The Vision of Escaflowne

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The Vision of Escaflowne
Vision of Escaflowne Limited Edition DVD box set
Vision of Escaflowne Limited Edition DVD box set
天空のエスカフローネ
(Tenkū no Esukafurōne)
Genre Adventure, Romance, Mecha, Fantasy
TV anime
Director Kazuki Akane
Studio Sunrise, Bandai Visual
Licensor Bandai Entertainment
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo, Animax
Original run April 2, 1996 – September 24, 1996
Episodes 26
Manga
Author Katsu Aki
Publisher Flag of Japan Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic Shōnen
Serialized in Flag of Japan Shōnen Ace
Original run October 24, 1994 – November 26, 1997
Volumes 8
Manga: Messiah Knight - The Vision of Escaflowne
Author Yuzuru Yashiro
Publisher Flag of Japan Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic Shōjo
Serialized in Asuka Fantasy DX
Original run April 08, 1996 – January 18, 1997
Volumes 2
Manga: Escaflowne - Energist's Memories
Author Various
Publisher Flag of Japan Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic Shōjo
Original run January 1997
Volumes 1
Light novel
Author Yumiko Tsukamoto, Hajime Yatate, Shoji Kawamori
Illustrator Nobutoshi Yuuki, Hirotoshi Sano
Publisher Flag of Japan Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in NewType
Published June 1996 – August 1997
Volumes 6
Animated film: Escaflowne
Director Kazuki Akane
Producer Masahiko Minami, Minoru Takanashi, Masuo Ueda, Toyoyuki Yokohama
Writer Kazuki Sekine, Ryota Yamaguchi
Composer Yoko Kanno, Hajime Mizoguchi
Studio Sunrise
Licensor Bandai Entertainment
Released Flag of Japan June 24, 2000
Runtime 98 minutes

The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ Tenkū no Esukafurōne?, lit. Escaflowne of the Heavens) is a 26-episode anime television series produced by Sunrise Studios and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996 on TV Tokyo, with the final episode airing 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, Southeast Asia, South Asia. The series is licensed for Region 1 release by Bandai Entertainment.

Deliberately blending elements from both shōnen and shōjo genres, 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, fallen king of the kingdom of Fanelia, with aid from Allen, a knight from the kingdom of Asturia, struggles to stop Zaibach using his mystical mech Escaflowne. Hitomi, whose fortune telling powers blossom in Gaea, discovers she is 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, Hajime Yatate, and Shoji Kawamori. A movie adaptation, Escaflowne: The Movie 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.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The series focuses on the heroine, Hitomi Kanzaki, and her adventures after she is transported to the world of Gaea, a mysterious planet where she can see Earth and its moon in the sky. On Gaea, Earth is known as the Mystic Moon. Hitomi's latent psychic powers are enhanced on Gaea and she quickly becomes embroiled in the conflicts between the Zaibach Empire and the several peaceful countries that surround it. The conflicts are brought about by the Zaibach Empire's quest to revive the legendary power from the ancient city of Atlantis. As the series progresses, many of the characters' pasts and motivations, as well as the history of Atlantis and the true nature of the planet Gaea, are revealed.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of The Vision of Escaflowne characters
 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.


[edit] Setting

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[edit] Fanelia

A small kingdom in Gaea ruled by the Fanel family of which Van is the current king. In order to become the king, the heir to the throne must slay a dragon, remove the energist from inside of the dragon, and take it back to Fanelia. Folken failed this test, which left Van as the next in line for the throne. The kingdom is destroyed by Zaibach early in the series.

[edit] Zaibach

A powerful empire ruled by Dornkirk that possesses advanced technology. It was once a small and frail land. People were facing hunger, sickness, neighboring attacks, living in constant fear. As a well educated man of science, Dornkirk used his knowledge to rebuild Zaibach into one of the most respected and feared countries in Gaea.

People of Zaibach have committed their lives to the vision of Dornkirk. They seek to create a new era of peace by controlling the world.

[edit] Asturia

A major kingdom in Gaea that was initially allied with Zaibach before leading an alliance against them. The country is a monarchy and its greatest warriors are known as the "Knights of Caeli".

[edit] Freid

A duchy in Gaea that is ruled by the Freid family. It has an ancient Atlantean artifact that Dornkirk needs to complete his plan to revive the power of Atlantis. This artifact draws the attention of Zaibach who invades Freid. The duty of the ruler of Freid as well as of its people is to safeguard this powerful artifact and prevent it from causing destruction as what it had done in Atlantis.

[edit] Production

In planning for five years, The Vision of Escaflowne almost never made it to the air. Shoji Kawamori first proposed the series after being inspired by a trip to Nepal. He worked with Minoru Takanashi at Bandai Visual to finish fleshing out the original idea, including making the decision to have a girl as the lead character. Sunrise Studios was selected to work on the series, then planned at thirty-nine episodes, with Nobuteru Yuki, who worked on the Record of Lodoss War providing the character designs. The initial director chosen for the series was Yasuhiro Imagawa, and while he is credited with coining the word "escaflowne" that would be used in the title, he left the project before actual production started. Without a director, the series was put on hold and Kawamori left to work on other projects. After two years sitting on the shelf, Sunrise revisted the project and decided to bring Kazuki Akane in as the new director. In order to broaden the potential audience, Akane decided to add shōjo elements to the series. This included giving several characters more bishonen appearances. Akane also gave the character of Hitomi a complete make over, taking her from being a curvy, air-headed, long-haired girl with glasses to the slim, athletic, short-haired and more intelligent and confident girl seen in the final series.[1]

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 Hajime Mizoguchi. Sixteen-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.[1]

As the series entered into production, the budget required it be cut down to twenty-six episodes. Not wanting to cut out any of the characters or the already elaborately planned plot lines, the series was instead forced to fit into the shorter length. This can be seen some in the first episode, where in the credits were cut in favor of adding more exposition. While a few scenes were deleted, as a whole each episode was left with a feeling of giving the viewer a great deal of information than in many anime series, and it added to the series epic scope. In the retail Japanese video release, some of the deleted scenes were restored to the first seven episodes.[2]

[edit] Reception

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.


[edit] Media

[edit] Anime

Main article: List of The Vision of Escaflowne episodes

The Vision of Escaflowne premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 2, 1996, completing its twenty-six episode run on September 24, 1996.[3][4]

In August 2000, Fox Kids began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Haim Saban, 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 all together, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Konno was completely replaced with more techno themes. This modified version of the series was a ratings failure and canceled after ten episodes.[1][2] 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.[5] YTV aired all of the episodes Fox Kids dubbed, concluding with the series true first episode in February 2001.[6][7] Bandai Entertainment, which licensed the series for home video distribution, released four VHS volumes of the edited form of the series before discontinuing the releases in February 2001.[8]

Bandai Entertainment also 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.[9] 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.[10]

[edit] Soundtracks

Cover for the first Escaflowne original soundtrack CD
Cover for the first Escaflowne original soundtrack CD

The Vision of Escaflowne is the debut work of Maaya Sakamoto, who not only voiced the main character of Hitomi Kanzaki, but also performed the opening theme song "Yakusoku wa Iranai" and other songs from the series.[1] Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi composed and produced the series' musical themes and background, incorporating a variety of styles including contemporary, classical, and Gregorian chant.

Four CD soundtracks have been released in Japan by Victor Entertainment. Escaflowne: Over the Sky was released on June 5, 1996, with sixteen tracks, including the series' full opening and ending themes.[4][11] The second CD, Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 2, was released on July 24, 1996 and contained an additional seventeen tracks.[4][12]

Released on September 28, 1996, Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 3 contained an additional fifteen tracks.[4][13] The fourth CD soundtrack, The Vision of Escaflowne: Lovers Only, was released in on January 22, 1997 and contained twenty tracks, including the original TV length opening and ending themes.[14] Despite the relatively popularity of the soundtracks, they have not been licensed for release outside of Japan and are only available by importing them.

[edit] 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.[1] The series premiered in Shōnen Ace's first issue on October 24, 1997 and ran until November 26, 1997. Kadokawa Shoten also released the series in an eight taknuban collected format from April 1995 through January 1998.[15] It was licensed for released in North America by Tokyopop with the first volume released on July 10, 2003.[16] 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.[1] This shōjo adaptation was written by Yuzuru Yashiro and serialized in Monthly Asuka Fantasy DX from April 08, 1996 through January 18, 1997. When the tankuban volumes were published, the series was retitled Hitomi - The Vision of Escaflowne. This adaptation has not been licensed for an English language release.[17]

A final manga retelling, Escaflowne - Energist's Memories, was a collaborative effort of various mangaka 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.[18][19] Artist's who contributed to the volume include: Tammy Ohta, Yayoi Takeda, Kahiro Okuya, Daimoon Tennyo, Kazumi Takahashi, Masaki Sano, and Kyo Watanabe.

[edit] Novels

The first volume of the Japanese light novel adaptation of Vision of Escaflowne
The first volume of the Japanese light novel adaptation of Vision of Escaflowne

Yumiko Tsukamoto, Hajime Yatate, and Shoji Kawamori collaborated in the writing on a novelization of the Vision of Escaflowne anime series.[20] The light novel chapters were originally serialized in New Type,[citation needed] and the illustrations were provided by Nobutoshi 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.[20][21]

# Release date ISBN
1 June 1996[20] ISBN 4-04-701603-9
Volume title: Escaflowne
Cover characters: Hitomi Kanzaki, Van Fanel, Allen Schezar, Susumu Amano
2 August 1996[22] ISBN 4-04-701604-7
Volume title: (竜の流離 Ryuu no Ryuuri?)
Cover characters: Van Fanel, Hitomi Kanzaki, Allen Schezar
3 November 1996[23] ISBN 4-04-701609-8
Volume title: (竜の修練 Ryuu no Shuuren?)
Cover characters: Allen Schezar, The Doppelganger, Dilandau Albatou , Hitomi Kanzaki, Prince Chid
4 April 1997[24] ISBN 4-04-701610-1
Volume title: (Ryuu no Chinmoku 竜沈黙?)
Cover characters: Millerna Aston, Allen Schezar, Dryden Fassa, Van Fanel, Hitomi Kanzaki
5 May 1997[25] ISBN 4-04-701613-6
Volume title: (Ryuu no Aizou 竜の愛憎?)
Cover characters: Eriya, Folken Fanel, Nariya, Van Fanel, Hitomi Kanzaki
6 August 1997[21] ISBN 4-04-701617-9
Volume title: (Ryuu no Eien 竜の永遠?)
Cover characters: Van Fanel, Hitomi Kanzaki, Escaflowne

[edit] Drama CDs

Victor Entertainment released one drama CDs for the series, Escaflowne Original dorama album, which was released on December 18, 1996.[26]

[edit] Movie

Main article: Escaflowne (film)

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, with the film Hitomi changing from a cheerful girl in love to a depressed, suicidal schoolgirl who is suffering from self-induced feelings of loneliness and alienation.[27] In the film the world of Gaea has a more Asian design than the heavily European influenced television series.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, pp. 288-297. ISBN 1-880656-72-8. OCLC 50898281. 
  2. ^ a b c Clements, Jonathan; Helen McCarthy (2001-09-01). The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, 1st ed., Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, pp. 115. ISBN 1-880656-64-7. OCLC 47255331. 
  3. ^ Vision of Escaflowne episode list. Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  4. ^ a b c d 天空のエスカフローネ ((Japanese)). Bandai Channel. Bandai Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  5. ^ YTV Programming. Anime News Network (2000-10-31). Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  6. ^ YTV Finishes Vision of Escaflowne. Anime News Network (2001-02-19). Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  7. ^ YTV Broadcasts the first episode of Escaflowne. Anime News Network (2001-02-27). Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  8. ^ Edited Escaflowne Tapes Cancelled. Anime News Network (2001-02-22). Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  9. ^ Beveridge, Chris (2000-10-03). Escaflowne Vol. #1 (of 8). AnimeOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  10. ^ Escaflowne. AnimeOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  11. ^ ESCAFLOWNE Soundtrack ((Japanese)). CD Japan. Neowing. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  12. ^ ESCAFLOWNE Original Soundtrack 2. CD Japan. Neowing. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  13. ^ 天空のエスカフローネ(3) ((Japanese)). Amazon.. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  14. ^ 天空のエスカフローネ THE VISION OF ESCAFLOWNE ((Japanese)). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
  15. ^ The Vision of Escaflowne (manga). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
  16. ^ Tokyopop Acquires Vision of Escaflowne and Confidential Confessions. Anime News Network (2003-04-28). Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
  17. ^ HITOMI - The Vision of Escaflowne (manga). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
  18. ^ Escaflowne - Energist's Memories. Yahoo! Books. Retrieved on 2008-07-05.
  19. ^ Escaflowne - Energist's Memories (manga). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
  20. ^ a b c Escaflowne Novel 1 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  21. ^ a b Escaflowne Novel 6 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  22. ^ Escaflowne Novel 2 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  23. ^ Escaflowne Novel 3 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  24. ^ Escaflowne Novel 4 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  25. ^ Escaflowne Novel 5 (Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  26. ^ ESCAFLOWNE Original dorama album. CD Japan. Neowing. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
  27. ^ Escaflowne Movie: Standard Edition. AnimenOnDVD.com (2005-04-15). Retrieved on 2006-07-31.

[edit] External links