Escaflowne: conclusion

For those avoiding spoilers, this is a classic (ie, older and respected) anime in which a tarot card reading, sprinting, long-jumping schoolgirl is spirited away to the world of Gaea, where she is immediately embroiled in a war. This combines the "girl in fantasyland" and "giant robot pilot" genres, as Gaea has knights who fight from inside giant robots. The worldbuilding is bizarre yet strangely convincing.

It had excellent narrative drive-- I watched the entire second half in three days-- and very good characterization and character relationships, plus smooth and pretty animation and a fabulous Yoko Kano score. But I'd rank it as good, not great, and not just because of the "eek, we've got to wrap this puppy up in three episodes" conclusion. I liked the characters, but I never fell in love with any of them, so unlike, say, Samurai Champloo, or, to take a couple older anime, Trigun or Fushigi Yuugi, it never broke my heart. And that's what we always hope for when we start a new show, I think; to get that link, like some pilots have with their mecha, so when they get hurt, we feel the pain.

Massive spoilers below cut.

( Van! Hitomi! Van! Van-sama! Hitomi! Allen! Van! Jajukaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! )

Escaflowne: conclusion

For those avoiding spoilers, this is a classic (ie, older and respected) anime in which a tarot card reading, sprinting, long-jumping schoolgirl is spirited away to the world of Gaea, where she is immediately embroiled in a war. This combines the "girl in fantasyland" and "giant robot pilot" genres, as Gaea has knights who fight from inside giant robots. The worldbuilding is bizarre yet strangely convincing.

It had excellent narrative drive-- I watched the entire second half in three days-- and very good characterization and character relationships, plus smooth and pretty animation and a fabulous Yoko Kano score. But I'd rank it as good, not great, and not just because of the "eek, we've got to wrap this puppy up in three episodes" conclusion. I liked the characters, but I never fell in love with any of them, so unlike, say, Samurai Champloo, or, to take a couple older anime, Trigun or Fushigi Yuugi, it never broke my heart. And that's what we always hope for when we start a new show, I think; to get that link, like some pilots have with their mecha, so when they get hurt, we feel the pain.

Massive spoilers below cut.

( Van! Hitomi! Van! Van-sama! Hitomi! Allen! Van! Jajukaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! )