Forum - View topicRahXephon (TV).
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kid_gloves
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I would say give it another shot with an official translation or even the dub (which i thought was very good). It can be a confusing show but not near as confusing as you made it out to be and definately not as confusing or cryptic as NGE can be. It seems to me that you got that impression of the show as a combination of poor translation and a mildly complicated story.
I have to disagree with you about Ayato being unrealistic. There are several parts of the series where he gets really pissy about not being told whats going on and being generally upset about his circumstances, he just gets over it in his own way unlike Shinji who tends to sulk alot more. I for one like how Ayato deals with his circumstances and find it refreshing that he doesnt sit around and complain for 26 episodes. Not saying i dont like Shinji and NGE (its one of my favorite shows ever) its just refreshing to see a boy pilot who isnt either super confident and brash or the exact opposite. |
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mpchi
Posts: 54 |
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Rahxephon is not really that complicated or confusing. So I believe a better translation would help you get the flow of the story and the politics a lot more.
However, I think you are valid on finding characters hard to relate to. I felt the same way after watching the show. Ayato definitely. He seem a bit too calm at times. On other occasions, you just don't feel what he feels, making it hard to relate to his thoughts and motives, especially towards the end of the show. Similar goes to some of the key political characters. They don't seem to be lunatics or someone crazy for world domination. But they choose to do whatever it takes to get the whole world tuned (everybody dies), which is also very hard to relate. Quon is just another mystery added in the puzzle. The only characters I can find myself relate more is the main female lead(forgot her name), and the girl classmate that likes Ayato(also forgot her name), and her 'boyfriend' that has a grudge on Ayato. Eva on the other hand have more characters you can relate to. Only exception is probably Gendo, and may Kaoru, even though he only appeared shortly. So I think Rahxephon is definite a good show, but not one I feel I can immense into the story and characters too much. Its good on a design, art, and execution level. But you just don't feel as much like you would on some of your favorite shows. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5633 Location: Southern California |
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This thread might help you a little:
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23423&highlight=rahxephon But, definitly watch a decent version of RahXephon. I first saw it on Tech TV then went out and bought my own copy.
Ayato, like many other anime characters, has been thrown into a situation completely beyond his control. But like kid_gloves said, unlike most characters he sucks it up and deals with it the best he can. As to the super confident or whiney boy pilot, add to that at least he isn't sucidal as well  (Heero Yuy ring a bell?)
Either way, give it another go with a decent copy! Enjoy! |
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opaquescum
Posts: 235 |
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I found the dub to be very well done. RahXephon is one of those series that needs a very good dub to make it understandable. It all makes sense, but if just a little bit of context is lost. You are lost as to what the relationships are between the characters. In other words there are alot of subtle elements that add up to a resounding point.
Ayato is actually quite different from shinji in that he is not going from a realistic situation to a surreal one. He is going from a surreal situation to a real one. So the character naturally seeks to make connections, and try to integrate into the world. spoiler[You got to realize that ayato is comeing from a world where mind control dominates the people that live there. His mother is less then affectionate, and he is haunted by memories he cannot connect to. Before too long as elements are shown to him he is drawn towards trying to understand them. Then once he gets outside of tokyo he discovers the real world. With real people.] Personally I think the character is more fleshed out then shinji. Anyway watch it with the dub. They did a very good job, and you will most likely get more out of the show, and have some things sink in better. For you it will probabally be a new show. |
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morsmaestro
 Posts: 172 Location: Sacramento |
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Rahxephon is fairly hard to get the first time around (I had to watch it twice plus the movie to get it all), but its really good once you get a good grasp on the storyline. A better translation would help, but not just in the sense you would think. Just watching it again would help you get it, whether its a better translation or not (Then again, I haven't seen exactly how bad that translation was, so...)
I don't think the added subplots and details made the story worse. Having the characters have their own personal conflicts to explore added that much more feeling and really deepened the series. The scientists don't really stay on subject all the time, but not many people are 100% focused with their *company working closely with them every day. I really feel sorry for Ms Anatamore (sp). She is a really interesting character if you get into it, with her secret romance of Itsuki, his never noticing (or ignoring; thats up for debate), her emotionally sensitive past with her father and brother, and the amount of feeling when she snaps. Ayato definitely did not take everything calmly. He gets moody, depressed, fearful, just wanting to die a few times during the story, but eventually accepts his problems and moves on. If you think he got over it too fast, just remember its not real-time, meaning time passes between the scenes, so he did have time to think things over. Haruka is definitely an interesting character, but I can't believe she wouldn't tell Ayato for that long about their past (I won't say it) So, overall, I could totally relate to the characters. I felt for them, and when they were hurting, I was hurting with them. Rahxephon is an excellent series in my opinion. Besides what others have already said, it shows a lot of things people can think about. One thing I noticed was in the forming of the old squad, with Elvy and the gang. What I got from that was that racism hardly exists in the world after the Mu showed up. After 9/11, blacks and hispanics were more accepted in society as equals, to be replaced on the target list by Arabs. When the mu invaded, racism amongst humans dissappeared and the Mu got the spotlight. It also got me thinking on the actual meaning of existence. This quote really struck me: "Does it really matter, whether you dream of the butterfly or the butterfly dreams of you, because in the end, don't you both exist in reality." In Rahxephon, to take the words from an old nursery rhyme, 'Life is but a dream...' It gets deep.
Who could think of world domination in the face of the Mu? Conquering the world wouldn't do a whole lot of good if the Mu could take it right back. Also, this might be a huge detail to get (I had to see the movie to get it), and might spoil a lot, but... spoiler[Haruka (the main female lead), and the girl classmate are the same person. When Haruka Mishima left Tokyo, Mya created the Tokyo Jupiter sphere and locked her out of Ayato's life. As a result, the time delay caused Haruka to age much faster and become 12 years older than Ayato by the time he escaped Mya's protective control. Haruka knows this, but Ayato obviously forgot all about it when his blood turned blue. The girl Ayato calls Mishima takes the form of the girl he remembers Haruka to be, in order to get Ayato closer to her so they can join to form the complete Rahxephon that will tune the world. She is actually a part of Ayato because she was created as part of the Rahxephon system, as was Ayato] |
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mpchi
Posts: 54 |
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Oh, I don't mean the classmate Mishima(Haruka). Its the other short hair girl that had something happened to her midway through the story. And when I mentioned political characters, Mya is one of them. Also that old guy that woke Quon, doing so much just to see how his experiment works in the end, resulting tuning the world his way. While Mya (Mu) also wants to tune the world their way. But regardless how its tuned, everybody dies and the world restarts. Therefore, its really hard to relate or understand their motives, when they all work on something so hard that they won't be alive to see, or for anyone else to see. Its story elements like these that made me feel quite remote, seeing this series unfold. You watch events takes place, and people taking certain actions accordingly. But you don't feel as much as you watch.
Thanks for clarifying some names though. |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I think you're talking about Asahina.
spoiler[She was Ayato's friend back in Tokyo Jupiter and later escaped(with him right?). She had a big crush on Ayato and wanted to stay with him. Somehow in her mind or something, the exact details are a bit vague, she interacts with herself, her Mulian(sp?) self. This transforms her into a Dolem(again sp? I watched the dub) and she fights Ayato. Ayato kills the Dolem wanting to protect her only killing her in the end as she wrote how sorry she was and that she loved him or something to that effect in her notebook. The writing caused the Dolem to change electronic text all around the city, even the city lights themselves became text, all saying what she had originally wrote in the notebook a second earlier.] Now reading back on the post that you actually wondered what her name was...the first sentence would've sufficed. The huge spoiler message wasn't necesary, but I'm still not going to delete it =P |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6868 Location: Kazune City |
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I agree with Jadress about some of the problems with RahXephon; it's disjointed, it's confusing, it's possibly an EVA rip-off, and the number of girls that wind up liking Ayato left a Love Hina-like aftertaste in my mouth. Perhaps part of the problem is that I found myself falling asleep at several points, and I was watching it subtitled. I do claim to know some Japanese, but RX isn't one of those shows where I can drift in and out and still know what's going on. Despite these problems, I'm going to give it another chance, maybe this time with the dub to prevent the somnolence issues. The visuals and story complexity and worth watching, and maybe the second time around, I'll grasp the romantic threads a little better. If it weren't for the constant Nahautl name-dropping, things would be more comprehensible in RahXephon.
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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I would say that probably you should watch the movie, from what I understand there have been a lot of good feedback in regards to the fact that the movie does a great job clearing up some of the issues.
Till next time, Delta Kiral |
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Jadress
 Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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Thanks for all the responses. I'd definitely like to give this series another shot and I think I really would like to watch the dub of it and also follow up the series with the movie. I think the lame bootleg I saw just confused the heck out of me, but I still felt there was something appealing about the show. As far as relatable characters, I did feel for Haruka and Asahina, and I thought Elvy was a badass. I just recalled being lost as to how Ayato seemed to accept things as readily as he did. Again, though, I think I'll get a new impression of everything when I check out the dub. Wee!
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morsmaestro
Posts: 172 Location: Sacramento |
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FYI the movie isn't a follow up, more like a retelling of the story. It starts earlier, before the sphere went up--so you get to see Haruka and Ayato when they were young, then launches into where the series started and goes through the events again, adding some scenes (which really explains a lot that was unclear in the series), edits some scenes, and (obviously) deletes a buttload, inevitably throwing out some characters, making them flat; they're just there. Like Soichi, Kim, Makoto-- they get 'flattened'. What the movie does better at is just explaining the storyline and stuff, and the ending is a bit clearer.
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Jadress
Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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Yeah, I know the movie isn't a follow up to the show, I was just saying that I would like to see the movie after I watch the series. Thanks for the info.. I think the movie will help me understand more about it.. plus the ending song is "Garden of Everything" by Maaya Sakamoto and Steve Conte, perhaps the best anime theme song ever.
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Kirkdawg
 Subscriber Posts: 742 Location: California, USA |
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I am a bit confused and slightly horrified that RahXephon doesn't have it's own "main thread"? I consider it to be one of the most alluring, mystical, and entrancing animated series ever yet the reception here reflects maybe that isn't universal? I've decided against making another thread since I suspect it would fall flat on it's ass like the other ones; however I may consider requesting permission from a moderator to create a new thread in the future. Anyhow, I just wanted to post my thoughts on RahXephon after my second viewing of the show.
I watched this fan subbed when it first came out and I just remember the ending confusing the hell out of me but liking everything else (like NGE). This time, I bought it and wow, what a treat. I didn't really need to, but there were some small details I missed this time around that I read about from DanielJr's fansite: Nirai Kinai Speaking of NGE, I wish people would relating it so much to RahXephon. When RahXephon was created, NGE was not held into mind-there wasn't an inspiration or a design copy or whatever people think. Sure they both have robots and both center on character interactions, but I think that's the strongest link you could argue for. This second viewing has left me oddly....satisfied. Unlike other series where I feel the ending is lacking or missing something, if you piece the ENTIRE series together the ending makes complete sense and it resolves EVERYTHING. The layers of character interaction just amazes me-the director has designed almost all of the characters into this overall grand scheme of layers that he gives all the information for viewers to link. He strikes a balance between subtlety, mystery, and actually answering the damn questions. Many directors fail to do this, by not giving enough information, smacking the viewers over the head with the information, etc. Yutaka Izubuchi nailed the hammer with the head in this regard. A big reason why I enjoyed the first viewing so much was because the music and visuals of this show just enchanted me...the second viewing was no less of a treat for me. Like, I can't think of a single criticism in this regard except maybe the side-kick pilots were kind of just....there. Which is fine, but I think integrating them a bit more with the other important characters (instead of just 1 support) would've been a better use for them. I am super crushed that both the music director, Ichiko Hashimoto and Chief Director, Yutaka Izubuchi only have RahXephon as their major directive piece. Ms. Hashimoto was also the voice actress for Maya Kamina, and I kept thinking to myself every time I heard her character talking: "Why have I not heard her voice before? Why is this the first and ONLY time I've heard it?" Her voice was totally suited for the character, but it has a unique, oddly calming sound that is unlike any actress I've heard before. Why hasn't she picked up more roles? What's holding her back from being more involved with the anime industry? I would really, really like to see her do more work. I have similar thoughts for the director-has he had no inspiration since RahXephon? Why hasn't he created a new excellent masterpiece for me to go ga-ga over? Or was RahXephon a one hit wonder that will have to satisfy me for the rest of all time? I hope he thinks of a new story and lands another directing job because I think he did a fantastic job with RahXephon. Those were the two staff members that really left an impression upon me, but I think the entire staff in this series did a fantastic job. I was just really craving more from those 2 in particular. Now to check out the OVA, manga, and movie to see if they come anywhere close to the series. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Well, I of course love it, being ANN's official RahXephon fanboy and all.* If you want to make a new thread I'd be happy to pop in and discuss the series.
You are not alone in wondering that. It does seem odd - given it's such a fantastic show which didn't flop (or at least, there are no rumours that it did) - that we never got so see another real work out of them. I suspect personality conflicts between some of the key players rather than a lack of inspiration.
The OVA is okay to watch but it's only five minutes long. Mostly Quon discovering something about herself; I haven't actually seen it myself (shock horror). The movie was pretty bad, as most movies are when they try to adapt ten hours of animation into two hours. That doesn't excuse just how bad the changes were. The booklet that came with it was kind of cool, probably the best part of the movie. That's sarcasm, just so you know. * No really, Zac sent me a shirt and a coffee mug and everything. |
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Kirkdawg
Subscriber Posts: 742 Location: California, USA |
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He doesn't necessarily have to work with that staff in particular again, I recently looked over his history and RahXephon is the only series he has chiefly directed. I mean, did he do something personal on the side that I'm not aware of that no producer will touch him or something? Ok, so I've had another thought since my first post. Doesn't Megumi seem to be the tragic character of the series? This is what I mean: spoiler[both of her crushes end up being with someone in the end, so that's 2 cases of unrequited love. And in the end...she ends up with nobody? That's dandy and all, but it seems her role in the series is kind of sad. I mean I guess she was just purely designed to support Ayato and Haruka? On top of some other minor interactions and drama.]
If that's so, I hope he treated himself to some RahXephon merchandise as well after writing that extremely positive (but definitely well deserved) review of DVD 7. |
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