Escaflowne/The Vision of Escaflowne
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| The Vision Of Escaflowne | |
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The vision Of Escaflowne天空のエスカフローネTenkū no EsukafurōneEscaflowne of the Heavens | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Romance, Fantasy, Mecha |
| Anime series: The Vision Of Escaflowne | |
| Directed by | |
| Studio | |
| Network | |
| Original run |
April 2, 1996 — September 24, 1996 |
| No. of episodes |
26 |
The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ, Tenkū no Esukafurōne; Literally meaning "Escaflowne of the Heavens") is a 26-episode anime television series created by Sunrise and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996 at 6:00pm on TV Tokyo and ended September 24, 1996. It has elements from the genres of shōjo, shōnen, romance, and mecha, and has since inspired a shōnen manga and shōjo manga series, and an Escaflowne theatrical movie.
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 or "Phantom Moon" (幻の月, Maboroshii no tsuki). 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: Characters
[edit] Locations
Main article: Locations
[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. Fanelia bears some similarities to feudal-era Japan.
[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. Zaibach is similar to Industrial Revolution-era England.
[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". Asturia bears some resemblance to Renaissance-era Italy. The name Asturia is also very closly spelled to the Spanish providence of Asturias.
[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. Freid is said to have been based on Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand.
[edit] Production
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Anime
Main article: Episodes
- The Vision of Escaflowne was later broadcast across Japan by the anime satellite television network, Animax, who also aired the series later across its respective networks worldwide, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions. Animax has also dubbed and translated the series into English for broadcast across its English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, their adaptation being unedited and retaining all of the original plot and character elements.
- The series was aired on the Fox Kids network in the United States in an edited form between August and October of 2000, but was cancelled. No reason was given by Fox for its cancellation, but in 2002 a former employee of Fox claimed it was because Fox Kids' target audience of 6-12 year olds could not follow the series' complex plot. Template:Fact This Escaflowne was significantly modified from the original version.
- A 23-episode version, heavily cut for content and timing, and with a different title sequence, aired several times on the Fox Kids channel in the UK during 2001 and 2002. As with the version aired in the U.S., the first episode was removed during the original run, but was played at the end as the 23rd episode after the series had ended. AnimeCentral recently aired the series uncut.
- The Vision of Escaflowne has aired on YTV in Canada under the title Escaflowne, though it featured some of the same changes as the Fox Kids version. Unlike Fox, YTV aired the complete series twice before retiring it.
- Vision of Escaflowne aired as a whole in Mexico on public television. TV Azteca aired the whole series uncut in two different occasions. In Chile, TVN and Etc. TV aired the whole series, first censored and later uncut.
- Vision of Escaflowne was aired in the Philippines by GMA Network last March 24, 2000. The Philippine airing predates the North American airing by at least 4 months and features the English dub as shown on video/DVD. GMA originally aired the series in primetime, weekly. Its replay was shown in the afternoon, daily (from Monday to Friday). December 4, 2006 when GMA 7's sister station, QTV 11 airs its Filipino-dubbed version.
- The Vision of Escaflowne was aired on MTV Germany in 2002 (therefore viewable in Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and because of its success the whole show was aired a second time. The German version was translated from the French version and therefore had some minor translation errors, but beside this, all episodes were aired in their original sequence (unlike to its airing on some other networks; see above).
- Bandai's Anime Village label released a "Special Edition" in North America created by Bandai Visual in Japan. This "Special Edition" was the entire 26-episode story arc condensed into three VHS tapes. In 1998, Anime Village marketed this edition as the Vision of Escaflowne Best Collection.
- The unedited 26-part series has since been released on VHS and bilingual DVD box sets in the US and UK. In October 2004 Bandai again released an Escaflowne box set that uses slim DVD cases, but the content appears unchanged from the original box set release from 2002. This re-release also includes Escaflowne: The Movie. There have been several DVD versions of the movie, including the "Ultimate Edition", which included a bonus features disc and the soundtrack CD.
[edit] Soundtracks
Template:Mergefrom-multiple This series marked the anime debut (in a lead role) of Maaya Sakamoto as the voice of the main character Hitomi Kanzaki and as the singer of the opening song "Yakusoku wa Iranai", as well as of many other songs in the series.
The music, composed by Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi, is of a decidedly European flavor, though it also incorporates different styles such as contemporary, classical, and Gregorian chant.
The albums released for the anime includes the following:
- Escaflowne Original Soundtrack - Over the Sky
- Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 2
- Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 3
- Escaflowne - Lovers Only
[edit] Drama CDs
A drama CD was released December 18, 1996. It is now out of print.[1]
[edit] References
- ↑ CDJapan.co.jp on the Escaflowne Drama CD. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
[edit] External links
- Bandai Channel's official website for The Vision of Escaflowne (Japanese)
- Animax's website for The Vision of Escaflowne (Japanese)
- Bandai UK's webpage
| Genre | Action +, Adventure +, Romance +, Fantasy +, and Mecha + |
| Series name | The Vision Of Escaflowne + |
