Think about this for a minute. There was absolutely nothing creative
about the story of Escaflowne. Everything that happens is so damn
formulaic. We know that the producers of Escaflowne were split into
shoujo anime expert and shounen anime expert. I believe that they had
to argue among themselves for a long time to come up with the final
storyline. That would explain why the show became so formulaic. That
structured story is presented extremely artistically in terms of
animation, music, and voice acting. Even so, it doesn't change the
fact that the main story is flawed. This is the reason why it was not
all that successful in Japan. Formula isn't what makes great anime.
It's the freedom that makes great anime. Think Minky Momo of the old
days. It was well received for such a long time because the producers
were free to do their imaginative things.
I feel that all the wonderful art work of the animators and the musicians were wasted on this series.