Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Naas watches RahXephon (note: pic-heavy)
I just decided to watch this pretty much blind since I have no idea what the hell this is about. If I did know at some point, I must have forgotten.
Anyway, episode 1, "Invasion of the Capital". We're introduced to the protagonist, Ayato Kamina. He meets up with his friends to take the train somewhere. We'll probably never find out where exactly, since the train gets stopped suddenly, and woah, outside has suddenly become a warzone.
(oh come on, I can't be the only one who thought of this!)
It's not yet clear what the hell is going on, but apparently the JSDF are fighting something called "Invaders". I can almost hear Hideo Ishikawa.
Kamina gets separated from his annoying friends, whom remind me of the protag's friends in Linebarrels of Iron for some reason I'm not sure. Is there gonna be a love triangle with them? He meets up with Reika Mishima, whom he apparently knows. But so far, she mostly juststands around lookin mysterious, so all I can tell is she's important.
There's a scene where Kamina is bothered by some mysterious-looking "federal agents" and some Orange Headband Lady saves him. He runs away because, well, why wouldn't he? Orange Headband Lady is kind of terrible at acting trustworthy. It's all very unclear what's going on, but he gets on another train headed for "Xephon Shrine". I'm assuming this is where the eponymous giant robot appears, based on the next episode preview. Reika seems to have something to do with the giant robot. And the episode ends here.
- The dub suffers from stressing on the wrong syllables for Japanese names. (i.e. "Asahiiina") Yes, I'm watching the English dub, but I also have the subtitles turned on.
- It's all very vague as to what's going on. There's the Invaders, the Mu, and the Dolem, who are all very mysterious right now. I can't even tell if all these have anything to do with each other. The Invaders' ships (or what I'm assuming to be them) make me wonder if they'll collide into each other to form a giant robot ala Getter Robo.
- Also, there seems to be a music theme going on. Nice coincidence, considering I'm also watching Suite Precure and Symphogear G.
- Surprisingly, the ending theme is entirely in English. Rather awkward English compared to Evangelion's though.
Next episode: God and Man Awaken. Is this metaphorical like Mazinger Z, or is RahXephon a literal god in this universe? Don't answer that, or at least keep it in spoilers.
Comments
As far as the ending theme's English goes, note that RahXephon's was written by the series composer Ichiko Hashimoto while Evangelion's is "Fly Me To The Moon", which was written in 1954 by someone named Bart Howard and most famously performed by Frank freaking Sinatra.
As for the series itself, not really much to say yet that isn't a spoiler.
I guess I should go watch this too, shouldn't I.
This is reminding me that I never finished my rewatch of it.
Don't expect this to change anytime soon. Or ever, really.
Yes.Yes, you should watch this. All I'm going to say right now is that the show does have a musical theme.
@ponicalica yeah, I know that about "Fly Me to the Moon". Just that it was the only thing that came to mind regarding "mecha anime with English theme song". (not counting insert songs, of course)
Anyway, episode 2. (I don't plan to watch more than one episode per day)
Ayato and the RX definitely have some sort of connection beyond "this kid can use the controls", but it's not yet clear in what way exactly.
So the floating armless and legless mannequin things are called Dolems...? And it looks like the Mu thing has something to do with them. Also, Mu's members look like they're human.
Seems that Ayato lives with his mother. I am quite used to mecha shows where the protagonist's mother is dead, away, or presumed to be dead or away, so this is a surprise.
I can kinda see at least one aspect the Evangelion comparisons might come from. Seems that something similar to second impact happened in the backstory, and destroyed England and America. It might have been worse, since Ayato believes there are only 23 million humans on earth currently, although Orange Headband Lady disagrees. Are the billions of other people hidden away in another dimension?
The room of Rah is an interesting sight. Looks like a big underground cavern, except the "ceiling" resembles the sky. Didn't Evangelion have a location like that? (there are probably other examples too, but that one comes to mind first)
Also, looks like Ayato's mom might be an alien or something, since her blood is also blue like those government agents from the first episode. She also seems to have some connection to the Mu people.
Yeah, that's what I'd like to know.
I still can't tell if the Invaders are a separate faction or anything.
I don't mean to come across as impatient to find out what's going on or anything, it's just that there's not much else to say this early in the show.
And wow, the ending theme is in Japanese this time. Less awkward. The opening is... whatever.
Don't worry you don't come across as impatient, the questions you have will be explained fairly soon.
If by whatever you mean good, then yes.
The last mecha anime I finished was Getter Robo Armageddon. "Heats" makes other songs feel less impressive. (But at least it isn't nearly as annoying as the Linebarrels of Iron OP)
Alright, episode 3:
Ayato's mother is kinda creepy in this one. And she can use telepathy?
Looks like Ayato doesn't need to use levers or buttons to control the robot. Just move his arm into what ever position he wants RX's arms to be in.
Some technobabble from the Mu people:
(yeah, I don't get it)
Reika says "Sing, RahXephon, so that someday, all will become one". Was RahXephon created to bring about Instrumentality?
Reika also gets blown away by an attack from a Dolem. I'm almost 100% certain she'll be back.
Ayato and the RX fly away with Orange Headband Lady after defeating a Dolem.
Thanks to OHL (who's real name is Haruka or somesuch), we can understand something about the setting. Apparently the people living in Tokyo (such as Ayato) didn't know about the outside world because... they were encased in a tiny copy of Jupiter? And somehow this made them assume the entire world was destroyed? And apparently it's the year 2027, not 2015 like Ayato thought. I guess this means that nothing like Second Impact took place...?
Also, they go "shopping" for clothes and water.
Headband Lady finds a cat. I was half-expecting it to turn out to be some sort of freakish monster in disguise, but apparently it's not.
Ayato gets a phone call allegedly from his mother, but it just makes things more confusing. Especially considering it ended in what sounded like nonsensical gibberish. Was it really his mother who was bleeding blue blood?
So, TERRA is some sort of organization (which Haruka is a member of) that opposes the Mu. And the Mu are apparently "invaders". Were they the ones referred to as "Invaders" in the first episode?
It is really hard to say anything without resorting to spoilers yet still.
IIRC the next episode has some infodump about the Mu and the nature of Tokyo Jupiter.
Episode 4
Yeah, there's some infodumping at the beginning. Seems that the Mu actually rule the inside of Tokyo Jupiter, instead of just having like a bunch of guys running around. And they're probably responsible for the big orange ball thing.
Looks like those weird aircraft from the first episode were TERRA craft. (I'm referring to that squadron that had one red jet and a few grey ones that otherwise looked identical.)
There's a girl who talks as if she's narrating. When she's not going "rah-rah". Whatever that means.
Ayato is sick of being so damn confused. What a relatable protagonist.
More setting-related information: Apparently, time passes differently inside Tokyo Jupiter. Also, "screw the correct time!" is an awesome line.
The TERRA people confiscate the RX and lock up Ayato. Seems there's some sort of... rasicm(?) towards TJ residents. And there's something called "Mu wavelength". Might have something to do with the blue blood.
TERRA end up having to fight some... thing. They called it a "D-1" or somesuch. I think it was a Dolem. Their weapons prove ineffective, and Ayato ends up beating the thing with RahXephon. Which was rather predictable, but I guess the show needs to establish how useful the RX is. Also, the D-1 gushes out blue blood. Huh.
So far, RahXephon just fights by tearing the opponent apart with it's bare hands. I wonder how long until it uses weapons.
Mishima is back. That was fast.
Also, they throw around the term "OOPART", but I'm not sure what it means in this context. I assume it comes from "out-of-place artifact", but that's it.
I did not find an appropriate frame of Ayato for me to doodle Kamina glasses on him.
On a side note, the DVD packaging is terrible. Two plastic cases held together by a cardboard sleeve. But the discs are stacked on top of each other on just one side of each plastic box, with the other side occupied by a block of soft foam. Doesn't this risk scratching? What's the deal with the blocks of foam anyway?
I'm guessing this is what the "Great show, but stupid stackpack" review on Amazon meant. I haven't actually read that review through, so I'm not sure if there are any spoilers there.
> obligatory moe verbal tick
Wait, from a show this old? Ugh. Can I blame this show for Lan making doggy noises in Lagrange?
I'm pretty sure this has been a thing since the nineties.
:<
Anyway, episode 5 is less action-heavy and also less confusing.
A few new characters are introduced:
Seems people in the outside world don't know much about life in Tokyo Jupiter. Megu was surprised to learn that Ayato went to high school.
Looks like the cat is here to stay.
Mishima disappeared again. She really likes to look mysterious, huh?
Jet fighter pilot lady from the weird red aircraft seems to hang around Haruka a lot.
Speaking of Haruka, her last name gets pronounced as "Schtoe", which I find amusing for some reason.
Whatever it is the term "OOPART" refers to, seems the RX counts as one.
The TERRA outfits have this sort of asymmetry with their color layouts. And they seem to be color-coded by gender.
Also, I'm not really sure who this dude is. I think he works for TERRA, but that's all I can tell.
Without going too much into spoilers, information from future episodes will make this episode more creepy.
I like Itsuki though.
ive watched the whole show and thats still my impression of himWoah, it's been more than two weeks since I last posted here?
Anyway, episode 6, first ep on disc 2.
More character introductions. Kim Hotal is another TERRA employee. She knows Megu and TERRA dude and she's angsty because her parents got killed years ago by a Dolem in Australia. We also see some guy who is apparently in charge of TERRA. I'm not sure if that black thing over his eye is an eyepatch or a monocle shade (do people even make those?) He seems to be involved in some sort of conspiracy with commander guy and uh... Lord B-whatevever.
Speaking of D1s, somebody discovers that their movement can be predicted based on the waveform or whatever of their arias. I do not see how this could provide any tactical advantage whatsoever. (Do these things even have tactics?) Also, apparently the one that attacked Australia killed six million people. This is surprising, considering how easily the RX kills these things. Kamina was kind of... amused(?) at the number, since he used to think that six fricking million would be more than a quarter of the world's total population.
Speaking of Kamina, he loses and regains the motivation to pilot within a single episode. I'm not sure if I should be impressed.
The fight in this episode is oddly reminiscent of Evangelion. Kamina and RX gets absorbed into some sort of "phase space", kinda like what happened with Shinji in the Leliel fight. (There's probably some other anime where this kind of thing happened, but Eva is the one that comes to mind) Although RX gets out pretty quickly. Poooossibly thanks to Mishima. I'm not really sure.
Turns out, I was probably wrong about the TERRA outifts being color-coded by gender. There were two males wearing outfits with big pink stripes. I guess the green stripes mean TERRA dude (Souichi?) has a pretty high rank, considering he was filling in for the commander or something.
People are still being vague and keeping secrets from Ayato. I'm not sure what that conversation creepy dude had about an electrode was supposed to mean.
On a minor note, I'm a little annoyed at how the dub uses western naming order (as in given name before surname) but the subtitles and credits use Japanese naming order (surname before given name). I don't really mind either way, but inconsistency bothers me.
Also,
Soujiro I think.edit: nope it is souichi, I must be confusing him with someone else
Episode 7:
The two TERRA boss dudes invite one of the reporters from the previous episode to Nirai-Kanai. He is kind of annoying but not really. He also seems to figure out that Ayato has been experiencing time differently from everyone else, considering he says "hey, there was that Ayato Kamina kid who was in that national art contest. Shouldn't he be like 29 now? Funny how this Ayato is only 17 or so."
Fighter pilot lady (whose name is apparently "Elvy", but seems she also goes by "Bunga Mawar" for some reason) gets a new team. Which happens to be multiethnic because I guess TERRA has a diversity quota they need to fill. Sure why not? I wouldn't need to point this out if they didn't bring attention to this themselves.
I still don't know what Souichi's position is. Seems he doesn't do much important stuff when the boss guys are around.
This episode's D-1 was pretty cool. It was huuuge with legs that were like 5 kilometers long. Also it sent out mook units or something. These things might almost be as cool as Angels now.
Elvy mentions that it's kinda lame of them to make an underaged kid they kidnapped fight for them. These guys seem to have some compassion. Woo.
We still don't know what happened with Ayato's friends back in Tokyo.
Next episode is a Christmas episode?
Forgot to mention some things:
Ayato used some sort of ancient relic thing which I don't know what it was but apparently it did something which might have had something to do with the RahXephon.
RahXephon can counter a D-1's Aria by... singing back at it. Suddenly, Symphogear is even more mecha.
Episode 8:
Possibly the first time I've seen a Christmaas (Eve) episode begin with a beach scene. Observation: Ayato doesn't seem to have his big glyph birthmark thing in the OP footage.
There seems to be some sort of love trianlge thing with the Megu and Haruka. I'm not really sure.
The more actiony stuff this episode seems to center on Sayoko, who is like Itsuki's sidekick or something. He gave her a necklace with a stone on it. Apparently that stone was part of a D-1 or something. She decided to go emo and jump into the snow, which caused a D-1 to form around her.
I really liked the fight this time. One of the TERRA boss guys tells Ayato to just kill the D-1, and that it isn't their job to save individual lives. But Ayato is free to make a miracle and save her if he wants. And he does just that.
This show is still confusing, and Quon is still narrating while staring into nothing.
"Bunga Mawar" is just Elvy's codename.
^ That makes sense. Is she of Southeast Asian descent?
episode 9:
Ayato tries to demo RX's energy shield thingy. He fails. White-haired "observer" dude (whoever he is) decides to be a jerk about it.
Quon has no sense of personal space. And her style of speech never stops being weird.
Doesn't seem like Ayato has told anybody who Mishima is. Then again he probably doesn't know how to explain the deal with her.
Itsuki tries to do... something with the RX, at the suggestion of white hair guy.
Ayato and Quon disappear into a "shrine" somewhere in the forest after trying to walk towards Mishima. According to reporter guy, this is where a lot of disappearances took place. When Haruka opens the door, th entrance is suddenly blocked. Quon somehow meets to have a conversation with Mishima, who is also known as Ixtli. And Quon is apparently also an Ollin like Kamina. Whatever that means. Ayato finds himself falling into Tokyo Jupiter, but decides to leave. Somehow, him and Quon were gone for days, even though it only felt like minutes.
Sayoko and Observer dude are flirting or something.
All in all, this episode has been even more confusing than usual. I must admit, a lot happened, despite this sort of being a beach episode that had little action. Not sure what else to say now.
Yeah, Elvy's Indonesian.
Episode 10:
Souichi brings mail for Kunugi. Who decides to take a day off, so Souichi is in charge again. Annoying reporter dude comes along or something.
Nobody seems to know Kunugi's first name (Jin). Black dude with a big pink stripe on his shirt seems to have a thing for Quon. This is probably gonna be unimportant.
Quon's violin music has some bizarre effect on plants. I'm not sure what she was being so emotional about.
Oh hey more backstory: The Mu were attacked by US troops stationed at Japan. Kunugi was ordered to use a fusion bomb against the Mu. Might have something to do with him quitting the JSDF.
Kunugi meets up with... someone (ex wife?)and they talk about some kid in past tense. Seems his daughter is dead or something, and Quon's violin piece was for her.
Episode 11:
okay this is a confusing start. So many bridge people screaming about how things aren't working. And screens that look like they came from Evangelion. Looks like a D-1 has managed to counter RX's "singing" ability.
Suddenly, we're back in Tokyo Jupiter... or not.
Ayato meets up with Haruka... somehow. Or rather he doesn't.
This makes me think of the Evangelion final ep slice of life thing, except it's much less confusing what happens. Ayato does sort of wish he could go back to his old life, but he knows that it can't happen.
Also, that scene of Mishima yanking a... whatever it was out of Ayato's mouth was disturbing.
Episode 12 update:
Things are a little uncomfortable with Ayato around Haruka due to that, um, "encounter" in the previous ep. Understandable. Ayato also gets a pcture from the reporter guy, whom he claims shows "the people who betrayed the world". This includes his mother for some reason, but I guess it's been pretty obvious she's with the bad guys.
This "Babhem" guy or whatever is starting to look more relevant. He's associated with somebody called "Helena". And for some reason, there's two of her.
The guy's organization seems interested in Quon for some reason, and the big symbol thing on his floor matches her birthmark thing.
Speaking of Quon, she runs away before Babel guy's organization finds her. I'm not sure to where. She has a cryptic-sounding convo with Mishima somehow.
Also, RahXephon's eyes looked strangely expressive here.
More importantly perhaps, Quon suddenly shows up in the RX's cockpit, and this happens:
Apparently Quon is calling for her "egg", whatever that means.
Elvy wonders if her team has any reason to exist, considering they've been so ineffective. They're still like that in this episode, against some sort of mushroom D1.
(I needed to use this)
Also, next episode apparently will have RahXephon use its bow and arrow thing. Whee.
When I was watching this, I was told that "mushroom" is a common euphemism in Japanese.
Knowing that somehow makes that line work. I'm not really sure how, but it does. (also, the dub has her saying something more like "I hate mushrooms", so that's uh, something.)
Episode 13:
Records about Quon and her past are apparently "falsified". Apparently she's as mysterious in-universe as she looks to the viewer.
There was some vague dialogue with Itsuki and this white-haired dude about how the two Ollins are "incomplete". I don't know what that means.
Speaking of those two, they could hear the Aria of a D-1 that was up in space. Somehow. And apparently Quon was being called to by it...? RX used it's bow and arrow to kill the thing from a distance, thus giving this episode a non-battle.
Kunugi knows Haruka and Megu's uncle. I'm not sure what this means. They talked about somebody called "Watari". Is this someone I should already know but forgot about?
There's quite a bit of exposition this episode. We get something of a timeline regarding the Mu stuff, and there's more about Haruka and Megu. Apparently "Shitow" is not their father's name, but the guy their mother married afterwards. Itsuki was Haruka's boyfriend in college, and he's most likely not Quon's older brother. I can't remember why, but I think I kinda knew the boyfriend thing from an earlier episode. There's something about Haruka being stuck in the past, but I have no idea what.
Also, Babhem guy might be centuries old or something, and reporter dude seems to know quite a bit regarding... stuff.
Speaking of Babhem, they got a giant robot? (I recall coming across fanart of something RahXephon-related called "Vermillion")
And now I'm finally halfway through the series. Hope I finish this by mid-January.
Also, is Megu's talk about food gonna become a running gag?