#escaflowne

As some of you may know, the Escaflowne Movie was recently screened at a few select cinemas across Japan. It’s all part of the anniversary “package” in Japan, which includes mainly a new BD release of both the series and the movie, the soundtracks, and a few more official goodies. And from the start, this was advertised as the celebration of the “30th anniversary of the series and 25th anniversary of the movie.

Well, the 25th anniversary of the movie was, strictly-speaking, last year, but nobody can blame them for joining the two events together, right? Last year, I tried to focus on the movie materials and finishing my work at translating all that was left untranslated of the official package of source materials:

The movie itself (translated officially)

CD drama 1 Earth (prequel to the movie, my translation)

CD drama 2 Gaea (prequel to the movie, my translation)

The movie novel Escaflowne (alternate retelling of the events of the movie, my translation)

So now, we have the full movie lore in English at our disposal.

Okay, I may be lying as there is one, super obscure thing, and I’m not sure if it’s not lost to time entirely. Namely, there were several complementary texts published online at the time of movie airing, like omake scenes or character backstories. It probably wasn’t common to just publish canon material online somewhere, but the widely-available worldwide web was a fresh thing and the creators tried something with that. The only thing I remember of it was that it included a story telling how Millerna joined the Abaharaki. I unfortunately don’t even remember where I heard of it. But good luck trying to find something that appeared in Japanese online space for a short time around the year 2000. I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. I only remember the nicely animated English movie website from the time period. But I’ve been planning some deep dive into what is left of the old internet, so we’ll see if I have any luck. Nevertheless, if someone knows anything about it, let me know. I would be super willing to translate it and complete my collection.

Translating these materials was something of a dream come true, not gonna lie. If you told me 20 years ago, when I watched the movie for the first time, (or even 15 years ago, when I heard of the movie novel for the first time) that I would be able to translate this book, I wouldn’t have believed you. And I did greatly appreciate the new information I discovered from these more obscure sources—I mean, new to me… in Japan, it is all very available, if Escaflowne is what you’re into. But you can’t really expect these materials to be released officially in English after all this time, so I just rolled my sleeves up. And I had a ton of thoughts after translating each of these materials and rewatching the movie, with new observations each time. 

Yes, it was fun, and I love to have some extra lore on top of what we’ve been working with all these years, some of it not very clear or not clearly sourced. But at the same time, now at the end of the road, I hate to say, it got convoluted and elusive at times, instead of clearer. The many retellings must confuse your brain as a rule; you remember some smaller detail, but are not sure where from and whether it would be true in the other iteration. I’m talking mostly about the differences between the movie and the novel. The CD dramas are complementary to the movie (but not the novel). . .if you want to believe Hitomi has already come into contact with Gaea before the events of the movie. There is only some thought exercise/suspension of disbelief involved as to why no one in the movie seems to remember that happening. I made a whole post on that. Actually, it already spawned two posts:

Thoughts after translating the CD dramas

The movieverse trivia collection

And there will be at least one more after this. But let’s cut to the chase and talk about what I want to talk about here. Starting with the major differences between the movie and its novel.

Can we see the novel as an expansion of the movie?

I should have probably warned you right in the beginning that this would probably only make full sense if you read the movie novel translation (plus there are going to be some spoilers). If you did that, I think you noticed that perhaps 70% of the movie and its novel may be the same, so it ALMOST makes you feel like it’s ALL complementary… but then you always come across a landmine that makes your theory fall apart. The movie can feel quite threadbare due to the short running time; the CD dramas only help a little and create some new questions. So, you seek explanations and the ones from the novel could be true, I mean, there’s a ton of free space to explain the events of the movie.

But if you simply think the novel would give the explanations that the movie had no time to give due to time and budget constraints, you’d be soon proven wrong. It feels more a record of the staff perhaps changing their minds about things a lot during the production. Or a show of how the screenwriter alone would write it, maybe without the input of the director and the others on the team.

On the other hand, you may choose the explanations from the novel you like and discard those you don’t. For example, in the novel, Dilandau’s squad are his “bodyguards”. I used ‘guards’, but bodyguard is a legitimate translation of the word used. Then there are crazier changes, like Celena being her own person who had lived with Allen for the entirety of her (short and tragic) life (?!); Dilandau being Van and Folken’s half-brother instead (??!); Dryden launching rockets and being a bit creepier (...); Merle sister-zoning herself (wow); Van seeing Hitomi naked on their way from Arzas ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°); the two having a calm, open, and almost mature, discussion about their feelings (<3). . . it’s all on the menu to accept as your possible headcanons for the movieverse, if you like! But there are also some things you cannot match together, even if you tried.

The changing roles of Folken and Sora

The first thing that really clashes with the movie canon is the changed role of Sora and how novel!Folken holds such a desperate, tragic love for her. Compared to that, the movie!Folken is practically indifferent to Sora.

In general though, the novel!Folken is not a very sympathetic guy. Violently impulsive, manipulative, bitter about his dad… ready to kill Van because Sora chose him to be a king and kissed him to ritualistically seal the deal. In the CD drama, it is said Folken let Van live intentionally, but in the movie novel, Sora threw herself before Van, otherwise Folken would have killed him on the spot. Ooof. That’s a real blow to the character we know.

Now, compared to the series!Folken, people say even movie!Folken is already more of an unsympathetic evil villain. But he has nothing on novel!Folken, who is ready to off his cute little brother on the spot cause his gf Sora (aka the Dragon Child) kissed him to make him the king! On the other hand, novel!Folken is capable of romantic love and therefore has a better reason for turning evil than just “not being chosen to be a king”. Quite tangled!

There are more question marks about the novel!Folken. He randomly sends his doppelganger (RIP once again, Zongi) after Van, and through him, explains to Van that him being chosen as a child was part of a plot by the military commanders, who convinced Sora to pick Van instead of him. That is the first and last time Folken sort of offers Van a chance to stand on his side. Is he trying to manipulate Van with a made-up story? Or is he desperate to find an excuse for Sora’s betrayal? The fact that he actively sends a doppelganger with that message points to the first option. 

But then, at the end, when a ghost Sora appears to scold Folken, she admits that she chose Van of her own volition. Which clearly disappoints Folken… so he must have believed, or wanted to believe, another story. He does not explicitly mention the commanders anymore, though. Folken literally blames her for betraying him with Van. A five-year-old.

Is it just me or would this story make far more sense if everyone was of age? Yes Folken, your gf finds your brother cute, but it’s a kindergartener-sort-of-cute. No need to get ballistic about it. And Sora, Dragon Child, why not share with your bf in private that he’s not gonna be chosen as a king? I know, it sucks for everyone involved. 

For Dune/Folken, it’s probably not gonna feel great to stick around the White Dragon kingdom after being rejected like that. But judging by his violent reaction, there is probably more to the story than just the ceremonial kiss. Perhaps Sora (the Dragon Child) would have to stick close to Van his whole life so he could use Escaflowne when he needed; perhaps there’s more to the Dragon Child and Dragon King’s relationship than that. But it’s left unsaid. It’s never stated outright that the Dragon Child is the designated partner to the Dragon King. In the movie lore, the Wing Goddess is sort of a soulmate (spiritual twin) to the Dragon King, but no such thing is mentioned in the novel for the Dragon Child and the Dragon King.

I would have liked the movie!Sora to have more agency and her background explained, but strictly from the point of actually liking Folken as a person, even his (already criticized) movie version is a preferable candidate to the movie novel one. I think that the essence of his character was always caring about Van, so somehow, the vanilla movie!Folken still seems more like the character I associate with that name rather than this goth-loverboy who-murders-and-then-freezes-his-dead-gf-in-a-slab-of-ice-so-they-can-watch-the-end-of-the-world-together. Who also can’t forgive his father’s moral failures, even on his deathbed, and for that reason cannot even feel sympathy for his half-brother whom he tortures… And he has absolutely none for his full-brother, either. Yet Van still sheds a tear after him, but tbh, I could not identify too many redeeming qualities in this Dune, not to mention, this Folken (the pun is that Dune is the name of Folken before he betrays his country… and vanilla movie!Dune seems pretty alright in comparison to novel!Dune). But back to the topic at hand…

Sora is such a strange character. Created intentionally just for the movie, they still weren’t sure what to do with her. In the novel, she is something else than in the movie. She seems like a version of Varie, mysterious and important, but nobody knows in what way exactly. Her presence is very Varie-like, similar dress, similar otherworldness and beauty, she even got the coloring that Nobuteru Yuuki always intended for Varie. In his artbook, he says he always imagined Varie with "silver hair, wearing a white kimono with golden embroidery, and a red and gold slashed obi". Imagine Varie like that… actually, you don’t need to stretch your imagination too far. Here goes.

In the movie novel, she even has dark hair and a "Snow White" kind of complexion, making her even more similar to Varie. It seems like Yuuki finally got his say in the end with the colors though.

Nevertheless, I may be a bit unfair because I’m mixing the movie/CD drama with the novel, which is not exactly the same setting, as is clear right from the start. One difference I mentioned a few times already, is how in the novel, it’s Ryuu no Miko, Dragon Child, instead of Tsubasa no Kami, Wing Goddess, and it is confirmed to have been originally Sora. And when we say Dragon Child, we are not talking just any child, but a promised, miraculous child. A child of a god, practically (it is literally used for Jesus in Japanese). That’s Sora’s and Hitomi’s role in the novel. Oh, and it’s non-gendered. I could have made it, idk, “heir” or something, but I couldn’t come up with a gender-neutral term to use (and “descendant” is a mouthful). Sora is not some untouchable or reincarnated goddess either; she’s Dune’s beloved, and she lives at the court of the Dragon King. She seems more of some sort of priestess and has the special role in choosing the new king…

Which is why it was kind of strange that Sora is a 御子 miko and not the more common 巫女 miko, because the second miko can mean shrine maiden, or even priestess/sorceress. If this was an anime or a CD drama, and I was going by the sound alone, I think I would be convinced that it’s the shrine maiden miko, just by instinct. Cause it just suits the concept of Sora better as the character, though I’m possibly influenced by her movie version. 

In the movie, Sora is still a miko, but not the "promised child" kind. She is a regular priestess miko. I think the homonym is very intentional, because Hitomi is confused herself in the novel and thinks she is being called a shaman, not a god-child. Only the reader of the novel knows, seeing it written. The same way the reader of the movie artbook knows that movie Sora is the shrine maiden/shamaness. I think it’s an intended play on words or an easter egg.

I also think the evolving concepts theory that I mentioned in the intro are confirmed by the fact that Nobuteru Yuuki, in his movie artbook that is full of early movie concepts, STILL talks about Tsubasa no Miko, Wing Child, which is a mix between the novel Ryuu no Miko (Dragon Child) and Tsubasa no Kami (Wing Goddess) from the movie. They couldn’t make up their minds about the name! Not to mention the meaning of the character…

The elusive meaning of that mythical entity

When Merle asks about Hitomi’s powers, the only thing that comes to Hitomi’s mind is an occasion where her intuition saved her from injury. Which is… pretty normal as Hitomis go. A sixth sense, a good intuition, foretelling bad things happening… Those are all Hitomi characteristics, as we know her from other iterations. Not necessarily some mythical figure traits.

In the movie artbooks, Nobuteru Yuuki explains that the scene at the train station was supposed to have a more specific meaning: Dune was in fact supposed to come to warn little Hitomi before a train crash… they were probably supposed to be made by him to miss the shinkansen, later being thankful for it. In any case, the idea got axed, and they simply boarded the train… we never got to know whether something happened or not. Probably not, I mean, if Dune’s presence did not change anything, if he hadn’t even attempted to change their course of action and save Hitomi, then there probably was no danger. Anyway, you would think that if what Yuuki says is true (and yes, it gives a meaning to a scene that is otherwise kinda pointless from the plot POV), the scene would find its way to the novel written by the movie writer. After all, its production precedes the movie and, much like the TV novels, could be seen as proto-screenplay for the movie. And yet you would be wrong.

In the novel, there are few random flashback scenes. There is one where Hitomi is warned before a bus crash, but it is her own instincts that provide the warning. There is no appearance by Dune or any other Gaean character, she just changes the seats by her own intuition  and avoids a nasty crash catapulting her across the bus and hurting her (but not too seriously). The girl that takes Hitomi’s original seat is hurt, but not life-threateningly so. In any case, it does feel like an echo of the shinkansen scene, I mean, something warning you and making you change your actions to avoid serious danger… and it could have a meaning, BUT THEN at another point in the novel, Hitomi randomly remembers she was also once run over by a car, with about the same amount of danger to her life, perhaps more… nothing seems to have warned her before that! And it kind of slashes the significance of the bus scene (which wasn’t life-threatening in the first place) further in half.

But who even is that Wing Goddess, or Dragon Child, as she is called in the novel. This elusive entity that descended to ancient Gaea as a goddess before, and is prophesied to do so again. She is so respected, even the wannabe Dragon kings, the leaders of Gaea, bow before her.

If we talk about the movie and the CD dramas, she had close relations to the Dragon King it seems, and the reincarnation of this guy is Van. The reincarnation of the Wing Goddess is Hitomi. So far, so good. So, what does the Wing Goddess do? Why is she a Wing Goddess, and not say, Crystal Goddess…or Armor Goddess? Alright, she is supposed to have wings:

“Would you like to look for the wings that you’ve lost?” –Orm in the CD drama.

But so do other people on Gaea, who are not described as gods. So why is she a goddess and not a priestess, seer, princess, heiress, whatever? Can she command birds, ride the wind, make wings grow on pigs, can she make feathers rain? Possibly, but it’s never 100% confirmed. The main purpose of the Wing Goddess is apparently bestowing the Dragon Armor upon the Dragon King. So that is why the king needs her. But can’t the king rule without the Dragon Armor? Did Van’s father have the Dragon Armor? Nothing suggests as much… But the only time the Dragon King needs the Dragon Armor is when he’s in crisis… more specifically, at war, cause I can’t think of another crisis that may be helped by that hugely destructive armor.

In the novel, the Dragon Child also (even more directly) decides who will be the Dragon King (in the movie/CD drama it’s a prophecy/appearance of the “sign of a king” that decides). Okay. Except, the Dragon King or Dragon Royalty, and possibly even the whole Dragon Clan has wings too, along psych psychic powers such as telekinesis, governing wind, telepathy, and setting shit on fire. The only special power of the Wing Goddess we see displayed is that she can make Escaflowne into a gem and a gem into Escaflowne. Which is pretty cool but wouldn’t it actually stand out more if Dragon Clan/Van didn’t have those wings then? If let’s say, the psychic powers were enough. “The wing possesses the power to seek the one who desires it,” says Van in the movie to explain why Escaflowne started flying. It seems she isn’t even the one to make it fly. So where is the Wing Goddess in all this?

Perhaps the Dragon Armor is something like a nuclear weapon. The Dragon King may not be using it—and it is the sane thing not to use it—but in order to deter his enemies and keep them in check, and to confirm his position as the king, he declares he has access to it. That he has, let’s say, the Wing Goddess’ favor. Perhaps it is normally enough to sort of worship her at your palace (it does look like there might be a statue or an altar of the Wing Goddess at the burned palace, alongside the dragon bones). But there may come a time you’d be desperately asking her for help and hope that she will manifest herself, and soon after, manifest Escaflowne. There’s no doubt Van strongly feels he needs the Dragon Armor, in all three iterations, meaning the movie, the CD dramas, and the novel. So the Wing Goddess might be an entity that only appears in a time of a crisis, likely a war. And then her power is truly decisive: whoever gets the armor wins the war. This might be the only power Wing Goddess has. Which is why it makes no difference whether she is called a “dragon” or a “wing” mythical entity, since she is not really controlling either. But there’s also some evidence to the contrary.

Which is something of a recurring instance, which leads me to the main criticism I have about the movieverse writing.

The hot symbolic mess of dragons, wings, and other fanservice

There is a scene in the movie novel which literally made me pause because it felt so bizarre. It’s practically the scene from the movie where Van spreads his wings after he and Dilandau tear the ground apart Dragonball Z style with their powers. Same thing happens in the novel, and the onlookers are like, “I see wings. She’s the true Dragon Child!” (She’s not even a Wing Goddess there, mind you, yet they associate wings with the Dragon Child.) The characters are observing it from a distance so they may think the wings are Hitomi’s, but really, would it be such a huge secret that Van/Dragon Royalty/Dragon Clan has wings (I realized we don’t even know which of the three is true)? No, even as her enemies, they all know she is supposed to have wings and WANT TO BELIEVE that it’s her wings… even though that known winged guy is right there. And the same thing happens later… Van takes wing and Hitomi is not even anywhere in the vicinity and people start drooling like “Dragon Child, save us!” Guys,do you think she controls every wing growing on a guy?

–Hitomi, probably

To be fair, Sora, the Dragon Child, was winged. She had her wings out all the time. All the time we see her, which may be significant, because it’s either the ceremony, or she is flying towards Hitomi in some way. Still, fair to say she had them out pretty often. Hitomi calls her an angel right away for this reason. 

Now think about it. Remember Van’s mother, the pure-blooded Dragon Clan princess? Why wouldn’t she have wings, if Van has them? If so, what makes Sora that much different, and more mystical, than her? How did she even convince everyone she’s the Dragon Child without summoning Escaflowne? Her wings shouldn’t be shocking to the Dragon Clan Royalty, little Van would probably be the only one pointing at her like, “Hey, you have wings, too!” And if Van’s mother didn’t have them, the old Dragon King surely had, right? Then wouldn’t Dune have them? Wouldn’t even the novel!Dilandau have them, as his son? Maybe not, maybe the wings are actually the sign of the Dragon King. Maybe only the Wing Goddess and the Dragon King are supposed to have wings, not anybody else. But why not say it outright? Actually wait, movie!Folken mentions his wings, too, saying that he “discarded them”. Meanwhile, I don’t think the novel!Folken mentions ever having them. 

And back we are in the vicious circle.

I illustrated it with the novel, but the movie is similar. Hitomi is supposed to be the Wing Goddess, but it’s Van flaunting his wings all the time. Who exactly is supposed to have wings seems to be really elusive and possibly different for each retelling. And the hard truth I see is, there is no necessity for Van to have wings in this setting, except for sticking to the other versions of this character. It’s like they said, “Van should have wings, otherwise it’s not him!”, for recreating the memorable scenes from the series… and for making that terrific first scene in the movie possible. So basically, for the rule of cool. They made no point of Folken or other Dragon Clan members having wings either, just Van. 

I think they should have been braver and made only Hitomi winged, because as it is, they are harming the whole consistency and symbolism. Hitomi’s reveal of wings in the movie end scene would have been that much stronger, too. Basically, as a viewer/reader, at some point I started feeling like, “If she’s the Wing Goddess, then let her have the special wings dammit!”/”If she is a magical Dragon Child, then make her different from other Dragon Clan people!” The symbolism is just diluted by not doing any of this.

Yes, the usual criticism is that the movie is extremely quick-paced and many characters appear as mere cameos. Another criticism could be the few random POV shifts in the novel, but that can be attributed to the writer (who is a professional screenwriter rather than a novelist) imagining the anime scenes playing out rather than adhering to the rules of writing. But what really doesn’t work here are the meaning and the symbolism of the words: weighty words such as “god” and “king” that are thrown about, and symbols like “wings” and “dragons” get overused; which is how their meaning may become lost. I mean… let’s take a look at some other instances of this.

Like DRAGONS.

Gaea was created by twin Dragon Gods, possibly those two dragon fossils we see, one of them in the face of the mountain for White Dragon Clan where Van prays to it in the CD drama, the other inlaid in Folken’s castle/fortress for the Black Dragon Clan. Well, at least that’s what I thought, until I realized that the floor one is probably stolen from the wall in the throne room of the royal castle. And it all falls apart. I guess it’s just regular dragon fossils, then, which were turned into sort of dragon altars, and there may be more than two to be found?

In any case, it is confirmed dragons used to roam ancient Gaea freely… but then the Dragon Gods used their Dragon Armors (cause they are gods but they fight via proxy using some armors, not, idk, whatever the gods possibly in the form of gigantic dragons can do by themselves to cause destruction), and they cannot even pilot the bloodsucking armors they created themselves, which I guess is something they didn’t think through as gods. But it’s alright, cause they have the two Dragon Clans, basically the people created by the Dragon Gods who are also their worshippers… BUT WAIT, there are other people—regular people who intermingle with the Dragon Clan in the empire of the Black Dragon Clan which they named the Black Dragon Empire in a bout of fresh inspiration—and that’s not all, in the white Dragon Clan, and presumably, White Dragon Kingdom there’s a Dragon King… who is not a Dragon God and not a regular human either, and neither is he just a regular dragon-clansman. Whew.

Anyway, this Dragon King is the designated ruler of Gaea. So, even in the midst of the Dragon Clan, there is Dragon Royalty. And it’s not just the immediate family of the Dragon King; because after the death of his first wife and queen, they found him another pure-blood (dragon) princess who could bear him a new purebred Dragon Clan son, so it’s more of a blood thing than who you marry. This son of the Dragon King is supposed to be a Dragon King himself, but he is as of now known simply as the Dragon (not even the “last dragon” or some other more specific dragon, just “the Dragon” in a world full of dragons and dragon references… okay). So, this Dragon King (or someone with his blood) is so special because he can pilot the Dragon Armor, right? Not so fast, A WING GODDESS (movie) has to bestow this armor upon him because the planet creating Dragon Gods who created those armors have decided that’s their limit and they cannot decide upon such matter, you see. Or they are dead already, who knows. So, Van is the designated Dragon King, son of the Dragon King, but also a reincarnation of another Dragon King from ancient times. According to Orm: he bears “the sign of a king that was not seen for millenia” and “used to live with the Wing Goddess on ancient Gaea”. So the Wing Goddess and the Dragon King can reincarnate, but those Dragon Gods are dead and fossilized 4eva. Gotchu. 

Speaking of Orm, we have here this sorcerer; by Hitomi’s description he looks like a goblin, but hey, here he comes transforming into a flying dragon to send the Wing Goddess back to Earth in the CD drama. Not to be confused with flying dragon Escaflowne from the end of the movie/novel (which is only explained by  “wishes attract the wing”). Or, idk, the two may be connected somehow, who knows?

AND THEN, last but not least, we have Dragon Slayers led by Dilandau… but they are not slaying dragons, they are not hunting down the last Dragon King, and they are not even looking for the Dragon Armor, it’s just the name of their band, ok? Heck, there’re so many dragons here I’m not sure where they would even start slaying. Just kidding. The literal translation of their name is Dragon Attack-Squad, so it could be they just wanted to have a dragon in their name like everyone else and they weren’t actually out for anyone’s blood. Or, they all have Dragon Clan blood in them, hence the name (that is just an unfounded speculation). 

Anyway, in the movie novel, we HAVE almost ALL THIS plus a Dragon Child (instead of the Wing Goddess)!!! And actual dragons as creatures still living on Gaea. And a random old man, possibly the old Dragon King, or maybe some variation of Orm actually, who ALSO transforms into a HUEG dragon, but in a totally unrelated scene to the Orm transformation. See what I mean there? THAT’S TOO MUCH DRAGON FOR YOUR HOTPOT ALREADY.

Just to sort of recap, this is how the hierarchy looks (from the bottom up):

Human

Human mixed with Dragon Clan (maybe with some special abilities)

Dragon Clan (worshipper of Dragon God with special abilities)

Dragon Clan nobility (unknown how it has formed but they must be pure Dragon Clan blood, likely related to the previous Dragon King(s) by lineage and therefore more powerful)

Dragon King (who is Dragon Clan but with EVEN MORE special features, has the favor of a mythical entity and can pilot Dragon Armors, plus rumors have it there may even be reincarnation from another mythical entity going on)

Dragon God (not sure if they appear in humanoid form at all though)

And this is how the dragon hierarchy looks, just ftr:

Regular, Gaea-roaming dragon (now likely extinct)

Flying armor-dragon transformed from the Dragon Armor

Dragon God (later fossilized and used as an altar/decoration… or is that meant to be the first type actually, used only symbolically???)

Okay, one last symbolic keyword, WOLVES.

As we know, Adom is a predominantly a wolf people village (with other types of beast people present) and it took all this village to rear the exiled child Van. Alright. But then we get the Nukushi, a different wolf (at least Hitomi calls him a wolf in the novel; but to be fair no official materials confirm what species was the inspiration… “Nukse” or “Nukushi” does not resemble any name of animal species in Japanese, either). The Nukushi seem more beastly, they run on all fours, their faces are less human. They are just used, not even as fighters, just as a disposable tool by the Black Dragon Clan. 

The Adom wolves, on the contrary, walk upright and are more human-like. The character of Ruhm is even described in the novel as wise, “philosophical”. The Adom village has agriculture and other culture, and “elders” well-versed in medicine and magic. It almost seems like a different level of evolution within the same species. Which is a whole another thing to unpack, how it even works with these beastmen seemingly at different steps of evolution, or some more beastly than others. The same thing I guess is happening in the series with those clothed rodents, but at least it’s not within the same species (more or less).

Back to the Adom wolves though, even before they heal Van, the “village head” advises him on how to summon the Wing Goddess. And remember, Van is the supposed Dragon King, who has powers and is the leader of Gaea, has ties to its ancient past, and is practically a demi-god himself. Yet these wolves have a thing or two to teach him, what we could understand as the wolf magic.

Last but not least, we have sorcerer Orm from the CD drama, the goblin-like creature that we have never before seen in this franchise. He uses a doppelgänger but is not one himself. But what is even stranger, he is a bearer of both WOLF and DRAGON imagery for an unknown reason. In the movie drama CD1, Hitomi makes her first contact with Gaea after entering a dark cave. She hears howling inside. And at first, I thought this has to do with Van being in the wolf village and the wolf elders possibly using some spells themselves to support him. But THEN, in CD2, there’s the wolf call again, and Van recognizes it as “Orm calling him”.

So, ugh, let me get this straight, this goblin-like sorcerer character that sounds like rustling chains when he moves and can transform into an old human man or a dragon at will also has some… lupine magical properties? I was also reminded of the series and the wolves calling to Van, who understands their call. It’s like the same lego pieces that got mixed and constructed in a different way. But there are some edges sticking out now.

Okay, maybe Orm calls out to Van in wolf language because he knows he has lived in the wolf village and understands it. No, actually that’s BS, because he uses it in the cave, too, and he’s definitely not calling Van then. OR WAS HE? Was he in fact working for Van? In that case, he hid it pretty well. From Folken, from Van, and even from the audience! Perhaps it was the calls of the wolf village elders in the cave, after all. Who knows? Who COULD know, from all this???

Anyway, Orm knows a lot about Van and his life BOTH at the Dragon Clan royal court and his previous life in ancient Gaea. Not to mention, he also knows about Van’s life with the wolves… but he is never shown to have an association with them. AND YET, his call is that of a wolf. And remember, wolves are dominantly humanoid creatures in this franchise, it’s not just some random animal, it’s a sound sentient creatures make. It’s like there was a human sorcerer in LOTR and his telepathic means of communication would be hobbit drinking songs or something.

But hey, if there can be smart wolves and animalistic wolves at the same time (same as there are god dragons, human dragons, machine dragons, AND maybe even the regular ol’ beast dragons), perhaps alongside the anthropomorphic characters there exist regular animal wolves as well. Then what even fits under the term “wolf”, really, in this lore? 

It’s all stuffed into the bag quite haphazardly. I refer back to what I already mentioned: Van, the Dragon King of the White Dragon Clan, also known as “the Dragon”, bears a dragon tattoo (novel), pilots a Dragon Armor. Doesn’t it sound a bit like a kid who falls in love with some game or comic or something and his whole wardrobe, room, and identity is now… that? Plus, when you spam dragon everywhere, how the heck is just “dragon” specific enough to know that you’re speaking about a specific person? You CAN do it of course, but would the other party understand? And if they DO, if at this time and age Van is so famous they immediately know who you’re talking about… then why would they automatically think of another mythical creature when seeing his wings, the mark of who HE HIMSELF is?

And I mean yeah, I sort of get it. I’ve made my own attempts at writing. Sometimes, you need that little asspull to see what you want to see. And I’m using the expression “asspull” in the most loving way. The problem is, they never bothered even with that (or had the time) to explain some of the stuff. So, we are often left even without the asspull explanations, just see their results on the screen or page.

In place of conclusions

So, what do you think? Does something like this bother you, or is it just me? Would you consider it original or just bad writing? Would you come to peace with Van not having wings if it made Hitomi shine more as the Wing Goddess? And, for those who read the novel translation, what did you think of it all? Do you appreciate having more lore now, even if it makes things more confusing?

I haven’t yet written any fic for the movie, but if I did, I would take the movie, its artbooks, and the CD drama as the main canon materials. From the novel, I would probably only pick pieces that make sense to me and don’t interfere with the established canon. Or just write with the novel as the base material, alternatively.

I know this is all pretty critical, but I must say I still enjoyed the novel, and I really appreciated some parts. For example, I like that it was written more like a real novel rather than anime material. Hitomi felt pretty realistic as a character, probably more fleshed-out than in the movie itself. Her relationship with Yukari is more defined, you understand better why Yukari takes her to the National Stadium, that she really cares and worries about Hitomi, even with her “smart” and “tough girl” image and manners.

Now, I expected Hitomi to go back in the end out of habit, so it was quite a bit of a surprise when it was implied she chose to stay on Gaea. I’m happy we have a piece of canon material where it’s presented as plausible. What’s more, I am not even sure that Van must strictly play the role of a king (in a traditional way) in the movieverse, which would give the two more freedom in how to live their lives. It's an interesting possibility to think about! 

For a male-written novel, the focus on romance is a surprise already, but the scenes were also pretty sweet and romantic. On the other hand, the violent scenes were really brutal and it does take some level of it to make me say that. In this regard, I guess it’s well-balanced. I also like that Millerna is given more space as a fighter. And that Merle is not hung up on Van but refers to him as her brother. People got some backstories, at least. I think the novel can stand well on its own two feet, but the overall movieverse lore is nonetheless still quite confusing.

That being said, I appreciate the movie and all the thought that went into it now more than ever. Way more than I used to. I never was one of the movie haters who would say that the movie is bad. I felt the love that went into it as well as I felt they fought for every minute to put it into, and made it worth it. It takes a lot to reinvent the story like that, to make it feel new and intriguing while keeping what people loved. Like was very well said elsewhere, its depiction of depression and the struggle between isolation and human connection is extraordinary, brave, and should be appreciated. It also marks the absolute height of the cel animation and has wonderful music and acting. I’m actually jealous of the people who got to see it on the big screen in Japan a few months back.