intro *escaboys is a collective of websites about the boys and men of Tenkuu no Escaflowne. Oh, wait, you read that on the front page. You probably want to know more. A collective, if you don't know, is a site with links to a bunch of sites on the same subject, or made by the same person, or belonging to a group of friends, or whatever. It's nothing to do with Communism *^.^* The purpose of *escaboys is to bring together, in one place, all the best sites dedicated to the male characters of my favourite anime series ever. I like 'em and I figure enough other people might like 'em to want an easy way to find them. My original idea was simply to create a jumpoff page for my own Esca-guy shrines, but then I thought it would be nice to expand on that. Tenkuu no Escaflowne, or The Vision of Escaflowne as it's known in English, is an extremely beautiful, exciting and moving animated TV series from Japan. It's a fantasy story with strong elements of romance and humour, which actually comes close to fulfilling the cliché of 'something for everyone.' Genre-wise, it's a little hard to classify, since although you can call it shoujo (aimed at girls) because of its focus on emotions, relationships and a certain mysticism, it also has elements of the traditionally masculine mecha (giant robot) genre and is, in part, a very vivid and clear-eyed meditation upon war. One thing people often comment upon is what a girl-friendly show it is - the heroine, Hitomi, is never objectified or belittled as female characters often are in anime. A friend of mine once said something like 'You know, there's nothing for perverts to look at in Escaflowne.' He thought that because he's a straight male *^.^* Another way in which the show is very girl-friendly (or gay boy-friendly, for that matter) is that it's full of the most gorgeous male characters! Heartbroken princes, dashing knights, scholarly merchant adventurers, psychotic albino pyromaniacs... like I said, something for everyone! *^.^* Okay, I sound like a drooling fangirl at this point. There's nothing so terrible about that, healthy hormones at work. But the guys of Escaflowne are much more than eye-catching faces and bodies; this is a series of wonderful, fascinating and memorable characters, who richly deserve individual attention on the web. In time, all the male characters of the series may come to be represented here (I used to say I thought Mr Mole or Zongi would be a long shot, but now there are two Mole shrines and I've heard from two people who want to enshrine Zongi, so go homely guys!). Please explore the site, and enjoy what it has to offer! If you want to learn more about Escaflowne, I recommend visiting the encyclopaedic Escaflowne Compendium site. When I started the collective, the series had not been dubbed into English, but an excellent subtitled version is available on home video from www.animevillage.com. Believe me, you need this show in your life. It should be noted that there is now an English-dubbed version of the series, just called Escaflowne, which aired for a time on the FoxKids network. I have only been able to see the first episode, but I thought it was very poorly done and my spies tell me that it only got worse. If you came here because you enjoyed 'Foxaflowne,' I'm not criticising your taste; I choose to believe you saw the good that survived in it. Do seek out the original. Your brain will thank you. If you'd like to know more about how 'Foxaflowne' differs from Tenkuu no Escaflowne, visit A Comprehensive Look: Escaflowne. Oh, and yes... I did think of the name *escaboys because of the pop group Vengaboys. I couldn't help it. I swear I don't like their music; Lord no, I listen to Steps and Aqua and Robbie Williams like all right-thinking people *^.^* home