Supersonic Eternal Autumn: Movie Review I: Escaflowne

[Plot summary, genres, themes, and objectionable content from animenewsnetwork.com]

Plot Summary: Hitomi Kanzaki is in a very depressed mood. She only wants to sleep and fade away. Her misery summons Lord Folken who sends her to Gaea. The people of Gaea think she is the Wing Goddess, who can call upon the legendary Dragon Armor called Escaflowne. On Gaea, King Van, the sole survivor of the White Dragon Clan, is also in a depressed state. Swearing an oath to get his revenge on the Black Dragon Clan that obliterated Van's kingdom, he lives by the sword. Now that the Wing Goddess has finally appeared, she possesses Gaea's world fate in her heart. Escaflowne will either lead Gaea to peace or total ruin.

Genres: adventure, drama, fantasy, romance, science fiction

Themes: mecha

Objectionable content: Significant (bloody violence and/or swearing and/or nudity)

Review [contain little to no spoilers]:

Alright! First time reviewing a movie for me and I got to say: I have no idea how I'm going to do it. The movie is only an hour and a half and for me--being the 'little to no spolier' reviewer--I have no idea what I can place up here. Maybe the basics, I have some wonderful screenshots you can take a look at as well.

Now when my friend suggested this to me, I vaguely remember hearing it. I did have the reoccurring song called 'Sora' on my IPod. This song is like if you seen Titanic and actually listened to the soundtrack all the way through. The same melody appears over and over again just in different forms like sometimes it just the voice, sometimes it's instrumental, and once they had a little techno version of it.

The song is song by this elven girl named (guess what?) Sora. Now during the techno version two other girls sing the song. This is where you know this anime is "out of this world" (har-de-har-har) because the two twins singing this look like this:

Is that... a cheetah??

Yes caption it is a cheetah human hybrid. See in this anime the world consists of humans, animals, and crossbreeds of the two. There is even whole villages of these crossbreeds

They seem very nice but are widely discriminated against (of course). But their prince--king... something--just so happens to look like a human. Don't ask me how that happened. Apparently he is one of them. And by him I mean this guy:

This picture is actually from the series so the art is a little different. I forgot to take a screenshot of him (DON'T KILL ME!) but he is in other shots so you'll see how he looked like in the movie later.

So... how do you like the king? His name is Van (the weirdest name in the movie) and is the king because he has dragon blood in him. His sole mission is.... wait for it... to kill his brother. Ha! Everyone sounds like Sasuke from Naruto! I swear!

*cough*

Well.

He isn't even the main character in the movie so we will move on from him. The main character is actually your normal high school Japanese girl.

Guess which one. No, seriously. Guess.

Hitmoi, she is a suicidal depressed teenager. She wants nothing more in life than to disappear and never return.

Now everyone knows when you wish for that a magic genuine appears~

.... or a creeper. That works too.

He tells her she is this "goddess" and he wants to "take her home" with him. You know, what every pedophile says to get a teenage girl into bed.

Yeah, I bet thinking back to this moment she wished that was the case but next you see KABLAM!

Yep, that's Earth. See if I was her I would have went: "what am I on?" (You know, the phrase I always seem to say). But she seems to just stand there and not say anything.

Now I can't say much on this movie.

All that I can tell you--that wouldn't be redundant to what the animenewsnetwork description is--is that this anime is a mecha. That's right. Flight machines with FIRE!

Yes, there is fire in this anime.

And you thought I was lying xD

This art is old. The movie was released in 1996 but I enjoyed the art very much so, so you guys shouldn't worry about it either. And even if you cringe at the art the plot is really good so that should keep you going.

So you already know--from the description--that Hitomi is called the wing goddess. No one knows for sure if she really is but since she came out of this thing:

The creepy 'eye' of the meecha

They assume that she is.

Though she has this weight on her shoulders (even though she doesn't know it) she is starting to get slowly happy, enjoying this jewel that randomly appeared on her--you'll find out about that later.

And I mean, she's cute. Urr I mean when she was little!!! I mean look at this:

She is adorable. Look at her and her little doggy bag. There is this flashback in the very beginning. That is the scene that is supposed to foreshadow.

It does a pretty good job in my opinion.

Unannounced to her, she can either lead the world to peace...

or destroy it all.

Which will she choose?

Well I guess you will just have to watch the movie to see.

Now for all of you 'fan girls' (and some boys) there is, hrm, implied romance.

See I told you you would see Van later!

I personally didn't like the implied but you can argue with me on that one. But guys shouldn't be turned away by the romance. It's only implied so it's like there isn't any at all. There is a lot of action that I just loved (and FIRE!)

And if you like angst-y people... well I guess this is a good one for you two. Both the main characters just hate the world and themselves. Ir's kind of upsetting.

In the end, the movie Escaflowne is an original plot with a lot of gore and action with slight romance and some confusion. Warning: it has it's let downs. Trust me on that one. I think it is because the anime came out first and they just made the movie afterwards and it's just a shortened version of the anime. The movie is slow at some parts but if you are used to series animes this shouldn't bug you at all.

All in all I give this movie an 8 out of 10. Go out and watch it, seriously. The only thing that made me not score it a perfect is a couple of parts.