Escaflowne

[Terracosmo]

Am I the only one who's crazy about this show?

Sure, the noses look funny, but what the hell. Top-notch story, characters & so on.
Hell, it's medieval mecha!

So, anyone else who likes it?

[Munsu]

Yeah the noses looked funny, but Hajime no Ippo had the same type of noses and it was still awesome...

Yeah this was a great show, one of the first series i saw, so i dont remember much right now

[XanBcoo]

I recently re-watched escaflowne about 3 weeks ago. But I still haven't seen the ending.

From what I have seen, yeah, it's definitely a favorite.

[Aramis]

i only watched the movie, so some of the characters were like empty shells to me, but it was still damn good. mechas that drain pilots blood to make moves...talk 'bout bad ass.

[Aclypze]

Saw this a long time ago. One of the longest series I've watched, it took me a week to watch the whole thing. I don't really remember the story mostly bits a pieces. I'm gonna go rewatch it.

[Munsu]

longest series? lol

It's your standard 26 episode series...

[nests]

This sereis is good I specially like the music on it

[XanBcoo]

Originally posted by: Aclypze
Saw this a long time ago. One of the longest series I've watched, it took me a week to watch the whole thing. I don't really remember the story mostly bits a pieces. I'm gonna go rewatch it.

I started watching it 3 years ago and I'm still not done.

Also, favorite quote:

Asturian Guard (in a whiney english accent): "By order of King Aston, I hereby order you to hand over that Ispano GuyMELEFFFF"

English Dub anyone? XD

[kAi]

Still not finished? How can you not watched it all?
Go get the rest and watch it.

This is a very good series, altough I haven't seen it in ages, so I'd have to watch it again to remember, I just remember some of the characters and little things that happened.

[Terracosmo]

Dilandau > All

[Stoopider]

Esca? Kinda old, but still good. TO me it's like their Dragonball, was perfect for their time, and it introduced alot of the idea's which they use in other anime's today. Classic.

[Mae]

Heh, I knew he/she'd be your favorite, Terra. I liked that character too. The only character I didn't really like was the evil brother, although his arm was cool... I've never seen the movie, but the series was good. The ending was kind of bleh, but I've seen worse. It had strong characters, a unique art style, and an interesting variation on mechs. Definately worth checking out.

[DragonSpirit]

terra can i ask where you saw this? haven't seen it in a long time and come to think of it i never finished watching the whole thing...gonna have to try to find this series...

[Munsu]

http://www.boxtorrents.com/det...php?id=10013&hit=1 (http://www.boxtorrents.com/details.php?id=10013&hit=1) Series
http://www.boxtorrents.com/det...php?id=10188&hit=1 (http://www.boxtorrents.com/details.php?id=10188&hit=1) Movie

[Terracosmo]

Originally posted by: Mae
Heh, I knew he/she'd be your favorite, Terra. I liked that character too. The only character I didn't really like was the evil brother, although his arm was cool... I've never seen the movie, but the series was good. The ending was kind of bleh, but I've seen worse. It had strong characters, a unique art style, and an interesting variation on mechs. Definately worth checking out.

Hehe, yeah, I keep hearing I'm quite predictable when it comes to favorite characters. i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif
Yeah Folken's arm was cool. Actually I liked the entire character, especially towards the end.
It was a solid show all throughout. Perhaps I wouldn't mind if Merle got shot once or twice though...

@DragonSpirit: I saw it loooong ago actually, 3 years or so, grabbed it in some old IRC channel. You can probably find it on torrent now. Oh, and I just noticed that Bud gave you links so nevermind i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

On another note, Escaflowne is one of the few shows I actually own DVDs of... albeit only the first volume.

[KitKat]

Escaflowne is so awesome! It was just over a year ago now that I saw this series, and it was my first anime series ever. I liked it so much that I've been completely addicted to anime ever since. It has elements that appeal to everyone: intense action sequences, an ever-changing love story, giant robots, evil antagonists with heartbreaking pasts, an epic struggle for the fate of a world, and some interesting twists in the plot.

@ Terra: Yeah, Merle was an annoying superfluous character. The only phrase quite as irritating to me as "Sasuke-kun!" is "Van-sama!".

[DragonSpirit]

just d/l'ed this from boxtorrents... thanks for the link bud...

[XanBcoo]

I liked merle...i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif

oh, and for me folken = itachi. XP
I kept calling itachi "folken" when he showed up in the anime (I hadn't read the manga by that time).

I also liked dilandau. He's one of the only villians that works for me. He's just so....eeesh. And he keeps slapping the shit out of his subordinates! haha. I love it.

I need to borrow the dvds from my friend so I can finish this one.

[Terracosmo]

Slapping the shit out of subordinates = ownage.
Haha, I never thought about Itachi = Folken. But damn now when you say it... why not?

However, I doubt Itachi will redeem himself...
One thing I REALLY loved about Escaflowne is how Folken had wings too, and they were black.
It was so symbolic and well made, the whole thing and that episode in particular... where he dies, definitely my favorite.


And seriously guys, how many expected Dilandau to be Allen's sister? I fell off my damn chair for the first time when I saw that.
That's truly the essence of a good plot twist. There are clues everywhere, yet you don't get the truth until it's revealed. LOVE!

[XanBcoo]

Originally posted by: Terracosmo
Slapping the shit out of subordinates = ownage.
Haha, I never thought about Itachi = Folken. But damn now when you say it... why not?

However, I doubt Itachi will redeem himself...
One thing I REALLY loved about Escaflowne is how Folken had wings too, and they were black.
It was so symbolic and well made, the whole thing and that episode in particular... where he dies, definitely my favorite.


And seriously guys, how many expected Dilandau to be Allen's sister? I fell off my damn chair for the first time when I saw that.
That's truly the essence of a good plot twist. There are clues everywhere, yet you don't get the truth until it's revealed. LOVE!

ARGG! I told you I hadn't seen the end yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111one
If my friend hand't already spoiled all that for me I'd be REALLY REALLY angry right now.
But yeah, although I have only HEARD about many of those twists. They are the best I've encoutered in any anime thusfar. I agree. Love it! Especially since you see that short clip of Allen's sis, like, in the third freaking episode! (my friend immediately pointed out it was dilandau...Jerk.)

I remember thinking that Chid was Allen's little brother for a while. heh.

and yeah, Folken is the "fallen" older brother of this series. The wings just make him that much more of a hardass. As does the clown facepaint.

[Board of Command]

This is one of the first animes I saw. I first saw it dubbed on TV, and thought it was great. It was only a couple months ago that I downloaded the subbed version, and it's a lot better.

[Terracosmo]

@xanbcoo: lol but it was just a small disclaimer at the end, I didn't even notice that you wrote it i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif
Don't worry though, I got the whole Folken thing spoiled too so I know the pain.
Clown facepaint is indeed badass, it worked for Kefka and it worked for Folken i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif

[masamuneehs]

Originally posted by: xanbcoo
oh, and for me folken = itachi. XP
I kept calling itachi "folken" when he showed up in the anime (I hadn't read the manga by that time).

I also liked dilandau. He's one of the only villians that works for me. He's just so....eeesh. And he keeps slapping the shit out of his subordinates! haha. I love it.

I need to borrow the dvds from my friend so I can finish this one.

Merle was just an "Meh" character for me. But Folken was one rocking SOB, and his arm was wicked cool. Now that you mention the Itachi-Folken similarities I see them as well, though I watched Esca far before I ever saw Naruto. In fact, Esca and NEva were the 2 1st animes I dled from ye glorious Internet and my first expirience weighing subs vs dubs. The big brother full of evilly tough love...




Originally posted by: Terracosmo
Dilandau > All

This sums up alot of my feelings on the series. Quite possibly one of the craziest anime villains out there, if not the number 1. However, as someone who has seen the dub and the sub, I was disappointed by the voice. The Japanese voice captured the insanity perfectly, but was far too girly to take seriously at times. However, the american dub voice was that of a ten year old brat and was sheer torture to listen to. I often thinkt that Kefka & Dilandau would be a great pair.

This show had one of the few female characters that I could actually tolerate. She was rather average and occasionally angsty, but still knew when to quit crying and start making a difference. God I can't remember her name to save my life right now, but she could certainly teach a pink-haired ninja a thing or two...

Oh and someone should slap a SPOILERS tag on their posts before divulging stuff like that!!!

[Terracosmo]

Her name is Hitomi Kanzaki.

Well, I didn't post any spoiler warning for 2 reasons mainly:

1. It's an old series, in my eyes it would be similar to discuss DBZ with spoiler warnings which feels.. well, odd.
2. It's a short series, so I assumed that everyone who would join the discussion already had seen all of it.

Perhaps that was a bit naive of me, but it turns out in most of the cases I was right at least i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[Darknodin]

I don't like this show... i only watched all of it in one day because...

alright... seriously... for me Escaflowne was also the first anime for wich i watched the subs... remember when they were airing this on FOX and then stopped... that pissed me off for a LONG time until i could get a hold of it...

one thing though... why did they only use the theme (escaflowne) in the first and last episodes?

[Terracosmo]

The theme...?

[Darknodin]

the theme when Escaflowne is first used in ep1... and during the fight in the last episode...

also the theme when escaflowne fights in the movie

[Honoko]

honestly, i think i would've been more enamoured with escaflowne if it was my first anime series. but it's not =P and i'm glad i watched the series before the movie. i didn't like the movie all that much =T

[masamuneehs]

Originally posted by: Honoko
honestly, i think i would've been more enamoured with escaflowne if it was my first anime series. but it's not =P and i'm glad i watched the series before the movie. i didn't like the movie all that much =T

amen reverend on the second half of that post.

Esca the series seriously owns Esa the movie.

[relevasius]

Yeah the movie did suck, but the opening scene is still one of the coolest things I've ever seen in anime.

[Eurasian]

Originally posted by: Terracosmo
Dilandau > All
HAHA it's such a Terra type character. I mean the type of character Terra would like. (whichever)

Yes I absolutely love Escaflowne. It's one of those series that I actually bought the DVD (but this was before dling days). I cried...it made me cry..lol cuz it's so emotional.

The movie was okay...but i think the graphics and stuff are beautiful!

[XanBcoo]

to masamuneehs: I completely disagree with you about dilandau's english VA. It sounds to me how the jap voice would sound if they spoke english. Dilandau's voice is the reason I like him so much. It's perfect for him. It was like it was a wrong choice for a VA but ended up working perfectly.

The movie is meh and Hitomi Kanzaki is too cool for skool.

Oh, and the OP. Funny enough, I heard it before I watched the series. It was on a CD my friend gave me. haha, I thought it was a christmas song (possibly from teh Love Hina Xmas special, I didn't know XD).

I must say my favorite track from the OST is the Escaflowne God-voice:
(Hint - it's the one that goes "EEEEEEEE--ES-CAA-A-FLOOO-OOOW-NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE")
I've heard many a fan hail escaflowne as some of Yoko Kanno's finest work.

[Darknodin]

Originally posted by: xanbcoo
I must say my favorite track from the OST is the Escaflowne God-voice:
(Hint - it's the one that goes "EEEEEEEE--ES-CAA-A-FLOOO-OOOW-NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE")
I've heard many a fan hail escaflowne as some of Yoko Kanno's finest work.

Yea that's the one I was talking about... only used twice in 26 episodes...

[Terracosmo]

It is definitely her finest work in my opinion, I always thought Cowboy Bebop was overrated.
In Escaflowne she manages to capture every mood perfectly with her music.

[XanBcoo]

I like Bebop's music better, but only 'cause I like Jazz.

Another good track (which ALSO includes the word "escaflowne") is the one that plays when Van first activates The Escaflowne. Gave me chills when I saw it the first time. cooool.

[Darknodin]

Originally posted by: xanbcoo
I like Bebop's music better, but only 'cause I like Jazz.

Another good track (which ALSO includes the word "escaflowne") is the one that plays when Van first activates The Escaflowne. Gave me chills when I saw it the first time. cooool.

wait... i'm confused... the song i'm talking about is called Dance of Curse II in the Movie OST

Bebop was cool, went very well with the mood, but i'm not that big a fan of Jazz, so i'd say I prefer Escaflowne...

[XanBcoo]

There's one song that has people chanting "ESCA...FLOWNE!" - I think that one's dance of curse.

The one I meant was the one they play on the DVD menus. Which is as I described, a "God voice" gregorian chant of "EEE-EEESCA--A-FLOO..." and so on.

[Darknodin]

oh ok.. i understand... yea that set the mood though... dark and somehow mysterious... its in the show farely often though... through some of the best fight scenes!

one question that has been bothering me...

tha hell is a Escaflowne??? where does the name come from?

[2:25]

I think Escaflowne is the name of the robot thing that the main character uses.

My memory is a bit shaky I do remember it was one of the first animes that caught my attention.

And I liked the ending a lot though its quite bleh.
It was just totally unexpected, especially when there are so many different possibilities that the show could have ended with.

[masamuneehs]

Dude, Cowboy Bebop soundtrack I thought totally ruled. Escaflowne did have some good tracks and fit the mood pretty well, but it just didn't stick on me the way Bebop did. I actually have a good number of songs from bebop while 0 from esca. The classical music just doesnt do it for me...

Oh, and who else thought that those two cat girls wre smoking hot (for catgirls. I don't dig hairy women) ?

[Darknodin]

Originally posted by: masamuneehs

Oh, and who else thought that those two cat girls wre smoking hot (for catgirls. I don't dig hairy women) ?

lol.. if you didn't dig them, (even considering they are cats) you wouldn't have said that...

[Crows_Kill]

A story I have to tell- right about the time Esca first aired in Japan, I was a very big D&D geek (still am, just not as much)-
I was running a very large game with a core group of about 4 players, with as many as 10 some nights.
The game revolved around a group of adventurers in my own fantasy world, sorta fantasy with a few sci fi elements (mostly stolen from final fantasy,- airships, steam tech etc..)
The main plaot was about a time traveling group of mages seeking to control the fate of the world, with a few "modern" references thrown in.
Starting to sound familiar yet?
The player characters were a female bard with psychic abilities, a young human prince disinhereted from his kingdom, a huge powerful swordsman of legendary skill,
and a mercenary thief that was a flamboyant playboy with more gold than sense....
Throw in a magical airship, a villian closely related (hidden in plain sight in a way to make them unrecognizable) and a characters who learn to control powers way beyond their control and ancient races that have been hunted to exstinction, and you have the basis for my game.
The first time we all sat around and watched Escaflowne I seriously thought my home was bugged and my ideas were being stolen. It was like every adventure I ran was being animated and broadcast to the world.
Yes, I know it was all a coincidence and most of the plot points were borrowed from othe sources in both cases, but it was really uncanny.
And yes, I also know how totaly geek this makes me, just take this stab in to further public humiliation as further proof as the veracity of my story.

On a more on topic note, love the show- great music, great story, great magi-mecha.
Anyone else crack up at the "sword of omens" switch blade sword? Thundercats, Ho!

[MrTicTac]

great music, characters and story ^^

i didnt like the ending that much,, best thing i remember about escaflowne were the dramatic death scenes i forget their names but i was always shouting "noooo ! ; ___ ; " when a good guy died

[yallo]

I absolutely absolutely hated it when Folken died... and the two cat sisters (can't remember their names) that were totally enamoured with Folken-sama. So sad!!! *tears welling up*
Oh and yes, I like the wings A LOT. Black wings for Folken, and white wings for Van. I love how when they spread their wings, there'll always be some stray feathers floating around... so romantic haha.
And the music is absolutely fantastic.