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I grewup watching The Americanized version, and recently rewatched it in the Japanese...only to come out feeling like I just watched an entirely different show. This is a Shojo anime is it not? It had all the components of a shojo....a girl in a reverse harem off in a magical world guiding the fate of others. Who she chose as her partner and lavished her affections on shaped the behaviour of the other characters, which shaped the entire world they were in cause of their importance. It had entire episodes without any fighting at all, just dialogue about peoples feelings. Even the opening is Shojo-like. Young attractive Angel men...I don't see how this couldn't be a shojo anime.

Yet all I remember growing up watching the American version is it was about fights fights fights and lots of dialogue sequences that might even last entire episodes breaking up these fights. How they phrased the lines and even the opening... the show was clearly aimed at boys.

kite
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Yes, The Vision of Escaflowne anime is actually a shojo anime.

According to Japanese Wikipedia, the original draft of the anime was to mix robot anime with elements from shojo manga and transforming military vehicles with the title 「空中騎行戦記」(Kuchuu Kikou Senki, lit. Mid-air Trail Riding War Chronicle)

However, when the anime was localized for the TV broadcast in the USA, it was heavily edited. According to the Wikipedia,

[...]. In August 2000, Fox Kids began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Saban Entertainment under license by Bandai Entertainment, these dubbed episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add new "flashback" sequences to remind the audience of the events that just occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first episode was skipped altogether, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno was partially replaced with more techno rearrangements by Inon Zur. This modified version of the series was canceled after ten episodes due to "low ratings". Fox explained that they edited to meet their own target audience, to comply with broadcast standards, and to fit the allowed timeslot. [...]

(Emphasis added)

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Aki Tanaka
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