I've decided to jump back and do some of my favorite series in blog form as well as continue to do new series. Of course, I don't mean the same series you've seen 4 billion times, like Love Hina or something of that nature. I'm going to try and shed light on some lesser known or passed over anime that you might have missed.

To that end, I've decided to start with one of my favorite series, if not my favorite series. This series is RahXephon:

For my review, I'll be using the newest released thinpak dvds, which I purchased from RightStuf. I'll start with the series and work my way to the movie, but I'll make notice right now - I've combined parts of the movie and series in my head to make the perfect synthesis of story. The reason I like RahXephon so much is not because the series was groundbreaking from the standpoint of story, but rather because the themes of the story resonated so much in my head afterwards. As a writer, when a story reverberates in that way, it's a sign to me that I was very much affected by the thought process and emotion of the story, and that's a *good* thing.

To give you a one line of what the series is about in terms of emotion - "Can love survive across time?" or "Does it matter if emotion is only a memory?" To try and elaborate more would spoil the series, and you may take a different meaning from it than I do. I'll try and explain as I go along.

I don't think there's anything different about the thinpak dvds, but here's a look at the menu to give you an idea of what artistry went into this series.

Summary:
We begin with a scene on what appears to be an aircraft carrier. A female pilot descends into a jet, looking at her watch. We see two times on this watch: Normal and Tokyo. Other military members look on as it appears an operation is about to begin.

Elsewhere, we see a young man, perhaps 16 or 17 (what anime hero ISN'T that age?) He appears to have just finished a painting of a girl in a yellow dress, standing in an odd conjunction of images:

Ayato apparently lives with his mother, Maya, but as he readies to leave for school, he notices breakfast is sitting out for him with a note which says she'll be late from work. Ayato mutters "You mean again... don't you mother?" Ayato leaves, but fails to notice that a woman (henceforth called "sunglasses woman") is watching him from the balcony of a nearby building. She follows him, and both are later seen on the subway, with the woman slipping a tracer device into Ayato's bag.

As Ayato leaves the subway to change trains, he suspects someone is following him, but when he turns to see who, there is no one there. He quickly runs into his friends, Asahina and Mamoru. (At this point, I'd like to note, the dub voice for Asahina is terrible... please don't watch this dubbed...) They all get on another subway train.

We flash to Ayato's home, where two fellows in suits and sunglasses are looking around, saying that "he" may have been contacted, and that the first line of defense may have been broken.

On the train, we get typical high school banter, with Asahina teasing Ayato about his paintings of "pretty girls." Just then, the subway screeches and careens off track, crashing. The lights black out. We get a quick flash to the agents moving through the city, then we're back on the train, where Ayato's friends are hurt and bleeding. Ayato leaves the train to go get help.

As he emerges from the subway tunnel, the city is clearly under attack. Several strange aircraft of an odd design are flying around, while military vehicles (the Defense force) fire on them. We also see several human jets firing at the aircraft, but the aircraft are easily winning.

A quick flash to the sunglasses woman, who is on the subway car near Ayato's friends. She follows the tracker signal, ignoring Asahina's pleas for assistance.

Ayato is still watching parts of the battle, moving through the city, when he hears a single vocal tone being sung. Following the tone, he sees a girl on a rock making the sound. She looks oddly like the girl he painted, in that she has a similar yellowish dress and is standing in a similar manner. Ayato tells her it is too dangerous to be here, and as she turns to face him, he recognizes her, saying "Mishima Reika?"

After the commercial break, while Ayato gets them both soda from a nearby broken machine, Reika asks "Is this a war?" He says he's surprised to see her, but also that he's happy to see her, and she says the same. They both hear another singing vocal tone and follow it. As they do, Reika says "The Dolem...."

Overhead, we notice a large flying ... thing appear. It moves upright with the head of a humanoid figure and begins firing on the strange aircraft. Ayato says that it must be a military secret weapon since its firing on the invaders. The agents in the copter see the creature, then notice Ayato running around.

We flash to several people watching everything on the viewer, talking about how it could be dangerous to use "Allegretto". A woman seated in the center of the room says that it cannot awaken anyways without "Ollin", then another person reports that they've located the Ollin.

Meanwhile, Ayato and Reika move through damaged areas. While they do, the animators make great use of the background to play with our minds:

Ayato goes downstairs into another subway station, notices Reika isn't following - when he turns around asking "Mishima?", she is gone.

Just then, the agents from before show up, identifying themselves as Federal agents and telling Ayato to come with them onto the next train. When he tries to refuse, they pull a gun and hold it on his head to force him to come along. Just then, sunglasses woman attacks the agents, disabling the one with the gun. As she kicks the second one, it bleeds blue blood, which Ayato notices. Sunglasses woman wins, but Ayato points the gun at her. She says that his actions are not any way to treat someone who saved his life and takes the gun. They engage in some very sarcastic banter, then she says to Ayato: "Why was their blood blue.... that's what you're wondering..." She tells him to come with her and she'll answer all his questions. While he ponders, he sees that the train has pulled up and Reika is on it. When he refuses the sunglasses woman, she points the gun at him and tells him to come along. However, one of the agents regains consciousness and lunges at her, distracting her as Ayato gets on the train with Mishima. It locks as sunglasses woman yells "No, don't go!"

The train locks down, putting odd plating on the windows. Reika asks what is happening, but Ayato has no answers. He swears he will protect her. As the subway slows, it announces that the next and last stop is the "Shrine of Xephon". They tentatively get off, but have no idea where they are. Realizing they have no choice, they leave the station.

They arrive inside an odd-templelike place. Around this building are humanoid figures much like the Dolems in the skies over the city. Meanwhile, the people viewing notices where Ayato is, and the woman at the center says to launch "Fortissimo". Another Dolem enters the city skies.

Ayato and Reika emerge in an odd place on the water with floating arches and in the center, a massive egg. A singing tone again comes from the area, and Ayato falls to his knees in pain. Reika looks at the egg and begins to sing as well, while Ayato still lies in a fetal position. He hears Reika's voice in his head, calling for him to awaken, and with that, he mutters "RahXephon..."

Just then, the egg hatches. We flash to sunglasses woman, who is on the roof of a building, looking at strange shapes in the sky saying "There they are, the Mu, our enermy and that of all mankind..."

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Most people read a synopsis for RahXephon and assume it's an Evangelion clone. And thus they pass over it. RahXephon is *not* a NGE clone. There are many differences (among them, I don't hate the main character as a whiny brat), but while NGE tries to construct a confusing story as the center of the narrative and then makes flawed characters around the story, RahXephon assumes that the characters are the central part and arranges the oddness around them. The difference is hard to perceive at first, but becomes obvious as you watch further.

What will happen is that we will follow Ayato's journey to find out what is going on, and in the process, meet a vast background of characters, each of whom have very interesting backstories and personality traits. In the end, you'll understand the motivations of all of these characters, something that NGE failed to do clearly enough.

In the end, NGE is a series that tries to play with your mind, wraps it up in religious doubletalk in the attempt to define the meaning of man's existence. Rahxephon is telling a much simpler story, and while I don't want to give it away, it's important to realize that it isn't trying to hit the dizzying heights of the thought in NGE, but rather tries to tell the stories through interesting and diverse characters who may have flaws, but aren't defined by them as the characters are in NGE. Asuka and Shinji are flawed people who in the end are defined by the extent of those flaws. Ayato and the characters in RahXephon will not be defined in the same way.

Getting back to episode 1...

There is much in this first episode we don't know. Who are the invaders? Why are there agents pursuing Ayato? And why is he painting a girl that he sees later?

Ayato is not a whiny person so far - he's merely a high school kid. Reika appears to be a classmate, although she has a bit of mystery about her.

In the end, we don't have much yet to explain this "taste" of the story. Episode 2 will continue to expand the opening narrative and give us a little more in terms of answers.

I know the analysis is disappointing, but we really must wait on Episode 2 to get a better understanding for analysis.