Customer Reviews

Escaflowne - Paradise & Pain (Vol. 5)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Great series, but unfortunately Bandai has just about the worst customer service imaginable. They take several days to answer emails concerning their products, and once they do answer your email, they deny that there is any problem on their part and blame all difficulties on sony. Nevermind the fact that their new casing is cheap and their new method of making these DVDs won't work on ps2s.

When Van is stopped from killing Dilandau by a mysterious voice it triggers a reaction that forces Hitomi to go into a trance to try to bring him back to consciousness. What Hitomi sees in Van's mind is a vision of lost Atlantis, and Van overcome by terrible dread. Not only must she find a way bring Van back before he is swept away in his memories of the Atlantean cataclysm, she must help him recover his courage.

In the meantime, Dryden the merchant pieces together some clues and discovers that the secret they are looking for is in The Mystic Valley - the hidden home of the Atlanteans on Gaea. With the help of the diary of Allen Schezar's father, Dryden pinpoints the location on the continent of Asgard. This throws Allen into his own conflict - his father deserted Allen and his mother in his quest for the valley and Allen has never forgiven him.

Perhaps the most striking revelation is the nature of Hitomi's powers - that she is quite a bit more than an amateur card reader. Hitomi nearly crumbles when she realizes the extent of her responsibilities. Bringing the third of Escaflowne's main characters face to face with her own crisis. And the Mystic Valley is not necessarily the best place to have an identity crisis.

For a set of episodes where much of the action is internal, there is much to look at and absorb. The viewer will discover the truth of Gaea and get a deeper glimpse into the Zaibach Empire. One such is a bit of the story of Dilandau who has apparently been through brainwashing by the Sorcerers. To what point we have yet to find out, but perhaps he is more than the psychotic we've been let to see him as.

Writer Shoji Kawamori and Director Kazuki Akane have mastered the trick of pulling a new layer of the story out of their creative hats almost at will. Nor are they afraid to shift from romance, to philosophy, to action drama. The result is a story with enough to satisfy and grow with it's innumerable fans. Well worth pursuing.

Escaflowne is the one of the greatest masterpieces ever. And I mean ever. Everything is done right... from the plot, the characters, the originality, the beautiful music, everything. If you are into the fantasy genre, you have to check this out.

Yes, the PS2 is my primary DVD player, so I can't watch this right now. But there is good news. This summer, with the release of GT3 and the Sony PS2 DVD remote control, Sony will also be releasing updated DVD drivers that can be installed and will fix this and many other glitches.

Even with the fact that I can't watch this DVD, it still gets 5 stars for content, thanks to top-notch animation, gorgeous music, and a great great great story.

The first thing you'll notice about this release is the shoddy soft plastic case (despite having one of the nicest covers thus far). The next thing you may notice (if you're using a PS2 to play the DVD) is that it doesn't work. This is my experience. It seems Bandai has switched DVD recording companies with Volume 5 (from CMCA to Future Media). Neither volume 5 or 6 will read on my PS2. I am devastated...

I finally broke down and bought Escaflowne, I was lucky and was able to get a limited boxed set at suncoast ><. I strongly suggest you get this series, and do not read the little synospis online it will ruin it for you...but back to the review, i can't say how much i enjoyed this series. I am a yoai fan, and if your reading this you know what that is... I always, and i mean always change the character's relationships around so that its always two boys/men. This was the only series in which i could not break the male from his female love intrest to pair him with another guy ( your safe Van, Allen)... for me that takes a very good series, and i am not saying that with a grain of salt, so Buy this series watch it, and then watch the movie which is also very good, however the movie is very dark outright were the series is more stuble darkness... BUY ESCAFLOWNE BUY IT... i know the noses get kinda annoying with there sharpness... but its very good, god i think i am going to go watch it now...

In this 5th volume of Escaflowne, we fianlly get to see what is the power of Atlantis; the power of wishes. But, we learn that when a person has axienty in thier hearts, those anxienties turn to be bad ones, and effects people in a bad way. Van and Allen was wounded because Hitomi abused her power of Fortune-telling. Escaflowne is getting interesting.

This is the 5th volume to this wonderful series and it is one of the more informative ones. In it, our group of main characters goes to Atlantis (or the ruins of Atlantis) and discover the secret of it's power and the tragedy of Allen's past. Also, you find out about how Dornkirk came form Earth to the Gaea and about his obsession with the Gravity of Destiny. Must have for Escaflowne addicts.

First of all, this is truly a masterpiece worth adding to any otaku collection out there, it's incredible two thumbs up!

Yes, I guess I will join the frustrated club of people who can't get the damn disc to play on their PS2s. I don't even know myself why is that, I guess it was mastered in a different way than the others that makes it incompatible with Sony's system. Last night I was going to get ready to see it when I realized that it didn't want to play and I got this "Unable to read disc" message, I was shocked. I tried to change the Region on the PS2 settings but it did not work. I was going to send it back to Amazon but I read in time the customers reviews and found out what was wrong. It is a real shame that companies that bother to bring to America such splendid anime series don't care about translating and producing high quality products, the only thing that is going to happen is that anime otakus will question the anime quality and even think that a certain serie is not that good. It is just like Slayers first set where the Japanese sound phase was inverted and play wrong on many people DVD players.

Fortunately, I know that Escaflowne is a true winner and the animation, music, and storyline are clearly planned to achieve one of the best animated series I ever seen in my life. The music is beautifully composed and arranged properly throughout the whole series, giving viewers a feel of the story, it really makes me be part of it. I just love it! ...One thing that I don't like about the dub version is the characters voices, they just don't have the passion that the Japanese had and therefore something is missed from the original version. An example of this can be found on disc 1 in the four episode "The Diabolical Adonis" when Merle is captured by Allen's soldiers. She tells Van that Fanelia was burned down and everyone died defending their town. Check the dub version and then the original and you will see what I mean. It doesn't have the same energy nor passion to efficiently communicate the message. It's a good try though but not enough. I also discovered that if you are watching the first episode right after the prologue ends the disc stops playing and you get the same message I mentioned before. A bug? was it mastered incorrectly? who knows for sure. ...

Anyway, if any if you otaku have any problems playing this or any other disc let me know, maybe we can all do something about this situation. Bombed Bandai with millions of emails and give them a hard time perhaps? Also, if anyone knows where I can lay my hands on the Escaflowne movie let me know please.

See ya all!

Favorites series

1 Escaflowne (of course)
2 MKR
3 Slayers
4 Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

First of all, this is truly a masterpiece worth adding to any otaku collection out there, it's incredible two thumbs up!

Yes, I guess I will join the frustrated club of people who can't get the damn disc to play on their PS2s. I don't even know myself why is that, I guess it was mastered in a different way than the others that makes it incompatible with Sony's system. Last night I was going to get ready to see it when I realized that it didn't want to play and I got this "Unable to read disc" message, I was shocked. I tried to change the Region on the PS2 settings but it did not work. I was going to send it back but I read in time the customers reviews and found out what was wrong. It is a real shame that companies that bother to bring to America such splendid anime series don't care about translating and producing high quality products, the only thing that is going to happen is that anime otakus will question the anime quality and even think that a certain serie is not that good. It is just like Slayers first set where the Japanese sound phase was inverted and play wrong on many people DVD players.

Fortunately, I know that Escaflowne is a true winner and the animation, music, and storyline are clearly planned to achieve one of the best animated series I ever seen in my life. The music is beautifully composed and arranged properly throughout the whole series, giving viewers a feel of the story, it really makes me be part of it. I just love it! ^o^!!! One thing that I don't like about the dub version is the characters voices, they just don't have the passion that the Japanese had and therefore something is missed from the original version. An example of this can be found on disc 1 in the four episode "The Diabolical Adonis" when Merle is captured by Allen's soldiers. She tells Van that Fanelia was burned down and everyone died defending their town. Check the dub version and then the original and you will see what I mean. It doesn't have the same energy nor passion to efficiently communicate the message. It's a good try though but not enough. I also discovered that if you are watching the first episode right after the prologue ends the disc stops playing and you get the same message I mentioned before. A bug? was it mastered incorrectly? who knows for sure. I just hope is not the same thing with the 7 and 8 volumes or I will kill Bandai and then myself for purchasing their products. I did not experience any problems with disc 6 as someone else claimed, it plays just fine but if what he is saying is true then maybe, PS2 were manufactured differently or is just Bandai's fault as usual.

As for what Jason de la Torre said about the Fox version he is right, I couldn't agree more on what Fox did to this awesome piece of art. And that word mutilated, it is the best I could possibly have come up with to describe what they did for the sake to air it on Fox for kids. Certainly the intended audience is not kids but adults. When is Fox going to learn that they just can't go all the time doing this just to have something for their viewers to see.

Anyway, if any if you otaku have any problems playing this or any other disc let me know, maybe we can all do something about this situation. Bombed Bandai with millions of emails and give them a hard time perhaps? Also, if anyone knows where I can lay my hands on the Escaflowne movie let me know please.

See ya all!

Favorites series

1 Escaflowne (of course)
2 MKR
3 Slayers
4 Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040