At Sakura Con in Seattle, WA earlier this year, someone asked Escaflowne‘s character designer Nobuteru Yuuki if he’d ever seen a little fan parody called Nescaflowné:

Press: Have you seen the fan edit of the Escaflowne movie titled Nescaflowne, and how do you feel about people playing with your designs and spoofing them and whatnot?

NY: I have not actually seen that movie, but would be very interested in doing so. but generally I am not a character designer who feels the need to have complete control over everything I draw. If fans create something like a doujinshi or cosplay, or even fan dubs I feel that in a way it shows how well liked my characters are. So I generally like to see people enjoying my designs.

Full interview here:
http://www.zentendo.com/features.php?articleId=325&page=1

Though I’m still ironing out a few things, it looks like version 1.7 of Nescaflowné is locked at a runtime of 60:13, about 10 seconds longer than version 1.0. MPEG-2 encoding of the new stuff should be done by tomorrow night.

This week. Nescaflowné should be done this week. Feels great.

As mentioned previously, one of the new scenes for the final cut is something meant to give resolution to the Head and Miwanna subplot. In the script, this scene occurs just before the final confrontation with Khan. But having watched the climax in its current truncated form for nearly four years now (holy crap I’m lazy), it’s clear that putting that scene in its intended place would slow things down. But since I still want to tie up that plot thread, I decided to move the scene to just before when Hitmi returns to Japan. The problem is that the recorded dialogue explicitly mentions its orignal context, in which Miwanna had a role (also cut) in Head’s rescue. So it’s a matter of trimming some of her lines and redoing a couple of Head’s.

After I finish the new stuff, there’s some touching up to existing scenes I might do. There’s one shot in particular I’d like to add to enhance a joke and I’m also considering a couple more pacing trims. And then it’s on to the DVD authoring, starting with ReDeath since most of the work is already done.

I’m quite pleased with the new Nesca footage so far. Don’t want to spoil nothing for nobody, but it’s absurd and it’s quick and I love it. It looks like the final cut of Nesca will have around two minutes of new scenes total. I have about 90 seconds done that need just a bit more polishing, and only one more quick dialogue bit after that which should be easy to edit. The hard part’s done. My estimated date of completion is… screw it, it’s bad luck when I pretend I’m on time. It’s soon though, honest. 

I learned a new word today: “Hedonism”
he·don·ism n.

1. Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
2. Philosophy. The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
3. Psychology. The doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Which makes me think that some how Head’n'Shoulders of Maxwellhouse was aptly named, even if by coincidence.