Escaflowne

First of all, I watched this movie once before I even saw any of the series, so I was fairly confused--especially by the amount of characters who appear for a few minutes and then disappear. I knew it was supposed to be a retelling and not a summary of the series, but even on that level, I didn't really "get" Hitomi's reason for caring so much for Van all of a sudden, why that blonde captain (Allen, as I learned later) was even there, or what the hell Dune (or Folken, take your pick) was all about. The confrontation with Dune was so incredibly anti-climactic that I almost hoped for that old horror cliche of the villain coming back to life a few times to up his kill stats. No such luck, though.

Having just gone through a marathon session with the series (all twenty-six episodes in two days), I decided to watch the movie again this morning. Well, I had fun identifying all the characters from the series, who were all--down to the cat girls--developed into realistic characters throughout the television series, and it was kind of interesting to compare Hitomi's character (in the movie, she's totally depressed but realized the pain she was causing others; in the series, she was lively, but in being so, she missed the signs that she was hurting people). However, the story (which recasts Hitomi as a "Winged Goddess" figure instead of a girl with skills at fortune telling, and Van into an uncontrollably violent person, but sweet and gentle when he's not killing people) isn't all that interesting (and seems to have been more influenced by the Evangelion series and movies than by Escaflowne), and 96 minutes is far too short a time to tell what should have been a sweeping epic. Instead, despite the claims that it is a retelling, it ends up feeling even more like a truncation of the series.

That said, I thought the animation was good (in an anime genre sort of way--I wouldn't expect a lot of other people to care too much for it, the way that even anime haters tend to like Studio Ghibli films), and the design for Hitomi, though not as kawaii as the series, really did fit with the darker tone of the movie.

6/10

Several things bothered me while watching this film. One of the first thing i noticed was the animation - the faces on the characters were horridly drawn, making it hard for facial expressions to appear believable. The animation in itself was fine, however the way the people were drawn was distracting. Secondly, the plot was disorganized and scattered; making the film hard to follow for even fans of the Escaflowne TV series. The closing doesn't redeem much of the films' weak points - I wouldn't recommend this for those new to Escaflowne or those who are fans. It would be disappointing either way.

I have to say as far as the animation goes the movie was well done, great art work, but the plot itself was poorly thought off. The movie might resemble the series with the characters and the setting but the plot itself was not the same. So if you guys are expecting to be like the series, is not, I found it to be a waste of time, and for those who think that the movie was good, it was just a knockoff of the series just to make money of you.

Anyone settling down to watch the usual romantic fluff of the series might be disappointed by this movie. However, if the same audience wants to drown in the glory of wonderful storytelling, a beautiful soundtrack worthy of Williams, and heartstopping animation, this is the perfect film for them.

"Escaflowne: A Girl From Gaea" is loosely based on the already popular series "Tenkuu no Escaflowne", where Hitomi, a young school girl with psychic powers, is whisked away to the magical land of Gaea, filled with mystical creatures, gallant knights, and gigantic suits of armor. However, here, the happy Hitomi and the peaceful Van are very much gone. The movie opens with Van brutally slaying a group of enemies and Hitomi rethinking the decision to hand a suicide note she has written over to her best friend Yukari. This is a very dark, but compelling Escaflowne. Much of the storyline from the series has been changed dramatically, as one can tell, but it gives the movie it's own original feel and one does not have to be familiar with the series to enjoy the movie. The soundtrack, once again handled very nicely by Yoko Kanno, is absolutely top-notch and might remind one of the power of John Williams' score to "Star Wars". The animation is very different as well, more mature and detailed than the average anime series. Older teens will love it, but smaller children familiar with the series might find the action too intense, some scenes and animation echoing the works of Akira Kurosawa, particularly "Ran".

I have only seen bootleg copies of this, but I hope the rumour of the movie coming stateside is true and we American otaku will get to enjoy the majesty that is "Escaflowne: A Girl From Gaea" on a theatre screen. Anything less cannot do it justice.

I've just finished watching the entire series of Escaflowne and then the movie, and I must say that it was a let down (though not unexpected).

On the one hand you have a quality movie - great animation, more violence and adult themes than the series would allow and already complex characters (as they were taken from the series' in their totality, rather than their presentation at the beginning). On its own this movie had every potential to be great - decent story world and concept, the problem is that it fell into the limbo of relying on the series too much and too little.

The first half of the movie is truly a great watch - you see old faces and nods to secondary characters (the cats in the nightclub are a nice touch). The problem is that in the second half it sort of falls apart - it seems to lose focus and rely on clichés and poor on screen chemistry for the lovers.

The reason for this is that the first hour or so pretty much relies on the first few episodes of the series - girl meets boy but is afraid, the world itself is introduced and so forth, but in the last hour they try to cram the remaining 24 episodes of plot into the movie. While they negate a large amount of the less relevant details in the series, the fact that they try to throw a love that only develops at the end of 24 episodes of questioning (Between Hitomi and Van) into about 30 minutes, and it just seems forced.

So in the end the movie would've been better had it not relied on the overreaching plot of the series and made its own way in the world. (or maybe do the opposite and be set at the end of the series like the Evangelin movies).

At any rate, I did feel a little cheated by the apparent lack of mech fights and 'brother battle' at the end. 3/5