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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 "For Collectors Only." I got the single DVD movie, and I recommend buying the Ultimate Edition instead that has the soundtrack. Graphics and sounds are up-to-date, but you will need a widescreen to fully enjoy the movie. I've watched many times this movie during my free time, and like it a lot. I had a chance to watch it in a friend's house once on a widescreen TV, and the experience had been much more different. This movie is a classic. Don't expect extraordinay sword fights nor grandiose inner-power a la DBZ. It's more like a short romance... "Different aspects of a perfect anime" The Vision of Escaflowne Series is a wonderful anime, anyone who thinks otherwise needs to watch the un-edited version NOT on Fox (Basically they butchered it and took out all blood and gore) Then I heard about The Vision of Escaflowne MOVIE! When I saw the blood and gore put back into the series, I was kinda shocked to see how much there really was, yet the Movie is a whole new aspect. The Series was originally aimed at boys but with the light, sunny atmosphere girls were attracted to it more. To regain the attention of boys, The movie was created so much darker. The characters, although looking different, still capture your attention with their intense detail and stunning colour. What is there to not love about them? The storyline is not the same, though still great, with Hitomi as a suicidal depressive girl who has nothing to aim for. The basic storyline is meeting up with Van and the others and learning that there is so much for her to live for. The character interaction are a little shallow but they are there, you only have to watch the series to understand where everyone lies. I promise, if you buy this movie, you will not be let down no matter what anyone else says. "a bit bloody for a movie based in a kids show" damn... that movie is a little bloody considering that it was based on a kids show. i mean, the horse ripped in two and you could see it's guts and everything, (shiver). but this movie did have sweet action momenets and you can really see the force when the two mecha's are fighting. all around a good movie. BUT IT NEEDS SOME SPECIAL FEATURES DAMMIT "Excellent movie, great for Escaflowne fans and otherwise!" ESCAFLOWNE: The Movie runs as an apparent widescreen retelling of the ESCAFLOWNE series, with better animation quality and a rich musical score. Our story begins as the warrior-king Van attacks a Black Dragon airship carrying Escaflowne, the legendary dragon armor said to hold the fate of Gaea. The Black Dragon Empire is ruled by Van's traitorous brother Folken, who will stop at nothing to obtain Escaflowne for his own ends. Meanwhile, in our world, a young girl named Hitomi is mopping about, wishing she could just drop out of reality and forget about her life. Her wish comes true, and she is transported to Van's world and hailed as the legendary Wing Goddess who can awaken Escaflowne. All I can say is as a new-comer to ESCAFLOWNE, I was highly impressed. I had not seen the series prior to watching the movie, but I still enjoyed the movie a great deal. For me to enjoy an anime, it has to feed my senses. This movie did that and then some. The haunting melodies, the mystic prophecies, the selfless heroics, well-depicted action sequences, and beautiful artwork come together to make this movie a feast for the eyes and ears. Everything from the backgrounds to the wide variety of characters kept me enthralled for the movie's full ninety-six minutes. Considering the length of this feature, I was impressed at how the writers were able to flesh-out most of the main cast and present a coherent storyline with a deep background. My few riffs are minor; the hurried journey of Van and Hitomi during the middle of the movie, as well as the lack of explanation for the mystic elf-like woman who stays at Lord Folken's side. All in all, I enjoy ESCAFLOWNE: The Movie more than THE VISION OF ESCAFLOWNE series. My reasons? To begin with, the film is slightly darker and the characters designs for the movie are much better. Escaflowne is a living, biomechanical suit in the movie, where as in the series its a robotic gymelf made of metal. Van is more brooding, and he and Hitomi appear to be slightly older (eighteen or nineteen years old) in this movie version of ESCAFLOWNE. Each of the characters are drawn more realisticly, with slightly less cartoonish appearences. All these attributes combined make ESCAFLOWNE: the Movie more mature than the series; and in my opinion, better. In closing, this is an excellent anime movie. Even if you have not seen the series, you are likely to enjoy ESCAFLOWNE: The Movie. "2 stars for the animators" The movie has some fairly stunning sequences that are impressive, but the story itself is junk, which really just makes all the flashy art all the more frustrating to behold. Why did the creators bother with all that effort when they clearly didn't understand (or like) the story at all? I watched the feature film with my wife after finishing the series, which we absolutely loved. Ten minutes into it I thought it was a joke and that Van or whomever was going to 'wake up' from a dream or something. Alas, the nightmare continued. Each character is hyped-up on steroids to a ridiculous degree, and the final effect made me think of the first Pee Wee Herman movie, where all the 'big name stars' play him and his friends. Unbelievable. Each character is 'the strongest' or 'the sexiest' or 'the meanest' or what-have-you to such a degree that no one really stands out as having any sort of defineable character or meaning in the story whatsoever. Hitomi is nothing more than a boring and suicidally depressed lump in this director's take, while Van is a homicidal maniac with no meaning or direction (beyond looking or sounding 'cool' or whatever) to anything he says or does onscreen. There is none of the subtlety or interplay or tension that makes the series so riveting. It's just one 'cool looking' scene after another with nothing to connect them or make you care a whit who lives or dies or why. Can you tell I was disappointed? ; ) See the series first. If you watch this first, you'll lose any interest you might have had in seeing the series, I can guarantee, and you'll be missing out in a big way. I have a feeling this film was made at the behest of some producer who wanted, or was instructed to 'impress Americans'. (...) I urge all Japanese film/anime producers to have more faith in their own cultural vision and mindset.