Escaflowne: The Movie

Mecha? Check. Sibling rivalry? Check. High school girl? Check and ready for lift-off. Following a limited theatrical run, Kazuki Akane's feature-length anime Escaflowne--a reworking of the 26-episode The Vision of Escaflowne series televised on Fox Kids--bows on DVD only in two separate editions: 1) the stand-alone movie, and 2) a three-disc ultimate edition ($54.98), which includes an extras disc and a separate CD soundtrack. Based on characters created by Shoji Kawamori, this sprawling (and occasionally confusingly compacted) epic begins with high schooler Hitomi Kanzaki wishing she could vanish into thin air…and--to her surprise--being whisked away to a world called Gaea, where two brothers--Van of the White Dragon Clan and Folken of the Black Dragon Clan--are locked in perennial battle. Turns out that Hitomi is the legendary "wing goddess," the human key, as it were, needed to re-animate the dragon armor called Escaflowne, which Van eventually climbs into for a mighty mecha rumble in the urban jungle. Regardless of the somewhat tangled storyline, the animation here is above par (though not quite as impressive as the pre-release hype suggested), the action sequences are often truly inspired, and the soundtrack by Yoko Kanno is sublime. The question of which edition to purchase depends on the depth of your anime collection: smaller collections can easily get by with the film alone; larger collections may want to consider the three-disc set, as the extras disc is full of (admittedly somewhat repetitive) interviews with cast and filmmakers, as well as production art and movie posters, and the CD soundtrack is well worth the listen by itself. Rated "13 up," this is recommended. [Note: also available, the complete 26-episode boxed set Escaflowne--The Series, priced at $199.98.] (R. Pitman)