Escaflowne

Even die-hard fans of Japanese animation—with its pixie-faced characters, primitive movement, brilliant colors, and pseudo-mystical gobbledegook plots—will find this one a challenge. The plot (as incomprehensible as the four-syllable title) has something to do with a schoolgirl named Hitomi transported to an alternate world called Gaia, where she is hailed as the “wing goddess” who will help the oppressed people fight the evil Black Dragon Clan. Perhaps the problem is that the film is edited down from a 26-part TV series, but it doesn’t help that the English soundtrack is so cheap, with bland, characterless voices and long stretches of dead silence. The images of battle and destruction, though jerky and unconvincingly animated, are vividly colorful—the most reliable trait of anime.