Although the title of this article will certainly spur some controversy, that’s alright. RahXephon is one of those series that friends would always tell me was “ok”, but imitated Evangelion too much, and if you’re not paying attention to the story, it’s easy to understand why:
- the story revolves around a mysterious religion
- the hero pilots a giant “God” and fights against other God-like creatures
- the plot revolves around a small city with a powerful defensive military structure
In fact, most die-hard Evangelion fans will probably feel somewhat “offended” by all the direct references to their lovable Anime that they’ll probably forsake this one, and miss out on a great story, and one that they would surely enjoy.
One of the things that made Evangelion so bad and great, at the same time, were it’s plot holes. There are so many unanswered questions that one can speculate on any of them and drive the story in an entirely different direction. And that explains why it has such a huge following of fans, who write their own versions of the story and keep it fresh, even after all these years.
In RahXephon, you won’t find many plot holes. Sure, one may speculate about the emergence of the Mulians, which are the “enemies” of this story, or about the possible relationships or love interests between the various characters in the story, but all in all, RahXephon has an ending. A complex one, similar to the one seen in “The End of Evangelion”, but a good ending nonetheless.
If you do not wish to be spoiled of any part of the story, please refrain from reading the following paragraphs and skip to the conclusion.
The story starts off with a young high school student, Ayato Kamina, who discovers that the world as he knows it might not be as he seems. While he lives under the illusion that he is on an island, secluded from the rest of the world, and it’s inhabitants are the only living people on earth, it appears that the truth is far from being so, and after a short while he discovers that he has a destiny to fulfill, although he doesn’t know it yet.
With the aid of a mysterious girl, and a special operative, Ayato discovers a giant egg in which a God-like creature called Rah slumbers, and awakens it. Confused and scared inside the Rah, Ayato escapes from his hometown, and then discovers that he had been living on an alternative dimension secluded from the rest of the world, though that dimension was limited to just his home town: Tokyo.
After returning to the special operative’s base, he is asked to pilot the Rah in order to protect humanity from the attacks of the Mulians, and Ayato goes into an inner struggle where he must fight against the people who raised him. To further increase his indecisive mind, he begins to grow attached to the special operative who had rescued him, and begins to appreciate some simple pleasures, like watching a cargo ship set sail, which is something he couldn’t see where he lived in.
A lot of episodes feel like a normal Shonen: a new enemy arrives, the pilot rushes out to fight him, defeats it and comes back. But like in Evangelion, the main character sometimes has inner struggles, and a lot of events around him make him battle with himself. As the plot thickens, we learn about the past of all relevant characters and all of the relationships between them, and at the end, Ayato is faced with his biggest challenge, and sacrifices his human form in order to protect those he loves.
Fortunately, at the end, rather than being, or feeling, unclear, like in the “End of Evangelion”, we see him living a normal life with his loved one, and then we see a flashback that answers that most revolving question throughout the show, that is: who is the yellow dress girl?
Conclusion: Although some might accuse it of stealing some elements from Evangelion, I don’t think that it’s that similar. The story is much more romantic than Evangelion, and explores human relationships much more, while Evangelion simply focuses on religion and the human psyche.
It succeeds as an action story, for all the battles, and the animation, are great. It succeeds as a love story, for there are a few love triangles, love interests, and special interests between most of the characters, even the secondary ones. It succeeds in it’s soundtrack, which is reminiscent of Evangelion’s excellent orchestrated pieces.
Last but not least, it succeeds as a great Anime in general. Surely you won’t need to watch the show two or three times to grasp most of the story, but if you disliked the way Evangelion left many of the story elements hanging, then you’ll love RahXephon.
A lot of anime to me seems fairly similar, does this one really set itself apart? I love big mechs/robots. I am not a fan of long plot lines that are centered around romance. Which weighs more heavily, the action or the romance? One will make me interested in this, the other… will make me avoid it.
I wouldn’t say one is more focused than the other. RahXephon has both on equal terms more or less.
I’ve seen the entire “Evangelion” TV series, and just finished “Rah Xephon.”
I might as well say it straight out – I hated “Evangelion”, once I’d completed it. As one reviewer put it, “it keeps you on the edge of your seat until you just don’t care anymore.” It substituted tasteless humor for anything resembling character development, and the concepts for the “angels” were among the dumbest looking monsters I’ve ever seen.
“Rah Xephon” doesn’t have any of those problems, overall I really liked it… but it seemed to suffer from what I’ve termed “Dark Tower Syndrome”, after Stephen King’s series of novels: the scope of the plot got too big, until there was no really satisfying way to conclude it. But they did the best they could.
Not withstanding, I loved the character development, the animation, and the eerie “Dolems” that Kamina battles. Overall I’m glad I took the time to check it out.