is a Japanese
animeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control a godlike
mechaA mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey to find a place in the world. His life as a student and artist in Tokyo is suddenly interrupted by a mysterious female stalker, strange planes invading the city and strange machines fighting back.
The original 26-episode anime television series was directed by
Yutaka Izubuchiis a Japanese anime designer and director. Izubuchi is credited for designing costumes, characters and creatures, but most of his designs are mechanical...
. It was created by Izubuchi and
Bones studiois a Japanese anime studio. It has produced numerous series, including RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, Eureka Seven, Angelic Layer, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club and two adaptions of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga along with Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto and...
and it aired on
Fuji TVis a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign "JOCX-DTV". It is the flagship station of the Fuji News Network and the ....
from January to September 2002. It was produced by Fuji TV, Bones,
Media Factoryis a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
and
Victor Entertainmentis a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
. The series received critical acclaim and was subsequently translated, released on the
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and aired in several other countries, including the United States. A 2003 movie adaptation RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio was directed by
Tomoki Kyodais a Japanese animation director and animator.Kyoda was born in Osaka, Japan. Formerly a graphic designer, he changed his occupation to the animation industry, having aspired to be an animation director since his childhood...
, with plot changes and new scenes. The series also spun into
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, an extra
OVA, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
episode, an audio drama, a video game, illustration books and an altered
mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaptation by
Takeaki Momoseis a Japanese manga artist.- Works :These Japanese comics have been drawn by Takeaki Momose:* Miami Guns* RahXephon * Magikano- External links :...
.
The central elements of RahXephon
's plot are music, time,
archetypalAn archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
mystery, intrigue and romance. The series shows influences from philosophy, Japanese folklore and Western literature, such as the work of
James ChurchwardJames Churchward is best known as a British born occult writer. However, he was also a patented inventor, engineer, and expert fisherman....
. The cultural background of the series is dominated by
MesoamericaMesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n and other
Pre-ColumbianThe pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
civilizations. Director Izubuchi said RahXephon was his attempt to set a new standard for mecha anime, as well as to bring back aspects of 1970s mecha shows like
Brave Raideenis a super robot anime series. Produced by Tohokushinsha, Asahi News Agency and Sunrise, it aired on NET from 4 April 1975 to 26 March 1976, with a total of 50 episodes...
.
Setting
The backstory of RahXephon is a fight against multi-
dimensionIn physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
al invaders known as the Mulians (known as ). The Mu are visually indistinguishable from humans, however they carry a genetic marker called the "Mu phase" which turns their blood blue and causes memory loss when they mature.
The story reveals two
floating citiesIn science fiction, floating cities are settlements that strictly use buoyancy to remain in the atmosphere of a planet. However the term generally refers to any city that is flying, hovering, or otherwise suspended in the air via any means technological or even magical.-Earth:In Jonathan Swift's...
appearing above Tokyo and Sendai around the
end of 2012The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar...
. The ensuing conflict escalated into
nuclear warfareNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
, and the Mu envelop Tokyo and outlying suburbs within a spherical barrier resembling
JupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, referred by outsiders as "Tokyo Jupiter" ("Tōkyō Jupita"). The barrier has a
time dilatingIn the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...
effect, which causes time inside Tokyo Jupiter to slow down to one-fifth compared to the outside time.
Although RahXephon is part of the
mechaA mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
genre of anime, its "mechas" are not mechanical. The mechas used by the Mu, called Dolems, are made of clay, like
golemIn Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
s. Each is bound to a certain Mulian, however some are also bound to human hosts, called "sub-Mulians".
The dominant theme of RahXephon is the music changing the world. The Dolems are animated by a mystical force connected to music; most of the controlling Mulians appear to be singing. A Dolem attacks while singing, and sometimes the attack is the song itself. The RahXephon can also attack by having its pilot — the "instrumentalist" — sing a note. This unleashes force waves that cause massive destruction. Each Mulian Dolem has an Italian name referring to
musical notationMusic notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
s, such as, Allegretto, Falsetto, or Vivace. The ultimate goal of the RahXephon is to "tune the world." Izubuchi says the name RahXephon lacked a real meaning, but that he now explains it as composed of Rah as the origin of
RaRa is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
according to Churchward, X as the unknown variable or X factor, and -ephon as a suffix for
instrumentA musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
from "-phone".
Characters
- This section represents the story from the television series and may differ from other works.
At the beginning of RahXephon, Ayato Kamina is a modest 17-year-old living in Tokyo. He is an average student, who enjoys painting and spending time with his classmates Hiroko Asahina and Mamoru Torigai. He has affectionate relationship with his mother, strained by her long-hour work.
During the sudden attack on Tokyo, Ayato hears the singing of his classmate Reika Mishima. She leads him to a giant egg containing the RahXephon. Haruka Shitow, an agent of the defense research agency TERRA (acronym for Tereno Empireo Rapidmova Reakcii Armeo, broken
Esperantois the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
for Earth Empire Rapid Response Army), brings Ayato and the RahXephon to their headquarters.
Ayato moves in with Haruka's uncle Professor Rikudoh and pilots the RahXephon against the attacking Dolems. Quon Kisaragi, a mysterious girl living with chief researcher Itsuki, seems to share some of Ayato's artistic talent. Ernst von Bähbem of the Bähbem Foundation sponsors TERRA through the Federation, the successor of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
While most characters are introduced by the end of episode 7, RahXephon continues to characters development and reveals their mysteries and relationships through heavy use of
foreshadowingForeshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...
.
Dolems
Dolems or are enormous
mechaA mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
-like beings that are used as powerful weapons by the Mulians. The name "Dolem" is derived from "
golemIn Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
". It is also a reference to the first three notes in the C major scale, "
Do-Re-MiIn music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...
", and the Italian word "dolere" .
In RahXephon Dolems are designated by TERRA as D1. The smaller fighters Dotem (with T instead of L) are designated as D2.
Dolems are made of clay, like golems, but are animated by a quasi-mystical force connected to music, as most of the controlling Mulians appear to be singing. A Dolem attacks while singing, and sometimes the attack is the song itself. Each D1 Dolem is bound to a Mulian who controls it. Some Dolems are also bound to human hosts called "sub-Mulians" or "Dolem hosts" who anchor to the Dolems in the human dimension, making it possible for the Mulian controller to take over the body of the host. These bonds are so strong that destroying a Dolem can kill both the Mulian controlling it and the human host. When destroyed, a Dolem disintegrates into blue blood and clay.
List of Dolems
- Allegretto
- Fortissimo
- Grave
- Ritardando
- Forzando
- Sforzando
- Larghetto
- Vivace
- Falsetto
- Arpeggio
- Alternate
- Vibrato
- Obligato and Brillante
- Largo
Plot
The most important
plotA narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
line of the series is the unusual relationship between Ayato Kamina and Haruka Shitow. Although Haruka appears to be a stranger to Ayato at first, the series reveals that they know each other from before the beginning of the story.
Ayato is a boy conceived with the help of the Bähbem Foundation living in Tokyo with his adoptive mother, Maya Kamina. Ayato met Haruka on a trip outside of Tokyo, and they continued to see each other when they returned to
schoolSecondary education in Japan is split into middle schools which cover the seventh through ninth grades, and high schools which mostly cover grades ten through twelve...
in Tokyo. At this time, Haruka's
family namein modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...
was Mishima.
However, during what later became known as the Tokyo Jupiter incident, Haruka Mishima and her pregnant mother were away on a holiday trip while Ayato was caught inside. Years later Haruka's mother re-married and their family name became Shitow. Meanwhile Maya modified Ayato's memories to make him forget Haruka. The series makes clear that the entire population of Tokyo Jupiter is subject to the same kind of mental control. Ayato is haunted by visions of Haruka, which he manifests in his art. Ixtli, RahXephon's
soulA soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, also adopts Haruka's appearance and family name (Mishima) but takes a different given name — Reika.
The story begins as Tokyo is attacked by invaders while a mysterious woman, later revealed to be Haruka, stalks Ayato. By this point, Haruka has grown considerably older than Ayato and his friends who remained inside because of the time dilation in Tokyo Jupiter. Because of this Ayato does not recognize Haruka and initially mistrusts her, but he gradually re-discovers his love for her as the series progresses and he learns of what has happened. At the end of the series, Ayato's RahXephon merges with Quon's, and he modifies the past by "re-tuning the world" so that he and Haruka are never separated. In the final sequence of the series the adult Ayato is seen with his wife Haruka and their infant daughter Quon.
Production and media
RahXephon was initially produced as a TV series. A manga version, novels, soundtracks and an audio drama were published during the original broadcast. A movie, an OVA episode, art books, and guide books were also created. Characters, mecha and story from RahXephon were featured in three video games.
TV series
Yutaka Izubuchiis a Japanese anime designer and director. Izubuchi is credited for designing costumes, characters and creatures, but most of his designs are mechanical...
was a successful anime supervisor and designer focusing on
costumeThe term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...
, character and mechanical design, notably in the
GundamThe is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....
and
PatlaborPatlabor also known as , is an anime and manga franchise created by Headgear, a group consisting of director Mamoru Oshii, writer Kazunori Itō, mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi, character designer Akemi Takada, and manga artist Masami Yūki.The popular franchise included a manga, a TV series, two OVA...
series. His friend and former
Sunriseis a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...
colleague
Masahiko Minamiis a Japanese anime producer and president of Bones.-Career:A graduate of the Osaka University of Arts's department of arts, Minami began his career with noted anime studio Sunrise as one of its producers...
, producer and president of
Bonesis a Japanese anime studio. It has produced numerous series, including RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, Eureka Seven, Angelic Layer, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club and two adaptions of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga along with Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto and...
, had suggested Izubuchi to direct something.
Izubuchi finally agreed and RahXephon became his first directing job. Izubuchi returned to the classic mecha shows of the 1970s and 1980s and wanted to make a show of that type updated with advances in anime production as well as adding his own personal ideas. He wanted to "set a new standard in the field" of mecha anime to show his "own standard" and capabilities as a
creator-showrunnerShowrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
.
Media Factoryis a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
, Fuji TV. and
Victor Entertainmentis a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
joined Bones as production partners. After planning the story and designing characters and locations, a core group was expanded to a full production staff that completed the show, primarily working together — a departure from the trend of outsourcing anime production.
The original music, except for the opening theme, is composed by
Ichiko Hashimotois a jazz pianist, composer and singer. She has also acted in television and film.Hashimoto was born in Kobe, grew up in Tokyo and started playing the piano at the age of five...
; she was initially approached to compose some of the
scoreA film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
and replied that she wanted to compose all of it. She also plays Maya and performs the closing theme together with her sister Mayumi. The opening theme "Hemisphere" is composed by
Yoko Kannois a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...
and sung by
Maaya Sakamotois a Japanese singer-songwriter, actress, and voice actress. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime series Little Twins, but is more well known for her role as Hitomi Kanzaki in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne...
, who plays Reika. Hashimoto's compositions range from
piano sonataA piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
s and acoustic
chamber musicChamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
to experimental
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
,
hard rockHard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
, and
ambienceAmbient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
that crosses the border into
sound designSound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
. She also includes more mainstream jazz and orchestral music played with both acoustic and electronic instruments.
Movie
A
television movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
version of RahXephon called
Pluralitas Concentiois the movie adaptation of the TV anime series RahXephon.-Plot:Ayato Kamina and his classmate, Haruka "Reika Mishima", are in middle school and are a young couple, still dealing with some awkwardness. However, the sudden appearance of visitors from an alternate dimension, the "Mu", tears the two...
was directed by
Tomoki Kyodais a Japanese animation director and animator.Kyoda was born in Osaka, Japan. Formerly a graphic designer, he changed his occupation to the animation industry, having aspired to be an animation director since his childhood...
, who had directed three episodes of the TV series and acted as assistant director with Soichi Masui. Izubuchi acted as Chief Director on this movie, but was not heavily involved in its production. Most of the staff members involved with the TV series worked on the movie, and it was distributed by
Shochikuis a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada...
. The producers were Masahiko Minami, Shiro Sasaki, Maki Horiuchi, Kenji Shimizu, and Tatsuji Yamazaki.
The movie quickly reveals mysteries that were developed slowly in the TV series and makes changes to the plot. It begins with a
prologueA prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
showing previously unseen events, followed by a couple of
expository scenesAt the beginning of a narrative, the exposition is the author's providing of some background information to the audience about the plot, characters' histories, setting, and theme. Exposition is considered one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration...
. The final 30 minutes contain the most plot changes and new scenes, ending with a new
epilogueAn epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
. The rest of the movie consists mainly of abridged scenes from the original series, sometimes with characters replaced or with different motivations and dialogue. The link between the Kamina and Mishima families and other storylines that were prominent in the original TV series were reduced or removed. One prominent distributor promoted the movie as an "
encoreAn encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...
" — an extra performance at the end of the series, rather than as a replacement.
Manga
The
mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
was illustrated and written by
Takeaki Momoseis a Japanese manga artist.- Works :These Japanese comics have been drawn by Takeaki Momose:* Miami Guns* RahXephon * Magikano- External links :...
. Momose was one of the candidates for character designer on the series, but Izubuchi wanted
Akihiro Yamadais a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. He was born in Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan, and now resides in Kyoto. Yamada is known for delicate images reminiscent of suiboku and depiction of fantasy subjects...
to do the original designs, and
Hiroki Kannois a Japanese animator, animation director and character designer.- External links :...
got the job of adapting them for animation. With the manga Momose got the opportunity to re-design the characters into his own style and make changes in characterization and story, as well as adding "
fan service, fanservice, or , is a term originating from anime and manga fandom for material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want"...
".
The scenario of the manga adaptation is similar to RahXephon series with some minor and major differences. In the anime series, Reika is a mysterious and distant figure; in the manga Reika is a more comical figure who grew up as Ayato's adoptive sister with a darker origin. The anime series shows Megumi competing with Haruka for Ayato's affections, while this role is taken by Reika in the manga. The rate of time dilation is also different in the manga version, as the year outside Tokyo is 2033 instead of 2027.
Influences
In addition to its musical theme, RahXephon has many explicit references to ancient history and myths, literature, art, and culture.
Art and literature
Music
In addition to the prevalence of terms from music, classical musical works are used in the show: The
overtureOverture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
to
Die Meistersinger von NürnbergDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
opens the first episode, hinting to the musical contests between "normal" Humans and the Mu where the RahXephon is one of the instruments. The
motifIn music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
Quon sings or hums repeatedly is from
Polovetsian DancesThe Polovtsian Dances are perhaps the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor . They are often played as a stand-alone concert piece. Borodin was the original composer, but the opera was left unfinished at his death and was subsequently completed by Nikolai...
in the opera
Prince IgorPrince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
, about a warrior prince. Additionally, the opera itself is played on more than one occasion, usually over a
loudspeakerA loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
system. The melody is also used in the musical
KismetKismet is a musical with lyrics and musical adaptation by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Alexander Borodin, and a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, based on Kismet, the 1911 play by Edward Knoblock...
, about love between two people of different worlds, here with new lyrics and titled
Stranger in Paradise"Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the 1953 musical Kismet and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like all the music in that show, the melody was based on music composed by Alexander Borodin, in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens," from the Polovtsian...
.
Post-classical literature
Izubuchi found the basis for the relationship between Ayato and Haruka in Robert F. Young's short story
The Dandelion Girl"The Dandelion Girl" is a science fiction short story written by American science fiction author Robert F. Young. The story, roughly 5,600 words, first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on April 1, 1961. The story was later republished in a Robert F. Young short story collection in 1965 called...
. In Young's story the protagonist encounters a girl standing on a hill in a dress, the breeze blowing in her hair; this girl comes from the future, while the girl in RahXephon comes from the past. The Dandelion Girl is also the title of the "
CodaCoda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
" appearing after the credits of episode 26. Izubuchi later realized that another story,
Portrait of JenniePortrait of Jennie is a 1948 fantasy film based on the novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.-Plot:...
, had been an additional influence for the relationship. The idea of Tokyo Jupiter is explicitly compared to Sayonara Jupiter and Tokyo Blackout by the veteran science fiction writer
Sakyo Komatsuwas a Japanese science fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan.-Early life:...
.
The summary movie shows Haruka and Ayato sharing the book
Through the Looking-GlassThrough the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
by Lewis Carroll; the series itself does not mention this book, but they have commonalities: Both use mirrors and reflections, and both feature the stopping and reversal of time. In the manga version of RahXephon, the choice of literature is different —
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
by L. Frank Baum. This book appears only briefly in the anime series, but characters in the manga note how their situation is similar to Oz; the last manga chapter is named "
Over the Rainbow"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...
". In a reversal of Dorothy's experience Ayato is whisked away from the constructed world of Tokyo Jupiter into the "real" world.
The series also references the works of writers who have won the
Nobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
: "Macondo Four" a code-name used at the beginning of the show, comes from Gabriel García Márquez's fictional hometown Macondo, prominent in
One Hundred Years of SolitudeOne Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia...
. Another, "Yoknapatawpha", comes from William Faulkner's fictional home
Yoknapatawpha CountyYoknapatawpha County is a fictional county created by the American author William Faulkner, based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi and its county seat of Oxford, Mississippi...
. The teams using the code-names attempt to maintain a similarly unreal home town for Ayato.
Colours
The RahXephon system consists of a white RahXephon and a black RahXephon, with eggs, wings and feathers coloured accordingly. The Mu are shown to have blue blood while normal humans have red blood; in the RahXephon universe, the
nobilityNobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
has blue blood as a holdover from the period of Mu dominance.
RahXephon uses
blue flowerThe Blue Flower is a central symbol of Inspiration. It stands for desire, love, and the metaphysical striving for the infinite and unreachable.- Origins of the symbol :...
s as symbols of the Mu. This concept was used by the philosopher
NovalisNovalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...
, who wrote about
HeinrichHeinrich von Ofterdingen is a famous, quasi-fictional Minnesinger who participated in the Sängerkrieg on the Wartburg. The authorship of the Laurin, a poem about Dietrich von Bern, was also sometimes ascribed to him. He is chiefly known by the novel of Novalis of the same name and the role of...
— a young man yearning for a "blue flower" that he once saw in a dream. Novalis wrote that "the world becomes a dream, and the dream becomes reality". RahXephon has several references to dreaming, and features dreamlike sequences that foreshadow real events.
Michiru, the blue bird which the character Kunugi keeps, is named after his daughter. As well as being a Japanese given name, "Michiru" is the Japanese name for "Mytyl", a character in
MaeterlinckMaurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
's
The Blue BirdThe Blue Bird is a 1908 play by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck. It premiered on 30 September 1908 at Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre and has been turned into several films and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera The Blue Bird is a 1908 play by Belgian...
. In the last two episodes this bird parallels Haruka, blue birds symbolize the Mu, and The Blue Bird is used to describe Itsuki's relationship with Nanamori. The manga also uses this theme.
Visual arts
A recurring significant image in the anime is a modified version of noted Surrealist artist
René MagritteRené François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
's
La Grande Famille, showing a sky through the
silhouetteA silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
of a dove.
The anime makes other references to the French
SurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
movement, from the dreamlike sequences associated with some Dolems, to all the references to retuning and reworking the world and the desires of man. Surrealists said that artists should express the
subconsciousThe term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
uninhibited by conscious thought and reason, and that the dream world of the subconscious was more real than the real world — surreal. Ayato re-tunes the world based on his desires. Likewise, the Surrealists wanted to re-shape the world to fit the subconscious, for example through political
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
.
The opening sequence features
dream artDream art is any form of art directly based on material from dreams, or which employs dream-like imagery.-History:References to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams of major characters and the meanings thereof...
with surrealist qualities. One image in particular shows a dreamscape with clocks, some broken and others moving at different speeds, recalling the "soft watches" paintings by
Salvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
.
Civilization and culture
The Americas
RahXephon has many references to
Pre-ColumbianThe pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
American culture. December 21, 2012 is the end of the 5-
vigesimalThe vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
Mayan Long Count calendar and the transition from one Mayan age into the next. In RahXephon the Mu re-appear one week after this date. Characters listen to a song called "Fate of Katun"; a
KatunA k'atun or k'atun-cycle is a unit of time in the Maya calendar equal to 20 tuns or 7,200 days, equivalent to 19.713 tropical years. It is the 2nd digit on the normal Maya long count date...
is a measurement of time in the Mayan Calendar. The Dolem control system is worn as a helmet shaped like a face from a Mayan sculpture, and the cities of the Mu contain artwork inspired by Mayan and other
MesoamericaMesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n art.
The leader of the Mu in Tokyo is named Maya. This is not coincidental, since the series draws many of its references from
James ChurchwardJames Churchward is best known as a British born occult writer. However, he was also a patented inventor, engineer, and expert fisherman....
's books about the
MuMu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...
— an advanced ancient race from a large island in the South Pacific which had sunk, like the legendary continent of
AtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
. Churchward claimed that the Maya, and other ancient civilizations, were remnants of Mu colonies. RahXephon
's main character Ayato is shown to know about Churchward's theories.
The language of the Mu is based on Nahuatl, a classical form of
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
language. The terms in ixtli in yollotl (face and heart) and ollin (movement) come from this language, and the latter refers to the sun god
Ollin TonatiuhIn Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan, heaven. He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky...
. According to the
Aztec sun stoneThe Aztec calendar stone, Mexica sun stone, Stone of the Sun , or Stone of the Five Eras, is a large monolithic sculpture that was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, on December 17, 1790. It was discovered whilst Mexico City Cathedral was being repaired...
, humanity is living in the fifth and final age of the world. Tonatiuh is the god of this fifth age; in RahXephon, the characters Ayato and Quon are both called Ollin by the Mu. At the end of the series, both characters reach a state called
YolteotlYolteotl is an Nahua word from Mexico meaning the "heart of God" or someone who contains an almost spiritual creativity . It is composed of yollotl and teotl...
— a state similar to the Buddhist nirvana.
The series shows a Dolem carving shapes into the earth; these shapes are referred to as "
Nazca LinesThe Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima...
" after lines made by a
pre-IncanThe history of Peru spans several millennia, extending back through several stages of cultural development in the mountain region and the coastal desert....
culture.
Step pyramidStep pyramids are structures which characterized several cultures throughout history, in several locations throughout the world. These pyramids typically are large and made of several layers of stone...
s both in the style of
TikalTikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala...
and other locations are shown, and the TERRA headquarters' shape is a pyramid-
coneA cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
amalgam with the angle and tip of
Mount Fujiis the highest mountain in Japan at . An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and...
.
The final episode contains a quotation from
Octavio PazOctavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
's prose poem "The Obsidian Butterfly" from the collection Aguila O Sol/Eagle or Sun? that plays upon Aztec mythology and the coming of a new era. "The Obsidian Butterfly" is a reference to the Aztec goddess
ItzpapalotlIn Aztec mythology, Itzpapalotl was a fearsome skeletal warrior goddess, who ruled over the paradise world of Tamoanchan, the paradise of victims of infant mortality and place identified where humans were created. She is the mother of Mixcoatl and is particularly associated with the moth...
; the character of Quon becomes a representation of this goddess, particularly Paz's usage of the goddess in his poem.
Creation myths
The tuning of the world resembles the idea of creation by song, appearing in creation myths like that of the
HopiThe Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
. It also appears in fictional mythologies like
J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's Music of the Ainur and the creation story of
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's
NarniaNarnia is a fantasy world created by C. S. Lewis as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The world is so called after the country of Narnia, in which much of the action of the Chronicles takes place.In Narnia, some animals can talk,...
. Another symbolic element is that of the
golemIn Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
s, creatures made from clay, recalling Biblical imagery from Genesis as well as more recent stories in Jewish kabbalism and folklore.
Japanese culture and religion
Two Japanese folk tales are explicitly mentioned in the series: Ayato compares himself to
Urashima Tarōis a Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin, the Dragon God, under the sea...
, and professor Rikudoh compares Maya to
Princess Kaguya, also known as , is a 10th century Japanese folktale. It is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative and an early example of proto-science fiction....
. "Spiriting away" (kamikakushi) happens both in reverse and in the way common to
Japanese folkloreThe folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yōkai , yūrei ,...
.
TERRA is based on Nirai Island, a fictional addition to the Satsunan Islands, one of the island groups making up Japan's southwest islands. The base itself is located in Kanai city, built on
reclaimed landLand reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
adjacent to the natural island. Nirai and Kanai have been named as a pun on Nirai-kanai. In traditional
Ryukyu beliefsRyukyuan religion is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands. While specific legends and traditions may vary slightly from place to place and island to island, the Ryukyuan religion is generally characterized by ancestor worship and the respecting of relationships between the living, the...
"Nirai kanai", also called "Nira-hara" or "Niraasuku", is the place out at sea where the gods live. These gods are believed to visit the islands of humans during certain religious festivals. In RahXephon, Mu is suggested to be the real-world basis of the Nirai-kanai legend. The "Shrine of Time" resembles Ryukyan family tomb. RahXephon's Nirai, Kanai, and the bay between them are roughly shaped like
commasThe comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
, a shape shared with
magatamaMagatama , are curved beads which first appeared in Japan during the Jōmon period.They are often found inhumed in mounded tumulus graves as offerings to deities . They continued to be popular with the ruling elites throughout the Kofun Period of Japan, and are often romanticised as indicative of...
and common
TaijituTaijitu is a term which refers to a Chinese symbol for the concept of yin and yang...
symbols.
Mount Fujiis the highest mountain in Japan at . An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and...
appears in the show, both directly depicted and as a design inspiration; this mountain has a special spiritual significance in
Shintoor Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
.
The religious foundations of the TV series are Ryukyan and Mesoamerican. Beyond Ryukyuan beliefs and
ConfucianismConfucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
the TV series has few prominent references to traditional Eastern religion. Yakumo is shown in a
kimonoThe is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...
performing a Shinto
New YearThe is one of the most important annual festivals, with its own unique customs, and has been celebrated for centuries. Due to the importance of the holiday and the preparations required, the preceding days are quite busy, particularly the day before, known as Ōmisoka.The Japanese New Year has been...
ritual, but no other religious worship is shown. The characters celebrate a secular
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, and distinguish between practice and belief. Kunugi visits a Christian cemetery, and important scenes in the last two episodes are set in and around a church. The show thus reflects the variations of
Japanese religious practiceMost Japanese people do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of a single religion; rather, they incorporate elements of various religions in a syncretic fashion known as . Shinbutsu Shūgō officially ended with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order of 1886, but continues in practice...
.
Although Eastern religion has a minor role in the TV series, the movie version references
BuddhismThe history of Buddhism in Japan can be roughly divided into three periods, namely the Nara period , the Heian period and the post-Heian period . Each period saw the introduction of new doctrines and upheavals in existing schools...
. The epilogue shows a
butsudanA butsudan is a shrine commonly found in temples and homes in Japanese Buddhist cultures. A butsudan is a wooden cabinet with doors that enclose and protect a gohonzon or religious icon, typically a statue or painting of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, or a "script" mandala scroll...
, where a plaque bearing Ayato's
posthumous nameA posthumous name is an honorary name given to royalty, nobles, and sometimes others, in East Asia after the person's death, and is used almost exclusively instead of one's personal name or other official titles during his life...
is standing. Near the end of the movie Ayato explains the situation of the "re-tuning" to Haruka. He explains how he cannot remain with her in the world as they know it and that he has somehow has transcended his human state, that is, reached
EnlightenmentBodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...
.
In the manga version of the story, Reika is a Mu
mikois a Japanese term that anciently meant a "female shaman, spirit medium" who conveyed oracles from kami , and currently means a "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines.-Word:...
who was unprepared for a ritual involving the RahXephon, and who is trapped in a cycle of
reincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
. This form of reincarnation is very different from
rebirth in BuddhismRebirth in Buddhism is the doctrine that the evolving consciousness or stream of consciousness upon death , becomes one of the contributing causes for the arising of a new aggregation...
.
Reception
The anime series originally aired on stations in the
Fuji Televisionis a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign "JOCX-DTV". It is the flagship station of the Fuji News Network and the ....
network and its affiliates, except in the Kansai region where
independent UHF stationsThe , is a group of Japan's reception fee-free commercial terrestrial television stations which are not members of the major national networks that has flagship in Tokyo and Osaka....
aired it instead. Starting with episode 10, some stations moved the series from the afternoon to after midnight, but other stations moved it from late night to afternoon. RahXephon thus remained both a "
late night animeis a term used in Japan to denote anime television series broadcast late at night and/or in the early morning, usually between 23.00 and 4.00. Sometimes the scheduled times of such broadcasts are advertised in a format using an hour greater than 24 is a term used in Japan to denote anime...
" and afternoon anime throughout its original run.
According to its distributor the series "captivated millions in Japan" and "[drew] in viewers by the tens of thousands." The series won the award for best TV anime at the 7th
Animation KobeThe is an event created by Kobe city in 1996, to promote anime and other visual media. In the event, the are awarded annually by Kobe and the Organizing Committee of the event, to creators and creations.-Event:...
fair. It was considered popular enough that a TV movie version was commissioned and aired.
Internationally, the series was translated and released on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. It was purchased for airing by television stations and made available on
video on demandVideo on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
services in several countries. In the United States, the DVDs were released around the theatrical release of another Bones production,
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, known internationally as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, is a 2001 animated film directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. The screenplay was written by Keiko Nobumoto, based on the Cowboy Bebop television series created by Sunrise. The plot centers on Spike Spiegel and his crew as they find a criminal who is...
. The distributor claimed that RahXephon was met with "strong sales and extraordinary critical response in the U.S."
TV series reviews
The series was generally well received by English-language reviewers. While some reviewers only judged the show on its own merits, others compared it with varying favor against shows such as
Brain Powerdis a Japanese anime television series created by Sunrise. The series is set on a future, decimated Earth after the discovery of a mysterious, alien spacecraft dubbed "Orphan". A group of researchers scour the planet for Orphan's disc plates using mecha called "Antibodies" in order to revive the...
,
Megazone 23is a four-part original video animation created by AIC, written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, and directed by Noboru Ishiguro, Ichiro Itano, Kenichi Yatagai and Shinji Aramaki. The series was originally titled but the title was changed just before release....
, and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Protoculture AddictsProtoculture Addicts was a Canadian-based North American anime and manga magazine published by Protoculture Inc., an Anime News Network company...
editor Claude J. Pelletier chose RahXephon as one of the top 3 anime TV series of 2002, and Miyako Matsuda agreed, noting mystery, technology, and romance. Christian Nutt of Anime Jump offered a contrary opinion: "RahXephon's characters fell flat and the grind of its scenario didn't inspire much curiosity, despite some initially awesome ideas". En Hong, on the other hand, found the characters to be skilfully developed and believable as "self-conscious entities and not just parts to be filled for the story to progress", and Charles Solomon called them "engaging".
Mike Toole of Anime Jump was impressed by the music, animation and character design; as was Protoculture's Martin Ouellette. Solomon noted the "strikingly original mecha designs" and Anime Boredom's John Huxley noted the "unusual yet elegant" mecha and the "fluid computer-enhanced" — but not
CGIComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
-looking — animation.
RahXephons "brief but not unwelcome" comic moments went over well with Huxley, and he found the romance "a million miles away from the cheery antics of
Love Hinais a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from October 21, 1998 to October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series tells the story of Keitaro Urashima and his attempts to...
or
Ranma ½is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi with an anime adaptation. The story revolves around a 16-year old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in martial arts...
" and "for the most part thoroughly believable".
Chris Beveridge of Anime on DVD found the final episodes beautiful both in visual style and story, "with the raw emotions coming out of it, in both languages". Huxley also liked the conclusion: "Despite falling short of the mark in a few areas this is a satisfying conclusion to a good series." On the plot resolution he wrote that RahXephon "keeps the audience guessing right up until the final credits and beyond" but that "the clues are all there" for the viewer to piece together.
Anime News NetworkAnime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
columnist Zac Bertschy called RahXephon a "paragon of responsible storytelling (...) No loose strings are left; we see the conclusion of every character’s storyline." He added that the English voice work "raised the bar across the board."
Movie reviews
The TV movie had a more mixed reception than the TV series. Christian Nutt was not excited about the TV series but found the movie to be better: Despite "too much cutting and chopping", he wrote that "the creators have done the best they can with the material." He added: "the last scene is very touching. It's a big improvement over the TV show." Efrain Diaz Jr. of
IGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
called the movie a "valiant effort", but preferred the TV series and asked "why even bother with the movie?"
Carlo Santos, writing for Anime News Network, recommended the movie both as an "endcap to a remarkable series" and as a sample for those yet to watch it. While Chris Beveridge also recommended the movie as an addition to the series, he did not recommend it as a sample for newcomers, "since some of the best revelations are given away so quickly..."
Indeed, reviewers who were not familiar with the series complained about the movie's lack of coherence. Mitchell Hattaway of DVD Verdict "got lost about ten minutes in", considered the movie a waste of money for anybody but RahXephon completists and wrote that "Bones Animation Studio is guilty of contempt for its audience." Janet Crocker of Animefringe was confused by the plot as well, but was less confused on the second viewing and looked forward to watching the TV series. She called the movie "intellectually refreshing and visually beautiful" and recommended it "even to non-mecha people like me".
Book reviews
Eduardo M. Chavez of Anime on DVD was not impressed by the first volume of the manga, especially when compared to the TV series; he rated it "C minus", though he said it could have worked as a "parody
dōjinshiis the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
". After the disappointment of volume one, Chavez was pleasantly surprised by the story in the following volumes, and called it a "story that grew up with its characters", giving it a "B plus".
The five-volume novelization was translated to English, but the other novels were not. This translation was marred by a lack of
copy editingCopy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...
in the first volume, which was rated "D" by Santos. The situation was somewhat improved in the second volume, but reviewers did not recommend the novelization as an alternative to the animated versions — only as a source for learning more about the characters and their internal motivations.
Comparisons with other anime
Some reviewers and the director have compared RahXephon with other anime shows. Some of these shows also have staff common with RahXephon.
Raideen the Brave
The director of RahXephon has said this series is meant to be a sort of modern-day
Raideenis a super robot anime series. Produced by Tohokushinsha, Asahi News Agency and Sunrise, it aired on NET from 4 April 1975 to 26 March 1976, with a total of 50 episodes...
. As such there are similarities between Raideen and RahXephon, particularly in the titular "robots".
- The monsters in both shows are made from earth and rock which is brought to life.
- Akira Hibiki and Ayato Kamina both have mothers who are from a race called the "Mu". This in turn means that both Akira and Ayato have Mu blood.
- Akira and Ayato both "meld" into a surface in order to enter the cockpit of their respective robot. Akira enters via Reideen's forehead; Ayato can enter the RahXephon both directly and through a portal that is separate from the body of the RahXephon.
- The Raideen and the RahXephon both are portrayed as intelligent, sentient beings and possess similar general aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, particularly the human-like face that is covered on the sides. Both can attack with their voicesSonic and ultrasonic weapons are weapons of various types that use sound to injure, incapacitate, or kill an opponent. Some sonic weapons are currently in limited use or in research and development by military and police forces. Others exist only in the realm of science fiction...
, and can form a bow with arrows as well as a sword that protrudes out of their right arms.
Both have appeared in the Super Robot Wars series, taking particular significance in
Super Robot Wars MXis a video game for the PlayStation 2. It is part of the Super Robot Wars series by Banpresto, a division of Bandai, and was released on May 27, 2004...
where many characters note that Raideen and RahXephon are similar existences, and Brave Raideen has since been remade into
Reideenis a Japanese animated television series remake of the 1975 Super Robot anime Brave Reideen. It was produced by Production I.G and directed by Mitsuru Hongo. Which was originally broadcast on the satellite network WOWOW in 2007....
. The two also appear together in Super Robot Wars: Scramble Commander the 2nd.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
While some English-language reviewers did not mention the popular mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE) in their reviews of RahXephon, others compared the two explicitly. Some reviewers noted similarities between the series' protagonists and their style and execution of events. John Huxley noted an episode with "soul searching" sequences reminiscent of NGE with a "hint of
Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
".
After reviewing the first five episodes, Mike Pinsky of DVD Verdict wrote that much of RahXephon was "ripped off completely" from NGE and although finding it to be a good show, he ruled that "This Evangelion Lite tastes good enough, but is much less filling." Christian Nutt of Anime Jump had seen the entire show when he wrote that "One of my least favorite aspects of RahXephon is its aping of Evangelion". In
Protoculture AddictsProtoculture Addicts was a Canadian-based North American anime and manga magazine published by Protoculture Inc., an Anime News Network company...
Miyako Matsuda agreed that the shows were similar, but compared the two in RahXephon's favour: "it is very similar to Evangelion, but in many ways more original and exotic." In the same magazine, Martin Ouellette went as far as calling RahXephon an NGE "imitation", but was so impressed that he exclaimed "the imitation has surpassed the original!"
Some reviewers favoured RahXephon because of its more active protagonist and clearer ending: "Like Evangelion, you have to bend and warp your brain around this thing, but unlike Evangelion, if you think about it, it all makes sense" wrote Zac Bertschy. Huxley praised RahXephon for including action sequences in the ending, providing "a more balanced experience". RahXephon's story and complex relationships were planned and written early in the production cycle. In contrast, NGE's director stated that he did not know how the show would end, and production was influenced by the reactions that TV executives and viewers had to previous episodes. Although John Oppliger suggested stronger candidates for similarities than NGE, he thought RahXephons similarity to NGE was intentional:
John Huxley found "several similarities" with NGE, but wrote that there were "many, more significant differences", and concluded that RahXephon "deserves to be recognised outside of its comparisons to a certain
Hideaki Annois a Japanese animation and film director. Anno is best known for his work on the popular anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. His style has come to be defined by the touches of postmodernism that he injects into his work, as well as the thorough portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotions,...
animation."
Some dialogue in the RahXephon anime series is reminiscent of NGE; for instance, protagonist Ayato's very first line in the show is "Everything is all right with the world", which closely resembles the line "All's right with the world" from
Robert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
's Song from Pippa Passes, which serves as the motto of Eva
's secret organization Nerv.
Production connections
Anno and Izubuchi, the chief directors of each show, both designed mecha appearing in
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattackis a 1988 anime film set in Gundam's Universal Century timeline of Gundam, specifically U.C. 0093.Making its theatrical debut on March 12, 1988, Char's Counterattack is the culmination of the original saga begun in Mobile Suit Gundam and continued through Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit...
(1988) and they worked together on the
Cutie Honeyis a 2004 Japanese tokusatsu film adaptation, produced by Gainax, of the 1970s manga and anime series Cutie Honey.The film stars popular Japanese model Eriko Sato as the hyperactive Honey. Directed by Hideaki Anno, the film loosely retells the classic story of Cutie Honey's battle to defend...
(2004) live action movie. Izubuchi had also made some design drafts of the Evangelion units, but did not make the final designs. They gave an interview for one of the RahXephon guide books, and have a relationship that can be described as being old drinking buddies.
Mitsuo IsoMitsuo Iso is a Japanese key animator, designer, anime screenwriter and director.His work mainly includes key animation starting in the late 1980s. Iso is known for his offbeat key animation in the prologue of Gundam 0080, large portions of Asuka's battle in The End of Evangelion and the first...
, a writer and
key animatorA key frame in animation and filmmaking is a drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. They are called "frames" because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film...
on NGE, wrote and directed the RahXephon episode "The Children's Night";
Yoji Enokidois a Japanese screenwriter. He is considered an experimental storyteller by anime standards and has penned scripts for such unconventional anime shows as Ouran High School Host Club, Revolutionary Girl Utena, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Melody of Oblivion, and Star Driver.His...
wrote the screenplay for RahXephon's "Interested Parties" and NGEs "The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still".
Takeshi Hondais a Japanese animator, designer, and animation director.Honda dropped out of Tokyo Design Academy and joined the original Gainax team. At Gainax, Honda debuted in drawing supervision at age 22. His debut as character designer was on the series Metal Fighter Miku, and he continued animating,...
was also an animator on both shows.
Gainaxis a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as Gunbuster, The Wings of Honneamise, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which have gone on to critical acclaim and commercial success, as well as for their association with...
was one of many companies contracted for in-between animation work on episodes 6 and 26. Although no
seiyūVoice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...
from NGE voiced characters in the Japanese version of RahXephon, both shows were
re-dubbedDubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
into English by ADV Films, and both
Allison KeithAllison Keith is an American actor and voice actor who is best known for her English-dubbing work with ADV Films on such anime movies and television series as Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which she voiced the character Misato Katsuragi...
and
Tiffany GrantTiffany Lynn Grant is an American voice actress and script writer who is known for her English-dubbing work with the former ADV Films on such anime films and television series as Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which she voiced the character Asuka Langley Soryu...
voiced regular characters in both series.
Other anime
- AnimeNation
AnimeNation is an American retailer of anime, manga, and other products of Japanese culture. It was founded in 1995 and is located in Tampa, Florida...
's John Oppliger noted influences from Escaflowneis a 26-episode Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise Studios and directed by Kazuki Akane. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 1996 on TV Tokyo, with the final episode airing on September 24, 1996. Sony's anime satellite channel, Animax also aired the series, both in Japan and on its...
, Evangelion, Revolutionary Girl Utenais a manga by Chiho Saito and anime directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. The manga serial began in the June 1996 issue of Ciao and the anime was first broadcast in 1997. The anime and manga were created simultaneously, but, despite some similarities, they progressed in different directions. A movie, was...
and "especially Megazone 23is a four-part original video animation created by AIC, written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, and directed by Noboru Ishiguro, Ichiro Itano, Kenichi Yatagai and Shinji Aramaki. The series was originally titled but the title was changed just before release....
"
- Charles Solomon compared the premise of RahXephon with that of Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
is a fourteen episode series created in 1999 by Masaki Kajishima and produced by AIC, both well-known for the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. It is licensed in the US by Pioneer LDC, later known as Geneon...
, but found RahXephon to be "better plotted and executed".
- Huxley found the Dolems to be "the star of the show with their bizarre, slightly disturbing designs" reminiscent of Grey
Grey is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Yoshihisa Tagami that was published in the 1980s.It was also turned into an anime under the title Grey: Digital Target.-Setting:...
.
- Anime Jump reviewer Mike Toole compared RahXephon with Brain Powerd
is a Japanese anime television series created by Sunrise. The series is set on a future, decimated Earth after the discovery of a mysterious, alien spacecraft dubbed "Orphan". A group of researchers scour the planet for Orphan's disc plates using mecha called "Antibodies" in order to revive the...
on account of the "excellent music", design and a "frustratingly large cast and Byzantine plot", but found RahXephon "more focused". He thus disagreed with his colleague, Christian Nutt, who wrote that "[Brain Powerd] may not be as sexy, but it features a more heartfelt and original story".
Legacy
After RahXephon, Izubuchi went back to design work. His assistant director Tomoki Kyoda's became chief director on
Eureka SevenEureka Seven, known in Japan as , is a mecha anime TV series by Bones. Eureka Seven tells the story of Renton Thurston and the outlaw group Gekkostate, his relationship with the enigmatic mecha pilot Eureka, and the mystery of the Coralians....
. Mitsuo Iso went on from his experience on RahXephon to become the chief director of
Dennō Coil, Coil — A Circle of Children, is a Japanese science fiction anime television series depicting a near future where semi-immersive augmented reality technology has just begun to enter the mainstream. The series takes place in the fictional city of Daikoku, a hotbed of AR development with an...
. RahXephon has been referenced by at least one other anime series, which was also produced by Bones.
When asked whether robot anime following RahXephon had "lived up to the new era" Izubuchi answered "Partially yes and partially no" and regretted the focus being on financially safer
remakeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
s instead of on new creations.
External links
Official sites
Official website by
Media Factoryis a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
- Official website by A.D. Vision
A.D. Vision was an American international multimedia entertainment company headquartered in Houston, Texas, prior to its collapse and distress sale to four other Houston-based companies in 2009...
Databases
Directory