12. Who is the true Wing Goddess — Hitomi or Sora?

That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?

The characters in the movie all assume that it is Hitomi, but if you watch the film carefully, you will find many clues indicating that Sora is the real Wing Goddess. Note how Sora gives ambiguous answers to Folken's questions about the Wing Goddess' whereabouts. When he asks if the Wing Goddess is present in Torushina, she replies yes — which is true whether the Tsubasa no Kami is Hitomi or herself. Earlier in the film, Sora tells Folken that the Wing Goddess is on Gaia and has made her way to the other dragon, Van. But her wording leaves it unclear if she is referring to Hitomi, who has physically appeared in front of Van, or to herself, who is clearly starting to side with Van and the Abaharaki on a philosophical level. The proverbial smoking gun is the fact that at the end of the film, Escaflowne at one point appears to be dissolving and flowing into Sora.

The evidence in Prologue 1: Earth and Prologue 2: Gaea, on the other hand, appears to indicate that Hitomi is in fact the Tsubasa no Kami. In the drama, Sora frequently refers to Hitomi as the Wing Goddess in no uncertain terms. Either she is lying outright, or Sora herself honestly believes that the chosen one is Hitomi. However, some fans have claimed that the radio drama is not true canon because it was written before film production was complete. Thus, the argument goes, the drama cannot be used as proof one way or the other.

At Anime Expo 2003, Lizzard asked director Kazuki Akane about this issue point-blank. He responded that the ambiguity about the identity of the Wing Goddess is intentional, and that he wants fans to draw their own conclusions. He refused to say who is the real Tsubasa no Kami — perhaps Hitomi, perhaps Sora, perhaps both, perhaps neither. Perhaps there is no Tsubasa no Kami at all. Akane wants the fans to watch the film and decide for themselves. And that is as much of an answer as we shall ever receive.

For some reason a lot of fans equate a good ending with a happy ending. This is an immature way to view a story — any story. A perfect, happy ending would have been inappropriate for Escaflowne. Here's why.

The whole point of Escaflowne is that you have to love others and be honest with yourself, despite the fact that it won't always lead to a happy ending. Thus, tacking a happy ending onto the tale would have insulted the viewers and ruined the show's entire message.

Moreover, it would not have been true to the characters if Van and Hitomi had stayed together. For example, let's look at Hitomi....

* In the TV series, Hitomi never truly feels part of Gaea, and she does not ever lose her desire to return home. She has friends, family, and dreams on Earth that she has to return to, or else she'll lose everything that has made her who she is. She returns to Gaea the first time she leaves because she has unfinished business there. Once everything has been taken care of — and her love for Van acknowledged — there is no need to stay. That is, no need unless you count the selfish desire to stay suction-cupped to Van's rear end. That type of selfishness goes against Hitomi's nature. Staying to indulge her whims would prove that Hitomi wasn't who we thought she was, and that her love for Van wasn't true and mature in the first place. If love and trust depend on close proximity, then they aren't really love and trust.

* In the movie, Hitomi doesn't love her life on Earth — she wants to disappear. But her stay in Gaea allows her to rediscover her ability to care for others and her hopes for the future. If she didn't return home to use the new lessons she had learned, there would be no purpose in her having learned them in the first place.

Escaflowne tries to make the point that true, mature love can endure no matter what may occur to test it — and that it can stay true even if life doesn't turn out to have a perfect ending. Had Escaflowne been given that perfect ending, it would have been hypocritical. Have you ever been frustrated when you hear smart people saying calculus is simple, or talented artists saying that drawing should be easy for everyone? Had Hitomi and Van stayed together, Escaflowne's message would have been cheapened in the same way. The show can't send a message about the strength of love in the face of hardship if everybody has a happy ending by the closing credits.

Director Kazuki Akane has stated that that "perfect" endings are suitable only for fairy tales. Escaflowne is no fairy tale.

I seem to recall an interview with Yoko Kanno and Kazuki Akane being among the DVD extras for the movie edition. IIRC she was making fun of him for projecting his own issues with women onto the characters, making him unable to write an ending where they (any couple of them) actually stay together ... or something to that effect. Anyone recalls this?

Personally I think it can be considered a "mature" or "immature" ending depending on how you look at it... how you interpret it. Indeed the choice between the possible ending scenarios shouldn't even have to be a binary. I mean, Death, for example, could happen. :p

As for the whole "true love through the years and faraway" angle, really, it could be argued that it can be more difficult to tolerate and love your chosen grumpy guy on a daily basis as he chops off enemy heads and scratches his butt while belting out war-cries than it is to be in love with a faraway fantasy... :p

Personally, I think Hitomi going back to Earth might close the circle nicely in the movie version she has better chemistry with that hot movie!Yukari anyway, if only it were more... convincingly executed... BTW, IIRC they make a big deal of Van finally having found one person to trust... and she suddenly leaves. And he just stands there and smiles. Lol.

It might have been interesting to have them at least try to pull off different ending scenarios in the two versions of the anime though. Like, say, show us whether you can actually write a "happily everafter" ending and make it poignant!

Until now I had mistakenly thought that CLAMP had only contributed the character designs for the anime, but I couldn't shake the feeling that their hand was strong in the characters and writing.

I was reminded of a bunch of older CLAMP titles such as X, CCS and XXXHolic ('Saya is like the love child of Kamui and Watanuki with a touch of Sakura Kinomoto', is what I thought... )

Checking the credits and finding out that Ohkawa Nanase is indeed involved in the actual writing and the Director is none other than XXXHolic's Mizushima cleared things up quite a bit for me.

Still, feels so so Clampesque and yet so all over the place in tone as it walks the line between comedy and srs bzns...