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ESCAFLOWNE
- THE MOVIE
GIRL IN GAEA
Plot
In an alternate universe indepedent of the original television
series, war plagues the world of Gaea. The evil Black Dragon
Clan, led by Folken, is attempting to bring about the end of the
world. The Goddess of Wings is said to have the power to awaken
the legendary Dragon Armor known as Escaflowne, which has the
power to save or end the world. The Abarahaki, a group made up of
the Black Dragon's victims, attempts to use Escaflowne to destroy
the Clan as Folken summons the Goddess of Wings to Gaea so that
she can give him the power to destroy the world.
Characters
Most of the main characters from the television series make some
appearance here. The most notable absences are Dornkirk of
Zaibach and Prince Chid of the Dutchy of Freid. In Dornkirk's
stead, we have Folken as the leader of the enemy group, with
Zaibach replaced by the Black Dragon Clan. After what a great
character Folken turned out to be in the TV series, I must say
his motivation in this movie is a bit disappointing (but I won't
say what it is so that I don't spoil anything). Folken has made a
pretty complete 180 turn since the TV series. Where in the
series, he wanted to bring peace to Gaea, here he wishes to bring
destruction on the world. In the series, he wished to make peace
with his brother, Van; here, he hopes to kill him.
Most of the other characters remain more or less the same as they were before, except that Millerna is a bit nicer to Hitomi (though she later became much better, at the beginning of the series, Millerna was a total bitch to Hitomi). Here, Millerna never undergoes the change from bitch to nice, because she's nice for pretty much the whole thing. Furthermore, though she is still identified as a Princess here, she's a lot less formal, which leads one to believe that her country has been gone for quite a long time (and maybe they even said that... hey, I've only watched the movie once).
Hitomi has just a bit more self-confidence and faith in her friends. She doesn't have any of those scenes where she just completely breaks down and tears someone's head off like she does a few times during the TV series. Van is pretty much the same as he was before. A young, quiet king trying to avenge his fallen country. Merle also undergoes little change. Allen moves up a bit. In the series, he was a knight of Asturia. Here, he appears to be one of the Abarahaki's leaders (along with Millerna and Van). Personality-wise, he's not a whole lot different, though he isn't quite as..."refined," for want of a better word.
And everyone's favorite crazy villain, Dilandau, remains about the same as far as personality goes (though his history does undergo quite a big change, but explaining that would spoil both the TV series and the movie). He disobeys orders, loves to fight, etc. At the end of the movie, we see that he wasn't too serious about the Clan when it falls and he simply rides off with his three underlings to go find another war.
Animation and
Sound
To start off with,
I'll say I HATE HATE HATE the new
character designs. Hitomi looks like a man, Allen looks like a
woman, Millerna looks completely different, and all the
less drastic changes just don't look "right" after
seeing the entire TV series. Fortunately, they don't hurt the
movie too much (though it was a bit disturbing to hear one of
Allen's underlings say he accidentally mistook Hitomi for a
man...). The inside of Escaflowne has also been redesigned, so
it's not really a machine, but almost more like a living thing.
Personally, I prefer the original Escaflowne, but once again, the
design changes are mostly interior and don't effect the rest of
the movie too much.
As for the animation itself, there's really not much to say about it. It's a movie and it's very recent, so it's a given that the animation is going to be pretty damned good.
I was somewhat disappointed when I noticed that most, if not all, of the background music in the movie is just from the TV series. There were a few songs I couldn't remember hearing in the series, but there were so few of them that I'd be willing to bet they just weren't used very often in the series. It's not a big deal really, but it would have been nice for them to create a new soundtrack for the movie.
The song that plays during the credits is sung by Maaya Sakamoto, the voice of Hitomi. She has a pretty good voice and the song isn't too bad, though I have heard better. Still, it was a nice song and it closed the movie fairly well.
Other
aspects...
The movie sees
somewhat of a departure from the melef combat of the TV series.
There are still melefs, yes, but a lot more of the fights are
hand to hand. Actually to be honest, I think Escaflowne and
Dilandau's were the only two melefs I can remember seeing in the
entire movie. What this means more than anything is that this
movie is a lot bloodier, as people are actually seen dying,
rather than just their melefs falling and/or exploding.
Furthermore, all Ryuu-jin (Draconians by Bandai's subs and
Dragonkin by the subs on this movie) have "magic"
powers. Basically, the magic is limited to psychic things and the
abliity to block psychic things. You can picture Darth Vader's
"strangle you from across the room" for some of it, DBZ
and Tenchi fans could think of invisible ki blasts for some of
the other stuff that happens, and Outlaw Star fans can picture a
very toned down version of what Hasanko does to Harry MacDougall
for what happens in one particular scene. Basically, Ryuu-jin can
"throw" an invisible force at you, and if you're a
Ryuu-jin, you also have the ability to block that force. A few
psychic battles take place between Ryuu-jin, but most of the
major fights of the movie are just normal battle and melef
combat.
Overall
Overall, the movie
was pretty good, but not enough to top the wonderful series. I
can't help but wonder if I might have enjoyed the movie more had
I not already seen the series. Well, in any case, I'd recommend
seeing it if you get the chance, but it's not really a terrible
loss if you don't.
90%