In 1996, the Sunrise Studios anime television series “The Vision of Escaflowne” aired on television and although not a gigantic hit in Japan, when the series was released on DVD in America, it became a colossal hit. Not unbiased in the US but worldwide.
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Despite being released on Saturday morning television on Fox Kids (albeit heavily edited), the series would receive appreciation and a lot of cherish by fans for the Escaflowne’s characters, it’s glowing artwork and character designs, its legend but most of all, it’s tantalizing music.
With the fanfare strong worldwide, in 2000, Sunrise and Studio BONES began on a reimagining the television series through a 95-minute film titled “Escaflowne: The Movie”. The film version is very different from the television series as the film is considerable more darker and the protagonist, the elated and chirpy Hitomi is anything but that. In fact, she’s a person who is gloomy and contemplates suicide. While the character of Van, is more reserved and willing to chop and extinguish anyone in his design.
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Needless to say, the film is quite different as it focuses on these two main characters but most importantly, the film is for those who are and aren’t familiar with the television series and can relish it in the theaters. The film received mixed reviews with diehard fans who had a hard time seeing a different version of their characters and of course, smart that there is only so powerful account from the 26-episode anime series that is going to find covered in a 95 exiguous film.
The film begins with Hitomi, dim and miserable, you learn that she is a person who wants to end herself and is prepared to say goodbye to her best friend via a letter. Fortunately, her friend discovers her and the letter and tries to convince her that suicide is not a excellent device to go. But no matter how grand she tries to cheer up Hitomi, Hitomi is resigned with herself and with life.
The film then switches to the character of Van. We glimpse Van, who is violently slashing through many soldiers in order to obtain the behemoth known as Escaflowne and the Winged Goddess which he wants to spend towards defeating his brother Lord Folken and his army.
Meanwhile, while Hitomi is alone and wanting to waste her life, she sees an image of Lord Folken who calls her the Winged Goddess and wants her to join him. Confused and not positive what is going on, blackness starts to envelop the set and Hitomi is immediately sucked up into darkness and not smart what is happening, by the time Hitomi awakes, she emerges out of Escaflowne and encounters Prince Van.
Van believes her to be the Winged Goddess but immediately Escaflowne disappears and then believes that she may be a perceive and a groundless. Because of her more original school girl clothing, many of Van’s friends enjoy she is the right Winged Goddess despite Van not believing in her and almost wanting to ruin her.
On the other side of the battle, we learn that Lord Folken and the Unlit Dragons are preparing their attack Van’s crew and pick Hitomi for his goal to spend the power of the Winged Goddess to raze the world.
Because of the increased attacks and attempts to prefer Hitomi, Van is ordered to protect Hitomi at all costs.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Escaflowne: The Movie” is presented in 1080p High Definition. It’s critical to label that the film was created in tedious 1999 and then released in theaters in 2000. Also, the film was produced by Sunrise but titillating by Studio BONES and for the most share, a few talented animators took piece in the action sequences as well as recent character designs for the film. With that being said, when I first reviewed this film when it was first released on DVD, I commented on how sparkling the film looked. It’s very detailed backgrounds but also the film’s awesome animation.
Here we are in 2009 and the film now making its HD debut and I smooth stand by that. The film looks vast and although it may not discover as digital and well-organized like today’s novel anime, the film calm looks fabulous for an anime film nearly a decade worn. But what is the considerable dissimilarity between the report quality from the DVD versus the Blu-ray? There are several segments in the film that I tested out and that was the outdoor sequence (50-54 minutes into the film) and on Blu-ray, the first thing you will gaze is how vibrant the outdoor scenes view. The green and blues objective pop out, especially during sunset with the red of the sun also popping out. Needless to say, the film looks quite vibrant during the outdoor scenes.
The print is not 100% definite of dust which I believe I may have seen a few specs but overall, I didn’t stare a whole lot, nor did I stare any major compression problems throughout the film. Blacks are nice and murky and there is grain demonstrate. Again, I’m a person who supports film grain and not supportive of excessive DNR (Digital Noise Reduction), so overall…I was elegant tickled with the record quality for a film nearly 10 years old-fashioned.
As for the audio, this is where “Escaflowne: The Movie” shines. One thing that I noticed rapidly is how immersive the soundtrack was in utilizing the soundscape of each channel. The film’s dialogue is front and center channel driven but sound effects from the whisping as Van flies in the air, the clanging of the swords during battle, the blasts that are being shot and the destruction in the city is well-captured on your surround channels, especially via LFE. I definitely devour when anime uses the subwoofer quite a bit, so it was gigantic to hear that LFE usage. And of course, one thing that the film is renowned for is the music and the music comes out nice and positive through your system.
I did spy one thing with the audio though. The Japanese lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sounds awesome but the English DolbyTrue HD 5.1 soundtrack seems a tad lower with the English dialogue. In fact, through the beginning of the film while watching it with the English lossless soundtrack, I felt that I had to increase the volume a puny in order to hear the dialogue clearly and when I switched to the Japanese soundtrack, the dialogue was consistent and mighty louder. By no means are the two lossless soundtracks like night and day (like FUNimation Entertainment’s Blu-ray release of “Origin”) but overall, sound effects seem to be consistent on both soundtracks. But overall, “Escaflowne: The Movie” does have a extraordinary and immersive soundtrack.
Subtitles are in English only.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Escaflowne: The Movie” comes with the following special features (in 480i Standard Definition) :
* Trailers: The Girl Who Leaped Through Time and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid Station Society
* Staff Interviews: (23:00) Featuring staff interviews which include: Director Kazuki Akane/Composer Yoko Anno, Kazuki Akane and Kelly Sheridan (Screech actress for Hitomi), Masahiko Minami (Producer/BONES), Maaya Sakamoto (Narrate Actress/Singer), Masuo Ueda (Producer/Sunrise) and a performance by Yoko Kanno, Maaya Sakamoto, Kim Su Jin execute “The Ring”(Escaflowne Ending Song, Special Duet Version) .
* New 2000 Premiere: (7:20) Featuring the following segments: The line at Anime Expo 2000 in Anaheim, CA for the screening of “Escaflowne: The Movie”, Minoru Takanashi (Producer/Bandai Visual) speaking to the audience before the movie and the Post-Movie Panel Highlights at Anime Expo 2000.
JUDGMENT CALL:
When it comes to “Escaflowne: The Movie”, the film has received different results from fans when it first came out. Diehard fans who were not archaic to the change, of course, complained. And for those who treated the movie separately from the anime TV series found the film to be delicious, creative and musically fantastic. Needless to say, I’m fraction of the latter. The fact is that many anime series that pick up a theatrical treatment usually has a narrative that is not fragment of the TV series timeline. And there have been quite a few anime films that have been released that either try to select parts from a long series and condense it down to two hours or try to approach up with something different.
With “Escaflowne: The Movie”, you fetch something different and it’s a reimagining that I was inaugurate to and at the time, I was very impressed with the results. The animation was stellar and the music, Yoko Kanno’s music and the ending theme by Maaya Sakamoto was objective astonishing.
So, needless to say… I was enraged to hear that “Escaflowne: The Movie: was receiving its HD treatment and for the most piece, I was more absorbing to stare how a film that was created in the gradual 90’s would watch on Blu-ray. Already, Bandai Entertainment has proved to us that they can compose it happen as evident with the release of “Akira” earlier this year. So, I had no doubt in my mind that Bandai Entertainment was going to release a solid product. What I was more concerned about was the lossless soundtrack. And fortunately, the soundtrack for the most portion was immersive and gigantic to hear via lossless.
If you are a fan who owns the Ultimate Edition of the DVD, you may be wondering if it’s worth the double dip? Well, for one, you don’t want to accept rid of that “Ultimate Edition” because you catch the awesome CD soundtrack and also there are special features such as the galleries that are not included on the Blu-ray. But to retort the query, yes…it’s worth the double dip. This is the best looking and sounding version of the film yet. So, if you loved the film, you will definitely want to assume up this Blu-ray.
Overall, “Escaflowne: The Movie” is a solid Blu-ray release and for those who want to add to their anime on Blu-ray collection, this title is definitely recommended!
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