Escaflowne (2000) - Rewatch on Blu-ray
Still amazing. I can't believe there are so many fans of
The Vision of Escaflowne who dislike this film so much. I genuinely loved both and personally, I'd put them on equal footing. Sure, the story has changed somewhat to fit inside of a 100-minute film and sure, the character designs have also changed somewhat, but it's still
Escaflowne, these characters are still
Escaflowne's characters, and the main players, Hitomi and Van, still look very much like their series counterparts. It also still deals with many of the same themes the series did, namely that no one necessarily has to be alone. The animation is also stunning and it looks incredible on the 1080p transfer, though window boxed and presented in an unusual aspect ratio of 1.81:1 which deviates somewhat from the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The legendary Yoko Kanno also returns to this retelling with a haunting musical score, including the iconic
Escaflowne chant, a more gothic
Escaflowne chant, a haunting village chant, and two more chants in a fictional language she created just for the film. So just for craps and giggles, I watched it back-to-back with each dub, first the 2002 Ocean dub and then the 2016 Funimation redub. The Ocean dub is a decent dub and English-speaking
InuYasha fans (among whom I am numbered) will probably enjoy it with how many voice actors the Ocean dub shares with
InuYasha, but there's no doubt that the Funimation dub is better. Both are pretty well-acted, but the Funimation dub is even more so. Kelly Sheridan, who many will remember as Ukyo Kuonji in
Ranma ½ and Sango in
InuYasha, is pretty good as Hitomi, but Caitlin Glass, who has voiced such characters as Haruhi Fujioka in
Ouran High School Host Club, Maya Ibuki in
Evangelion, and Winry Rockbell in
Fullmetal Alchemist, just nails it. The Hitomi Kanzaki we meet here is admittedly different from what she was in the series. The series' cheerful 15-year-old who was in love is now a depressed and world-weary 17-year-old who feels completely alone and feels like she simply wants to fade away and Glass does a better job of conveying this. Kirby Morrow, who many will remember as Miroku in
InuYasha, and Aaron Dismuke, who has been dubbing anime ever since he was a kid and who many will remember as Alphonse Elric in
Fullmetal Alchemist, are both excellent as Van, the king whose brother obliterated his kingdom while Vic Mignogna, who many will remember as Tamaki Suoh in
Ouran High School Host Club, Kurz Weber in
Full Metal Panic!, and Edward Elric in
Fullmetal Alchemist, is, surprisingly, considerably better as Folken, the brother in question, than Paul Dobson, who many will remember as Happosai in
Ranma ½ and the Satan-like big bad himself Naraku in
InuYasha. Dobson just uses the same voice he used for Naraku and it doesn't really work because Folken is a more complex character who, as it turns out, isn't quite pure evil like Naraku is. Mignogna's take is more three-dimensional and therefore he wins the day here. Sonny Strait is also much better in the Funimation dub as Allen, one of Van's allies, than Brian Drummond while Jocelyn Loewen and Alexis Tipton are pretty much on equal footing as Merle, the anthropomorphic cat girl who is constantly concerned for Van's wellbeing. One area where the Funimation dub really destroys the Ocean dub is the fact the Funimation dub has a far more natural script where the Ocean dub's script is more stilted and awkward which hampers the performances in a few scenes. I mean, just compare the scenes where Hitomi says she wants Van to live and where she refers to herself and Van as kindred spirits. The Funimation dub has
so much depth in those two scenes that the old Ocean dub lacks. Another thing hampering the Ocean dub is its sound design. Whoever mixed the Ocean dub back in '02 mixed the dialogue and music much too low. Even though both are presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, the Funimation dub sounds much better in both areas. With all that said, I still love
Escaflowne. It's a darker and grittier
Escaflowne than the series was for sure, but it maintains a sliver of hope and it's a far more rewarding film than it typically gets credit for being.