RahXephon

The ordinary life of high school student Ayato Kamina is turned upside down when Tokyo is suddenly invaded by futuristic fighter jets. Amidst the chaos, he encounters a woman called Haruka Shitow who claims to be from a government organization called TERRA. She reveals that he has been living in a time bubble named "Tokyo Jupiter" that was put in place by the Mulians—humanoids from another dimension—in an attempt to isolate and take over Tokyo. TERRA has been trying to break through the barrier surrounding the city ever since.

Unable to process the revelation, Ayato panics and flees. He runs into his classmate Reika Mishima who leads him to a place called "The Shrine of Xephon" where a large egg slumbers. She starts to sing and an unknown power awakens within Ayato, connecting him to a being called RahXephon that breaks out of the egg. Shortly after, Haruka finds him again and tries to make him join her cause of fighting against the Mulians.

Caught between the crosshairs of the Mulians and TERRA, Ayato begins to question his purpose, navigating altered memories and ultimately his very identity in this chaotic new world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kamina, Ayato Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Shitow, Haruka Main

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Kisaragi, Quon Main

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Mishima, Reika Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Shitow, Megumi Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Hadhiyat, Elvy Supporting

Sugimoto, Yuu Japanese

Isshiki, Makoto Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Asahina, Hiroko Supporting

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Nanamori, Sayoko Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Kisaragi, Itsuki Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Minami, Masahiko Producer

Greenfield, Matt Producer, Script, ADR Director

Sasaki, Shirou Producer

Kawakami, Daisuke Producer

Reviews

Jan 16, 2023

Timordecai

Recommended

I don’t really know what to say, seems I’m still digesting everything I saw, ultimately very good. I would like to “sing” this show praises (pun intended), as there are many moments that have stood out to me as the most shocking and interesting twists and revelations I’ve seen in any series.

The score. Wow, I mean the soundtrack alone, such beautiful compositions as well as perfect tones and spot on creative sound design. The editing of this show, as well as the animation for being a 2002 animated tv series (done by Bones no less) has some stand out episodes. Though I ... will say there’s a few frames here and there where they were obviously just moving character models up and down instead of animating walking, but I’ll give it a pass because from the halfway point onward the whole show really picks up steam. The beginning is slightly messy and can be a little confusing (remember names) as it throws a lot of information at you all at once, and some of the details can get lost in the continuous establishing of a wide cast of characters and world-building. The characters all get enough time to shine with no one feeling too underdeveloped. I think my main gripe with the series is that it’s ‘artsy’ tone can sometimes come across a little too heavy handed, and the references they do use seem a little underbaked, that or I’m just too dumb to get it. When it does move into the more philosophical messages, especially in its dialogue, it doesn’t always hit home with me because I feel they seem to rush or it is too jarring a transition from the scene prior. They could have taken the story as just 100% character focused and left the waxing poetic out and you would have something even closer to a masterpiece. Especially if the symbols and references made to Melchizedek, the Egyptians, Lemuria and the rest, were all implied and hinted at purely in the background of the world itself.

All in all this isn’t to paint this show in any bad light, it really is beautiful and very well done, I'm simply making the few points that I can because I did thoroughly enjoy it. 8.31/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 29, 2024

Kryptonot_7471

Mixed Feelings

Despite it's interesting plot and setting, things in it seemed to be badly explained (NOT as in - went over your head, BUT rather either explained too early or too late for any drama.)

All of the main characters felt really fucking cliched even though it's side-characters were great. It still ruined the quality overall. it nearly felt like a fucking harem at points and I really hated that as well. the main romance was also extremely forced, but at least the last episode explained it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. (like I said, too late for that. the show is literally over by the time they get to it. ... so all of the dramatic moments earlier just feel hollow.)

In terms of characters they nail the side characters but the main leads are incredibly shallow.
Haruka was upsettingly disingenious from the very beginning although they try to redeem her by the end. they failed. I still hated the character and the backstory seemed like more of an excuse than a genuine longing. (ie; - something they could've easily fixed had they shown it earlier than the LAST FUCKING EPISODE.)
They also wrote her to be a far worse character than her sister even though she was basically useless in the plot, like LOL. okay.

Reika Mishima is... idek...

[spoiler]
she's like a part of ayato's memory or some mulian god or some shit. I don't really understand how it worked. they never explained it. she was like Ixchtli or something, so that would make her a mulian but she also looked like Younger Haruka -
[/spoiler]

which made no fucking sense. they never explained that part.

Quon is like.. a rei clone without any of the same level of identity crisis or emotional depth. she sings I think and lives with her brother. that's about it. that's the most you get out of her character.

Ayato is also just a complete fucking cliche. he's like, if you took Hikaru Ichijo from Macross and removed all character flaws and reduced him to a confused husk of a boring protagonist. the most interesting he gets is around ep11-16 but after that it's like his development is reversed for some odd fucking reason.
I would've preferred it, had they made him more cynical like they did in those few episodes, but oh well. some cliche about love or some shit.

The best character in this show was Johji Futagami but he only gets very little dialogue, despite that his role in the show is revealed to be far more interesting than anything else revolving around the main drama.

I cared more about Jin Kunugi, Souichi Yakumo & Elvy Hadhiyat than I did about Haruka and Ayato. They were actually likeable characters that not only had believable flaws but could also be pretty humurous at times while retaing a serious air to them. The most we got out of Haruka and Ayato were interactions in the first few episodes that already felt off - because of the nature of the plot.

There's also Itsuki, Makoto, Helena and Sayoko. Despite being given very little attention were far more interesting and far more developed than any of the main cast. My favorite episode was episode 15 and it had nothing to do with the main cast and focused only on 3 side characters.

This was the episode that showed me how this show was missing potential. I think the biggest flaw was trying desperately to emulate older better shows when it just could've been it's own thing. Main Characters were written waaaay toooo fucking conventionally for an unconventional plot and it really didn't work. They weren't written like this to subvert a cliche the same way something like Evangelion does, instead they were just there for fan-service and probably merchandising (tho, I doubt the second one.)
Eitherway it felt too constrained with narrative tropes and lacking depth so it's like one of those Scifi shows that's really only a little interesting and not too deep or philosophical as it pretends to be. You could watch Black Lagoon and get more emotional depth out of that show than this.

Overall, it was fine, the plot was good but reviews on this site definitely over-hyped it. I really wanted to like this show but the main characters were too flat and took too much screen time for how shallow they were.
Story - 7/10
Animation - 7/10
Soundtrack - 9/10
Side Characters - 8/10
Main Characters - 3/10
Overall: 6.8/10 (Had Serious Potential)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 8, 2025

Mako10

Not Recommended

I’ll go ahead and say that Rahxephon was deeply flawed. It essentially tries to copy Evangelion's general themes and characters but was executed so poorly that the show is worse than its inspiration. Christian symbols are replaced with Aztec/Mayan and characters have somewhat changed. All of this is fine but the execution was poor.
One thing wrong with the show is how it mishandles point of view (POV) for the audience. The show bounces between multiple POV inside TERRA, the earth defense force against the alien Mu. It’s a mystery when the scientist/research arm tries to uncover the truth to Rahxephon. It’s a mecha action when ... Ayato suits up and fights. It’s a romance drama when the female crew deals with complicated relationships. All these subplots are fine but were so disjointed and poorly done.
The mystery centers around Raxephon and how it relates to the aliens. The show drip feeds the answers to the world but it’s so obscure and makes no attempt to justify why or how it works until the very end. It feels like they added symbolism to appear deep but isn’t trying to use those symbols to actually convey anything impactful.
The mecha action centers around Ayato who is essentially a Shinji that believes in duty. The first episodes show his confusion and hesitation at the situation. He doesn’t understand the world or what he’s piloting but he knows there’s something wrong and that he can pilot to change it. Ayato is the best eyes to the world that the audience has since he’s just as confused as the audience. But only a few occasions does it show Ayato really interacting with this strange new world. Most of his time was spent fighting the Mu machine of the week.
The romance and drama subplot was barely more coherent. However, my biggest problem was that there was no build up nor cause to the true romance towards the end. It seemed almost random outside of one dubious reason. They never spent much time to develop these characters nor their relationships with each other cause too much time was spent talking in circles and fighting aliens that have no reason to appear that the conclusion of the romances falls so flat.
There’s so many other things to list or expand on what should’ve been. I’ll just add that Episode 19 was what I felt carried the true essence of Rahxephon. The central character in that arc is Ayato and how he deals with his relationships with others both past and present now that his understanding of the world has been shattered. It shows that he’s a well meaning kid, thrust into an alien war, but trapped still between two worlds, piloting a semi-sentient monstrosity that he doesn’t really comprehend, and hearing terms thrown around that make no sense. All he knows is that he can pilot and fight for what he thinks is right. But just because you’re doing what feels right doesn’t mean there’s no consequences to your actions. This could’ve been so much more to the story but they moved past that so quick it’s a shame.
Raxephon is an anime that tries to be something that it’s not. It falls flat in so many ways from an attempt to appear more intellectual or philosophical but doesn’t know why it’s doing what it’s doing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: RahXephon Episode 19 Discussion Veethorn - Jul 13, 2010	49 replies	by Radnitzky1890 »» Mar 17, 1:57 AM
	Poll: RahXephon Episode 16 Discussion ddw1a - Jan 28, 2013	13 replies	by Radnitzky1890 »» Mar 11, 1:53 AM
	Poll: RahXephon Episode 3 Discussion Ston3_FreeN7 - Oct 21, 2009	25 replies	by silentview »» Jan 27, 3:56 AM
	Poll: RahXephon Episode 2 Discussion Ston3_FreeN7 - Oct 20, 2009	24 replies	by silentview »» Jan 23, 10:09 PM
	Poll: RahXephon Episode 1 Discussion Ston3_FreeN7 - Oct 20, 2009	33 replies	by silentview »» Jan 23, 3:31 AM

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