Escaflowne! Directed by Shoji Kawamori of Macross/Robotech fame with character designs by Nobuteru Yuui of the Lodoss War series, this anime was a blast to watch and I could do it over and over and over... Below is a recap of characters, from my point of view of course. ^.^

My favorite character in this series was easily Merle. She's the kawaii catgirl that dislikes Hitomi (for the most part), and has been friends with Van since childhood.

My second fav. is Folken, Van's older brother and (possible?) traitor. Helps the enemy through a good portion of the series but seems to turn on them yet again (double-traitor!?). Folken I think has the coolest attitude and a much better haircut than his younger brother. =P

Dilandu is cool, extremely insane, maybe not quite what he seems, but still cool. ^.^ "Burn, Burn, Burn!!!!"

Hitomi - bleh. The star of the series (sorta) and track runner at her high school back on Earth, but that really doesn't matter much now that she's stuck on Gaia now does it? Oh yes, Van likes her for some strange reason(and judging by the number of fan sites about her, some humans like her too. =P I personally thought she was too stuck up about figuring out who she liked.)

Van is the young king of Fanelia, and is practicing to become a master swordsman! Can he do it before Dilandu decides to... "Burn, Burn, Burn!!!" hehehe. Yes I know I'm not quite all here... Van also is childhood friends with Merle; but he HAS to like Hitomi (go figure).

Last, but not least is Allen; the galiant knight of uhhhh, lemme get back to you on that. Allen is by far a better swordsman than Van and is rumored to be the best on Gaia, next to Vargas. He also seems to be a "playboy" at times, with Hitomi mooning over him, and him liking her back... or maybe that's the princess he's smiling at? No wait. It's her older sister he's smiling at. WAIT! I was wrong, it's Hitomi. Or is it...