The Vision of Escaflowne

The Vision of Escaflowne / Escaflowne of the Heavens (天空のエスカフローネ, Tenkū no Esukafurōne) is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series created by Shōji Kawamori and Sunrise Studios and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996, on TV Tokyo, and the final episode aired on September 24, 1996. Sony's anime satellite channel, Animax also aired the series, both in Japan and on its various worldwide networks, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The series was licensed for Region 1 release by Bandai Entertainment. It is currently licensed by Crunchyroll.

The series follows a teenage high school girl named Hitomi, who finds herself pulled from Earth to the planet Gaea when a boy named Van appears on the high school track while battling a dragon. In Gaea, she is caught in the middle of a war as the Zaibach Empire attempts to take over Gaea. Van (King of Fanelia), with aid from Allen (an Asturian Knight), commands his mystical mech Escaflowne in the struggle to stop the Zaibach Empire. Hitomi's fortune-telling powers blossom in Gaea as she becomes the key to awakening Escaflowne and to stopping Zaibach's plans.

While the anime series was in production, two very different manga retellings were also developed and released: a shōnen version of the story entitled The Vision of Escaflowne and a shōjo retelling titled Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne. In addition, a second shōjo adaptation called Escaflowne — Energist's Memories was released as a single volume in 1997. The story was novelized in a series of six light novels by Yumiko Tsukamoto. A movie adaptation, entitled simply Escaflowne, was released on June 24, 2000, but bears only a basic resemblance to the original series. Four CD soundtracks and a drama CD have also been released in relation to the series.

Synopsis
When high school girl Hoshino Hitomi dabbles with tarot cards she suddenly finds herself in a strange world called Gaea. With her newfound friend, Van Fanel, the young prince of the devastated kingdom of Fanelia, Hitomi becomes involved in the battle against the Zaibach forces, an evil empire bent on conquering the planet.

(Source: Tokyopop)

Production
Shoji Kawamori first proposed the series after a trip to Nepal, during which he visited the foggy mountain region and pictured a hidden world where an epic focusing on both fate and divination should be set. When he returned, he proposed the series to Bandai Visual and Sunrise. According to Kawamori, his pitch for the series was simple: "if Macross was robotic mecha and love songs, why not a story about robotic mecha and divining powers?"

He worked with Bandai producer Minoru Takanashi to finish fleshing out the original idea. They researched various mysteries for inspiration, particularly stories centered on the mythical land of Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. As the series began taking shape, they changed the lead character from a male, the norm for an action-mecha series, to a high school girl as the lead character. Nobuteru Yuki was hired as the character designer, and tasked with crafting a design for Hitomi and the rest of the cast. He would later state that Hitomi was his favorite character because it was the first one he'd ever designed completely from scratch rather than simply being adapted from an existing medium. Initially, Folken and Dilandau were a single enemy commander, but as the story was fleshed out, the creators felt the series would be more interesting if there were two with very different personalities.

Initially, Yasuhiro Imagawa brought on board to direct. He is credited with coining the word "Escaflowne", a Latin-based derivative of the word "escalation", that would be used in the title. Imagawa imagined a typical shōnen series that was heavily male-oriented and would feature a shapely heroine and dramatic battles. However, he left the project before production started to direct Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Without a director, the series was put on hold and Kawamori left to work on other projects. After two years, Sunrise revisited the project and brought in relative newcomer Kazuki Akane as the new director. To broaden the potential audience, Akane decided to add more shōjo, or girl-oriented, elements to the series. The suggestive elements were removed, several of the male characters were given more bishōnen—"beautiful boy"—appearances, and the plot element around the tarot cards were added. Akane also redesigned Hitomi, taking her from a curvy, air-headed, long-haired girl with glasses to a slim, athletic, short-haired and more intelligent and confident girl.

With the series character designs finalized and the story set, Yoko Kanno was selected to write the songs for the series, including the background songs which she co-wrote with her then-husband Hajime Mizoguchi, with whom she had previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Please Save My Earth. Initially they found it difficult to score the series as the plot itself was still being reworked around the new concept, but the plot changes were finished in time for them to prepare the score and give the film the desired final "epic touch." 16-year-old Maaya Sakamoto, fresh from a small role in the anime adaptation of Mizuiro Jidai, was selected not only as the voice of Hitomi, but also to sing the Escaflowne theme song. Kanno is noted as saying that Sakamoto is an ideal interpreter of her work. After this project, they continued to collaborate on many other works and some consider her work on The Vision of Escaflowne to be the launching point of Sakamoto's career.

It is said as the series entered into production, the budget required it be cut down to twenty-six episodes before work began on the final scripts and the animation. However the director disputes this in a Panel Q&A for Funimation's Kickstarter, where he states the series was always suppose to be 26 episodes. In the retail Japanese video release, some of the extended scenes were restored to the first seven episodes.

Novel
Yumiko Tsukamoto and Shoji Kawamori collaborated in the writing on a novelization of the Vision of Escaflowne anime series. The light novel chapters were originally serialized in Newtype, and the illustrations were provided by Nobuteru Yuuki and Hirotoshi Sano. The individual chapters were collected and released in six individual volumes by Kadokawa under their "New Type Novels" label between June 1996 and August 1997.

Manga
Three alternate retellings of The Vision of Escaflowne have been released in manga form, with first two manga series developed at the same time as the anime. Due to the radical changes in the anime series during production, these two manga series are very different from the original anime series and each other. The first series, also titled The Vision of Escaflowne was one of the first manga series to appear in the then new Shōnen Ace magazine from Kadokawa Shoten. Despite the anime series itself being on hold, Sunrise gave artist Katsu Aki the existing production and character designs, resulting in the first manga series having the heavy shōnen feel and curvaceous Hitomi that was originally planned for the anime series. Given free rein to change the story however he wanted, Aki's version is a violent saga focused primarily on fighting and has Hitomi transforming into a "curvaceous nymph" that is the power source of the mecha Escaflowne. The series premiered in Shōnen Ace's first issue on October 24, 1994 and ran until November 26, 1997. The thirty-four chapters were collected and published by Kadokawa across eight tankōbon volumes. It was licensed for released in North America by Tokyopop with the first volume released on July 8, 2003. The Tokyopop English editions were also imported for distribution in Australia by Madman Entertainment. In 1996, with the premiere of the anime series, Messiah Knight — The Vision of Escaflowne was created. This shōjo oriented adaptation was written by Yuzuru Yashiro and serialized in Asuka Fantasy DX from April 8, 1996 through January 18, 1997. Unlike the first manga, it focused more on the interaction of the characters and severely toned down the violence to the point that the mecha are not used for battle at all and Escaflowne only appears near the end of the series. It was abruptly canceled after only 10 chapters and the end of the anime, due to the slowing popularity of the series. The individual chapters were released in two tankōbon volumes, at which time the series was retitled Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne. A final manga retelling, Escaflowne — Energist's Memories, was a collaborative effort of various manga artist around Japan to create 15 "mini-stories" related to the anime series. The single volume manga was published in January 1997 under Kadokawa's Asuka comics DX shōjo imprint. Artist's who contributed to the volume include: Tammy Ohta, Yayoi Takeda, Kahiro Okuya, Daimoon Tennyo, Kazumi Takahashi, Masaki Sano, and Kyo Watanabe.

Character
Hitomi Kanzaki is the protagonist of The Vision of Escaflowne, appearing an ordinary school-girl with a crush on her track-team friend, Amano. She meets and saves the life of Van, a young prince from who crossed a portal from a different world in order to slay a dragon. Transported to Van's world, Gaea, she finds her fate is intertwined with his, even if her heart still belongs to Amano. She later meets Allen, a gallant knight who bears an uncanny resemblance to Amano, but realizes her true love is Van.

Lost in Gaia with no apparent way to return home, Hitomi finds that her hobby of tarot card reading is becoming frighteningly accurate, complete with visions of both the past and future that shed light on this alien, war-torn world.

Hitomi has a very realistic personality; she's shy, caring, forgiving and also has a temper. She is often afraid but pushes herself to do the right thing. Reserved yet prone to random displays of affection, she is for the most part honest, telling little white lies to benefit herself. She wants the best for others and at times, even herself as she seeks love and friendship. As a member of her school's track team, she is also a capable amateur athlete in long-distance running.

In the movie, Hitomi's portrayal is very different. This version of her is depressed and in a deep melancholy brought on by feelings of loneliness and the story shows her slowly overcoming this. She also does not show an interest in tarot card reading or have any psychic powers.

[Theatrical version] The setting is significantly different from the TV version, and the only thing they have in common is that they belonged to the track and field club. It has been changed to a shadowy character, "I hurt his leg and gave up track and field, feeling the thinness of my existence, and wishing for my own disappearance." In addition, there is a difference that the family structure is an only child, and the city where he lives has been changed from Shonan to Tokyo (in the novel version, the fabric is the same as in the TV version). He is summoned to Gaia as the "Winged God" to revive Escaflowne by Folken.

Personality:


 * Hitomi is friendly, outgoing, and kindhearted. She is selfless and empathetic and will go to sacrificial lengths to help others. She always sees the best in people, and encourages them to see the best in themselves, whether directly, or indirectly because of her own genuine nature. She is a dreamer with an active imagination, and somewhat of a romantic.
 * Because she hates suffering, Hitomi is prone to anxiety and worries about others, even when she's told not to worry. She imagines and wonders what could go wrong, and can't stand the idea of anyone being hurt.

Abilities
Hitomi has special skills such as divination and dowsing with tarot, and sometimes sees enemies and visions of the future that others can't see (unintentionally). Hitomi always told people fortune with her tarot cards but soon afterward she started to have dreams that come true which she then started to call visions. Her powers and abilities are:


 * The ability to see into the future through visions that come unexpectedly
 * She can manipulate causality itself using her wishes and emotions
 * She is able to see into the past and future using tarot cards
 * She can see the unseen, such as Zaibach Guymelef's when they are cloaked or a doppelganger when they take the form of another.

The setting is significantly different from the TV version, and the only thing they have in common is that they belonged to the track and field club. It has been changed to a shadowy character that says, "I hurt my leg and gave up track and field". His family structure is also different, she is an only child.

Also, the city where he lives has been changed from Shonan to Tokyo. Summoned by Folken to Gaia as the "Winged God" to revive Escaflowne.

TV Anime
The Vision of Escaflowne premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 2, 1996 where it aired weekly until it completed its twenty-six-episode run on September 24, 1996. Bandai Entertainment's North American division, which licensed the series for home video distribution under its AnimeVillage label, first released the series with English subtitles, across eight VHS volumes, including a box set, from September 15, 1998 to December 15, 1998. In August 2000, Fox Kids Network began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Saban Entertainment under license by Bandai Entertainment, these dubbed episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add new "flashback" sequences to remind the audience of the events that just occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first episode was skipped altogether, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno was partially replaced with more techno rearrangements by Inon Zur. This modified version of the series was canceled after ten episodes due to "low ratings". Fox explained that they edited to meet their own target audience, to comply with broadcast standards, and to fit the allowed timeslot. The Canadian television channel YTV acquired Fox's dubbed version of the series for broadcast. Following Fox's planned broadcast schedule, they premiered the series on September 11, 2000 with the second episode. YTV aired all of the episodes Fox Kids dubbed, concluding with the series true first episode in February 2001. Bandai began releasing the dubbed version to VHS in 2000, discontinuing the releases in February 2001 after only four volumes had been released.

Bandai later released the entire series, unedited and in the original episode order, to Region 1 DVD. Spanning eight volumes, the releases include the original Japanese audio tracks with optional English subtitles, and the uncut English dubbed track. Bandai also later released the series in several different box sets, including a Limited Edition set released on July 23, 2002, a "Perfect Collection"—which included the Escaflowne feature-length movie—released October 26, 2004, and an "Anime Legends" box set on April 11, 2006. At Otakon 2013, Funimation had announced that they have acquired both licenses to The Vision of Escaflowne and the movie. On February 27, 2016, Funimation launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-dub the Escaflowne TV series using the HD materials from Sunrise, with the goal of $150,000, with it raising over the goal at $318,784.

Three pieces of theme music are used for the series. "No Need for Promises" (約束はいらない, Yakusoku wa Iranai), performed by Maaya Sakamoto, is used for the series opening theme for the entire series, except the first episode in which no opening sequence is used. Performed by Hiroki Wada, "Mystic Eyes" is used for the ending theme for the first twenty-five episodes, while the final episode uses Yoko Kanno's instrumental piece "The Story of Escaflowne ~ End Title" (ザ ストーリー オブ エスカフローネ~エンド タイトル, Za Sutoorii Obu Esukafuroone ~ Endo Taitoru).

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the series was made available in its uncut dub on Channel 4 via All 4. As of November 2022, the series now streams on ITV Hub, and also does so on its successor platform, ITVX.

Staff

 * Planning - Sunrise
 * Original work - Hajime Yatate, Shoji Kawamori
 * Director - Kazuki Akane
 * Character Design -Nobuteru Yuki
 * Animation Director - Koji Osaka
 * Mechanical Design - Kimitoshi Yamane
 * Mechanical Director - Hirotoshi Sano
 * Art Director - Junichi Higashi
 * Color design - Shihoko Nakayama
 * Director of Photography - Hajime Okeda
 * Sound Director - Kazuhiro Wakabayashi
 * Music - Yoko Kanno, Hajime Mizoguchi
 * Music producers - Shiro Sasaki, Toshiaki Ota
 * Music Production - Victor Entertainment
 * Effect - Shizuo Kurahashi
 * Editing - Tomoaki Tsurubuchi
 * Producer - Yumi Murase (TV Tokyo), Masahiko Minami (Sunrise)
 * Production cooperation - Bandai Visual, Minoru Takanashi, Katsuji Umezawa
 * Production - TV Tokyo/Sunrise
 * Copyright - (C) 1996 SUNRISE INC.・TV Tokyo

Movie
Escaflowne (エスカフローネ, Esukafurōne) is a ninety-eight-minute anime film released in Japan on June 24, 2000 that retells of the story in The Vision of Escaflowne. The film was produced by Sunrise, animated by Studio BONES, and directed by Kazuki Akane. Featuring character re-designs by Nobuteru Yūki, the film focuses on the relationship between Van and Hitomi and their personal issues. The characters themselves are also given different personalities; in the film Hitomi changes from a cheerful girl in love to a depressed, suicidal schoolgirl who suffers from self-induced feelings of loneliness and alienation and Van is now a violent, hot-headed man. In the film the world of Gaea has a more Asian design than the heavily European-influenced television series.

Other media
Victor Entertainment released one drama CD for the series, Escaflowne Original Drama Album, which was released on December 18, 1996.

A video game based on the series, also titled The Vision of Escaflowne was released to the PlayStation system by Bandai Games in 1997. A limited edition version came packaged with a small collector's book and 26 tarot cards. The action-adventure game had an altered plot line and featured additional characters.

Reception
Though well received, The Vision of Escaflowne was not as popular in Japan as producers hoped. Outside Japan, however, it was a worldwide hit. In the United States, it outsold Gundam on video tape, and the first volume of the English DVD release of The Vision of Escaflowne was the fourth best-selling anime DVD for the month of September 2000. The series aired in South Korea where it enjoyed consistently high ratings. Producers noted that it was the worldwide success that led to the eventual creation of the anime film, Escaflowne.

Egan Loo, writing for Animerica, considered it an "epic fantasy" with some of the "most dramatic music in any soundtrack, anime, or live-action", and a "breathless pacing" that result in its being an "acclaimed masterpiece." The Anime Encyclopaedia calls it the "genuine family entertainment, both in and out of the anime world, and arguably the best TV anime of the 1990s". It is called a "fantastically beautiful series, with striking production design" and an "incredibly well executed fusion of familiar anime genres and devices" by Anime Classics Zettai!

External Link

 * TV Anime "The Vision of Escaflowne" Official Website (in Japanese)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ BS11 Website (in Japanese)
 * 『Bandai Channel』
 * The Vision of Escaflowne in the sky ─ Official Website (in Japanese)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne: The Movie ─ Official Website (in Japanese)
 * Official CR The Vision of Escaflowne website (in Japanese)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne Official Website ─ Wayback Machine (Archived on August 16, 2000)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ Sunrise Website (in Japanese)
 * Movie Version:
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ Allcinema (in Japanese)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ KINENOTE
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ MOVIE WALKER PRESS
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ Movies.com
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ Wikipedia (in Japanese)
 * The Vision of Escaflowne ─ Wikipedia (in English)

Trivia
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