"RahXephon" (2002) TV series

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Yutaka Izubuchi

Writers:

Yutaka Izubuchi (writer)
Chiaki Konaka (writer)

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Animation | Sci-Fi | Action

Tagline:

Enter the new reality.

Plot:

Kamina Ayato lives an ordinary life. He goes to school. He lives with his mother. He has schoolmates...

Plot Keywords:

Dolem | Rahxephon | Rah | Anime | Xephon

Cast

Jason Douglas

...

Masaru Gomi / ... (15 episodes, 2002)

Runtime:

Japan:650 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | USA:Unrated | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes)

Company:

Bones

Trivia:

Reika's alternate title "ixtli", again from Nahuatl, means "face" or "eye" or "surface". This is a word with many shades of meaning, one of which is someone who has become the "face" or "eye" of a god, in the sense of a priest or priestess. Reika may well be the ixtli of RahXephon.

Quotes:

Quon: The world, suffused in sound.

Movie Connections:

Remade as RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio (2003) (TV)

An Eva clone with a few odd elements thrown in

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.