Cheap Escaflowne - Dragons and Destiny (Vol. 1) (DVD) (Escaflowne, Shoji Kawamori) Price

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Customer Reviews of Escaflowne - Dragons and Destiny (Vol. 1)

Outstanding anime series, a must see!
A wonderful mix of fantasy and mecha anime, this series has it all. The version shown on FOX Kids does NOT do this series justice, and you might come away from it indifferent to this series. Trust me, when you see the original, uncut version, you will change your mind immediately. With powerful music by Yoko Kanno (of Cowboy Bebop and Macross Plus fame), and great animation, especially during the battle scenes, you'll want to see the rest of the series immediately after this DVD is over.

As with most anime series ported to DVD, this first disc is primarily concerned with getting character introductions out of the way. You meet the main characters of Van, Hitomi, and Allen, and you see some awesome battle scenes involving a dragon, and Van and Allen's mechanized armor suits (called melefs or guymelefs), Escaflowne and Scherezade (respectively). But unlike most mech anime series, the battles in this series are primarily swordfights, rather than gun battles, which is a refreshing change. You are immersed in a world of fantasy, the world of Gaea, that lies close to the planet Earth, although hidden from view.

The special features on this disc are great, too. You get to see the non-credit intro, which has awesome music, as well as some music videos with other great tunes from the series, and also featuring some of the great scenes as well. The menu system is easy to navigate, and is pretty to boot.

All in all, this disc is very deserving of the 5 stars I gave it. Set aside some money to get involved in this series; you won't regret it for a second.

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Escaflowne Now On American TV!
I was suprised that a network like fox was showing this anime, I guess they wanted something hard core to go up against pokemon. Well on to the review. This anime is awesome, having in it's credits famed director Shoji Kawamori and musical composer Yoko Kanno. The animation is top notch for a tv series, and the characters are very interesting. This video is a must buy, even if it is slightly edited. There is no blood and nuditity, so parents can feel safe to buy this for kids. This is a masterpiece of anime, so check it out!

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Fun anime, well done; but, I liked the movie better!
Hitomi is an active, perky high school student who likes to practice fortune telling. One evening, she gets more magic than she bargined for when a young man mysteriously appears infront of her on the school track, followed by a monstrous (and very well drawn and animated) dragon. The young man fights the beast to the death, then removes its glowing heart. Before Hitomi can gather her witts, she and the boy get teleported to another world: Gaea, a sort of alter Earth with a more magical atmosphere.

That's the run-down of the first episode. It's a little hurried, but the later episodes on this DVD serve as a good introduction to the characters. As with most animes, the show gets better over time.

Overall, ESCAFLOWNE is a fun, well-animated, highly enjoyable anime series about the adventures of school-girl Hitomi, warrior-king Van (the young man who slays the dragon in the first episode), and a host of other colorful, well-fleshed out characters in a fantasy world full of huge mechas, dragons, and more. The focus of the show is Van's quest to regain his kingdom, which was more or less pulled out from under his feet by invading forces. Hitomi is the key to Van's return to the throne, which is explained as the show progresses. Underlying this story is the fate of Gaea itself, in which Van, his mecha Escaflowne, and Hitomi play important roles (though they don't realize that at first).

In a nutshell: visual quality - excellent. The soundtrack is pleasing and the voice actors did good job. I enjoy the English dub as much as the Japanese version (many of the English voice actors for this show did work on MONSTER RANCHER, another great anime series).

That said, I like the movie version of ESCAFLOWNE more than the show. The film is more mature and the character designs are better, in terms of both their roles in the film's story as well as physical appearances. Hitomi, Van, and the rest of the gang look slightly older in the movie and are more realisticly drawn with less cartoonish, chibi-style looks. The series is less dark and lacks the brooding, confrontational atmosphere that the film captured. Finally, the soundtrack for the television series, while it is good, can not compare to the film's soundtrack. Still, I highly recommend the series to hard-core anime collectors.