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http://sfdebris.com/videos/anime/escaflowne12.php

I hate to be a wet blanket on this, Escaflowne seems like it ought to be one of those anime I would enjoy; with its combination of high fantasy and giant mecha, but... I just cannot follow the story at all here. I'm just following the reviews for Chuck's jokes here and am lost as to the story. Can anyone give me a recap?

CrypticMirror wrote: ↑Tue Jun 12, 2018 11:49 am http://sfdebris.com/videos/anime/escaflowne12.php

I hate to be a wet blanket on this, Escaflowne seems like it ought to be one of those anime I would enjoy; with its combination of high fantasy and giant mecha, but... I just cannot follow the story at all here. I'm just following the reviews for Chuck's jokes here and am lost as to the story. Can anyone give me a recap?

It's not really you. After the episode with the death of the doppleganger I found the spirit of the show just evaporated. I watched it to finish it off, but path to the end is a slow, apathetic coasting till it winds up shrugging and ending.

The episode does highlight the main, HUGE problem with Zaibach given what we'll find out as things reach the conclusion, that it drips with typical Japanese Evil Empireness in everyway, right down to it's aethetics when the big twist near leaves you wondering things like Chuck commented on with regard to the army names.

I could see if it was a military moral related things, like regiment nicknames and patches ala The Screaming Demons or something that literal sounds evil, but is clearly benign martial attempts to sound badass, but it becomes clear Delandau has more in common with the spirit of Zaibach than Folken ever has.

Also Chuck's pronunciation of Zaibach couldn't help but annoy me given my love of German. Bach, as the one general says in the episode clip, is pronounced like the Scots pronounce loch.... which most still won't understand unless it's heard.

Lemme just find a video to explain it.... there we go!
youtu.be/dRiWBRS3OC8

I should also track down my favorite clip from AMV Hell that deals with Escaflowne if I can to post with the final episode. I think when that other twist the clip deals with takes place then.

I know how to pronounce loch. It is pronounced the same way you pronounce Arrochar.

I actually rather enjoyed Escaflowne. The only aspect of it I didn't really enjoy was the soap opera aspect of it, which I thought dragged on way too long (not to mention the way it became part of the Zaibach Emperor's attempts at manipulating the future). So I think if the show is really guilty of anything, it's that it tried to be a bit of something for too many different groups of viewers.

If you want to see something really sad, though, it would be Fox Kid's attempt at localizing this show, which included re-editing it to try to make it look like Van was the main character. Though to be fair, it was what got me interested in the show.

I remember starting this series at some point, but I honestly don't remember that much of it, or even how far I got. Still, I'm kinda wanting to give it a go again.

Anyway, as far as things specific to this episode, I can't really blame the Duke for insisting that Chid was his son. I don't know what kind of personal feelings he may have had, but just from a practical standpoint the last thing you need when looking down the barrel of an invasion is a succession crisis on top of that. That and the revelation that his wife had somebody else's kid could potentially damage his reputation.

I personally love Escaflowne. I remember watching it when it was first airing on Fox Kids and falling in love with the world, the characters and of course the giant mech suits. Sure it can be a bit over dramatic at times but for me that's part of it's charm and I like how it sticks to it's rules for the most part.

One of the more minor things I love about this series is how the mechs move. In most other animes or Western animated shows, when mech move around they usually don't really seem to weigh anything. Not so with Escaflowne, when these mechs move you feel just how heavy they are. Every move be it fighting, running, or even walking clearly takes a great deal of effort on the part of the pilots and there does seem to be a bit of a delay between the movement of the controls and the movement of the mechs. I mean just look at how they swing their swords or any weapon for that matter. They have to move the whole thing all the way back and bring it crashing down against their opponent and even if the move is blocked the opponent usually gets knocked back a little bit.

I also love how the villains are presented, with the exception of Dialndua the villains are very nuanced and interesting to watch and while you never really want them to succeeded in their tasks you do understand why they do what they do. And even after they have been beaten you feel that they have grown a bit so the journey was worth it for them as well.

Also I'm a sucker for romances so this series just hits the right spot for me.

If you don't mind Spoilers then the emperor is basically Isaac Newton. This makes sense when you realize that in his later years he had an obsession with the occult. Highlight to see said spoilers.

animalia wrote: ↑Tue Jun 26, 2018 3:10 pm If you don't mind Spoilers then the emperor is basically Isaac Newton. This makes sense when you realize that in his later years he had an obsession with the occult. Highlight to see said spoilers.

I have to admit as much as I love Escaflowne the show did get a little weird in it's last few episodes. Pretty much ever after they escape Zaibach things got a little clunky and rather unbalanced but I do think a part of this was the fact that the show was supposed to have around 39 episodes but was only allowed to have 26, which is still a lot but I think if the show had gotten the 12 episodes it needs it the last half would have flown a lot more smoothly.

One thing I've always found interesting in regards to the "missing" episodes is that you can tell where they would have gone. Throughout most of the series one episode picks up right where the other left off. For example Dangerous Wounds will pick up with Van bleeding from inside Escaflowne and will learn a few key details about Escaflowne's history, how made it and get an idea of what it can do. The only time the show does not feature a episode that doesn't pick up where the other left off is from The Gravity of Destiny to Operation Golden Rule of Love in which Hitomi states that Three weeks have passed between those two episodes.

This is the first and only time, not counting a scene in the finally, that a time skip occurs in the story as after this the episodes go right back to picking up where the others left off. And in that time, our heroes have been granted amnesty and allowed to return to Asturia, the leaders of Zaibach have learned of a future that foretells that if Van and Hitomi continue to grow close they will somehow create a army of Escaflowne's that will destroy their empire and that Millerna and Dryden are going to get married in a few days.

While I love this show to pieces it is hurt by those missing episodes as without all that set up, character and plot development the story as a whole is a bit more unbalanced. There are also a few plot points these episodes that never get resolved like the fate of King Grava who seems to be one his death bed but is never stated to be dead and most annoying of all is how the last few episodes get so much plot dump like Dornkirk's backstory, how the fate alteration engine works while completely ignoring other questions like that is up with Dilandau.

Again I love this show put it's easy to tell that there is a big chunk of the story missing.

Winter wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 5:46 amI have to admit as much as I love Escaflowne the show did get a little weird in it's last few episodes. Pretty much ever after they escape Zaibach things got a little clunky and rather unbalanced but I do think a part of this was the fact that the show was supposed to have around 39 episodes but was only allowed to have 26, which is still a lot but I think if the show had gotten the 12 episodes it needs it the last half would have flown a lot more smoothly.

That explains a lot, thanks. I remember the back third of the series getting really nuts, throwing in plot developments and characters without enough buildup to pay them off effectively. This wasn't uncommon in mid/late-90s anime but I usually chalked that up to the series outpacing the manga, or feeling compelled to include manga minutia for the purposes of fanservice whether it worked or not. Then I learned Escaflowne was an anime first (with concurrent manga adaptations), so that explanation didn't make sense. (Evangelion did this too, but Eva also didn't give a fuck about making sense so it didn't bother me as much at the time.)