The Day the Angel Flew

The Day the Angel Flew (天使の舞う日, tenshi no mau hi) is episode 8 of the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne.

Synopsis
"'And I'm going to find a way to send you back up there, no matter what.' - Van" The episode opens with Hitomi having a dream in which she goes on a date with Allen in Shibuya, Japan. Just as she is about to kiss him, Millerna interrupts her. Then Hitomi sees the crumbling tower from an earlier dream, and a mysterious winged figure comes to save her.

Hitomi wakes up to Merle and Van sitting at a fire cooking food. Merle teases her for having called out for Allen to help her in her sleep. Van reminds Merle that Allen was the reason they were able to escape. Merle offers Hitomi some of her food, and Hitomi winces at it. She eats Hitomi's snacks and pulls more of her things out of her shirt, and Hitomi yells at Merle for taking her things.

After Merle falls asleep, Van is training when Hitomi asks him if he thinks her pendant looks like Escaflowne's Energist. Van asks her where she got it, and she says it came from her grandmother. Van asks about her family, and she tells him she has a mother, a father, and a younger brother. She talks about how her brother is always acting up, and she's the one who's expected to keep him in line. Thinking about her home causes her to tear up. Van explains that his parents died when he was young, and now that Fanelia is gone and Balgus is dead, Merle is his only family. Hitomi asks him about the man he called his brother on the Vione, and Van reacts angrily, telling her that Folken left the Rite of Succession ten years ago to join Zaibach and that he is a traitor. Van apologizes for his strong reaction, but she says he's fine and that she should apologize. She asks him what he plans to do, and he expresses a desire to become stronger, then asks Hitomi what she plans on doing. She says she doesn't know, because they can't go back to Asturia, and Van asks her if she wants to come with him. He says he may need her help someday, and promises that he'll find a way to get her back home.

In Palas, Zaibach floating fortresses and leviships gather overhead as Allen watches from his cell. Millerna asks Grava why he threw Allen in the dungeon, and he explains that Allen aided in Escaflowne's escape and tried to defy Zaibach. Millerna scolds her father for letting the Zaibach fleet go through Asturia, and Grava says he wouldn't have let them through "if Marlene were still alive." Because Marlene was married to the Duke of Freid, Millerna figures out that Zaibach is going to attack Freid.

The scene cuts to the Dragon Graveyard where Zaibach troops are mining for Energists. A pink-haired Zaibach commander with a snake around his neck sees Escaflowne passing overhead in its Dragon form. Merle doubts Hitomi's reading, which said that this was a good direction to travel. But Van decides to land.

Back in Palas, Millerna walks down in the dungeon, and she "trips" and falls down in front of the guard. She tells him her leg may be broken and asks him to take a look at it, lifting up her skirt. While he's distracted, Gaddes hits him on the head with a club, and they free Allen from his cell.

Back in the Dragon Graveyard, Merle explains to Hitomi that Energists are mined from dragon fossils. Van tells her Energists, really called Drag-Energists, are used to power Guymelefs and leviships. Van tells Hitomi and Merle to hide. He intends to disrupt the Zaibach mining operation because he doesn't want them to use the Energists to become more powerful.

The scene cuts to Millerna and Allen riding in a horse-drawn carriage toward the harbor where the Crusade is stationed. Millerna explains to Allen that Zaibach's next target is Freid, and that Grava is doing nothing to stop them. She vows to accompany Allen to Freid. When they arrive and disembark the carriage, Millerna sees Eries (accompanied by the Mole Man) who asks her to come back to the castle with her, and says that she won't tell their father. Millerna begins to protest, but Allen picks her up, sets her down on the seat of the carriage, and kisses her. Stunned, she doesn't realize it when the carriage starts to move. Allen bids Eries goodbye, and the Crusade lifts off without Millerna, who nevertheless vows to go after Allen.

In the Dragon Graveyard, Van lands Escaflowne in the middle of the scene, and cuts down an enemy Guymelef and a crane. He notices an Energist storehouse, which would be a prime target to sabotage Zaibach's operations. Merle and Hitomi are watching when a soldier comes up behind them; Hitomi is captured, but Merle escapes. Van continues to fight, but the Zaibach commander threatens Hitomi's life as a bribe to force him to stop.

Captured and tied up, Van is beaten by the Zaibach soldiers, who try to get him to talk. Merle, hiding under Escaflowne's cape, watches the scene unfold and wonders what she should do. Because Van refuses to talk, the commander walks over to Hitomi and introduces his snake, Nina, whose bite is fatal. The snake begins to crawl up Hitomi's body and is close to her face when Hitomi's pager suddenly begins to ring. The noise distracts the Zaibach soldiers, and Van uses his legs to vault a sword from a nearby soldier upward and cut the rope holding him in place. He cuts down all the surrounding soldiers, and the commander, about to strike, backs up onto a loose rock and slips and falls down the side of the hill, apparently dying from his fall. Still determined to take out the Energist storehouse, Van tells Hitomi to hide.

Suddenly, Escaflowne's Energist resonates with the Energists in the storehouse, and the storehouse explodes, causing the ground to crack open. Hitomi and Merle are caught on the fault, and Hitomi falls down, sliding headfirst into the resulting chasm. Van sees her falling, rips off his shirt, and jumps off of Escaflowne, sprouting huge, white, feathered wings, and grabs Hitomi's hand, taking her to safety.

When Hitomi wakes up, it is night. She picks up her pager, which is still ringing, and sees a message from Amano, asking her where she is. He sent it to her via phone from the track team banquet. She holds her pager in her hand and begins to tear up, then she hears someone coming up behind her, and she turns around to see Van, with his wings revealed, shining in the light of the moon and Earth.

Characters

 * Hitomi Kanzaki
 * Van Fanel
 * Merle
 * Dilandau Albatou
 * Allen Schezar
 * Millerna Aston
 * Grava Aston
 * Gaddes
 * Eries Aston
 * Mole Man

Trivia

 * The building Hitomi sees in her dreams is the Shibuya 109, an actual department store in Shibuya (a Tokyo ward). In fact, the curved bank of phones from where Amano pages Hitomi later back on Earth are actually those on the ground floor of this building.


 * The antennae-adorned UFO catcher doll Allen wins for Hitomi is purportedly based on "Hitomi de Tyu," a dramatically super-deformed insect caricature of Hitomi doodled by the Sunrise studio animator Yutaka Nakamura.

Quotes

 * "I wonder how they're doing? Dad... Mom..." - Hitomi
 * "He's no brother of mine. He... Folken... is a traitor!" - Van
 * "All this has taught me how much more I have to grow. First, I'll train with my sword. It all begins from there." - Van
 * "You're the one who's crazy, Father! How could you let that fleet into our country? We're not Zaibach's allies! We're their lackeys!" - Millerna
 * "A princess must think about the future of her country." - Grava
 * "In a war, the side with the most Energists wins." - Van
 * "I'll stay by your side, no matter where you go." - Millerna
 * "Allow me to introduce my friend, young lady. This is Nina. One bite from her, and you're dead." - Zaibach Commander
 * "You... You're an angel..." - Hitomi