What Might Have Been Of course, Allen's fabulous just the way he is. But you don't arrive at a character design that perfect without a fair bit of trial and error along the way. What first got me thinking about this aspect of his development was a note in his Escaflowne Compendium entry that he had originally been modelled on the dashing flying ace Roy Focker from Macross, until the production team became more influenced by flowery-girly shoujo manga, but the wheels didn't really start turning until my friend Kevin shared with me an article about Escaflowne from Manga Max, a British magazine. This included a quote from series character designer Nobuteru Yuuki on his early version of the character: 'Allen's the kind of guy whose blond hair is dishevelled and his hands are always jammed into the pockets of the long, checked kind of coat he's always wearing, and I depicted him as wearing tank top and jeans, even though he's very vain. Akane said he'd like to go with that kind of stylish character.' (Manga Max issue 13, January 2000.) I immediately became somewhat obsessed with this version of the character, mainly because I instantly thought 'Woo-hoo! Irresponsible Captain Schezar!' (If you don't get that, I was thinking of Irresponsible Captain Tylor, another of my favourite series - whose hero is a scruff in a baggy coat with a smiley button on the lapel, and they put this guy in charge of a starship during an interstellar war. It's better than it sounds *^.^*) It also appealed to me because I always love pictures where Allen looks sort of sulky and dishevelled (he's normally so well hevelled) and delinquenty, and I thought this sounded like a bit of the good stuff. Anyway, by dint of lots of research and begging the saintly Syrena Doné for scans from her wonderful model-sheet collection, I can present a mini-gallery of Pictures Of What Allen Schezar Does Not Look Like. With commentary from me, obviously. As a point of interest, during the early stages of series development Allen had a different surname (a lot of people went through different names, such as Hitomi Hoshino - Hoshino means 'of the stars'), so some of these may really be pictures of Allen Baado - or Bardot as I always want to spell it. This looks like a fairly standard variant Allen, although the rather bland angelic look of the large face sketch suggests that Nob' hadn't got a handle on Allen's personality yet - I particularly note that his eyebrows don't have that endearingly raffish quirk that they ended up with. The only significant difference of costume is that badge on his tunic, which makes him look vaguely as though this is his school uniform; also, technical detail, I can see the hilt of his sword, but where's the rest of it? Curious. Here the skirty part of his uniform appears to be attached to the tunic, rather than a separate piece worn over the top. This is the most boring Alterna-Allen facially. (Does anyone else think he looks sort of like a mouse?) This looks like a very early rough sketch (not that I have a clue about the date), and what I chiefly find interesting about it is that the uniform has a rather Zaibachy feel, suggesting that elements of the various countries' distinct 'looks' were traded around before the final versions were settled upon. Good job too, as this style doesn't really work on Allen, and the cut of the top makes him look like he has breasts, for God's sake. And the little cape? As Lizzard points out, how very Batman. This is much more Classic Allen in terms of dress (although that's some weird detail on his wrists and hands - looks like he had gauntlets, like Gaddes, and - um - motorcycle gloves?) but a drastic departure in terms of hairstyle. This is the shortest Allen hair I've ever seen. It's weird, isn't it? I'm getting kind of a margarine vibe from this picture. (As opposed to real butter.) His cravat's tucked in very neatly, which gives him a bit less of a romantic-highwayman look than he ended up with. ('With a bunch of lace at his throat,' etc) Stuff knows who this guy is; he doesn't look remotely like Allen, but since he's on a page otherwise full of Allen and Gaddes sketches, I have to assume he's at least connected. Obviously a very different concept here, and more reminiscent of Dilandau - or, given the scruffy shirt and the glasses, even Dryden. I bet you didn't think a Dryden-Dilandau cross was possible. The question is, is it a good idea? Guess they decided not. I assume that's an early, homely Gaddes with him. (Early Gaddes sketches seem to be uniformly butt-ugly. I applaud whoever suggested making him cute and Han Solo-y.) YEAH, BABY! This is it, The Good Stuff - Allen in the baggy coat, hair windblown all over the place and hands in pockets. He is so cute like this. *suppresses a squeal* The most strikingly different costume design by quite a long way; frilly-fronted shirt, relatively loose pants, and this is the only time I've seen Allen in lace-up boots. (Disturbingly, if he also had a velvet butterfly bow-tie and a leather drover's hat he'd be dressed very like my father in his university days. However, Tony was never this much of a hottie.) You also get a very cute, if sketchy, variant of Van. Bonus! Jeez, Van with sleeves, it hardly seems real. And here's a fascinating piece of production art, found by Webmistress Lizzard in a DVD booklet. Now, it may just be that Nob' was using a visual metaphor to emphasise to the animators that Allen can move like a swift big cat when he needs to - but it may also mean that at some stage he was intended to have a sort of panther as his animal companion instead of Natal. Which, I'm sorry, would have been SO much cooler than an owl. Missed opportunity! Boo! Another interesting costume variant - short blue tunic and tight white pants. He does, of course, have the ass for them. I hope you found that as interesting and enjoyable as I did! I'm very grateful to Syrena-san for her help, and I warmly recommend that you visit her site, Dilandau's Lair. **Home