RahXephon

I can't believe I actually watched all 26 episodes. But I did it so you don't have to. The cringe attempt to copycat everything NGE was, was a mistake. The "story" of RahXephon is virtually impossible to follow (Steins;Gate is more clear), and the plot is so complicated I began to suspect they were just throwing things in as they went and it got boring. The main characters are absolutely bland, I wasn't invested in any of them, therefore I honestly didn't care what happened to them. I was relieved when it was over. If you love NGE avoid this at all costs. If you like good anime, do yourself a favor and skip this one, because it's not.

'RahXephon' is an engaging, stunningly crafted series, possessed of an emotional depth rarely seen in animation, Japanese or otherwise. Critics often compare 'RahXephon' to 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', even accuse Bones of plagiarizing Gainax's intellectual property, but this is both inaccurate and unfair; while the broad strokes of premise and plot are similar, the two shows are wildly different. At its core, 'Evangelion' was an action series with elements of psychological drama, collapsing into a confused muddle of arcane symbolism and overcomplicated plot twists. 'Eva' was entertaining, even enthralling, despite its flaws, but 'RahXephon' leaves it in the dust.

'RahXephon''s biggest advantage over its contemporaries is its character development. Virtually everyone who appears on screen is given a complex set of motivations and a significant amount of personal depth, and it is in watching these well-developed characters interact that the series' biggest is found. Personal conflicts--between Matoko and Kisaragi Itsuki, between Haruka and Megumi, between Ayato and, well, everybody--are given an emotional weight that invests these situations with a real feeling of tension, as well as sympathy for one, if not both, of the characters involved.

As intricate as the writing is, it would not be half as convincing without the stunning animation throughout the series. The animators imbued every person on screen with a personality displaying in their very appearance, and allowed subtle changes in facial expression and body language to speak as much as the dialogue. There is a shot in a latter episode of the expression on Haruka's face changing so subtly, in tiny movements of her eyebrows and lips, that one doesn't even notice until it's almost complete. The attention to detail is awe-inspiring.

As the series builds towards its thrilling climax, the emotional stakes rise higher, and the characters' situations become increasingly desperate, the show violently plays on the viewers' emotions-impressively enough, -without- being blatantly manipulative. I was lucky enough to watch a bootleg of the entire series in two sittings; I cannot imagine the torture of having to wait a week between instalments.

There are so many elements, so many fine details in 'RahXephon' that are beyond the scope of this review to explain. Whether or not you are an anime fan, whether or not you care for -any- form of animation, you absolutely -must- watch this series. It could change your view of the art form forever.

Pretty disappointing series which really started to annoy me towards the end. Although some of the concepts were quite nice (singing mechas! Heh!), the story behind it stood on very wobbly ground, with a lot of plot-points which didn't make any sense or had no relevance at all. If there's anyone out there who could explain to me why the Mu put Tokyo into a timebubble in the first place, I would be very happy. The only use I could find in it, was that they would have a plot-device to create the Haruka/Ajato-Storyline. Apart from that it was very unclear to me what the Mu were trying to achieve ("We want to tune the world!" doesn't say anything to me) or what their whole war with TERRA was actually about. And why exactly were they a threat to humanity and how did TERRA know? Information that was simply missing.

Then there were quite a lot of subplots which sat there totally independent of the main-story. Most of them felt pretty useless in retrospective (especially the two Megumi-Lovestories) and made the impression that they were just there so that they had enough material to fill 26 episodes. And... keyword "lovestories"... there were too many going on at the same time. Especially in the last few episodes it started to become really ridiculous when there were about 5 or 6 women (maybe even more) in love with Ajato at the same time or had at least a crush on him.

A lot of people made a comment about how rich and well fleshed out the characters are. Well, my impression was the exact opposite. Almost everyone in the series seemed very flat and uninteresting to me. And yep, underdeveloped. Maybe it's because they had just too much characters on board, so that it was too hard to focus on everyone. But when I take at the "X"-TV-series where they had a LOT more characters to work with and yet they were all more than your usual stereotype... and considering that they had fewer episodes to offer... Hm.

Even some of the main-characters had their flaws, especially Ajato, whose characterization seemed to flip around from now and then and suffered from inexplicable mood-swings. When it was necessary for the main-story Ajato was an angry, impulsive guy. But then he could be very understanding and calm although the situation was (still) the same. And these irritating mood-swings could happen within minutes. VERY inconsistent writing, in my opinion...

The other thing I was wondering about was why so many people are persistently proclaiming that this is NOT a copy of "Evangelion"... and how much it stands on its own feet and how much more it is different from the GAINAX-series. Well, hum... Apart from the very similar character-designs (watch out for the twins of Misato, Asuka, Commander Ikari and Ritsukos brother) and yep, even set-designs (hello, pyramid!), "RahXephon" copies entire episodes from its predecessor. Here we have the "hero gets unconscious in the mecha and has surreal dreams"-ep, there is the "evil mecha who sucks his enemy into another dimension"-ep, and so on... The same goes for some of the plot-lines, like the one about the old guy who pulls all the strings in the background to achieve his own personal goals (he even has a German name - like in "Evangelion"). But the most obvious rip-off of them all can be witnessed in the last two episodes when everything goes "End of Evangelion", but in a very stale, shallow and meaningless way, lacking the philosophy and the depth which made the EVA-series and -films great. And when most of the questions are left being unanswered it doesn't feel mysterious or exciting in any way. They're just gaps which result from bad editing and even worse scriptwriting.

The only good positive aspects were the great animation and the decent soundtrack (lovely title-song). But that alone doesn't make a good show.

All in all an anime-series which wants to be important and meaningful at all costs but actually doesn't have anything to say. Underneath the pseudo-complicated plots and the pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble there is nothing more than hot air and a lot of steam. Very disappointing and not worth a second watch.

OK, I have just finished watching RahXephon and I mean it when I say that RahXephon is a show that should not be missed by anybody who's a mecha fan, a drama type fan or an anime fan in general cause the show is just that good. The story is such an incredibly detailed story, every character is likable and has a story to tell, the art is fantastic and the animation for a lot of the battle sequences are great also. The music is wonderful and addictive and I have both the opening and closing themes. The extras on the all seven volumes are really detailed with interviews with a lot of the English and Japanese cast. Lots of production sketches that are great and a nice music video as well. A lot of fans will say that RahXephon is similar to Evangelion, in a way its similar but its a lot more of a joyful series than Evangelion, I mean Evangelion is like the black series while RahXephon is the white series. Well thats the best way I can compare it. At this point cause no doubt I will have to watch the series again to fully understand the series cause it is mind boggling like Evangelion accept no religious questions thank goodness but still I would love to watch it again.

So right now I give it a 9 out of 10 but who knows it could be the only series that I own to get a 10 out of 10 and I find it very hard to give something that but RahXephon is very close.

I'm not going to give anything away nor try to even explain the plot. Believe me, just watch it! It is somewhat like the Evangelion series and made by ADV; it's got the whole Mecha thing going and has shown a lot of depth like Evangelion. The character design isn't bad. It's just beautifully done. Again, just watch it and don't miss out!