The prices of Escaflowne TV cels actually started 
off low in Japan because the initial demand is not
high.  Then more and more foreigners bought the 
cels, the prices went higher.  The Japanese 
dealers (not the collectors) saw that, they 
jumped in and drove the prices even higher 
gradually.  I know a few Japanese dealers are 
still holding a bunch of Escaflowne TV cels for 
re-selling later on.  
In Japan, Escaflowne did okay in terms of 
popularity.  If you went to certain
Japanese collector events, you wouldn't see many
Japanese collectors have Escaflowne cels in
their folders becuase they're not too 
interested in it.  On the other hand, in the 
other countries like Korea or US, Escaflowne is 
pretty popular.