Vision of Escaflowne - Anime TV Series Analysis - Gender Roles
Hitomi, Objectification of the New Girl
(Major Spoilers Ahead!)
My sophomore year of high school, I seriously considered transferring to an expensive fine arts prep school because I had run out of female crushes at my current public high school. The bad idea was inspired by the fact that either I wimped out of a strong come-on from my crush du jour or I was flat out rejected. Whatever really happened I have completely suppressed in favor for the warm memories of the “new girl” that forced me to continue my public education. The new girl excites the boys around her because she is viewed as an up for grabs prize. The mystery of her newness usually attracts the most popular guys from around school, who she will fall far out of star struck ignorance (Allen), or as a reminder of her lost love in her former town (Amano). As the underdog you must double your usual charm, and virtuous acts to catch this girl’s attention. Along the way, and most likely when you have already won her over you will screw up and say the wrong thing that will build a wall between you and this girl that will be hard to tear down. If you switch around the genders and circumstances, I just described the first season of Dawson’s Creek.
Folken: “Van doesn’t have the guts to start a relationship.” Like all of Escaflowne’s characters, Van is unsure of his feelings. Misinterpreting his deep and buried love for her he practically throws her into the waiting (if not bated) arms of Allen with this speech, “Hitomi, I want you… I want you to stay with me forever. I want your… I want your power! I need your power of Atlantis to beat them [Zaibach]. You may even enhance Escaflowne’s potential power, too. Please help me with your power.” Hitomi slaps Van and goes for a ponderous walk in the rain, where she questions her feelings of comfort with this alien planet and its men. Hitomi had somehow degenerated into Van’s ultimate weapon, an object of man’s hatred-driven fate, war. In the Absolute Fortune Machine’s grip Allen forces himself on Hitomi despite the fact that Hitomi knows that Millerna loves Allen more truly than she ever could. This event, witnessed by a regretful Van, amplifies Allen’s feelings of protective ownership over Hitomi. Later in the series he proposes to her, essentially signing and dating the proof of his dominant power over her. Confused, Hitomi resists giving the positive answer Allen feels he deserves. For Allen, Hitomi is the reason to fight against evil. She is his idealized damsel in distress. The only problem is that Hitomi is definitely no damsel, or she will not let herself be objectified in that way. Therefore, what may seem like womanly indecision is really a fight for independence and subjectivity.
What Van takes for an ally against evil is really just a cheap weapon. What Allen perceives as a wife is nothing more than a mantle piece to be guarded. Hitomi is all and none of these things because she is the key to Gaea’s future. She cannot collapse under the pressures of one love because she knows that it would destroy her other love. Her decision is her own and it is not to decide until the rules have changed.
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