Escaflowne: The Movie

Hitomi is at school and does not want to go on with her life; she keeps seeing things and there is an emptiness in her. One day she is drawn into another world. Gaea is at war: an empire is taking everything and the kingdoms against it are falling apart. Her arrival is part of a prophecy; it is said she will wake a machine. There is a war machine called Escaflowne and it works only with a particular person. Van owns it and has lost his family. Kazuki Akane directs. The film dates from 2000. It comes from the television series of the same name but is not its continuation; the story and character designs were rebuilt and the register markedly darkened. The form is more compressed than the series; a world of twenty six episodes has been reduced to two hours. The visual work is at a high level; the machine designs and battles were redrawn for cinema. Yoko Kanno's music is what it is most cited for. The matter the narrative works at is the will to live; Hitomi is built far more bleakly than in the series. Its limit is structure; the characters are given in short introductions and the connections are weak for anyone who does not know the series. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese fantasy animation and machine design. Who it is not for: the narrative is compressed, the characters thin, and the register heavier than expected.