Escaflowne disc 3 (through episode 11)

[rachelmanija]

This show has grown on me a lot after the first few episodes.



Dilandau continues to be psychotic and boring, though I have been assured that he gets more interesting later. Right now he reminds me of a cross between the Joker and Yumichika from Bleach. He is slightly more amusing once Oyce helpfully pointed out that the best translation of his favorite phrase is not "Burn!" but (in his case) "Burninate!"

I was surprised and pleased with the revelations about Van and his family. They have retractable wings! Folken is Van's brother!

Folken is clearly Tragic and Misunderstood. Van may think he ran away from the dragon, but come on, he got close enough for the dragon to bite his arm off. Alas for my ability to keep a straight face when confronted with Allen's character design, the revelation that Folken's Great Sweeping Cloak O' Angst was there for a reason convinced me that Allen's puffy sleeves were there to conceal the twin hedgehogs that grew out of his shoulders.

I love that Hitomi is competent (the long jump! the running!), not stupid, and not only has a useful power, but people realize that she has a useful power and listen to her and take her along when they need her.

Finally, I am trying to formulate a Unified Field Theory of dragons, guymelefs, winged people (Draconians) and the secret reasons behind the war, as I feel that all of this is connected. Perhaps the dragons don't like having their hearts being used to power machinery?

Finally, I feel that someone needs to write a cross-over between this, X, and Utena, as Allen looks and kind of acts like a refugee from the latter, the Destiny Prognostication Engine would go nicely with Absolute Destiny Apocalypse and the general X apocalypse, and there could be lots of feathers and wings and swords and roses.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

"Burninate"? Hee!

I also loved the long jump scene; I was so impressed that the writers actually did something with the whole Hitomi-is-an-athlete thing.

Good luck with the Unified Field Theory; just remember that Escaflowne logic is really not Earth logic. XD

[telophase.livejournal.com]

MOEROOOOOOOOO! probably misspelled

Oh yes. Keep an eye on Dilandau. At any rate, I liked Dilandau from the start, because there's just something about screaming psychotics that gets me. OTOH, any time a character reveals wings, the show comes this close to jumping the shark for me.

I'm going to have to re-watch the Escaflowne movie, which completely rewrites the story in the same way the Utena movie did, only with slightly more coherence, IIRC. I've only seen it once, in a fansub that had the translations in a font so tiny I had to squint to make it out. I bought the DVD special edition, but never botheed to watch it.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

See the 'oh, my beautiful face' thing always annoys the fuck out of me, which negated Dilandau's psycho appeal.

The movie was...okay. I wish there was some kind of synthesis between the two, because some of the movie was so much more awesome, and yet...it didn't work as well.

[moonlit-page.livejournal.com]

There's quite an M. Knight Shamalan twist in store for you, concerning Dilandau, that makes all the cheesy cackling worth it.

And Allen and Gaddes have great chemistry, so I forgive a lot. ^_^

[cyberpilate.livejournal.com]

and there could be lots of feathers and wings and swords and roses.

My head is popping from the sheer thought of it.

Escflowne was my first full length, sit on the floor and watch the whole thing in one go anime. It taught me a lot about how complicated relationships can get, how freakin' phenominal Yoko Kanno is, how to sing a theme song in Japanese, how CGI can be nigh-seamless in cel art, all that good stuff. My first fansite I ever made was for Jajuka (http://www.geocities.com/qhewitt/Jajuka/index.html) (oh the days of geocities...), so the whole damn show holds a special place in my heart. =)

Don't read the manga. Really.