What I thought it did well:
- Relationships between various characters were generally well done. This is clearly a major theme of the show, and overall I liked it.
- It was well acted. Even the english dub seemed solidly written and performed.
- The ending felt conclusive. Even built on the Eva model, it was clear the writers knew how they wanted to end the show, and I enjoyed it.
- The 2nd half was a big improvement over the 1st half, being far more interesting and did better to explain what was going on. The 1st half did not do well trying to be both mysterious and entertaining.
- Characters generally seemed consistent and mostly interesting. No one was straight up crazy, and they all eventually developed into reasonably believable people. although many suffered the usual characteristics of ignorance and immaturity (common to this kind of show) at the start. If only people could talk to each other, all of their problems could be solved!
What I thought it did poorly:
- Its not very original. Anyone who has seen the Evangelion series will be endlessly reminded of the similarities, not often in good ways. Its not wrong to be similar, but RahXephon is too similar, and not usually in Eva's best attributes.
- The roles and organization between the Foundation, Federation, and Terra aren't believable. In Eva they can get away with this because civilization was mostly destroyed. In RahXephon, Tokyo is really the only serious casualty, so how these groups work together (or fail to) and their chain-of-command is utterly ridiculous. A few tweaks to the writing could have fixed this and kept everyone in their place.
- Sound and music are not featured in enough quantity or quality despite claiming to be important to the story. There is constant talk of "world full of sound," music, and songs from the Mu and dolems, but there is more reference to this concept than actual application.
- A really boring 1st half. I understand the desire to save the big twists and mystery reveals for the 2nd half, but that means capturing the audience in others ways leading up to it. I considered dropping the show due to the lack of character or plot progression and general entertainment, but was determined to see it through.
- Boring battles. For what is basically a mecha show, the fights were boring. Add to that, we're given no explanation for what dolems really are, how they function, and why RahXephon is special such that it wins its battles at all (despite getting its ass kicked), making them feel pointless and lacking in any tension or excitement.
Overall, it was a good watch. I liked it, especially the 2nd half. I enjoyed the ending. It was an interesting idea. It wasn't great in any areas, but if you have the free time I think its worth seeing through to the end.
