Escaflowne

Escaflowne

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Hitomi, a student on the track team, is running to win the kiss of an upper-classman she has a crush on. Suddenly, a guy named Van appears in front of her and she runs straight into him. Not soon after, a fierce dragon appears as well, and Van fights it. Hitomi and her two friends run away, however the dragon had already caught sight of them and follows in pursuit. Van catches up and continues to fight the dragon. Hitomi has a vision of the future and uses what she saw to save Van’s life. He then kills the dragon and takes a drag-energist from it's belly. As Van talks with Hitome, a blue light surrounds them and they are transported to another world, Gaea.

Gaea is Van’s homeland. Hitome discovers that Van is the prince of the kingdom of Fanelia. Van brings Hitomi with him to his kingdom, where he is made king. Shortly after, Fanelia is attacked and burned to the ground. Van wakes his Guymelef mecha known as Escaflowne (which he only can control because of his blood pact with it) and the two flee to a neighboring country. They are pursued by the evil Zaibach empire, and it’s insane general, Dilandau, every place they go. Hitome has a special gift that aids Van in fighting. She can not only see the invisible enemy, but she can see the past, and predict the future as well.

Hitomi meets Allen when he saves her from the moll that is trying to steal her pendant. Allen is a night who also leads a kingdom. When his kingdom is attacked, Allen chooses to tag along with them and use his resources to help them. Also joining the party is a young cat-girl named Merle from Fanelia who wants nothing more than to be at Van’s side. To complete the group, they are later joined by the princess of Asturia, Millerna, when she leaves her kingdom to follow Allen.

Hitomi eventually discovers that Van has beautiful wings, which identify him as a draconian from the lost city of Atlantis. Van finds that his brother, Folken, who had disappeared when he was younger, is still alive. He was saved by the leader of Zaibach, Dornkirk, and had betrayed Fanelia in leading the Zaibach main ship. Folken tries to capture Escaflowne for Dornkirk’s plans to alter fate, as well as get Van to join up with him. Van learns from Hitomi how to see the unseen, and discovers he can ‘join with’ Escaflowne while in battle and ‘become’ it rather than just using it. There is one drawback though. When Escaflowne is wounded, so is he.

The group eventually discovers the lost city of Atlantis. There, they learn that Gaea was created from the wishes of the Draconian people, as they had the power to create their wishes into reality. That power proved to be too great though, and it destroyed them. Van finds he must prevent that power from being discovered and used again, or the same thing might happen to Gaea.

Hitomi struggles with her easily swayed heart. She can’t decide whether she loves Van or Allen. Her unsure thoughts and fears are also part of what is causing negative futures, as her predictions of doom come true. Folken talks one on one with Van and they make peace of sorts. He comes to stay at the palace with them. After witnessing a fierce battle, Hitomi gets fed up with the constant war and wishes herself home. While on Earth, she misses Van and realizes that she loves him as she relives the day before she was transported to Gaea. As she runs the sprint where she was first introduced to Van, this time she sees him come flying in on Escaflowne to bring her back to Gaea with him.

First episode

http://www.youtube.com/?v=OicTyj0xMvU
(unfortunately, they don't have all the episodes on youtube.com = [ )

Spoilers

Allen discovers that his long lost sister is Dilandau. The Zaibach sorcerers had experimented on her to turn her into him. Eventually, Dornkirk gets all the items he needs to put his fate altering machine into motion when Hitomi and Folken are transported into his presence. Folken kills Dornkirk, then is himself killed by a piece of his own blade that rebounds off of Dornkirk. Dornkirk’s machine is already set in motion though. It creates what he calls a 'zone of absolute fortune' where peoples wishes will come true. This zone only intensifies the fighting, and a heated battle ensues between Allen and Van. Hitomi begs them to stop and Van hears her voice. Van goes to save Hitome and the two of them, through their love are able to prevent the destruction of Gaea as a result of the fate altering machine. Van sends off Hitomi in an emotional goodbye as she returns to her own world.