I'm about halfway through this show now nad most of it is pretty great.
Except this cunt Hitomi.
Every time she's on screen I feel like someone is running a cheese grater over my brain.
The show would be a lot better if the whole plotline involving her and earth was dropped altogether.
>>13578384
but she's the MC dude
>>13578399
Yeah, but Van could very easily be the MC and the show would be much better for it.
![Vision of Escaflowne - 20 (BD 720p) (G_P) (NakamaSub).mkv_snapshot_11.12_[2014.08.02_14.13.48].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/cb4TnVG.jpg "Vision of Escaflowne - 20 (BD 720p) (G_P) (NakamaSub).mkv_snapshot_11.12_[2014.08.02_14.13.48].jpg")
I consulted /m/ on this before and apparently Hitomi is supposed to be the plain bitch for the shoujo audience to self-insert.
I was also very confused by how they are supposed to kiss without poking out each other's eyes with their pointy, pointy noses. /m/ explained that their noses are slightly flexible and will bend to the side when kissing.
Generally, the shoujo genre will be very weird and strange for first time viewers.
>>13578412
>I consulted /m/ on this before and apparently Hitomi is supposed to be the plain bitch for the shoujo audience to self-insert.
This, just like shonen series have generic harem leads for the male audience to self insert into.
>>13578407
save for the fact he would have died like 5 times over before half of the show without Hitomi's warnings
>>13578444
Switching MC's isn't just removing one character from the story. It's rewriting so that the removed character's roles are distributed between other existing characters.
As far as I've seen it wouldn't be hard at all to remove her from the show completely.
>>13578384
>hating Hitomi
The true pain in the ass is that fucking catgirl that always follows Van around. She was absolutely fucking pointless. At least Hitomi did things and wasn't a total bitch to everyone who didn't have blue hair.
Escaflowne's really only worth it for the animation and Dilandau, nothing else was really all that memorable
>>13579484
don't forget the godly soundtrack
>>13579492
ESS CAH
DUN DAN
FLOW NAY
>>13579492
>>13579535
Postan
https://youtu.be/O_49H_N43jQ
>>13579356
seconding, even an asexual in me finds something charming about her
>>13578384
>The show would be a lot better if the whole plotline involving her and earth was dropped altogether.
I don't know, man. She's pretty pivotal at certain points in the story with her beingmagical psychicand hergrandma was, too.
>>13578412
>I was also very confused by how they are supposed to kiss without poking out each other's eyes with their pointy, pointy noses. /m/ explained that their noses are slightly flexible and will bend to the side when kissing.
Not sure if this bait, but nose contact is practically inevitable.
>>13579484
>Escaflowne's really only worth it for the animation and Dilandau, nothing else was really all that memorable
>>13579492
Also, that bitchin' OP of the NA version:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZXbrqPjKM
I remember watching this show as a kid and thinking it was pretty cool and then it was suddenly cancelled. Went back to watch it years later as an bored adult looking to settled some unfinished business.
So glad I did. Don't think I would've appreciated it as much as I did as a kid.
>>13584539
Was this shown in the US? The only memorable Fox cartoon shows I remember were the X-Men, the Tick, Tazmania, and Eek.
>>13584544
It was, but it was also heavily criticized for editing out the boring Hitomi bits.
>>13584546
I wonder what they considered "boring"?
>>13584544
Yes. I vaguely remember it. It was the '90s and they only aired like 8 episodes in US and then later got cancelled, but I heard Canadia got the full run of the series albeit edited to be marketable to little boys. Escaflowne got a slot in the Saturday morning cartoon block. Oldfags might remember that the best cartoons aired at this time back then. I know for me, it was the only reason to wake up on a non-school day.
>>13584556
The show was marketed to a young male demographic. The NA intro makes it pretty blatant. The edited Hitomi parts practically made her a supporting character rather than an MC.
>>13584567
I must have missed it then because I remember watching X-Men and a couple of other shows in the 90s. Shoot I still remember shows like Booby's World and such.
>>13584546
I'm kinda interested in watching the edited version. I want to see how different it really is.
If anybody's got links that'd be great.
>>13584575
It would be weird to have a TV show geared towards young boys and find out that one of the male villains is actually the sister of one of the good guys.
>>13584586
https://www.youtube.com/user/retronostalgio/videos
That's all I have been able to find so far.
>>13584589
Who?
>>13584595
Dilandau Albatou is actually the sister of Allen.
>>13584575
They also changed a lot of the background music. Real bummer for me after seeing Escaflowne subbed on tape not long before it aired. The dub itself was alright, I guess (Paul Dobson as Folken was really cool).
>>13584603
I feel conflicted. I feel relief, but now I have to scrap much of my yaoi doujins.
>>13584653
the weirdest thing about the escaflowne dub to me is that they got a literal 12 year old to voice Dilandau for no reason whatsoever.
The one I found the most annoying was the cat girl, holy fuck
>>13584671
Oh yeah Merle. She can be pretty annoying at times.
>>13586082
also her name means blackbird
>>13586093
With a gurt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Alright!
>>13586093
What? No it doesn't She's neither black nor a bird.
Merle is the discoloration in an animal's fur.
>>13586814
Etymology 1[edit]
From the taxonomic name; from Latin turdus (“thrush”) and merula (“blackbird”), giving rise to the French merle, from Proto-Indo-European *ams- (“black, blackbird”), see also Breton moualch (“ouzel”), Welsh mwyalch (“blackbird, thrush”), English ouzel
>>13586814
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=merle
>>13578384
First time I watched Escaflowne I was 8 and I liked Hitomi and didn't find her annoying.
>>13586833
>turdus
>>13586833
Merula means simply "black" or "dark" in Latin.
The word "merle" is French was used to describe the blackbirds. This word was later used to describe the dark spots that covered a dog's furcoat. Probably because it reminded them a blackbirds? Who knows...
Ouzel is a species of thrush which black-colored birds.
>>13584544
>>13584567
Fox Kids started the series with the second episode after Hitomi had already arrived on Gaia, which completely left anyone watching for the first time not knowing how the show was even set up. That episode had brief clips of the actual first episode shown as flashbacks. They edited out anything mildly violent or suggestive, and removed so much content in each individual episode that the aired episodes ended up combined and didn't even start and end in the proper places.
They removed the proper OP and ED animations and songs in favor of a generic Es-ca-flow-ne rock track. Then they cancelled it around the episode where the group is in jail and the mimic shows up. Not to mention the general mediocrity of the dub compared to the original voice work, though much of that probably was due to the bad editing.
Basically the series got the Firefly treatment where the pilot wasn't shown and the episodes were jumbled and then cancelled. To be expected of Fox.
>>13586922
Yeah, I watched a couple of episodes of Escaflowne early on Saturday mornings and loved it. Got the DVD set a while ago, need to finish it...
Do you guys think Dilandau is apost-op transvestiteor do you thinkhe has no idea what a penis is.?
>>13579484
>that fucking catgirl that always follows Van around
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAN!
BAAAAAA-AAAAAAN!
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
>>13587074
wut
Dilandau's gender is changed completely through the goofy science-magic of fate. Reality is actually REWRITTEN so that it was a male all along. There's no chemicals slowly or quickly mutating them to male and later back.
Man I'm due for a rewatch of Escaflowne, it's been a few years. It's a shame about the edits, if they'd aired it uncut (except to get past censors) and marketed it properly I think it probably could have done well.
>>13584653Why scrap them? Let them spill out into the streets. In the end, they'll beg us to save them.
>>13587190
Think about it this way, with the power the Zeibach had, they literally edited the script.
That's the amount of power that fate manipulation has; Remember that Hitomi learns this the hard way with Milerna.
>>13579484
Well the story is that Kawamori, who came up with the series concept in the first place, had to change a ton of stuff when he was forced to adapt it from sci-fi plane-mecha to fantasy mecha. Merle was originally your generic mechanic in love with the male MC.
>>13578407
it's a fucking shoujo with mecha, you're watching it wrong
Any other good fantasy mecha stories out there? Not space opera fantasy, but real swords and sandal mecha fantasy.
![[Ame-Lord] Mozaika 02.mkv_snapshot_05.44_[2014.11.05_01.41.22].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/CDgnAjg.jpg "[Ame-Lord] Mozaika 02.mkv_snapshot_05.44_[2014.11.05_01.41.22].jpg")
>>13588135
Galient starts as the former and rapidly turns into the latter, but it's a case of ancient technology that only one guy really understands and never fully goes into space due to the episode cut.
I think the closest you'll get to "sword and sandal" with mechs is Mozaika, which doesn't really feature robots at all until the very end. It's just an OVA, though. It's vaguely Barsoomian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFnCxa-MNZg
So, you know, Takahashi being Takahashi.
>>13588135
Aura Battler Dunbine maybe?
>>13588162
I love the series and the movie too for some reason. How is the manga though? should I read it?
>>13587348
The show actually did really well outside of Japan. In the US despite airing the NA edit, it outsold Gundam on video and later became the number 4 best selling DVD when the set came out. The success prompted the movie to be made.
>>13588133
>it's a fucking shoujo
N-no. It's not!
>>13588135
As good as Escaflowne? No. None whatsoever.
>>13588560
That would have been the direct to video uncut VHS release from 98 though. The edited TV showing on Fox Kids was the same year as the movie. It flopped and was canceled ten episodes in.
>>13588135
>Any other good fantasy mecha stories out there?
Magic Knight Rayearth
>>13588127
As far as I've heard it the show's concept and characters went through several different directors, each revising it to suit their own taste more, so that what started out as a generic fantasy show turned in a fantasy mecha shoujo show that was basically a potent mix of all it's different ingredients.
>>13588135
Yamato Takeru is pretty great.
>>13588613
Didn't all of Fox's edits flop and get cancelled? Was this all Bluth's fault for trying to make anime more like his American shittoons?
>>13588677
>American shittoons
Man Fox Kids had some of the best pieces of American animated television ever produced, though they lost several of them when Warner Bros launched their own channel. (think Animaniacs, 90s Batman, X-men, and Spiderman)
They only really did a handful of anime but I don't know that any of them did particularly well
>>13588677
No.
Digimon had a pretty successful run. To a lesser degree they also did the Transformers: Robots in Disguise series. Also, not sure if you want to count the Power Rangers in that, too.
You have to remember that from the '80s until the '00s, Saban Entertainment handled almost all westernization of Japanese media. While they did the English dub of Escaflowne, Fox Kids execs thought that it needed to the show re-edited to target the young boy demographic. Saban was no stranger to such tactics (just look at how they handled the successful MMPR) and they complied by churning out edit especially made for Fox Kids to air.
>>13588739
They did a lot of it, but I wouldn't say that for the 90s "almost all" is fair. That's the decade when all the big direct to video anime distributors were popping up. Unless you specifically meant TV adaptions.
>>13588570
No show has an OP like Escalowne's and isn't a shoujo
>>13588777
Trips says that you're right.
I guess I mean to say that they handled a lot of programming that actually aired on NA television.
Anyone else find it interesting how all the well known mecha+medival fantasy were by famous people in the industry?
Escaflowne: Kawamori
Dunbine: Tomino
Rayearth: CLAMP
Galient: Takahashi
>>13588718
Yeah, that's basically what happened. For much of the '90s, Fox Kids had cornered Saturday morning children's programming. Then they lost a lot of their licenses to WB and Disney when they realized that there was a lot of money to be made in that market.
>>13588677
>Was this all Bluth's fault for trying to make anime more like his American shittoons?
What is this supposed to mean?
>>13587190
So then what happened after?Did Dilandau go back to being a girl (he's seen wearing a dress in the final credits)? Or is he forever a boy now?
>>13591789
She stays the pretty girl.
Though it's been like 15 years since I saw it.
I just remember the last ~4 eps being really shitty quality and rushed.
>>13591812
What are your thoughts on the ending?
