The Latest Anime Craze:
Escaflowne
Guest Commentator: Aaron SchatzMove over, Dragonball and Pokemon! Here comes the latest Japanese cartoon import to burrow its way into the minds of American youth: Escaflowne.
Escaflowne is a dubbed version of a Japanese show called The Vision of Escaflowne that debuted in 1996. The show has been mildly popular among anime fans since then, with a movie version released this year in Japan (and in the U.S. with subtitles).
Escaflowne debuted on Fox Saturday morning back on August 19 and since then searches for Escaflowne have shot up more than 1000%. That?s not yet enough for it to pass old anime standards like Pokemon, or even recent Lycos 50 dropoffs like Gundam Wing, but Escaflowne last week got about as many web searches as recently broken-up rockers Rage Against the Machine or billionaire Bill Gates.
Like most anime shows, Escaflowne?s popularity is powered by a complex, arcane mythology and lots of drawings of women with large eyes. The lead character, Hitomi Kanzaki, is an average high school teenager transported to a mystical world called Gaea. There she becomes part of the battle against the Zaibach Empire with the use of a ?powerful transforming battle suit? called Escaflowne. Hitomi is a bit of a psychic and each episode is associated with a different tarot card.
So far Escaflowne hasn?t become a shopping empire like some other anime shows, but it may only be a matter of time before the inevitable video games and action figures (and tarot decks) appear. At least now you?ll be prepared when your daughter asks to be Hitomi Kanzaki on Halloween. | 
