Project Origins Me and Allen Schezar, we've got this relationship. I'm not exactly proud to admit that I'm this hung up on someone who is, when all is said and done, a cartoon character, but I can't ignore the fact any longer. It started, classically enough, the first time I saw him. You must understand that before I first viewed The Vision of Escaflowne, it had been heavily hyped to me by the friend who was lending me the tapes. If you've read through any of my other Escaflowne guy shrines you'll know that this was Kevin, and you'll know what an influence he has on my life (the part of my life that involves watching videos, anyway). I sat down expecting to see something pretty damn' wonderful, and of course I did. There was the vulnerable yet spunky heroine he'd been waxing lyrical about, there was the arrogant young hero who he assured me would develop into a little less of a weenie, there was - hold the phone. Kevin did not warn me that in the swamps on the frontier zone between Asturia and Fanelia dwelt the young man on whom I would instantly develop a big, sticky, mushy crush. Oh, come on. He's so beautiful. And so gallant. And has such good hair. I recall emailing Kevin after the first spate of Esca-viewing and asking 'Is it too soppy of me to have a big crush on Allen?' to which he replied 'Of course not, that's what he's there for.' Well, I wasn't prepared for it. I was still a relative anime newbie; my previous crushes in the genre had been Nephrite from Sailor Moon and Bad Bird from Samurai Pizza Cats. (Stop laughing. He was hot.) The point is, I wasn't quite aware of the impact a guy can have on you when he's voiced by Miki Shinichirou, designed by Nobuteru Yuuki, written by Shoji Kawamori, Kazuki Akane et al, and is backed up by music composed by Yoko Kanno. Total multimedia heartthrob attack, especially the smooth, suave voice. I fell for him approximately as hard as Hitomi initially did, and he didn't even punch out any grody old molemen for me. And of course, as Hitomi does, and as I think the makers of Escaflowne intended viewers to do, I gradually fell out of love with him as I began to understand him better. In time, I started making Escaflowne guy shrines, beginning with the always delightful Dilandau Albatou. (Do not ask me why. I can't remember.) I got the idea to make a quite serious Allen shrine, examining both his good and bad sides, and call it Janua Caeli, which is Latin and means 'Gate of Heaven.' It's kind of a pun because Janus, the Roman god of gates, doorways, and all those places where things can go either of two ways, is represented as having two faces. The chivalric order of which Allen is a member is called the Knights of Heaven or Knights Caeli, depending on the translator. Well, I never did complete that shrine, which is probably a good thing as that was an unnecessarily obscure pun. I made a shrine for Dryden instead, in the course of which I made fun of Allen a good deal, and yet I was not satisfied *^.^* I simply had to go ahead and devote a full shrine to Allen Schezar, his glory, his folly, his yumminess. It's done at last. Do enjoy it. I should like to stress that this is not intended to be an Allen-bashing page, or an anti-shrine. I kid because I love. Apropos of nothing, my friend Lizz tells me she saw this slogan for a firm of lawyers on daytime TV in Virginia: 'Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen -- The strength of family, the best in personal injury.' We just think that's lovely and appropriate *^.^* Apparently Allen is a name to conjure with in those parts - there's a city called Glen Allen. Now that's cool. Imagine a glen full of Scottish-accented Allens in kilts! Woo-HOO! Now go play. **Home