Vision of Escaflowne

The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ/Tenkuu no Escaflowne). I first seen this anime aired on Fox Kids during my highschool years and I loved it. While I am not a mecha fan at all, this one has a rather very awesome storyline and characters.

(I'm not good at summarizing and explaining stuff) The story follows about a girl, Kanzaki Hitomi, who has the ability to see the past and the future. While training with her senpai who she has a crush on, a bright light beamed down from the sky. A boy with a sword appeared along with a dragon and a battle took place between them. After the boy slayed the dragon, another light came down on where they stood closely and they were teleported to a completely different world. The boy's home world, Gaea. From here, Hitomi's life completely changed as she meets different characters and engaged into events she has never experienced before. Including being torn in a romantic interest between her crush look-a-like, Allen Schezar, and the boy, Van Fanel.



That was probably a terrible description but don't be repelled by it. This anime series is very good. Amazing characters, awesome storyline. My jaw dropped a few times during the last few episodes. It was just amazing. I don't know how to describe it. If you're an anime otaku, there's absolutely no excuse not to see this series. It's a MUST SEE.

I have long forgotten this anime years and years ago. While I was bored browsing YouTube, I came across the US version opening of Escaflowne. The JP version of the opening is good but the US version has a catchy tune and they made it a little bit more "exciting". The JP version is more romantic and dramatic. Obviously the preferred opening would be the JP version as it actually suits the anime itself. But I don't mind what Fox Kids did to the US version. What I do mind is the fact that they censored a lot of stuff during TV air time. And they also skipped scenes and episodes. And finally, I don't think they even finished airing the entire series. But no matter. I finally got to see it after all these years. And you should too. Very highly recommended, even if you're a girl. This is a shoujo anime after all.

I don't particularly have any favorite characters in this series. They are all very good. But if I had to pick, I would say Van and Hitomi as I wanted them to be together. They were so indecisive and baka that I wanted to smack their heads. Also, I wish the ending had more closure and romance in it. It just left me wanting more. Why can't they ever make a good ending? Sigh...

On another note, there is also a movie of this which I haven't seen yet. It takes a different approach on the plot. I don't know if that's good or not considering how well done this is already. Oh and there's also a manga.