Hitomi Kanzaki

"'Was it all just a dream? Or maybe a vision? No, it all really happened. It all began the day I asked the tarot cards if I'd find love.' - Hitomi Kanzaki"

Hitomi Kanzaki (神崎 ひとみ Kanzaki Hitomi) is the main protagonist of The Vision of Escaflowne and Escaflowne. She is a first-year student at her high school, Kamakura-Kita, and is very good in track and field. She has a mother and father, a younger brother, and a grandmother. Her best friend is Yukari Uchida, and she has a crush on Susumu Amano, the captain of the track club.

Appearance
Hitomi has short, light brown hair and green eyes. Throughout most of the series she wears her school uniform: a beige overcoat with a brown overlay, a white button-down shirt, a red bow tie, a brown pleated skirt, stockings, and black and white sneakers. In the movie, she wears a school uniform with a white shirt with a blue bow, collars, and sleeves, a blue pleated skirt, white stockings, and brown loafers.

After arriving at Asturia, Millerna dresses her in a long pink and white gown with white lace, matching gloves, and white boots. While running through the streets of Palas to warn Van, she rips the skirt of her dress, making it a similar length to her school uniform.

Hitomi also wears her track suit, consisting of green pants, short pink track shorts and a plain white teeshirt.

In episode 1 and episode 23 she wore home clothes which included a long sleeve light pink shirt, a dark blue/purple tank top and a light blue/white skirt.

Ever present is her iconic pink pendant, a gift from her grandmother, Yuri.

Personality
Hitomi is friendly, outgoing, and kindhearted. She is selfless and empathetic and will go to sacrificial lengths to help others. She always sees the best in people, and encourages them to see the best in themselves, whether directly, or indirectly because of her own genuine nature. She is a dreamer with an active imagination, and somewhat of a romantic.

Because she hates suffering, Hitomi is prone to anxiety and worries about others, even when she's told not to worry. She imagines and wonders what could go wrong, and can't stand the idea of anyone being hurt.

Powers and Abilities
Hitomi always told peoples fortune with her tarot cards but soon afterward she started to have dreams that come true which she then started to call visions. Her powers and abilities are:


 * The ability to see into the future through visions that come unexpectedly
 * She can manipulate causality itself using her wishes and emotions
 * She is able to see into the past and future using tarot cards
 * She can see the unseen, such as Zaibach Guymelef's when they are cloaked or a doppelganger when they take the form of another.

Life on Earth
Hitomi is a freshman at her high school, Kamakura-Kita. She lives with her mother, father, and younger brother, and she is very good in track and field. Her best friend is Yukari Uchida and she has a crush on her team captain Susumu Amano. A lot of people at her school always ask her to read them her fortune.

Life on Gaea
"I saw it Van! You enjoyed fighting! I don't want you to protect me if that's what it does to you! I'm sick of all this fighting... I'm sick of this world!" - Hitomi Kanzaki to Van Fanel

Hitomi first arrives in Gaea after Van Fanel slays the dragon necessary for him to complete his rite to become King of Fanelia.

Van and Hitomi are in the field where they landed after coming from earth in a pillar of light. They are surrounded by a pack of wolf-men, when one of them recognizes Van, and offers him a ride back to his home. During the ride, he finds out that Hitomi comes from the blue moon (the Earth) which hangs in the sky, which they refer to as the Mystic Moon. Hitomi gets a vision of a city being attacked then arrives in Fanelia and learns that Van is the Prince Of Fanelia. Hitomi finds herself daydreaming of home and her friends when Merle steals Hitomi's pendant. They run through the palace halls when Hitomi sees Van and Balgus in mock-battle. Merle gives Hitomi her pendant back and runs into Van's arms. During the festivities, Fanelia is attacked by the same people Hitomi saw in her vision, and Hitomi goes with Van to the shrine were she see him awaken Escaflowne and get ready to fight, but Van can't see the samurai because they're invisible. Hitomi, however, can see them, and aids Van in battle.Van and Hitomi head outside and see Fanelia being destroyed and Balgus dead, before a bright light appears and takes Hitomi and Van away with Escaflowne. Hitomi lands alone in the forest and pulls out her pendant to ask it where to go. However, a strange man in round, wire rimmed glasses, fascinated by her pendant, attacks Hitomi. Hitomi is subsequentally saved when a strange blond man, Allen Schezar, comes to Hitomi's rescue. Hitomi sees this man as Amano and falls into his arms crying then is taken back to his castle with Van after Van is knocked out. She then has a dream of sitting under a tree with Amano, where she tells him that she had a dreamof Gaea. She awakens in a bed with a bunch of mercenaries gathered around a nearby fire. Allen tells her he is a knight of Asturia. Later on Hitomi tells Allen she is from the Mystic Moon. Van and Hitomi are sent in a room where Hitomi does a tarot reading for Van, and then gets the death card and a vision of Allen Castle being attacked. Hitomi faints and is caught by Allen. He feels her forehead and finds out that she has a fever.

She asks Allen about his mom and he tells her that she was beautiful and loved flowers. She opens her eyes and sees the Mole Man and Van come in. Van applies ointment that came from the glar leaves to Hitomi then says that they are here. Hitomi then see that Zaibach soldiers are here and escapes with Allen and the others. When Van is taken by Zaibach, Hitomi tells Allen she can find him so he gives her a test and she passes. She then uses her pendant with the help of Merle and Allen and they finally know where he is.

They arrive at the Zaibach floating fortress where Hitomi gets another vision of Van in trouble. She manages to warn him and everyone escapes safely. The group arrives in Palas where they meet Princess Millerna Aston who has her servants take care of the group. She then takes them to the market where Hitomi sees another vision of Van in danger. She rushes to save him and reaches him just in time.

Later at the castle Hitomi attends a banquet and gets drunk after watching Millerna's continued flirting with Allen. Later she see her and Allen kiss which upsets her, causing her to run back to her room. Just then three lizard creatures climb into the room and kidnap her.

Van and Merle go after her and save her but they are attacked by Dilandau. Allen shows up and Hitomi leaves with Van and Merle. Hitomi, Merle and Van stay in the woods where Van and Hitomi talk about their family then Van, Merle and Hitomi find an Energist Excavation site, which Van attacks. However Hitomi is captured, forcing Van to surrender. As they try to escape, Hitomi falls and Van goes after her by showing he has wings. Hitomi learns of Van's past; his mother was a Draconian, a winged descendant of the people of Atlantis and soon afterward they are attack by Dragon Slayers. Allen show up to help but Allen sacrifices himself to save Hitomi and is seriously injured. Millerna does a surgery to save Allen's life. After hours of waiting, Hitomi blames herself for Allen's condition. Hours later Millerna announces Allen is in the clear. The group goes to Freid and meet the prince. Afterwards Van, Hitomi & Merle are talking in the palace courtyard. Hitomi is explaining how her power of finding things works. Hitomi continues her explanation, which develops into a demonstration as Merle, bored, offers herself as a test subject and challenges Hitomi to spot her -- which Hitomi does almost immediately. In typical fashion, Merle seems to dispute whether the result was worth fussing over. At any rate, Chid thinks the game is fun and wants his fortune told. However Allen, Hitomi & co are promptly surrounded and arrested. Later Hitomi is taken from the cells, put in a large room and told to stay there. On the other side of a set of bars, the prince says that he doesn't understand.

Hitomi is hypnotized and questioned by the shinobi and reveals that she comes from the Mystic Moon. The shinobi then asks about guyimelf-spotting and finds out about the pendant. He demands Hitomi hand it over. Hitomi points at the shinobi and cries that he is not what he appears to be, he's a murderer. A blackness from the floor attacks the shinobi, sucking his life force. As he is about to go down he grabs Hitomi, who struggles. Hitomi has foreseen the death of the shinobi, Zonghi. Practu says he's tired. To the others it seems that Hitomi is either dead or in a coma. Millerna tries artificial respiration on Hitomi. Van takes over and eventually succeeds in reviving her. Hitomi explains that the man was a Zaibach shinobi and Van and Hitomi are set free, and on the back of Escaflowne, pick a direction. Van & Hitomi find Dilandau but can't see them until Hitomi uses her power.

Later on, Hitomi has a frightening vision of the shinobi being crushed to death. Merle overhears and mocks Hitomi, before saying that Van is looking for her. She does not want to be involved in making any more dire divinations of the future. She runs away, leaving Merle to ask what's with her. Hitomi sits alone by an ornamental pond. Chid asks Hitomi if she is unable to sleep, and they talk. Chid is distressed by his family's high expectations of him. Hitomi says that her grandmother told her people have mysterious powers. Hitomi lays out the Tarot cards for Prince Chid, and suddenly visualises Marlene, Chid's dead mother. Hitomi tries to cover up her surprise by saying that nothing's the matter. Hitomi finds Van seated next to Escaflowne and communing with the mecha's inner mechanisms. She asks what he is doing, and Van confides that he is employing some of her techniques to link himself more closely to the guylimelf. Rather than being pleased, Hitomi finds this rather disturbing and Van comes out of Escaflowne, seriously wounded. Hitomi realizes that Van's wounds match the damage on Escaflowne and tells Allen Van will die if Escaflowne is not repaired. Once Escaflowne is repaired, Hitomi tries and fails from preventing Van from going into Escaflowne. In the end he thrusts Hitomi and Merle aside, enters the mecha, and leaps out of a loading door into flight mode.

In the movie
Hitomi was on the track team and was the second fastest runner, but quit after the fastest runner bullied her into doing so. After quitting the team, she develops depression. She feels she has no purpose in life, wanting to sleep all the time and "just fade away." Her friend Yukari remains supportive, but Hitomi pushes her away, telling Yukari not to bother with her. Hitomi believes she should just fade away because she annoys and bothers everyone.

Hearing her depressed state, Folken calls her to Gaea, where she wakes up inside of Escaflowne. Before she can escape from its cockpit, the Abaharaki caravan shoots the Black Dragon Clan ship down, and Van, Escaflowne, and Hitomi fall to the ground.

Musical themes
"Hitomi's Theme," which begins with a music box and synthesizer and then moves into an orchestrated string melody, plays several times throughout the series. Another theme associated with Hitomi is "Aoi Hitomi," a vocal version of "Fanelia," which plays in Episode 23.

Trivia

 * The name Hitomi means "pupil of the eye" (瞳), which relates to her ability to see visions of the past and future.
 * It can also mean "history" (史) (hito) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
 * During development, Hitomi's last name was tentatively "Hoshino", which means "star" (星) (hoshi) and "area, field" (野) (no).
 * She was named Hitomi Hoshino in both the Katsu Aki and Yuzuru Yashiro manga adaptations.
 * In the Yuzuru Yashiro manga, Hitomi's younger brother's name is Mamoru.