Hitomi is a typical schoolgirl with typical adolescent vexations — not the least of which is that she’s psychokinetic. After abruptly finding herself spacio-temporally transported to Gaia, a fantasy realm where humans and half-breed Jujin are at sanguinary loggerheads, she teams with brooding, solitary Van (a warrior questing for the enormous "dragon armor" of the title). She also learns, to her surprise, that she is the "wing goddess" prophesied to lead Gaia to peace and redemption.

Adapted by Kazuki Akane from his popular Japanese TV series of the same name, Escaflowne darkens that program’s kid-friendly anime stylings considerably. Hitomi is on the verge of suicide before she slips the space-time continuum, and Van’s quicksilver swordsmanship dispatches scores of enemies with graphic finality. Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack, leaping from the mournful calm of Gregorian chant to paroxysms of apocalyptic opera, intensifies the bellicose fervor. Although the narrative thrust eventually peters out and the overdubbed dialogue is often discomfortingly awkward and spare, Akane has created a sumptuous visual feast, a world cloaked in shadows and teeming with balletic movement.