Vision of Escaflowne Anime Review
Vision of Escaflowne
/ TV Series / Drama / 13-up
Bottom Line
Terrific and perfect in every aspect.
It’s Like...
...Last Exile meets Fushigi Yugi.
Second Opinion
So, after being badgered unmercifully by friends over AGV and friends at home I finally bought Vision of Escaflowne. I went into this thinking, "Great, I wasted 30 bucks on the type of anime I don't like to watch." But I was proven wrong by the very first episode. I was totally blown away.
The artwork was so incredibly beautiful that I found my self rewinding just see Van fight again. He had that look of courage and honor, something that animators have a hard time capturing. It was smooth and believable, except for the dragon. There was something Godzillaish about the dragon in the very first episode. The "mechas" were beautifully drawn and designed, and when they fight WHEW! it's like seeing Macross and all of it's glory coming out with a new type of mecha.
The story was probably one of the reason's I didn't want to see this anime, but then again, I didn't know all that much about the story. I was suddenly enveloped into the world of Gaea, the characters came to life before my eyes and the story developed in my heart. Nothing could bother me, I just sat like a zombie thinking "Hitomi, you're such a dork." or "Come on Van! Please survive, no one and nothing can ever amount to your bravery. Come on Van! Make it through!!!"
I had the pleasure of seeing the subtitled version and let's say the voice actors certainly took it seriously. Seki Tomazake pulled of a terrific voice for non other than Lime's favorite character VAN FANEL! He was an exact replicate of Lime's favorite voice actor Hikura Madowaka. In fact, he might have done a better job than the actor for Zelgadis.
The dubbed voices are incredibly awful! They don't even capture the characters. For example, the voice of Dilandua Albatou is also the voice of Syaoran Li from Card Captor Sakura. With the americanized voice, Dilandua doesn't sound evil at all. He sounds like a kid who doesn't know how to act. Van's voice is way to adult for a fifteen year old, and the English voice for Allen is the same guy who does Zechs in the American Gundam Wing. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that? (Lime-chan's going on a bit of a mini rant!)
The best seiyuu job of all is Minami Takiyama, the voice of Dilandua. You may remember from other characters such as Ascot (Magic Knight Rayearth) and Phibrizzo (Slayers Next). She has the most evil voice in the world, and she reeeally does a good job with Dilandua.
Ah, the music, totally in my taste, especially the ending theme. I practically broke the VCR rewinding. The background music fit the story very well, I actually enjoyed the music. It certainly put a smile on my face.
An anime that everyone should buy, terrific and perfect in every aspect, Vision of Escaflowne certain won my heart and if it did this to someone who thought they would hate it, just imagine what it could do to you.