16 votes

Twenty-eight years later, Escaflowne is suddenly trending in Japan

7 comments

  1. Khalypso
    Link
    Escaflowne is my favorite anime, and I just finished a rewatch last week! It's lovely to see that other people are still interested in it too.

    Escaflowne is my favorite anime, and I just finished a rewatch last week! It's lovely to see that other people are still interested in it too.

    6 votes
  2. ButteredToast
    Link
    It’s been ages since I last watched it, but I found Escaflowne enjoyable. The Yoko Kanno soundtrack is of course great, the setting is interesting (I can count the number of...

    It’s been ages since I last watched it, but I found Escaflowne enjoyable. The Yoko Kanno soundtrack is of course great, the setting is interesting (I can count the number of Tolkienesque-steampunk-mech shows I know of on one hand), and the show’s visuals are atmospheric in a way that I’ve not seen of many other shows. It’s got some nice bits of sakuga splashed in here and there too.

    Cool to hear it’s seeing a resurgence in popularity in Japan. I’m honestly kinda surprised it hasn’t gotten a reboot yet, with how hungry the industry has been for things to animate lately. Modern Sunrise could do it justice, though there’s a chance they’d make the mechs CG which would suck. Trigger, Science Saru, or WIT could probably handle it well.

    6 votes
  3. chocobean
    Link
    I will admit I never gave it a fair chance. By the time I heard about it, my heart had only enough space for my obsession with that other robot and teens anime of the 90s. Unfairly, everything...

    I will admit I never gave it a fair chance.

    By the time I heard about it, my heart had only enough space for my obsession with that other robot and teens anime of the 90s. Unfairly, everything about its mecha and character designs just fell into an uncanny Valley right between the sexiest heavily armed giant robot , and the angst-iest one, with the human characters that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designed winning by a mile (to me)

    It was unfair to Escaflowne 28 years ago, and I'm excited to hear from fans here and maybe finally grow up and not miss out on a well done anime.

    4 votes
  4. sparkle
    Link
    Escaflowne has such a special place in my heart. Growing up without cable, I basically only got to see Pokemon or Digimon on one of the basic OTA channels. Occasionally I'd catch Gundam Wing or...

    Escaflowne has such a special place in my heart. Growing up without cable, I basically only got to see Pokemon or Digimon on one of the basic OTA channels. Occasionally I'd catch Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon at a friend's house and enjoyed them but never knew what was going on.

    I had friends that were big into anime and their mom convinced my highly conservative mom that they were just cartoons and they were perfectly fine for me to watch. They were rich and could afford to import VHS tapes from Japan with subtitles burnt in - this was where my love of subs began. In retrospect, they probably bought them from a licensed distributor in the States, but I was too young to understand any of that.

    I suddenly had access to all the greats of 90s anime - Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Bebop, Nadia of Blue Water, the Gundam Wing episodes that were banned in the US, Big O, Record of Lodoss War, etc but most importantly, Vision of Escaflowne.

    I loved every second of Escaflowne. From the stellar soundtrack that I still know from memory to the gorgeous mechanical mechs (that led to many arguments over which mecha was the best) to the captivating characters and the fantasy setting, everything was just so bright and well balanced to me. It was my escape from a troubled childhood and borrowing those tapes (and later DVDs) would always bring such a delight to my life for many years.

    I'm really really glad to see it seeing a surge in popularity. I'm always a bit disappointed when I visit Japan and the only 90s anime that still get much recognition are Evangelion, Gundam Wing, DBZ, Sailor Moon, all ones I love but any media relating to Escaflowne is pretty rare. Maybe there will be a resurgence in merch next time I'm there :)

    4 votes
  5. [2]
    JCPhoenix
    Link
    I remember watching Escaflowne here and there in the US. I can't remember if it was on during Saturday morning cartoons, but being a young teen by the time it came out here, I can't imagine I was...

    I remember watching Escaflowne here and there in the US. I can't remember if it was on during Saturday morning cartoons, but being a young teen by the time it came out here, I can't imagine I was waking up on Saturdays for that.

    Either way, I always did want to see the whole thing. I've watched various Gundam series, Evangelion, and Code Geass is one of my favorite anime IPs, so I should've watched Escaflowne at some point. But I just kinda forgot about it.

    Unfortunately, not seeing it Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. Might need to hunt this down on the high seas.

    3 votes
    1. ButteredToast
      Link Parent
      There’s a blu-ray release that I highly recommend getting ahold of if you can find it. Like many remasters of traditional cel-animated shows it’s a huge step up visually from the older DVD/VHS...

      There’s a blu-ray release that I highly recommend getting ahold of if you can find it. Like many remasters of traditional cel-animated shows it’s a huge step up visually from the older DVD/VHS releases.

      To give you an idea, someone posted a 720p version of the blu-ray opening here: https://youtu.be/YZJ-eCvv3ss

      3 votes
  6. Wish_for_a_dragon
    Link
    The memories of watching the entire series burned onto a single DVD. Some friends of mine managed to wrangle the whole series into a single disc by cutting all OPs and EDs, and dropping the...

    The memories of watching the entire series burned onto a single DVD. Some friends of mine managed to wrangle the whole series into a single disc by cutting all OPs and EDs, and dropping the quality. Though I only got through it once myself at the time, I still have that disc somewhere in my collection.

    By this point, it’s likely to have suffered some bitrot, but the memory remains.

    3 votes