Customer Reviews

Rahxephon - Complete Collection

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"RahXephon- Complete collection" repackages the 2003 7 disc TV series from ADV Films into a space saving thinpak collection. The orginal cover art is used but buyers wont get the dvd character booklets that accompanied the original release nor is the motion picture included. The series does come in a stylish collectors box with new artwork. If you missed RahXephon the first time don't hesitate to pick up this amazing series.

RahXephon was at first dismissed by some as a clone of Neon Genesis Evangelion with it the similar idea of a protagonist (in this case Ayato Kamina) reluctant to use the giant mecha RahXephon to fight otherworldly invaders. Those who watched the show realised thats where the similarities end.

RahXephon is the story of high schooler Ayato Kamina, a ordinary guy living in Tokyo, the last city on Earth that didnt fall to invaders the MU. The citizens of Tokyo are constantly aware that invasion could happen at any point and in the first episode it does. During the attack Ayato is seperated from his friends and meets up with another classmate Reika who takes him to an underground room where she awakens the RahXEphon and makes Ayato become one with the hulking mecha. Ayato is able to escape the city using the RahXephon where he soon learns Tokyo is actually controlled by the MU.

Over the course of the series Ayato has to unravel the truth of the world, come to grips with his own personal demons and decide how he is connected to the RahXEphon.

The series does a great job of storytelling. The first episode quickly throws many questions at the viewer and has you wondering just what is the truth in the world of RahXephon. The pacing of the story is excellent. Viewers are given just enough answers to questions to keep them satisfied while having new questions crop up. The show will keep you guessing until the end.

A phenomenal anime that has action, romance, comedy, big mecha and lots of mystery- truly something for everyone. If you haven't seen RahXephon yet, what are you waiting for?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Often enough this series is compared to NGE (Neon Genesis) and is blamed for following in its footsteps. In all honesty I find RahXephon extremely creative, thought provoking and well done. In its own right RahXephon stands out as possibly one of the very best "mecha" series to date, in a class and category all to itself!

As a fan of thought provoking animes (preferring seriousness over humor and calm introspective moments for the characters over highly complicated battle sequences), I was deeply disappointed with NGE and many movies in the Gundam line... was it impossible to fuse high-technology robots with an intellectual storyline? Was it impossible to bring great voice acting, great animation and design together in one series?

At first I thought I was asking a lot ... that was until I caught RahXephon on G4TV.

RahXephon's art alone is superb. The series is drawn and animated quite beautifully, almost everything on the screen is highly detailed and appropriately colored. The series comes across as extremely stunning in comparison with other mecha-type shows. In other shows the artists sacrifice detail in order to bring you quick action sequences - RahXephon doesn't focus too much on the action sequences and instead brings you stunning visuals you're sure to remember.

RahXephon features a creative storyline: a world in which music plays a key role in human events. Music literally shapes the world as a whole and when two races collide (Humans and Mulians); music might just be the world's only salvation. Through themes which were heavily researched (as apparent in the Italian musical notation names of the Dolem - enemy Mu fighting units - and through the use of clever poetry to foreshadow events to come), RahXephon's storyline is one of the most engaging storylines in a mecha-type show I've seen.

RahXephon is a story about uncertainty, taking risks, and exploring the nature of reality. And yet for all the major themes present, through the use of downright loveable characters (who are aesthetically pleasing as well as interesting), we see a world "suffused with sound" in all of its magnificence.

An anime great. I recommend this series to anyone with any interest in mecha combat mixed with a heavy story! Those with a good grasp on what makes a quality Japanese animation are bound to enjoy RahXephon!

This complete collection contains the same discs from the current, individual volumes but now at a fraction of the cost. The discs come in thinpaks housed in a chipboard artbox. The only things that are missing are the booklets from the individual volumes. Note that while this is called a complete collection, it does not include the movie DVD.

First off, I loved Rah and hated Eva, so keep that in mind reading this. ;)

As I added to my Eva review here, Eva did it first, but Rah did it RIGHT.

Other people have said Rah blows you away for visuals, and they're right. The Last Exile was the only series I've seen that's on par with the beautiful art here.

The beginning's a bit hectic to be sure, but after the mess that was Evangelion, I was willing to sit it out for a few episodes. Boy am I glad I did!

You won't even notice when Rah works its subtle charm on you, but you'll suddenly realize you're connecting pieces of the story and really getting involved.

Eva NEVER gave me a similar moment, most of that's weak "what if" at best. RahXephon took the entirely different road with their ideas. If you watch to the end and then think about each and every instance, Rah DOES make sense. The wierd happenings all are understandable, something Eva didn't seem to bother with at all.

As to why the Mu only sent out Dolems one at a time? Unlike Eva's Angels which really DIDN'T make sense to be attacking solo, the Mu weren't after conquest. Their whole motive was to awaken Rah. This's why they don't outright try to kill Xephon in the first episode. See? Like I said, Rah makes sense!

Don't even get me started on character differences. Night and day, baby. Rah's populace is heroic and act like actual humans, for the most part. None of the gloom and doom from Eva. As a result, you actually give a damn about them. The underpinning main romance will have ya jumping up and down in your chair screaming "Just tell him!", it's that well written.

And the biggest point in favor of RahXephon? It's resolved. All the philospies and long episodes go somewhere. There's no jumbled mess at the end of Rah. The ending, while ambiguous except for a few characters, is an ending. An ending a HUMAN would choose if given Rah's choices. Eva forgot that it was dealing with humans somewhere, instead turning them all into fatalistic robots with a deathwish in the second half.

Eva did it first, but RahXephon did it right. Here comes the sun, baby.

Rahxephon is a masterpiece. It has one of the smartest and original stories ever written, with characters that are easy to love and hate, depending on their role in the series. To add to that, Rahxephon has a soundtrack that perfectly matches both the mood of every scene, as well as the overall theme of the anime, and since this anime is based off of musical patterns, a good musical score is a must.

But all that wasn't enough for me to give Rahxephon a five. It was actually the final two minutes of the twenty-sixth episode that caused me to give this series a five. While I won't describe it, and therefore spoil it, I'll say that it does everything and then some to fully explain what was actually going on between the two main characters of this series, Ayato and Haruka. To me, it was the perfect ending to a series that had me a bit puzzled until those last minutes, and I actually laughed out loud at the final words that flashed across the screen before it was finally over. So, advance warning, don't turn the final episode off until all the credits have rolled or else you'll miss one of the most important moments in the story.

As for the story, Rahxephon follows a seventeen-year-old boy named Ayato who grows up believing that his small place in Tokyo is all that is left after an apocalypse. Yet this, as he learns quickly, is a lie, and Ayato soon finds himself the key tool in a battle against a race of alien creatures known as the Mu, who appear human in every aspect but their blue blood. Working for a military organization known as Terra, Ayato battles the Mu's Dolem, giant robotic creatures who use sound patterns as weapons, with his own giant robot, the Rahxephon. Along the way, Ayato meets a few friends, as well as experiencing some rather strange occurrences, including an illusionary girl, a few love interests, and a red-haired girl named Quan who seems to know more about Ayato than he does.

Well, that's about the gist of the plot. Rahxephon is actually a difficult anime to explain. I can say that it's somewhat of a love story as well as a tale of apocalypse, with a large cast of characters. But still, I can promise that if ever there was a giant robo anime to come close to the success of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rahxephon is it. It contains a story as smart as Eva, only a little less confusing. It has excellent animation and a lot of great action. And it has the aforementioned soundtrack, including what may be the best opening credit song to ever grace an anime. Get this if you love giant robo anime, or loved Eva. Also, if you like Studio BONES productions (Fullmetal Alchemist; Wolf's Rain; Eureka Seven), then this is definitely one you'd like to get.

I'm really torn when it comes to RahXephon. See, I did something stupid... I saw Evangelion and fell in love with it. Hungry for something similar, I read the glowing reviews for RahXephon and bought it, hoping for another intelligent, profound series. On my first viewing (too soon after Eva) I hated it. No, I despised it! It blatantly 'borrows' a ton of ideas, themes, scenes, and dialogue from Eva. Those who say it doesn't aren't looking. (A site called EvaXephon has 17 pages worth of these similarities for those interested.) As my Eva-mania cooled down, and I reflected on Rah, I thought perhaps I'd been too harsh. So I recently re-watched it. This time I didn't find the similarities as disturbing. In fact, I actually found myself enjoying this series, especially towards the end. But I still found many flaws that detract from it. First, I will discuss those flaws, but end on a high note with what this series does right.

FLAWS:

Rah's biggest flaw is its poor execution of PRaT (Pace, Rhythm, and Timing). This series jumps and jerks around with wild shifts in pace, little rhythm to its edits and narrative flow, and a lack of timing in execution. Ep. 11 is a good example: The viewer is thrust immediately into a fight between the Xephon and a Dolem with no explanation of how this came about. The Dolem "swallows" Xephon, sending the hero, Kamina Ayato into an alternate dimension-like state. This is one episode borrowed from Eva, but the real problem is lack of setup. To believe in the altered state that is happening to the hero, we have to have a setup and a flow of events. Another example is the train sequence in the final episode. Again, this idea is ripped from Eva... but this scene makes no sense in regards to the rhythm of Rah's narrative and sticks out like a sore thumb.

I'm extremely sensitive to PRAT when it comes to art (long series especially). Series that flow logically have more impact and make it easier to get involved. Rah's lack of good PRaT shows a hackjob on the part of its creators who had many good "ideas", but weren't able to put them together in logical, rhythmic order.

Rah's second flaw is in its cast. Rah has a monstrous cast, but the problem is with the focus of the series. Rah was intent on bringing every character into the mix with a story and multiple, intertwining relationships. The problem with this is that characters who seem important early on disappear for episodes, and characters that seem unimportant early on dominate the later episodes. They really needed more episodes in order for this method to work. Without them, they should've just focused on a few. It's not that these stories are bad, but just rather shallow due to the lack of time spent developing them.

Rah's third flaw is in its characters. I thought most were poorly conceived. Eva, by comparison, went to great lengths developing characters with specific personalities. Eva's characters always acted and interacted in an honest manner regarding their personality. But Rah's characters often seem wooden. Ayato especially has as much flavor and personality as cardboard. I neither love or hate him. My apathy towards him is reflective of his apathy towards everything. I think the most interesting characters are under-developed. Quon is always intriguing, but she's never given a proper story. Megumi is a fun personality that fades into the background, only to emerge too late. In the end, I just didn't feel like I really knew any of the characters, and just didn't care what happened to them. This might just be a matter of personal taste, but I think Eva had superior characterization, even if their characters were often unlikable.

Rah's fourth flaw is how contrived much of its drama is. This goes back to PRAT and lack of development. Ep. 18/19 is a prime example; Ayato and Hiroko develop a relationship VERY quickly late in 18. The ending of 19, which should be the most poignant in the series, instead seems mawkish and sloppy due to the dearth of story development. A series for audiences with any kind of attention span can't just arbitrarily introduce characters and relationships, give them a "tragic ending" and expect intelligent viewers to fall for it.

Rah's fifth flaw is in its extra-contextual elements. Its "philosophy" is so trite as to be laughable. I especially got a chuckle out of Ayato's "I am me because I will remain me because I am myself" talk, which has been recycled to death. if Rah succeeds as a sci-fi narrative, it fails miserably as a work with something to say. I can't help but think these aspects were thrown in for pretentious reasons solely because Eva had them.

Rah's final flaw is in its "big picture". Rah has some great parts and ideas but as a "complete work" it comes up short. Great albums are those where each song serves a larger purpose in the structure and context of the album. Series are the same with episodes. Episodes exist both singularly, but also as one piece to a bigger puzzle. In Rah's case, many pieces just don't fit. And while they may work as stand-alones, they don't enhance the overall work, and this again goes back to poor PRAT.

STRENGTHS:

With all the negatives I had to say about Rah, I still think it works well as an interesting piece of science fiction. Here are what I consider its greatest strengths:

Rah's style is a rich tapestry influenced by a variety of art (music, literature, visual arts, mythology and culture). These aspects are integrated seamlessly into the narrative, making it unique and captivating stylistically. Visually, it's gorgeous with very fluid animation. The character and mech designs are phenomenal, with great color usage that's thematically relevant. The visuals evoke a type of mesmeric painting, while the music evokes a sense of enchanting mystery and nostalgia. The series bases much of its story on time and music, so this was a crucial aspect, and it works. Literature, religion, myths, and cultures are also used to shape Rah's style. The RahXephon page on Wikipedia discusses many of its influences in terms of art and culture. It's really fascinating, and perhaps the most alluring reason to watch Rah.

I think Rah actually succeeds extremely well as a pure sci-fi narrative. Many of the ideas it uses were interesting until the end. The series gets more compelling in the later episodes. From ep. 19 on it's hard not to get engrossed in the story, wondering how it's going to end. The final episodes are a whirlwind of revelations and one big twist after another. It's enough to leave any viewer's head spinning. Rah's narrative is fairly complex and worth dissecting for those who aren't satisfied with the surface aspects. The character relationships, while a bit shallow, are also fun to follow, to see how they conclude.

The finale is extraordinary in its artistic vision. If I hadn't seen End of Evangelion before seeing Rah, then it would certainly fall under the mind-blowing category. They have a bit of a "been there, done that" feeling, but it's extremely well executed and visually stunning. While Rah will probably leave you with some questions, it resolves most of its main narrative in a fairly complete and conclusive manner.

The voice acting is also exceptional. In rare anime fashion, the dub is almost equal to the sub. Though I still give the edge to the sub (some GREAT performances from its cast), the dub is adequate for those who despise subtitles.

CONCLUSION:

As one critic stated, "Rah is like Eva lite: Tastes good but less filling." For me, Rah is a good but very flawed series. It's a bit pretentious and fails intellectually, but succeeds with its imaginative sci-fi narrative and rich, vibrant visual style. It has enough depth to give the viewer something to contemplate, but isn't nearly as demanding of its audience as Eva. While I still consider Eva a vastly superior artistic work, Rah is a good alternative for those who find Eva too complex, depressing and demanding. This is perhaps why most either love Rah and hate Eva or vice versa. One works more as fun, light entertainment (Rah), while the other works better as a mature, complex work of art (Eva). For casual audiences, Rah would likely be preferred. For those (like myself) who enjoy a challenge, Eva is a deeper, more rewarding work.

I do feel that both works deserve a lot of merit for what they accomplished. Despite their similarities, the essence of both in what they (tried to) achieve are quite different. I've yet to experience a visual work as endlessly fascinating as Eva. But for those who didn't latch onto it emotionally or intellectually, Rah might be just what you're looking for.

RahXephon is a mecha anime series that is nothing short of amazing. Many Evangelion fans will vehemently state the similarities between the two shows and cry 'clone'. Indeed, both series feature a teenage boy who pilots a mecha to stop an alien invasion of similar mechas. But that's where the similarities end. RX does away with the philosophy and existentialist babble and just presents a deep, engrossing story that's filled with mystery.

Right from the very first episode, questions are going to enter your mind, and as these questions get answered, more pop up, leaving the viewer in a constant state of cluelessness, but always wanting to keep watching the next episode to find the answers. Unlike Eva which eventually becomes a total mess, RX does not go out of its way to confuse you. RX keeps you riveted not by being confusing and making no sense, but by simply providing an exciting story full of intrigue and suspense. The

animation quality is superb. It can pass as an OVA. The character designs (females in particular) are among the best you'll find in TV anime. And the ending, unlike Eva, is actually quite satisfying, and doesn't leave unanswered questions or unresolved plotlines. It ends on a high note, yet still gives the viewer plenty to think about.

I recommend this series to anyone with an open mind, that won't view it with the Eva taint, constantly comparing it to Eva. If you are a fervent fan of Eva, you will probably find it difficult to get it out of your mind. To anyone else over 13, RX is time well spent, and one of the pinacles of anime.

No doubt the are similarities between this title and Neon Genesis Evangelion, but the characters are less annoying. The whole atmosphere is more pleasant to watch.

I finally got this series a week ago and have found myself to be astounded by both the storyline and the animation.I have seen some reviewers have compared this to Neon Genesis Evangelion and I to have seen some of the same scenarios but unlike NGE this series for the most part gives you the answers to you're questions as well as a decent and for the most part happy ending.That I have to say is what really pleased me I was so disappointed with how NGE was confusing,frustrating,and the open-ended finale of the NGE series made me want to trash the set.Raxephon while in some areas confusing at least made sense the video is standard format with 5.1 english audio or 2.0 japanese audio.The voice actors from ADV films are again superb as well as the japanese voice actors the price is step but I say if you were disappointed with NGE this series will definitely make up for it

One of the keys to Raxephon is a much friendlier story for an american audience compared to Eva (I loved them both, but saw Eva first so it holds a warm place for me.)

Ayato is about a zillion times better than Shinji.

I agree the themes are the same and Evaxephon dot com clearly points this out so I won't even bother to go there. (It hardly seems worth getting upset over... especially when kids are starving all over the world... hehe getting angry over anime seems pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things.)

Forgive me if this is pretty abstracted from the story... I'm trying to not give too much away to anyone interested in picking this up.

Without spoiling it I would say that love story is complete, even though it isn't traditional in its final stages.

There are some plot twists in the love story that are genuinely satisfying. The twists answer a lot of questions about Reika's significance and Haruka's "seemingly" unprovoked (and often unacknowledged) concern for our hero Ayato.

There is a lot here that is good.
The story is well delivered.
The characters are deep an interesting.
The crisis has a great bit of time distortion, and the story plays head games with this very well.

If one had never seen Eva: In the end this is really hard to say anything bad about.

The animation is solid and in some cases just breathtaking.
The production quality is very high.
The growth of each character in the story is obvious... and reasonable... and therefore believable.

There isn't much, if any, fan service in the way of visuals, BUT there are some characters that have a very sultry demeanor that is very appealing. Some of the characters hit the sexy buttons on all eight cylinders, without showing a bunch of skin... that is really solid feat if you ask me. Less is more in this one when it comes to fan service.

I didn't give this 5 stars because, as good as it was... there was something about it that felt a tad empty. Almost like some pieces were unresolved. I'm not sure. Perhaps it was the music? Kinda haunting and menacing... I'm not sure. What I do know is simple, in the end I wasn't moved. Satisfied but not emotionally shaken from my seat, if you know what I mean.

I borrowed this from a friend and now that I have seen it I'm buying it, so that should really be enough to tell you what I think of it. It belongs in my collection, right between Eva and Noein.