RahXephon

• Blogs
• Forums
• Photos
• Code Examples
• VS Movies

May 2012

Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31
		HOLIDAYS
May 28 - Memorial Day

Guardian Angels
Kia Purity's Site
Surtur's Fuge of the Damned
Malachit Room
The Nisan Sanctuary

[BlurYamaneko]

Well, there was a topic on RahXephon already but it's kinda two years since the last post, so yeah.  Spoilers ahead from the outset, so there's not much point in marking them.  Just turn away now if you haven't seen it already (and bloody go and watch it)!

Hey, this is my first ever topic in the Animation forum.  Anyway, that might have something to do with the fact I'm married (oh yeah) to a girl that has the patience and interest to download/buy anime, so I actually get to see some now.  I finished watching RahXephon yesterday, and was just completely into the whole thing from start to finish. The story moved at a pace that never left me bored even once, throughout all 26 episodes.  I won't go into comparisons with Eva (or even Xenogears) since I'm sure that stuff has been done to death at various forums/groups/channels, and I just don't really care about that stuff at this point.

Anyway, what probably made the series so great for me was the character interaction and whatnot.  What springs instantly to mind is that Meg would crush on different dudes throughout the show, and hey, that's what teenagers do!  Makes a change from your usual person a falls in love with person b and that's the way it is forever.  Of course, they touched on that too kinda, with Haruka, but even she had at least one other fling.  I like how characters had distinct motives for their actions, and believable ones at that, in most cases.  I also dug how Ayato wasn't the type to whine about stuff all the time, he was a way likable character, and I don't think I wanted to punch him even once during the whole show, which is good going!  There were a lot of characters who I did want to punch, but they were usually the ones who were fucking things up for the characters I liked, and hey, that's the way it should be!

I also liked how the series didn't overload you with questions that took you away from actually concentrating on watching.  Apart from wondering what the heck Quon and Mishima Reika were talking about, like, all the time, things developed at a pace that kept you wondering, but not in a way that you were preoccupied with shitloads of unanswered questions.   It got a little like that towards the end, but then a lot was wrapped up, especially with Bahbem and the Ixtli/Ollin stuff.  Looking back, there is a lot to explain and explore, which is nice.  Lots of predominently meso-american references, makes a change from oodles of christian and norse symbolism flying around in the rpg/anime world.  This coming from someone, of course, who hasn't played many RPGs and seen next to no anime in the last few years, so I may be way out with that one.

Me being me, I've gotta comment on the music.  Composed by Ichiko Hashimoto, the music often was eerie and haunting, very fitting.  Many different styles were evident throughout, evident immediately just from listening to just the opening and closing themes.  The music was by turns playful, sinister, eerie, threatening, often engaging and never out of place, which was awesome.  As a stand-alone soundtrack I'm not sure how pleasurable it would be to listen to, as a lot of the music was definately composed as very subtle mood and atmospheric music, but no matter, in-show it fits like hand to glove.  Awesomeness.

Another thing I'd like to comment on is the Dolem design.  Rather than go the route of having something appear to be a threat just by blowing up a few cities, the Dolems were designed to just look, well, freaky.  I can't think of the right word to describe it so freaky is as close as you're getting.  The use of the sinister, contorted faces on them was definately a good decision, giving them, say, more of a personality than your run-of-the-mill metropolis destroying alien/robot/whatever.

And one last thing, did anyone else find Asahina's death to be one of the most surreal, messed-up, tragic, and absolutely beautifully directed death scenes? Maybe that's just me.

Either way, I dug RahXephon very much, and would definately recommend it, although I'm sure everyone's seen it anyway, it is like three years old now after all!

[TheContact]

Hehe, yeah, we did have a topic about two years ago on this, but it got hijacked pretty quick.

I really liked the musical references throughout the series.  And the ending really made it for me, as I didn't see it coming, but it explained a lot.

[BlurYamaneko]

The musical references intrigued me a lot, of course.  A little something extra that made it that bit more unique and, of course, made a lot more sense towards the end.  I totally agree on the end, and what I really like is that, watching some episodes again, there are so many little hints and clues as to what's going on that you wonder how you managed to miss them all first time around, which is just awesome to me.  I dig it when a story does that kind of thing without going way over-the-top with it, and with RahXephon it tends to be really subtle.

Bones seems to me like an awesome studio, having seen some of Fullmetal Alchemist which has also been very thought provoking, while maintaining a story with very human characters and an involving, moving plot.  Did a lot of the same people work on it and RahXephon?

[TheContact]

btw, congrats on getting married

[BlurYamaneko]

Thanks TC  I suppose I've grown up a bit since 2000 or something!

[FlyTB20C]

I clearly remember enjoying RahXephon way more then NGE, in fact it's one of my choices to watch again since I really can't remember what happened.     Reading about it has rekindled my interest though, perhaps I will actually sit down and rewatch the series.

[BlurYamaneko]

Well, I think it rules to watch again, though I wanted to watch it again pretty much as soon as I'd finished it the first time so I'll probably hold off for a while, maybe
Once you've seen the last few episodes, there are a lot of subtle things to pick up on that make you go "aha, so that's what that was", which is just done in a really cool way.  

Even disregarding all that, it's just a really neat series that I just can't get enough of at the moment.  Got the RahXephon bible for Amanda's (that'll be the wife!) birthday, which is cool also.  Was the translated one, which I dig since I can actually, you know, read it, but having the original Japanese one, where I  think hings are spread out over more pages, would be neat also.  I dunno if I'll go that far with the whole thing, but I can't remember the last time I was this into something so who knows.  Either way, awesome stuff.

[FlyTB20C]

I know this thread is really old, but I think this question doesn't really warrant a new thread of its own.

Has anyone watched RahXephon on the DVDs?  I see this and I want to pick it up, but I don't remember hearing if the translation was any good, or if the voices were awful, etc...  I watched it originally fansubed years ago.  I really liked the series, and I'd be willing to dish out the cash to see it on my television instead of computer monitor, but not if it's going to make me cringe.

[Marissael]

I actually have two of the dvds and I'd say it's really not too bad.  Especially since the first time I saw it, I couldn't find the remote control to the player and I had to watch it dubbed.  x_X;;  

Needless to say, I did find the remote eventually and watched it subtitled and I think it was pretty good.  But that's just my opinion.  If I had the choice, I'd have preferred just watching fansubs... for anything.  But I don't think that ADV did such a horrible job with the subs.

[BlurYamaneko]

The ADV sub is just fine, I found, not that I ever saw a fansub of it to compare.  But there was certainly nothing cringeworthy and most of the references to Japanese culture and whatnot (stuff like ramune gets in there, I bet I spelt that wrong) are kept mostly intact, as far as I'm able to tell.  The dub is pretty horrible (as most would expect); Quon talks in a ridiculous sexual whisper most of the time and dudes call meg "MEGGU", much emphasis on the u of course, which just sounds fucking stupid when the rest of the time they're talking with US accents.  If you have the choice, I imagine you wouldn't watch the dub anyway (unless you're like my beloved wife and I, and want to see how horrible it is).

Either way, I've only seen the ADV version and RahXephon has ended up pretty much my favourite anime (not that I've seen a whole ton of anime), so I'd definately say it's worth it if you're in the mood for picking up some anime.  The booklets that come with each DVD are pretty good, too, I was actually impressed with them and I'm quite rarely impressed with stuff like that when it comes to DVDs.

[FlyTB20C]

I guess I'll go ahead and preorder it then.  Thanks for the info, guys.  I get most of the (very limited) anime I see from various internet sources - I feel like I should at least purchase something I would watch more then once.

[yeya]

The Dolem designs are actually similar to the mech design in MAPS, which is not surprising anyway...

To fully understand RahXephon's plot, you have to not only watch the TV series, but also the OVA, the movie, and play the PS2 game Super Robot Wars MX...

[SLDFKnight]

Oh noes! A necromancer! Get the holy water!