RahXephon
All the mind-fucky goodness of Eva, without the bitter aftertaste!
Review by: M.H. "Not addicted to Robot animes" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes,
Genre: BFR (Big Friggin' Robot)
Watched: Episodes 2-26, subbed
With the announcement of the future release of the PlayStation 2 video game of this series, I thought that I'd begin my pre-pre-preparations for the game by finally getting around to doing a review of this series (and by hoping that the game doesn't suck, but that's another story altogether). Really, I'm not going to have any direct references to another similar mech anime, even though I would generally call RahXephon an Eva rip-off (if the term "rip-off" didn't have such negative connotations). To be totally truthful, this series has similarities that are a little too eerie to be considered simple homage.
Plot synopsis: Ayato Kamina is a normal high-school student until one day a bunch of robots start fighting over the skies of Tokyo. Standard series intro in anime world. He finds out that he is the pilot of one of those robots, which is called, coincidentally enough, RahXephon. A strange woman named Shitow Haruka shows up and convinces him to go with her and leave Tokyo. When he agrees to this, he finds out that Tokyo has in all actuality been taken over by a race of aliens known as the Mu, and nobody really noticed the impassable barrier that got raised between Tokyo and the rest of the world. Nobody except for the people outside of Tokyo, who are waging a war with the Mu, who are trying to take over the rest of the world in a similar manner as they did Tokyo. The organization TERRA enlists Ayato and his big flippin' robot to help them to protect the world from the Murians, who keep sending more big flippin' robots to do their dirty-work. On top of that, a couple of mysterious secret organizations know a bunch of stuff about the exact nature of the robots that they're not willing to tell much of anyone, let alone the viewers.
Artwork: The most interesting part of the artwork of this series was the mech design. The attention paid to the mechs in this series was really interesting, and the outlandish look of all of the mechs were just cool. No other way to describe it. These were a lot better than standard humanoid designs or oddly-colored geometric designs (not naming names Eva). The scenery drawings were decent, and the character designs were fairly standard, and as such, those were kind of out-staged by the pretty colors flowing across the screen during the fight scenes.
Music: Mixed bag. The sometimes jerky jazz-based tracks that permeated the non-robot scenes were really nice, and there were a couple of guitar-rock tracks that were really nice, too. I found that the orchestral tracks that, I can only guess, were meant to be very lumbering and awkward served their purposes very well and did, in fact, result in a chunky, over-played series of tracks. Someone should congratulate the music director, Ichiko Hashimoto for their brilliant use of distraction during robot entrance scenes.
Characters: Start with the main guy, Ayato Kamina. He's a well-intentioned kid who's thrown into a world that's completely alien to him. As such, he hass some major identity issues ("who am I," "what am I"). He also has a creative streak, which plays an important part in the plot later on in the series. Nice enough guy, which means that yes, he does have oodles of hot women hanging off of him. First, take Shitow Haruka, his childhood friend who apparently aged suddenly, compared to his age (hence his inability to recognize her at first). Anyway, she's a confidant woman who's a general with TERRA. It's obvious fairly early that she has a thing for Ayato, stemming from her experiences with him when they were both younger. Later on, she evolves quickly and becomes dependent on Ayato. She brings Ayato home to live with her and her family, which is where Ayato meets another of the girls who've got a thing for him, Haruka's sister, Megumi. Megumi's a cute gal who works at TERRA, as well. She's a cheerful character who sees Ayato as he is, a nice guy who's trying to understand the world around him. She also has a crush on one of the higher-ups at TERRA, and tries to better herself so that she can impress him. Quon is another girl who seems to have a thing for Ayato. She's a mysterious woman who seems to be connected to the robots who continue to appear, even though it's not explained at first. There are enough other major characters to make the rest of the review about 10 pages long, but these four are the most important. Trust me, when you watch the series, you'll thank me. To be totally honest, I enjoyed the characters in this series a lot more because they weren't manic-depressive, mentally imbalanced, self-worthless, whiny little bitches like some other series (again, not naming names wildlyoverratedmechanimeEva).
Plot: Well, the overall plot is that alien robots are attacking mankind and trying to take them over. A number of secret organizations are working towards some world-changing events involving the important big robots. This big robot fights other big robots. Sound familiar? Well, it should. Because it is. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that it has an extremely similar plot to some series which shall remain nameless. I swear. Either way, they handle these similar themes in a much more positive light, and the way that the situations are handled by the characters (i.e.-guys not screaming like the opposite sex) is much better handled.
CHICKS!!! Oh, there are some chicks in this series. Start with Haruka, the dedicated Ayato-fan. She's got a nice form, perfect for the beach episode. As for her personality, she's a bit clingy when the relationship starts getting 
involved, which differs greatly from her normal attitude. That might be a downside or an upside, take it as you may. In either case, she has a strange taste in food, which would mean ordering out for you on most nights. She's probably desirable if you want a woman who's sure not to cheat on you and don't mind take-out Chinese a lot. Then, there's her sister, Megumi. I personally think she's a better looker than her sister, probably because of the hair or the low-cut shirt that she's *constantly* wearing when she's in casual wear. The personality is a lot more appealing to me, as well, because she doesn't seem to be as clingy as her sister (although she is close). Also, her upbeat personality is a lot more fun to be around than Haruka's. Then again, that might just be me. Finally, Quon is hot, naïve, and mysterious. Three things that could make guys fall for her. She certainly seemed to catch the attention of Ayato easily enough. She's a definite catch, and a slight hair better than a psycho German primadonna bitch.
Overall: Okay, I got this far without making a reference to Evangelion. I want to say this gently, because if I start bad-mouthing much of anything, somebody will probably flame the crap out of me. Now, that having been said, this series does copy Evangelion a lot. It provides, however, a more positive look on the phenomena that go on in the story, and frankly, I'd rather leave the fate of earth and humankind to Ayato than to Shinji. The issue that's at question here is that any BFR series are going to be judged by the standard of Evangelion. Evangelion was such a different series from others at its time that it left a strong impression on the minds of everyone who watched it. The problem is that about half of those impressions were bad ones. Regardless of what someone thought of Eva, this series will be seen by most people as a rip-off of Eva, and many people will see that as a bad thing. However, that seems to be a bad standard to hold the series to, as this series stands on its own as a really nifty series and better than Eva, at least in my mind.
In a nutshell:
+Great artwork
+Interesting characters
+More positive themes
+/-Mixed bag soundtrack
-Might be a ripoff
Final grade: 8/10
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