Who designed Escaflowne's characters?

Nobuteru Yuki, and the heroine was a first for him: the first character he ever designed entirely from scratch.

Nobuteru Yuki (結城信輝, born December 24, 1962) was already one of the defining character designers of his generation when Sunrise hired him. His faces for the Record of Lodoss War OVA (1990), adapted from Yutaka Izubuchi's novel illustrations, had set the era's standard for fantasy beauty: Deedlit's long, slender ears became the template for elves in anime. Yuki has said that Hitomi was his favorite of his own designs, because she was the first character he designed completely from scratch rather than adapted from an existing medium.

He is a frequent collaborator of director Kazuki Akane, and Escaflowne is their signature work. When the 2000 film retold the story in a darker key, it was Yuki who redesigned the cast a second time, lengthening every line.

THE YUKI LINE

One hand, three landmarks

1989–1990 · Lodoss and after

Character designs for The Five Star Stories film (1989) and the Record of Lodoss War OVA (1990) made his reputation; the Weathering Continent and the Battle Angel Alita OVA followed in the same painterly register.

1994–1996 · Escaflowne

Yuki joined the production while it was still the shelved, male-oriented version, then stayed through the Akane rebuild, redrawing Hitomi from the original long-haired design into the short-haired athlete of the finished series.

Also in the record

Designs for CLAMP's X film (1996), character design for the game Chrono Cross (1999), and, decades on, Space Battleship Yamato 2199. His doujinshi circles, The Man in the High Castle and Ubik, are both named for Philip K. Dick novels.

Who designed Escaflowne's characters?

THE YUKI LINE

THE FIRST WORD