Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 version that I have is part of a limited edition box set, with eight DVDs in a flip-top box (quite an attractive box); the limited edition also includes an exclusive Escaflowne figurine. The first disc of the box set contains the same episodes as this R4 one. I don't like the R1 cover slick, partly because it contains a major spoiler; the Region 4 slick is rather more attractive, although it looks like it may have been drawn by a different artist — at least the R1 slick is in keeping with the show. Interestingly, the R1 slick uses the one-word title EscaFlowne, while the R4 says The Vision of Escaflowne; both have the volume title of Dragons and Destiny.

    The Region 4 disc is missing:

• folded piece of paper ("booklet") with some background information on dragons in Gaea.

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

• production sketches gallery
• soundtracks at 224kbps (R1 soundtracks are 192kbps)
• a second layer (R1 disc is single layer)
• attractive picture label (R1 has a simple text label)

    If you read the feature list for the R1, you might think that it lacks the credit-less opening. In fact, this is present, at the start of the music video segment. It has different trailers (for Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, Haunted Junction, and Blue Submarine #6), but that's not important.

    The Region 1 transfer does not show interleaving like the Region 4, but it shows at least as much aliasing. At normal speed, the two are roughly equivalent to the eye, but I think the R1 is a little cleaner.

    All up, I find it hard to choose which is "better". I'm going to call it pretty much even.