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Escaflowne - The Movie Actor: Kazuki Akane Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Bandai Entertainment Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-03-02 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 152 Average rating: 4.0 "Good movie, but confusing if you haven't seen the series" I saw "Escaflowne - The Movie" without having first seen the series - and found myself completely confused at times. The characters aren't strongly established (the assumption seems to be that viewers will know them and their relationships) and the action is often darkly animated, with pivotal moments arriving so quickly and then left behind just as abruptly, robbing the viewer of the significance. Having said the above, I still enjoyed the movie. Hitomi, even in her two-dimensional angst portrayal, is charming. Van is better developed; his character drives the film with his anger and loneliness. Although the animation is a little uneven - breathtaking at times, static at others, it is well executed overall. If you purchase the ultimate edition set, you'll love the CD of the soundtrack. The disk containing the production art gallery is less interesting. (The art gallery pictures are difficult to make out, for one.) I recommend watching at least a few episodes of the series "Escaflowne" before watching this movie. Fans will probably divide into two camps: those who hate the cursory compilation of the series' storyline, and those who can't get enough of "Escaflowne." "A Nice Surprise..." I have seen a couple of previews about the series and thought about watching it. However, I am not a big fan of major fantasy animes, at least not the hard core fantasy. Sometimes the fantasy storylines seem to be overstuffed with magic, characters, legends and twists. Complex stories are too much work. Call me lazy, I don't care. Yet, my husband mentioned he saw this Escaflowne Movie at the video store, so I picked it up. I was pretty impressed with the artwork. The characters were uniquely drawn. Sometimes their eyes looked kind of freaky. It reminded me of the sequence in the Evangelion Movie where Shinji is a boy playing in the sand with those two dolls. The roundness of how they were drawn was a bit over done. But it added to the surreal effect they were trying to achieve. Also I really like how venerable the main character was portrayed. She did not have special skills or weapons to defend herself. All she had was her powers and good heart. The Van character was the typical hero that you find in an anime. He sort of resembled Hiro from Gundamn Wing with his anger issues and quest for vengence. But I wouldn't expect anything less from Japanese writers. I have read the other reviews about how the series was better and how the movie is rather disappointing. That may be, but since I have never seen the series, I wouldn't know. The movie is a bit rushed as others have written and the characters are underdeveloped, but it is still a very good anime. The music is mesmerizing and the story is very interesting. Looking at this movie as an independent move away from the series, it definitely deserves more credit than people have given it. The only problem I found with the movie: you want to story to continue! So my next step is checking out the series. :o) "One of the best" This is one of my Fave movies. I watched it after watching the series, and was expecting an ending to it. But this completely retells the story, very well I might add for a two hour movie. The animation is amazing. Yoko Kanno's music in this movie is some of the best my ear's have ever had the pleasure of hearing (Check out her work in Cowboy Bebop, jazz). The Japanese dub far surpasses that of the english (Trust me). If you have seen the series, rent it first, you may not like the changes. If your thinking of getting into Escaflowne, then rent this movie. I HIGHLY recommend that you rent this before buying. This is my second favorite movie. Metropolis first. "This Was Pretty Overhyped..." Man, did I love the Escaflowne TV series. I guess that's why I was disappointed with the movie so much. Don't Get me wrong; this movie has all the trimmings of the show (albeit with a slightly more "Asian" aestetic): Midieval swordplay, mecha, "magic girls," a love story, characters you can easily get into. The problem is that they tried to cram 26 episodes of the show into about one hundred minutes. The end product is a movie that could have been an extremely interesting film if it were about two hours, but unfortunately everything seems sort of rushed, key characters from the show take a back seat, and the disappointing ending leaves the viewer yearning for a cool sword/magic duel. In all, I have to rate the movie for three people. If you hate anime, this movie won't change your opinion. but if you're into this kinda stuff but have never seen the show, it's at least worth a rental. But if you're like me and you love the show and everything about it, then you may walk away complaining. "Enchanted...." Well, many ppl i know thinks it's an OK movie, coz 96 mins included all the episodes of escaflowne.. but the whole movie is just....enchanted, the story lines, the songs, when i was watching it, it felt like i was in a different world. lol The ending isn't like a whole happy ending, which is the thing about the movie, it left a mysterious feeling to let you think. It's really sad though, I don't really wanna spoil anything =P Anyway...the movie is not merely a fantasy anime, it gave me feelings that are really different than the episodes. If you like anime, it's definitely worth a buy.