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Just finished watching the movie and all I can say is ???!!!. That's right. No really, I don't understand it. Yeah, I know it was a retelling of the original story but boy was it weird. First off the movie is simply titled "Escaflowne" instead of Vision of Escaflowne, although I did hear it was called Escaflowne: Girl in Gaea but the opening scene gave no indication of that. Second, expect familiar characters to pop up but not play any large roles nor look the same. Third, theres actually magic weilding in Escaflowne this time around, although the magical fight scenes look more like psychic battles out of X instead of spell casting and colourful magic. Finally, the mechs. Wooboy...where to start. There where two of them. That's right just two. Escaflowne and a Dragon Slayer. Both of which seemed more organic this time around instead of magical medievil technology. Unfortunately, I don't like the movie as much as the TV series. That was to be expected though since the movie only spanned about an hour and a half compared to the 26 episode TV series. The characters lack the same charm and fail to bring home the same emotional turmoil that was so great about the TV version. For example: Hitomi is much more down and depressed than in the happy and energetic Hitomi of the series. She goes on and on about being all alone and almost never smiles. She looks older and has a different uniform. Gone are the fortune telling and tarot cards that played such an important role before. Van is no better. Instead of the unsure young warrior, he is now a natural killer and slaughters indescriminently with the speed and precision of Kenshin in his Hitokiri days. He is also depressive and alone like Hitomi and it draws them together. A relationship blooms between them but not nearly as romantic as before. Fight scenes are short and sweet and the animation was top notch. Everything was up there but it just didn't seem like the Escaflowne we all know and loved. To be honest I would have much prefered a continuation of the TV series which could have been pulled off better in my opinion. |
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