Escaflowne (2000)

[エスカフローネ]

Director: Kazuki Akane
Starring: Maaya Sakamoto, Tomokazu Seki, Jouji Nakata

Synopsis:
A girl who has lost all direction in life is transported to another world where she is heralded as the Wing Goddess, who has the power to save the world or destroy it.

Impressions:
I'm a huge fan of the Escaflowne TV series, so I picked up the movie as soon as it became available and was massively disappointed with what I got. I haven't seen it in many years, but I wanted to give it another shot after rewatching the TV series. If you want to enjoy the movie, you have to throw away all your expectations first. It's a rather dramatic retelling of the story, almost to the point of being an in-name-only adaptation. The character names are the same but most of the characters themselves are quite different. Now, if you're as big a fan of the TV series as me, these changes aren't likely to be welcome. In particular, I'm not a fan of having Hitomi start off as suicidally depressed and nihilistic, but I will credit the writers for a fairly realistic depiction of depression and it creates a low point to build up from that dovetails into the overarching themes of this story. Folken gets the short end of the stick something fierce, going from an intriguing and sympathetic to anti-villain in the TV series to a rather petty puppy-kicker here. (The fact that Folken was one of my favorite characters played a big part in my dislike of the movie on my initial viewing.) I will admit that the story fits fairly well into the container it's been given, which is rather rare for feature-length anime, and the themes get decent treatment as well.

Regardless of what you think of the story and characters relative to the TV series, pretty much no one can deny that it's very technically proficient and looks quite good. The character designs reflect a later stage in Nobuteru Yuuki's development, which may or may not appeal to you more than the TV series' character designs. The more organic design of the Guymelefs may also have some appeal. Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi deliver strongly with the score, bringing new tracks to some of the best pieces from the series.

In the final tally, even though I still have a lot of discontent about the direction that was taken and keenly feel the absence of character development in most of the cast (by necessity due to the limited runtime), I think it's worth seeing. If you're one of those people who had a lot of complaints about the TV series, this may be more up your alley.

Rating:
Watch It