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Escaflowne - The Series (Limited Edition Boxed Set)

Escaflowne - The Series (Limited Edition Boxed Set)

List Price: $199.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just a 'heads up' re: the Limited Edition Boxed Set...
Review: For Escaflowne fans looking to purchase the Limited Edition set, be aware that many vendors listed as selling this item are actually offering the Escaflowne "Perfect Collection"... Though both contain all 26 episodes of the series, the latter will not provide you with a numbered "Collector's Box" or the extra features advertised for the former.

To differentiate between the two, check the number of discs/DVDs that are said to be included in the set. The Limited Edition set will contain 8 DVDs, while the Perfect Collection is said to contain only 3.

With that said, however, either should provide you with a complete collection of episodes from the series. I don't see how you can go wrong with that =P...unless, of course, you're a serious collector =)... As for a comparison on the quality of the two, well, I don't own either, so I honestly have no idea.

Sorry for being a somewhat unknowledgeable reviewer, but I just wanted to add the above bit of info to hopefully prevent customers from obtaining something other than what they desired.

Cheers!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Has to be one the best Series out on Anime
Review: I have seen a lot of Anime series, but only a few have come close to this fully complete story. It has a lot of good fighting scenes including massive battles. The only series that I have seen that comes close is Evangelion series. I give Evangelion a 3.5 becuase of the ending. It just went out the window when I saw that ending, but Escaflowne does not have that flaw. It has a good beginning and draws you in with good character development. 3 different love triangles with a whole bunch of enemies and a whole bunch of killing. Most important it has GOOD ANIME none of those cheesy faded colors and x out eyes when someone gets knocked out. Or sweat coming down the side of the cheek when someone messes up or gets angry. The ending was also pretty good. The only flaw I give this series is when the intensified luck soldiers come into play. That was dumb. You'll see what I'm talking about if you see it. Well that's all for now untill next time

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of The Greatest Series of It's Time !!!
Review: Whether you are a huge Japan Anime fan or whether you are not this is definately garenteed to get your adrenaline pumping. This heart stoping, dramatic series is without a doubt one of the greatest Japan Animes of all time. This has to be Kasuki Akane at his best! The first time I viewed Escaflowne was on Fox TV. However just when I was getting into it, the show was cancelled on it's 08th episode. That really sucks! Big Time! So I went out and purchased the Limited Edition TV DVD Box Set of Escaflowne for $142.32 which is not a bad price, considering that it was without a doubt well worth the money. If you are into sword fighting, dramaticy, love relationships, honor, respect, glory, and above all a great story line and a deep plot then this is definately for you!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Escaflowne is the King of the Anime World
Review: The first volume of Escaflowne was what introduced me to anime. Escaflowne was what dazzled me and took my breath away. I was stunned. I had never seen anything like that. I get very emotional and teary-eyed when I think of that fateful day when someone invited me to watch his video copy of it. Many years later, after the advent of DVD's, I mustered the courage to return to the world of Escaflowne.

Escaflowne is one of the greatest series in anime, probably the greatest. It has the epic quality, band of various fascinating characters going to defeat a great evil, strange world, chivalrous romance and battles of the Lord of the Rings. Tolkein would have loved Escaflowne, and been proud.

Hitomi is a track star at her high school. She is running with her girlfriend and her crush when her world changes forever. Van Fanalia arrives on Earth to fight a dragon that has broken through the borders of time. She is taken with Van to Escaflowne. Hitomi meets many people. But why is she here, in this strange world?

Known as "the girl from the Mystic Moon," Hitomi manifests psychic powers of prediction and visions that take her tarot-card reading abilities to new levels. She falls in love with the knight Allen Schezar. He is a lot like Legolas in LOTR. I am also in love with Allen. He is one of the finest bishounen in anime.

The story revolves around the fall of Van's kingdom and country, Fanalia. The powerful Zaibachs are taking over kingdoms any way they can, one by one, to get them to ally to the Emperor Dornkirk. Van's brother Folken is Dornkirk's second in command, and is always urging his younger brother to come over to the dark side. But Van refuses, fighting in his amazing Guymelef named Escaflowne. Every kingdom has an army of Guymelefs, but Escaflowne is special. It can transform into a dragon, and has more secrets that will be revealed as the series progresses.

Allen has a secret, too. Hitomi has competition from the beautiful princess Millerna, who is in love with Allen too. Van also has a secret. He is the descendant of an ancient, almost mythical race of beings, whose lost civilization lies at the heart of the mystery of why Dornkirk and the Zaibachs want to take over Escaflowne.

The music in the opening is refreshing and beautiful.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Anime
Review: I have watches a lot of anime in my time, and one of my favorites has always been Vision of Escaflowne. I was sad when the WB took it off the air, then over joyed to find the series for sale, uncut even.

Escaflowne takes place on a planet called Gaea, where a girl named Hitomi is magically transported there with the King of Fanelia, one of the many kingdoms on Gaea. Now on Gaea, Hitomi finds that her ESP is greatly increased in power, and intensity, and finds herself in the middle of a war between Fanalia,other smaller countries, and Zaibac.

Full of mystery and danger Hitomi and Van,whom is the king of fanalia, must over come their obsticals to stops Zaibac from fulfilling it's goal of controling destiny, who have the help of earths age old prophet, Isaac.

Escaflowne is and great story, with intriguing plots, great characters and conflicts within the story to keep you on the edge of your seat. Color and sound are surperp, and the subtitles to the japanese lanquage track are accurate and musch preferable to watching it in english, unless of course you like to. I can find no fault to this series...there are suprises around every corner in this series...many details are left hidden and secret and are brought out to surprise you when you least expect it. This is a series unlike any other. If you like anime like Record of Lodoss War, you'll love Escaflowne.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Okay, so I'm biased
Review: I'll admit it. This is the first and only anime series that I watched from beginning to end. I'm not an otaku and I watch anime on a very limited basis.

But this series rocked the house. People should see it. There are scenes of true beauty here, great characters, dastardly villains and a wonderful love triangle [more of a love pentagon really...]. The ending has a bad twist and a truly shocking development and ends bittersweet. All in all, it was worth my time and it should be worth yours.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best anime series I have seen
Review: I'm not exactly sure why Escaflowne never rose to become one of the "greats", like Inuyasha (I'm a fan, but I feel it's debatable whether it's one of the greats, though as far as its popularity goes, I guess it is) or Bebop or Evangelion (both of which I am also a fan of), because it's my favourite anime of all time, for many reasons.
Before I begin proper, I want to criticise the editorial review of this item, mainly for giving away some plot points that occur quite late on in the story. A reviewer's job should be to give an honest opinion on the work WITHOUT giving spoilers, which Solomon fails to do. He's also unfairly critical, which any potential buyers of this series should ignore.
As it says in the synopsis, Hitomi Kanzaki is swept to the world of Gaea with swordsman Van after he slays a dragon, only to be caught up in events which may affect the fate of an entire world. The story moves at a decent pace, with a generous helping of action scenes, which thankfully, do not take precedence over the character development. The series dips its toes into many genres, including shounen and shoujo, and it benefits from it. It never seems to stall, and always maintains its direction, something which is sometimes lacking in other anime. Unexpected events do occur, but they're never completely out of sense with the story, and it certainly never "seems to be careening out of control" as Solomon puts it. It progresses logically and satisfactorially.
The characters, in particular the main three, Hitomi, Van and Allen, are believable and likeable, and they develop well throughout the series, being realistically affected by and realistically reacting to events around them. The supporting characters are fantastic, and undergo their own developments. They are by no means shallow characters to simply help progress the story, they are as well written and acted out as the main characters. The cast in Escaflowne is fantastic, with many memorable characters, due to both their personalities and their designs.
Which brings me on to the visuals. Despite being a series from the mid nineties, Escaflowne's animation looks almost brand new. Character designs are gorgeous and have a continuity to them. Often with fantasy genres, the desgners take this as an excuse to design characters however they want, with no regard to how they fit in to the overall world, but with Escaflowne, all costumes and characters are believable as inhabitants of Gaea. Backgrounds are wonderful, with the architecture of the various cities and vehicles interesting and credible. Animation is fluid, and the action scenes are fast paced and interesting. While there is some stock footage, it's used minimally, and it's hardly noticeable.Think about it; while Evangelion is being re-released on Platinum Edition, with the visuals being re-mastered etc(it had to be really, the old dvds were terribly washed out), Escaflowne stands the test of time, and remains beautiful to watch.
The sound is second to none, with all the music done by the brilliant Kanno Yoko, who is one of the best anime composers around (check her out in the recent Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. To all those who thought she was a bad choice for that: HA!) The Escaflowne soundtrack is peerless, which keeps me coming back to it again and again. With music ranging from gentle melodies to roaring battle themes, it doesn't get better than this. The orchestra is superb, many can only aspire. A special mention has to be made of the opening theme "Yakusoku wa Iranai" (Promises Aren't Necessary). In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful and uplifting anime theme songs ever, sung by the wonderful Sakamoto Maaya (who also provides the japanese voice for Hitomi). Which neatly brings me on to the voice acting.
To be honest, I hate dubbing. I refuse to ever watch an anime dubbed, due to poor translation, bad voice acting etc, it's a general no-no. BUT, in Escaflowne's case, the dub is simply wonderful. I know what you're thinking: "No f*****g way", but trust me, it is. The voice actors are great, giving emotions and believability to the characters, all of whom the voices are well-suited to (which is incredibly rare, believe me). It cannot be faulted in any way, rather it can only be commended. The japanese cast also shine of course, (Maaya-chan is infallible, she can do now wrong, whether it be with voice acting or her singing. If you have ANY interest whatsoever in J-pop, check her out, she's way better than Utada Hikaru), and if it came down to it, I'd probably only recommend the japanese cast over the english simply because they're the originals.
To summarise, I strogly recommened purchasing Escaflowne. Do not let the bad things you've heard of it on Fox Kids (they completely tore it apart, even removing the theme song) turn you off buying this fantastic series, which belongs in every anime (and even decent tv) lover's library. I can't recommend it enough.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Anime!!
Review: This a wonderful anime show! I loved it. It's has great music, well-drawn (though I must say the noses on the people are a bit long) and great story. The main story is about Hitomi and her emotions. The story around that is this new world Hitomi got transported to that is on a verge of huge war with the man ruling the 'bad' side obsessed with destiny. I think it was really well done. A wonderful love story and fun action anime!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very dark and complex anime.... :)
Review: Now, I wouldn't say this is "The BEST" anime of all time, hardly, however, I would rate it pretty high. I have watched my fair share of anime, and it is in the top of 5. I have a very broad range of taste, going from the likes of "Beserk" to "Boys over Flowers(Hana Yori Dango)", I so I believe you can trust me for an even-handed opinion. :D

First I would like to start off with the things I didn't like about Escaflowne: Well, by the 6 or 7the episode, there really wasn't anything I didn't like about about it... It was hard for me to get into this series, so if I had one complaint about it, it is that it is not easily accessible at first, but really, that's not so much a bad thing. The other thing that takes a little getting used to would have to be the art style, and yes, the animation is very beautiful and well-done, but as someone else said, the noses are kind of long, but once you get past that, its hard to not like the animation. :D

Now, I would like to tell you what made this such a great series overall.! :D I would have to say the greatest thing about this series is probably its characters, not only are the "good" guys likeable, but so are the "bad" guys. And people are not so "good" and "bad", its not such a black and white thing, the lines are pretty blurred here, and it works extremely well. :D

This series handles some very heavy issues, and it is VERY easy to see why they had to pull this off of Fox Kids, it is IMPOSSIBLE to edit this series down enough for 8-10yr boys while retaining the "core" storyline. At the heart of thi tale is "Hitomi", a High School freshman whom is suddenly sucked into an alternate world where she is caught up in the middle of a war, pulled into a a tangled web of emotions, and a battle with destiny. The way this series deals with War, fate, destiny, and emotions is extremely well pulled off. It treads the fine line of being preachy, and stays within the bounds so that is never goes into preachiness. Hitomi starts out as a girl whom believes you must trust your emotions, and comes out out with a very different view on this. And villians in this crave MORE than "world domination" or whatever.

I would also like to say that I am NOT an Otaku, but is DEFINITELY one of my favorites of all time. I don't understand how someone wouldn't like this series unless they don't like series that make you think, yet still remaining entertaining as well. :) I'd say for that reason alone, Escaflowne is one of the best animes out there, and if you are new to anime, IS a MUST VIEW. :) I'm not saying its perfect, it has its flaws, of course, but its good points FAR outweigh its flaws. :)

God Bless & *enjoy* ~Amy

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Escaflowne is hardly "The greatest anime of all time"......
Review: This was a realy great Series to Buy I found it very entertaining
Great music Great artwork the english subtitles need a little work but other than that it is a great Piece of work. Trust me it's worth getting.
I am a huge fan of anime.


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