Escaflowne-Volume 2: Betrayal and Trust (2000) |
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Escaflowne-Volume 2: Betrayal and Trust (2000) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Anime |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Credits-Creditless Ending (1:12) Featurette-Club Escaflowne (18:17) Gallery-Production sketches (20) Trailer-Madman Propaganda (4) |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 92:55 (Case: 100) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (46:16) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Kazuki Akane |
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Studio
Distributor |
Sunrise, Inc. Madman Entertainment |
Starring |
Maaya Sakamoto Kelly Sheridan Tomokazu Seki Kirby Morrow Shinichiro Miki Brian Drummond Ikue Ootani Jocelyne Loewen Minami Takayama Andrew Francis Joji Nakata Paul Dobson |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
Yoko Kanno Hajime Mizoguchi |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Dolby Digital 2.0  (224Kb/s)Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | Yes | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, next episode preview | ||
Volume 2 of The Vision of Escaflowne, known as Escaflowne to its friends, is subtitled Betrayal and Trust. You really should read about Escaflowne Volume 1: Dragons and Destiny before reading this review.
When we left Hitomi, she was on a floating air-ship with Allen and his crew of cheerful cutthroats. Van had transformed Escaflowne into a dragon and led the Zaibach flying guymelefs away from the ship. This volume gives us rather more background to the land of Gaea, and we get to meet new people, some good, some bad.
Despite the giant mecha, and the considerable amount of action, this series is definitely shoujo. That's not to denigrate it, though — it's a fine show, and quite entertaining. It means we'll get rather more drama, and somewhat less violence for the sake of violence (although there is no lack of violence!).
The episodes on this disc are:
| 5 | The Seal of the Brothers | We learn that Van's elder brother is alive, and who he is |
| 6 | City of Intrigue | Palas, capital of Asturia, is not the safe haven they thought it to be |
| 7 | Unexpected Partings | Hitomi drinks too much at the king's table, sees something she didn't want to, and gets kidnapped |
| 8 | The Day the Angel Flew | Hitomi's vision of being rescued by an angel comes true in an unexpected way |
Among the interesting features of these episodes is learning a bit more about the principles of flight in Gaea. The flying fortresses of Zaibach, and flying ships like Allen's, fly because they are attached to levi-stones — big lumps of rock that simply fly. Interestingly, we learn that heating the levi-stones reduces this property, so a levi-ship can touch down by heating the rocks. The other thing we learn is that the drag-energists that power the guymelefs (and parts of the levi-ships) are not always obtained by killing a dragon (which is how Van got the one he uses in Escaflowne) — they can also be excavated from the Dragon's Boneyard (analogous to the legends of the Elephant's Graveyard in Africa) from the bones of long-dead dragons.
During these episodes Hitomi has a distinct crush on Allen. Allen is also being pursued rather openly by Princess Millerna, princess of Asturia. Her sister, Princess Eries, is certain that Allen's only reason for reacting to Millerna is her resemblance to Marlene — Allen tells Eries he will never love again after Marlene (yeah, right!). Merle seems to be treating Hitomi more nicely now, possibly because she no longer thinks Hitomi is after Van.
Dilandau, who appeared psychotic in the first volume, gets worse in this one. He takes offence at the slightest (imagined) fault. He strikes the bearer of bad tidings. And he already has it in for Van. So when he gets a real reason to hate Van, he becomes distinctly deranged. It is all Folken can do to restrain him from tearing Asturia apart in his fervour to find Van, despite the Emperor's instructions. This guy is a real fruit loop, and a dangerous one (interesting idea: dangerous breakfast cereal...).
Hitomi gets a chance to show off her athletic prowess at one point. It's interesting to note that the writer of the English script has no idea of the metric system: 5 or 6 metres (in Japanese) gets translated into 8 or 9 feet (5 metres is really about 16.5 feet...).
There is a listing of episodes on the inside of the front cover (visible through the inside of the transparent case). It contains an error, listing the second episode as Capital of Intrigue. Not an earth-shattering mistake.
We don't make a huge amount of headway on the longer story arcs during these episodes, but we gain a greater understanding of the characters, and the world in which they live.
This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. That's how this show appeared on television, so that'll do nicely.
The image is sharp in close-ups, but a bit soft in medium and long shorts. It's clear enough to watch, but looks better on a smaller screen (not unreasonable for a TV show made before the advent of DVD). There is no film grain, and only one moment of light low-level noise.
Colour is quite good. There are some scenes that use a single colour for effect (usually very well, too), but there's generally quite a decent palette on display, and it seems to be rendered quite well. There are no colour-related artefacts, save for a brief passage of false colouration at 85:39 on Escaflowne's sword — this is a single instance of the infamous "rainbows" that so plague NTSC transfers of anime.
There are no film artefacts of any significance.
There's a lot of mild aliasing, basically on any moving black line, but it is a bit better than the first disc. There's some interleaving, but it's not noticeable when playing at normal speed. You have to freeze-frame, or play in slow motion to notice it. It does make the closing credits harder to read, however.
There's only one set of subtitles, in English. As usual for anime, they don't match the English language dub — their timing is rather different, too.
The disc is single-sided (with a nice picture label that echoes the front cover), dual layered, but apparently not RSDL. The layer change is placed between episodes 6 and 7, but it's barely visible.
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The soundtrack is provided in English and Japanese, both in Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround-encoded, at 224 kbps. I watched all the episodes in both languages. The Japanese soundtrack sounds a bit richer (and a touch louder) than the English. Given my general preference for English dubs, this is quite an admission.
The English dialogue is clear and easily understood. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear, but I really can't tell you if it's comprehensible. Neither dub is perfectly matched to the animated mouth movements, which is a disappointment — it is a surprise how much this has changed since 1996 (when this show was made).
The score is provided by Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi. Yoko Kanno's work is always good, and this is no exception. They have the sense to leave passages without music when none is required. I like that.
These are pure 2.0 stereo soundtracks, with decent stereo imaging. The English soundtrack makes no use of the surrounds, even with surround decoding active. The Japanese soundtrack manages to dredge up some surround sound when decoding is enabled, but it's nothing special. Neither soundtrack uses the subwoofer.
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The menus are animated with music. The menus are easy to navigate, although the setup menu is a little confusing at first (the dots show the current selection — it is the change of colour of the words that indicates where the cursor is).
This is the usual thing: the ending sequence, but without the credits over the top. It's a nice extra to have once.
Before you get to watch this piece a page comes up warning you that it contains spoilers — that is decent of them. I only watched the start of it, and they are right: in the first minute or so there's quite a big spoiler and an event quite a long way into the series. I recommend not watching this until you've seen the entire series. A shame, really, because it's a meeting between four of the main voice actors for the Japanese soundtrack, the actors for Van, Folken, Merle, and Hitomi.
20 pages of sketches of characters and things from these episodes. Well worth a look.
Four trailers, presented one after another, rather than individually selectable.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
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 volume of the Region 4 release is available with a simple box (no fliptop, no figure, no excessive price!).
The second disc of the box set contains the same episodes as this Region 4 one. The R1 cover is dark and gloomy. The R4 is light and bright with flowers, which has nothing to do with the episodes, but is definitely more attractive.
The Region 4 disc is missing:
The Region 1 disc is missing:
The R1 has different trailers (for Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy, Saber Marionette J, Jubei-chan, and Outlaw Star), but that's not important.
The only extra the two share is the Club Escaflowne piece with the voice actors.
The Region 1 transfer does not show interleaving like the Region 4, but it shows at least as much aliasing, and is a bit darker. At normal speed, the two are roughly equivalent to the eye, but I think the R1 is a little cleaner.
The Region 1 menu is a bit messy — I definitely prefer the Region 4's menus.
Despite the differences, I'd call this match pretty much even.
The second batch of four episodes of an epic adventure, presented nicely on DVD.
The video quality is good, but flawed by aliasing and interleaving (albeit less than the previous disc).
The audio quality is very good. This is one time when the Japanese track is slightly preferable.
The extras are decent, but you'll have to wait until you've watched the entire series before coming back for the main extra!
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-S733A, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE |
| Speakers | Front Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5 |