Episode 15. Lost Paradise: The vengeful spirits of the Dragonslayers slain by the Draconian in the ‘Dragon’ Escaflowne drag Van towards death with them. Hitomi dives in to save him and catgirl Merle manages to call both of them back from being swallowed by a vision of the destruction of Atlantis. Dilandau has a RONERY flashback and backdown. Millerna and Hitomi have a ‘My friend’s romantic dilemma’ chat. Folken sends cat ladies Naria and Eriya who pwn a PTSD Van but they back off when Merle intervenes. With Allen’s father’s Atlantis otaku diary, Dryden pieces together the clues and the gang heads towards the Mystic Valley, home of the Draconians.
Merle is MVP for her two saves in this episode. It seems that there’s plenty of anti-catgirl discrimination among humans. Though it didn’t seem to be the case in Fanelia. Maybe it’s because all the guys are jealous because there are not enough cat girls to go around and so not everyone can haz a cat girl? Certainly I’m jealous that Folken has the love and devotion of not just one but two cat girls! And the mechanical claw arm. And the wings. orz
Episode 16. The Guided Ones: Allen is reminded of painful memories when Dryden reads the diary about his obsession with finding Atlantis, leading to him to abandon his family, and that the search was driven by the desire to see a girl, someone who is linked to Hitomi. Another link is discovered when a fellow traveller in the quest for Atlantis, Isaac, has Allen’s father killed and is revealed to be Donkirk. They eventually reach the Valley but it’s a frozen wasteland, even worse, Folken’s Castle in the Sky is there too. Hitomi consciously focuses the wishes of the main charas and manages to open the gate of Atlantis, enabling them to escape.
Well, Hitomi’s link to Gaea was a surprise though the CD in the Asturia market and Donkirk’s Earth origins had foreshadowed links between Gaea and the ‘Mystic Moon’.
Episode 17. The Edge of the World: Hitomi, Van and Allen are teleported off the Crusade. Van meets his mother and Balgus who tell them that the power of Atlantis must not awakened or Gaea will be destroyed. Allen is reminded of the death of his mother Encia, the disappearance of his sister Celena and confronts his father. Hitomi reads from a plaque about how, in the dying moments of Atlantis (which was on Earth), their wish created the world of Gaea. Varie warns Hitomi that her wishes, rooted in anxiety, are causing rather than preventing tragedies while Hitomi’s grandma tells her to believe in her feelings. The catgirls approach in their flying Guymelefs but Escaflowne appears and literally blows the enemy away. Varie appears again and bestows a new Energist.
I was quite confused about the contradictory advice given to Hitomi but later I realized that they’re not necessarily contradictory and is worked out by Hitomi FTW in the final episode. Both Allen and Van’s segments ended strongly though I felt that Allen’s segment was better developed and more poignant, particularly on how Hitomi’s grandma received her pendant and the sending of the diary to Encia. Also, with the benefit of hindsight and knowing how the whole story unfolds, I really liked how all the personal histories of so many of the cast were meshed together and how they dealt with it deteremined the fate of the world.
The series seemed really well-plotted up to episode 19 or 20 - then the series of rapidfire revelations really felt unnatural and forced.
Well, no one has ever accused SUNRISE of being able to finish strongly though, relative to Mai HiME and GSD, Escaflowne ended relatively well IMHO. I’ll elaborate on this in the DVD 8 post.