The Vision of Escaflowne

The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ) is a 26-episode anime television series by Sunrise studio, originally aired in Japan between April 2 and September 24 of 1996. It inspired a shonen manga series, a shojo manga series, and a theatrical movie. (The shonen manga series actually debuted before the animated series did, due to the animated version's long pre-production process.)

It has elements of shojo, shonen, romance, and mecha genres. The story is a very good mix of literature from different cultures, getting even into mankind's mythological past. The music, composed by Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi, is of a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor, though incorporating such disparate elements as western choir and electro-pop. This series marked the anime debut (in a lead role) of Maaya Sakamoto as the voice of the main character Hitomi Kanzaki and the singer of the opening song Yakusoku wa Iranai.

In addition to the regular release, Bandai's now-defunct Anime Village label also released a North American version of the so-called "Special Edition" that Bandai Visual in Japan created. Bandai Visual Japan's "Special Edition" was the entire 26-episode story arc edited into three VHS tapes in 1996-1997. In 1998, Anime Village marketed this edition in North America as the Vision of Escaflowne Best Collection. Escaflowne briefly aired on the Fox Kids network in another edited form between August and October of 2000, but was canceled. That Escaflowne was modified to fit the tastes of teenage boys, and it had been nicknamed Foxcaflowne. A 23-episode version, heavily cut for content and timing, and with a different title sequence, aired several times on the Fox Kids channel in the UK. Vision of Escaflowne also aired on YTV in Canada under the title Escaflowne.

The unedited 26-part series has since been released on US and UK DVD sets offering a choice of dubbed and subtitled versions.

TokyoPop released the shonen manga in the English language.