Interpretations of Escaflowne: The Movie

Escaflowne, a shojo anime, is a tale of one girl who saves the world of Gaea.  Kazuki Akane and Yoshiyuki Takei directed the movie.  Shojo is anime or manga where the lead character is a female.  Shojo is the sister of boy’s shonen.  There are a lot of series and movies created through shojo including Miyazaki’s films and Escaflowne.  First, I will cover what shojo is.  Second, I will give an overview of the movie Escaflowne and cover the visuals.  Third, I will give a brief comparison between the TV series and the movie.  Then I will explain of the struggle Hitomi experiences throughout the movie.  Next, I will explain the relationship Hitomi has with Lord Van.  Finally, I will examine the relationship of Van to his brother Folken.  Hitomi is the average girl taken to a global conflict of the heart.

Shojo is an anime with a female as the protagonist.  In the Escaflowne series, Hitomi was a fortuneteller while in the movie, the wing goddess.  There is a growing fan base for shojo and many of the shojo anime found in the magazine, Shojo Beat, which cycles between seven different manga titles each issue.  Shojo titles usually are interesting and contain a lot of character development unlike the Shonen counterparts.  Now let us look at Escaflowne’s story.

Escaflowne the movie is a story about a girl named Hitomi and her quest to either save or destroy the world of Gaea.  The story begins with a depressed Hitomi who wishes to end her life and believes that her disappearance would not change the world she lives in.  At a stadium, she meets Folken who calls her to his world as the goddess of wings but ends up going to his brother, Van.  Hitomi awakens inside of Escaflowne and joins Van’s crew as they fight a war against the Black Dragon Clan or Lord Folken.  Dilandau sent by Folken to capture     Hitomi and kill Van.  After Dilandau was defeated for the first time, Hitomi falls off a cliff and Van saves her.  Van wounded and together they went to Adom to recover.  Black Dragon Clan is going from country to country, killing everyone denying the need for slaves.  Hitomi and Van sneak into a Black Dragon Clan police controlled city, Torushina, where they meet up with their friends, the Abaharaki, and decide how to stop Folken.  The story ends when Van faces his brother Folken in Torushina who dies by stab wounds by one of his subordinates.  The visuals are stunning.

Visually speaking, characters look beautiful and dark.  The characters have large eyes and the girls have big lips.  All the characters look much older and mature compared with their childlike counterparts in the series.  Everything looks crisp and sharp especially Escaflowne.  Escaflowne looks large, majestic, and shows a lot of depth and attention to detail.  During the awakening of Escaflowne in the movie, the creation of Escaflowne’s cape looked amazing. The visuals are striking thanks to Yoko Kanno; the same for the music. My favorite track is Sora that plays near the end of the movie.  Most of the score of the movie is done in a classical style, effectively evoking the wonder of the fantastic world of Gaia. The range goes all the way from playful pieces to grand choral themes.  All around, it is a beautiful score, well worth listening to.  Many changes occurred between the series and the movie.

For fans of the original TV series, the most striking change with Escaflowne: The Movie is the new set of character designs. Each character gets a new wardrobe and a facelift.  This results in leading the characters towards a much darker feel.  This achieved because the movie had a much larger budget then the TV series.  With more money and time, more detail fills every aspect of the movie.  An additional difference was the role Folken played in.  In the series, Folken was a subordinate of Zaibach’s leader and in the movie; he was the leader of the Black Dragon Clan.  In the series, Folken turns from evil to good while in the film, Folken stays evil until the end.  The mechas were different as well.  In the series, Escaflowne was mechanical while in the movie, Escaflowne was more organic.  Another difference between the movie and the TV series is character development.  Many of the TV characters play small roles in the movie.  For example, Alex who played a strong role in the series only appeared in the movie for only a few minutes.  Of course, the short time span of movies as compared to television series expected when it reaches the public.  With the limit of time, character developments cut short and the story focuses on the changes between the two main protagonists, Hitomi and Van.  All the characters stay the same except for Hitomi and Van unlike the TV series.  Limitations made many of the stunning visual aspects of the movie laid aside as the focus rapidly shifts from a mix of trying to show great scenery shots to trying to move the plot along.

Hitomi is struggling with depression and loneliness.  Hitomi had quit her track team and abandoned her friend, Yukari.  She is apathetic to life.  In the beginning of the film, Yukari finds Hitomi’s suicide note and Hitomi tells her she is too much of a coward to commit suicide.  She believes that if she fades away or disappears nothing will change.  The world will keep going as if nothing had happened.  Hitomi did not know what to do anymore and lost her direction.  She was leading a life hurting others.  She was confused and lost what it means to live.  She overcomes her own limitations, wanting to be by Van’s side. 

Hitomi and Van are kindred spirits. Both filled with loneliness.  Hitomi discovers more to life then she had seen before after Van saves her from falling off a cliff.  Hitomi does not want Van to die and wants to share in his pain and suffering.  Van is not alone because he has Hitomi to help.  Hitomi helps raise Van out of his depression and hate in the end of the film.  Hitomi said after holding the injured Van who saved her life that she would stay with him until his sorrow and loneliness is gone.  She receives the power of Escaflowne and must help Van overcome his fear as well as her own.  When Escaflowne and Van turn evil, Hitomi faces Van and tells him that she too was alone and that she would stay with him.  To Hitomi, it is painful being alone and it is better to be together even if that means hurting each other at times.  It will not be the end and Hitomi will always be with him.  She saves Van and together they go to confront Folken.

Lord Folken is Van’s older brother.  When the oracle signs chose Van over Folken to be the next king, Folken goes on a rampage.  Then, he kills their father and destroys their kingdom.  Folken forms the Black Dragon Clan that is hell bent on destroying the world.  Folken reigns supreme while Van is fighting with a rebel group of survivors of Folken’s deadly army.  Before Folken destroyed Van’s kingdom, Van looked up to Folken.  Van loved his brother but now Van only lives with bitterness and hate.  Van lives to kill Folken and avenge his kingdoms demise.  He wishes to carry his sorrow.  Folken rejects Van and does not change.  In the end, Van no longer wants to fight Folken but wants to save him.  Before Folken dies, Van calls him brother, which Folken said, “a sweet sound I long forgotten.”

Escaflowne is a shojo about a girl named Hitomi who goes on a long quest with Van to save Gaea.  There are many differences between the movie and the series.  Two changes involve visuals and character development.  Hitomi battles her depression in a foreign land. When Van saves Hitomi, her disposition, and emotional health improve significantly.  Hitomi and Van are very similar and their likeness helps both overcome their own limitations.  Van and Folken are the same, consumed by hate and sorrow but Van recovers from it unlike Folken.  This is probably because of his relationship with Hitomi.  Escaflowne is a story of how to overcome personal limitations and realize the dream of peace.