its successor platform, ITVX. Soundtracks Maaya Sakamoto voiced the main character of Hitomi Kanzaki and performed the opening theme song "Yakusoku wa Iranai" and other songs from the series. Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi composed and produced the series' musical themes and background, incorporating a variety of styles including contemporary, classical, and Gregorian chant. Four CD soundtracks have been released in Japan by Victor Entertainment. Escaflowne: Over the Sky was released on June 5, 1996, with sixteen tracks, including the series' full opening and ending themes. The second CD, Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 2, was released on July 24, 1996 and contained an additional seventeen tracks. Released on September 28, 1996, Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 3 contained an additional fifteen tracks. The fourth CD soundtrack, The Vision of Escaflowne: Lovers Only, was released in on January 22, 1997 and contained twenty tracks, including the original TV length opening and ending themes and the ending theme used for the final episode of the series. Despite the relative popularity of the soundtracks, they were not licensed for release outside Japan for some time and were only available by importing them. However, all 4 soundtracks can now be currently purchased digitally via iTunes. Manga Three alternate retellings of The Vision of Escaflowne have been released in manga form, with first two manga series developed at the same time as the anime. Due to the radical changes in the anime series during production, these two manga series are very different from the original anime series and each other. The first series, also titled The Vision of Escaflowne was one of the first manga series to appear in the then new Shōnen Ace magazine from Kadokawa Shoten. Despite the anime series itself being on hold, Sunrise gave artist Katsu Aki the existing production and character designs, resulting in the first manga series having the heavy shōnen feel and curvaceous Hitomi that was originally planned for the anime series. Given free rein to change the story however he wanted, Aki's version is a violent saga focused primarily on fighting and has Hitomi transforming into a "curvaceous nymph" that is the power source of the mecha Escaflowne. The series premiered in Shōnen Ace'''s first issue on October 24, 1994 and ran until November 26, 1997. The thirty-four chapters were collected and published by Kadokawa across eight tankōbon volumes. It was licensed for released in North America by Tokyopop with