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LTTP: The Vision of Escaflowne or man, did they destroy the ending

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Onemic

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Just finished watching Vision of Escaflowne as its a show I always wanted to watch after Fox Kids cancelled the show after 10 episodes. Of course coming back to the series(Jpn dub this time) I was really expecting it to be just as great as when I first watched it over 10 years ago and for the most part this remained true. The first to around 20th episode are very solid and worth watching, but it's those last six or so episodes when the show needs to begin setting itself up for the end that it just spirals out into disaster. The end of the show leaves so many questions that will never be answered
What's Allen gonna do with his son? what's the status of Van's mom, is she alive or dead? how in the flying fuck did they turn Dilandau into allens sister? How did Isaac randomly spring to life again with the horribly explained fate altercation engine? What's gonna happen with Allen and princess Millerna? etc. etc.
So many plot holes open up by the shows finale that it just left a rather bad taste in my mouth for a show that was otherwise a small step below amazing.(mainly because of Hitomi being an absolutely terrible main character that just gets in the way more than she helps)

Anyone else that has watched the show experience this as well?
 
I've got the series down in my basement somewhere. Been about 10 years since I've seen it, but I remember liking it a lot at the time... not sure how well it's held up though. Maybe I'll have to rewatch it. The Club Escaflowne extras on the DVD that had all the seiyuus in this fake bar bantering are hilarious though.
 
Man I watched this whole show and enjoyed it but reading this thread I totally forgot every last detail about it.
 
onemic said:
What's Allen gonna do with his son?
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Allen doesn't know that Chid is his son - remember, Duke Freid interrupted Millerna before she could finish telling Allen. Unless someone tells him in the future, he never will. Chid has his guardian to help him rule the Duchy of Freid - I suspect until Chid grows up he won't twig the situation. Besides, he does look like Marlene...

what's the status of Van's mom, is she alive or dead?
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I think we can assume she's dead, given that she only ever appears in spirit form.

how in the flying fuck did they turn Dilandau into allens sister? How did Isaac randomly spring to life again with the horribly explained fate altercation engine?
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You have Dilandau the wrong way round. They didn't turn him into Selena, they turned Selena into him. I thought this was quite well explained - she was kidnapped and experimented on by the Zaibach sorcerors in their destiny manipulation experiments, and forcibly altered her fate to transform her into Dilandau.

As for Isaac/Dornkirk - not really sure what you mean. The power of Isaac's wish to understand the principles of fate was so strong that he was transported to Gaia, in typical shoujo magic style. The Destiny Prognostication Machine didn't bring him back to life - he built it himself, after living again on Gaia. While we can't explain why he was suddenly healthy again, he hooks himself into the (eventual) Atlantis machine so that he can see and manipulate destiny.
 
genjiZERO said:
Out of nowhere in the sense that it didn't seem planned from the beginning. It wasn't even a subplot until nearly the end of the series. Fairly predictable in the sense of plot tropes though.
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You're kidding, right? Even back in '98 it seemed pretty damn obvious that there would be a triangle for Van, Hitomi and Allen.

As for the tropes, eh nowadays yeah, but back then it was all pretty new and fresh.
 
genjiZERO said:
Escaflowne was great....
until it turned into a stupid, out of nowhere, love story
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I don't know about you but I watched Escaflowne for the love theme among other things.

So no, it's not out of nowhere unless you mean that horrible fate altering/acting device, yes, that was indeed horrible and just whack.
 
Expecting anime to have a decent ending is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I love anime. I really do. But I think I can count the number of series I've seen with decent endings on my fingers. On the other hand, endings that go nowhere, end up in some sort of metaphysical void while characters curl up into naked fetal positions, or destroy everything I loved about a series are too numerous to count.
 
BluWacky said:
Allen doesn't know that Chid is his son - remember, Duke Freid interrupted Millerna before she could finish telling Allen. Unless someone tells him in the future, he never will. Chid has his guardian to help him rule the Duchy of Freid - I suspect until Chid grows up he won't twig the situation. Besides, he does look like Marlene...



I think we can assume she's dead, given that she only ever appears in spirit form.



You have Dilandau the wrong way round. They didn't turn him into Selena, they turned Selena into him. I thought this was quite well explained - she was kidnapped and experimented on by the Zaibach sorcerors in their destiny manipulation experiments, and forcibly altered her fate to transform her into Dilandau.

As for Isaac/Dornkirk - not really sure what you mean. The power of Isaac's wish to understand the principles of fate was so strong that he was transported to Gaia, in typical shoujo magic style. The Destiny Prognostication Machine didn't bring him back to life - he built it himself, after living again on Gaia. While we can't explain why he was suddenly healthy again, he hooks himself into the (eventual) Atlantis machine so that he can see and manipulate destiny.
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It is noted several times in subsequent episodes after that exchange between him and the duke that he indeed knows he is Chid's father. After the last confirmation of it in the last 6 episodes or so, there should be no doubt that he knows it. They just don't bother to close that part of the story together. And I know why Selena turns into Dilandau, I'm just saying the way it is explained is utterly stupid and seems like they ran out of ideas and just used some crazy experimentation reason to help explain poorly conceived plot points.

Sqorgar said:
Expecting anime to have a decent ending is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I love anime. I really do. But I think I can count the number of series I've seen with decent endings on my fingers. On the other hand, endings that go nowhere, end up in some sort of metaphysical void while characters curl up into naked fetal positions, or destroy everything I loved about a series are too numerous to count.
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Of the few animes I've watched front to back, I'd say many of them have had at least decent endings.(Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, and Berserk come to mind) Then again I usually only save my anime watching experience towards series that are considered really damn good, so there that.
 
Man, I haven't seen Escaflowne since the mid-'90s, so I can barely remember anything about it.

But I remember trying to watch it again, and not being able to because the character designs had become the popular style for crappy North American "manga artists" to painstakingly imitate at the time.
 
genjiZERO said:
Out of nowhere in the sense that it didn't seem planned from the beginning. It wasn't even a subplot until nearly the end of the series. Fairly predictable in the sense of plot tropes though.
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What? Hitomi's crush on Amno is like the main thrust of episode 1, It's pretty obvious from the get-go its going to have romantic things.
 
Good show. One of my favorites. The soundtrack is really great. I thought the ending was all right; not really terrible enough that it ruined things for me. It was just okay.

The romance stuff was right there from the start.
 
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