Episode 1


Was it a dream? Or a vision? A female's voice is heard asking this question as White Dove is played in the background. A purple-blue night sky littered with stars is seen, through which float the backs of many tarot cards. The moon swings into view, and as it passes we see a pink pendant swinging through the sky and the scene changes to show the earth and sun. A girl in a high-school uniform is seen, kneeling and eyes closed, superimposed upon the image of the earth and moon revolving around it. It was real, she concludes. And she tells us it all started the day she asked the tarot cards if she would find love...
The screen then shows a card, which is revealed to be Le Torre - the Tower. Escaflowne chanting begins in the background. The Title is shown and The Episode Title is shown over the image of the Tarot Card.

A school building is shown. It is a sunny day and the chatter of students saying their goodbyes at the end of the day can be heard. We see a runner getting onto his starting block. I Recommend Instincts (no words) begins to play in the background.
the young girl we saw in the beginning is now seen sprinting across campus in her warm-ups. A girl asks as she whizzes by if Hitomi has time to tell a fortune for her. We see another young girl scolding Hitomi for being late for practice. Hitomi apologizes and tells Yukari, her friend and apparently her manager for the track team, telling her she was working on a report.
Hitomi asks if the guys are done with their time trials and Yukari points out that they're jsut finishing up. However, Hitomi hasn't seemed to miss seeing her crush, Amano-senpai, sprint.

The start gun goes off and the guys start running. Amano crosses the line first. Yukari looks at her stopwatch - under 11 seconds!!
The girls time trials begin next. The other girls run out to the track, but Hitomi is still in her warm ups. Yukari playfull pulls off Hitomi's sweats and yells at her to get out there.
as Hitomi readies her self on the track, we see her in her track clothes and she is wearing the pink pendant that was swinging across the screen earlier in the show.
As Hitomi runs, she is in front of the pack. Suddenly, she sees a vision - a young man decked in armor, carrying a giant sword is on the track in front of her. The Escaflowne chant beings and she runs through him and faints.

She feels herself falling through the air. As she opens her eyes, (Chain?) is played. Hitomi sees giants on flaming ground and red sky marching towards her. Suddenly, she sees the young man she saw on the track in a room, talking to an older man. The older man tells prince Van to be cautious as he slays the dragon. Van responds to Balgus that he'll be alright.
Hitomi then sees two more giants fighting with swords. One is the same color as the previous ones, and the other is off-white with a giant red jewel on it. The latter strikes down the first giant.
Hitomi then sees a tower which breaks in two and collapses. Suddenly, the ground breaks under her and she is falling through space. She reaches out for something to stop her freefall and a man with wings flies down towards her. White feathers from the wings sprounting from his back float everywhere. She smiles and reaches for his hand, when she wakes up to the face of Amano looking over her.

She finds herself in a hospital bed and Amano is by her side, glad that she is alright. He comments that her running is great, but Hitomi confesses that she hasn't even broken 13 seconds. Amano mentions that the difference is in one's start off the blocks. He advises her thatyou mustfocus your energy and burst forward. Suddenly, he notices Hitomi's pendant.
Hitomi takes it off her neck to show him. It is a charm from her grandmother. She points out that as she swings it, it will make one swing in exactly one second, never slowing. Amano takes it and swings it and then begin counting the seconds as they watch the clock.
Amano's voice drops out at 13, while Hitomi continues counting. Amano suddenly stops her at 17. He swings down and places his hands on the bed, his face coming startling close to Hitomi's. His eyes and voice are soft and serious, and he begins to say something, as if he is about to make a confession of love or something. Hitomi is startled and blushes.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and we hear Yukari's voice. She has brought Hitomi's duffel bag and is startled to see Amano advancing on Hitomi in the bed. Empty the Pocket (instrumental) begins to play in the background.

Hitomi and Yukari are seen walking home. Yukari is upset that Hitomi has gotten the attention of Amano, and tells Hitomi that it must be made up with being treated to dessert - a different one everyday. Hitomi complains that she didn't faint on purpose! They joke about the incident as best friends will:)

As they walk under an overpass, Yukari asks if Hitomi has ever done a tarot card reading for her(Hitomi) and Amano. She responds she hasn't, because she is afraid the cards would tell her that Amano wasn't for her. Yukari stops and gets serious. She turns to Hitomi and tells her that she has heard the upperclassmen talking - Amano will be moving away to another country. She urges Hitomi to show her feelings before Amano leaves.

Hitomi Theme begins to play as we see the Kanzaki residence, Hitomi's house. The voice of her mother can heard calling her. we see and open window and then Hitomi's desk, upon which she has her tarot cards laid out in a formation. The first card she is reading is The Tower, a card representing a long separation. She assumes it is referring to her separation from Amano.
She then noticed the Ace of Serpents, which represents that she should have courage.

We see scenes of the school. It is sunset and the sky is pink. Amano bids farewell to his track teammates. We see him standing alone in his school uniform on the track, gazing into the distance. Hitomi runs up, and asks Amano for a favor.
Holding out her pendant, she asks of him, that if she can run the 100 meter dash in under 13 seconds... At this point, she gets a bit nervous and blushes. She bows down, extending the pendant to Amano and asks if Amano would giver her her first kiss.
Amano looks at Hitomi and then reaches to grasp the pendant. Hitomi gasps and we see Amano's face smiling at her. "Don't regret that, okay?" he tells her. Hitomi is happy, and she bows again, exclaiming "Arigatou gozaimasu!!" (Thank you very much!)

~~~Commercial~~~
The image for the commercial is a dark blue background. The gold outline of Hitomi's head is seen looking upwards. A white feather curves along the bottom corner of the screen, where the words "The Vision of Escaflowne" appear as a chime is heard.




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