Escaflowne Episode 26 Discussion

Don´t judge a book by it´s censored cover

I came for the background art and i ended liking this anime, all the mecha stuff was sick man, the ambientation was super cool,super steampunk/high fantasy with shoujo elements, a really good combination, the story can be a 6/10 but with the magnanimous soundtrack and all the epic romantic stuff going on i surely can say that almost i dropped a tear and the plot twist were really good too, i said wow or omg out loud.
well that's all guys sayonara

@Tsukamoto_Tenma WAIT i watched it dubbed,,, ohmygod did i watch the censored version?!?!?

@Adriannitro yea it was pretty good despite the weak ending ep :( can't believe she didn't evven stay with van :,(

Every couple of years I rewatch this masterpiece of a story, usually in the german dub cuz thats how I watched it the first time like 20 years ago. This time I did a comparison and oh boy the german dub is objectively better than the japanese and english one... well the english one is an insult to humanity anyways with Hitomis voice actress being the most emotionless brick I have seen in a long time. Comparing the Japanese and German dub:

Especially in this episode when Hitomi tells Van she loves him in Japanese she says (translated to english): “The smell of a field. Van’s smell. Because I love Van."

While in German she says: “Ich liebe ihn wie Sonnenstrahlen die mich erwärmern. Wie reine, klare Luft die ich atme. Ich liebe dich weil du ein gutes Herz hast.“
Which would translate to „I love him like the sunlight that heats me, like the pure clear air I am breathing. I love you because you have a good heart.”

Overall the german dub convays a lot more emotion and is that much more impactful. Its almost sad not so many people will experience it but then again, seeing that this amazing show has only a 7.66 on MAL while steaming piles of garbage have ratings far beyond the 8s, I can only conclude that quality is lost on the typical anime fan.

Eh.....for where the show went in the second half I don't think that the final episode was as much of a disaster as other people have said. It kinda turned into slop on a literal level so that it could have everyone look into the camera and say "The theme of this show was how you can change fate and nothing is truly predetermined" which is basically what it had been doing for quite a while. I think its mostly bad and boring but for a show that went from 39 to 26 episodes (according to Wikipedia) it was far from a Gainax level scramble at the end.

Honestly though, I am actually kind of unsure of why Escaflowne mattered at all. Other than it being able to turn into a dragon and thus allowing the emperor to be all cryptic about "a dragon obscuring the future" it didn't seem like it specifically mattered or did anything. Hitomi and Van were center of everything.

@Lockensocke



The German is more poetic but this is a weak translation of what Hitomi says. A closer translation would be "The scent of a grassy meadow. Van's aroma. Because its Van that I love." She uses the words "草原 sougen" and "香り kaori" which can literally mean "field" and "smell" but are better translated as "grassy meadow" and "fragrance/aroma". And the way she refers to Van is more specific than just his name but its difficult to translate the difference between "noun" and "noun の 事" in a vacuum. The English subs of the Japanese are full of this. They're not terrible but its a 90s anime and it got 90s localization effort/budgeting.


Bwahahahahaha! Everyone has their own tastes bro. I certainly wouldn't be interested in anime if it was governed solely by yours.