Van Slanzar de Fanel is the young king of the country Fanelia. At age Fifteen he successfully completed the task of slaying an earth dragon and gaining the dragon's drag-energiste, which he does with the help of a girl from earth named Hitomi. The drag-energiste was then used to power the Ispano guymelef, Escaflowne. With the help of Hitomi and the Escaflowne, Van fights against the Zaiboch Empire alongside many other respected Gaeans. Van gains a bond with his Guymelef that is almost astronomical. He has perfect precision and control over Escaflowne, but at a price: Any damage done to Escaflowne is done to Van also. This was especially evident after the Battle of Fried in which Van was grievously injured. He and Escaflowne were healed with the help of Dryden Fassa and the Ispanos, at great cost to Dryden’s wealth. Directly after being healed Van kills all of the remaining Dragon Slayers except Dilandau (and Dilandau is evil and sadistic with no respect for life?). After this, Van again nearly dies (he and Hitomi seem to have a knack for that, ne?) The scene in which Hitomi goes and brings him back from the ranks of the dead is anime at it’s finest. Van and Hitomi return together and Van exits Escaflowne (also noted in this scene though not pertaining to Van is Merles sudden wish for Hitomi to live). Later Van has a vision of the dragonslayers dying again. Van, Hitomi, and Allen dematerialize off of the Crusade and have a collective Vision about the past. After the vision, they dematerialize alongside Escaflone at Dorkirks Palace in Zaiboch. Van climbs up his guymelef and touches the jewel, which is now green. The Escaflowne throws him off. Dorkirk outlines his past and his plans for the unlucky trio and places Van and Allen in suspended cages. Van cries out in pain, due to his connection with the Escaflowne, the Zaiboch sorcerers are trying to rip off the gem. Hitomi urges Van to call the melef, which he does. With the help of Escaflowne they are freed. Van board Escaflowne in Dragon mode and flies off to fight the Zaiboch forces. Folken and his Catgirl perform the "Fated Kiss" and Hitomi and Allen meet on the bridge and are seen by Van who walks away. Ok… now this is getting old… I really didn’t intend to retell the entire story and I’m going to end up spoiling the end for people so I’m going to quit that and move onto stats. Van is fifteen years old. His birthday is Twelfth moon of White (April 12) and He is 165 cm tall and weighs 51 kg. His voice is done by Tomokazu Seki, and his voice in childhood flashbacks is done by Yoshiko Kamei. His parents are Goau and Varie Fanel.

Why? That’s simple. He’s normal. He isn’t always happy or always whiny. He goes through mood swings and heartache. He’s typical of a 15-year-old guy, aside from the fact that he isn’t usually a controlling, perverse, self-absorbed jerk of course. But he does seem to have his moments some times (episode one comes to mind.) He tries to deal with problems by himself and is reluctant to spill anything to anyone. This is all aside, of course from the fact that for anime character he’s dead sexy, naturally you have to love that awesome swordsmanship, and his seldom shown sweet side is irresistible. My personal fave quote from his sweet side would be the time when he first sees Allen, and Allen has Hitomi in his arm: "What did you do to that girl? If you hurt her I’m going to kill you." Awwww. How cute. I wish I could find a guy like that. ^_^