I have kind of particular taste in anime. Series like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon do nothing for me. I did enjoy Card Captor Sakura on a diversionary level. The premise fascinated me and it there were a lot of beautiful visuals, but it lacked the depth I like. BoogiePop Phantom, on the other hand, is remarkable. It's extremely complex (a thinking movie). The visuals are curiously bland, but amazingly effective in the context of this particular series. Another series that is particularly notable is Escaflowne.

Escaflowne is spectacular. I caught one episode of Escaflowne (Episode #8, The Day the Angel Flew) on a Fox Box afternoon while I was between jobs (I still watched television at that time). I was instantly hooked. Fox cancelled Escaflowne shortly after that, and I never saw another episode on TV. It ended up not mattering though because I spent two years hunting down the dvds for the entire series.

To set the scene, Hitomi is the main character. A bright light comes from the sky and carries her to a strange new world ("Was it a dream... or an illusion? It's about the sudden transfer of my admirable senpai abroad... ...about him and a giant dragon that appeared in front of me... ...and this mysterious world where both Moon and Earth appear in the sky."). Hitomi finds herself in Gaea where people operate giant units of powered armor, dragons fly through the sky, and angels exist.

The opening where Hitomi is teleported to the Gaea universe is another terribly effective tool they used to set the stage and bring the viewer to Gaea. They create and maintain the illusion that we are transported to Gaea along with Hitomi where we witness all the drama and adventure and magic that lives in Gaea.

The reason I stopped and watched it on Fox Box was because of the art. The drawings are simple and clean, but no less expressive or detailed and the colors are rich and vibrant. It's pure eye candy. They used abstractions and freeze frames during the intense action sequences and it was very effective.

Most of the characters are more or less static throughout the series. Only two (Hitomi and Van) are really dynamic and changed by the end. There is a reason for this though. Hitomi is a high school girl interested in boys and school and track and all the things high school girls are interested in. Van is a child prince, and certain events force him into an adults role though he isn't ready for it. By the end, Hitomi is self assured and confident, Van comes to understand what it is to be a king and an adult. The rest of the characters (save Merle) are already adults. They don't change much, already having found their character. I also think that the characters are less individuals than they are representations of aspects of character. They aren't terribly deep characters until you see them in that light. Then their relationships become very intricate. It's as though the characters are pieces of a greater whole rather than unique individuals.

The voice acting was decent (not as good at BoogiePop Phantom). The translation was also pretty good (again not as good as BoogiePop Phantom), and something I noticed about the English was that it served to highlight differences between Japanese and American culture (also an important note for the previous paragraph). They translated a lot of things as directly as possible from Japanese to English so a character might say 'honor' where 'duty' would make more sense to an American. Catching those differences in language reveals a lot about how our cultures are different.

In reading reviews, I've noticed a number of people think the plot is simplistic. I can see how it might appear simplistic, but there are many layers, and many threads to the plot. It's not obscure and tangled like BoogiePop Phantom (it's not what I call a "thinking movie") but it's still complex and rich. Separating the plot lines kind of wrecks the whole thing. The story weaves character backstories, character development, general history and current events (on Gaea) into a comprehensive whole. It would be like describing a Monet as a picture of some weeds and water and a couple of trees. I liken it to The Lord of the Rings or Dune in detail and completion. The story and the visuals combine in such a way that the viewer doesn't have to set aside belief so much as having it set aside for them.

The soundtrack is as good as the rest of it. The music is very powerful and operatic. Babylon Five had the same quality to its soundtrack. The music was powerful and appropriate, creating and reinforcing moods.

The finishing touches really glued it all together. The episodes begin with Hitomi dragging the viewer into Gaea. "Was it all just a dream? An illusion? No. It was real." Each episode is marked by a tarot card (The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man, The Burning Tower). If you know the meaning of tarot cards, it lends a hint about the theme of the present episode.

I've also watched the Escaflowne movie. They're barely related. The movie lacks the depth and polish of the series, but it is entertaining in its own right. The movie is far more mindless and I think a lot is lost in shoddy translation. You will be disappointed if you expect much of the movie, but I'm not sure that the series can be overestimated.

Now I need to start on a new anime series. I always feel like I'm blindly guessing at their content though. Especially since I watched Escaflowne. Had I not seen a portion of Escaflowne myself I would never have picked it up at a store based on reviews or the back of the box. Most people who review Escaflowne try to summarize the story and invariably they fail miserably (that's why I didn't try). I lucked out with Boogiepop Phantom. I basically picked it off the shelf because the box stood out compared to the others. But, I think now that I have established something of a flavor for myself, I can choose a little more selectively. While browsing for information on Escaflowne and Boogiepop Phantom, I've found two more titles that are often mentioned in relation to them. Serial Experiment Lain and Now and Then, Here and There are frequently compared to Escaflowne and Boogiepop Phantom in terms of complexity, detail, and completion. Also, something called Grave of the Fireflies might be worth a look. If you've seen any of these let me know. And if you know of any titles that might compare nicely to Escaflowne or Boogiepop Phantom let me know.

 

Anyhow, I suspect that Serial Experiment Lain will be the next series I watch.  I'm going to Fry's this evening where I expect I'll find it.  I haven't seen Now and Then Here and There in any of the stores around here, so it'll have to wait until I decide I want to special order it.  Stay tuned for notes on Serial Experiment Lain.