#balgus ganesha

[katiajewelbox]

A master swordsman and a military general in Fanelia's army, Balgus Ganesha is a mentor figure to both Van and Allen in the anime Vision of Escaflowne. He's a great warrior and selflessly devoted to his country. Although he passes away early in the series in defence of his country, his memory continues to inspire the people he mentored.

My Picmix features an official animation still from the anime Vision of Escaflowne along with digital edits.

[folcanta]

ho ho dear reader

the entry for 'dun (pronounced dün, sometimes written duen)

and the entry for dunpa

i mean, is that not accurate? our boy folken is longing and wishing hard as hell.

kawamori frequently referenced buddhist/hindu concepts in his works, such as in Macross, in Haru to Asura, the biopic of (my personal favourite) poet Kenji Miyazawa— who was a nichiren buddhist— and Earth Maiden Arjuna. and i mean. balgus ganesha. lol. (varga/vargas also has sanskrit roots.) both fanelia and zaibach have four generals, and this isn't the only series that references the concept of The Four Heavenly Ministers. in japan, pokemon's elite four are called the four heavenly kings. i need to brush up on it, but i do know freid's whole cultural aesthetic is pulling from the mughal empire and the pillars of ashoka. (key point: the lions.) the series just mashed up what would happen if east met west in ways it didn't in real life but still followed the path of the silk road.

so if not bön (which i suggested here and here, even imagining it could be a retcon) then i'm thinking too about how the chinese translation of van's name uses the character 梵, fán/faan, which is phonetic, but also means lushness, brahman, and is a symbol to denote anything related to buddhism, comprised of characters meaning forest. speaking of which, वन ban/van in hindi/nepali/mewari/etc. comes from the sanskrit ván or vana, and always means trees/forest... as well as a ray of light, and earnest desire :^) if van's name did mean forest that would be so sweet and fitting... lush fanelia... thinking of the scenes when van and folken are young in the forest in fanelia, which is also where the series ends, and van and hitomi have their gentle conversation in the forest after leaving asturia, and when they're together in the woods in adom. like his most honest self is peaceful, and made so in this place. green also symbolises change and is explicitly used for that purpose in both the series/film, so... perhaps! (other translations of similar words बान/بان means keeper/guardian, बन/بن means forest/to become.)

and to be clear, i don't think this is the only thing going on with his/any character's name. their names are all written in katakana vs kanji, to highlight them being names/that we're in a foreign place. hitomi's name is written with hiragana instead of kanji, but we know it's relevant that her name means eye. also... her eyes are green... symbolising action, change, renewal, healing :^)

[gasexplosionatthescalpelfactory]

A big shout out to the awesome sevenstars for writing this amazing fic, "Wings of Change". I pictured Folken's tender inner feelings as he argued with Balgus, and drew that. [it's just lineart but if anyone wants to color it, feel free] Happy Pic 'n' Fic 2021!

[heavenlydragon]

SECRET [22/?] (source: Escaflowne Newtype Filmbook 1, p. 34)

Sure would be nice to know a little more about the three master swordsmen, but I am afraid they will be only mentioned here, since they are relevant to the story only through Balgus. May do some research later.

バルガスは偉大な武将として名高い「ガイア三剣豪」のひとりに数え上げられてい��。ガイア三剣豪とは、過去の戦国時代に、生身の休でガイメレフと同等以上に渡り合い、倒した強者をいう。バルガスのほかは、テレビ放映には登場しない。

[fayrinn]

2017 Escaflowne Week, Day 5

inertia / those who wander

... often do not know what they are searching for, until it finds them. 

Looks like the practice this week has got me into shape, I managed to do this from scratch today. Inspired by the translation according to which Merle was found by Balgus in a beast village destroyed by humans. I thought some about it some weeks ago, so I guess the prompt just brought it back.

[fayrinferno]

I’d love to know...

Okay, seeing as I’m nearing the end with the pages about Gaea worldbuilding (the only ones left are the Zaibach and Freid pages), I’m throwing this out there, because I think soon I’ll be ready to translate some more (little by little). I am not fluent in Japanese or anything, but I try. 

Things I am curious about and very willing to do translations regarding to:

Eries’ abdication, her supposed feelings for Allen

first and last names of characters which were never mentioned in the series or official materials afaik, such as Balgus Ganesha, Miguel Lavariel, Hitomi’s brother Mamoru  

the accursed colored birthdays of characters or any other reference to the dating system and time measurement on Gaea

anything about Sylphie the Mermaid (just because)

Hitomi and Van (and I suppose some other characters) being a few years older in the movie

If you see/know about an artbook or other official material which could be in relation to these (like, a picture of Eries with some text, a character profile which seems to include a date of birth etc.), please let me know and I’ll be on it.

Also would appreciate:

Knowing the source of this drawing by Hiroshi Osaka:

Source/better quality image of this sericel or whatever it is:

Source/better quality image of this artwork (I suspect it is a poster from a magazine):

I think that’s it for now.  I would have more but gotta stay a bit realistic. :D

If you feel like, you are welcome to add your own stuff (reblog this, message or tag me in the post). 

Maybe I or someone else from the nice Esca folks could help. For example, if you have some bit you would like to be translated, well, maybe I could do that. But it has to be specific , not just “can you find something on xy” (ideally also with a scan or a good picture of the text). I also probably wouldn’t be able to do blocks of text, but a paragraph, a short comic or such is fine.

[textsfromescaflowne]

[katiajewelbox]

Balgus Ganesha and the Fanelian generals Yurizen, Luva, and Asona lead the country's military and protect the people from invaders. They served King Gaou Fanel and now worked with his son Van Fanel in the anime Vision of Escaflowne.

My original Picmix composition features a screenshot from the anime.

[folcanta]

this is nothing, i'm just wishcasting! okay!

in my wildest fantasies/emergent fanfiction, Folken's name would be the Irish folcán— a diminutive version of flood/downpour— or folcánta— ocean waves/creatures of the sea rushing with great force. i'll happily take the Turkish name furkan— from Arabic فُرقَان, adopted from the surāh of the same name which says "there is no sin, however great, that cannot be forgiven if sincerely repented, showing faith and working with righteous deeds."

etymologically,

The term furqan is etymologically derived from the root “faraqa” meaning differentiation and discrimination of two things to the extent they are rendered separable (Farahidi 1988, 2:47). It also refers to the separation of two words or two persons from one another (Fayumi 1993, 2:470).

The root “faraqa” means separation and isolation, and at the same time, it is also close in meaning to “falaq” meaning cleavage. So, “faraqa” basically means separation and “falaqa” basically means splitting. This same purport has also been used in the holy Quran by the praised God (Quran 44:4) (Raghib al-Isfahani 1991, 632). Notwithstanding, it should be noted that the word "furqan" is more articulate than "faraqa" (Hosseini Zabidi 1993, 13:391). Originally, furqan is an infinitive term meaning "to differentiate”; then it was used with the meaning of “fariq” (agent noun or participial adjective), in the way that everything that distinguishes right and wrong is called “furqan.”

Even morning is referred to as furqan, because it tears apart darkness (Ibn Faris 1983, 4:494).

source

that feels thematically on point, i'll say. plus, in Japanese his name is written (and pronounced) with the o/ou sound, フォ, something like fō/fwo/[ɸo̞] which imo rules out any possibility of something like falcon or how volcano* is pronounced in American English. (o̞ is the mid-back rounded vowel.

* I won't rule out a connection to vulcan, that makes sense phonetically, but i don't see a big connection theme-wise. he seems like more of a Prometheus, lol.

i know Escaflowne is a mishmash and a fantasy. i just like can't have these Nepali/whatever boys be German. it's no offense whatsoever to Germans and ofc you can be Asian with a German name, obviously, it would be absolutely insane for me to claim otherwise lol, i really don't want to be taken in bad faith here. i just don't know why he, in Thee Vision of Escaflowne, would. he's wearing emperor clothes, he's. a dragon., he lived in what is pretty much literally Potala palace, everywhere is influenced by the Timurid... their dad is brown... and Balgus Ganesha is there, lmao... idk 😒 like i've said before, i think they realised it was a weird move because in the film it's a name he adopts for war. and iirc, surnames don't appear in the film? with warring clans instead of toponyms/patronyms, they don't refer to one another with surnames and i don't think they're in the credits or in the film artbooks. only on wikipedia. am i wrong? i'm flagrantly bullshitting here: Allen has an undeniably Persian or Arabic surname that matches his 1001 Nights mech, so why can't Folken have the same but as a first name. if they're foils, it should be allowed 🙂‍↕️

wait

OK

in specifically OTTOMAN Turkish (which would be quite time period/location appropriate for Escaflowne!) the word fulgān/fulqān translates to "dell; a small valley surrounded by trees." oh.......... you mean like where he LIIIIIIIVEDDDDD????!!!!???!!!??!!?? and van's name hypothetically associated with lush green forests? PLEASE. LORD.

[heavenlydragon]

PANSHOT [8/?]  Encounter in the Woods

I was trying to gif this great but overlooked scene when I noticed this awesome panning shot. Escaflowne’s backgrounds are incredible at times.