Name: The Vision of Escaflowne
Uploaded: 2016-12-17T16:54:05.000Z
Duration: 17 min 52 s
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The Vision of Escaflowne is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series

produced by Sunrise Studios and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan

on April 2, 1996 on TV Tokyo, and the final episode aired on September 24,

1996. Sony's anime satellite channel, Animax also aired the series, both in

Japan and on its various worldwide networks, including Hong Kong, Taiwan,

Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The series is licensed for Region 1 release

by Bandai Entertainment. The series follows a teenage high school

girl named Hitomi, who finds herself pulled from Earth to the planet Gaea

when a boy named Van appears on the high school track while battling a dragon. In

Gaea, she is caught in the middle of a war as the Zaibach Empire attempts to

take over Gaea. Van, with aid from Allen, commands his mystical mech

Escaflowne in the struggle to stop the Zaibach Empire. Hitomi's fortune telling

powers blossom in Gaea as she becomes the key to awakening Escaflowne and to

stopping Zaibach's plans. While the anime series was in

production, two very different manga retellings were also developed and

released: a shōnen version of the story entitled The Vision of Escaflowne and a

shōjo retelling titled Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne. In addition, a

second shōjo adaptation called Escaflowne — Energist's Memories was

released as a single volume in 1997. The story was novelized in a series of six

light novels by Yumiko Tsukamoto, Hajime Yatate, and Shoji Kawamori. A movie

adaptation, entitled simply Escaflowne, was released on June 24, 2000, but bears

only a basic resemblance to the original series. Four CD soundtracks and a drama

CD have also been released in relation to the series.

Hitomi Kanzaki, and her adventures after she is transported to the world of Gaea,

a mysterious planet where she can see Earth and its moon in the sky. On Gaea,

Earth is known as the Mystic Moon. Hitomi's latent psychic powers are

enhanced on Gaea and she quickly becomes embroiled in the conflicts between the

Zaibach Empire and the several peaceful countries that surround it. The

conflicts are brought about by the Zaibach Empire's quest to revive the

legendary power from the ancient city of Atlantis. As the series progresses, many

of the characters' pasts and motivations, as well as the history of

Atlantis and the true nature of the planet Gaea, are revealed.

Production Shoji Kawamori first proposed the series

after a trip to Nepal, during which he visited the foggy mountain region and

pictured a hidden world where an epic focusing on both fate and divination

should be set. When he returned, he proposed the series to Bandai Visual and

Sunrise. According to Kawamori, his pitch for the series was simple: "if

Macross was robotic mecha and love songs, why not a story about robotic

mecha and divining powers?" He worked with Bandai producer Minoru

Takanashi to finish fleshing out the original idea. They researched various

mysteries for inspiration, particularly stories centered on the mythical land of

Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. As the series began taking shape, they

changed the lead character from a male, the norm for an action-mecha series, to

a high school girl as the lead character. Nobuteru Yuki was hired as

the character designer, and tasked with crafting a design for Hitomi and the

rest of the cast. He would later state that Hitomi was his favorite character

because it was the first one he'd ever designed completely from scratch rather

than simply being adapted from an existing medium. Initially, Folken and

Dilandau were a single enemy commander, but as the story was fleshed out, the

creators felt the series would be more interesting if there were two with very

different personalities. Initially, the series was planned at

thirty-nine episodes, with Yasuhiro Imagawa brought on board to direct. He

is credited with coining the word "escaflowne", a Latin-based derivative

of the word "escalation", that would be used in the title. Imagawa saw the

series as being a typical shōnen series that was heavily male oriented and

featuring a shapely heroine and dramatic battles. However, he left the project

before actual production started to direct Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Without

a director, the series was put on hold and Kawamori left to work on other

projects. After two years sitting on the shelf, Sunrise revisited the project and

brought in relative newcomer Kazuki Akane as the new director. In order to

broaden the potential audience, Akane decided to add more shōjo, or

girl-oriented, elements to the series. The suggestive elements were removed,

several of the male characters were given more bishōnen—"beautiful

boy"—appearances, and the plot element around the tarot cards were added. Akane

also gave the character of Hitomi a complete make over, taking her from

being a curvy, air-headed, long-haired girl with glasses to the slim, athletic,

short-haired and more intelligent and confident girl seen in the final series.

With the series character designs finalized and the story set, Yoko Kanno

was selected to write the songs for the series, including the background songs

which she co-wrote with Hajime Mizoguchi. Initially they found it

difficult to score the series as the plot itself was still being reworked

around the new concept, but the plot changes were finished in time for them

to prepare the score and give the film the desired final "epic touch."

Sixteen-year-old Maaya Sakamoto, fresh from a small role in the anime

adaptation of Mizuiro Jidai, was selected not only as the voice of

Hitomi, but also to sing the Escaflowne theme song. Kanno is noted as saying

that Sakamoto is an ideal interpreter of her work. After this project, they

continued to collaborate on many other works and some consider her work on The

Vision of Escaflowne to be the launching point of Sakamoto's career.

As the series entered into production, the budget required it be cut down to

twenty-six episodes before work began on the final scripts and animation began.

Not wanting to cut out any of the characters or the already elaborately

planned plot lines, the series was instead forced to fit into the shorter

length and cover more of the story in each episode than originally planned.

This can be seen some in the first episode, where in the credits were cut

in favor of adding more exposition. In the retail Japanese video release, some

of the deleted scenes were restored to the first seven episodes.

The Vision of Escaflowne premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 2, 1996 where

it aired weekly until it completed its twenty-six episode run on September 24,

1996. Bandai Entertainment‍‍ '​‍s North American division, which licensed the

series for home video distribution under its AnimeVillage label, first released

the series with English subtitles, across eight VHS volumes, including a

box set, from September 15, 1998 to December 15, 1998. In August 2000, Fox

Kids began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Haim

Saban, these dubbed episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add

new "flashback" sequences to remind the audience of the events that just

occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first

episode was skipped altogether, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno

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