ by changing the narrative and, effectively, making it a more serious story for a more male audience as a contrast. The theatrical film is not well regarded at all, as time has passed.

Notably, this film sets a different tone in that, with the original series heavily influenced by Western aesthetics, including medieval iconography and high fantasy tropes, the world of Gaea the film is set in is instead heavily influenced by Eastern and Japanese aesthetics. It is also a beautiful film to behold, and for any comment I will make, Escaflowne the film is a feast for the eyes. Tragically, this also leaves this film in the cursed world of theatrical anime which were gorgeously put together, but divisive in content. One of the biggest changes in terms of the tone is that Hitomi, a bright optimistic figure in the series for those uninitiated to the narrative, is here a depressed teenage who even flirts with suicide, being caught by a friend with a suicide note and her shoes left by her side laying on a school building rooftop when she had changed her mind.

Even if you do not include the shadow of the television series, and view this film as its separate entity, there is a fascinating suicide and depression theme that could have been the most rewarding aspect of the film if fleshed out considerably. It is the most rewarding aspect still in the actual film as, feeling lost and wishing to isolate herself, Hitomi is not connected to a past as was the case in the series, but instead entering Gaea as a person at the point she wished to just disappear as a person. The only lore is that she is the "Wing Goddess" connected to the Escaflowne, a mythological giant robot which can either destroy Gaea or help save it, itself hinted at in this simplistic lore with connections to the depression metaphors. This is effectively a darker take on the material, even if light still thankfully brightens its edges, but that in itself would have been a fascinating new direction to take with a series which did, to its credit, have a lot of serious moments.

In this, there is still a sense of the emotion connection from the series, and even as its own separate story some can be found. Even if Van, the male protagonist, is introduced cutting off limbs without care of his enemies in bloody effect, this film is not as grim as its reputation suggested to me. Even Hitomi herself becomes the optimistic figure of the show eventually, just with some legwork. A lot of the streamlining is due to how extensive the plot and the cast were, for a twenty six episode narrative, and even if you have no idea of the series, the biggest problem is that this film has an overt sense of a film post-Star Wars and eighties high fantasy films that wished to form a plot in 90 minutes with short hand, McGuffins and simplified characterisation, cinema which can entertain from any country but can also be very reductive and unoriginal. I can bang on about the details changed - Princess Millerna has less scenes and now dresses as a warrior woman, important figures like Allen  no longer of any real importance, or Van's brother is now just a villain who destroys only because he was snubbed from their throne - but that would be reductive baring the amusing touch that Mr. Mole, a comedic figure in the series, is the one character who gets upgraded to a quack fortune teller in the one progression in roles. Honestly, the real issue is condensing the premise of an epic into ninety minutes and being very conventional, borrowing from other sources.  

That characters like Van and his brother Folken suddenly have mental force powers, borrowed from Star Wars and anime's flirting with psychics in the eighties, exemplified this. The original series, whilst unbelievably eccentric, was unpredictable with more time to flesh out its cast and leaning heavily on esoteric mysticism, both in Folken being the henchman for a villain never included here and altering fate being a huge narrative (and moral) drama, even managing to make the mythical city of Atlantis a huge plot point. Some details here are interesting especially in contest to the series - the beast people of the world get prominence here, and in mind to the dangers of piloting the Escaflowne originally, as it connects to a person's spirit, this brings in body horror of literally bleeding the pilot into the machine itself to run it. The suicide and depression metaphors, finding hope and purpose, including Van as a king with no land to rule and Hitomi gaining a bond to him, would have worked. But the Achilles' Heel is that this is an oversimplified and bland take undercut as much by its length as it is by the story changes.

This is more miserable as the visuals offer moments of pure beauty. The white wings characters produce from their backs, feathers falling in the air. Hitomi's entrance to Gaea, of a sports stadium in twilight, and suddenly water rising up to her knees as she enters an alien world. The fantasy world itself, of lush natural landscape of green foliage and animals in the wild. The music as well by Yoko Kanno, with Hajime Mizoguchi and Inon Zur, even having to challenge her work against the series is special to consider too in its ethereal and even quieter tone. There will be moments which I will not forget from this film, enough for it to eventually gain a fondness to the feature, but there will be the unfortunate emotion lingering of how it made many mistakes still.

Even without the emotional connection to the series, this has issues, and even in the world of theatrical anime which look beautiful and yet have huge plotting issues, it has a lot which is too predictable to fully embrace as I have found in other titles. I think of Rintaro's X (1996), which must have frustrated fans of CLAMP's unfinished manga, trying to cram a narrative including its own ending into just ninety minutes, yet I still see a gothic dark piece of incredible beauty I admit the flaws of but also adore. Escaflowne the Movie could end up in the same place for me, but knowing as well the original series was also weirder as much as more emotional - blood transfusions which provide luck based powers for example - Escaflowne the film also has the issue that the creators decided to take less risks in places as much as do so in others. As a result, it turned into a bad idea.

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1) Taken a 2002 Bandai interview him for the US R1 DVD, referred in an Anime UK News review HERE: "I wanted the Escaflowne television series to be supported by female fans. And it happened. But it turned out to be too popular among girls (80% of the fans are female in Mr. Akane’s opinion). In addition, there were certain elements that were not allowed on TV – I wanted to show a battle of life and death. To emphasize life, namely sword battles – that automatically requires there to be more graphic visuals – blood, swordplay etc.. These elements led the theatrical version to be different."

#167: The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

 

Director: Kazuki Akane

Screenplay: Akihiko Inari, Hiroaki Kitajima, Ryota Yamaguchi and Shoji Kawamori

Voice Cast: Maaya Sakamoto as Hitomi Kanzaki, Tomokazu Seki as Van Fanel, Ikue Ōtani as Merle, Jouji Nakata as Folken, Jūrōta Kosugi as Dryden Fassa, Kouji Tsujitani as Jajuka, Mayumi Iizuka as Millerna Aston, Minami Takayama as Dilandau Albatau, Narumi Hidaka as Eriya, Shinichiro Miki as Allen Schezar, Toru Ohkawa as Gaddess, Yuri Amano as Naria

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

For a good example of how anime defies genres in general, Escaflowne is that title to name check, from Sunrise (the handlers of the Gundam franchise), who decided to step into something different. Namely what would be a future masterpiece for many, and what predated what would be coined in the 2010s the isekai genre, where a person (sometimes by a truck-kun and dying, sometimes in less harmfully ways) would enter or be transported to an alternative world. Here, high school student Hitomi, whilst in a moment with a male Senpai she likes on the school running track, is accidentally taken to the world of Gaea when a young man named Van, heir of a kingdom, and a dragon abruptly blip into her world. Add to this Sunrise's bread and butter of mech robots as, whilst a high fantasy world based on European aesthetics, it has giant robots, powered by magical properties and gears, in capes and swords, among other tech like floating air ships. It has romance and melodrama, as between Van and Allen, a knight who seems a nobler soul, Hitomi is torn between both of them as much as having to contend of a world where one militarised nation, Zaibach, is conquering and destroying others. That their plans lead to a goal where she is of interest to literally alter fate is as much a concern.

It is a tale full of plot twists, a lot of cliff hangers to episodes, and all built around an emotional drama which is ultimate sweet and beautiful, even if the show does not hold back on death and is surprisingly bloody, even at one point envisioning a metaphor for a nuclear bomb in one of the final two episodes which, not made by Zaibach but one of the allies meant to stop them, evaporates everything on the battlefield to every side's horror in a blink of white light. Even with these serious aspects within itself, Escaflowne is a story with an emotional edge. It was geared for a "shōjo" audience of young women, which is frankly simplistic and patronising to try to target a gendered audience, but adds many new factors for this show to include in this narrative. These include an optimistic female protagonist, and the romance and melodramatic plot points, alongside the mystical and fantastical edge which are all as much part of why this television series, popular in the West, has become of great reputation in the passing decades.

It is also full of quirks, which is not surprising as it originates from when Shoji Kawamori, an important figure in anime just as a mech designer, came back from Nepal and suggested to Sunrise a giant robot show about the ideas of fate and mysticism to try something different. Fully committed to high fantasy, it is even in that genre with idiosyncrasies of its own. It is helped so much by how fleshed out the world feels even if we only have twenty six episodes to go with, a microcosm of various empires and regions here before you consider this world even has human beings but also beast people of all shapes and sizes, why we have a side character Merle, a cat girl who grew up with Van as a child and is close to him, or that later on Van himself is revealed a heir of the race known as the Draconian, originally the rulers of Atlantis who sported angel's wings and could fly. Yes, Atlantis, the Fortean favourite, is involved alongside the fact this narrative story will encompass both fate and divination too, as Hitomi was already gifted with using tarot cards, and an inheritor of a pendant with unknown origins, whose gift is amplified and becoming a curse the moment she enters Gaea. It is a world where, the titular title of the legendary giant robot Van has inherited, he will eventually not only learn divination abilities to known where he will be attack, but literally become one with the machine to the point any wounds it has will mark him. It is a world where the leader of Zaibach has experimented with fate altering machinery and with his sorcerers even dabbled into weird touches like blood, from the luckiest people ever, that gives soldiers ultra-lucky properties (i.e. causing enemies to miss or their machinery to malfunction) at the risk of drastic aging. Escaflowne is held in high regard as a sumptuous, elegant fantasy epic but thankfully upon returning to it, it is also a deeply idiosyncratic and eccentric series too, which as someone who has found Western high fantasy as bland as white bread is a godsend.

It helps that, in this little we get, the world and its cast are interesting. Baring a few characters, no one is simple or just villainous. Van is unlikable in his goal for vengeance at first, but he is headstrong and lost everything to Zaibach, capable of nobility eventually. Allen, as the show grows, is as noble as Lancelot in Arthurian legend but, like that figure, has an unfortunate real issue with attracting the opposite gender, particularly as Princess Millerna, a figure of the nation he is from, is in love with him too despite Hitomi and a previous relationship with her sister in his closet. From the villains, the calm figure of Folken, revealed to be Van's older brother, is a figure brought to Zaibach for reasons he felt were right, and even his sociopathic henchman Dilandau, as vain and sadistic figure, is revealed to have been as such due to a tangled web of issues. Even a minor gag character, a Mr. Mole, despite not having any real contributions to the plot is a figure in the little we see that he stands out, a figure first looking like a creepy thief in the woods, looking like a mole with spectacles, only to become a fun side character in the background.

It is, forgotten in its high production value and the iconic Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi score, distinct in its many touches. The mix of fantasy and robots is actually not new at this point in the mid-nineties - Yoshiyuki Tomino helmed Aura Battler Dunbine (1983-4), based off his Byston Well narrative but with the robots added, a decade before - but this show has both an utmost poignant tone of romance and high emotion which is entirely distinct. It hits a level of absurdity that anime is blessed with even if ridiculous, next to both cat sisters on Zaibach's side being injected with that luck filled blood, but never is felt that way, but instead touching. The sides mingle which helps, Hitomi's romantic triangle even being a huge part of the narrative, as Zaibach and their leader realise that her connection to Van is to their downfall, even going as far as manipulate her towards Allen in one episode.

[Major Plot Spoiler]

One plot aspect to this day is still curious to untangle when Dilandau is revealed to be Allen's younger sister, who vanished and was transformed by Zaibach;'s sorcerers. It is never explicitly that the character is transgender, as Dilandau is masculine but is Allen's sister in truth, but decades and viewing this in the time that has passed does make it something to pause over with no real answer. It is not something to raise suspicion on, as it is instead a weird twist that to alter her fate, you do not get a psychopath character after your experiments as you might find in another story, but a complete drastic alteration, including body transformation in one shot, likely considered without thought or a yin-yang scenario of a dualism between the innocent beneath the monster. It helps, whilst Dilandau is the one truly evil character, sadistic in the truest sense, that throughout they build this character. That he is a damaged character, that he holds his personal soldiers close to the point he enters a mental breakdown when they are slaughtered, and the show does not punish but has it depicted as a psychological figure of experimentation that is reunited with Allen. Time has made it merely an odd creative choice.

[Spoilers Ends]

There is an inherent danger of just turning a review like this into a puff piece that Escaflowne is a great anime series that everyone should watch, which could put people off if the review itself is bland and copies everyone else's. So instead, the best way to describe why that is what you should do, go out and watch the series if you have not or rewatch it, is to think of how Escaflowne would have been inferior, even if it had turned out still well, if all the little creative decisions were subtracted. The show would have been different if targeted to a male audience - again, that target audience stereotype is reductive, but the divisive retelling Escaflowne The Movie (2000), for feature length, is meant as that alternative version for a male audience for a fascinating contrast. How different would the show be if Hitomi had been designed differently, as a stereotypical heroine when here she is an athletic track runner with very short hair who helps considerable throughout, or written differently, an optimistic and determined person in drastic contrast, again, to the later film version which inverted this. Or that the show never cut back to her own world at times, which adds a distinct emotional touch in seeing the world and friends she had left by accident with her absence. How different would the show had been if Kawamori had not been, at first, inclined to make the series with all the esoteric content for a robot show. How different would the show been just without its score and music, which is iconic in itself as it is from Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi. That score, including the opening theme sung by Hitomi's voice actor in her debut acting role, is as much a weight baring load that adds as much to the show as all its other virtues and achievements.

Its overall value, and why to watch Escaflowne, is that it is a show not of any genre but all of them. The fantasy is unique; the mech design and animation is a high bar and set in a distinct context where it can stand out, and the melodrama leads to this having a tremendous heart, its real achievement in the final scenes. Any of these, done wrong, would have failed the series but none of them did, which is why it deserved its reputation especially among Western fans, including in Britain, where the show gained a love. It is orchestrated and done with sincerity perfectly, and know as well this show was originally of a different length, and tone with an entirely different director originally on board before Kazuki Akane took the seat, adding a lot of changes when he didincluding Hitomi's characterisation and targeting a female audience more, adds to the real sense of hard work that went into the show and how the production team managed to knock this project out of the park with completely success.