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>>Folken Lacour de Fanel>>What Might Have Been I love anime character design sketches to bits. For one thing, if you enjoy drawing fanart (I do) they're very helpful for showing you the details of a character's features and clothing, so you can make your picture accurate - that, after all, is what they were intended for, but for the benefit of professional animators, not Sarah-neko the fangirl *^.^* You can find design sketches in several of the artbooks published to accompany Tenkuu no Escaflowne - but often, in amongst the sketches that determined how the cast actually looked in the series, you can find intriguing little variant and prototype versions, some of which are pretty nifty, and some of which make you thank the Muses that designer Nobuteru Yuuki changed his mind. Seeing them certainly sharpens your appreciation of how perfect the end results were - you don't know how wrong Van Fanel could go until you see him in a Disney-prince doublet and tights. Some characters appear to have gone through a good deal of evolution before reaching their final form (especially Hitomi, who had her look reinvented more times than Madonna), but I've only been able to locate (thank you, Lizzard!) one early variant of Folken. Regardez.  *smothers giggles* Oh dear. Well, what can we say? It's clear, firstly, that the 'sorceror's cloak' design underwent a lot of redesign and simplification, presumably to make it more sinister. This outfit is rather reminiscent of Dryden's scholar's robes, and while it's imposing, it isn't scary or villainous-looking. It doesn't have the slight vampire Gestapo vibe of the finished version. (Good God; vampire Gestapo. After thinking of that I'm not sure I'll sleep tonight.) As for the man wearing it... I'm sorry, but that is a tragic mullet, far worse than what Folken eventually ended up with - at least, with the spikes, he has a certain punky style. This just looks like he should sue his hairdresser for malpractice. The glasses are interesting, and actually quite sexy in a Giles-from-Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer way. (Shut up. Giles is sexy. Not as sexy as Spike or Angel or Xander, obviously, but not to be sniffed at.) Nob' appears to have tried out glasses on quite a few characters in the early stages, including Hitomi and Allen, but only Dryden got to keep them. Lucky old Dryden. Just to continue the motif emerging in these paragraphs, the first time I looked closely at this picture I was like 'What's that? Anti-vampire throat armour?' Umm... no, apparently this draft of Folken had a cybernetic component to his neck and jaw. I don't know how much more of him is artificial, under that robe, so his arm may or may not be similarly affected. I think the main problem with this design is its plausibility. Would an injury to the neck severe enough to necessitate the replacement of tissue and bone with a prosthesis actually be survivable? (I always wonder why he didn't just die of blood loss and shock when he lost the arm, anyway. The sorcerers must have found him extremely quickly.) Even if, in this version, it was elective surgery for some kind of enhancement, it's hard to see what good a metal neck would do anyone. I wonder how far they'd thought that through? Again, the final version works much better in terms of - um - I shall coin the word sinisterity, and of tragic impact. Facially, his features are very much the same, but he doesn't have his fabulous villainous eyebrows, and he looks too cheerful by half. I don't think he minds having a dreadful haircut and a tin neck. Where's the anguish? Where's the torment? Where's the yummy pouty sad mouth? Isn't it nice to know that, as far as Escaflowne character designs go, we do live in the best of all possible worlds? Dude. I'm
in love. It's Surfer Folken! *^.^* Click
on him to see the full picture. If you are
at all fond of model sheets, you may well
recognise this pose. Apparently, not
content with fooling around with actual
features, when he'd finalised the
characters' forms Nob' trialled different
colour schemes too. Like making Folken
blond with a glowing tan. It's just not
the same, is it? Kind of screws the
vampire role-player vibe, doesn't it?
Although I do remember once seeing a
Gothette interviewed on TV, who said
'You'd be surprised how many of us are
secretly blondes.' But Surfer Folken has
dark eyebrows. Maybe he has a little
helper in a bottle? Although
I would enjoy showing him off at the
beach, I find little use for this version
of Folken in a Vision of Escaflowne
context. My, what a big red sword he has.
Paging Dr Freud... Thanks
again to Webmistress
Lizzard. |
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