The Vision of Escaflowne (Season 1)

The Vision of Escaflowne (天空のエスカフローネ, 1996) is a 26-episode anime series from Sunrise — watch all episodes online on iFILM. Directed by Shoji Kawamori, creator of Macross, it braids mecha combat, political fantasy and a genuine romantic triangle into something that still holds up as one of the standout anime titles of the 1990s. The score is by Yoko Kanno, which alone tells you the emotional register the series is aiming for.

Hitomi is a high school girl with a talent for Tarot cards and a crush on her track team's captain. One evening a sword-wielding young prince named Van Fanel materialises in front of her, and both are pulled onto the world of Gaea, where the Zaibach Empire is swallowing nations one by one. Van pilots a legendary armoured mecha called Escaflowne, and Hitomi quickly discovers that her ability to glimpse the future works differently here — and that both sides of the war want what she can see. Maaya Sakamoto voices Hitomi; Tomokazu Seki voices Van.

What the series does unusually well is refuse to resolve Hitomi's conflict cleanly: she misses Earth, she's drawn to Gaea, and her feelings for Van and the knight Allen Schezar are messy in the way real feelings are. The mecha battles are strong, but they're not the reason the show is remembered. Stream The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) online on iFILM.