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| As always, romance got in the way of great world building and action. At least the 3-timing shoujo self-insert is back on Earth and single like she deserves. |
| Okay, civil war breaks out that was a pretty great battle. Dilandau is being psycho as ever but then finding her true self via Jajuka's love and care. Allen jumping in knowing Dilandau is Celena, taking on Dilandau's crimes and being honorable. Brilliant fight with that music. Such a beautiful color scheme when Folken is talking to Hitomi. Our fate is just our free will and how we act via our emotions. Though, emotions can manifest things around us, and they can in many ways I think. Solid ending to a great show. I want more of Gaea and the characters though. This was too short. |
| So the emperor was Isaac Newton? Eh. I feel the last episodes are kind of a response to Dunbine's ending, both thematically and narratively |
 |
| Escaflowne might be one of the shows to take full advantage and not hold back when it comes to its genres = Isekai, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Mecha. This anime made sure to go all out on each one of its genre. I can see why many love Escaflowne. BUT, I can also see why many were very turned-off by the anime. For me, I was in the middle, sometimes it was great, and sometimes theres too much going on to care about anything in specific. The mecha battles were great. The background music were great. Heck, even the characters were great in their way. The romance can come off as very shoujo-ish, so some might like that and others wont. Overall, a nice anime, and I can see why many love it, but its not an anime that ill sit down and watch it again nor think about it again. |
oooo3333Mar 1, 2023 1:10 AM
| The first half of the show soared, then the wings fell off and it crashed and burned. The last few episodes felt like such a garbled mess of "resolutions" to relationships that never started and plotlines that were never introduced. Yes, this is probably mostly the fault of a cut-down runtime but the show is crippled regardless. It needed at least another 6-7 episodes to grow the characters and their relationships, and to allow things to play out in a more natural way without relying on the horribly artificial plot device of characters being teleported to wherever the writer wants them to have their next big scene. |
OneMoreFinalAug 15, 2024 1:27 PM
 Don´t judge a book by it´s censored cover |
| I can't help but feel disappointed after watching the concluding episode. Hitomi does little except crying out to everyone around her and envisioning tragedies but does nothing or is able to do nothing to avoid them. Very passive character. The others like Van and Allen feel like generic shounen males and I really got nothing from anyone. The story itself got my interest as it continued on but just fizzled out at some point. The end of this final episode just put a capstone on my frustration. Van and Hitomi admit they like each other, the villain and everyone else as well make a big deal about it but she nopes out back to her world anyway. Gives him her grandmothers crystal before heading back to Earth as well. (would have been ice to see some talk between Hitomi and grandmother or mother but nope there too). Honestly it felt like she was mostly a spectator to everything that went on on Gaea anyway. I can get this a 6/10, was interesting at times but as a whole doesn't work for me. No satisfying end for the main couple of course or with the Emperor, the kid doesn't learn his true parentage either. Merle was completely pointless and didn't even have her interact with the cat sisters with Folken. Feels like many shows from the 90s, great ideas but characters let me down. |
 |
| 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 |
| BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH |
| the ending definitely felt rushed, but I guess that's to be expected seeing this shows troubled production. Shame, as certainly a very unique and charming anime; I've never seen mecha combined with fantasy so well. |
| I have a third testicle that gives me psychic powers |
Reply to Tsukamoto_Tenma
Don´t judge a book by it´s censored cover
| @Tsukamoto_Tenma WAIT i watched it dubbed,,, ohmygod did i watch the censored version?!?!? |
 |
Reply to Adriannitro
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
well that's all guys sayonara
| @Adriannitro yea it was pretty good despite the weak ending ep :( can't believe she didn't evven stay with van :,( |
|
Reply to Altadena
@Tsukamoto_Tenma WAIT i watched it dubbed,,, ohmygod did i watch the censored version?!?!?
| @Altadena you need to make sure you've watched a later dub (maybe, escaflowne have 2 dubs, the "fox kids" dub and the other made by fumination or i don't know. |
| BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH |
Reply to Altadena
@Adriannitro yea it was pretty good despite the weak ending ep :( can't believe she didn't evven stay with van :,(
| @Altadena once, a user said to me that the main point of the series wasn't that she stayed with van, but hey, escaflowne have a manga, right? probably it have other ending like the manga evangelion or something like that. |
| BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH |
| 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. |
Reply to LotteGiants
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.
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
Lockensocke said:
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."
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."
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.
Lockensocke said:
I can only conclude that quality is lost on the typical anime fan.
I can only conclude that quality is lost on the typical anime fan.
Bwahahahahaha! Everyone has their own tastes bro. I certainly wouldn't be interested in anime if it was governed solely by yours.
LotteGiants said: I am actually kind of unsure of why Escaflowne mattered at all Well you could argue that Escaflowne and Van became one during the duration of the show, therefore when they say Escaflowne (or the dragon) they actually mean Van. Or another interpretation is that Escaflowne is what brought Van and Hitomi together. LotteGiants said: The German is more poetic but this is a weak translation of what Hitomi says. If I understand you correctly and you are saying that the Japanese has a more hidden meaning implying more emotions (when being watched by a Japanese person), then being more poetic is probably a more faithful translation, even though the words might not be the same. Conveying similar emotions is more important in my eyes. LotteGiants said: Bwahahahahaha! Everyone has their own tastes bro. I certainly wouldn't be interested in anime if it was governed solely by yours. It seems like you want to have another civil discusson and are not trying to be rude, right?^^ |
LockensockeApr 8, 2024 4:57 AM
Reply to Lockensocke
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.
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.
| @Lockensocke This was one hell of a jorney! A very immersive world. The Girly Girl moments were silly, but amusing. Wish we had more episodes as was originally intended |
perennial_suitJan 8, 3:06 AM
| Even though Escaflowne could be hit or miss at times, Sunrise really spared no expense on getting the finale spot on. That Van vs Allen duel was stunning and even I was caught up in the desire to see it never end. As for the story's conclusion, it's a bittersweet tinge. While I wish it had more breathing room, it was still a satisfactory parting. Escaflowne was my first real taste of anime. I remember seeing it on KidsWB as a kid in 1999 (swiftly cancelled due to maturity, lol...) and the animation was in a whole other league in comparison to my Saturday morning cartoons or weekly dose of Pokémon & Digimon. Fitting that this should be a precursor to isekai as this first taste of anime felt like I'd been taken to another world. The DVD box set was the first anime I'd ever bought in high school. For years, I've somewhat revered this story as it took mythical proportions in my mind. Coming back to it for the first time since ~2008, I can now see it more clearly and appreciate it for the milestone it was. That said, I will certainly say that Escaflowne didn't age quite as well. The animation is still a sight to behold when at its best, but it definitely had that dull 90s vibe that came with other titles of its time (i.e. Orphen, SEL, etc). Admittedly it could get boring in between the main events. On the other hand, its story & themes still hold up quite well. The central themes of conflict & destiny especially resonated this time around. Letting go of inner turmoil & seizing one's own future. The entwining of emotions that change the course of life. The uncertainty of the future and the paradox between wanting to know it vs not wanting it to be preordained. It was rough around the edges, but the heart of this story is still near & dear. Lowering my score to a 7, but still a good experience & important milestone in my own journey with anime. |
ZekkenshinApr 15, 11:51 AM
 |
| I really loved this show. First few episodes left an extremely positive impression but the last few felt kinda rushed and confusing, not to mention that Fate machine was kind of a Deus-Ex-Machina and Folken's change of heart was somewhat abrupt and definitely needed more time in the oven. But other than that it's truly a wonderful gem of classic japanese animation. The love triangle was handled correctly and most of the cast were truly great. Soundtrack and overall animation are also top notch and this is special because of Maaya Sakamoto. I love when they successfully merge fantasy elements with mecha like this. Escaflowne joins Rayearth and Dunbine as three excellent examples of this. 10/10 |
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