One of my three Day 1 orders is now marked as fulfilled; one of the others has multiple ultimate editions so I wasn't expecting speedy dispatch anyway. Bargain pricing, so I can be patient. I have an unwatched pile to catch up on!
Speaking of...the past few days I binge-watched The Vision of Escaflowne. Although this was a first-time viewing of the series, the image of winged Van has lingered in my mind since...I must have been 11-12 years old when Anime Central was on air and Escaflowne was on not long before Fullmetal Alchemist. I would catch glimpses but for whatever reason it has taken me over a decade to actually watch it proper. It did not disappoint.
The series might be one of the best fantasy creations of the 90s - It very effectively incorporates shojo elements into what is obstensibly a shonen narrative and essentially, it's a steampunk twist on the standard 'evil empire' story but with influence from John Milton's Paradise Lost/Regained. Some of the colour-drained battle landscape shots actually reminded me of the work of Gustave Dore, who famously illustrated Milton's work, but it's The Enigma - which hangs in the Musee d'Orsay - that I thought of when viewing. When Van first displays his wings, Hitomi on the ground before him, it's like The Annunciation through the filter of fantasy. Narratively, it's perfect - there's no filler. Pretty much every scene has some importance to the overall narrative and the whole thing is like a freight train heading towards its conclusion. I'm a big fan of older / "classic" anime, but even some of the greats could cut whole episodes without losing much (I'm looking at you, Tomino). I've yet to watch the feature film, included with Anime Limited's Ultimate Edition, but I'm not looking forward to it; I don't see how you can consense this narrative further.
Yoko Kanno's score is gorgeous, utilising Gregorian chant to match the religious undertones and provide more gravity to proceedings. AL include the soundtrack on CD, which is a nice touch but my Blu-Ray player is now my sole disc player so I doubt I'll ever play it. It'd make a nice vinyl.