Episode 24. Fateful Decision: Hitomi wakes up back on Earth. She realizes that she’s in a recap episode; with the replay of events, she also realizes that how much her best friend Yukari loved Amano. Hitomi gets signs from CLAMP, visions of feathers and then from her tarot cards. Allen realizes that his feelings for Hitomi are actually a projection of his siscon for the missing Celena who turns up home but later reverts to being Dilandau again and is retrieved by Jajuka. The war is at a standstill but Donkirk is confident that the mysterious element of Hitomi will return and set his plans into motion again. Hitomi does her re-run while Van takes off with Escaflowne towards the Mystic Moon and picks her up via the pillar of light but arrive in the midst of a battlefield.
Episode 25. Zone of Absolute Fortune: Van agrees to aid Cesario forces in holding the line against Zaibach while Hitomi returns to Asturia where Allen has come to terms with the Van x Hitomi pairing. Surprisingly Dryden returns the wedding ring to Princess Millerna, pledging to return and win her heart when he becomes the man worthy of her. In the heat of battle, Basram indiscriminately deploys a nuclear-like bomb which destroys more than three quarters of Zaibach’s forces. The rage of Zaibach’s enraged survivors starts to blemish Escaflowne like before. Hitomi feels Van’s suffering, goes to Folken and transports to Zaibach where Folken slays Donkirk and is fatally wounded when his own blade snaps and rebounds on him. Van senses Folken’s death and Hitomi feels his grief, triggering the fate alteration engine’s full power, the Zone of Absolute Fortune, everything has proceeded as (now Spirit form) Donkirk has foreseen.
Episode 26. Eternal Love: The Zone grants all wishes but as Zaibach retreats, the alliance disintegrates, turning on each other. Even Van and Allen come to blows as the latter rushes to Dilandau’s defence and Celena finally returns with Jajuka’s dying wish. The flowing animation of Allen and Van’s guymelef battle reflects their joy. The battle ends as Allen is distracted by siscon and Hitomi appears to Van. Hitomi finally realizes that she’s not just having a quarrel with Van but a lover’s quarrel. Van unveils his wings and flies towards Hitomi, his feathers raining down and calming the battle, he reaches her and their reunion stops the Atlantis machine. Folken is buried back home, Fanelia is being rebuilt, Escaflowne is de-mobbed and Van sends Hitomi back to Earth using its drag-energist and she gives her pendant to him. Even though they are apart, they can still see each other anytime because their thoughts and wishes are in alignment.
Series Review
For a Sunrise series, I really enjoyed the very romantic ending, almost had a Hoshi no Koe (before Hoshi no Koe) feel to it. It was quite rushed but at least the ending made sense to me and rightly focused on Van x Hitomi. The Sunrise staple themes of the tragedy of war (well intentioned people can do bad things) and the dangers of forcibly trying to change fate/human nature were nowhere as heavyhanded as in later series and was nicely balanced by the romantic angle. That balance worked because Hitomi was a strong and central female lead.
A great debut for Maaya Sakamoto (voice of Lunamaria Hawke). Folken is probably my favourite Joji Nakata role (Giroro loses out by a whisker because he should really tell Natsumi to hold him tight and kiss him forever more often :P); great use of his deep rich voice but without over-egging it which sadly happens all too often these days.
The art style, 4:3 ratio and 2 ch audio was somewhat dated and I was a bit cheesed off that, for the last ten minutes or so of dialogue, the sub-titles went AWOL! Fortunately it wasn’t too difficult to understand as this isn’t Ghost in the Shell but it was still a quality problem that shouldn’t have occurred. And my final gripe about the DVDs themsleves was how they were packaged as two box sets; would have been better to fit everything into one thinpak boxset (clearly one entire whole rather than first and second season) and in 7 DVDs rather than 8 (last four DVDs in the second box had only three episodes in each DVD) but I suppose the DVD and boxsets were manufactured back in the days when licensees still were fantasizing about mass rather than niche sales.
Maybe I can borrow the series from you when you return. I don’t remember much of the series except it was the typical *grip-you-by-the-throat* SUNRISE pacing with their usual *oops-one-ep-to-conclude* finale. I really it to be fairly enjoyable still and think mecha would have capes XD
the van and Allen fight scene in the end is still some of the best i seen in anime.