Fallacies

The following are some of the more widely-held yet incorrect beliefs regarding The Vision of Escaflowne. An attempt is made to ascertain the sources of these fallacies where possible.

Production

Fallacy: "Escaflowne is Kawamori's answer to Gainax's Evangelion."
Explanation: Escaflowne was in development for over five years before its broadcast debut in 1996 April, before Evangelion was conceived. In fact, Shouji Kawamori conceived of the early plot for Escaflowne about the same time Gainax and director Hideaki Anno were still working on [Nadia:] The Secret of Blue Water (and before the certification of Anno's depression which Anno cites as his partial inspiration for Evangelion). Escaflowne was never intended, by Kawamori at least, as a "response" to Evangelion.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the broadcast debut of Escaflowne in 1997 April, the month after Evangelion's end.

Fallacy: "The animated series is based on the manga series."
Explanation: Both Katsu-Aki's shounen manga and Yuzuru Yashiro's shoujo manga series are based on the animated production, not vice versa.
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on Katsu-Aki's manga's publication start date (1994 October), a year and half before the animated series's broadcast start date (1996 April). Even though this manga was released before the anime, Shouji Kawamori (and later Sunrise) were working on the production of the animated version four years before the manga. The manga was based on the story concepts and early production designs of the animated series. (By comparison, Hayao Miyazaki published a picture book called Mononoke Hime based on imageboards for his proposed animation production. Even though the picture book came out almost three years before the animated version screened with a decidedly revamped story in 1997, the picture book is based on the animation production concepts and not vice versa.)

Fallacy: "Shouji Kawamori draws the Shonen Ace manga version of Escaflowne."
Explanation: Katsu-Aki draws the Shonen Ace manga version of Escaflowne, not Shouji Kawamori. Kawamori and Hajime Yadate did provide Katsu-Aki with initial story drafts and designs.
Source of fallacy: Misinterpretation in an interview of Shouji Kawamori in Animerica Vol. 3, No. 1 and Anime Interviews by Viz. The interview reads, "The manga version is already running in Kadokawa's Shonen Ace magazine, which I illustrate along with Hajime Yadate. The story is by a writer named Katsuaki." The reverse is actually true. Manga artist Katsu-Aki illustrates the Shounen Ace version. The original story draft is by Shouji Kawamori along with Hajime Yadate. (Kawamori and Sunrise did provide Katsu-Aki intial concept designs, and Katsu-Aki did take Kawamori and Sunrise's original story concepts and molded them into his own dramatically different story.)

Story

Fallacy: "Hitomi's tarot set has made-up cards that aren't in any real tarot set."
Explanation: Hitomi's tarot set is primarily based on the Merlin Tarot set. Although the Merlin Tarot set is written in English while Hitomi's tarot set is written in (imprecise) Italian, every Major and Minor Arcana card in her set has a counterpart in the Merlin Tarot set (including the non-traditional Ace of Serpents).
Source of fallacy: Assumption based on the differences from the Rider-Waite and other popular tarot sets.

Egan Loo <eganloo@anime.net>

View in Full Window