List of The Vision of Escaflowne episodes
Encyclopedia
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series The Vision of Escaflowne
The Vision of Escaflowne
is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise Studios and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996 on TV Tokyo, with the final episode airing on September 24, 1996. Sony's anime satellite channel, Animax also aired the series, both in Japan and on its...
. Directed by Kazuki Akane
Kazuki Akane
is a Japanese director of Japanese animation. Until the early 2000s, he was a staff member of the anime studio Sunrise, where he collaborated with Shoji Kawamori to direct his most famous work, The Vision of Escaflowne...
, the series was initially proposed to Bandai Visual
Bandai Visual
, is a Japanese anime, film production and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai Co., Ltd. and a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings, Inc., which is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Since the reorganisation of Namco Bandai Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the group's Visual and...
by Shoji Kawamori
Shoji Kawamori
is a Japanese anime creator, screenwriter and mechanical designer, having created or co-created such notable series as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Vision of Escaflowne, Earth Maiden Arjuna, Genesis of Aquarion, Macross 7, and Macross Frontier. He is currently executive director at the...
. Bandai selected Sunrise Studios
Sunrise (company)
is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...
to animate the series. Originally planned for thirty-nine episodes, the series was cut down to twenty-six episodes due to budget cuts. Rather than cut out characters or the elaborately planned plot lines, the studio forced the episodes to fit into the shorter length. In the first episode, for example, the credits were cut in favor of adding more exposition. Some scenes were also removed, but they were added back in the retail VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD releases. The series premiered in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on TV Tokyo
TV Tokyo
is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...
on April 2, 1996, completing its twenty-six episode run on September 24, 1996. Three alternate retellings of The Vision of Escaflowne have been released in manga form, with first two manga series developed at the same time as the anime, and all three having different authors. The three series were published by Kadokawa Shoten. Kadokawa also published a six-volume light novel
Light novel
A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...
adaptation for the anime, that is a straighter novelization of the anime episodes.
Bandai Entertainment, which licensed the series for home video distribution under its AnimeVillage label, first released the series, with English subtitles, across eight VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
volumes, including a box set, over the period of September 15 to December 15, 1998. In August 2000, Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
began broadcasting the series in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Produced by Haim Saban
Haim Saban
Haim Saban is an Egyptian born Israeli-American television and media proprietor. With an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.-Biography:...
, these dubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add new "flashback" sequences to remind the audience of the events that just occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first episode was skipped all together, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno was replaced with more techno themes. This modified version of the series was a ratings failure and canceled after nine episodes The Canadian television channel YTV acquired Fox's dubbed version of the series for broadcast Starting on September 11, 2000, the channel aired all 23 episodes dubbed by Fox, concluding with the series true first episode on February 26, 2001. Fox Kids UK also aired 22 of the 23 dubbed episodes, starting on January 8, 2001 and concluding March 15, 2001.
Bandai Entertainment released the edited dubbed version of the series to VHS, releasing four volumes before discontinuing the releases in February 2001. Bandai later released the entire series, unedited and in the original episode order, to Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Spanning eight volumes, the releases include the original Japanese audio tracks with optional English subtitles, and the uncut English dubbed track. Bandai also later released the series in several different box sets, including a Limited Edition set released on July 23, 2002, a "Perfect Collection"–which included the Escaflowne feature length movie–released October 26, 2004, and an "Anime Legends" box set on April 11, 2006.
Three pieces of theme music are used for the series. is used for the series opening theme for the entire series, except the first episode in which no opening sequence is used. The song is performed by Maaya Sakamoto
Maaya Sakamoto
is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actress, and voice actress. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime series Little Twins, but is more well known for her role as Hitomi Kanzaki in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne...
, who also provides the voice for the character Hitomi. Performed by Hiroki Wada
Hiroki Wada
H-wonder is a composer and arranger born in Japan. He first debuted in 1995 under his birth name, .In June 1998, he stopped being a solo artist and changed his name to h-wonder and became a composer...
, "Mystic Eyes" is used for the ending theme for the first twenty-five episodes, while the final episode uses Yoko Kanno
Yoko Kanno
is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
's instrumental piece .
Episode listing
| EP# | Title | Original Airdate | English Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|