Anime of the Childhood #02: The Vision of Escaflowne
天空のエスカフローネ, Tenkū no Esukafurōne
Today I got another Anime of the Childhood on Shinkansen Retrogaming: The Vision of Escaflowne, a 26-episode Japanese anime television series created by Shōji Kawamori, produced by Sunrise Studios (later known as Bandai Namco Filmworks) and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996 on TV Tokyo, and the final episode aired on September 24, 1996. This article pays tribute to Kirby Morrow (the original Miroku in Inuyasha, pictured below), Van Fanel’s original English voice actor.
Bandai Entertainment, the anime series’ original licensor, went out of business in late 2012 and the series is now licensed by Funimation (later renamed Crunchyroll in 2022) and the series’ cast has been completely replaced.
The series focuses on Hitomi Kanzaki (Sakamoto Maaya/Kelly Sheridan) and her adventures after she is transported to the world of Gaea, a mysterious planet where she can see Earth and its moon in the sky. Hitomi’s latent psychic powers are enhanced on Gaea and she quickly becomes embroiled in the conflicts between the Zaibach Empire led by Emperor Isaac Dornkirk and the several peaceful countries that surround it. The conflicts are brought about by the Zaibach Empire’s quest to revive the legendary power from the ancient city of Atlantis. As the series progresses, many of the characters’ pasts and motivations, as well as the history of Atlantis and the true nature of the planet Gaea, are revealed.
The protagonists are:
- Hitomi Kanzaki (Sakamoto Maaya/Kelly Sheridan) is the protagonist of The Vision of Escaflowne, appearing as an ordinary schoolgirl with a crush on her track-team friend, Amano. She meets and saves the life of Van, a young prince from who crossed a portal from a different world in order to slay a dragon. Transported to Van’s world, Gaea, she finds her fate is intertwined with his, even if her heart still belongs to Amano. In the Funimation dub, she is voiced by Caitlin Glass.
- Van Fanel (Seki Tomokazu/Kirby Morrow) is the young half-Draconian King of Fanelia who must learn to cope with drastic changes in his life after Fanelia is destroyed by Zaibach. He pilots Escaflowne, an 8.09-meter (26.5 ft) Guymelef made by the mysterious Ispano tribe which can transform into a flying dragon. He earns his right to pilot Escaflowne through a blood pact which connects his body and soul to Escaflowne. In the Funimation dub, he is voiced by Aaron Dismuke.
- Allen Schezar (Miki Shin-ichiro/Brian Drummond) is a member of the Knights Caeli, Asturia’s elite knights who bears an uncanny resemblance to Hitomi’s high school crush, Susumu Amano. In the Funimation dub, he is voiced by Dragon Ball star Sonny Strait.
In August 2000, Fox Kids began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Saban Entertainment under license by Bandai Entertainment, these dubbed episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add new “flashback” sequences to remind the audience of the events that just occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first episode was skipped altogether, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno was partially replaced with more techno rearrangements by Inon Zur (who later moved on to compose music for Fallout 4). This modified version of the series was canceled after ten episodes due to “low ratings”. Fox explained that they edited to meet their own target audience, to comply with broadcast standards, and to fit the allowed timeslot. The Canadian television channel YTV acquired Fox’s dubbed version of the series for broadcast. Following Fox’s planned broadcast schedule, they premiered the series on September 11, 2000 with the second episode. YTV aired all of the episodes Fox Kids dubbed, concluding with the series true first episode in February 2001.
While the anime series was in production, two very different manga retellings were also developed and released: a shōnen version of the story entitled The Vision of Escaflowne and a shōjo retelling titled Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne. In addition, a second shōjo adaptation called Escaflowne — Energist’s Memories was released as a single volume in 1997. The story was novelized in a series of six light novels by Yumiko Tsukamoto. A movie adaptation, entitled simply Escaflowne, was released on June 24, 2000, but bears only a basic resemblance to the original series. Four CD soundtracks and a drama CD have also been released in relation to the series.
At Otakon 2013, Funimation had announced that they have acquired both licenses to The Vision of Escaflowne and the movie. On February 27, 2016, Funimation launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-dub the Escaflowne TV series using the HD materials from Sunrise, with the goal of $150,000.
