RahXephon

According to the director of this series Yutaka Izubuchi, Rahxephon is an homage to Brave Raideen, but I also see strong influence of Neon Genesis Evangelion throughout this series. It's almost as though the series is is an amalgamation of the two. Ayato Kamina was a teenager living a normal life in Tokyo. What he didn't know was that he was a descendant of interdimentional race of Mulians, and Tokyo was encapsulated in an energy field which the outsiders called Tokyo Jupiter where time passed at a slower rate than the outside world. Earth is under attack by Dolems - a quasi robot created by the Mulians. Ayato Kamina is lead by his classmate Reika Mishima to an egg containing Rahxephon. Rahxephon only accepts Ayato as its pilot due to his genetic ties with the Mulians. The plot of Rahxephon and its pilot having ties with the Mulians is strait off of Brave Raideen, and also the design of Rahxephon takes from Raideen. The main character who is an introverted in the closet type individual is similar to that of Neon Genesis Evangelion. People in this story seems to use "official assignment" as an excuse to forward their motives and importance within the organization. The story is rather dark with apocalyptic theme running through its plot, and introverted characters that fills the roster doesn't make the story any more uplifting. Artistry is high, and there is an experimental aspect of using music as main ingredient of the story. Bolodin's Polovetsian Dances is played in many sequences. The story progresses slowly, and that takes away from the excitement of action that should be the main focus of super robot anime of this type. Also the characters appearing in this series are mostly unattractive individuals as human beings, and takes away from the plot. The style of the story - a dark apocalyptic sci-fi with introverted main character which was popular in the early 2000s, is somewhat passé by now. Watch this series for its artistry and its somewhat mysterious mood. But don't expect much action in each episodes.

The main problem with RahXephon is that it tries too hard to duplicate the success of Neon Genesis Evangelion, ending up rather derivative and turgid in the process. It has it all: the teenager with the knack for mecha piloting and whining, the cute but enigmatic "waif prophetess", the mysterious mecha that isn't really a mecha, the strange invaders named according to the show's theme, the ancient conspiracy, the world cataclysm, and, of course, the Looming Apocalypse™.

Another issue is the rather incoherent and contrived feel that comes from trying to combine a musical (specifically operatic) motif with Mayan mythology. The writers did not seem particularly knowledgeable about music, however, and the most conspicuous example of the musical element is the fact that many of the angels, er, dolem look like giant stone Valkyries, suitably stylized to look Mayan, who use song as a weapon. Another is the rather silly naming scheme for the dolems, which seems to involve picking random terms out of a book on music.

Despite these rather glaring issues, RahXephon did have some nice aspects, such as the music, unsurprisingly, and some plot twists involving the origins of Ayato and so forth. Although hardly a great series, it's not too bad if you can't find much else to watch.

Although RahXephon shares several similarities to Evangellion in the end it's core story is actually about love and not war and a love that even transcends space and time for that matter. Because of that both the Federation and the Mullians play a secondary role in this anime which in the end proves to be a good thing, that is if you are sentimental as i. Of course much like many anime on the way to find complete love our hero goes through many trials and lots of sad events but what's new? Personally although RahXephon is considered a sci-fi anime i think that it has amongst the top 5 love stories i have ever seen in an anime and no matter how many times i see it i always wish we had more Harukas in the real world.

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!

Defined as : attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed. Sums this series up pretty well.