The Vision Of Escaflowne

The Vision of Escaflowne 

By Ana Bruja-Khayos

To any 30 something today, “The Vision of Escaflowne” or just “Escaflowne” has a special place in our hearts due to the amazing Sword Fighting Giant Mecha Robots.  As a teenager, “Escaflowne” and the “Mobile Suit Gundam Wing” series that aired during the once awesome Cartoon Network “Toonami” programing block was probably one of my favorite anime shows watch after school.  Both stories were awesome because of the giant fighting robots, however Escaflowne always was second place to the Gundam series because the main protagonist Hitomi was always too air headed and sappy for me to relate to. Even till today when I rewatch the series, I mainly enjoy the giant robots more than the complicated and unrealistic love life of Hitomi.

About the Series

Tenku no Esukaturone or The Vision of Escaflowne has been produced into several manga formats, an anime TV series and a movie.  It was first introduced in Japan in the summer of 1996.  The 26 episode series was produced by Sunrise Entertainment and it was directed by Kazuki Akane who is known for working on other anime series like “Mobile Suit Gundam (ZZ, F91, and 0083)”,  “Dragon Warrior”, “Dirty Pair Flash”, “Cowboy Bebop”, “Samurai Champloo”, “Noein” and most recently in 2012 “Code Geass: Akito The Exiled” just to name a few. The Escaflowne series was distributed in several places worldwide by Bandai Entertainment in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, South Asia and much later on dubbed for other markets.

During the production of the anime Escaflowne, there were two version of the manga that were developed.  The shōnen version (manga mainly marketed to young boys around the ages of 10 years of age and up) “The Vision of Escaflowne” reflected the storyline of the tv show and the other shōjo version (manga marketed towards young girls ages 10 to 18 years of age) retelling the story called “Hitomi-The Vision of Escaflowne”.  Later on there was one more manga shōjo release called “Escaflowne—Energist's Memories”.

After the success of the mangas and anime series, there was one more release in the series called “Escaflowne : The Movie”.  This was a retelling of the original story in a much more shorter span and with and more stylistic production style that was release in 2000. Think of it as an alternate world version of the original 26 episode series.  The movie was very fun but unless you have seen the original series, some of the great background elements, secondary characters, and situations will not be as enjoyable or easily understood.

About the Toys

Bandai Anime Collection Series - Escaflowne

By the early 2000’s Bandai had noticed the a rise in popularity in anime in the overseas and American markets and started pushing their products such as action figures and figurines into these new markets. In collaboration with Bandai America, one of these products was the Bandai Anime Collection Series. This series has five different, at the time popular, anime shows which included “The Big O”, “Outlaw Star”, “Cowboy BeBop”, “Pilot Candidate”  and “The Escaflowne”.  I will say that I have rarely seen the “Pilot Candidate” Ernn-Laties mech figure and it’s the only figure I’ve seen based on the character..

When you first see the images of these figures, you don’t realize how big these figures really are. They are pretty big and heavy for something that comes carded.  Each set comes with a 7 inch figure of the main robot, mecha or ship and two 4.5 inch scale figurines of the main protagonist and supporting character of the show. The figure’s original suggested retail price back was around $15 each but today, if you are lucky, you can find them for around $20-$30 on the low end and around $60-$70 on the high end on the secondary markets.

The Escaflowne set came with the 7 inch Escaflowne figure, and a 4.5 inch figurine of Van and Hitomi.  I personally own this in my collection but is so cool and so hard to find, I just don’t want to remove it out of the package.  

Escaflowne Anime Collection

Flickr RNG link  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragingnerdgasm/sets/72157632282106475/with/8340017943/

The Transforming Escaflowne

In 2001 Bandai announced that it will create a new Escaflowne figure with the collaboration of Studio Halfeye.  Studio Halfeye is known for creating garage kits that can transform without the need of extra parts or swapping parts.  This was very exciting for Escaflowne fans since the iconic robot in the series had two different modes;  normal or battling mode and the dragon flying mode. Two years after that announcement the world finally got it’s Transforming Escaflowne figures.

The figure is about 8 inches tall in normal mode and about 14 inches long in it’s dragon form.  It features 13 points of articulation that allows you the pose your Escaflowne however you epicly  desire. The figure started reaching collectors hands in November of 2003 and went for a whopping $60 USD back then and believe it or not it still can be found online auctions between $60-$100 with the box. Not too shabby.

I personally got a hold of this wonderful figure and I just could not be happier.  Not because it is just an amazingly well crafted figure but also because it transforms into a frickin dragon.  How many robots you know that do that....  If you do don’t ruin this for me... I’m having a fangirl moment here.

Flickr RNG link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragingnerdgasm/sets/72157633285920622/

Note***

My husband Tom was very kind to transform this for me.  It took him about 1 hour from robot to a dragon and several days to get it back to a robot.  While I still love this figure I will have to say that it is a very very big pain to transform.  Here are the YouTube links of the video review, done in two different parts. 

                                                        Transforming to a Dragon

                                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhaLqrqryLQ

Transforming it back to a Robot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyA1T1sLPOo

But wait there’s more, but they are not as cool.

Believe it or not there are also model a few model kits created by Bandai.  As far as I know there are mainly 3 different model kits.  These are the Guymelefs that are the main focus of the series.  Vans Fanel Guymelef Escaflowne Series 005, Allen Scherazade Series 008, and Dilandau Albatou Series 011.  These are ok but they are small like your standard small scale Gundam models.

Escaflowne Model Kits

There’s also a small figure set of 8 from Kotobukiya. These are your standard small figurines that come in small pieces and you set them up together.

Escaflowne Mini Figures

I’m sure there are more figures but these are the ones I’m aware of.

If you know more know please let us know. :D

EMPOWERED!!!

by: Ana Bruja-Khayos

From the great mind of Adam Warren who brought you Dirty Pair comes Empowered.  The graphic novel series began in 2004 as a superhero comedy inspired by large commissions request for images of damsels in distress.  This created a world that is inhabited by super heroes, villains and minions that have very down to earth personalities and imperfections.  This makes this story ten times more likeable than your standard graphic novel.  Simply said “ A superhero story that doesn’t take itself too seriously”.

As of 2012 the series has produced seven graphics novels, and is very well love by many of Adam Warren’s fans.  When you see the books it will remind you of an american type manga.  It has some of the anime traits but with Adam Warren’s touch.  The pages are very bold black and white pencil drawings that literally gives it a very unique look with great panel flow.  As you are reading through the pages, at times you will have to stop and take a moment to enjoy all of the little details he hides in the environments, background props, and costumes.  If you love color on your graphics, I guarantee that you will not notices since the story is very unique.

Adam introduces the reader to this crazy world through a new heroine with the superhero name of Empowered, also known as “Emp” short for Elissa Megan Powers.  She just graduated school with a degree in “Metahuman Studies” for an unmentioned college and has just moves to city to pursue a career as a superhero.  Here she teams up with the Superhomies Superhero Group were she’s constantly bullied by the other top notch heroes.  The main reason is because of how her powers work. When she has the super suite on she has super strength, can cling on to walls,  and at times new abilities will appear that she’s not aware about it. However the super suite has a major weakness, it tears very very easily.  At time is described as a tissue paper thin.  The second the suite tears, she reverts to her regular human strength and she is very powerless.  From this scenario she has gain a reputation for constantly being caught, tied up, gagged, and even becoming shoulder candy for bad guys.

Most of us are used to hearing crazy stories on how traditional superheroes get the power from the a horrible accident, horrible experiment, or an alien from another world type scenarios.  In this world here the heroes get their power in the crazies ways like getting STD from screwing an alien chick, mail away powers, or a messed up contract with Satan in exchange for beauty.  The heroes are also emotionally flawed and traumatized by personal experiences, self-esteem issues, egos, and yes even the work office cooler chatter and gossip news on TV.

 

About Emp

Just like any of the other super heroes, EMP has her own hangups.  Her major one is that she thinks she has a “chubby booty” even though she is very sexy.  She’s constantly making remarks on how the suite really doesn’t do much to help her cover up her giant tuckus.  This  self esteem issue combined with her constant bondage and booty smacking issue with the super villains and at times coworkers and acquaintances really makes this young heroine a very unique character to follow along.  To most of her friends and coworkers she seem as kind of a ditzy girl that really should be doing this kind of work, but as the story goes one she actually retains her sweet humility even though her powers continue right under her fingers.

Her Friends

Along the way she has made some great friends, and not so great friends.   The S Superhomies Superhero Group is literally in the not so great friends.  The group is composed of several dozen super heroes, and raging at different ranks.  


but she has made 2 other great friends Thugboy and Ninjette.  The

Thug Boy was originally a minion for hire. He used to belong to a gang with now desist friends who use to robbed super villains blind and resold the stuff for profit.  During one of EMP’s super hero attempts they met and shortly after became  more than just superhero vs generic thug.  While Thug boy is very kind to EMP, he has a very dark past, and couple of misdeeds that are pledging him on the back of his mind and at times fears for his life.  

Nijet (AKA Kozue Kaburagi) is the princes of an an Assassin Kaburagi Ninja Clan.  The funny part is that even though she comes from asian asian type clan complete with asian names, she’s just a white girl from Jersey with a drinking problem.  As you read the story you come to find out that the she’s ran away from her clan because she was supposed to be sold or traded to another clan to be baby making machine for the rest of her life.  Not the future she wants.

There is one more character who comes into play in Emp’s crazy life later on in the story named “The Caged Demonwolf”.  It’s a very powerful immortal demon living on her coffee table.  You have to read the books to find the specs on this one. Bwahahahaha...

All in all, all that I will have to say is that THIS IS AN ADULT STORY and is NOT FOR CHILDREN due to some sexual content.  However this is a very fun, engaging, and at times surprisingly emotional story. I give this story three thumbs up. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have.