Escaflowne movie

What do I need to know about the series in general before I watch the movie? Who is who, and where are we?

The movie is completely parallel from the television series. Rather than being a sequel or side story, instead it is an alternate universe retelling of the story of Escaflowne, featuring the same characters in the same world but with some major changes. Thus, no prior knowledge of the series is necessary.

I've seen most of the television series, but I have yet to see the movie. I'm looking forward to it, but let's hope the edits are kept to a minimum.

The movie is wonderful... when you haven't seen the series. When you have seen the series, it's hard to appreciate it as much. Don't get me wrong; it's still very entertaining, and the animation and music is totally awesome. But just like many other animes, the series is often better than its movie.

Well, watch it anyway! I bet you'll like it.

And as for the initial question, I guess all you really need to know is that this girl, Hitomi, is transported from Earth to the parallel world of Gaia, and she helps catalyze a chain of events that eventually puts the world at stake. And there are mechas. Yay!

wow...Escaflowne is cool o.o

Is the series better/as good/worse than the movie??

I've seen some of the series and saw the movie when it first came out on DVD years ago. The movie is darker than the series and has more sword-play thanks to the addition of a director from the awesome Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers. Still, the movie only has about 2 or 3 good scenes, the best being the first scene.

The quality of animation of the series is no where near as good as this alternate-telling movie. However, the anime does focus more on Van than Hitomi and has much better mecha action...maybe even more action in general. Unfortunately, the series has more comedy with the cat girl to break up the mood though, which is sad. Escaflowne's ok, but it doesn't seem to pull together in either the movie or series into the strong property it seems to be and should have been.

Wow.. no offence.. but that really sucked. The whole thing left me scratching my head and asking, "Is that it?" It seemed so rushed and there were so many things that I didn't understand and I probably needed to see the TV series to fully get. But here are some questions I have...

1. Was that part in the subway where timed stopped and Hitome saw some guy ever explained?

2. Why did they make the blond guy look so badass against Van and then have him do absolutely nothing for the rest of the movie?

3. Why did Escaflowne do almost nothing despite the entire movie being based on it?

4. What was the point of that lady that was always singing?

5. Does the ending imply that the singing lady survived?

6. Why was the final battle with the bad guy so crappy and anti-climatic?

7.

spoiler (highlight to read):

Why did they have the bad guy get killed by Johnny Nobody?

Well I can tell you that your last 2 points, it had been comeing for some time, and if the movie were a bit longer it might not have gone down that way.
Personally I was going WTF? at the ending. I didn't get that at all. What happened to Hitomi? Did she go back home or what?
And the so-called "mecha action" was pitiful IMO. I wouldn't even classify it as a mecha battle in my book. Large scale bio-armor at best, but little if any mechanical aspect involved.
This was a dissapointment for me. Not even music guru Yoko Kanno and mecha designer Kitmoshi Yamane, who has done several Gundam works, were able to salvage it for me. Hopefully the series does better.

I really enjoyed the movie. I remember really enjoying the series when it was on Foxkids as well. Granted the movie was confusing at times, and it did not do that great of a job condensing the story down to fit the time limit. Also, Folgen did not look nearly as cool as he did in the series. Alll in all though, it was a pretty good movie, nothing mind-blowing, but it did make me want to see the series again (in unedited glory).

I enjoyed the movie, and I liked the sort of abstract fantasy elements that it had, and it somewhat reminded me of Princess Mononoke. The music was good, though it seemed to me that it was sort of a warm up to what Yoko Kanno would later do in Wolf's Rain.

I too was dissapointed by the lack of use of the blonde guy. Despite looking girly, he seemed cool.

I agree with Raven.

Hitomi was the worst generic schoolgirl character ever. She had absolutely no character development, and wasn't the least bit interesting. The final battle sucked, too.

quote:

Originally posted by Kairi I agree with Raven. Hitomi was the worst generic schoolgirl character ever. She had absolutely no character development, and wasn't the least bit interesting. The final battle sucked, too.

Agreed.

The only really interesting point I saw in the movie though was what people call the mecha, "Escaflowne". It seemed more flesh and blood than anything mechanical...the battle when I saw it really didn't turn out like I thought it would. It was overall a disappointment.

I'll take the worst Big O battle over this movie.

I have never heard of 'Escaflowne' until Adult Swim started pumping commericals for it last week. But just from the commercials, the movie looked pretty look and I decided to check it out.

Now, judging from the replys on here, the movie was nowhere near the series and in fact didn't if keep in with the storyline of the series. But having never heard of this before, I guess had the luxury of not being disappointed. Personally, I thought the beginning was insane as ol' boy Van was merking kids with no mercy. But for me that's where the stuff hit the fan and it kind of stop getting interesting.

To me, I kinda saw this movie as a Inuyasha rip-off. And I agree with Kairi that the girl Hitomi was pretty damn generic as far as the Japanese schoolgirl image went in anime. I basically thought that she was a watered-down and much less interesting version of Kagome.

Really watered down.

I was 'Inuyasha rip-off' because of the way that the realtionship of Hitomi and Van was rushed so quickly. A girl from another time and world meets a sword swinging hotshot with a sword and over time they fall in love. At least Inuyasha and Kagome had some damn time as I'd venture to say that Hitomi and Van had about five minutes.

I didn't see the whole movie (and I'm guessing from you guys that I was the lucky one) and from just what I saw, it was weird and pretty much tanked. The minor characters were really, really weird to get a grasp on them and I thought the whole plot had too many holes and was weak but then again, I never saw the series.

Also, Escaflowne is still a sweet-as-hell name and Van's powers were pretty damn fresh as well. Even Dorothy had more life to her then Hitomi did and she's an android. We need Dorothy to go Gaea and slip Hitomi up a little bit.

Peace.

Take Hitomi out and the movie isn't too bad. I liked the music at least.

Did I mention that I thought she was a really watered down version of Kagome?

quote:

Originally posted by Lt. Sanji Take Hitomi out and the movie isn't too bad. I liked the music at least.

The music wasn't as bad as the movie, at least. It wasn't as deep or as full as some of the other action sountracks but whatever. My favorite track I think is the fight song used when teh Escaflowne fought. ("Dance of Curse" ?)

Alrighty I have watched the entire TV series and then waited forever for the movie to come out. Personally I was not to pleased with it. Now looking at the movie as a whole without thinking of the pervious TV series then yes it is a good movie pretty interesting the effects are nice and so on. But and yes I do understand that the movie is suspose to be seperate from the TV series I still love the TV series by itself so I guess it really depends on what you like more or what not. Granted the movie was nice for me it was like oh I watched it once and thats it. Where as I would re-watch the TV series. Although I do liked how they put in every single character from the TV series into the movie.

spoiler (highlight to read):

I was just pleased to see the cat girl sisters/twins. =^_^=

Granted I would say borrow it from someone elese or ent it before you decide to buy it so you can see weather or not you like it enough to go buy it etc. ^_^""

-Beth

I'm one of those who watched the TV series first (the original DVD's, not what was on Fox) and then saw the movie on AS.

It's weird. In a way, seeing the TV show first helps because you know a little about who all these characters are supposed to be. But I think I would have liked the movie better if I had never seen the TV show. Does that make sense?

Without seeing the TV show, I probably would have given the movie a C- or so. But since I've already seen the series, I'd give the movie a D.

I'd suggest watching the TV series to anyone who's slightly interested in the story elements. It's very different than the movie. Naturally, there's more time to develop the characters and such. Also, the series focuses a lot on the relationships (romance, etc.) in hopes that it would gather a female audience.

There are a LOT more mecha battles and a lot of the supporting characters are fleshed out (of course) and made more interesting. For example, neither Lord Folken and Dilandau (that kid in the other mecha) are truly "bad guys" like they are portrayed throughout much of movie. It has some interesting twists. And it's an interesting mix of fantasy and mecha elements.

All's I can say is: T.V Series: Good, Movie: sub-par.

i saw the moive and i never saw the series but it was confusing but really cool

people should watch the TV series. yes it's true hitomi is extreamly dull in the movie but in the tv series she's anything but dull. also what's with the inuyasha comparasen's? sure they are somewhat similar, but Escaflowne came out in 95' and the movie not long after, so calling it a inuyasha rip off is stupid. also esca created an amazing story with great charecter's (yay Allen and Gaddes) in only 26 eps, while inu just drags on with filler after filler but inuyasha had some things I liked. it was pretty cool to give naraku (only charecter I like) a westen styled sword.