Escaflowne Movie vs. Series

So, what did you like better, the movie or the series? XD My vote definately goes for the series. I'll rag on the movie after you movie fans get a word in. Wacha think>?

 

Movie ^_^x;;; heh loved it...the music was better if you ask me as well as the animation...

 

They are both really good in my opinion. Many people dog on the movie because it doesnt follow the series story line and the characters look different. If you havent noticed, many anime movies dont follow the series. It makes it so that people who havent seen the series can understand it. If this gets more people into the series then I think it is a good thing.

The series is wonderful and I love every aspect of it (even the noses). The movie obviously has better animation and music because the buget is drastically higher than the series. They also had more time to make the movie.

They are both great and I really cant find anything bad about either (except Falken's mullet)

 

they also seemed to draw a lot more from Japanese culture and mythology...

 

Yeah, about the only thing I didn't like in the movie was Folken's scary, scary hair. I personally wanted to take a weed-whacker to the thing.

Anyway...I too, like both the series and the movie equally. There are some things I think the movie did better, and others I think the series portrayed better. However, if you go into the movie wanting something that's exactly like the series you're bound to be disappointed.

I will also be the first to say that when I first saw the movie designs I was very against watching it. Some of the characters, like Milerna, changed drastically, and the designs between the series and movie were quite different as far as stylistics go (the noses from the series were gone, for one thing). So yeah, I was against seeing the movie because I thought they ruined Escaflowne. However, when I had the opportunity to see the movie I decided to do so, if only so I could say I had seen everything of Escaflowne that had been animated. Long story short, I fell in love with the movie.

I just hope that people who love the series are willing to give the movie a chance like I did. They may end up being surprised.

~Shadrach Anki

 

Well, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the movie. Even the new characters and all. Millerna was basically a whole new char with the same name, but I didn't mind. ^_^ Just... I think the series had more time to develop the relationships and characters, which are two of my favorite aspects of Escaflowne. Himtomi and Vahn didn't really have much of a "I hate you, bzoch!" Thing going. It was more like Inuyasha, "I must serve you, wind goddess!"
Still, on it's own, it was great.
But I hate when people don't give the series the credit it deserves. It's beautiful, and I can't help protect my precious. Specially when someone makes fun of the noses!
XD I LUFF ESCA NOSES!
And all who dare insult them feel my wrath.

 

I'm the last one to be insulting the Esca noses, believe me! Sure, when I first saw the series I thought they were a bit weird....for about five minutes. Then I decided I liked them a lot. You might say they grew on me. ^_^

The series does have a more leisurely pace to it and it does develop the relationships more fully, especially the secondary and tertiary ones. The movie is just sort of....Van and Hitomi and "You're a Black Dragon spy! I will kill you!" from Van, followed by Hitomi freaking out, then falling in love with him. The only redeeming quality of that particular relationship is that it's never really clear how much time passes between the initial meeting and them falling in love.

Like I said, I love them both for different reasons. ^_^

~Shadrach Anki

 

I have only see 1st 4 episodes of esca I don't know I reckon there wouldn't be enough time for a plot and stuff even though I've read episode guides and stuff 26 eps just isn't enough for me.just when it is getting interesting the series is finished.But I have to say,the animation is wondeful it is so good for a tv show anime that was on fox kids.

Ps van is my favorite character :catgirl: :bleed2: :dizzy: :sweat2: :anime:

 

Y'know... I'm definitely going to have to agree that both the series and movie have their own points of worth. I was also against watching the movie initially because of it's departures from the series in both plot ans character design - I'd also heard a lot of opinions that it was... well, crappy.

Then I got the series + movie boxset on DVD, to replace my taped copies of the series. I watched, and at first was iffy. But gradually the movie has grown on me, once I put my mind to watching it without comparing it to the series.

The nice thing about Escaflowne is that no two incarnations are really connected. The series is the central piece, and then you have all these variants - the movie, the shounen and shoujo manga versions, the PSX game. They're each a different look at the series storyline, and if you try to take each seperately and look at it as a stand-alone, you're not nearly as likely to get upset just because it wasn't the same as the series. It's not as if the movie was a sequel - it hasn't done anything to impact the series, really. That's a huge saving grace for it.

Now, I think we can all agree that the character development in the movie is nothing compared to what we get in the series, but that's to be expected. The character design takes some getting used to after watching the series, but the animation is very nice, as are the environments. The music is wonderful. I did feel drawn into the movie, and I've come to enjoy it on it's own.

One thing I did NOT like, however, was the butchering of Folken's persona. I don't think the movie did him justice. Now, I've grown less passionate on that subject after coming to terms with the idea that movie-Folken is NOT the same as series-Folken, but it still bugs me. Why? Because all the other major characters seem to have kept their series personalities largely intact. Folken, however, went from a tragic and ultimately well-meaning character with great depth, to an unreasonably violent persona bent on world destruction for no justifiable reason. OK, so he wasn't chosen as king - WHY does this bother him enough to make him want to end not only his own life, but take out the rest of Gaia too? If there had been more explanation of the idea that sorrow ends only when everything is gone - if it had been made to seem that Folken was acting on what he believed to be everyone's best interests - it would have seemed more like him.

Oh well. I was somewhat placated by the shots of Dilandau in his dark green briefs. XD

Still, it's always going to be the series for me. ^_^ You just can't beat the depth of character and the plot intricacies of a 26-ep series in a movie, even with higher-quality animation and a more polished feel.

Admittedly, the series would have benefitted by having time for a few filler episodes, to really round out the characters. There were times when it felt rather rushed.

If all you've seen is 'Foxaflowne'... You're really missing out.

 

dilandau how much was the dvd box set cause I might buy one I live in australia.
And whats foxaflowne mean?I saw all four episodes on DVD but saw some of the 3 ep on foxkids and it looks the same as in the dvd

 

"Foxaflowne" is referring to the massive editing that took place for when it was aired. The very first episode was so heavily edited it formed, what, 5, 10 minutes in the Fox Kids first episode?

 

5 to 10 minutes in a flashback section, no less. It was the editing more than anything else that got me horribly frustrated with Fox as far as Escaflowne goes.

Definitely try to get ahold of the DVD box set if you can (or the single DVDs...the box set may not be available anymore, and may not play on Australian DVD players....what region DVDs does Australia have?).

Dilandau, I too am frustrated by the character butchering Folken suffered in the movie (and I'm not too fond of his character design either....that hair *shudder*). I can sort of understand why the director probably did it, but it's still sad to see a complex character reduced to a carbon copy villain, complete with Evil Overlord List flaws.

~Shadrach Anki

 

My dvd is a all zone's (international) it plays vcd's AVI's music karaoke and dvd.II have some dvd's from us yes their are some esca dvd's from electronic boutique but I am looking for the box set.How much does it cost where u live?

 

This is where I bought mine:

http://www.discountanimedvd.com/

Their TV/movie import boxset by FX is $43.99 USD + shipping, but I don't know if they ship internationally. The US domestic boxset is pretty expensive, and that site has it for about $160 USD.

The Fox Kids dub of Escaflowne was pretty awful - not only were the voices absolutely noxious, but as already stated, the editing took out so much material that the first two episodes were combined in one! Actually, I think there's a thread about the dub that lists all of what was cut out... But I believe that the total amount of material removed from the aired dub was about 2 hours' worth (or the equivalent of 4-5 episodes from a 26-episode series).

 

Esca series, all the way.

I loved the series, it was great. iu remember when it was on FOX. I watched it untill the cancled it b/c of the whole Toa Card thing going on. FOX sucks, i still havent got to see all of the series. I have seen the movie, but i really didnt like it. But then again i was expecting something completely like the series. It was very well made, but it had way too many departures from the series. i can understand leaving it failry open so movie fans can understand, but dont make it so series fans hate the movie.

 

I personally liked the Series much better and so did my cuz. I didn't really care much for the movie. -__-;

 

Actually, Foxaflowne was what I first saw, back in the days when I was on the verge of otaku-ness. (-_- And now you'll all think I'm a dork...) But they only aired about 10 episodes before they cut it off. Then I went and watched the real thing. I was like.... o_o Wow. Where did all that come from? They completely stopped when they got to the whole, Cid and Allen deal. It was all too "inappropriate". Geez, I never saw Folken's story, even. It was so horribly edited that it didn't even make sense. I watched Foxaflowne and I really didn't get it. I had to guess and fill in holes. I figured right then it was the idiot american editors.

But I'm glad it aired, regardless of what they did to it. xD

 

Yeah, that's true. I'm just glad that Foxaflowne was taken off the air before it finished - which effectively nipped the dub's fandom in the bud, and made everyone go and find the uncut eps, which were more easily accessible because the series had been on TV. XD