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 survior 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 posseses Gaea's world fate in her heart. Escaflowne will either lead Gaea to peace or total ruin.
(Source: ANN)
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Comentários
morningblue
Take Vision of Escaflowne, remove all the character development, writing, humor, romance, and action that made the series the classic 90s anime people treat it as, and throw it out the window. Then replace all that with angst and blood. That's the Escaflowne movie. While I have to admire Sunrise to attempt to condense the series for those unfamiliar with it, as well as breathe new life into old characters, this isn't the way to do it. Hitomi, instead of being a shy, but head-strong girl, is now a whiny brat who contemplates suicide. Van, instead of being a bickering but brave and powerful warrior, isnow Tarzan with a sword. Allen is now a clone of Sephiroth, and so forth; every character you knew from Escaflowne is ruined, and these character would still suck even to those not very familiar with the franchise (such as myself). The only improved character is Merle, who's a good deal less annoying than she was in the TV series. In fact, she's the best character in the whole movie! Unfortunately, that's not a compliment.
Remember those great mecha battle scenes with Van on the Escaflowne? They're gone now, as Van spends most of the movie slashing at things and watching them bleed. There IS a robot battle, but only one worth mention, and it doesn't come until pretty far in to be of much notice.
Then there's the writing. I suspect Sunrise hired Escaflowne fans in middle school to write this, as the plot and its constant mention of the same things over and over again makes Doraemon look like it was written by Charles Dickens. Not to mention how boring of a formula the movie follows: if you've watched anime for a few years now, you can guess what will happen before it happens.
So is there anything I liked about this movie? Well, it's pretty, with slightly improved character designs and a good sounstrack by the great Yoko Kanno. Annnnnd that's about it. Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea is a pointless retread of something that was good enough the first time around, and it won't win over any new fans in its wake. And Escaflowne fans themselves should stay as far away from this turkey as possible.
Venneh
Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea was produced by Sunrise and Bandai Visual, and was directed by Kazuki Amane, same as in the series. It was released in theatres in Japan on June 24th, 2000, was licensed Stateside by Bandai Entertainment and had a limited run in theatres Stateside starting on January 25th, 2002. Hitomi Kanzaki is depressed and considering killing herself. One day, a man appears before her and calls her the Wing Goddess, summoning her to Gaea, a world at war, where she is the ultimate arbiter of the God of the Heavens and War, Escaflowne, and, accordingly, Gaea's destiny. As you can probablytell, this is a complete retelling of the original series. There are far darker takes on all the characters than you saw in the series, and a completely different plot and world that they're in, which in and of itself has its effects on them. And honestly, even though it's worlds away from the series, it's just as good of a story as the series told, especially in a more limited timeframe to work in. Every character from the series shows up, though some have their involvement changed around somewhat.
For most major characters, there is enough basic similarities between their design (though not necessarily their clothing) in the series and in the movie that you can tell who's who easily. There are some characters that got a complete facelift for this, though, most notably Folken and Millerna, and the overall effect is not all that bad, really. In fact, RAWR.
The art for this is richer and draws some amazing contrasts, especially with color in some of the earlier scenes and a notable scene that goes from watercolors to full cel animation; however, the same basic style from the series is kept and exaggerated in some cases, which, at times, does not produce the greatest effects. CG is also used far more in here, and it's kind of just as obvious as when they used it in the series.
Every character's seiyuu was able to return for this, which adds that more of a sense of familiarity and continuity, especially if you can't recognize them at first glance. Yoko Kanno returned to work on the soundtrack for this, and it's just as beautiful as the series was.
So, overall, while the movie does have a more limited timeframe to work in and lots of info to convey, the new storyline and character designs are more than welcome, especially with the seiyuu returning to provide continuity, and with Yoko Kanno on the soundtrack, and a richer environment to play around in, this adaptation is just as good as the series.
Beatnik
This movie is everything the TV series wasn’t. It’s everything the TV show should have been. You don’t have to watch the TV show before watching this, though you might want to if you're interested in seeing how a story can be dragged from the depths of writers hell into the light of storytelling purgatory. The main character of Hitomi is changed from a generic plucky cipher into an actual human being, a typical teenager with suicidal tendencies, who actually has a character arc. Her plight is introduced and compressed into about five minutes very efficiently through adept usage of editing, direction, artand music, with a montage of scenes between her and her best friend, who she pushes away due to self-loathing.
Five minutes is definitely enough of watching a mopey girl and sure enough before we know it she's teleported into Gaea for a life-changing adventure with plenty of thrills and drama. The movie is paced so well that it knows how each segment could drag the story if played out too long, but it’s also paced too fast in that the story rolls along without giving the viewer, or characters, time to breathe. It’s one of the main reasons the overall score isn’t higher than it would have been if the story were more simple or the running time longer.
Another fatal flaw is the antagonist of the story, although much better than the beardy old man of the TV series, the motivation and methodology is again woefully lacking. Just what exactly is the point of the bad guy in this story? What does he want? To destroy the world? Eh? Is that it? Why do we not even care? The writer learns his lesson from the TV series by using a better character as the main bad guy and keeping him bad, but again he doesn’t give the viewer an insight into the thought-process of the character, what he wants and why; or why other people would even follow him and do his bidding.
The movie's not perfect and these flaws do irk, but they do not make the movie unwatchable, they simply prevent it from getting a high score. Escaflowne remains a memorable experience and worth a watch because it’s not long enough to overstay its welcome.
The TV series is, or bloody well should be, notorious for its completely out of control plot holes, twists and meaningless revelations. The movie veers away from this childish nonsense for the most part and opts for more streamlined and concise storytelling, however cliché it may appear, it’s at least solid in narrative and consistent in theme.
Now, whenever inexplicable stuff does happen, it’s dressed in abstract tones so it feels more cohesive and natural, it’s more like dreamy art that doesn’t have to make conventional sense, but relies more on mood to convey information or feeling to the viewer. Maybe I’m going too easy on the anime, but you can’t deny the powerful imagery and composition in this movie, its effective. It feels like Mamoru Oshii versus David Lynch.
Escaflowne concerns itself with fate, space and time, so its skilful editing in the movie can be understood as part of the theme, whereas in the TV series the editing was conventional yet the story made no sense. This is the key difference between TV series and movie. One is dressed up in conventional tones yet is weak narratively, while the other is an abstract enigma that makes somewhat logical sense underneath the mystery.
People who give this movie undue flak either have suspect taste or are too literal in their criticism of this reimagining of the TV show. And it is a reimagining, not a condensed version of a 26 episode show, because that would be futile and foolish.
This is the writer doing what he should have done the first time round, this is taking the core premise of Escaflowne and fulfilling its potential by working with the rest of the cast rather than doodling random crap together by himself and worming his way out with deus ex machinas every five minutes. This is a near-perfect melding of all departments of the production team gelling together to bring to the viewer a unique vision of another world and its impact on a teenager at the end of her tether.
Character designs are more 'realistic' than the TV series as expected, but what stands out the most is the world design which feels mystical and dreamlike, very memorable and unique, it feels like Escaflowne and not a random generic fantasy-land. The music by Yoko Kanno recycles some motifs from the TV series but includes a few new compositions and songs, all of the standard you'd expect from the master composer.
Escaflowne itself is one of the best mecha designs I've seen in anime, truly a beast of a 'machine', literally taking the flesh and blood of whoever the poor user of it is, a real tool of war, one that is a double-edged sword, quite literally. And when Kanno's amazing music is playing it’s a sight to behold.
The last 10 minutes of the movie revert back to TV levels of idiocy with childish plot devices and character behaviour, but if you're forgiving enough you'll overlook these flaws and just revel in the imagery coupled with Yoko Kanno, the likes of which you'll not see anywhere else.
ktulu007
Escaflowne was a franchise conceived of by Sunrise. They released a twenty six episode anime, multiple manga with different writers, some light novels, a video game that never saw an international release and, in 2000, this film. Sunrise was pushing this one hard. Maybe I'll get to the main anime later, but for now let's critique the film. Story: We open with a lone swordsman raiding an airship and slaughtering everybody. Clearly, this is a family picture. We cut from the fantasy setting and go into the real world where a teenage girl, Hitomi, is going through some depressive issues. Her friend tries to cheer her up onlyto be spurned. She probably should have suggested that she see a professional therapist and get some medication to sort her out instead of just playing around. Not that you can really fault a teenager for not knowing better. Hitomi sees a vision calling her the goddess of wings and beckoning her. She quickly finds herself inside a mecha in another world.
The big problem with the narrative of this film is that things are wildly inconsistent. This goes for character actions, tone and even the atmosphere around Gaea. I'll talk about the character inconsistencies and atmosphere in a moment, but for now I'll focus on the tone. The tone is largely dark and brooding but it occasionally throws in something more goofy and comedic out of nowhere. It's like they were ashamed of how dark the film is and wanted to reassure people that the franchise does know how levity works. Which doesn't work well with the brooding tone but does make me wish I was watching the not brooding version.
It doesn't really help that everything symbolic is pretty heavy handed. Escaflowne's colour changing, the animal people talking about how "denizens of the forest stood no chance against battle hardened humans, Hitomi contemplating suicide only to find herself in a world where she gets to decide whether to annihilate everything or preserve it. It's very not subtle or nuanced.
The film also defines a king in a weird way. I get it, it's a fantasy story and they aren't using the term the way it's used in the real world, but it's still odd to see a real term used in such a counter-intuitive way. Basically, as a king Van has to walk alone and kill all his enemies. But real kings, even shit ones, are surrounded by loyal soldiers and advisers. Whether that loyalty is based on equating the king with the country or on a desire to advance their own position. And a good king needs to understand the fine art of diplomacy. So, it's a bit weird that everyone around him just acts like his faults are just an ordinary part of being a king.
To its credit, the film does move at a decent pace and it has enough going on to keep your attention.
Characters:
There are two major issues with the characters. The first is the inconsistent characterisation. The second is that the bulk of the characters are pretty superfluous. Like, Van goes from bowing to Hitomi and offering to do anything for her to calling her a spy and threatening her in the span of a couple minutes. He then goes from not wanting anything to do with her to having her as the most important person. It's like he's a tsundere and wants her to know he doesn't like her or anything. The mole guy goes from worshipping her as a goddess to trying to get money out of her for no apparent reason. And our antagonist, Folken, shifts from torturing Dilandau for failing to smiling at him and acting like he needs him. It's like everyone in Gaea has severe bipolar disorder.
It doesn't help that there are very few characters in this film who we actually need for the film's plot to work. Most of them seem to be here because fans of the longer series will recognise them. You could pretty much get rid of Van's entire entourage since most of them have no real personality and do maybe one thing. Dilandau's men are pretty pointless too. To the point where there's a sequence where they're trying to retrieve Hitomi from Van and Dilandau is the only one who actually steps forward to engage him. Does he just keep them around as a glorified cheering squad? I mean, that could work if the film were more comedic and they actually cheered while he went into action. Not so much with what we actually have.
The major characters do have their own arcs with Hitomi learning to have hope and Van learning to let go of his past and move forward. They aren't particularly well executed but they're basically passable.
Art:
The big problem with the artwork is the whole atmosphere around Gaea. You get some stuff that looks a bit idyllic and gives Gaea a more typical fantasy setting but that's superimposed with these grim, heavily industrialised scenes that showcase the world destroying mecha and other science fiction technologies. You could legitimately take scenes from the small beast folk village, put them against scenes from the city where they have the final confrontation and persuade anyone who hasn't seen the film that they're from two different films.
That being said, there are some nicely done action sequences. The character designs are pretty well done too. This would be a pretty nice looking film if it had a more consistent look.
Sound:
The acting is fine. Seki Tomokazu, Sakamoto Maaya, Takayama Minami, & Nakata Jouji all do fine in their roles. If the film was better directed and the character writing was good, I could see them giving some much better performances. But, as is, they're okay. Kano Yokko & Mizoguchi Hajime make the sound track the best part of the film. It actually is really good.
Ho-yay:
There are a few moments where things get a bit homo-erotic between Hitomi and her friend. Nothing significant.
Areas of Improvement:
Have some actual arc behind shifts in how the characters feel about each other. It would be fine to have Van be suspicious of Hitomi from the start but when you precede that with him kneeling to her and don't have a discernible reason for him to start trusting her, it just comes across as clunky.
Tone down the dark, brooding aspect. You can't have a work that loves to hint at being more light-hearted but also revels in being dark and brooding and expect it to work well. This film would benefit a lot from less drastic shifts to its tone and atmosphere.
Fewer nothing characters, better executed arcs for the important ones. That may seem callous since there are people who watched the TV series and loved the characters who don't contribute anything to the film, but when you've got a little over an hour and a half, you have to make some choices about which characters to include and how to spend your time with the ones you have. And this film would definitely have benefited from spending less time with under-developed characters who contribute nothing and using that time to better flesh out the arcs of characters like Van and Hitomi.
Final Thoughts:
Ultimately, I think calling Escaflowne a bad film would be going too far. It's certainly clumsy and has quite a few issues stemming from that. Which is why I'm giving it a 4/10 and calling it sub-par.
theGreenDeath
Warning there will be some spoiles for both the movie and the show Escaflowne in the brief review that follows. Before I get to that, I'll give a capsule review: this is a very nice movie that takes the characters and basic plot structure of the TV show and crafts them in a way to talk about an entirely different set of themes. To get the most out of the movie some familiarity with the characters will be helpful, however being too tied to characters behaving and doing the same things as they did in the show will invariably lead to disappointment. SPOILERS AHEAD (I canonly talk about the themes of the show and movie with the aid of spoilers, I'll minimize plot spoilers as best as possible)
This is an interesting movie as the overall primary relationships between the characters from the show and those in the movie are largely the same. Of course, anyone outside of Hitomi and Van get considerably less to do, but such are the time constraints of a 90 minute movie compared to a twelve hour show. However thematically the story of the movie is used to talk about something very different than did the show.
The TV show seemed to show us that man's attempt to change and control fate and destiny, even when its done for pure reasons, has unintended destructive side effects. It isn't so much a free will versus determinism argument as much as it is a warning against trying to get too tangled in controlling fate, lest you get bit.
The movie however, doesn't go there at all and instead is a story about suicide and loneliness. There's a sort of fictional logic to the idea that a young girl on earth's desire to kill herself would hold the fate of an entire fantasy world in thrall. Here Hitomi is a very sad and lonely girl who lives life and yet is untouched by it. Her yearning for extinction is what draws her to Gaea, and through the process of meeting Von and realizing that she doesn't want him to want to die, she sees the value of life. The message here is very much about the power of choosing to live even through times of pain and how even though we are alone, within love we are also united.
I think both themes and stories are valid and I love how the same director returned to the well and brought up very different results. I'm curious to see if the manga offers a similarly diverse look at the same root material.
JermaineM
The techno fantasy potential is completely tapped and suits the darker theme, it's an absolutely beautiful improvement from the series that deserved a 16:9 movie. The title should be reinterpreted as: The Vision of Escaflowne: Alternate Fate (Valiant Wing Goddess). It is not a reboot, a retelling or a rewriting of the previous story. Many alternate fates are possible due to how the storyline was designed from the start, it's nice to had seen this one without the PG cushion the Escaflowne series was bound to. The movie would make little sense to anyone uninvested in the series since a great deal of background on these charactersis sourced from the viewer's prior knowledge of the series, this grants it a pass to be an abridged story, as it no longer needs to tell the whole story. So much of the true message of Escaflowne was lost, this movie puts it all back.
PS. Watch the Funimation version for a good time.
"In the darkness; the dragon wakes, till the heart numbs cold, the dragon roars, with you by my side; the dragon sleeps, when the dragon gains wings, our hopes will leap into the sky."
kuroyagi
The movie completely twisted the main characters of the Escaflowne series. It is undeniable that changes had to be made to better suit the pace of a movie, yet, the characters must have been kept intact since they were such a strong asset of the story. With the characters dropped out of the story frame, the story itself seems to be inconstant and rather banal compared to the series: Folken's problem with the world starts in ambiguity and ends with totally confusing the audience. However, the animation of the movie is good and the sound/music excellent. It can therefore be a good movie to watchfor someone who is not interested in the nit-picky details of the story and who hasn't seen Escaflowne before.
Konani
Completing the anime, i then watched the movie; the change in the story, plot and mood was more than radical! I had heard rumors before that the movie was something of a short summary of the series, and that it was much darker than the anime- but i could never have imagined it was to this extent! The beginning was like a sort of introduction to a psychological horror, and it continued to pull those strings through the very most of it. It was nice to recognize the characters from the anime, but they were all much different from the series. Though it could have been a bitlonger.
Rather anti-climax close to the end and just like the anime, i was mildly unsatisfied by the ending -it could well have been another hour to fill in the holes of the story and environment.
-Having seen the first series (and movies) of Evangelion, i couldn't help but compare the lovely (not) flesh-armor-robot theme they had going there.
I'd say you should watch the Anime series first, to get the most of the story and get to know the characters, and the plot- since the movie seems to be mostly about the blood, gore, torture and speeding things up to a rather unsatisfying end.
I would love to read the manga sometime so i could get the whole picture of this series, both the movie and the anime were much better than i had anticipated -though i missed a few elements in some places.
I'm still very happy that my strange favorite character of this series wasn't violently torn to pieces -though still suffered through a lot of pain...
Arjman89
BACK IN MY DAY (!), “The Vision of Escaflowne” was considered one of the pinnacles of Japanimation. It featured the triple threat of a great story, charismatic characters and gorgeous production values. And it also had cross gender appeal through romance and fortune-telling (popular in Japan at the time) for girls and dragons/mecha for the boys. Over time though, it was mostly forgotten in the rapidly growing fandom. Among those relatively older anime acolytes, it still remains a cherished favorite (for yours truly as well). So well received was it, that this big-screen version was birthed a few years later. Sadly, it was the lasttime we got to travel with Hitomi in Gaea.
“Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea” was one of the last epic anime films with the privilege of being done in cellular animation: and its quality shows. This ish’ is jaw dropping! Person designer Nobuteru Yūki’s drool-inducing creations are palpably elegant and have textural weight, a rarity in the medium. The central cast in particular will remind you of the moment you fell in love with anime’s strange hyper-reality. Visual moneyshots abound: beautiful clothing flowing in the wind, sunsets reflecting off of armor, and villains brooding in the dark. On that measure the movie is essential to animation enthusiasts of any stripe. Also of note are the action scenes, which are gorgeously done and whose fluidity and detail astound. The cinematography is often excellent as well, utilizing moments of like a landscape’s pensive stillness to punctuate and frame scenes. Some of the locations and background characters are a bit rote, but they still manage to be lovingly detailed and realized. Of course, musical couple Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizugitchi’s score is charismatic and memorable. I especially like the vocal and choral pieces and the lower key string ques are also intriguing. When the film gets its audio/visual narrative mixture right, the effect is almost mystical and extremely captivating!
Yet these virtues are blunted, because this is quite a flawed picture…ending a half hour premature for a normal movie epic, and being half hour too long for what the film actually provides in narrative. When I popped the movie in for the first time, I was dismayed to read its runtime on the keepcase because I knew it wasn’t long enough. In a typical television to big-screen fashion, there are way too many characters, and said characters motivations are vague and change when the story needs them to. We get treated to lots of cameos that distract from fleshing out the main trio of characters (Hitomi, Vaan and Folken) i.e. where the major drama waited to be cooked up. Boiling down about ten hours of television into ninety minutes is a difficult and admirable task, but one can’t help but wish that the product turned out differently. As said before, when this work gets it together, it WORKS. My favorite scene in the entire film occurs at Dryden’s Inn. Naria and Eyira, the cat sisters who served Folken in the anime, are adapted into two dancing girls. They sing an absolutely enchanting version of the film’s central song motif (“Song of the Dragon Clan” whose original version is a bit wonky to be honest) in what results as an actualization of just about everything I love in fantasy. The scene is draped in a bluish haze, parallel to the bluish notes of the new-age synthline that carrys the song, which is then held aloft by a slow electro pulse. The dancers are beautifully dressed in cultural costume and submerged in this interior scene where patrons converse and listen in a lifelike manner. The scene itself does not further the action directly, but instead shows us how elemental and important the legend of the Dragon Clan is to the general population of Gaia. It feels natural and inspired, and it naturally brings on chills. I love the short scene so much that I can’t help but lament about the rest of the film.
I must echo the usual complaints that we’ve heard over the years in that Hitomi is a shadow of her irresistible television personage due to how little time we get to understand why she feels so terrible. How did such a state attract the attention of Folken, who likely had access to countless other depressed teenagers? Why is she a chosen one? To be fair, when I watched this movie for the day of its DVD release in summer 2002, my passage through puberty was giving me the first tastes of chronic depression, a sign of what the rest of my life was to be like (my reasons for being depressed were certainly not very dramatic at all at that time). And of course such states mostly go unnoticed by passerby’s in reality, but we get all of a few lines of dialogue and scenes to impart her despondency. She cannot coalesce into a complicated and emotional teenager, instead wilting into someone mean spirited who lashes out at her friend for the heck of it. Spending more time on Earth with her and establishing her as the case as a link between worlds would have undoubtedly made her a much more appealing heroine and given the film the true center it needed. Someone derivative of Nausicaä or Nadia would have even worked much better. It is wise to show that Hitomi feels guilt over her previous behavior in one scene, but it isn’t enough. The obligatory “metaphysical” montage that we get at the end of film also gives us a few vague images and lines about loneliness that cannot stand up to the grandiosity surrounding it. The emotions and motivations of the characters should endeavor to be as baroque as their surroundings.
In a similar way, Folken’s ambiguous turncoat from the series is reduced to a rote nihilistic overlord out of a 90’s JRPG. His motivation to “end everything” is fueled merely because he was passed up in line for the throne, and that is it. It is unclear as to why he chooses to destroy his homeland instead of merely seizing it, and his world ending ambitions are just as uncertain. It is possible that the film hinted at this reason with his relationship to dark technologies and sorcery later on, and if he were subject to some mind-warping revelations then at least we would have that. But otherwise he is a significant weakness in the story. A shame. Van is the only character that gets somewhat close to being what he needs to be: a (secretly) compassionate warrior who nevertheless will stop at nothing to destroy the wicked, even if it means his own demise. It is hard not to be interested in someone like that! As a more aggressive and vengeful rendition of his TV character, we are treated to some very cool battle scenes and moments of quiet that show us his softer side that had been pushed underneath his surface. But again, there isn’t enough time to define him as more than just that.
The film really wants to be “Akira” or “Evangelion” in its more violent and destructive scenes, but merely shadows those milestones without taking faith in its own fantasy world. Escaflowne itself bleeds and contorts like the Eva units, while the telekinetic battles between Dragon Clan members are pure Tetsuo vs. Possessed Kei and tacked on for a big screen wallop. While they are admittedly cool and flawlessly done, they distract from the numerous phenomena that the TV series already had. The original was conceived as “Macross” mixed with “Dunbine” on paper but it resulted in “Escaflowne.” Here we get something like “Escaevakira.” I also suppose part of what makes me like the film is the fact that it is even connected to such a lovely and fun show. It is familiar, and gives us a chance to reenter the world of Gaea. And reality surely encourages repeat escapes to fantasy.
Despite all this dissing, I really like this movie, because there is the feeling that I have about it being “right” in what it is: a stately adventure through a different yet similar place that is filled with numerous familiar beings and locales. It is rather bare, lacks a real central focus and does not live up to its huge promise, but it somehow ends up being rather rich, riffs on some really cool motifs and at times conjures up real wonder and awe. But therein lies one of the film’s intrigues, a viewer knows that there is something very, very right going on despite all the elements that are very, very wrong. Personally, I am quite forgiving of ‘visual-feast’ type films because they serve a really important role in reminding audiences that not everything needs to be a tightly plotted potboiler. We as escapists need a chance to feel things beyond the immediately visceral. Images and music on their own have value, because they can say things in languages beyond what the tongue can conjure, and should not be neglected in the face of stone-faced rigidity and literalism. Animation has considerable powers to make us 3D beings feel 4D things through the illusion of motion and depth on a 2D surface. I only wished this formula worked in "Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea."
Playcool
Having seen Vision of Escaflowne a couple of months ago, I have finally (after much postponing) decided to see this movie. I wont go much into details about the whole thing, I will rather explain why I enjoyed it, briefly. The best thing of the movie is the visuals and animation... seriously for a movie of 2000 it was pretty awesome!! It is just beautiful, much better than VoE visuals, and those weirds nose are gone! The sound is the same of the 26's animated version, so you can count on that awesome "Escaflowne" battle song, that sadly only appears one time, a great battle... a pitythis movie is about Escaflowne but only near the end you see it fighting... in all its glory.
The story itself it is a different one versus the original, also being far darker. And that extends to its cast, manly Hitomi. As far as it goes, almost everyone from VoE makes an appearence, just dont expect them to have the same personalities, behaviors or goals (I prefered much more Van's brother from VoE...).
That is fine, while the setting is mostly the same, like I said, it is another story.
There is just one thing that makes sting me. I understand that it is a movie that strives to cover alot, in only 95 minutes, but that brings some problems like the pacing and development of its story and characters. If you are watching this for the story, it is watchable. Not bad, not that interesting either. As for characters, the development was too rushed, they behave a certain way, and suddently with certain scene, they just change and the whole transition was just not natural or realistic at all!
This means as a viewer, the connection built with the characters wont be as strong as it should...
Vision of Escaflowne done greatly on both of these traits (though with more episodes would be even better, but for 26... was great indeed), but the movie falls short on the floor, at this point having seen VoE and being a fan of it, actually helped alot since "I could justify a bit more their behaviors" remenbering their development on the main series, making it easier to swallow at the end. Still the flaw is there.
I reccomend this one, for the fans of the original to give it a try, just came with the mindset that at the end what will left the biggest impression will be the visuals and the sound, which produced some(ok one or two) really great action scenes, overall great animation that felt much more smooth than VoE's and maybe you will kind of enjoy the darker and bit more gory atmosphere that cames with the movie, like I did.
For the new guys to the series, if you enjoyed this one, please make an effort to see at least the first 10 episodes of the original, you will enjoy it more.
A good watch. I understood where they wanted to go, it had flaws, but was entertaining noneless.
Caeruleus_CCXVI
6.75/10 ~ Nice little standalone piece I just finished re-watching Visions of Escaflowne (the TV series) for the first time since I was a child, at the conclusion I realized when I went to leave a review that there was a title under "related" that I imagine most people never use. I then realized there was a movie related to the series and here I am. The movie is not a sequel but more of a retelling of the TV series from more or less begining to end. This movie is also not a recap and honestly should just be considered its own thing. Howeverthere are many key similarities:
-Most of the charecters return with a change of outfit or role
-most of the English voice cast returns in the same roll
-plot on a wide scope is very similar
-the movie leaves out alot of exposition assuming you have already seen the TV series, which I would assume that would be very jarring for a newcomer to the IP
Most of the pros and cons I have are directly compared to the TV series:
Pros:
- mobile suits are so much more special and powerful compared to the TV series, especially since they are NOT a dime a dozen
- Boddy horror was jarring in a good way to prove the sacrifice it takes to piolet these legendary machines
- the few songs were quite good and stood out, unlike the entire music score from the TV series
- animation felt more at home and matched the darker tones of the movie VS the much lighter tones of the TV series
--the quality of the animation was turned up significantly from the TV series
--this is just a beautiful movie... The animation is just dripping with emotion, that the characters lack. I would say this is closer to just being art then a drama.
- fight scenes were sooo much better, not close
- nearly ever character made a re-appearance even if it was just a cameo from the TV series
- short and sweet, as they made more of an emphasis on animation, action and the bio-mechanical
- I personally enjoyed the darker undertones of the Movie that the TV show tried to have but failed at
Cons:
- because of the nature of being a short movie and assuming you've seen the TV series everything felt rushed through
--movie pacing was too fast because they tried to cover too much in too short of a time
--no world building
--no good character development
--romance is pretty barebones
- plot felt like it was ripped from a videogame vs the TV series
- almost all character's motivation is just "okay I believe you"
- every single character felt like a cardboard cutout
- ending was pretty meh... "ill be here forever" lol
- past a few scenes such as suiting up in the Escaflowne... most of this will be forgotten
Over all I believe that this movie is a great standalone piece that wonderfully blends Fantasy and Scifi. This movie does feel diffrent enough where it does take on its own identify, this goes past the animation difference as it takes all the key concepts of the TV series and turns the dials up significantly; the scifi parts feel more scifi to a fantastical level. This will live in my mind next to Gundam: War in the Pocket, due to having some very memorable scenes and concepts but outside of those few scene the rest is so forgettable. I would say that this is the inferior product to the TV show, which I rated a 7.25/10, if you started here I urge you to go watch Visions next.
I would recommend watching this to anyone that has seen the TV series, and anyone that enjoys the blend of Scifi and Magic.
LightningComet
The Vision of Escaflowne (or TVE aka Television Escaflowne lol) is more than just a good show. It's borderline great, providing a coming-of-age story with a heartfelt message about being conscious of the consequences of one's actions and the ramifications of pursuing one's selfish desires. Not only is this exemplified in our main heroine, Hitomi Kanzaki, but it's also demonstrated in the story's hero, Van Fanel, his antihero brother, Folken, and especially the series' villain, Emperor Dornkirk. Throw in a pretty decent story, some stellar production values courtesy of Sunrise, and amazing music (from composers Hajime Mizoguchi and Yoko Kanno, hell yeah!) and youhave a classic of the isekai genre and of anime as a whole. I give it a rock-solid 8 out of 10.
So where does Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea, a film reboot of the series, go wrong?
Well, to give some context, TVE was kind of like Sunrise combining The Lord of the Rings with Mobile Suit Gundam to make something slightly fantastical, scientific, and epic enough to have giant robots. However, I guess that when this film was in development, Japan was more taken with a mecha franchise different from Gundam, so the developers decided to shift things up a bit, taking away a lot of the science fiction and replacing it with straight fantasy (which I wouldn't mind, but the green magic farts are pretty lame). And blood. Lots of blood. This movie is not for young teens, people. Be forewarned.
If TVE was a love child of LOTR and MSG, then Escaflowne is a combination of LOTR (with more Asian influence) and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and not always in ways that are as freaking awesome as that sounds.
I'lll go into how the characters feel like they belong in Evangelion later; first, I have to address how much I love the Eva-like redesigns of the mechs in this film. Yes, there basically is only one scene with any Guymelefs, and they don't even call them that, but my God is that scene a ton of fun to watch. I can gush for a whole paragraph about how the armors suck the pilot's blood and give them a Pacific-Rim-before-Pacific-Rim-like control scheme and all that, and about how the machines move and sound weirdly organic with shiver-inducing Eva-like squelching sounds and UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! It' so freaking cool!!! Visually, this may just be one of my favorite works by Sunrise/Bones ever for both the character/mech designs as well as the sheer quality of the art and animation on display. Shading is intensive, animation is almost always very fluid, and while it is true that some background characters are not always drawn super-well, they move and emote frequently (especially in the scenes outside Gaea), and they definitely look better than in a later Bones original film, Sword of the Stranger.
Also better than in Sword of the Stranger is the music. Goddamn, this music is incredible. Some tracks do find there way here from TVE (same composers and all), but for the most part, the score is original, with a few insert songs here and there and some truly mesmerizing pieces. Some of my favorite tracks are "Into GAEA" and "Black Escaflowne". You can find both of them, as well as most if not all of the soundtrack, on YouTube. I highly, HIGHLY recommend you check it out. While we're in the sound department, I'll mention that the Japanese voice acting is pretty great. I didn't watch either of the English dubs, but while I prefer the original Ocean dub over the Funimation dub for TVE, neither really hold a candle to TVE's Japanese dub, and while the Ocean dub may be better than the Funimation dub for the film, I didn't bother finding out if that's entirely true. Unlike with TVE, there is actually a Blu-ray release of the original dub. Funimation has their own release now, but the Bandai Blu-ray is, if I am correct, cheaper to buy than the Funimation release. However, it won't be around forever, which makes it even more tragic that Funimation didn't do a great job with casting for their dub. If you do want to buy TVE, I would recommend buy the Funimation Blu-ray for the sole reason that you can watch it in 1080p, but the original Bandai DVD releases (in 480p) can be found in a nice collection as part of their "Anime Legends" imprint for a price that is an ABSOLUTE STEAL. Seriously, less than 17 dollars for TVE? Sign me the hell up. However, if you reeeeeeally want that sweet HD, just ignore the Funimation dub, because they totally screwed up the voices of Van, Folken, Dilandau, and Mole Man, even if all-around line delivery is better than in the Ocean dub.
To backtrack a bit, with all these comparisons to Sword of the Stranger, one would think I was getting a similar vibe when watching Escaflowne, and while that is definitely true, I am happy to say that I was never really bored with this movie (mainly because it's half an hour shorter), at least not until the end which certainly drags its feet with a too-long epilogue sequence. It's here that we can dive into the negative parts of this film.
I get that Evangelion is popular and that it's a landmark franchise of animation to the point that Bones would try again to make a series heavily influenced by it with RahXephon just a few years later (their first original project, if I am correct). I also understand that Escaflowne could have worked with Hitomi being a version of Shinji Ikari (i.e. anxious, depressed, uncertain, and very, VERY lonely), but unlike Shinji or her small screen counterpart, Hitomi is extremely passive and acts more as a damsel in psychological distress than being an active character in the film. In fact, the handling of Hitomi's angst and near-suicidal tendencies is executed extremely poorly, both in conception and resolution. While we do get some actually decent scenes with her before she teleports to Gaea that demonstrate her mental state, nothing establishes exactly why she feels the way she does. Shinji Ikari comes from a broken family that he barely even remembers, so it makes sense for him to be angsty and insecure. Granted, TVE Hitomi's family life didn't have any real development either, but were shown to be loving and kind; why not just go all the way with her being a knock-off Shinji in this film and do it right by giving her a similar backstory? Say something like "her parents got divorced and she didn't take it well" or, if you don't want to mention her family at all, say "she was mercilessly bullied in school because she liked performing tarot card readings and inadvertently pissed off a queen bee". Actually, I like that second one. It relates the film further to TVE. In my own headcanon, I'm just going to pretend that's the film's explanation for her mental state and why she has no tarot cards, because it's certainly better than the nothing that we got. Perhaps there was more originally, but they got cut from the film.
Hitomi aside, Van and Folken are, unfortunately, also quite poorly developed, despite the fact that they are central to the drama. The story is this: because Van was found to be destined to become Fanelia's king, Folken murdered their parents and destroyed the entire country, believing that the only way to end suffering and sorrow was with utter, absolute annihilation. Pretty dumb and absurd, right? Yes. Van has dialed the edginess to freaking 15, convinced that his only purpose in life is to avenge his family and country by killing Folken. Just one-note characters all around (although Dilandau is the kind of one-note character I love). The setup is equally simple and dumb; Folken wants Hitomi to summon Escaflowne (which is her superpower in this film, not divination, hence no tarot cards) to allow Folken to pilot it and destroy everything, and Hitomi has to overcome her own mental hangups in order to... tell Folken "no"... (sigh, really?)... and help Van through his problems in order for him to pilot it instead without destroying Gaea. This may work on paper, but there is no real transitional phase, no key series of events that brings Hitomi out of her depression and makes it inevitable, not obvious while also out of left field, that she would help Van work through his issues. Additionally, I don't buy their relationship for half a second; while TVE Van actually expressed human moments, vulnerability, and kindness toward others, this Van is only edge, only violent outbursts (he even draws his sword to kill Hitomi when they first meet and ends up raging against Allen). The relationship is no less than borderline dysfunctional; while they are similar in that they have both been hurting for a very long time, Van shows no positive emotion, no redeeming qualities, and does nothing to give Hitomi the mental and emotional aid she needs, just saving her life at one point. And that heals her just fine. Remember that scene in Parasyte, when Tamiya Ryoko (a murderer initially devoid of empathy) sacrificed her life to protect her baby and teach the hero, Shinichi, that he actually can still feel, care, and cry for other beings? That empathy is essential to living a fulfilling life? You know, the one (EXACTLY ONE) scene in any anime where I legitimately almost cried? Yeah, nothing like that here, and Escaflowne desperately needed something similar to even come close to working.
Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea is not a good film. In fact, one would not likely be hard-pressed to find someone who is legitimately insulted by how they handle Hitomi's mental health problems. I'll spell it straight out in all seriousness: Hitomi does not need Van, a violent sociopath. She needs a therapist, someone who is patient, able to feel for her, and is willing to guide her to a better state of mind. Insulting as this film is, though, I still appreciate the level of craft and passion that went into making it, and I did in fact find it entertaining, even if it is absolutely, unequivocally a dumb movie that thinks it's way smarter than it is. In my book, that's even worse than something that fundamentally misunderstands how to explain what it wants to say with characters that make sense (see Eden of the East), but at least Escaflowne is shorter than a TV series. I can see myself rewatching it for some scenes, but the writers missed the mark big time. Stick to the TV series, The Vision of Escaflowne. It is a classic, and it has stood and will continue to stand the test of time.
Happy Watching!
- LC
annelg400
I have a particular taste for anime and this one was a little too dark for me. The animation (particularly the eyes) seemed a little odd. Not nearly as beautiful as some. Well done overall but not a favorite of mine.
ramimanify
The movie is everything the TV show isn't yes it is But be warned the plot doesn't take some major turn about and transform anything to something new we're still blessed with characters who do not know what their role is, and right to their dying moments they are confused and irritably blank-faced with the-expression of (oh-fate-love-who-am-I) kind of stare The opening scene may be promising but the whole lot of the movie just don't cut it, it doesn't deliver the amount of gore and/or angst the movie prided itself to have contained But even with all that I think the movie is a bit better than the TVseries, at least the main male character is
Lockensocke
The original „The vision of Escaflowne“ TV-show from 1996 is one of the greatest anime of all time. It had spectacular world building, interesting and realistic characters and an unmatched OST making the emotional scenes that much more impactful and the action scenes that much more exciting. At the end it perfectly wrapped everything up in a tight package with no need for more. 4 years later someone decided to make a movie about it. So how do you follow such a masterpiece with a movie? Well the only conclusion I can draw out of this case study is…. you don’t. The Escaflowne moviebasically is an attempt of a retelling of the original “The vision of Escaflowne” show with the same characters (not all of course), but in a different setting and everything is basically a bit different now. It is ridiculous to believe a movie that spans 90 min can achieve what a show did in 26 episodes, however the movie tries to attempt that. For example look at the romance between the 2 main characters. In the tv-show a slow build up that is relatable with setbacks until at the end everything comes together to make it that much more fulfilling, while in the movie they talk to each other for like 2 times (once in a very aggressive manner, almost leading to the death of one of them) and suddenly Hitomi wants to stay at Vans side forever? It would be just pathetic if it wasn't so insulting to the TV-show.
Then there is no world building and no politics in the movie, which already takes away a large part what makes the original great and besides being a weak attempt of a romance the movie boils down to a generic action flick. While in the original the villains had motivation that was somewhat understandable, here they are just bad because the script told them to. And when the movie tackles some interesting ideas, like seeing your previous allies being forced to work for the villains to survive, with the moral implication how to deal with it, this situation gets instantly resolved and forgotten about in an instant. Basically the movie doesn’t want to try anything new, like killing off main characters and shine the spotlight on someone else, its just the most boring re-imagination, stripping off all that was great about “The vision of Escaflowne” without adding anything of value.
As I eluded before, the whole movie was too fast paced and couldn’t even make the action scenes interesting. There were no stakes or threats or any worth while connection between villains and main characters. The end felt rushed and not well thought through.
The only thing good about the movie is its visuals and audio. The animation was top notch, and the artstyle nice, although since all character look a little different from the original it felt a bit weird and not correct. The whole astetics of the movie had this feudal japan vibe to it which I found also not really fitting for Escaflowne. The OST was also nice. The best songs were still taken from the original but it had some nice additions. It shows however that all the money you spend on making your movie look and sound nice is lost if you cant make the story engaging and your characters interesting.
So overall the Escaflowne movie is rubbish. It’s like they wanted to include so many things; romance, character relationships and pasts, action and so on in a 90 min movie, rushing through everything half-heartedly not achieving anything of value. Just dont watch it.
Draly
Escaflowne the movie differs greatly from Escaflowne the series. One could have seen this as an opportunity to address the many problems of the source material regarding its plot and poorly written characters but the movie is actually plagued by the same mediocre storytelling the series were... The main problem of the movie probably comes from the fact it is, just like the series, way to short for the story Akane is trying to tell, making everything feel rushed and contrived. This is emphasised even more by the staff's concern for fanservice as they try to shoehorn in a 90min film every characters from a seriesthat already had too many. As a result most of them serve no purpose other than making a little cameo and hurt the overall plot that cannot properly focus on its main protagonists. For example the sole purpose of Allen here is a short duel with Van, that clearly has no stakes whatsoever. And, because of this, character growth suffers: for example Hitomi starts out as depressed and suicidal but magically becomes fine ten minutes later. Motivations are not clearly presented, or become overly simplistic (Folken), and even the basic political situation of Gaea is left for the spectator to guess, so that I don't think anyone who has not seen the original series (and I said seen, not enjoyed) would appreciate the story that they are being told... Who is Allen ? Why is Van travelling with him if they don't like each other and if he does everything by himself anyway ? Millerna is a princess but of what country ? Why is she with Allen and why is she a medic ? Who is Dryden and why is he important ? Who is this woman that stays by Folken's side ? Why do Dilandau's goons support him ? They mention sorcerers at one point but they are not shown to the spectator even once and have no impact on the plot... The movie clearly tried to simplify the action but still kept way more than it could handle.
Along with the many simplifactions come some modifications and even some additions (sigh...). The most obvious one is the fact that Van and Folken have now become moronic edgelords, almost to the same level as Dilandau. In fact everything is has more edge, the anime has become more violent, the tone is darker, Hitomi is suicidal in the beginning... This is not a bad thing in and of itself but the execution is, once again, deeply flawed... The ending is particularly anticlimactic (it was too in the series but this does not make the movie better) with an avorted showdown between the two brothers that does not solve anything and Jajuka coming to kill Folken out of nowhere. The same could be said about Hitomi coming from earth, which yields even less of a pay-off than it did in the show. I do not see how adding magic powers to a few characters is relevant to the plot either.
Visuals are once again one of the strengths of Escaflowne. The animation is gorgeous and backgrounds are grandiose with beautiful colors and composition. Still I feel the original was aesthetically more pleasing, mainly because I think the redesigns are not as interesting and novel as they were in the source material (though I like the more organic look of Escaflowne specifically), but also because the image darker overall. Music is still great but not as memorable as it was in the series.
Strangely, Escaflowne the movie manages to have the exact same strengths and weaknesses (albeit exacerbated) as Escaflowne the series while changing the plot dramatically. I think it is a little worse than the show but not catastrophic if only for its visuals and soundtrack.
banichan
I rewatched this film recently, and personally it still works for me. Since there are already many reviews, I'll just lay out a few thoughts I had. Note that I have only had minor exposure to Escaflowne the series and have not watched the whole thing. - It's pretty likely you'll be disappointed if you really loved the original Escaflowne series and are hoping for something similar to that. This film has a different tone, a different storyline, a completely different theme, and also removes Hitomi's fortune-telling. Luckily for me, I had very little exposure to the series when I saw thismovie the first time.
- Thematically, this is very much a post-Eva type of anime - dark, bloody, emotional. In some ways, it reminds me RayEarth (the OVA), which was a darker AU rewrite of the original bright fantasy adventure Magic Knight Rayearth. I don't mind this sort of "dark reboot" if it's done well, and Escaflowne is definitely better comparatively than RayEarth - Escaflowne's storyline is internally consistent, people have at least basic motivations, and the magic system doesn't feel like it's being pulled out of nowhere as we go.
- I actually felt most of the characters were more interesting here than the impression I have of them from the series. Allen, instead of being some sort of doofy dream knight, is straight badass. Hitomi starts out kind of annoying, but is also (as I recognized more and more with time) a decent portrayal of depression, imo. I also just really prefer this Millerna.
- I really appreciate how they handled the main emotional storyline. Specifically, I find it compelling that, at the beginning, all 3 of the main characters (Hitomi, Van, and Folken) are in the same general place - hurt, angry, bitter and lashing out at their friends because they don't know how to handle it. The Gaea storyline then ends up becoming one centered around finding people and things to help you, or continuing to lash out and push everyone away.
- The music is wonderful. I also still find the art pretty solid as well - this film has a lot of very good imagery and the director clearly had a direction and made some very purposeful shot choices. The "Tree of Hearts" sequence is still one of my favorites.
- Finally, maybe this is just a me thing, but I actually liked that there wasn't a super strong romantic emphasis. You can easily interpret Hitomi/Van as being a thing, and even Folken and Sora have some one-sided love vibes, but there isn't anything overtly romantic in the story. I know this is a pretty big change from the series, which had a frankly soapy amount of romantic entanglements, but I've never been huge on romance-heavy stories, and I think it's worthwhile to also celebrate close relationships that aren't romantic.
--
Just to clarify, though, I don't actually think this movie is perfect. Here are a few criticisms:
- The way the story is set up does lead the viewer to potentially compare Hitomi's initial problems (seemingly just modern depression) with the Gaea characters' problems (destruction of entire civilizations and war PTSD). This is by no means me saying that depression isn't a real problem, it's just that the movie sort of unintentionally leads you to compare the background of why the characters are depressed, which leads to this weird sense of scope imbalance when Hitomi's depression doesn't have the same sort of dramatic root.
- The movie was pretty short, so there's not enough time to shows us much of the side characters. I would have really loved to get at least a little more of the caravan crew, and what the stories were of the cool new Allen and Millerna.
- Also probably due to time restrictions, a few things felt like they jumped a little fast. The biggest example is Hitomi's stay at the village, where things feel like they suddenly progressed a little faster than entirely realistic. (Sorry for the vagueness, trying to avoid spoilers.)
--
Overall, I still really enjoyed it years later as an adult. Maybe some of it is the nostalgia, or the fact that I got into anime around the heyday of dark post-Eva 00s series, or just because I watched RayEarth (which was honestly not very good) recently. Still, I think it's worth a try, particularly if you don't know much about the original or are okay with a completely different AU.
Blue_Cake
This movie was truly enjoyable to watch, but going into it you need to realize this isn't any sort of sequel to the original series. This movie is a re-imagined version of the original 26 episode tv series, and is very different. The best way to look at it is an alternate story, spin-off to the original or an entirely different story(this also means you don't have to watch the tv show first to watch and enjoy the movie). STORY(7): I'm not gonna give a synopsis of the story, I will just say that to me this movie brought across a moving and compelling story thathad me interested and wanting more until the very end. I only wish it was longer and had more time to dedicate to a more in depth story and character development(but that's usually the case with animated movies).
CHARACTERS(7):
I have heard some people complain about how the characters are nothing like the original tv show, and I would have to agree that they are a good deal different, however, I don't believe the characters should be put down for simply being different. As I said this movie should be viewed as an entirely different story. That aside I didn't have a problem with the characters, they were all interesting and had decent depth put into them considering the length of the movie.
ART:
I'll start by saying the art and animation was very enjoyable to watch, and even though I had no problem with the art of the original tv show, I would have to say this movie does a better job. The art looks a lot brighter, cleaner, and more detailed.
SOUND(7):
Now I'm no expert or serious critic when it comes to the music of an anime, it is simply whether the music is enjoyable and fits. Escaflowne accomplished this, and managed to include some beautiful soundtracks that I really enjoyed hearing. As for the voice acting, I watched the English dub version and thought the actors all did a very good job and were well cast for their roles.
ENJOYMENT(8):
The biggest factor in me rating this movie was my enjoyment and I very much enjoyed this movie, I loved seeing familiar characters re-designed and with different personalities and roles, it was enjoyable for me all the way through.
*sigh* if only there was more...
The_Namer
The Vision of Escaflowne TV series is a classic, filled with rich, sympathetic characters, and stands head-and-shoulders above pretty much every show cluttering the isekai genre these days. Escaflowne the movie is none of these things. So, what went wrong? A lot seems to stem from who the film was made for. The Escaflowne TV series ended up being a lot more popular internationally than it was in Japan, and I suspect that led them to retool the tone to fit what was the common western perception of anime in the 90s, ie. mindless violence for teenage boys. Consequently, the film ispointlessly violent, with limbs being hacked off all over the place, and the elegant Escaflowne robot from the TV series is turned into a blood-sucking biomechanical nightmare. The characters fare even worse, with most being turned into grimdark mockeries of their TV incarnations, and the main villain being reduced to a one-dimensional shell of his former self. While Van being turned into a blood-thirsty psychopath is the most jarring change, it's the changes to protagonist Hitomi that ultimately break the story.
Complaints around the changes to Hitomi tend to focus on her being suicidal at the start of the movie. I don't actually see that as a problem, since it gives her the potential for a decent arc of character growth. What breaks her role in the story is the removal of her premonitions. TV Hitomi manages to remain proactive as an unarmed high-school girl in a world where everyone else solves their problems with swords and robots, and she does this by struggling to prevent the impending disasters that she sees in her visions. This ability is taken away from movie Hitomi, and is replaced with... nothing. Consequently, while the movie follows Hitomi's perspective for the most part, she doesn't really do anything for the first half of the movie. She just stands around quietly looking at the scenery while everyone shouts, "Hey look, it's the Wing Goddess" at her.
The other major problem with movie Hitomi is how her character development is handled. Rather than occurring organically from her actions (because she doesn't take any action), halfway through the movie she just abruptly stops being depressed and falls in love with Van because... that's what happens. It's especially bizarre that she falls for Van in their second scene together, since in their first shared scene he is on the verge of murdering her for the crime of getting within 20 metres of him, until he gets distracted by some of his allies getting within 20 metres of him and tries to murder them instead.
The movie is admittedly beautiful, with animation direction that's even more visually arresting than the TV series, and Yoko Kanno turns in another great musical score, but this doesn't come close to saving a movie that has none of the heart and soul that made the TV series so special.
